It's that wrapping time of year

Last year this time I was so much better about posting wrap ideas...I need to get back on it!

Making holiday cards

As ususal, I haven't started my holiday cards yet...when will I learn? Impress has some great card ideas. PhotoWorks has some nice cards, too. Paperzone has some interesting holiday crafts. I especially like these icicle boxes.

Most Gifted Wrapper 2005

This year's winner was Doug Alves from Fresno. He won $10,000, a Vespa and loads of other prizes.

So what did they wrap?
Round one (12 min.): Wrap a 15-inch Sharp television and a boxed set of DVDs.
Round two (10 min.): Wrap a saxophone.
Round three (12 min.): Wrap a Vespa scooter and diamond-encrusted helmet.

I really need to get in on this next year. Isn't that what I said last year?

More photos from the contest here and story/wrapping tips here.

Profiles of other contestants here and here.

How to wrap Japanese style

Found this resource that shows how to wrap on the diagonal just like they do in Japan.
(Note: this post was updated to fix broken image and update the link to the Japanese content on 2/3/08)

Nice resources for furoshiki wrapping

Even though I can read very little Japanese, this this site has some nice illustrations that step through the wrapping process of several different shapes and styles.

This English language furoshiki study group site has a great list of resources

This site has great images and steps in English including how to wrap a watermelon as shown below.


This site is great one, too.

And Kakefuda-san is kicking out some lovely furoshiki designs.

How to wrap a shirt with a furoshiki.

The Japanese Space Agency's "furoshiki".

Vintage gift wrap

Just found the vintage gift wrap pool on Flickr.

And this book of groovy 60's gift wrap.

Ebay is also a source for some cool vintage papers

Paper Mojo has some nice retro style papers

Thanksgiving placecards

UPDATE: I noticed that the Martha Stewart link had moved and lots of folks were coming to this entry, so I've updated this to a working link and picture.

I hosted Thanksgiving this year and was so busy that I forgot to take a picture of the table. For the placecards I created Thanksgiving Trivia Turkeys (borrowed the idea from a Martha Stewart idea for the kids' table).


Here's Martha's version

Template is located here

I collected Thanksgiving trivia from around the web and include more detailed answers than Martha's version so I had to increase the size of the feathers, which in turn meant adjusting the base size. I also opted for computer text rather than handwritten.

Good Thanksgiving trivia here and here.

Mom brought some lovely flowers, but I was so busy I didn't have a chance to get them into a proper vase until after she and Dad went home.

I found a good use for all the cranberries I neglected to use, too!

Great Japanese store - in Alderwood Mall of all places

Last weekend we hit the new Daiso store at Alderwood Mall (next to the Sears). Only a Japanese 100Yen/Dollar store would lure me to that vast confusing suburb of Seattle. I loved it...and I will be back. I love the random collections of things like backscratchers (I don't think I've ever been in a store with such a variety), patches that claim to refresh and heal, great cheap gift wrapping material, dishes and much more. There was so much interesting cheap stuff...not your usual dollar store date. There are actually quite a few Daiso pics on Flickr.


The aisles are VERY narrow and the shelves are loaded with stuff. Note to the ladies with the huge strollers this is not a good store for you unless you leave the stroller at the door.

Furoshiki at the Ginza Mitsukoshi

I love how Japanese wrapping integrates the shape of the object rather than just covering a box. Here's more about furoshiki. These furoshiki were in the tea and gift department of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo.

It's here...at last?

There's been a ton of hype around The Container Store opening in Bellevue. I haven't yet had a chance to go check it out. I know this is mean to say about your regionally based businesses, but I hope the intensified competition from The Container Stores gives Storables some incentive to improve their service and pricing! For years I have gritted my teeth when shopping at Storables...they are overpriced and the service is mediocre to lousy. Even their bag/packaging situation is always fouled up. Every visit leaves me with a bag that is way too big and awkward or far too small and ripping as I carry the goods to the car. Interesting issues for a store that is all about organization and containers, boxes and bags.

One sticker wrapping

The only adhesive holding this wrap on is the flower sticker on the front. I saw loads of stores wrapping with just on piece of tape or sticker when I was in Japan.

100 Yen Shop Masterpieces

This cool site shows all sorts of cool stuff you can create from items found at the 100 Yen shops (Japanese equivalent of the dollar store...but often bigger)

For those who think papercraft is for intellectual lightweights

Check out MIT professor Erik Demaine'sfolding and unfolding page or read about wrapping polyhedra. Or have a go at one of these wrapping puzzles.

Japanese Paper

This looks like a fantastic place to buy paper and supplies — if you live in Toronto. The inspiration gallery is great, especially these paper curtains one of the employees sewed.

Flourish

Should have put this up eons ago. Flourish is a great shop in Wallingford for lovely wraps and things.I can hardly ever get there myself because their hours just don't fit my work/life schedule.


