our thank-you cards

it's a relief we had an intimate wedding and only had a several dozen thank-you cards to send out. i decided to go straight for letter-press cards. theme: birds. we love birds!

[top card is by Hello! Lucky; bottom card is by Egg Press]

Amigurumi

Cute Japanese crafts!


The above are eggs in a cart and the shells open up.

I stumbled onto a book about cute Japanese crocheting patterns and realize what a niche it is. People are obsessed, as one book describes "so cute you could cry..."
Amazon reviewers best love The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo which includes how-to patterns.



After looking at the pictures in the book, I had to feast my eyes on some tangible items for sale and the natural place to then look for the real objects was Etsy ...and look what was peeping out of the pumpkin patch:

Pumpkin Moon Bun
(artist from VA)
Happy Eggs (artist from NYC)

Hey, then I noticed that the two ones I picked out were from our places of residence... coincidence? I think NOT!

Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep"

You have to see Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep! The stop-motion animation is extraordinary. Most of the objects that he animates are completely hand-made in a rough, imperfect way that gives them so much character. Clouds of cotton float, cotton skiiers glide down mountains made out of felt, Paris is imagined as a maze of toilet-paper rolls. As with Gondry's previous film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, he doesn't use any special effects...every effect is created "in camera" (by the way he shoots).

Let's Make Things!

Wow, I'm soooo inspired to make my own cards after seeing this adorable handmade creation by Fanja Ralison in Hertfordshire, England [a.k.a. le train fantôme]