Made me smile

Apparently this is an impromptu recital by Fran and Marlo Cowan after they noticed the piano in the lobby of the Mayo Clinic on their way to (or from) a doctor appointment. He turned 90 earlier this year and they have been married for 62 years.



via (A Cup of Jo)

the theory of fun

I so would have been taken the stairs had this experiment been going on while I was in Stockholm. Sadly, it wasn't. The Fun Theory has been tested in a few other ways. Check them out here:



(via swissmiss)

A plug for a friend

My friend Melinda, is an all around cool woman. Not only does she make delicious desserts and divine jewelry, but she plays on my soccer team and does triathlons and raises three funny kids with her husband, but she now has started an etsy page for tote bags. I gotta say, I love these, even if she wasn't the one making them.


















Yesterday, she gave me one of her new business cards for the site and they are also super duper cute. But then, the back color is that kinda apple green and my favorite pale blue.

Wanna play?

I've rediscovered my love of Tag. I mean, try and play without laughing. It's hard to do. At least for me. I like laughing. Seriously. I busted out laughing this week carrying laundry. You know when you have that really large load and you have to carry it without a basket or bag into a different room. You have to get into a sumo wrestler pose and then bend over the load and try and contain it all so that you don't lose a sock to the great unknown along the way? Yeah, now, imagine doing this and turning the corner to unexpectedly find someone catching you in the act.



(Thanks swissmiss)

A taste of things to come

I told several people that the Sweden and Norway pictures would be shared more quickly than the Amsterdam ones. I am still curating the photos (yeah, because they are THAT good! hahaha) as I took an insane number of them. But for a little taste of Norway, here is a sampler. This is at the Lysebotn turn off from highway 45 a few hours east of Sandnes that we unexpectedly found ourselves at for about an hour. Can you guess what had us rooted to the spot?

Amsterdam at night

Amsterdam at night is pretty amazing. All the canals with lights reflecting off of the water. The solitude and quiet the night brings with the occasional pedestrian's feet walking on the cobblestones and the soft rickety sounds of the bikes taking their riders wherever they want to go. At least that is what I heard when I was walking in and around the Jordaan district.

I stayed in the Jordaan district at a great hotel, Hotel Van Onna. It is sparse and not big on frills, but it is well situated and really inexpensive compared to the rest of the area. Plus the breakfasts were filling. Music to my ears. The below photos were all taken within 10 blocks or so of my hotel.

Either along the Keizersgracht or the Prinsengracht:







On the Raadhuisstraat:



The westerkerk:
from the corner of Raadhuisstraat and Prinsengracht



both of these are from Bloemstraat and Prinsengracht


from Bloemgracht less than a block from my hotel.

When will I get a personal helper monkey?

Apparently Conde Nast employees need to start doing their own dishes instead of just letting them pile up for the interns.

An intern's note announcing this change is what you see below. I have no idea why I find this so funny, but I do.

It wins by a Landslide

What wins, you ask? The 5th graders of PS22 chorus singing Landslide. Love it.



(found via A Cup of Jo)

Nothing but...

...PAPER!! These drawings by German artist Simon Schubert are achieved by folding white paper. That's it! Amazing.

See some of his other cool stuff here.

(via AT Chicago)

It's about time...

...that I start showing some photos from my Amsterdam trip. Especially since it now looks like I am going to Scandinavia in August/September. If I am diligent, I will show a photo or two periodically.

For several minutes I just stood and watched this man and his dog while in Vondelpark. They made me smile and I was reminded of the devotion between my grandfather and his dog, Jake.


This is a canal in the Jordaan district and also the canal my hotel overlooked.


My room was the window next to the little blue sign with the white "h" (in between the two cars).


And here you can see two people trying to find their bikes at the central station. This is only 1 of 3 levels. I wonder how they even know which is their bike.

My idea of heaven

I love books. One day I want to own a library like either of these spaces. Two stories of books and lots of natural light? Heaven.






(Top image via Design*Sponge)
(Bottom image by Hedrich Blessing (Steve Hall, Jon Miller, Craig Dugan) (not sure which one took this photo) via Arch Daily and AT-Chicago)

Seriously...

How freaking cute is this kid?


(via The Sartorialist)

Tracking an epidemic

I realize that in the US it is a health emergency and not an epidemic, but if you want to keep track of where the swine flu outbreaks are occurring and the status of them, Google Maps can show you. Of course, I wonder where they are getting their updates. If it is directly from the CDC and WHO then great, otherwise, who has the job of tracking them all?

You can now outsource your own work...

Or so the Onion reports.


More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

The Daisies Will Be Pushed...finally

How excited am I? ABC just announced they WILL show the remaining Pushing Daisies episodes this Spring!!! Here's the deal, they will show them on Saturday nights (thank goodness for TiVo and for ABC.com) beginning May 30th through June 13th.

And for anyone who watched Eli Stone or Dirty Sexy Money - these shows' remaining episodes will be shown on Saturday's as well. Eli Stone will air between June 20th and July 11th. Dirty Sexy Money will air between July 18th and Aug 8th.

What will I create today?

I think I need to read or watch this speech on a regular basis. It is just a very lovely little reminder of the power of creation that exists within every person. Creating in all of its forms brings us closer to happiness. Have you ever said a funny joke that brought a smile to someone's face who was previously sad? That is creating. Finished or completed a project at work? That is creating. As we create we feel value in ourselves and a purpose in our days. So everyday I want to ask myself: "What will I create today?" And at night when I ask myself "What did I create today?" I better have an answer.

I ate...

...the last of my licorice from Amsterdam.



I love this stuff. I brought back several bags in my luggage and have been diligently rationing them out over the last 4+ months. Well, yesterday, the last drop in the last bag was consumed. I now need to go on a hunt for more. And if anyone ever goes to Amsterdam and wonders what to buy me? You now have your answer. :)

I like...

...this house. Bet you won't guess where this home is located.






If you guessed Croatia, then you are correct. The war has left their landscape a blank page with which to write on. And what beautiful writing it is. This home is designed by the firm 3LHD Architects. Don't worry, you don't have to know Croatian as the site is in English.

(via Design Sponge)

I have...

...these Weck jars!!!!! I was walking home on Saturday after watching Coraline when I decided to pop into the always cool store Canoe. Wouldn't you know it that less than I minute after I stepped in, I saw them. They were so lovely there in 4 sizes. Of course I had to buy a couple in 3 of the sizes. The bonus...I had found a visa gift card a few weeks ago and so I didn't have to spend any of MY money to buy them!

Happy Up Here

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

This video makes me happy. Given the stress of work right now, it offers a nice few minutes of calm. While I don't think I have just listened to their music, I do often find myself watching Röyksopp's videos over and over again. They are just the right amount of quirky and fun. Apparently the Norwegian duo is coming out with another album later this year. You know what that means...more videos!!!



(Reminded of them via Black Eiffel)

Hotmail is sucking the life out of me

Anyone out there use Hotmail and had their "windows live" page go through a recent upgrade? If so, I need your help. It looks like they are trying to compete with Facebook and other social networking sites but I don't want anything to do with it.

MSN News Story updates - I used to get nice MSN News Story updated, but they appear over on the bottom of the right side instead of where I want them. Whenever I try and modify this or add sources for news, nothing happens.

Network - Is there a way to remove this completely? If not, can I instruct it to permanently ignore people? I really have no interest in being asked each time I go into my account if I want to invite a guy I went out with a year ago to be in my network. Because I can tell you, the answer to that question is "No" and it will ALWAYS be no. Just the sight of his name each time I open my account makes me annoyed.

If I can't find solutions to these issues, I may have to find another email company to handle my junk mail and less personal mail communications.

Long live my true email provider of Google. May they continue to impress me with their service.

