I love my cup of coffee every morning. I really do. Sometimes, I wake up just so I can have a fresh cup. It is my big motivation and inspiration everyday :) We actually love this coffee from San Francisco, called Blue Bottle Coffee (we used to live right around the corner from their Hayes Valley kiosk) and we just couldn’t have anything else after drinking that coffee everyday and now that we live in NYC, we actually subscribe their coffee twice a month ever since we moved here. (oh, I actually have blogged about it before! I will keep saying this over and over.) Yes, it is THAT good. And it is so worth waking up for.

Anyway. I’ve been finding some coffee related cool items here and there so I thought I should share my coffee love to you today <3 Enjoy!

Hello Darkness My Old Friend print (via scoutie girl):

Heart Coffee Scoop (found via etsy storque):

Love Coffee Mug:

Strong Coffee Poster:

hmmm these things are inspiring me to print something new… with coffee love in mind :) Something to think about… (sip sip)

Posted under Inspiration

I should have grabbed this book called The Handy Book of Artistic Printing when I was at Barnes and Noble last week… it looked awesome! and I can’t stop thinking about it since… I mean, look at the cover and the subtitle — “a collection of letterpress examples with specimens of type, ornament, corner fills, borders, twisters, wrinklers, and other freaks of fancy.” — aww sounds super! (and I looked inside a little and I just couldn’t look at it all because it was too good to just flip through!)

I am ordering one after posting this picture of the book I took when I realized that I didn’t have the B&N gift card with me and thought I could find it online so I didn’t have to carry it around… can’t wait to get this!!!

Posted under Inspiration, letterpress, typography

Wishing you a very Happy Valentine’s day!

As you know, I could never get enough “hearts” and when I realized, my flickr favorites and etsy favorites were filled with hearts! So I decided to share some here for a celebration of… love! Enjoy :)

Heart Factory:

via dottie angel:

Tiny Sterling Silver Heart Ring:

via dayataglance:

via mrs. french:

Heart balloon planter (my friend yuki also sent me this shortly after I hearted this on etsy):

via kygp:

via sa_su:

Vintage sweet Valentine Card:

via tinytoadstool from dadaya:

via simple + pretty:

Happy Happy weekend! <3<3<3

I will be back on Tuesday! (Monday is a President’s Day holiday here in US and we are celebrating our pre-wedding-anniversary! *we got married on the President’s Day, but the actual date is the 19th… and the actual celebration will be on the 19th so it is “pre” anniversary… yes, it’s complicated :))

Posted under Inspiration

Here we are… the 1st blogger mash-up “Blog it Forward“!

So the theme is “what inspires you personally?” — I didn’t realize how hard it is to talk about that because LOTS of things inspire me daily (well, this is why I keep my blog — so please come visit for my daily inspirations :)) — my family, my husband, my friends definitely inspire me, that is without question. They really do and I am very thankful for them. (I love you!!!)

but if it was specific to what inspires me to do what I do professionally = my life and passion for graphic/web design + letterpress design/print, I would say “typography.”

I love looking at it, finding it, having it around… and using it :) They all have different “faces” and they all have different “voices” and I love listening to them and let them sing, whisper, yell…. talk.

I love taking photos of typography I find on the street, too, (Please see my found type posts!) it just never stops…

When it has dimension… I go “ohhhhh”

((via junkculture))

More original it is the better…

((via anja mulder))

More unexpected it is the better…

((via OpheliaChong))

When it’s physical, makes me wanna play around with them…

((via anja mulder))

((via vial3tt3r))

When the (letter) shapes create another shapes… I go “ahhhhhh”

((via jacqui sharples))

((via me, Hijiri — work in progress… more about it soon!))

If I see a door like this, I would visit everyday. (just to see the door!)

((via KayVee.INC))

When it is made out of something else, I would stare at it and admire for a long time.

((via idiotcopenhagen))

When one design consists many types and looks so amazing, I am simply WOWed.

((via wasianed))

When the letters create heart-shape… my heart skips.

((via Stewf))

When it is letterpressed… I go swoooooooooooon.

((via me, Hijiri))

and for all, participants and readers: “You’ve got the spirit”!

((via uppercaseyyc))

The list goes on and on………. but you get the idea :)

I can’t tell you how much I’m honored to be one of the 10 starters… (please also see what other starters are posting today — creature comforts, design for mankind, hula seventy, ink on my fingers, oh, hello friend, paper pony, poppytalk, sfgirlbybay, and smile and wave) Thank you again so much for hosting this “Blog it Forward” with great positive spirit, Victoria, and cheers to all the participants and you guys, readers!!!

And I am forwarding this to… Marisa at creative thursday! I’ve been a big fan of her work, we did the LOVE book together last year and our work was on a spread together side by side (see picture) — what a coincidence!

Hello, Marisa, looking forward to your post tomorrow…

Posted under Inspiration, typography

As I posted here and here before, I keep getting drawn to the beautiful patterns of the Japanese Tenugui… and last trip was no exception. I found lots of great patterns (and bought a few!), I couldn’t take pictures of all of them, but one store I went in in Yokohama, they had tons so I snapped pictures to take home since I couldn’t buy them all… (I will if I could! :))

Enjoy!

Posted under Inspiration, design

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

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

I loved everything about these Japanese sweets, plates, forks, placemats… I had to take pictures for my inspiration and hopefully your inspiration, too :) Love the patterns, colors… like I said, everything.

Aren’t they lovely?

(Tastes lovely, too. Thank you, Mom!)

Posted under Inspiration, Japanese