Speaking of Buyolympia.com . . .

. . . and also of Father's Day, this incredibly AWESOME wallet would make a perfect gift. From buyolympia.com artist Tiny Meat, (or do you say tinymeat?), this "How To Make A Motorcycle" wallet is just $14.00.















And no, we weren't actually ever speaking of Father's Day. See, you are paying attention!

tags:
tinymeat
wallet
motorcycle

Speaking of Cards. . .

. . . this reminiscent-of-seventh-grade one is hysterical! Hand-printed by buyolympia.com artist Tennis Anyone, currently (unfortunately) out of stock.

When were we speaking of cards? You really aren't paying attention, are you?

tags:
greeting cards
Tennis Anyone
buyolympia.com

Speaking of Frogs . . .

. . . this one conducting the birthday orchestra makes me giggle! One of a number of cool and sometimes kitschy letterpress cards from B Designs. Here's another:
























From Diane's Collection, this is one they call "Red Shoes." (I would call it "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes." That's just me.)

What do you mean, "When were we speaking of frogs?" Have you been paying attention? Jeeeez. It was just, like, two days ago. Right here.

tags:
B Designs
letterpress cards
frogs
red shoes

Objets du Jour: Ibride Plates and Platters

I'm loving these melamine plates designed by Ibride for Habitat.

**Warning: both sites are designed, most annoyingly, in the beloathed, innavigable flash (boooo, hisssss).**

























This line of plates is called "Sorbet," and is described as follows:

With unique and dreamlike patterns created by combining photographic imagery, turn of the century line drawings, and high tech computer effects, Sorbet is perfect for outdoor dining or the most stylish midnight beach party.

Way cool, any way you serve them.

Ibride trays, also way cool, are available at Velocity Art and Design. These are made of high pressure laminate over pressed wood and paper board.
























If you don't like the squirrel tray below, well. . . there are plenty of blogs out there, so you might as well just move on.
























Eclectic Detective: arbiter of taste in laminate squirrelware.

tags:
Ibride
melamine tableware
serving platters

Objets du Jour - Scalamandre Fabric

Scalamandre "Calabassas County" Leaping Frog Cotton Print


















Scalamandre "Ewe Too" Checked Woven Chenille


















Scalamandre "Animoux" Lampas

Aren't these adorable? I spotted the froggy print in the current "Traditional Home" magazine and had to share it. Love the ewes and other critters too. How 'bout you?

All can be found at Design Diva Fabrics. The Scalamandre website is here.

tags:
Scalamandre
animal fabric

Inspired By . . . Because We Can

After months of design ennui, today I found myself looking at an interior that stirred my soul and made it cry, "Oh, yes!!!" An interior that re-lit the fire of design lust--that "I must have this" feeling we know so well.

The authors of this artistic brilliance bill themselves as a "design-build firm," but as we see in the pictures they are in fact magicians. The "they" in question is Because We Can, a "mash-up of designers and builders" led by Jeffrey McGrew and Jillian Northrup.

The photos in this post are from one of their recent projects, a "full office environment with custom one-of-a-kind desks," one of which is pictured above. Below are two views of the "engine room," where employees keep their bikes while at work.








































I could have posted literally every one of the photos from this project as an example of what I fell in love with, but instead have given you just enough to whet your appetite. This is to encourage you to go on over to the Because You Can site and have a look for yourselves.

Be sure to visit their blog, where a post about renovation of their own workspace is equally inspiring. I wish you could leave comments--I want them to make some sort of cast or mold of their Shopbot table the next time they're ready to smooth it down. They would be works of art in their own right! I'll have to send them an e-mail.

This is the best kind of good stuff. Go on over and have a look, and if you're in the San Francisco area, let them re-do your office!

OK, I've been trying for the past hour to find where I found this so I could give a via link. I have to let it go. If I got this via your blog, drop me a comment, OK?

UPDATE: My thanks to Sara for her comment. I did, indeed, find these folks on her blog, Rasco-a-go-go.

tags:
Because We Can
Design Build
Interior Design

Objet du Jour: "Romantic Flowers," from Swatch

We must have this watch. Am I wrong? Must we not?

"Romantic Flowers," $35.00, from Swatch.

Yum.


tags:
watch
Swatch
Romantic Flowers

Objet du Jour: My China! Emperor Rim

I've got to say how much I looooove this china pattern, My China! Emperor Rim, which I came upon via Cutable.

tags:
tableware
china pattern
Emperor Rim

Objet du Jour: Endless Necklace

The "Endless Necklace" is made entirely of clasps. Clever!












At greenergrassdesign for $88.00.

tags:
jewelry
INSERTgreenergrassdesign
necklace

Black and Yellow Week Roundup

Aw heck, "week" is an arbitrary period of time to do something, right?

Here are some great black and yellow finds. Above we have a way cool print titled "Avenge Me, Blockhead!" It's from The Little Friends of Printmaking, available for $20.00, and is currently on backorder.

If you're in the mood for gift giving, I love the giftwrap at Sprout Home, especially this "Roll of Knots" paper.
























The pendant below is from one of my favorite Etsy shops, Madison Craft Studio. It's as classy an item as you could hope to find, and a steal at $3.00. (Check out their other pendants--they have such lovely designs!)























On the other end of the spectrum (the one that ranges from small, hand-made goods to large, mass-produced goods) is this lovely piece of rolling luggage from Samsonite's Black Label line. (This one is via Spray Glue.)


I know there's more black and yellow goodness out there. I'll show 'em as I find 'em. Meanwhile, please still shoot me any finds you come across!

tags:
black and yellow
Etsy
design

More Black and Yellow

When it comes to black and yellow, sometimes one has to take matters into one's own hands. Hence the creation of this little mirror for my Etsy shop. I need to find a way to make the background different.

tags:
mirror
Etsy
black and yellow

eQuilter.com Memorial Day Sale

I'm a big fan of eQuilter.com because of their amazingly broad selection of fabric, ranging from beautiful and pretty to frivolous and silly. This week they're having a Memorial Day sale (they have great sales!), with select fabrics 35% to 45% off. Fabrics that typically sell for $8 to $9 per yard are now $5 to $6 per yard.

Here's a link to their sale page. Enjoy!


tags:
fabric
sale
eQuilter.com

Rooftops in Prague: Artquirk at Etsy

"Rooftops in Prague" is not only a great item for Black and Yellow Week, but also a wonderful Etsy find: a print from an original painting offered by Artquirk for $20.00.

via Another Shade of Grey.

tags:
Artquirk
Etsy
Rooftops in Prague

Black and Yellow Week Continues

All right, this is harder than it looks, and I'm getting NO help at all from you people. It seems that the consummate coolness of black and yellow is only known by those in the know. That is to say, we're on the cutting edge here. And that's not such a bad place to be.

What we have here are two items from the Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen Lavish Mugs collection. Frankly, the whole collection is cool. You can have a look (and order them, if you wish) at China Etc.

tags:
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Lavish Mugs
China Etc
black and yellow

Yellow and Black: The Hesher

Here's a cool yellow and black find, so my "Black and Yellow Week" will have more than one post. This is the detail of a polo shirt by attus apparel called "The Hesher." Good stuff. Kinda pricey at $54.00. Still, cool.

It's late and I'm brain dead. G'nite.

tags:
The Hesher
Attus Apparel
Black and Yellow Week

Objets du Jour - Barbapapa Plastic Toys

Aren't these adorable?

(Aside - Please read "adorable" in your best Craig Ferguson voice. I love how he says that word! Now, back to our post.)

It doesn't take much to get me off on a toy tangent. When link surfing landed me on the Swedish site of Green Jelly Toys, I had to look at, well, pretty much everything. These little guys really grabbed me. They are 4 to 8 cm tall and sell for 49 kronor, or about seven bucks apiece.

Of course, I knew nothing about them, but that's what Wikipedia is for.

