French Friday: Fifi Mandirac!

While the brisk New England weather often makes it seem otherwise, springtime will soon be upon us (yay!). It is with the seasonal advancement in mind that I offer you the vibrant colors and springy designs of Fifi Mandirac! All images below originate from either her blog, Les Surprises de Fifi, or her online shop:

Wordshop Wednesday: Deadpan Alley!

I’ve been quite busy lately repurposing vintage papers for various artistic creations (cards, envelopes, etc.), so I’ve been searching vintage shops on Etsy for old books, maps, sheet music, and all sorts of good stuff. In today’s search, I came across the lovely Liese Martin of Deadpan Alley. Liese combines two of my absolute favorite things in the world into sheer artistic brilliance: 1) books/type/literature and 2) illustration.

Behold the following Deadpan masterpieces from Liese’s Etsy site:

The French lit. nerd in me loves that the first set of illustrations are drawn on pages from Giraudoux’s play, La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu. Let’s call it Liese’s “Deadpan Trojan War” series:

And, my personal favorite, which Liese has titled “Écoute une femme” / “Listen to a Woman”:

And now, some non-Trojan War pages:

Oh, and guess what? Liese also created her own handbound book, called Hungry Moon:

Berlin’s Buchstaben (Letter) Museum

Over the weekend, I was perusing my favorite typography blog (aptly called ilovetypography, or “iLT” for the cool kids) when I came across the fabulosity of type guru Rob Keller. Thanks to his aptly titled blog, called You Should Like Type Too (you really should), I am now entertaining incessant fantasies that involve variations of me fondling and slithering among the cool, slick typescapes of Berlin’s Buchstaben Museum. The Museum, established in 2005, houses an impressive collection of rescued letters that once combined to form building/store signage from Berlin and beyond.

The above photo and those that follow are courtesy of the Buchstaben Museum’s website. You’re welcome:

Please please please check out You Should Like Type Too for more beautiful photos of the Museum and other brilliant and drool-worthy typographic finds.

The next set of photos was also taken at the Buchstaben Museum, but I’ve graciously borrowed the images from HERE:

I could not be more in love with this museum. If I had met the Museum prior to Valentine’s Day, I would have made it my Valentine (sorry, Jessica).

At least now I know where I want to go whenever I have enough money to go on another trip.

French Friday: Le Petit Atelier de Paris!

For this week’s installment of French Friday, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Le Petit Atelier de Paris, which is a boutique/workshop hybrid in the 3ème arrondissement of Paris (aka, in the Marais, which rules). Here is a little blurb from their website:

“Le Petit Atelier de Paris is a boutique with a workshop inside; it opened in 2005 in the Marais district in Paris. Founded by two designers, its boutique proposes series of unique items, designed, contrived and made by hand in the workshop. These objects, original and delicate, may be used for a pleasant daily life.”

Images from their site:

Because I realize that we can’t all just hop a plane to Paris this weekend, I offer you the next best thing: the freakin’ BLOG of Le Petit Atelier de Paris! Check it out, s’il vous plaît. You won’t regret it. You’ll find things there like these little bits of awesomeness:

The shop is closed from now until April anyway, so… dieu merci qu’il y ait des blogs! (thank god there are blogs!)

Wordshop Wednesday: Stephanie DeArmand!

Get ready to keel over from sheer ceramic awesomeness, courtesy of Ms. Stephanie DeArmand’s very skilled hands:

(I was happily introduced to Stephanie DeArmand’s work via the Happy Cavalier blog, and I borrowed all images above from Stephanie DeArmand’s image gallery. I strongly encourage you to visit both sites, and frequently!)

Night Owl Paper Goods (& their awesome sales!)

From their website: “With a passion for fine craftsmanship, detail & the environment, Alan Henderson and Jennifer Tatham went out on a limb to start Night Owl Paper Goods, a stationery company devoted to creating handmade letterpress cards and eco-chic wooden goodies.”

“Goodies” is right. Their products fuse Scandinavian motifs and nature’s sweetest creatures, often with wooden backdrops.

Not only that, but Poppytalk alerted me to the occasional one-day sales on the NOPG website. Today, for example, there’s a 50% off sale on NOPG’s jotters (aka, notepads)! Go forth and conquer:

Lettering Is My Valentine.

Valentine’s Day has always been, in my opinion, a false holiday. The exception being, of course, elementary school days where we all had the opportunity to decorate and individualize our own paper bag Valentine “mailboxes,” which would receive personalized Valentine letters that instantly produced smiles (especially the Snoopy ones).  Since then, though… you could say I’m not a fan.

But Valentine’s Day is primarily about the celebration of love, right? So… that’s my focus. And, this Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to glorify my one true love: lettering. Specifically, the lettering of Ms. Jessica Hische, whom I’ve just discovered thanks to the Uppercase blog, which is another love of mine.

Each of the following images are taken from Jessica’s blog:

French Friday: French maps

Above: Map of France (1720)

Above: Map of Normandy (1712)

Above: Wine Map of the Loire Valley (1946)

Above: Map of Paris Monuments (1880)

Above: Map of Strasbourg (1745)

Mme de Scudery's 17th-century "Carte du Tendre"