the whole lot in the first picture was a huge gift from a dear friend, and the irresistible vampire letter set + card + pen combo is from poketo.com. :)

also on the subject, how cool is this collection of 500 coloring pencils?

and of course, impossibly expensive at $33/batch of 25 crayons/month. also, who would have the courage to actually use such a perfect collection? sigh.

lovely day, lovely park and a lovely surprise: the baby (& momma) got used to the sling we gave them when she was born last year! the first experience with it was a bit disastrous and we thought it would never be used it again… but actually, lulu says both she and her mom use it quite regularly now!

b.’s grandma takes her to the market in her sling everyday, and to the inquisitive looks she gets, she explains it’s a modern & european thing… :)

i love the concept of the sling – an uncomplicated piece of fabric that holds your baby safe and close to you. in portugal, they were made popular by the talented hands of rosa pomar, who also makes unique and beautiful dolls that make babies (and grownups!) happy all around the world. :)

albert is a sweet little robot, who lives in a print made by yooniverse using a handcarved linocut :) i wasn’t going to frame him until i went back home, but in the middle of organizing things to ship we found some never used frames, et voila!

albert doesn’t know it yet, but he’s the first of what i hope will someday be a very big collection of handmade prints in a very big wall of a very big house i will have!

by the way, yooniverse is a bit of everything: lovely dreamy photography, beautiful prints, and a collection of interesting snippets, so go check it out!

there is a swimming pool collection:

and a school bus collection:

and even a xmas collection, for december:

brilliant! i think these are just a concept, but wouldn’t it be cool to get some? i’m hoping more buzz about it will make someone realize they’re commercially viable and start making them! :)

all pictures (and even more!) on their website!

lately, i’ve been obsessing over stationery. all kinds of small envelopes, writing tools, letter sets, stickers, postcards… i love them, i just can’t stop myself! i found a nice shop on fuzhou road called keyroad (very close to dunkin’ donuts) that is filled with korean goodness, and well, disaster ensued. some of the stuff in the picture is actually for a swap but the rest is just sitting here, waiting for an excuse to write a letter :)

speaking of recent korean discoveries, when browsing for video podcasts on itunes store, i found maangchi who makes cooking traditional korean food look fun! in small funny episodes, she will make you a master of kimchi or bibimbap. i can’t wait to try the egg side dishes, simple and yummy!

can the queen be put to a better use?, asks graphic designer and illustrator jamie wieck. well, apparently the answer is yes – he build a set of really cute cards where the queen stamp plays an important (and original) role.
here’s what he has to say:

“Something unique about British culture is the annual sit down after a bloating Christmas lunch to watch the Queen deliver her seasonal message on TV. Well I that, and to watch somebody die/get married/get-married-then-die on Eastenders.
Inspired by this image of annual togetherness I created a Christmas card that needed the Queen herself to complete the image – after all Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the Queen.

But for the anti-royalists amongst you I figured it was only fair that the Queen should get a comeuppance of sorts…”

check out his website for lots of other good questions.

(via oh joy!)