Barbapapa is both the title character, and name of the "species" of said character, of a series of children's books written in the 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who resided in Paris, France. The books were originally written in French, and were later translated into many languages. As short cartoons of a length of only five minutes, they reached a broader audience via TV.

Barbapapa himself is a generally pear-shaped, pink shapeshifting blob-like creature who stumbles upon the human world and tries to fit in. The shapeshifting is usually accompanied by the saying "Clickety Click Barba Trick". After various amusing adventures, he comes across a female of his species (more shapely, and black-coloured), named Barbamama. They produce seven children, known as the Barbababies, each a different colour.

Well, the books are cute, but they don't hold a candle to the toys. If I had money, I'd be inclined to see if I could search some out on Ebay.

It's amazing how much you save by not having any money!

tags:
Barbapapa
toys

Etsy Shop: Rockin' Bones

We haven't had any skulls in a while and, well, that's just wrong, isn't it? Fortunately I've stumbled onto an Etsy shop with skulls galore. (That should be the name of something. A band, perhaps. Skulls Galore. Hmmm.) The shop is Rockin' Bones, and you can get there from here.

Above we have the front view of the Yellow Skulls Tunic. Here's the back:
























Aside from the skulls, I totally dig the black and yellow color combination. Last month I was all about black and pink, but now I've seen the error of my ways. Black and yellow is clearly what it's all about.

Someone--who the heck was it? Help me out. Someone, a fellow blogger within our amorphous community, recently did a "pink and yellow" week. I hereby declare this "Black and Yellow Week" on Eclectic Detective.

Realistically, given my recent slump, "Black and Yellow Week" may be limited to the current post. But you can help! E-mail me your favorite black and yellow design-y stuff to lisaj32@yahoo.com. Or don't, either way. But really, it's sooooo easy to make me happy. . . .

tags:
Etsy
skulls
Rockin' Bones

Objet du Jour - Ethics Girl Tee

In an age where many girl products ask us to decide if we're a "Princess," a "Brat" or a "Drama Queen," this t-shirt from Howies is a breath of fresh air. "Ethics girl: Higher Quality, Lower Impact."

via NOTCOT.

tags:
t-shirt
Howies
girl wear
ethics

Objet du Jour - Python Tape

I must own this. But why?

Available at Atypyk.

via Better Living Through Design

tags:
Atypyk
python
tape

Clarification, and . . . ETSY!

My apologies for not making this more clear: the drawing in the previous post is not by me, but by Hugh McLeod of gapingvoid. (He's one of my blogging heroes.) If you're not familiar with his "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards," then you're in for a treat--they're great! I have one of my favorites on a t-shirt--with the following caption:

"I can't take this shit any more!" he said, mistakenly.

(Because we can't, can we? And yet we do, don't we?)

In any case, I apologize to my readers, and to Hugh, for not making it clear that the work was his and not mine.

So what creative stuff have I been doing? Well, mostly this: I've opened an Etsy shop! Right now it's just an itty bitty baby Etsy shop, not because I don't have things to sell, but because I'm such a crappy photographer that it takes me forever to get something posted.
























I have some jewelry posted (beadwork is my first love), and then some of my mixed-media magnets. But what really got me going was this idea that everyone should have a pocket mirror that says "Child of God" on it.

The idea came to me in work with my therapy clients, especially work on self-esteem. Where spirituality is concerned, I follow the client's lead, and with some the topic of God doesn't even come up. But lately I've been blessed with several clients who have very strong faith, and when they begin to get down on themselves, reminding them that they are a child of God is a powerful tool. It works pretty well when I remind myself, as well!

So I bought a machine that makes these little mirrors. And have I been busy! One of the best things about it: I can do it using just my left hand, so the tendonitis doesn't hold me back! (I'm also enlisting a niece to help make them, so I don't develop a new thing with my left arm.)

Blogging has been more on the back burner than I'd like lately, first because I was in a funk, and more recently because of how busy I've been. I'm hoping to get back on schedule soon.

tags:
Hugh MacLeod
Etsy
spirituality