Labels.

From the ones Anthropologie fancies.

Chalk it Up

Happy 2011, friends! I hope that your year is off to a good start. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things -- it was a - bizarre? crazy? long? not sure how to describe it - holiday break. We will officially be home for Christmas from now on. Travel with 3 little ones and all their accoutrements [especially the toys] was way too much. As we were *secretly* packing and unpacking Santa's wares, I kept thinking "What are we doing??!!" Little M was practically giddy when I put her to sleep in her own crib. She's a girl after my own heart -- likes the comfort of her own bed! Lesson learned: travel will be saved for after Christmas next year.

Anyway, I wanted to start the new year off on the right typographical foot over here on the b.wise blog, so here's some hand lettered eye candy by the typog-genius Dana Tanamachi. It makes me want to cover the walls of my studio with chalk paint and write all over it!





Be back once I get my head together!

Awesomeness

Loved this interview [and the guest posts] by Jessica Hische on Friends of Type. It doesn't get much better than a handwritten interview asking you to "Design a decal for this 80's looking van." Love it. And this post made me laugh out loud.

Jessica's work is stunning, truly inspiring...







[If you haven't already, check out her portfolio!]

To The Zoo

Visit the zoo this weekend without ever leaving your house! Bembo's Zoo is the most creative zoo around, and will be sure to entertain your entire household. What's the deal? Animals are created right before you eyes using their very own letters:







[Check it out here]

And while you're clicking around, head over to Minted and vote for what you think are the latest and greatest in greeting cards. Below is the "Fantastic Birthday" b. wise design that I submitted:



Have a good one!

Hyperactivitypography

This is for all you type lovers out there -- a witty, fun, cleverly illustrated activity book called Hyperactivitypography From A to Z. It includes activities such as What is Garamond Doing?, Typolympics, Miss Univers and Moustaccents to name a few...













And who wouldn't want to know the answer to the question Which Typeface are you?



What would be even more fun is if there were a forum to see other peoples answers. It's temporarily out of print [be sure to join the facebook page to be posted on when it is available!], but you can preview it here.

London

Perfectly captured in this print...



[via black eiffel]

The Writing on the Wall

[Wall decals by Harmonie Interieure]

Cooties

Circle, circle, dot, dot...do you have your cootie shot? I don't know if you spied the cootie catcher that was in this inspiration board, but Tart Workshop has a free download of one here. I love the calligraphy inspired font -- makes it look like it came out of a Jane Austen novel. Now, go catch those cooties!



[Left image from Martha; Right image from Tart Workshop]

Fliers // Brought to Life

These redesigned fliers by Cardon Copy made me smile...

[left: redesigned flier; center: original flier; right: replacing old with the new]

[left: redesigned flier; center: original flier; right: replacing old with the new; see more redesigns and read about their mission here]

[And this has nothing to do with fliers, but if you read our family blog and can't access it anymore, please let me know. Over the past couple weeks we have been getting hundreds of hits a day from all over the world because of the NextBlog feature. Needless to say, for a personal, family blog it wasn't something I felt good about. There is a setting to turn that feature off, but it wasn't working, so I went private on that blog for the time being. But I'd love any and all friends to have access to it, so just let me know!]

Love

A little late on this post right? Valentine's was last Sunday! But I've actually thought a lot about love over the past two days. [*BE FOREWARNED: if you don't have kids and/or have a weak stomach you may just want to look at the image and move on...I'm just saying...*] My oldest came down with the dreaded stomach bug a couple nights ago. I can roll with most things that come along with small kids -- give me a split lip or strep throat any day. But a stomach bug? UGH. So, as I was rubbing my son's back at 2 a.m. while he was getting sick, my mind started spinning: "will the others get it?" "will we all get it?" "after three pregnancies filled with vomit, haven't I had enough of it for a lifetime?!" But then, I had this moment when I realized [I say "I" but I know it wasn't me] -- this is love. Raw, unconditional love. Love that is roll up your sleeves and jump in dirty. Here it is; just be in it.

While that doesn't make that particular moment any more pleasant, it does make me glad. Glad that my son has a mother. Glad that I get to be his mother. And I hope that way more often than not our kids will feel that kind of love in our house -- that through the good, the bad and the ugly they have parents who stick by them.

Anyway, that's what is on my mind today...hope your weekend is LOVE-ly!

[I thought it would be kind of me to accompany the not so pleasant image of a child getting sick with this contrastingly pleasant image from Country Living via Sweet Paul]

Sweet Dreams

I like the design of this pillow from Sugarboo Designs...I can't decide if I think the sentiment is cheesy or sweet. Maybe a little of both. They also have a version with initial + initial [like a + b]. I like the burlap, though, and the simple, bold type.

Speaking of a little cheesy, I confess that I got sucked into the season premiere of the Bachelorette last night. Favorite quote of the night, as one of the rejected guys was leaving, "I don't know what to say...I guess she just doesn't like awesome guys."