Josh and I found ourselves at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore thrift store in Las Cruces, New Mexico, over the holidays. I seriously can’t believe all the good stuff we saw! I’m a big-time browser, so none of this actually came home with me… I just wanted to preserve the magic and share some of it with y’all!

“Harmony Time with the Chordettes” record - I totally love this vintagey super simple art style! Reminds me of Mary Blair. Which reminds me, I took a bunch of pics at Disneyland’s Mary Blair art show last November that I never shared with you. That’s a set of pics for another time.

“Dad is another name for caring” needlepoint – Unfortunately, not enough caring to hang onto this handmade present. I told that joke to Josh and he shook his head, saying it probably belonged to an older gentleman that passed away. Then I felt bad about myself. Thanks a lot, Josh. Thanks a lot.

Clapboard Snack Tin – Lights, cameras, SNACKIN!!!! What kind of marker would you use on the side of this metal tin that would be visible on the black ground, but not permanent so you could change the scene and director info for each snacking opportunity? I would fill this thing with Everlasting Gobstoppers and write that we were filming a scene from Willy Wonka one day, and fill it with cotton candy for a filming of a remake of Killer Klowns from Outer Space the next!

“I have some tiki torches in the garage…”

I’m not kidding guys. Don’t mess with the ReStore computer. They mean bizzznezzzz.

Used Espresso Maker – True story, Josh and I actually discussed buying this thousand dollar secondhand fancy coffee maker so we could open our own coffee shop. I just crunched the numbers, and if  we had actually bought it just to make mocha lattes for my weekly Fancy Coffee Fridays, in 4.8 years it’d pay for itself. That is actually… a little scary.

Vintage Santa Statue – Maybe he’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline. (It’s totally Maybelline. I’m sensing a hint of Volum Express on them eyes.)

Assorted Wood and Melamine boards – Here’s where the ReStore thrift store threw me for a loop. They’ve got a whole section of building supplies. “Well yeah,” Josh said, “It’s a Habitat for Humanity store. They build houses.” This is freaking amazing. I just looked it up, there’s a ReStore in Garden Grove and Santa Ana!!! I’m totally going. I’m TOTALLY going.

Vintage Bathroom Sinks – I’ve got nothing witty to say about these. We just like vintage sinks. The end.

Vintage Reel to Reel Machine of Some Sort – The coolest thing you can do when you’re designing a product is to find a way to make it into a face. Remember that American Express commercial where all the stuff had faces? I love that commercial.

Vintage Telephone Headset – I’m pretty sure I need one of these so I can look totally legit at Hearts and Laserbeams headquarters.

Jar of Random Nuts and Bolts – I totally get why you’d give this to a thrift store. I just don’t understand why you’d buy it from a thrift store. Thoughts?

Vintage Camera Graveyard – I found out the Polaroid camera I bought on eBay a few years back for $10 is now worth $15. If I keep it ’til I’m 65 I could totally retire on how much I’m guessing it’ll be worth by then. ($850,000)

Jug of Mrs. Butterworth’s Syrup – The logo’s outdated and the contents are a mystery. In any case, the expiration date is most assuredly long gone. I’m gonna suggest you pass on this one.

Vintage Stuffed Toy – Time to start shopping for Phil for next Xmas!

Container of Random Rulers – I’m not sure why I find this rag-tag bunch of rulers so funny… I’ve never really seen rulers at a thrift store before. Check out that Anistasia ruler front and center - I do love the idea of buying a bunch of personalized stuff that belonged to people with different names than me. I was out thrifting with Jenn in Wisconsin once and found an old bowling ball with the name “Florence” etched into it. And the finger-holes fit my hand perfectly, like we were meant to bowl together. It’s one of the thrift store finds I didn’t buy that I still regret not bringing home. Wah wah wahhhhhhh.

Box of Lou’s Hats – Please only purchase if your name is also Lou. Thank you, The Management.

Slightly Used Bedpan – It’s like underwear – always buy new. You just don’t purchase your bedpan at a thrift store. Also, guess what Jenn’s getting for her birthday!

It’s your turn – what’s the best thing you ever found at a thrift store? Would you buy a thrift store bedpan? What the heck was that stuffed animal all about?

We don’t always hear where our tee designs end up when working on projects for clients, so it’s always super fun to run across a design unexpectedly! Visit Kohl’s now and you can pick up this Nature Skull tee we worked on:

This design for the Mudd brand features lots of vector silhouettes of birds and forest animals, as well as leaves, trees and plants, layered in with some faint watercolor hits and a nice soft distress over the whole thing. And did I mention it’s on sale?!?

Click here to purchase the Nature Skull tee from the Kohl’s site.

(Tee photo by Kohl’s)

We had recently designed new hang tags and business cards for Christina Sanchez of Le Modern Trinket, and she was so pleased with our work she asked if we could overhaul her website as well!

