Happy Monday everybody!
Hope things are well by you. I sit here on my laptop next to an open window, relishing, no — wallowing, in the sunshine and cool breeze. The height of spring sprung over the weekend and I don’t recall a time when every tree and bush decided to bloom at the same time. Every trip outdoors is literally a chorus of blossoms. I am in awe. In less exciting news, I am coming off a heavy work week (new record – 256 design document exports in a single day), and while I’m very grateful for the work, right now, I’m a lot more grateful to be chilling out next to this open window and thinking about doing something NOT ON A COMPUTER. Hurrah!
For those of us who are stuck in front of the keyboard and looking for a little distraction, here are some happy distractions to get you started.
Business cards made of crayons? Yes, please.
11 Acts of kindness that will change a stranger’s day.
Is Dolly Parton the way forward for hipsters? (<<That’s a rhetorical question)
Feminist Lisa Frank on Tumblr is incredible (even if the real Lisa Frank isn’t a fan).
Addictive app for finding color combinations.
Fruit that tastes like chocolate pudding? HELLO.
And speaking of funerals: FAO Schwartz is closing and I am irrationally upset.
The peculiar details of Emily Dickinson’s funeral.
If you find a spot at the underground traveling tiki party, save me a seat!
Watch a cat experience an ice-cream induced brain freeze then go back for more.
If you know your 90s music jams, you know the Semisonic song Closing Time and you probably thought it was about a bar at closing time, right? Wrong. WE WERE ALL WRONG.
Even before watching that video, I could have listened to “Closing Time” on a never-ending loop for the rest of my life. Now I just love it that much more.
Also, gonna have to make some time to read a bit of Emily Dickinson today. What a chick.
Yeah. What a chick!!
I saw that video of Closing Time a month or so ago- I didn’t realize how often that song is played, because now I swear I hear it all. the. time. It has both improved and ruined the song for me.
Those business cards are brilliant. You can buy all kinds of silicone ice cube molds and melt crayons in the oven in them. I bought probably 7 or 8 molds, but you don’t know until you use them how well they will work- not all are alike and some molds will just melt themselves. I found an alphabet mold and a Lego brick mold that are awesome though, and the crayons turned out just like that! They’re too much work and too pretty to just use up, so I’m trying to figure out how to mount them on a wreath or canvas as art, although I have a ton of extras I’ll let my kids use and give as gifts to friends. If you swirl colors together they are quite breathtaking, like in these cards.
I have seen those ice-cube mold crayons too — very cool!
I always liked the song Closing Time, now I’m obsessed! This made me cry! 🙂
Hi Peaches,
Talking about Fancy funerals…
Years ago I worked for a funeral parlour in Amsterdam. I helped organize the funeral of Manfred Langer, the owner of our Dutch Studio 54.
Twenty limousines followed a pink hearse. His coffin was pink, and the center of Amsterdam was closed because of the big happening. Many national and international guests were there, Grace Jones among them.
If you look for ‘begrafenis Manfred Langer’ on youtube you can see flashes of that special day.
Love your Happy mondays, they are a great way to start the week.
Ps. Manfred Langer was the owner of the IT. A discotheque comparable with studio 54.
Oooolala! He sounds like a fun one 🙂
I don’t know about the crayon business cards. I have had several crayons melted in a special depression under the window in the back seat of my car for the last six or seven years. I keep forgetting to carve them out.
Thanks a lot for the cat video. It started me on a 20 minute journey with surrounding cat videos. Toys R Us has always been a bad merchant. I’ll give them the big plastic toys in the yard like the houses and forts, but.. they were always bad in books and art supplies. It annoyed me that they didn’t have a “point of view” about toys, they just sold them. They came out of bankruptcy in 1983 or so and hit the growth in babies just right. FAO Schwartz was just pathetic in their last years in their old store on Fifth Avenue.The new store in the General Motors Building in about 1986 was great, but it was more like a museum. The rent was probably astronomical. Both companies didn’t adapt well to the new electronic era of toys. That was probably their downfall.
When we went through NYC at Christmas I wanted to stop in to FAO for a couple of gifts but the line was an hour long. I totally wanted to spend money but couldn’t even get inside, and I suspect I wasn’t alone. Victim of their own success. I cannot imagine the money they spend on rent and employees to accommodate the looky-loos can keep up with paying customers. Still, it’s a bit sad. Toy stores are a dying breed.