Mikkele.bringard

Have you seen the graphic novel Soppy? The book is the real-life love story of comic artist Philippa Rice and her boyfriend, cartoonist Luke Pearson—as they fall in love and move in together. She captures all those little moments (grocery shopping, assembling bookshelves, sleeping side-by-side) that can so often go unnoticed. Take a look...Read More >

Vietnamese born artist Duy Huynh creates poetic acrylic paintings inspired by stories drawn from ancient folklore, comic books, film, and music. After moving to the United States as a child in the early 80s he took refuge in art as he struggled with language barriers and his new surroundings. Themes of cultural and geographical displacement frequently appear in Huynh’s work, including what he describes as “attempts to literally and symbolically connect fluid patterns in nature/wildlife with that of human made aspiration.” He currently has many original works available through Lark & Key Gallery, and you can see more in his archives. (via Cross Connect)

Photographer Angela Kelly beautifully documents bubbles her son blows in freezing temperatures. Stunning.

Love this: Head shots of professional hand models.

My friend and graphic designer Linsey Laidlaw and her husband Brian Morris live with their three young children in a bright apartment in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn—just around the corner from us! Even though they have only two bedrooms for five people, they manage to carve out clever spaces for everyone. Here are some more photos, if you'd like to see...
Read More >

Brothers Grimm’s Wanderings is the second in a series of European landscape photographs by Kilian Schönberger (previously) intended to reflect the feeling of Brothers Grimm folk tales. Schönberger travels to locations around central Europe and imagines what the real-life backdrop of stories like Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, or Snow White would look like. To see the first part of the series check out Brothers Grimm’s Homeland.

While on an expedition to Antarctica last month, photographer Alex Cornell witnessed a massive iceberg flip, revealing a strangely translucent blue underside that’s completely free of snow and debris. According to Science World, almost 90% of any given iceberg is below the surface, making iceberg flips extremely rare. Much larger iceberg flips are even capable of causing tsunamis that can overtake nearby ships. You can see more photos from Cornells trip on his website. (via Colossal Submissions)

To celebrate his 68th birthday last week, illustrator Helen Green created an animated gif of every one of David Bowie’s hairstyles from 1964-2014. Both the black and white and color stills of all 29 frames are avaiable as a print through Society6. (via Kottke)

Every now and then, I stumble upon a business idea that makes me laugh out loud and nearly spill my coffee, Ship Your Enemies Glitter is one of them. As a parent of crafty little ones, I can fully attest that glitter is the most annoying thing that anyone could spill in your house.

(via Thierry)

Can you go 24 hours without complaining? Let’s do this.

The 32-year old Tao Liu knows the city of Hefei like his backyard. Since 2005 he’s traveled up, down and across the city in Eastern China on his motorbike reading water meters for a local utilities company. The job was tedious, exhausting and unrewarding, until he picked up a camera.

For the past 3 years Liu has used his spare time to capture intimate, witty and humorous street photos of Hefei. “I like taking photos because I can hang around on the streets and capture an image when something interested me but was neglected by others,” Liu told the Global Times. “I want to remind people of the touching moments in life.” He was interviewed after his photos went viral on China’s social network Weibo.

Liu has no formal training in photography but cites Daido Moriyama – often referred to as “the father of street photography” – as a primary influence. “I found him [to be] a very focused photographer,” says Liu in an interview with TIME. “I chose my camera based on what he uses.” Liu’s photos, intentionally or not, seem to poke fun at things like commercialization and urbanization. Liu clearly has a knack, not only for being in the right place at the right time, but for a keen eye that spots charming, serendipitous scenes amongst the hustle and bustle of everyday life. You can keep up with him and his work on Lofter. All photos courtesy the photographer. (via Time)

For the last 20 years, unassuming Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom has traversed the world, picking a spot, be it in Shanghai, New York, or Paris, and meticulously photographed what he saw. “I take between 1 and 80 photographs a day, almost every day, 12 months a year,” he says, referring to his “Photo Notes” project, which has now been turned into a book titled People of the Twenty-First Century. The “Photographic Journal,” published by PHAIDON, is the largest, most comprehensive work of his to date, and includes thousands of photos that, together, create a fascinating picture of mankind.

The “anti-sartorial” photographs of everyday people capture specific visual themes – people in red jackets, men with bare chests on roller blades – that are grouped together with the date, city and time range they were taken. And this combination and repetition is what makes the photographs so powerful. Viewed separately, they would hardly even catch our eye.

“I don’t use this diary to show what happens in my life but as a method of visualizing the development of my world view,” writes the artist. Much like the way stalagmites form in caves over hundreds of years, Eijkelboom’s landscape is the result of a methodical fixation to the banality of everyday life. Hans Eijkelboom’s “People of the Twenty-First Century” is available for around $26 (Via Citylab)

It would be fair to say that I’m two cats and four cat toys away from being a crazy cat lady.

