Amazing Victoria at sfgirlbybay has been organizing this awesome blogger mashup called “Blog it Forward” with 300 blogs from all over the world (!) and it is starting this Wednesday, February 10th… and I am proud to be the one of the starters!!!

Basically, we each post about “what inspires you personally” and passing it to the next blog everyday (except weekends) from Wednesday on. (See the full list of the blogs and the schedule here) As Victoria is hoping, “the spirit of this is to share some new and maybe not as well-known blogs, so i hope everyone finds some new inspiration!” I also hope that the spirit will carry through and that everyone finds inspiration everyday :)

Stay tuned on what inspires ME this Wednesday…! Thank you, Victoria!!

((The lovely art work is done by ez of creature comforts))

Posted under Inspiration

These mini planters by Yummy & Company have been on my etsy favorites for a while and just saw that they have red ones now for Valentine’s Day :) They make me so happy, look how tiny and cute it looks! (I’m sure it really is tiny)

I still like the black one…

and this…

I never really get the winter blues that everyone seems to get during the winter, but if your loved ones are having one, this might be the perfect little Valentine’s day gift… :)

Hope these would inspire your day :)

Posted under Inspiration, art

One… well, two of the many Japanese snacks I brought home from my trip are these Caramel Corn from Tohato. I want to eat them, but the packaging is so cute that I haven’t been able to open them… so I took pictures :) Aren’t they so adorable?! Caramel Corn has been around for as long as I can remember, but their whole new packaging is making the product even more irresistible!

This guy got a little squashed in the airplane…

and yes, the picture inside of the cute characters’ mouth is the actual product. I haven’t had that for ages!

When you go to their website, you can see more cute packages!! I want to collect them all… :)

Posted under Japanese, design

Last year, I printed the LWYL special edition in black with red heart… and this year 2010, I printed the special edition in… one of my favorite color combinations, gray with hot pink heart! I really had fun printing as the heart always makes me happy :)

Type setting without letter “O” — yup, there would be a heart there…

Adjusting the placement.. I love the accidental typographic art. So great.

When everything is set, just print away…

Next, set the curved linoleum heart in the place in between where the letter L and V were placed.

Hand mixed hot pink on the press…

a pink heart :)

Even though you thought you placed in the right place, you always have to adjust around until you have it right.

and there it is!

Live What You Love Special Edition 2010:

I hope you enjoy the process and the new print!

p.s I printed more orange, too… It had been out of stock for a while… but it’s back :)

Posted under letterpress, studio news

My posts from my Japan trip hops around a little… but when I stayed in Tokyo, we took a walk in Ueno Park and found lots of interesting things… and here is one of them — a full size statue of a blue whale diving! The statue is 30 meters long (approx. 33 yards long). It was stunning and awesome, I loved it.

Right next to this great whale statue is  the Tokyo National Museum of Nature and Science. It was closed for the holidays (note: lots of things close during the last week of December and the first week of January in Japan — we couldn’t go to many places because of the new year holidays in Japan, actually…), but would have been great to go in and see… next time!

Posted under Japanese, art

I felt so lucky to be able to stop by Kyoto again last month (it is one of my favorite cities in the world) but not only that, I happened to pass by these awesome Ikebana competition that was held inside of and in front of Kyoto station (this stations is gorrrrrgeous!) — I was blown away!

These are BIG, too, and it was beautiful with spot lights in the dark.

It really is an art, right?! Each piece is just so amazing and really original. There were more, I wish I could have taken pictures of all… but I hope you see the greatness and that you enjoy these :)

Tuesday morning inspiration! Have a great day — I will be printing all afternoon!

Posted under Inspiration, Japanese, art

Happy February! February is my favorite month, love is in the air (not just Valentine’s Day, but we have our marriage anniversary — a leather year!) and I am saying hello to my new year (age) later this month, so exciting!

To start the month, I wanted to share these beautiful little white hearts by All Things White — love the vintage buttons and its details. I would love to hang it on my door or on a wall… so very lovely!

Hope these will make your Monday a happy one! :)

Posted under Inspiration, wish list

This morning, I am very inspired by viaLetter… you can buy letters and create words to send / display around your home!

You can “type it and buy it” (love the interactive site! you should try just to see — it’s very cool.) Just type your message and order from there…

And I have “Happy Friday” letters!

You can also generate a word from their theme… and you can select from 3 different typefaces, too…

What a special and fun way to send your message :)

In Situ images are also very cool:

What would you send / order?! :)

Have a great weekend, everyone! I am going to check out MoMA later today, so excited!

Posted under typography

I saw this room image over at simplygrove’s flickr photostream and I had to ask where this print/poster is from… she says “Ikea“!

and sure enough, I found it at Ikea website:

I think I will get one! Thank you, Kirsten!

*another great Ikea poster I saw over at To Be Inspired here… time to make a trip, I guess!

Posted under NYC, design

Much Love by Ashley G. Inspired by a vintage heart doily… it is so calling me, I must answer…

Perfect for the black and white area for our house… It can go with these pillows, too…

Here is a red one. Few more colors are available and they all look so cute, I want to have them all if I could… :)

Posted under art