Mikkele.bringard

As part of a promotional campaign for Wonderlijk Wild (Miraculously Wild), an effort to encourage home gardening in Belgium, filmmaking duo Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels of Marc & Emma were hired to create this wonderful short about a felted green ape exploring the outdoors. You might remember their work from this other woolen animation featuring two doughy wrestlers for the National Animation Festival last year. (via Vimeo)

Update: An earlier version of this post referred to the film as “stop-motion” when in fact it’s actually live-action puppeteering.

Pizza in the wild by Los Angeles based photographer Jonpaul Douglass. Made me smile.

I’m thrilled to officially introduce Lexi Mainland, the newest member of the Cup of Jo team. She started four weeks ago and has already been behind many cool things (hair parts, favorite podcasts, drinks on a plane). As managing editor, Lexi will be working with us on editorial posts, new series, social media and brand partnerships.

Her Backstory

Lexi comes to A Cup of Jo after more than eight years of editing, storytelling and digital strategy at The New York Times. She also won an Emmy (!) for the One in Eight Million series. She is a committed news junkie, but she says her truest passions are design, food, culture and online communities like this. Lexi lives in Manhattan (but is moving to Brooklyn in a month) with her husband, toddler son and King Charles spaniel.

Lightning Round Q. & A. With Lexi

Favorite book:
I love Joan Didion. She’s one of a few authors I’ve read almost in total and I just started the book Play It As It Lays this week. Slouching Towards Bethlehem is probably my favorite of all because it’s so transporting. You feel like you time-traveled to the grooviest parts of L.A. in the 1960s and 70s.

Favorite movie:
Terms of Endearment. Makes me cry every time, and Shirley MacLaine is everything.

TV show you always watch:
Broad City. When I’ve finally watched every episode I’ll start over again.

Daily breakfast:
Homemade smoothies are a new breakfast ritual. If anyone has great ideas for what to throw in my blender that a toddler might also enjoy, please tell me.

Random pet peeve:
Those shaggy cut-out rugs that some people put around the bottom of the toilet. Why?

Most memorable vacation:
My now-husband and I spent a summer together when I was 22 doing nothing in Italy. We were unemployed and fairly penniless, but we shared a Vespa and went all over the place. It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime couple of months.

Dream vacation:
My friend Miki takes shoestring trips every year to the most amazing places you can ever imagine — remote swimming holes, sunlit caves, beaches filled with wild horses. If you don’t already, follow her on Instagram. I hope to tag along with her soon!

Irrational fear:
Because it once happened to a friend in an awful way, I am constantly afraid of emailing a huge group without meaning to. I always write emails now with nobody in the address line and only add addresses when I’m ready to send. Then I irrationally check 1,000 times. Then I check again after I send (which, I know, wouldn’t help.)

A fun fact about your dog:
Our dog Bowie has incredible emotional intuition. If you’re sad or not feeling well, he’s the first living being in our household to come over and rest his head and front paws on you.

Activities you enjoy doing with your son Jasper:
He’s so fun at 15 months. I love every minute, but I especially like to take him in the elevator to visit the super in our apartment building. It’s a big event and involves lots of blowing of kisses to a somewhat surly dude until he cracks a smile.

The #1 thing on your spring wish list:
A new pair of Pons Avarcas sandals, because I can’t imagine warm weather without them.

Something about you that might surprise people:
I’m one of the best parallel parkers in all of New York. If you don’t believe me, ask me to tell you my trick.

We’re so excited to have Lexi and know you’ll love her as much as we do. Here are a few more pics…

Fixing our hair. (Busted!)

Bowie the dog.

Lexi reporting for The Times in a Manhattan courtroom, but trying (in vain!) to stay out of the photographers’ lens.

Lexi and her toddler son Jasper.

(Top portraits by Nicki Sebastian for Cup of Jo. New York Times courtroom photo by Todd Heisler)

The post Welcome, Lexi! appeared first on A Cup of Jo.