Here's a tower of loveliness that was in their window when I dropped by a couple months ago...and yes, they were closed!

Handling It

When I wrap purses or lunchboxes or anything with handles, I love to leave the handles out. This one was a soft bag, so the shape was hard to manage.

How the world sees the Katrina response

I spent most of the day working on lists and message boards of katrina survivors and family looking to reconnect and/or find help. We were getting about 1500 new entries an hour!

Unfortunately, just the way that snakes and 'gators come out in a flood, cranks and wackos come out in times of crisis. Time to take a break from reading yet another "Second coming/Rapture" thread and take look at how the world sees the Katrina response.

From a lucid BBC commentary:

"When President Bush told "Good Morning America" on Thursday morning that nobody could have "anticipated" the breach of the New Orleans levees, it pointed to not only a remote leader in denial, but a whole political class.

The uneasy paradox which so many live with in this country - of being first-and-foremost rugged individuals, out to plunder what they can and paying as little tax as
they can get away with, while at the same time believing that America is a
robust, model society - has reached a crisis point this week.

Will there be real investment, or just more buck-passing between federal agencies and states?"

A few selections from the BBC round-up http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4211320.stm

Colombia's El Colombiano
It is now urgent that the world's leaders take heed of nature's warning, look at the evidence and realise that the climate, on a global scale, is changing. This is already known from scientific reports, but they continue to ignore it, to play it down, or not to care about it.

France's Liberation
Bush had already been slow to react when the World Trade Center collapsed. Four years later, he was no quicker to get the measure of Katrina - a cruel lack of leadership at a time when this second major shock for 21st century America is adding to the crisis of confidence for the world's leading power and to international disorder. As happened with 9/11, the country is displaying its vulnerability to the eyes of the world.

Musib Na'imi in Iran's Al-Vefagh
About 10,000 US National Guard troops were deployed [in New Orleans] and were granted the authority to fire at and kill whom they wanted, upon the pretext of restoring order. This decision is an indication of the US administration's militarist mentality, which regards killing as the only way to control even its own citizens.

Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po
This disaster is a heavy blow to the United States, and a lesson which deserves deep thought... [It] is a warning to the Bush administration that the United States must clear its head and truly assume its responsibility to protect nature and the environment in which humankind lives.

Ambrose Murunga in Kenya's Daily Nation
My first reaction when television images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans came through the channels was that the producers must be showing the wrong clip. The images, and even the disproportionately high number of visibly impoverished blacks among the refugees, could easily have been a re-enactment of a scene from the pigeonholed African continent.

Rough Science

I love this show!

It's so much fun to watch the scientists tackle challenges like powering a lighthouse on a deserted island with only coconut oil.

Richard Nixon tomato - proof of reincarnation

Since the seventies were my formative years, this Richard Nixon this tomato touches my heart. So many people wanted to throw tomatoes at him in the seventies -- looks like he has come back as one of those tasty nightshades. What could it fetch on ebay?

Clairfountaine notebook homebrew

Follow up to previous post on my favorite notebook.

Inside front of my Clairefountaine notebook customized with sticky pad and envelope.


Inside back of my notebook with larger flap:

Japanese Calligraphy in English

Australian Inkslinger, Merissa Walker does a creative turn on Japanese calligraphy and the result is fresh. Her calligraphy adorns spunky cards and cushions among other products.

Organizing Demons

This list of note-taking tools and techniques entrances me. I keep coming back to it and looking for more. These organize-it demons are trapped inside me and I don't know if I can keep them at bay much longer.

Dan was right

I like these D'Addario Guitar Strings much better than whatever it was that was shipped with my guitar.

Pho Cyclo Cafe - Tasty, fast, fresh

Last night we ate at the Pho Cyclo Cafe new location on Broadway (near Harrison). The folks there were so nice and helpful to us (we don't know a great deal about Vietnamese food). We had the fresh rolls and the #19 and #25 (as usual I can recall numbers much better than names) both were delicious and fresh. Iced Tea was tasty, too. It is definitely worth a repeat visit and we are glad to have a new place we can bring our curtain climber to.

Summer Fun

When the sun is relentlessly beating through the craft room window, it's good to get out of that hot,stuffy craft room and into a fast and furious water fight. And these Hydro stiks are the BEST armaments! You can get them through NSR and other whitewater outfitters.

Puzzler Father's Day Card

I made this card for my husband. He really is "1 in a million". The scan loses the nice colors of the card which looks black, but is actually choclate brown. The greens are much nicer than they appear in this image, too.

Tea for two on Father's Day

 
Our Dads love tea so we purchased them some great teas at the Queen Anne teacup, found some nice tins and created lovely labels for (I regret not taking snaps of those). I found some mailing tubes at the Paper Zone, dropped the tea tins in, wrapped and ran out the door. I like the way they turned out. Festive and remind me of bamboo.

I must plant these next fall

Hair Allium
One of the key features listed by the catalog is "conversation piece"

Alphabets and such

                            
I could spend hours reading through all the alphabets and languages on Omniglot!

When I was a wee one, I used to keep a notebook that I filled with samples of typefaces and calligraphy that I liked. Some girls had scrapbooks of idols, mine were filled with fake chinese lettering and big bubbly seventies writing among other novelties.

I even made up a language that I taught my friend at summer camp. We thought we were so cool, until we kept evolving it to the point where she and I both had very different dialects.

Favorite Notebook

Moleskine notebooks seem to have a cult-like following. I admit I have lusted after them in my heart. I love the look; the size; the elastic; the pockets; and they have some interesting formats like the storyboard. I used to carry something very similar. But I find that I hate writing in a notebook that I can't fold completely open so I tend to like wirebound (or any other binding that allows me to fold it over).

So here's what I've been using for years now. I always get these Clairefontaine notebooks with the grid paper...I really hate writing on anything other than grid. Don't ask why - I have no rational answer. And I always use the 6-3/4 X 8-5/8 for work and the 4-3/4 x6 -3/4 for carrying around with me to jot down ideas,etc.

I always end up hacking them a bit:
- Always create two pockets: one inside the front cover and one inside the back cover. To do this I usually hack up a couple 8-1/2x11 envelopes.
- Glue in a pad of sticky notes
- At one time I tried hacking on a pen holder...that wasn't so effective

The covers are not beautiful, I'll probably try my hand at hacking some sort of cover one of these days.

I have to admit I have recently been tempted by the Rhodia but they are too large.

How interesting that someone would bother to create a notebook and paper with "Sensuous curved edges". Must be some interesting market research behind that one.

More Papercraft fun

Chao Labratory has patterns and instructions for these sweet characters and others projects.

Tea Productivity

I love the 43folders site , especially the all the life productivity tips (AKA life hacks). Closest to my heart are the tea hacks.

Paper Adventurer

Ahhh...I can just feel the wind trying to blow through my big hair. Damn that Aqua-Net is strong!Can you believe this is a paper motorcycle? Yamaha has a pattern and instructions to make this and several other motorcyles.


And what could be more adventurous than a paper safari ?

The Art Wrapper - Christo

For those of us who whine about how modern packaging makes wrapping more difficult, imagine wrapping a building...in this case the Reichstag (in 1995)


Christo is currently working on The Gates installation in Central Park. It's slated for completion on Feb. 12

Finally... ice spikes explained!

Before I got a fridge with an icemaker, these ice spikes were very common in our ice cube trays and very interesting to me. I developed a theory that they were little ice volcanoes. Kenneth G. Libbrecht, chair of the physics dept. at Caltech explains how ice spikes are really created. I wasn't sooo far off.

I found this link on Caterina Fake's blog

One diversion down - finished Blink

I finished "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking". Like most of Malcolm Gladwell's work, it is a fun read. Gladwell really has a gift for simplifying the complex simple and making the science both personal and general at the same time.

I've always felt pretty cognizant of using what Gladwell terms "rapid cognition" (aka intuition, snap judgments) as a starting point, so this book didn't seem groundbreaking as much as reinforcing. I was an easy sell for this book. However, I work in an environment where it seems the appetite for data can never be satiated...I'll be looking to see what those folks think about this book.

As much as I like to work with hunches as a starting point, I also need to see supporting data and research. So, I was happy that this book featured more supporting evidence than "The Tipping Point". It still feels a little anecdotal to me. I would like to see more research and data, but that would probably undercut the readability for the mass audience that this book was clearly written for.

It's been a few years since I read"The Tipping Point", so I can't recall the precise points in the book which annoyed me. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, but there were areas where the supporting/scientific evidence was very thin. That left me unconvinced of certain points. My copy is out on loan.When I'm done I'll have to re-read it and pinpoint the issues.

Malcolm Gladwell was speaking at work today, unfortunately the auditorium was overflowing out the door and into the hallways. It was impossible to see or hear him, so I bailed. Listened to him on KUOW's show Weekday. If I could have seen him in person I would have liked to ask about how he decides how much data to put in the book and what kinds of data he left out.

Diversions, diversions, diversions

I have the attention span of a tick in a goatherd these days. Here are some of the random things fighting for my brain cells.

Some good lines that I need to write songs for: Yesterday's was "The warmest thing about you is your television." I suppose television is too old school...it would need to be updated to home theater.


These Masters of Origami mystify me. Check out their Gallery


Admiring these Happy Owl nightlights

Wishing Seattle had a crafter collective.

Wondering why my home ec classes (now called family & consumer science) never taught me that modern ketchup was borne of the great ketchup debate of the early 1900's.

And reading "Blink" even though I wasn't a complete fan of "The Tipping Point"