From Poe to Parker.

In my course, we’re transitioning. From one fractured poet to another, we’re transitioning.

From Poe to Parker.

So, I thought I’d present you with an imagistic representation of this literary trajectory.

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On my summer reading list:

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Peter Ackroyd is somewhat of a kindred spirit, frequently publishing wonderful material on tortured poets, even novels (Ackroyd’s Chatterton, for example, which I strongly recommend to anyone even remotely interested in the British Romantics).

Vintage international hotel luggage labels.

Just learned about this fabulous collection of vintage hotel luggage labels from The Silver Lining Blog, which is quickly becoming one of my new favorite aesthetic pleasures. Great vintage design finds that make me exceedingly happy. Anyway, back to the luggage labels. The labels below come from the Rázsó Collection.

Did I mention that they’re all available for purchase? Yeah. Hold me back.

Buttons and Ephemera, to the tune of red.

y wonderful mother/Santa purchased a wonderful vintage jar of antique buttons for Christmas. And then we went antiquing and I got even more. And now I’m having a little too much fun filtering through them and sorting them and generally obsessing over them because I sort of have a button fetish. Kind of like my vintage stamp fetish. Neither in a pervy way. Come on. Anyway, so I created this red-themed set of buttons and ephemera, because beautiful vintage buttons look even beautiful-er with awesome vintage papers. That’s just common law. Joanie loves Chachi, Arrested Development should be transposed to film, and buttons should be accompanied by rad ephemera.

Here are some images from the lovely little red-themed set. Perfect for Valentines or just your average awesome collages, collecting, scrapbooking, fawning, and a bunch of other “-ing”s. More info over on Etsy.

My jars of antique buttons, coupled with ephemera: tag with 3 ft. of red & white baker’s twine; vintage word vocabulary flashcard; vintage German vocabulary flashcard; 3 vintage and canceled international stamps;
10 scalloped-edged cut-outs from a 1918 French text; butterfly tag/label

Vintage buttons in red, pink, and white – some with the original thread!

Ephemera loveliness.

Buttons, buttons, and more buttons. You will receive 30 of these little lovelies.

My vintage Ball and Atlas jars, which frequently tempt me to unscrew their lids and plow my hand into the middle of the cool, slick, buttony surfaces. Ahem.

Packaged.

Wrapped and ready to travel!

More ridiculous info and images HERE.

Bonjour Mon Coussin’s awesome pillows

or this installment of French Friday Monday, it is my distinct pleasure to present you with some of my most prized pillows from the fabulous online store, Bonjour Mon Coussin. They involve tantalizing type, delicious design, and  clever colors. But enough alliteration. On to the images. Oh wait, did I mention that some of the pillows are scented? True story. The scented ones are marked with “PARFUM” like the burlap one below, which smells like coffee!

Vintage smoking ads from lamarde

qua-Velvet recently tweeted about lamarde, thus introducing me to the fabulous world of vintage cigarette advertising and packaging. There’s a reason we have so many unfortunate people addicted to nicotine: the advertising was glamourous, beautiful, and downright awesome in terms of design execution. Despite my devotion to all things design-related (which, yes, includes my appreciation for pro-smoking ads), I still feel compelled to state that I abhor cigarettes and their disastrously horrific effects on the body (and on innocent bystanders’ bodies). I have a step-father who is currently battling stage IV lung cancer. Meanwhile, my mother won’t stop lighting up, despite the smoking-induced tragedy barely breathing next to her. I am, in other words, not a fan of smoking.

But I am a fan of great design. And of lamarde’s beautiful gallery of advertisements, which is where I found all of the images posted below. Enjoy. These are some of my favorites:

Visit lamarde’s blog HERE. Follow lamarde on Twitter HERE.

Design on my desk.

It’s pretty unnecessary to state that I was supremely excited to receive the following Pelican 1969 edition of R.D. Laing’s Divided Self last week. In fact, I posted an image of a very similar edition last month and drooled over the cover design.

If all book covers were as cool as this, I probably wouldn’t mind that they’re strewn all over/next to/around my desk. And couch. And bed. And life.

And here are the covers of a couple of my old stand-bys: two texts by Alfred de Vigny from the 19th century. Stello (1832) and the play Chatterton (1835), which I’m currently translating into English.

These Garnier-Flammarion paperbacks from 1984 (Stello) and 1968 (Chatterton) are the first copies I ever purchased of each text. I now own three versions of Stello and four of Chatterton. You could say I love them.

Here’s another Stello paperback (Garnier 1970), frolicking next to Laing:

Yellows and blues and greens throughout the whole lot. Conspiracy?

V is for Vintage. And for Valentines.

or the past few days, I’ve been having fun taking pictures of some vintage papery items and ephemera that I’ve collected over the past several months, preparing some new listings for my Etsy shop. I’ve already sold a couple of these, which is amazing (first sales of 2010!), but I must admit that I’m a little sad to see some of these vintage cards go. Separation anxiety increases exponentially with vintage items, doesn’t it? One-of-a-kind, never to return again… I don’t even want to think of what I’ll be like when I have children that will eventually leave home. Hopefully they’ll return at some point, though. ANYWAY. Back to my new items. Here are some images for you, to show you why it’s so d@mn hard for me to let go.

{ Vintage Postcard Sets }

1. Five vintage large-letter linen city/state postcards from the 1940s and 50s { Etsy Listing HERE } :

2. Three Vintage Valentines from the 1920s-1940s { SOLD OUT } :

{ Valentine’s Day / Love-Themed Stuff }

1. Four Valentine’s To Do List Cards { Etsy Listing HERE } :
These aren’t vintage, but they are V for Valentines. 🙂 I’ve hand-stamped each card in red block letters;
just check them off once you’ve completed each task!
Red envelopes and some super top-secret prizes included.

2. Paper Pack ‘O Love { Etsy Listing HERE } :
As you will see on both my Etsy page and my Facebook page, I am admittedly not a big fan of Valentine’s Day.
That being said, I am a GINORMOUS fan of ephemera and vintage & modern papers and random doo-dads.
(Yes, even if they have hearts or references to Cupid and February 14th. 🙂
So, with that in mind, I couldn’t help but contribute some of the red/heart/love-themed items to a pack of their own.
I’m guessing there are about 40 pieces or so. And they’re awesome.

{ More Coming Soon… }

More vintage postcard sets { New Year’s and other holidays; humour cards; advertisements; nature; mixed },

Vintage international stamp packs { color-themed; location-themed; mixed },

Antique button sets { color-themed; mixed },

Small mixed ephemera packs.

Thank you for looking, and stay tuned!

French Friday: Bonne Année!

Happy New Year to all, courtesy of artist Adolie Day: