Where Everybody Knows Your Name

My sister asked if we could create a print for her girlfriend to hang in her bar.

I think it's kind of a novelty for anyone to have a bar or a real "liquor cabinet" in their homes these days, much in the style of our parents or in my mind, those characters on Mad Men who are always ready to offer a martini or something on the rocks.

So I drew out this design and Jimmy helped with the colors.

It's available in our shop here.

Wishing you all a happy new year!

Sweets for My Sweet

I'm a big Chet Baker fan and adore his version of "My Funny Valentine".

It's sweet and moody and all around perfect.

Of course it's a great song no matter the singer or arrangement.

One of my favorite lines in the song is what inspired this print.

I love doing typographical prints, such as this, and creating the illusion of textures and layers.

It's available in our shop in a few different sizes.

Small Gift

Art Basel is going on right now, here in Miami, so today we headed a few miles over to the Design District to check out Sanrio's "Small Gift" art exhibition.

It was simply awesome.

Photos by Nicole and Jimmy Chung

Instagramy Goodness!

Jimmy and I recently installed the Instagram app on our iPhones. It's essentially social networking with photos. You can add cool filters and effects to your photos and share them with your Instagram friends.

Here are a few of my photos:

Creating Collages

Jimmy came up with this fun idea to turn one of our prints into a collage, and it was really very easy.

We took a digital copy of our print, "Say Yes" and printed it out on sticker paper. This is really easy to come by--we bought a pack at Office Depot for about $12.

Jimmy actually printed out all of the details separately, for instance the hair, facial features and collars. Using the original as a reference, he carefully peeled off the sticker backing and placed it on a sheet of corrugated cardboard.

It was really a fun, easy and quick project. We're thinking that it might look really cool to create something like this on a wood panel--it would really make a sweet, little gift and wouldn't cost to much to put together (Utrecht sells small, wood panels for under $3).

Have fun!

Wish You Were Here

I adore the "Boring Postcards" series by photographer Martin Parr.

The series offers three, small books, not much bigger than the size of a postcard itself.

I bought my first book in the series several years ago and thought it was a collection of incredibly dull, vintage postcards, however, it turned out that each is the creation of the very clever Mr. Parr. Which seems a remarkable feat in styling when you consider the great eye for detail it took to achieve each and every "bland" postcard.

While I suppose they might be, for some, little more than coffee table material, the series of books induce an almost meditative effect as you skim through their pages, occasionally fixating on some seemingly old and overly saturated postcard.

Unfortunately, the books are now out of print, but if you happen upon one, I wouldn't pass it up--it's a fun browse and an interesting addition to your book collection.

New Print: "Let's Go"

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to share our latest print with you titled, "Let's Go".

We really love the vintage aesthetic and had great fun creating this one. One of the influences for this piece was the Japanese fashion guide from the 60's, "Take Ivy"--check it out if you can, it's simply awesome.

Hope you like it!

Do It Yourself Magazine!

We are so thrilled!

Two of our prints made it on the cover of the winter issue of Better Homes and Garden's Do It Yourself magazine!

Our "I'm Sew Very Happy" and "Je T'aime" prints appear on the mid-right section of the cover!

It's the first time we've been published and we are just beyond excited that it's a Better Homes and Gardens publication--what an honor! Of course we bought up a few copies that we spotted at our local Target!

Ms. Pamela Porter styled the shoot and we just have to say that she did an incredible job--she is so extremely talented.

Be sure to check out Do it Yourself's facebook page: www.facebook.com/DIYideas

Handmade and Vintage Market

Next week (October 4-8) we're happy to report that we'll be participating in the "Handmade and Vintage Market" hosted online by Heather of Blessed Little Nest. There will be giveaways and discounts and lots of fun and stylish stuff to check out.

We'll be giving away one of our prints, so be sure to check it out!

Good Eats

I share with you now, one of my favorite thrift store discoveries, Mrs. Fryer's Cookbook, published in 1926.

It's jacket is held together by layers of tape, but filled with some of the tastiest, and let's not forget fattening, recipes to be had. No, you won't find some of these delicious gems in the pages of the latest Food Network publication, this is the way your grandma and her mama used to cook. How can you go wrong?

What's truly special about this old tome are the scores of additional hand-written recipes, clippings and newspaper articles which have turned a light ocher, including this publication from 1934 titled, "Favorite Recipes". Its attention to Depression Era conservation is especially noteworthy.

...

...

...

...

A Little Bit Like Chop Suey

Tonight we ate Chinese take-out for dinner. We ordered the honey chicken, veggie lo mein and special fried rice. Well, it was mostly disappointing, and I guess we'll be heading back to South Garden on Sunset and 107 next time--definitely worth the slightly longer drive.

In the spirit of our humdrum nums, I present to you, dear reader, a sampling of authentic, Chinese recipes and supping protocol from a cook book published in 1964. My handsome man found this one in a thrift store about ten years ago and we have not tried even one of these very colorful recipes (we are lame).

So, best of luck to any brave souls out there, willing to try their hand at "barbecue sausages" or "Chinese hot dogs"!

...

...

...

Thrifty Finds

Back in the day, Fisher Price made some pretty cool toys, including their "Little People" play sets. My older brother and sister had a bunch of the original "little people" play sets and naturally I got to play with them when I came along. Sadly we lost many of our toys through the years, including these little, plastic folks. Not to worry, though, years of thrifting have paid off.

...

The castle featured some nifty details, like this secret passage.

...

...

The old school house.

...

I truly adore that fancy chap.

What's Going On

We just added a new print to our shop titled, "Won't You Come Out to Play".

I've been trying to get our two, little boys to play outdoors more. Our 2 year old son is all for it, but our older boy, who is 6, is a little less than enthusiastic seeing how he's always playing with his Legos--which is way better than video games, don't get me wrong, but still.

So here's to playing with rocks and leaves, and flowers; finding bugs and looking up at the clouds.

We'd like to quickly mention that were pretty excited last week to have one of our prints featured on ohdeedoh.com. You can read all about it here.

Hello, Seattle

We're pleased to announce that we have a few of our prints for sale over at Assemble Gallery and Studio in Seattle.

Located in the Phinney Ridge area, Assemble not only boasts a gallery and shop but they also offer several crafty workshops in their studio. How awesome.

If you're near or headed out there be sure to check 'em out. We only wish we were closer, but we probably couldn't get geographically further than Miami.

www.assembleshop.com

7406 Greenwood Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98103

My Sugar is So Refined

Miami will never never see a shortage of Cuban coffee--it will never happen.

I'm sure it depends on the neighborhood, but we happen to live in a largely Hispanic area, so we get our fill of the good stuff by way of those little, outdoor counters, where they shovel out the sugar, cigars and espresso.

The other day we took the boys to El Rinconcito Latino (on Coral Way and 67th Avenue) for some Cuban take-out. The food is pretty good for the price and quantity, and the service and experience are both great.

While we waited on our order, the boys sat at these neat mosaic and concrete tables, and when that got boring (after 1 minute), they served themselves some water from the requisite cooler--which are a standard, apparently, in this kind of operation.

The Bigger They Are

We're happy to announce that we've added two, bigger print sizes for all prints in our shop. In addition to 4" x 6", 5" x 7", 8" x 10" and 11" x 14", we now offer:

12" x 16"

and

13" x 19"

We've been getting some requests for larger prints and so we are quite excited about it.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

New Prints!

This week we've come up with a few new prints. Hope you like them: