The Violet Hours

Time for a Portfolio: James Hopkins

Styling shelves is a real talent, but James Hopkins takes it to a new level. By arranging and cutting into things, Hopkins creates his Vanitas installations from related groupings of everyday objects.

Hopkins says of these pieces in a Wallpaper article: "I see these shelves as tombstones to the current, ephemeral era in design because, while they look quite luxurious and modern now, next year they will already begin to look dated."

  

  

Each grouping is comprised of related objects, either by color or style. For example, in Shelf Life (top image), these are all items that would be found in a teenagers room, and point to the impermanence of objects and their persistence in memory. Other groupings include vintage objects or contemporary, design-forward items that Hopkins surrounds himself with.  

It's like making a painting on your bookcases (with a touch of social commentary). Baffling and amazing.

Time for a Portfolio: David Brownings

I've always been obsessed with the Real Simple paper constructionist, Matthew Sporzynski. David Brownings, an illustrator living in Bristol, has a similar talent with a little twist. Here's a sample of his work...

    

 

These are described on his site as boxes, but I'm not sure if they are usable or just amazingly cool.

Paper shoes...amazing. 

Pop-up books are totally under-appreciated. I love the sense of grandiosity in this illustration.

Time for Renegade Craft Fair Round Up

Even though it was a hundred degrees, with a hundred percent humidity and a threat of tornado, I made it to the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn yesterday. After passing many a silk-screened onesie booth, here were some of my fave finds...

There is something so precious about these little book charms by The Black Spot Books. 

I have always been a fan of The Small Object, so it was fun to see her whimsical products in person. 

 

If it's embroidered these days, I love it, which is why I was so drawn to the sweet products of Coral & Tusk.

Time for Knitted Nature

This is possibly the most random post subject ever, but once I saw the images from Jan Messent's Knitted Gardens (found on Vintage for Kids) I went on a search for more knitted flora and fauna.

It's like a little garden for a dollhouse. So beyond amazing!

I may need to get my mom (she's a knitter) started on this project stat! From Wary Meyers, from the 1978 book, the Needleworker's Constant Companion.

 

These knitted flower sculptures by Tatyana Yanishevsky remind me of the Venus Fly Trap from Little Shop of Horrors. 

My mom needlepointed (not knitted) this flower for the ring pillow at my wedding. She had a pillow made from fake moss and the rings tied on with the ribbon.

Time for Book Invitations

Our dear friends Aaron and Lindsay are getting married in May. They came to us months ago (and by us, I mean my husband and me) with the idea that they wanted to send books as their invitations. We all tossed around a bunch of ideas for a bunch of weeks, and here is the end result...

  

The bride and groom spent weeks collecting books, and refused to pay more than a dollar for any of them (a good thing since they had to send out over 90 of them). My very talented husband designed the printed matter, and I consulted on things like the pocket, the rounded corners, the ribbon, the wax seal, etc. We love the way it turned out, as did they!

Here are a few other book invites that caught my eye...

Jordan of Oh Happy Day designed this lovely invite for the now (sadly) defunct Cookie Nesting Blog. It was for a bookworm party for kids. So cute! (Read her post for her defense of cutting up a book.)

 

 

This is positively the most ambitious book invitation I've ever seen...they actually made the books. They began with the story of the bride and groom, and towards the end of the book, the reader would find the wedding invite and the perforated reply card. So much time and love went into these. I tip my hat to Nikki and Nick. Found on Merriment Design.

Time for a Cozy Fort

After a crazy-long and crazy-busy week, all I want to do is crawl into one of these with a good book and a pillow. And a box of Junior Mints.

Found via The The Bean and The Bear, via A Beautiful Mess

Via Booooooom from their fort contest.

via Anna Inghardt

found via loveology

Check out Oh Hello, Friend for even more cozy, curl-upable nooks. Have a lovely weekend!

Time for Holding onto Childhood

I had a favorite stuffed animal as a child, a dog with a white body and floppy brown ears. My sister and I had the same one, but mine was so worn that the ears were virtually bald. Now it's long gone, and all I have to remember that dog is this one photo that my sister printed a few years ago from the original slide. (That's me on the left when the pup was still new. And really, I have no idea why we were watching TV with the dogs between our legs.)

Kids get so attached to their toys, but it's impossible to try to keep them all for posterity. Here are a few ways to make a lovey last...

    

Have a custom portrait painted of your child's toy. Visit Customtoyportrait.com. 

Fill your child's beloved with beans to make a bookend or a doorstop. Found on Real Simple.

   

Make a sweet picture book with photos of your child's toys. Maybe it can help teach them to read. Spotted on Party Perfect.

Time for Bookshelves

What happened to the old-school concept of a simple wall-mounted bookcase with books? A place where you randomly shelve your books, perhaps in genre groupings? Well our design-obsessed world has moved beyond and a bookcase is now as much a focal point as a work of art.

I have a tear sheet of this product hanging on my bulletin board at work. Of course I have no idea where I pulled it from, so I was psyched to find it on the LMNOP blog. I love how simple they are, but what if they were painted with chalkboard paint and you could label your book categories? Love, love.

I know this is not a new idea, but I am still smitten with it. My husband refuses to use the spine color as a reference point to find a book. But as we start packing our books for the move, I'm going to secretly pack them by color. Just in case. Found via Color Me Happy.

"Where's my Catcher in the Rye?," he asks. "Check Idaho." Oh Ohdeedoh!

Time for Good Deed Cookin'

For the past 10 summers, I have volunteered a week in August to Birch Family Camp, a residential camp program that brings New York City families living with HIV/AIDS to the woods for a week. It is seven real days of respite for these families that live everyday with the realities of illness, poverty, and many of life's devastating trials.

Over the last 6 months, we collected recipes from the camp families and volunteers to put together our version of a family cookbook, S'more to Love. It is full of anecdotes, smiling faces, and of course, delicious recipes from all over the world. 

We are a teeny program that really and truly improves the lives and spirits of our campers. We struggle each year to meet our budget so that our campers can shine with glitter and drink bug juice for one more year. $40, the cost of the book, can feed a whole group of campers for a full day. That's nothing, right? Nothing, but everything.

Special thanks to Blurb.com for their generous donation and professional printing.

Time for Book Jackets

Beyond clever bookmarks/book jackets! Visit Cup of Jo to see a dozen more.

Definitely a "why didn't I think of that" moment!