Bubble Calendar

I love crossing my days off my calendar at work - each x through the day gives me a sense that time is actually moving. But THIS - oh this would be fun, though maybe a tad annoying for my coworkers. And perhaps a tad ineffective since there is no room to write notes, but hey who doesn't have 2 or three calendars already. You could have one for note taking and this one to look gorgeous on your wall and to pop for your daily dose of bubble-popping satisfaction.

Thanks to Styledash for sharing!

Nothing Is A Mistake

Another lovely antidote to help me get through the day!

This print was created by Danna Ray and can be purchased from her Etsy store, Ground Work, for $20.

Special thanks to Design Is Mine & Middle West Meals for sharing.

Another Etsy Favorite: Shim & Sons

Gorgeous mousepad and prints from Shim & Sons on Etsy. Yet another great artist with a wonderful blog.

So true

Found via Coochicoos

Currently Loving: Heather Bailey

People like Heather Bailey make me want to quit my day job and go out and become a fabric designer or a seamstress and spend all day making pillows, quilts, totes and pj bottoms. I am JUST LOOK at her gorgeous designs. Sigh. AND she writes a blog - Hellomynameisheather - how cool is that?

So, ok - she:

1. Makes gorgeous fabric
2. Writes a blog
3. Has an equally gorgeous website
4. AND she invented the cool new hair accessory - Trash Ties?!

Um, someone give this woman an award! :)

Etsy Print Find

Wonderful find from Suspect Shoppe on Etsy. Love it!

Found via Cardboard Sea.

I love Dave, But Not THAT Much

Found the P.E.R.F.E.C.T. laptop table, the Dave, from IKEA via the fabulous bloggers at GeekSugar. So perfect, in fact, that I was going to go out and buy it online. I went through all the steps and went to check out only to scoff in absolute disgust at what I found out. The laptop table was an easy peasy $24.99 and the shipping....yeah...it was a whopping $21.06. Are you kidding me?! Wow! And I gotta wonder - why?! I didn't even pay that much in shipping for our over 70lb bed frame that I ordered online. It can't be that heavy. Hmm?

The Font Conference

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Fonts have a personality of their own which is why we all love them so much and each have our favorites for various reasons. But, have you ever imagined what fonts would look like personified? Well, check out this video of "Font Conference" that Geeks Are Sexy shared. Marvelous, just marvelous!

Wordle

Oh, this is the coolest thing ever! Having a little too much fun over here! Here's my word cloud based on this blog.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Make your own at Wordle.net!

Shrinky Dinks Project From Making It Lovely

Wow, it has been awhile since I've heard of shrinky dinks - not since the days of my youth when we made them using our scribbles, but just look at what Making It Lovely has accomplished using them. Marvelous! Both ideas are splendid! We are always forking over our keys to a dog sitter while we are away and have you seen a cuter dog tag?! Oh the possibilities!

Visit Making It Lovely for further instructions and photos about this project!

Hand Knitted Power Cord Covers

We've jazzed up your office supplies and now your power cord feels left out. Well, of course, GeekSugar would find something to help you out! Hand knit power cord covers that fits MacBook (70" cord) and most other laptop power cords. (allows for some slack when on the cord) from Etsy seller - pingo!

Personally not too fond of the color scheme here but I did find one I liked on their Esty page - a black and white color combination. But pingo ensures that they can customize a cord cover to just about any given color or length you need.

Now why would you need a cover for your power cord you might ask? Well, my Powerbook G4 comes with a lovely white power cord. Sadly, it doesn't stay white for more than a day. This is especially true if you travel with your computer or use your computer in any sort of public setting. AND, the seller points out, the cover can act as a sort of identifying piece for your personal cords. So, if you are ever in a situation where there more than one computer around you - you don't want the person sitting next to you to try and yank out your cord thinking it was theirs.

Pretty nifty solution!

What design blog isn't complete without a link to ilovetypograhy.com's marvelous game - Rather Difficult Font Game?!

Have a go and see how well you do! I scored a sad 18 out of 34. Boo!

Portfolio Tip: Build Your Own Lightbox

Every designer I know has a portfolio and these days that usually means a website with all your work gorgeously photographed. While not everyone has access to a photography studio (college students, take advantage of your resources while you can - our photography department granted design students access to use their lightbox equipment - not sure if I can sneak in now. darn!) I found a great tip via GeekSugar about building your own lightbox. Not sure why it is listed on "geek" sugar - I think it is a great tip for any cool designer.