Using our favorite highly customizeable WordPress template, we revamped the site to be more search-engine friendly, adding plugins to allow visitors to share pages on virtually any social media platform and connect with Le Modern Trinket easily. We imported Christina’s Blogger blog into the new setup, and integrated her constantly-updated Tumblr feed to provide a steady stream of new content on the site.

The Etsy shop was integrated using Etsy’s gallery, providing an easy way to keep up with just one shopping cart system, and the Photos page was set up with Le Modern Trinket’s Flickr stream so that it updates whenever new pictures are uploaded to that site.

It has been so great working with Christina on this project, and she provided some really wonderful feedback last weekend via text:

“I’ve sold two pieces today on Etsy and getting emails via FB about my trinkets! I know it’s cus you made my site better.”

Cheers, Christina! Hope the new site brings lots more sales along with the increased search engine visibility!

Nicole Stevenson of Random Nicole recently asked if we could rework her blog to be a little more visually appealing, and a little more integrated into her website. Her starting point was like many small biz websites – a great website that links to an external blog hosted elsewhere (in Random Nicole’s case, Typepad).

The result is a little disconnected – going from a nicely designed website to this is a little confusing visually:

Nicole had a specific vision for her blog rebuild, and sent me this mockup as a starting point:

With that, I got to work! Utilizing my super customizeable secret weapon ultra-favorite WordPress theme, I was able to build it almost to the letter. The best part? The blog is now another page of her site instead of a redirect to a Typepad hosted blog. Why work so hard to get blog readers to see what you’re up to, just to have the site traffic go to someone else’s website?

It was a pleasure bringing Random Nicole’s artistic vision to life! A giveaway is going on over there this week to celebrate the new blog design, click here to read all about it!

A couple of months ago, I saw Fab.com had a discount on subscriptions to HOW Magazine. I’m not sure why I never got this graphic design mag before – oh wait I just glanced at one and the cover price is like $10.95. That explains it.

So this week, I received HOW Magazine’s November 2011 Design Business Annual. And I’m flipping through it nonchalantly as Josh and I are waiting for dinner to cook, and I get to page 100. It’s an article about Etsy, how they operate as a company, and what their home office is like. They had a lovely photo of one area of the office on that first page of the article, and my jaw dropped.

Did you see it? Let’s take a closer look:

I am totally taking up a square centimeter of space in a major graphic design magazine. OH. EM. GEE!!

A couple of years ago, Etsy was moving their digs to a new corporate office. They contacted a handful of artists to create signs for various areas and conference rooms at the new office. Each artist received a name that was one part food and one part band name to work with. I was super excited to have been picked to paint two signs. My assignments? Soy Division and Oreo Speedwagon:

These were super fun pieces to work on, and I’m honored to have a place on the walls at Etsy. I’m stoked Fab had that subscription discount, too, because if they hadn’t I totally would have missed this!

Three cheers to eagle eye’d Aaryn Nutter for spotting one of my designs on the Urban Outfitters website! I created this t-shirt for CDC Apparel last year and am super jazzed it got printed.

Click here to buy one for the guy in your life!
(Photo from the Urban Outfitters website.)

The house we live in was built in the 50′s, and has little to no insulation. Pair that with my “cold at the drop of a hat” tendencies, and you get a stash of cute scarves, mittens, hats and wristwarmers in convenient places around the house.

The other day, Phil found my warmy warm stash in a basket under a table and was rifling through it. So Josh and I put some wristwarmers on his legs.

…

Then we took some pictures.

And then Photoshop magic happened. Oh, what a feelin’.

If this fills your heart with glee, click here to download the hi-res printable pdf to brighten up your home or office!

Life is so busy, Josh and I don’t get many opportunities to collaborate on artwork. So when we came up with comedy gold for his brother Chris’ birthday, we jumped at the chance to make photoshop magic happen.

We had all been out to Savannah at the end of April, and while there our friend Jenn dubbed him Sailor Beary. The nickname embraces Chris’ love of good rum and his undying respect for Bear Grylls (who may or may not sleep in a hotel. I’m just sayin). When Jenn gives you a nickname, it’s not something to be taken lightly. It’s a sign of making it in this world.

The artwork took a little longer to complete than we originally had hoped, and Chris got his bday present way late, but he loved it. Without further ado, I give you Josh and I’s collaboration on Sailor Beary:

I did some pro bono work for Choose Haiti recently, and they’re getting ready to print some shirts to raise funds for relief efforts. They’re letting the public decide which design gets used, and I would love your support for my work!

To vote for this tee, you have to be a Facebook member. First, click here and “like” the Choose Haiti page.

Then, click here to participate in the judging - remember you’ll have to “like” the Choose Haiti page to vote.

Thanks so much in advance! It’d be great to see this design for sale on the Choose Haiti website!

Great letterpress-inspired display by Fossil seen in the mall today.