Legumes of the Week #14

Mary Dixon Palmer, 1920, from Shorpy

• Antique patterns for all kinds of needlework, from sewing to tatting to knitting. Via WhipUp.net.

• Unclutterer shares three easy ways to straighten up your house (and computer) on weekends.

• Elsa Mora's adorable Kokeshi-inspired doll.

• Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing interviews Carolyn of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic on biases against plus-size sewers.

• My Favorite Color is Shiny comes up with a very sweet (and thrifty!) DIY Valentine's Day gift idea.

• The Happiness Projects shares 19 tips for cheering yourself up from 200 years ago.

• Fashionist, a San Francisco street style blog, showcases James and his amazing outfit for those in-between days when the weather can't decide whether it's spring or still winter.

Legumes of the Week #13

I didn't do a Legumes of the Week last week, so this list will be a bit longer (and some of the links are to blog posts that are older than a week):

• First off, how riveting is this illustration from an 1896 book called “Safe Counsel: Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners”? I found it via a Web site called From Old Books, which is exactly what it sounds like. Lots and lots of transfixing graphics, borders and fancy lettering from out-of-copyright books. Hours of intriguing searching!

• Kev shares photography tips on Jen Loves Kev.

• Moodboard is inspired by black lace and rustic wood -- an awesome combination I never thought of before.

• Hello Sandwich on Japan 7-Eleven's new healthy bento plan. I love this! I hope the concept comes over here to Taiwan because our 7-Elevens have bentos that are basically sodium molecules bonded together by rice and meat.

• For psychology and mental health geeks -- Wise Bread reviews "Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness" by Ariel Gore. The book examines how the construct of happiness (and what makes a happy life), the self-help book market and the pharmacetical industry all impact American women.

• I'm glad I'm not the only person who was obsessed with Rosemary's tanis root pendant in "Rosemary's Baby"! Stay Fancy Free was also fascinated.

• Junk Jewelry on Madeline Albright's pins.

• Daily Blog Tips on how to make a to-do list that will actually increase your productivity.

• The fabulous Meggy Wang of Fashion for Writers on her incredible, eye-popping, inspiring weekly planner hacking.

• Last, but certainly not least, Bonjour, It's Jinah rounds up different ways you can help Haiti's earthquake victims.

Legumes of the Week #12

Illustration by Cat Maske

Image is used with permission. © CJM 2010 All Rights Reserved http://www.agreencat.com/copyrights

• A coterie of very talented female animators and artists draw girls -- pin-up girls, space girls, kawaii girls, eerie girls, crazy girls, all awesome girls -- on Girls Drawing Girls. The above illustration is by my wonderful friend Cat Maske.

• For all you chronic vacillators out there -- a fascinating interview with the author of "How We Decide" on neuroscience blog The Frontal Cortex.

• Hello Sandwich always finds the best blogs! Here she introduces us to Tokyo Connection, which has the most gorgeous photography of everyday sights in the city that is currently on top of my "must visit" list.

• Dear Golden Vintage shares a creepy/cool/pretty/thought-provoking photography series by Ofer Wolberg.

• We're gonna decorate like it's Nineteen-Sixty-Three, thanks to Millie Motts!

• Victorian infographics on BibliOdyssey (via Nubby Twiglet).

• And one for those of you who are already falling behind on your New Years Resolutions (like, erm, me) -- Unclutterer explains how to increase your energy with just a tiny bit of planning ahead.

Have a wonderful weekend! Ron and I are hoping to finally see "Avatar" in 3-D. It's been a busy few weeks, but we won't let this weekend pass without going!

Legumes of the Week #11

Chester the Retrobot

The first Legumes of the Week of 2010 covers everything from vintage Nintendo game characters to knitting patterns. Happy reading!

• An amazing food blog from Japan called it will stop raining* (via Hello Sandwich)

• Plastic and Plush features hand-stitched 8-bit Nintendo character cameos!

• The Happiness Project challenges you to make one small resolution and stick to it.

• It is Nancy's new blog makes pairs Nancy's outfit photos with her beautiful, dreamy fashion illustrations.

• Daydream Lily makes art from dollar store doilies.

• Milk Tooth shares atmospheric stills from The Secret of Roan Inish. I really want to watch that movie now!

• Track the changes in the style and typography of "The End" titles in Warner Bros. films from 1925 to 1967 (via Mark Simonson Studio)

• In addition to an awesome blog, Second Skin also has the most amazing and touching New Year's resolution ever -- 52 (or more) letters to people she feels like she failed in some way.

Yarn pirates take note! There are some awesome new patterns out there...

• Herringbone Opera Gloves from The hour we knew nothing of each other

• Beautiful mitts and a shawl that combines jaunty stripes with romantic lace from Through the Loops

• Mesh crochet necklace from a common thread. This one is very versatile -- I can see it complementing different styles when made in different yarns.