Making Walking the Dog In the Rain A Breeze

Every dog owner has had one of those rainy spring mornings, trying to balance your dog (or dogs!) leashes, keep your foot holding on the wet grass and sidewalks AND balance an umbrella over you head. Usually a recipe for disaster and no matter what - you get wet. You only have so many hands - one for the leash, one for the umbrella - and, uh-oh - now you need one to be neighborly and actually properly dispose of your pooches morning duties. Sigh. What's a girl to do?!

Well, look what I found via the wonderful pet blog, PetSugar, a hands-free umbrella! Haven't actually bought one myself, as we now live in a house with a fenced in backyard and no longer need to brave the elements for those everyday walks. Now, when it's rainy, we just shove the dogs out the door and watch - hehe! But if I would have known about such an apparatus back in our apartment dwelling days you better believe I would have been one of the first to snatch one up!

DIY Office Supply Makeover

Leave it up to How About Orange to provide us all with an excellent idea for the day! Instead of completely throwing out your standard issue office supplies for the oh-so-pretty ones you can find at See Jane Work - think green - and improvise! How About Orange shows us simple craft ideas to turn your ho-hum binder clips into spectacles of beautiful design! Makes me want to run out to my favorite fabric and yarn store, Clementine's Dry Goods, and buy me some gorgeous fabric to give my own office a do-over!

Not So Every Day Design: Hmmm?

Every now and then you come across something that kinda seems like a good idea but kinda not. Read about this "interesting" new product from Whizbiz on a few different blogs now - one being . It's a product designed to allow women to urinate standing up.

Yup. I'll let that one sink in for a sec.

And if the idea isn't weird enough for you they have a promotional video to go with it. Oh you gotta watch this.



So, you decide, is it good design or just plain gross? I mean, wouldn't it be nice ladies (in some circumstances) to be able to do this - think deep, dark woods in the dead of night on a camping trip, or disgusting public restrooms at gas stations or even worse - the porta-potti at the fair - yikes!

Makes me think though - do you keep in your purse? (um, yuck) or does it come with some sort of carry baggie thing? Hmm? Check out the WhizBiz website to learn more.

Serving Up A Side of Design

Image from Hostess With the Mostess Blog

One of my favorite ways to express my love for design at home is through the food I serve at our parties and get-togethers. Last year I had the extreme pleasure of throwing a babyshower for a dear friend of mine and had an absolute blast coming up with themes, ideas, etc. I took it all to the extreme from hand-cutting nametags for the drinks, to picking color specific drinks and foods to printing up the invitations and sign for the yard - it was heaven!

One of my greatest inspirations for party themes is the marvelous blogger Hostess With the Mostess. She scours the web for all things party fabulous and shares it with her readers.

BYOB: From Paper Bag Drab To Fabulously Fun!

Being the office nerd that I am, I bring my lunch to work every day (and breakfast). One reason being that eating out at the mall food-court is obviously expensive and two - I am picky so eating at the food court gets old quick with me. I need variety and healthier options people!

But just because I haul my lunch in everyday doesn't mean that I have to hike around the traditional brown paper bag or lug around my food in a walmart bag - oh the horrors! Not only are these options terrible for the environment, they are look trashy AND have the tendency to tear, leak, and offer no sort of thermal qualities to keep you food hot or cold.

I say ditch those brown bag blues and head over to Built and check out their new Gourmet Getaway lunch tote designs! Not only do these totes look great, they keep your food cold or hot and are machine washable. If you aren't up for buying your tote online - you can also find them at your local Target. (that's where I got mine!)

Special thanks to At Home With Kim Vallee for alerting me on her blog to Built's newest designs - I gotta go out and get me a new lunch bag now! I bought mine back when they had only three solid colors to choose from.

I would like to begin this blog by saying that design is everywhere. You don't have to be a designer to recognize good design, but as such you do seem to become more aware of design around you and tend to be inspired things around you. Whether its the packaging of the products you buy at the grocery store or the color or lines you find your own backyard - inspiration is everywhere! This blog is my ode to my daily design inspirations.

Design*Sponge's Indianapolis Design Guide

I think it is pretty awesome that our very own city was featured on the very amazing Design*Sponge blog.

I very much agree with the intro:

"The great thing about Indianapolis is that everything is drivable and close by. The city has a lot to offer and one can find countless entrepreneurs and artists passionate about bringing good design to this Midwestern city. I hope you’ll enjoy my Design*Sponge Guide to Indianapolis!"

This guide comes with great info about food, shopping and museums. And what's better is that they are constantly updated the guide with suggestions and additions from readers. Check it out!