Boxing Day cookies

My friend Lauren threw a cookie decorating party on Boxing Day. It was awesome! I ate my year's allowance of sugar. Mmm... sugarrrrhhh...

Disco Santa's Christmas Carnage

A very special Christmas story, starring Warner, Nellie, Templeton and Disco Santa...

"Oooooh man... I am so hungry... hey wait, it's Christmas already?"

"Hello little fat man in a silver jumpsuit!"

"What! How dare you objectify me! I'm going to destroy you with my petroleum-based product fuel!"

"Oh mah gawwwww... the stench is unbearable! Help me, help me... I can't breathe..."

"Muhahahahaaha!"

"Gasp... bleagh... ugh..."

"Warner! What the hell? Are you on the drugs again?"

"Wait... what's that awful, awful smell?"

THUMP.

"Oh my goodness gracious me! The carnage!"

"Disco Santa, I told you to stop eating so much fiber! Your farts are toxic! Toxic!"

THUD.

Ho ho ho!

Merry Christmas from Disco Santa! (No dolls were harmed in the making of this post).

I Heart La Petite Mu Mu

Photo from the first roll taken with my Rolleicord Vb. For more pictures, check out my other blog.

I discovered La Petite Mu Mu at last July's Taipei Toy Festival and just had to take her home with me. She's one of the most gorgeous toys I've ever seen! I love those colorful raindrops on her blue coat.

Mu Mu is by Hong Kong artist Fion Ko and according to her bio, she's a four-year-old girl who "lives in a featherlike dream." When she isn't hanging out by the window or standing guard in front of my quilt fabric, Mu Mu keeps my husband company on his desk and hides from our crazy cat.

I have a lovely collection of toys I want to photograph. Many of them are from Hong Kong's Crazy Label. Are there any toy collectors reading this blog? What kind of toys do you collect? What do you do with them (photography, display, flipping the lights on really quickly so you can catch them while they are still up and about and before they turn back into toys, etc.)?

Anyone still around?

As you can tell, I've been off the radar for most of June. I've had to spend time taking care of some health issues. Hopefully I'll be back to my old self soon... and finding delight in each little thing I see, instead of letting everything past by me in a blur. I hope I still have readers and I apologize for neglecting your blogs!

First off, I want to start focusing on my photography again. When I was still in the States, my Blythes were my muses. I feel like I've been neglecting them lately in favor of Taroko George, our cat.

One of my goals this summer is to combine my love of photography (especially film photography) with my prized family of Blythe dolls and all the surprised-filled lanes, alleys and nooks that I love about Taipei City. The weather has been gloomy -- hot, gray, wet, oppressive -- but the weather report says that things will shape up by the middle of this week. Yeee!

Back in NYC, it was simply too expensive to invest in equipment beyond my secondhand digital semi-SLR and a few vintage Polaroid cameras. I wanted to try 120 film and cross-processing, but made do with what I had -- and what I had at that point where Polaroid 600 and Spectra film you could buy at Walgreens. Looking back, I can't believe how LUCKY I was back then. Sure, I wanted to try 120 film and was hard to find plus expensive to process... but I had all that Polaroid film right around the corner from my apartment! It really made exploring Long Island City fun.

Now that I can better afford my photography hobby, I hope to capture images that express all the different feelings and reactions I have while living in Taiwan. These tires were snapped in Long Island City, Queens, near the waterfront. It was just a pile of abandoned tires, against a wall of fading graffiti, but I thought it was such a beautiful thing to pass by on a sunny day.

Photography helps me find new ways of looking at my ordinary life. When I'm out with my camera and can't find anything good to snap, I ask myself what I'm missing. There are so many things I take for granted. Oddly enough, realizing this makes me feel free and easier. There is so much wonder in the word. I just need to let it in.

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucius

Bean to... Singapore

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Singapore, including snaps from the indie boutiques on Haji Lane, the National Museum of Singapore and Little India. I took all of these with my Digital Harinezumi. I love this camera -- its snaps have a faded, nostalgic, somewhat surreal quality.

In My Pod: Shelves in my home office

Left to right: Japanese photography magazines, Dover reproductions of vintage Sears catalogs, Taiwanese photography books and "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger


A cyanotype print I made from an old photo of my family

Candy doesn't count as empty calories if it comes in cute tins.


Reproductions of toys once popular in Taiwan and a card deck with vintage cartoon illustrations

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.

Say hey to Booday

If you've been following The Renegade Bean for a little bit, then you'll know that Booday (蘑菇) is one of my favorite brands in Taiwan. The Booday team started as a graphic design firm with a small magazine they launched as a creative outlet; today, they are a lifestyle brand with a line of t-shirts (now made exclusively in organic cotton), canvas bags and home accessories. Booday's Taipei store also has a cafe on its second floor, where they host art exhibits, talks, music performances, readings and classes. I recently took a cyanotype class there, which I'll write more about later. For more about Booday and their address, check out the article I wrote about them a couple months ago.

Here is a sampling of Booday's items from their online store.

My current favorites include:

A t-shirt with drawings of paper airplanes made from international mail envelopes (this resonates with me because I'm an expat and though I love living in Taiwan, sometimes I wish visiting home were as easy as folding a paper airplane!).


A pencil bag shaped like an eggplant.


This neat noggin bag.

I know they ship internationally to some Asian countries. Here is a list of stores that carry their items; if something catches your fancy and you can't read Chinese, try shooting them a note. Several staff members are fluent in English. If you can read Chinese, check out their adorable blog.

Have you have a nice Booday!