Photographer and food enthusiast Brittany Wright sets up intricate culinary still lifes that focus primarily on the differentiation of fruits’ and vegetables’ coloration. Wright captures a rainbow of colors in foods ranging from heaps of apples to carrots plucked freshly from the earth. Each photograph focuses on the produce against a stark white background, a way to display the food’s vibrant shades without distraction.

The Seattle-based photographer is fascinated by capturing the aging process of vegetable and fruits, displaying the variety of forms each piece takes during ripening and decay. Wright even includes fruit harvested from her own backyard, photographing raspberries both plump and shriveled.

Wright’s client list is diverse, including brands Dry Soda and Samsung as well as (appropriately) several farms. You can see more colorful gradients and food-based imagery on Wright’s Instagram. (via Junk Culture)

Exciting news (for us, at least): We’re signing off early this week because we are launching a blog redesign on Monday. We are moving 4,500 posts over to the new design and will spend the next few days working out all the kinks. I’m excited to show you and really hope you like it! Meanwhile, here are a few fun posts from around the web…

The best news I’ve heard since 1998.

The Black Mass movie trailer looks great and terrifying.

10 tricks to appear smarter in meetings, haha.

Loved Jeni’s career advice. What an inspiring woman.

The back of this dress is so sexy.

I’m reading this book and loving it.

How to spot income inequality from space.

Eeks! Don’t look down!

How to get a beach body.

This Mother’s Day commercial made me tear up.

A twist on a PB&J.

What it’s really like to style a photo.

Bringing art to the streets.

Made me laugh.

And, finally, most important: how to donate to Nepal.

(Photo by Unruly Things)

The post Have a Lovely Weekend. appeared first on A Cup of Jo.

“I achieved my first goal, which was playing pro soccer. I played for three years in France. Now I’m achieving my second goal, which is to coach kids. My first coaching job was at an elementary school that never had a soccer team before. We lost our first game 2 – 1. But the kids were so excited when we scored our goal that they ran off the field. I had to chase them down and tell them that the game wasn’t over. Then on the bus ride home, everyone was so excited they could barely sit in their seats. When we got back to school, the kids were so happy getting off the bus that their parents thought we’d won the game. That moment was everything to me.”

“I think people perceive me as being much bolder than I actually am. I have a lot of trouble with confidence. I’ve dyed my hair since kindergarten. My mother colored my hair as an experiment before trying it on herself, and I liked it so much that I kept doing it, even though she told me not to. Eventually the colors grew wackier and wackier. Then I started wearing off-the-shoulder shirts, and miniskirts, and lots of prints. I was always the different kid. In middle school, I had so much trouble making friends that I tried to dress normally for a while. But that didn’t work either.”

Have you seen Matilda Kahl's article about wearing the same thing to work every day? The piece has been shared 86,400 times, likely because we all face this daily. At my old job, I used to wobble into meetings in uncomfortable heels and worry if my skirts were too short when I was sitting down. And not just with work — we have a wedding this weekend, and I'm already stressed about what to wear, while of course Alex will wear his standard gray suit. Here, Kahl explains why a work uniform has changed her life:

About three years ago, I had one of those typical Monday mornings that many women have experienced. With a fairly important meeting on the horizon, I started to try on different outfits, lacking any real direction or plan. As an art director at one of the leading creative advertising agencies in New York, I'm given complete freedom over what I wear to the office, but that still left me questioning each piece that I added or subtracted from my outfit. "Is this too formal? Is that too out there? Is this dress too short?" I finally chose something I regretted as soon as I hit the subway platform.

As I arrived at work, my stress level only increased as I saw my male creative partner and other male co-workers having a "brodown" with the new boss as they entered the meeting room — a room I was supposed to already be inside. I just stood there — paralyzed by the fact that I was not only late, but unprepared... This was not the first morning I'd felt this unnecessary panic, but that day I decided it would be the last.

So Kahl came up with a work uniform — a silk shirt and black pants she wore every day from then on. Although colleagues questioned her choice, teased her and even worried about her well-being, she points out, "A work uniform is not an original idea. There's a group of people that have embraced this way of dressing for years — they call it a suit."