This holiday season I’ve taken to crafting my own cat toys (yessss homemade cat toys) to share with friends who are equally enthusiastic about their cat-animals.  Last year I made homemade cat treats (super delicious and Tron approved), and this year I’ve partnered with Beyond Natural Cat Food to create happy-cat catnip-infused treat baskets.  Plush, hand-stitched and catnapped toys, jars of Purina Beyond Natural Cat Food and stacks of Purina Beyond wet food all come together to create the perfect Cat Lady Gift.

We’re even turning our plush felt catnip toys into a flying feather and pompom cat toy.  Tron is all the way into it.  Attack mode go!   

First, let’s gather our supplies!

Supplies

Here’s what you’ll need to make the felt cat toys and the strung cat toy:

•  sheets of felt / two of each color

•  yarn

•  cotton balls or batting

•  cat nip

•  nylon thread / needles / a glue gun, too!

•  cat fluff aka things your cat might like to attack:  / feathers / pompom balls / strings / anything with catnip

•  a cat

How To Assemble

•  Place matching felt sheet on top of one another and trace out small patterns.  I used cookie cutters (of course I did) to trace out heart-shaped and round felt shape pieces out of the felt.

•  Thread a durable needle with string and begin to hand-stitch two matching  pieces together.

•  If you have a kit-cat, they will probably be curious about these happenings.  Especially if there is cat nip involved.

•  Once the felt pieces are hand-stitched about half way across , stuff each pocket with two cotton balls and a good amount of dried catnip.

•  Finish hand-stitching across the rest of the cat toy and tie a knot to seal.

•  For extra flair, use a hot glue gun to glue a few feathers to the inside of a toy before hand-stitching.

•  Once the felt toys are stuffed and sewed, work on the dowel rod.  Use a bit of hot glue to attach two or three long thicker nylon strings to hang off the dowel.  Attach the strings about 4-inches down the dowel.  Use more hot glue to attach one end of yarn about 6-inches from the top of the dowel.  We’re going to wrap the yarn up the dowel as a decorative disguise for the nylon string.

•  Wrap the yarn over the around the dowel, working your way up.  Use a second color of yarn if you’d like.  Choose your cats favorite colors… naturally.

•  Thread the end of each thicker nylon string through the (previously used, rather durable) needle.  Thread the needle through a few pom poms and cat toys.  Tie knots to secure.

 To complete our Cat Lady Gift Set  we have our hand-stitched cat toy (pretty amazing), our hand-stitched felt toys, jars of Purina Beyond Natural Cat Food and stacks of Purina Beyond wet food.

 

These cat toys are Tron approved, extra fun, great exercise, lots of fun.

This post is brought to us by Beyond Natural Cat Food.  No corn, wheat, soy, gnarly by-products, or artificial colors or preservatives. Just the real food I give to TRONCAT to keep him extra sassy, nappy, and wise.  To try it yourself, click here!  (while supplies last)

"He tells me random stories every night when we’re falling asleep. Last night’s story was about a chipmunk who felt lonely because he was the only chipmunk who liked flapper music from the 1920’s."

What are your holiday traditions? I just read about an awesome ritual that I'd love to adopt...

In Iceland, books are exchanged on Christmas Eve, and you spend the rest of the night reading. People generally take their books to bed along with some chocolate. How cozy and wonderful does that sound?

(More fun facts: Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country, and new books are typically published only during the Christmas season—the frenzy is called Jólabókaflóð, or the Christmas Book Flood.)
Wouldn't you love to do that? What other traditions do you have? I'd love to hear, we're trying to create a bunch! :)

P.S. Five holiday traditions, and decorating our first Christmas tree.

(Via Viewers Like You)

Love this library color coding, imagined by Tom Gauld. (You can buy it as a print!)

Using a small scalpel as his primary tool, artist Chris Maynard (previously) carves artwork out of feathers giving them new life on a canvas. “Each feather, though dead and discarded, keeps something of the bird’s essence,” Maynard tells us. Indeed, the colorful and sometimes humorous creations highlight the feather’s beauty but also encourages us to ponder the life of its previous owner. “Since I work mostly with shed feathers, some of the birds that grew them are likely still living,” adds Maynard. If you’d like to learn more about Maynard and his work he has a new book out titled Feathers, Form, and Function. (via Colossal Submissions)

It’s Too Long

Marci and Dan Clark (and their cat Maude) live in a teeny tiny Manhattan apartment, where they've managed to maximize every square inch. Here are their 13 smart tips for decorating a small space...Read More >

I would totally love playing with this oversized version of Bananagrams.