Link Dinks for Friday.

OOOOoh friends, THANK GAWD IT'S FRIDAY!! Even if it's Friday the 13th. Here are some things that were catching my eye this week:

The adorable Sally Jane Vintage posted this image the other day and I was instantly mitten. It captures everything I love about autumn perfectly! Her blog always has the most inspirational vintage.


Giddy Giddy
I recently met a totally groovy couple who are parents at Wolfie’s school. They’re the kind of folks that make you think, “Heck I would want to be their friend even if I didn’t have kids!”


Besides being super nice, Teri and Kenny are totally creative and run their own business, Giddy Giddy. Teri is really talented and she creates the sweetest felt hair clips, bags, and awesome hanger dealies to store your hair clips on (sooooo cute! check out the sillhouette one on their website. LOVE it!) and more. I’m telling you even if you don’t have a child you will want one some of this stuff. Check them out HERE. Teri also has a fun blog over here.





Pretty Dress
Lord help me how I wish I were a size XS. Not because I want to be a skinny minnie, but because then I could bid on this FABULOUS vintage dress! How space-age and dreamy is this sucka??

Smelly Markers Rule!

I was at Staples the other day and spied these Mr. Sketch markers. OH MY LORDY how it took me back. They still smell as awesome as they did when I was in kindergarten. I had so much fun sharing them Wolfie. The brown is cinnamon but I remember it as being root beer flavored and it still smells like root beer to me. Wolfie and I both had little dots of marker on our noses from sniffing while we drew! Get your own set HERE.


The First Decade in 7 Minutes
Newsweek has produced a video that recaps the last decade in seven minutes. It’s part of their series 20/10: The Decade In Rewind which takes a look at the biggest moments in the first ten years of the 21st Century. Pretty fascinating stuff. It's amazing to think of how many things have happened it 10 short years. WATCH HERE.

Dats all for now folks. Have an amazing weekend!

xoxo,

alex

Let them eat cake!

Mmmm. Cake. You know, back in the day people really made an effort with their cakes. I kind of miss that. Nowadays people either create insane Martha style fancy cakes OR buy store cakes (with that gross, sickly sweet frosting....shudder). I will say I'm a fan of a cute and simple old timey two layer cake. My specialties are chocolate frosting/yellow cake with M&Ms all over the top (cute, easy, tasty and festive!) and then a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting (which is sooooo freaklin' scrumpdillyicious I can't stand it). We were just at a birthday party recently and the mom wheeled out what looked like a grossly sweet POWDER BLUE SPIDERMAN cake. Well shut my mouth, because it was sooooo amazingly delicious. The dad is a chef, so i should have known the cake would be good. It was like a chocolate truffle cake with buttercream frosting that they just dyed blue. Like SO GOOD, I wanted to stand on a chair and say "Children! You don't know how good this cake is!!!!" But for all my yackin', I'm never that adventurous myself. Cupcakes are all the rage with the kindergarten set so we tend to always make those (and I do love cupcakes). I still miss those proper homemade 'fun" cakes of the 70s though. I mean take a look at these babies....yowza! (pardon the well loved butter and flour stains on the little pages)

I love the butterfly, lion and giraffe. The little girl and teddy bear are a TAD creepy, no? "Slab of pink "leg" anyone??" Hewwww!!!

Style Files: Fur the Love of Fashion

Faux fur mania has hit the Lemonade Stand! So with a crazy schedule like mine I rarely have the luxury of going into a store and leisurely trying on clothes. My new M.O. is to ball park the things I like (for size and fit) and then take them home to try on. Most stores have great return policies these days, so I can then return the things that don't fit or look right. My latest conquest was a little furry jacket. If I were tall and leggy I would rock it with jeans and platform shoes, but being a shorty I went for the dress-n-colored tights look. But which color?? (is there an echo in here? Seems like I JUST asked you guys this same question a few weeks ago!) The white seems fluffy and purty but the black seems a little bad ass. Whacha guys think? Also, would it surprise you if I told you this lovely is available for $29 at Target? Oh yes. They have a more Rachel Zoe-ish vest as well, but that made me look like a Flintstone's reject. This cropped one has a little cap sleeve that is pretty darlin'. Which you like?

They're both kind of ridiculous, I know. But oh so cozy and fun!

I couldn't find this on their website, but I have still seen them in stores.

I thought this furry coat was cute as well as this retro cape with faux fur collar!

Shake it like a....

Minneapolis designer Sean Tubridy loves Polaroids. In fact he even founded the uber cool Save Polaroid group, which is single-handedly helping to bring back this beloved art form. And as much as he loves Polaroids, I love his crazy cool photos of vintage toys. Featured in the book Toys on Roids, it's like the Reeses cup of photography—two great things that go great together. Take look:










If you don't have your own Polaroid camera, recreate the magic with Poladroid, an awesome free app that lets you turn digital photos into Polaroids.

One other little thing. You may notice the pink R2 droid in that last photo. There is a super sweet story about how it came to be.

Melbourne artist Madeleine Stamer is the bomb.

I so love these drawings by Australian artist Madeleine Stamer. When I first saw her work I was drawn to the bold and playful simplicity of each piece. They totally reminded me of a mix between Mexican paper cutouts and Chagall (fancy!).

An interview I read confirmed these influences:

There are so many influences which fall into many categories. Nature, natural history, mythology, graffiti, Aboriginal art, European folk art, vintage toys and the decorative arts all play a big role. I love a bit of kitsch too, I guess the most significant artistic influences for my colour and line choice would be Picasso and Chagall. Culturally I am a sucker for folk art, particularly Mexican ceramics and traditional Mexican decoration and religious iconography. The Mexican culture has an instinctive way of including vibrant colour and mixing surreal elements in everyday life, it is a sensory delight!

Excerpt from interview in Indie Art & Design

Aren't they great?

To see more of Madeleine's work, or to purchase a giclee print for your very own, visit Little Circus Design. She also has a cute little blog here.