Things I Like: Part 4 of 5

Occasionally my inner Martha Stewart surfaces and I’m overwhelmed by a compulsion to indulge in the barbaric practice of covering any and every unadorned surface with twee embellishments. But one must be strong and resist these unhealthy and unnatural desires! I turn instead to one of the oldest and noblest art forms: gift wrapping. Embellish away — rather than cluttering every inch of available space in the world, your efforts will find their way to the dustbin.

I wrapped this gift in brown paper and decorated it with a hand-carved rubber stamp. Cute!

Things I Like: Part 1 of 5

What a horrid, dreary, rainy Monday! To inject a little cheer into a gloomy day, these notebooks from Cartolina are just the thing. I use them to record my workouts — they’re the perfect size, unlined, and the covers are awfully pretty. I’ve made a collage of my favourites below. The dog-eared ones I’ve filled are a tangible representation of the hard work I’ve done in the gym, but the pristine new ones gently remind me that I’ll never be big or strong enough.

I’ve decided to share five things that I really like this week. As the officially (self-) appointed Arbiter of Taste, I suggest that you should really like them too!

What Would Hitler Wear?

A few days ago I picked up a copy of Argyle Magazine in my physiotherapist’s waiting room. It’s a twee “lifestyle quarterly” for rich people the Aryan master race, apparently. I took a picture of the cover with my cell phone:

“Triumph of the Will: Business Suits for the New Economy” — really? Really really? As in the 1935 Nazi propaganda film “Triumph of the Will” directed by Leni Riefenstahl? Apparently so.

Argyle Magazine offers the final solution to your wardrobe quandary: razor-sharp tailoring! The accompanying photograph replicates the visual style of the Riefenstahl film so exactly that it could practically be mistaken for a still from the original. I read a book about Leni Riefenstahl last year and I recognize that she made important innovations as a filmmaker. But I think it’s tasteless to appropriate Nazi iconography to push “the powersuit for the modern day”. As long as similar atrocities are occurring in the world, and as a sign of respect for the victims of the Holocaust, we shouldn’t minimize the importance of WWII by borrowing from a Nazi propaganda film as a shock tactic to sell more lifestyle magazines.

Sorry to preach. Here’s a picture I took of my parents’ dog. He’s a piano virtuoso!

Lavender, Yellow, Turquoise, and Black All Over

Do you like my new cow skull? It’s hung in the living room over the couch. I painted it so it would look less like it belongs on a ranch, but I’m not sure my Harlequin-inspired makeover was actually much of an improvement. Could I have picked a worse colour scheme? It looks as though Easter threw up on it. It would look fantastic in a nursery though. Maybe I’ll hang it over the puppy’s bed when I get him in the fall. Of course it might give him little puppy-sized nightmares…

A hot babe in a state of partial undress has the favorable effect of distracting the eye from my latest failure in interior decoration though, non?

Revisiting Hell

Remember Essay Hell? Turns out that Exam Hell isn’t exactly a walk in the park either. Fancy that. Real life will resume on Friday evening!

In the meantime, here’s a little something I whipped up while I was working on my study notes:

Want one of your own? Download IOGraph here — it tracks your mouse’s movement around the screen and leaves you with a pretty picture. So neat! I coloured mine in with Photoshop!

A New Day, A New Keyboard

I’ve had this flexible, waterproof keyboard for ages, but it finally bit the dust. How provoking! It looked good while it lasted, but it was a bit hard to type on. Its replacement is more functional without sacrificing any of the cute: