April 6th, 2009 by samanthatroy 
I love tape. Owen and I have so much tape that it has its own drawer in our apartment. In fact, “the adhesive drawer” was even mentioned during our wedding ceremony (in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that the adhesive drawer houses glues and pastes in addition to tape).
When I was in Japan, I bought some MT Masking Tape. It is beautiful tape made of Washi, and it comes in a ton of really great colors. I wanted to buy some more. After doing some tape research the other day, I learned that MT is now available in 32 new patterns. Unfortunately, you cannot place international orders on the MT site. This sent me into a fit of online searching which was, in the end, fruitful.
I was able to purchase a few of the patterned tapes from Ginko Papers. My tape arrived today, and I am thrilled with it.
But, Ginko Papers only sells a few of the MT tape patterns. And, I wanted more of the solid tape. So, I turned to etsy, where I found not only more of the MT tapes, but some other fantastic tapes as well. I am loving some of the lace tapes, too, but I thought I’d dedicate this post to more traditional and printed tapes.
 
 
 
Row 1: washimatta My set of 20 is en route from Japan!
Row 2: hebeaccessories, RetroNaNa
Row 3: nothingelegant, lovepetitzakkajapan
Row 4: cottonblue, RetroNaNa
Here are a few more useful, tape related sites:
UK based blog dedicated to tape: I Love Sticky Tape
Really nice patterned taps: Tape Swell
updated: a large selection of MT masking tape is also available at Happy Tape
April 3rd, 2009 by samanthatroy  
 
 
 
Owen and I are big fans of slab serifs (and clarendons, for those who make the distinction) — they feel simultaneously classic and contemporary, and often feel fresher than a sans serif. Here are a few of our favorites; many of these typefaces are also available at MyFonts which we think is a great site.
Row 1:
Zapata — An absurdly extended clarendon that is fun without looking too goofy.
Rosewood — I remember seeing Rosewood Fill (without the circusy outline) for the first time in 1998 and thinking it was awesome. Sadly, since then it has been used to death and we kind of avoid it.
Row 2:
Archer — Archer is at the top of our fonts-we-want list. You can see it put to great use all over Martha Stewart’s brand. (It was initially commisioned of H&FJ for Martha Stewart Homes)
Clarendon Text — We bought this cut of Clarendon — which has been regularized a bit to make it work for text — for a book we designed about the Center for Land Use Interpretation‘s residency in Houston. The lovely brown highway signs that mark national parks are set in Clarendon (or were until recently) and it has a good “Texas look,” so it seemed a perfect fit.
Row 3:
Freight Micro — Previously on top of our fonts-we-want list; now on top of the fonts-we’ve-bought list. The angles on the italics are beautiful and unexpected — and basically just pretty frickin’ awesome.
Apex Serif — The slab serif of the Apex family (Apex Sans, Apex Serif and Apex New), it’s one of our old favorites. Until recently, we felt it was a secret from the world — I guess the party’s over now that Best Buy has started using Apex New on their signage, store circulars and website.
Row 4:
Girard Slab — The latest slab to draw our attention, it has lots of great ligatures and looks like it would be a lot of fun to work with.
The Serif — Luc de Groot’s superfamily Thesis outdoes all contenders in sheer volume; there’s the original sans, serif and mix, each in eight weights, small caps and italics. Since 2000 he’s contiuned with it, adding some new weights and a mono-spaced version. Quantity aside, The Serif is quite beautiful, and stays so from light to black.
April 2nd, 2009 by samanthatroy 
I really want to be the kind of person who always has fresh herbs growing in my kitchen. Unfortunately, every time I plant herbs, they die.
I think this Eva Solo flower pot might be the perfect solution. The bottom reservoir holds enough water for about a week, and since the base is clear, you can see when it is time to refill it. Nylon threads hang from the ceramic pot and act as roots to wick water up to your plant.
via Outblush
April 1st, 2009 by samanthatroy 
Grain Edit, one of my new favorite design blogs has teamed up with one of my favorite font shops, House Industries, for their latest giveaway. The prizes are objects from House’s new line of fonts and products based on the work of Alexander Girard. I’m really liking Girard Slab; it has some awesome ligatures.
I highly recommend heading over to Grain Edit before April 10th to enter.
March 30th, 2009 by samanthatroy 
For me, this card by egg-a-go-go, falls into a similar category as the magnets for married people, but I think it is just hysterical.
In addition to the cards, this design is available as a print and, according to her shop announcement, there will be t-shirts soon too.
March 28th, 2009 by samanthatroy 
Spoonflower, seems like such an awesome new site. You upload a design and they print custom fabric for you. I really want to try it out. It costs $18/yard, but you can get a swatch for $5, so I think you can try it out before committing fully.
The fabrics above are by Spoonflower user Katherine and Strawberry Luna. You can check out some more of the fabrics people have made at the Spoonflower Flickr gallery.
March 27th, 2009 by samanthatroy
March 25th, 2009 by samanthatroy 
I came across Gretchen Nash‘s work last night, and was basically blown away by (and pretty envious of) her book Dear Gretchen,. I haven’t seen the actual book, but it looks pretty fabulous — I am a big fan of art that catalogs fairly mundane life events, old letters, and interesting charts and graphs (in this case, charts made of paper).
This is what she has to say about her book:
An extensive book that investigates letters that I have kept inside a luggage case since my childhood. The process of the book included finding the word and phrase frequency of the letters, categorizing them by sender, by date, and finally writing personal reflections about each of the senders. Graphs were constructed to reveal the word frequency and each of the 187 letters were thoroughly documented inside of the book.
Gretchen is a recent graduate of California Institute of the Arts, and her book Dear Gretchen, was selected as a finalist in the 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards.
via Quipsologies
March 24th, 2009 by samanthatroy 
These Times Tables are fantastic. Each time we look at them, we choose a new favorite combination. Right now, we’re really liking Platypus-T. Rex. Thanks to Suzee for bringing these to our attention.
March 24th, 2009 by samanthatroy
I love having art in my house, but don’t have the budget to be buying it all the time. My favorite go-to place for affordable art is Tiny Showcase. Tiny Showcase releases a new limited-edition print each week on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM (eastern time). They work with a variety of artists so if you don’t like the print one week, chances are pretty good you’ll like one in the next few.
The print above is a sold-out letterpress piece by Jen Corace that is still available as a t-shirt.
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