And it's true. Men not only have the easy option of suits, they can also get more specific without anyone caring. As discussed in the new Men's Style section in the New York Times, powerful men often have a signature ensemble: Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg wears a gray T-shirt and blue jeans, designer Georgio Armani wears a navy cashmere sweater and navy drawstring pants, and architect Daniel Libeskind wears a black leather blazer, jeans and cowboy boots. In 2012, Obama told Vanity Fair, "You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make."

Even crazier: Australian TV anchor Karl Stefanovic wore the same blue suit every day for a year — but nobody even noticed. He explained that he was trying to reveal the double standard against the female anchors, whose clothing was regularly critiqued and criticized. Needless to say, his experiment worked.

Would you wear the same ensemble to work every day? Our shared workspace in Brooklyn is super casual, but we still want to look professional should we have a meeting or someone drop by. These days, I often wear this exact pair of black jeans, a button-down shirt (like this incredibly silky and flattering chambray shirt), plus nice flats (these are my current favorite).

For a more formal office, a pretty dress like this or this could fit the bill. But if you don't want to worry about short hemlines (or shaving in the winter), these cool slouchy pants and a shirt with rolled sleeves would look great with rosy blush and middle part.

Thoughts? What do you wear to work right now? Would you consider wearing the same thing every day? So freeing, right? If you were putting together a uniform, what would it be?

P.S. Best spring nail polish and 15 career tips from smart women.

The octopus is a fascinating creature. And its well-documented intellect has led more and more scientists to believe that humans may not be alone in their ability to comprehend and solve challenging problems. In addition to opening jars and predicting the outcomes of soccer matches, we can now add ‘taking photographs’ to the ongoing list of skills these 8-legged invertebrate can learn.

To promote their water-resistant camera, Sony recently teamed up with the Sea Life Aquarium in New Zealand to teach an octopus named Rambo to take pictures of visitors from inside her tank. The camera was mounted on her tank “When we first tried to get her to take a photo, it only took three attempts for her to understand the process,” said one of the trainers. “That’s faster than a dog. Actually it’s faster than a human in some instances.” (via PetaPixel)

I have been anticipating the Tinybop’s Robot Factory release for months! The day is finally here! Build a robot and then see them walk, or not, depending on how your construction skills hold up. So much fun! Who doesn’t love to build robots? Exactly.

What are you up to this weekend? We're going to our friends' house tonight to watch a Rolling Stones documentary (Alex's idea, obv), and I'm excited for a low-key Easter egg hunt on Sunday. Hopefully Toby will be happier this year! Have a good one, and here are a few fun links from around the web...

My favorite career book. (I've referenced it so many times.)

"Things my male tech colleagues have actually said to me."

Jumping dads.

How to feel more confident in 60 seconds.

These made me smile.

Dinner idea: A warm salad.

Love these vintage wedding photos.

We finally tried Instacart and are now addicted.

Made me laugh out loud.

Blind visitors can touch museum art.

Whoa—a bike seat and stroller in one!

Did your math teacher look like THIS?

"My issues with the Goodnight Moon bedroom."

Airbnb just launched in Cuba! Here are the 11 best places to stay.

This NYTimes slideshow made my day: Cuddly, Fluffy, Surreal World of Angora Show Bunnies. Thanks Sally!

Fiber artist Mana Morimoto spares no medium with her vibrantly stitched embroidery that spans sculptures, installations, weavings, and 2D materials like concert tickets and advertisements. Among my favorite of her works are these embroidered monochromatic photographs and paintings. An etching of Isaac Newton is overlaid with rainbows of light and Morimoto even goes meta by embroidering on images depicting other fiber artists, going so far as mimicking the progress of a weaving on an old photograph. You can explore more of her work in Tumblr, Cargo Collective, and some of her works are available as prints on Society6.