Friendly anchors

I wonder how much time it took them to practice this routine? I especially like the end when they have to hurry before they go back on the air. :)



(via swissmiss)

Who's who?

While reading the weekly wrap up on A Cup of Jo from yesterday, how could I not click on the link? Wouldn't you if you read "Christian Bale looks like Kermit"? I dare you to not look. But if you do, you MUST click the further link for additional photos. Somebody spent a LOT of time doing this.

I want...

...these Weck jars. Supposedly Heath Ceramics sells them, but I can only find the small 80ml size on their site. I want the bigger ones for leftovers. I really do like them. It's a little ridiculous exactly how much. :)

Update: I just had to keep looking and eureka! Apparently searching for Weck Canisters only gets you to Heath Ceramics but "weck canning jars" gets you to the company's website. Yippee!!!!

Do you like it like this?

Why don't we get the good ads? T-Mobile did their own flash mob on 15 January 2009 at the Liverpool Street Station.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO8lLP4DP0w

This too makes me smile.

(via SwissMiss)

Now that's how I roll

If there was any doubt how people around the world feel, this photo by Andrew Gill sums up England's opinion. Well, and the photo below (which was an ad campaign in Tube stations earlier this year for the London Times (a fairly conservative paper).



(via London-Underground)

Who needs a gym

Did anyone see the NY Times article on the Hong Kong apartment of an architect yesterday? It is the 344 square foot apartment he grew up in with his parents and three younger sisters. You would get a workout just moving the walls around to get stuff.

Why didn't they tell me?

I just found this video on how the Japanese fold their shirts. Why didn't any of my Japanese (well half) cousins tell me this trick? It will make folding laundry so much faster. I've eased up, but in high school and college it would take almost an entire tv show to fold laundry. I was that meticulous. But hey, it saved me from ever having to use an iron.
.

Flickr

Chelsea's Portland guide (and subsequent link to my flickr account) has done the trick. I am resolved. I will update my flickr account tonight. First up will be photos from Amsterdam. Give a girl some slack...I've only been back for 2 1/2 months! What, you think I was sitting at home in December with nothing to do for days on end? Wait, don't answer that. I so was doing that. But when I was snowed in, the last thing I really wanted to be was productive.

More Ants

Now these ants are cool in a non-squirmy way for me.



Actually, the whole Type as Image is cool. It is a typographic experiment where the words reflect and represent their own meaning.



(From Swiss Miss, sent to her by Petar Pavlov)

Lovely

I would love to be able to stay in this guest house designed by Portland's very own Allied Works. Unfortunately, I don't know the New York homeowners, so it isn't likely to happen in this lifetime.

Danny Boyle is global

Danny Boyle is one of my favorite directors. He has such an amazing way of storytelling. Like Simon Beaufoy (the screenwriter) said, many directors shoot a screenplay, but Danny Boyle makes it soar (or was it fly?). In any event, this time, his genius garnered a Golden Globe with Slumdog Millionaire. The remarkable screenplay took a pretty standard story and wove it into a vibrant and creative tapestry. The music was phenomenal. And Danny Boyle is genius yet again. I loved that they swept their Golden Globe awards!

And you will want to have your volume on if you visit the movie's website.

Ants on a Plate?

Many of the pieces from Bailey Doesn't Bark are lovely and beautiful. But I shudder whenever I look at the following:


Ants on My Cup and Saucer

Probably has to do with my irrational fear of ants (or bugs in general) walking all over my body, but it creeps me out. Happy for Bailey Doesn't Bark that others do not share this paranoia.

Courtesy of AT Chicago

TNT redeems itself

TNT was in the doghouse for a long while due to requiring Windows Media to watch their shows online. I am still a bit upset about it as I now can't watch The Closer or Leverage at home. Even so, I found myself on their website tonight and noticed a little button in the upper right corner "Boss Coming? Dramatic Pause". Brilliant! When you click on it, this is what you get: