Etusi Sumetusi: Japan

Finding it hard to write anything snappy about how awesome Japanese aesthetics are right now. We love you Japan.

Blue puppy earrings from LianaKabel Celadon matcha bowl from shyrabbit Crocheted Totoro hat from amiamigos Katakana stamp set from VioletGiftShop Astronaut bag from tacdesigns Awesome paper tape from PrettyTape Cute HiFi Stereos Rings from YuraPockylover Kinkaku-Ji Wall Hanging from japanesqueaccents Drama! buttons from thepinksamurai

Raffle for Japan

There are a number of artists and designers creating work to help in Japan — including Scout Books, Jesse LeDoux via Tiny Showcase, and W+K Studio to name a few. But, we just heard from Diem Chau (who we’ve blogged about in the past 1, 2) that she is holding a raffle on her site to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross Society. Raffle tickets will cost $10 and two winners will be selected at random to receive a 3-crayon family portrait. She’s already sold 400 tickets and is aiming to sell 1000 by March 23 when the raffle ends. Diem is donating 100% of the raffle earnings to Red Cross, so it seems like an awesome way to help out and maybe get some art in the process.

Complete raffle details can be found on her blog. If art isn’t your thing, you can donate directly to a number of organizations here.

Muji + Lego !?

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Owen and I are huge Muji fans (though not quite as big fans as Tim, who once made us spend 5 hours in the Muji in Kichjoji). If you aren’t familiar with Muji, it is sort of like a Japanese Ikea, but better. Now Muji has teamed up with Lego and made some really adorable toy sets. They appear to be available only in Japan, but if I can find a place to order them here, I will definitely let you know.
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via Today and Tomorrow

the adhesive drawer

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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.

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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.

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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

TypograFriday: Japan

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So, we went to Japan a year ago with our friends and RISD classmates Tim, John and Alex. Three graphic designers, an architect and a uh fashion designer/graphic designer/architect. For those of you who are one or more of these things, take it from me: Japan is so frickin’ awesome.

We went around taking pictures of everything because seriously everything was so rad. We shot manhole covers. We shot shrines that seemed more picturesque than possible. And being designers we took pictures of a lot of type. On this, our second installment of font-y Friday, we’d like to show you a few.

Continue reading TypograFriday: Japan

isn’t she lovely

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I know it’s not totally relevant, but I am in LOVE with the new red hoodie and skinny jeans that I just got from blythestation.

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There’s something so hysterical about seeing the hoodie when it’s not being worn: the size of the hood relative to the torso just kills me. Thanks, Kiki!

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