Four-year-old Toby is a sweetheart overall, but when he has hit a friend or thrown a toy at Anton or fill-in-the-blank-with-all-the-nutty-stuff-toddlers-can-do, we've always told him to apologize. Then he'll mutter, "Sorry," and it will be more or less over. It always felt a little misleading—as if we're teaching him that he could throw that word out without thinking of the other person, and everything would be excused.

So! We tried something different this year, and it has been kind of awesome, and even adorable.

Every now and again, when we have a playdate and he has a rougher time than usual (and hits or offends), we will ask him to dictate a letter for his friend afterward. I ask him to think about how his friend might have felt, and what he might say to make them feel better.

Here are a few examples...

Dear Violet, I’m sorry I said, "You are not nice." I am sorry because you were sad when I said, "You are not nice." You are nice. Remember when we ate chocolate-covered cherries? You are so great. Love, Toby

Or the more concise:

Dear Olana, Sorry I hit you. Sorry I hit the mama. Love, Toby

I like the process because it gives him time to think, makes him feel empowered and shows him how you can turn a situation around. He has been really proud when we've given letters to his friends. And they've been so excited to get a letter!

Anyway, just wanted to share! Thoughts? How do you teach your kids to apologize? I'm probably overthinking it, but oh well, ha!

P.S. We have also been dictating thank-you notes, which are equally entertaining (and so funny to see what they remember! Food mostly?)
P.S. 5 ways to avoid sibling rivalry, and 20+ surprising parenting tips.

(Photo from my Instagram)

“What was the happiest moment of your life?”
“I don’t think I have one yet but it’s probably coming up and it’s going to be a surprise.”

The stories of a unique bond between a child and their pet are as timeless as they come, but rarely does the pet have wings. Such is the case with photographer Cameron Bloom whose son Noah happened upon a baby magpie in 2013 when the family was out walking near their home in Newport, Australia. After consulting with a veterinarian, the family learned to raise the orphaned bird, who they affectionately named Penguin.

A year later, the curious bird has deeply integrated with the family. Despite being free to come and go outdoors, she always returns to the Bloom household where Cameron, his wife Sam, and their sons Rueben, Noah, and Oli eagerly await her return. On rare occasions, Penguin even shows off her adopted family to other magpies who have followed her inside the house.

For the past year, Bloom has dutifully snapped photos which he publishes on a wildly popular Instagram account. Seriously people, it’s amazing; follow it now, ask questions later. The feels. Penguin pretty much gets the run of the house and is free to snuggle with the family in bed, get tangled in their hair, or help with homework.

Just yesterday, New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive announced that he’ll be writing a book about Penguin and the Blooms, accompanied by Cameron’s photography. You can see more on his website. All photos shared here courtesy the photographer. (via Beautiful Decay, ABC)

Designer Tina Roth Eisenberg—also known as Swissmiss—is a force. She spends her days running the temporary tattoo brand Tattly and lecture series CreativeMornings. But at night, she comes home to this bright and charming Brooklyn apartment, which she shares with her husband and two kids. Here's a peek inside...
Read More >

Now that it's officially spring, we're getting excited to wear dresses. We rounded up three of our favorite looks for the season, and the lovely Courtney, who was recently in town from London, came to play dress up with us...Read More >

"It’s our first time out this year."

Just a quick note that two of our favorite toys ever featured here on Colossal are now available in the Colossal Shop! Clemens Habicht’s amazing 1,000 Colors Puzzle just arrived from Australia, and Dan Abramson’s hilarious Yoga Joes have been successfully produced after a successful Kickstarter boost. We have tons of other quirky new things too numerous to mention, see more here.

I’m really enjoying this line of tissue holders from Sparkly Pony based out of Auburn, California. Dinosaur plates and whale spouts become dispensers for plumes of tissues. (via Quipsologies)

Illustrator Victor Nunes is seemingly obsessed with creating illustrations from common objects like pencil caps, pieces of popcorn, hair brushes, and rubberbands. He has, literally, thousands of these posted in no particular order on his Facebook page. (via I Need a Guide, Laughing Squid, Boing Boing)