Legumes of the Week #10

Yongkang St. (永康街) playground

• Vain and Vapid's favorite holiday tutorial round-up for everyone who is itching to run with scissors (to their craft table, that is).

• B. Vikki Vintage shares photos of African-American weddings from 1959.

• Brook and Lyn introduces her readers to house plants by I'm Revolting.

• Jenny at Fashion for Writers on being exotified.

• Live near San Jose, California and have a sewing machine you need to unload? Consider donating it to a senior center.

• Art and Ghosts gives us a magical peek into her winter mornings.

Legumes of the Week #9

Mopeds and goldfish near Shida Rd.

• The Cat's Pajamas shares a cool set of found drawings she discovered via Flickr.

• Lisa's Likes is inspired by the costumes and styling in "An Education."

• The Art of Jordon on how to create a brand.

• Dear Golden's home office is located on her sun porch and is AMAZING.

• Threadbared's very intelligent three-part analysis of style blogging (via Fashion for Writers)

Legumes of the Week #9

Wall decal above our bed

• I've forgotten if I shared this link already, but it's worth posting again: back in August, love forever shared how she displayed her amazing collection of paint-by-number paintings.

• forestbound visits the sweetest pop-up store (I love that phrase, by the way).

• Thumbelina's beautiful collages and writing. She also loves Jan Svankmajer's Alice, which makes me love her, because I LOVE Svankmajer!

• Tips on how to use false eyelashes from The Freelancer's Fashionblog. I had a pair on for Halloween (along with glitter liquid eyeliner) and I thought they were actually a lot of fun to wear! I should just wear them around the house.

• Holga Blog has some really great tips on how to improve your photography without a camera and scans from a 1952 Kodak picture-taking guide. I can't wait to apply these 57 year old tips to my own photography!

Legumes of the Week #8

My parents' garden in northern California

• Facehunter came to Taipei! He also had a party here last week, which I totally missed. His photos gave a good idea of how awesome Taipei street style can be.

• The Valentine Journal takes a look at Invisible People, amazing sculptures by artist Jin Young Yu.

• Aileen Zakka's beautiful Polaroid photos taken on film that was accidentally (pre-) exposed. One of the things I love about toy camera and instant photography is that the mistakes are often gorgeous and serendipitous.

• Refinery 29 asks "Hot New Hair Trend: Ombre Color, Rad Or Bad?" I personally think it's amazing! I love ombre anything. Heck, I'd dip-dye my body if I could.

• The Cupcake Diary shares an awesome, retro airline stewardess inspired fashion spread from Elle Italy.

• Bits & Bobbins on lessons learned from the recent death of her sewing machine.

• I'd never heard of pajaki, or Polish paper chandeliers, until I read this post by Lovelorn Unicorn. They are beautiful!

• One of the smartest thought pieces I've read about the character of Betty Draper on "Mad Men"(and January Jones' performance).
  

• Advanced Style spends a day in the lovely apartment of a lovely (and fascinating) woman named Doris.

Legumes of the Week #7

Sunnyvale, California

• The Art of Jordan compiles dreamy photographs of dreamy vintage typewriters.

• Moodboard shares photos of Alice Temperley's colorful, eclectic home.

• A Common Thread shares her pattern for a very pretty ruffled crochet bib necklace.

• Frances Baker spends Sunday at Brick Lane market. The first photo, of a puppet theater in a suitcase, just slays me with its sheer awesomeness.

• College Fashion presents lots of very smart tips on how to take care of vintage clothes and shoes.

• The Coveted posts links to blog postings on ethical and moral issues in fashion, among other topics.

• Academichic on how to select chic shoes that won't throw your back out.

Legumes of the Week #6

Fulong Beach, by me

It's been a while since I've done one of these! Some of these links are a bit older, but still awesome:

• This wonderful Flickr group focuses on beautiful pictures of everyday objects. If you love flipping through Japanese zakka magazines, you'll enjoy the photos here.

• Embroidered poetry at Craftster. I'm a big fan of the pieces that look like handwriting on paper.

• Matilda's Delights whips out a "vintage frightener" of an ad that illustrates why I'm glad I don't live in the 1950s and 1960s even though I love clothing from that era.

• This photo from Shorpy reminds me of my college so much that it makes me miss being an undergraduate. Going to the library was like going to a magical place filled with secret warrens and hidey-holes (which I would sometimes literally hide in. Sleep deprivation makes you do intriguing things).


• Milk Tooth presents an awesome collection of Struwwelpeter graphics. To see this creepy cautionary tale come to life, check out this animated video:

9.12.2009 One Legume of the Week

Photo from Luxirare.com

I've been very bad at posting Legumes of the Week for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be back up to speed soon, but before I am... here is one post so awesome, so amazing, so breathtaking and so mouthwatering that it will completely redefine the way you look at food. Behold, Luxirare's bento box!

For more bento goodness, check out this recent New York Times article and this eye-popping Flickr pool. I love bento boxes but working from home makes any kind of packed lunch kind of redundant for me, so I just enjoy looking at photos of other people's food on the Internet.

8.27.2009 Legumes of the Week

I've had a busy week and I'm still catching up on my RSS reader, so this list will be a short one! It's has some cool DIY instructions and recipes, though.

• The Kodak Aero-Ektar group on Flickr is filled with gorgeous, dreamy photographs.

• Please read about this very inspiring project by Meggy of Fashion for Writers. She's working on a book on how to live well with bipolar disorder. It sounds like it will be eye opening for anyone who suffers from a mood disorder (or is close to someone who does). I'm very happy to see that it's reached its fundraising goal!

• Creature Comforts shows you how to repurpose tin cans into cheerful vases.

• My Favorite Color is Shiny introduces one of her treasures, a vintage sewing swatch book from Paris.

• Are you a raging Anglophile? Like BBC mini-series? Enjoy Jeeves & Wooster? Then you'll love Polly Farthing Vintage's post on Jeeves & Wooster style!

• I think Diary of a Vintage Girl's Good Pin-Up Guide is helpful for anyone who wants to look their best on a special day.

• Fieldguided's very thoughtful post on why she'd rather not shop at Urban Outfitters. I have a few UO pieces in my closet right now that I love, and I think they do a good job of letting young consumers (especially those who are growing up, like I did, in the suburbs) know that there are stylistic and cultural alternatives to stuff like Abercrombie & Fitch. I do agree, however, with Anabela's points. There are also some thoughtful comments posted.

• Pearls In Your Hair teaches you how to make a yummy, luscious-looking vegetable pie.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

8.15.2009 Legumes of the Week

Some cool artists and other discoveries...

• the snail and the cyclops shares her love of filmmaker Jean Painlevé.

• Mini Modern is one of the most amazing dollhouse/miniatures blogs that I have ever seen.

• Here's Looking Like You, Kid's two-part series on Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu.

• Map quilts by Haptic Lab, via Embroidery as Art.

• Noel Vallens at the owls are not what they seem turns into old comforter into a chic bathmat.

• Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing on vintage sewing and gender politics.

I bet a lot of you are as excited about the return of "Mad Men" as I am. I watch it here in Taipei by downloading it off of iTunes... I hope they get the season premiere up ASAP!

8.5.2009 Legumes of the Week

• Couture Allure Vintage Fashion shows us how to enter and leave the room like a lady (and more... much more).

• Button Candy has the most amazing wall of sweet little vintage treasures I've ever seen.

• Mochi Mag on the gorgeous Korean hanbok (on a totally random note, I sometimes wonder why the qipao and not the hanfu had to become traditional Chinese dress for formal occasions. The qipao I wore at my wedding was beautiful, but so uncomfortable!)

• Tarts on how macarons are the new cupcakes (I loved this entry because I've been noticing the same thing myself, even here in Taipei. Macarons everywhere!)

• Moodboard with a short but very cool post about girls and their rooms.

• A beautiful and inspiring star crown at Some Girls Wander.

• The Cupcake Diary's very thoughtful post on the emotional tug of old family photos and films (even if they belong to someone else's family).

• Fleur de Guerre's extremely helpful post on achieving lovely results with a vintage-inspired skin routine at Queens of Vintage. I've been using cold cream and witch hazel for a little bit now and really like them (for one thing, I'm sensitive to scents and the smell of cold cream is nowhere near as noxious as the perfumes most skin cleansers have. Ugh! My nostrils scream for mercy.)

Have a great middle of the week everyone!

7.29.2009 Legumes of the Week

"Legumes of the Week" is a list of links that I'll be posting on Wednesdays to get you through the rest of the week. Since this is my first round, some of these links are more than one week old... I'll try to keep them fresher next time around, but of course all of them are still great!

• The Clouds Addict group on Flickr is full of soothing, dreamy photos and images.

• Frances Collier covers the most amazing exhibit by Chinese artist Song Dong (宋冬) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

• A peek behind the scenes at Academichic!

• Puglyfeet's beautiful and inspiring home office.

• The awesome Cathy of California posts photos from a 1973 Enid Collin wholesale catalog!

• The Cat's Pajamas derives fashion inspiration from vintage Nancy Drew covers.

• Queens of Vintage asks if a diet based on World War II rationing might provide modern day health benefits.

• The Clothes Horse shows not two, not three, not four, but seven ways to remix a summer dress.

• Couture Allure introduces us to beautiful dresses from a vintage Thai design label.

• Sally Jane Vintage introduces us to Mode Magazine, one of the coolest new indie style publications around.

• Art and Ghosts' beautiful, fantastical twist on hair art.

• Make sure to check out the two finalists in Modcloth's Terrific Transformations contest and cast your vote! Trust me, you'll be moved and inspired by the stories of these two strong and amazing women.