obsession: the animal print shop

Take a look at these cute animal photo's! I can't stop looking at these and smiling.
Animals are the best and the husband and wife duo (Sharon + Spencer) have made a living photographing these cuddly, cute and stoic animals. What a great idea and what beautiful photography that can fit in any room setting. I am in love with the baby room idea and a large print could be just the thing for behind a sofa.  I think I might have to pick one of these up, the only problem is, which one? They are all so good!

Check out more of their work here.

sharon + friend: How cute is she.

Camp Wannagetaway

Very cool! I love this art direction--wish I was on this shoot! The new line of fabrics from Perennials rocks.

Check it out!

A painted rug.

Sometimes I get fun little projects to do at work. Instead of carpeting our conference room, we painted a rug on it!

I commissioned Jeff Zimmerman to mimic a vintage rug that I found online.

Jeff projected the design onto massive sheets, pounced it out (perforating the paper) then transfered it onto the floor with chalk, traced it out, and THEN painted it (actually, I'm making this sound much easier than it was--it took a week from start to finish).

Here are some snaps:

Stay tuned for the rest of the room...coming soon.

Designer and illustrator: Jim DiGiovanni

Browsing Etsy for some cool camp gear, I came across the shop of Philadelphia-based designer and illustrator, Jim DiGiovanni.

Under the name Up North Co., Jim creates cool camp / backwoods / adventure / Americana inspired prints and patches that are fun and a bit retro. You can buy his work on both Etsy and Society6, or check out more about his adventures on his blog.

Awesome stuff, Jim.

[all work by Jim DiGiovanni--purchase on Etsy or Society6]

Make Effect

We host Art Camp each summer at Wandawega (in collaboration with Angela of Post 27). A weekend of relaxation, collaboration, production and meeting new friends.

Up in Northern Michigan, a similar event happens in June. Make Effect is a 3-day long art and design retreat held at Camp Tosebo in Manistee, Michigan. Here's what it's all about, in their own words...

What if you could work under the trees rather than florescent lights? Come escape to Camp Make Effect for learning, relaxation, creativity and camaraderie. By day get messy making and trying out new processes and by night get silly around the campfire. The lines need not be straight, and the ink will look better blotchy as you discover new ways to face design challenges. 

Make Effect is a unique three and a half day workshop where professionals from all creative disciplines come together to work collaboratively to create new work and ideas. Participants are challenged to explore their individual creativity and critical-thinking skills while exploring a range of techniques and media. 

Through play and discovery we will find the magically unexpected. Many hands-on processes will be explored and experimented with: silkscreen, letterpress, gelatin prints, relief printing, lettering, book binding, paste paper, cyanotypes, transfers, stenciling, etc. We will re-examine typography, design, and form making as kinds of drawing, image, photography, sculpture, and installation. We will investigate what it means to investigate, to experiment, to try things whose outcomes are uncertain. 

Traditional camp activities such as: capture the flag, canoe decorating, sand castles, erecting a native American Teepee, star gazing, swimming, boating, hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, ghost stories around the campfire and the awarding of badges will all be part of the fun. 

Evenings we will gather for dinner and discussion while poking at the campfire or flying kites on the shore of Lake Michigan.

You can learn more about this intimate and immersive Michigan retreat on their website or Facebook page (and can check out Camp Tosebo on their site).

[all images are from Make Effect Camp's group pool on Flickr]

Dream catchers

According to Dream-Catchers.org, Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams, both good and bad. The dream catcher, when hung over or near your bed, swings freely in the air, catching the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher--slipping by the outer holes and sliding down the soft feathers, so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams don't know the way and get tangled in the dream catcher. They perish with the first light of the new day.

You can read more about the history of dream catchers and their relationship to Native American culture on dream-catchers.org or Wikipedia. My love of dream catchers is more about a nostalgia of childhood arts and crafts. I never went to proper sleep-away camp*, but I attended many different day-camps, where sitting around and building something, side-by-side with other kids, was always my favorite activity. One of the best part of making a dream catcher is collecting the bits of ephemera--feathers and beads, sticks and shells--to add to your design.

Here are some beautiful images of dream catchers that might help you to sleep better tonight (or, more likely, inspire you to make one of your own)...

* Unless you count the awkward experience of "6th grade camp" where they shipped off all of my classmates and I to a camp for a few days (WITH parental chaperones) and forced us to socialize with each other in torturous ways like talent shows and team building exercises. It's one thing when you have to hang out in a group with strangers and do dumb stuff but a whole other when you have to do it with kids that you choose NOT to hang with on a daily basis.

[image credits--most images I found led me down an insane Tumblr rabbit hole, so I apologize for many of these being poorly credited--let me know if the images belong to you: 1 - Girl's Talk; 2 - The BoHo Fille Diaries; 3 - Girl's Talk; 4 - elfwood.com; 5 - Rachel Rice; 6 - Free People blog; 7 - Girl's Talk; 8 - Girl's Talk; 9 - Something Worth Dreaming Tumblr; 10 - Lune Vintage; 11 - Native American Technology and Art; 12 - Lune Vintage; 13 - Love, Adorned]