I know it's been quiet on the blogging front this week; I've been head down into a lot of detailed design work at the day job and then — despite that I loathe NBC's Vancouverage — spending a lot of my evening watching the 2010 Olympic Games and trying to catch up on orders, slowly but surely. It's certainly not for a lack of things to post about, the least of which being new lotions in the Etsy shop. But...ah...where does one find time?

The nice thing about my day job right now is that it forces me to do a lot of the work I longed to do at other day jobs but couldn't; either for branding guidelines or general SLA political nonsense. I've never proclaimed to be an artist, by the way; sure, I can kind of draw manga and I can hack together artwork when needed (like the above), but I've always had kind of a chip on my shoulder about what is "art" and what is "design" and that I am squarely, surely, definitively, a designer. I don't know where this mentality came from.

Maybe it came from having so many friends in high school and college who actually paint or make models or did fantastic 3-D animation that put my manga comics to shame; or really, folks who did anything besides zines, book jackets, and publishing layouts (how I began my design days). Wherever it came from, I want it to go away.

For one, I want to get better at doing everything from the ground up; in this digital day and age it's so easy to turn to Illustrator and just hit "Live Trace" and call it our own. I miss the feel of ink on my fingers and the feel of a tangible piece of art I created. Oddly, I went in search of tangibility in perfume. But now I want my art back.

For two, I'm stuck at work most days with a Wacom tablet staring me in the face begging to be abused, and so I doubt I'll get much into the pen & ink art for awhile, but something has to give and I've got to quit being scared of this so-called art. I need to just give into temptation and make something. I will only get better if I begin. I will only get worse if I let go of it all.

I'll be on the hunt for inspiration and definitely looking for suggestions. Because art shouldn't be something that I do just because a client requested it; it should be a part of my daily routine. (Or if not daily, then perhaps every Friday.)

 
Left: Factory 20 on Oh Hello Friend
Right: Whimsy and Spice on Indie Fixx

Though I wish I could blame my accidental mass-unsubscribe of all my favorite design blogs, I can't for this week's lack of "week-end blogged" content. What I can blame, however, is my current obsession with upgrading, updating, and revamping my wardrobe. However, here are some posts that definitely made it to my Shared Items from this past week, and are highly worthy of your time.

{image from Beverly Hsu: Helvetica cookie cutters}

During the week, I tend to abuse my Google Reader Shared Items because I can't seem to keep track of a Tumblr, I don't like to stumble upon things, I've abandoned Delicious, and my Facebook doesn't cross-post to my twitter account for personal preferences. So consider this a broadcast of what I've been reading, summarizing, and linking to all week. PROTIP: Add my shared items to your Reader to follow along if you don't follow me on Twitter.

• Divine Twine: I can admit when I have a problem. I'm obsessed with twine. {via Just Something I Made}
• Valentine's Day Goodie Bags: Gorgeously designed to print yourself. I remember seeing these last year, and they're still great. {at Twig and Thistle}
• Message in a Cookie Cutter: On the subject of cookie cutters with something to say, which seems to be the overall theme this week, these are lovely. {via Creature Comforts}
• Jamie and Adam's wedding is my favorite "real wedding" to date. {via 100 Layer Cake}
• Sense of Popos: A map of San Francisco's secret spaces. {via Strangemaps one of my weekly faves}
• Speaking of J.D. Salinger...: On the death of J.D. Salinger, The Stranger kindly reminds us of King Dork, a novel by the lead singer of The Mr. T Experience, one of my all-time favorite bands. {via Line Out}
• Hendrix's statue may be moved: If Hendrix leaves the Hill, so do I. Off to Georgetown. {via Seattle Sketcher}

Last but not least, check out my interview on THE WASH, where crafty chicks come clean. I'll be posting an interview from Jeanee, creator of our cute Valentine's day cupcake fizzzies, later today!

New York secretes its fullest range of smells in the summer; disgusting or enticing, delicate or overpowering, they are liberated by the heat. As my nostrils led me from Manhattan's northernmost end to its southern tip, some prosaic scents recurred (cigarette butts; suntan lotion; fried foods); some were singular and sublime (a delicate trail of flowers mingling with Indian curry around 34th Street); while others proved revoltingly unique (the garbage outside a nail salon). Some smells reminded me of other places, and some will forever remind me of New York.

— Jason Logan, Scents and the City (NY Times.com)

This is one of those, "Man, I wish I'd thought of that." moments. I sadly didn't record my trip to New York as detailed to verify the efficacy of this map, but I've enjoyed browsing it regardless. Also reminds me of a chapter in The Perfect Scent (Chandler Burr) wherein he and one SJP actually do this outright. Nice to see it visualized online, and definitely worthy of a Nose Words.

I can't believe I missed this spotlight from the DieLine on C.O. Bigelow. Their work is one of those career-changing styles that captivated me early on and heavily influences my personal brand's apothecary look and feel. The DieLine has a few other posts on Bigelow, so be sure to check out the archives while you're there.

Head on over to the DieLine for LOTS more pictures. This is a perfect segue for my photos from inside the C.O. Bigelow flagship store in NYC, but I don't have them up yet! I will try to soon!

Tub and Tile soft scrub by mrsjonessoapbox

What would happen if you took Sweet Petula and Villainess and combined the two? Theoretically, the result would be Mrs. Jones's Soap Box, which I saw awhile back on Lilyella but couldn't resist blogging about myself. The packaging alone marries simplistic and clean with grungy and apothecary in a way that doesn't seem trendy or overbearing, and really just entices me to try them out.

To make matters more interesting, these are not typical spa luxury self-pampering products as they may appear. Nay, but they are cleansers, polishes, detergents, and other earth-friendly products for "life's less glamorous jobs". I dig.

• PanTuNieStal home tour
• Polish and Russian clocks
• Old Polish Jam labels

Oh me, oh my. Those of you that know me from "back in the day," know that I have a deep-seeded love of manga (and probably question my taste at times). At one time I even pretended to be a manga illustrator. But manga and beauty products combined? Hold me back. Not a new concept, to be sure, but this line from Moyoco Anno and cosmetics giant shu uemura hits the design and conceptual mark that Harajuku Lovers misses, for me. This may warrant a trip to Vancouver (where it's available exclusively at Holt Renfrew, apparently) in the next few months.

Head over to Comics 212 for more amazing photos from the press kit and line. (From Drawn!.)

If you've never, head on over to the American Package Museum online for a trip down memory lane. Above: Camay soaps, one of my favorites from the exhibit. Then again, I'm a sucker for bath and beauty packaging and anything mid century modern. Via Coudal, the founders of the Museum of Online Museums.

Before this post about mood boards over at Viget Inspire, I never had thought about mood boards in terms of web design. But it makes sense. Almost every artistic and creative medium uses inspiration boards in some way. It's just that, until recently, I had always been a "grab my sketchbook and takes notes" kinda girl. It was quicker (again, until recently), than opening up Adobe Illustrator and just sorta sketching digitally. And when it finally came time for me to start dev work on a project, I always found my desk (and myself) covered in post-its with RGB codes, font sizes and specs, and margin widths and paddings. Seriously. It was intense.

So I've been enjoying using the mood board this time around. It's going to be a much more lightweight process, I can already tell (and honestly, that's sort of the point of redesigning right now as it is). I saved it as a PDF out of Illustrator and I can open it up on my opposite screen, or even print it out if necessary. I do so little design work before dev this way, and can just go straight to CSS and the screen for the most part. It's not the most perfect or complete mood board ever, but it's my first. And it's a good place to start.

It will be interesting to see how this comes together. I'm really excited about the potential new site!