Rob Freaking Ryan

At the end of my last post, I mentioned a man by the name of Rob Ryan, and if you clicked the link you already know that he's an amazing artist whose paper cut designs are just about everywhere at the moment, most recently showing up on the cover of Stylist magazine (Stylist is a free magazine given out weekly in London...I miss it very much). Anywhoser, Mr. Rob Ryan has some really lovely products you can buy from his Etsy shop (or in his real shop if you happen to be lucky enough to live in London). This is some of his other work, but I highly suggest you check out the site/shop/blog for yourself. 

Today's Findings

As I mentioned just the other day, one main reason I began this blog was to share my daily internet findings with a (hopefully) wider audience than Facebook or Twitter could really supply me with. And here is your first of many posts chock full of random but awesome internet findings:

Sahre, Victore, Wilker 2010 is a design workshop held in NYC and hosted by Paul Sahre, James Victore, and Jan Wilker. The cost is $1200 for one week. I'm sure it's an amazing experience, but really? $1200 for a week-long class? Still, I want to go. (I've read it's actually worth it.)

Raw IceCream (right) is a vegan/eco-friendly/cruelty free ice cream company. Pretty neat, but only available in NYC and the company will not be shipping nationally until they resolve their eco-friendly shipping issues (check back in August, says their website).  
 
Brinca Dada Dollhouse: A very modern, extremely well-designed house for dolls. Plus furniture and wooden dolls. Want, want, want.
 There was going to be more to this list, but I got VERY sidetracked by Rob Ryan. Take a quick look, more about him tomorrow.

Keep Calm and Eat Big Cookies

Goooood morning! Just now I have woken up and pranced (stumbled) down from my attic room (much better than it sounds) to make myself some coffee (Dunkin Donuts!). After anxiously awaiting the end of the coffee maker's gurgling and steaming, culminating in a full pot of deliciously caffeinated brew, I opened the cupboard to select a mug. Coffee mugs, possibly even more than coffee itself, are one of my main interests in life. Often, they are sooo beautiful! They can also be clever, humorous, or just plain well-designed. The particular mug I chose today is a gem I received as a parting gift about a month ago. Side note: I had been studying (I'm a student of graphic design) in London  for the spring semester of 2010 and, as part of my course load, I was "employed" as an intern at a company called the ILN. This McLaggan Smith mug is a combination of sooo many of my favorite topics. For starters, it's a coffee mug. I am sensing the need for an entire post on my favorite mugs because if I went into that now, this post would be 3 years long. For seconds, it's based on posters which were first created by the British government during WWII, intended to raise morale in case of an invasion. The poster was never used, but was rediscovered in 2000 and has spread like wild fire. Not only can you buy posters of the original saying "Keep calm and carry on" in a million colorways, but you can also find it plastered onto mugs, towels, chairs, books, clothes, bags, and chocolate. And that's just the start! Once the original had been sufficiently circulated, of course people started playing with the words. Some of my favorite variations:

 

See more here.

I think one of the things I like best about the original poster is its actual message. The country was at war and Briton's advice was "deal with it and keep fighting" which in general I think is good advice. I mean, sometimes you can't control what's going on and you just have to keep going anyway.

Anywhoser, my good friend Lulu and I were discussing these posters the other day while also shopping for new day planners/journals/sketch pads...and then we started craving cookies. We really wanted cookies that were both GIANT and thick and HEALTHY, but had little luck. Thus, we decided we should just make them ourselves, so I'm putting myself in charge of recipe-finding. This is what I've come up with so far:

A chocolate cherry oatmeal cookie, (top)
 An orange spice molasses cookie, (left)

Crunchy fudge cookies made with Fiber Once cereal,

and oat and almond breakfast cookies (right)

Once we actually decide on a recipe and get to baking, I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out!

I Really DO Believe in Advertising

So, one of the main reasons I've decided to start blogging is that I spend a lot of time on the internet. This really isn't that much of a problem, except that I keep finding such COOL SHIT and I don't know what to do with it. I follow several blogs and Twitter accounts, which often lead me even more blogs, sites, and Tweets and then I explore those and bookmark them or follow them -- which only adds to the problem. Seriously, I have a bookmark folder about a mile long titled Things I Like. And now, all of these findings can be yours! That's right, I'm now going to be sharing the goods with you instead of selfishly hoarding them. 

These findings range from fashion to advertising to design to food...basically anything I like the look/sound of, but today I think I'm going to start with advertising. http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/
is one of my favorites. I'm a big fan of clever advertising and this blog gives me what I want. Today, when I went to get my fix, this gem was waiting for me: a camouflaged print ad from Ogilvy

 

This looks like a normal advertisement for powertools, but look closer, because it isn't.

I'll let you marvel at its wonder on your own instead of telling you why I love it (mostly because I'm in dire need of a shower) but remember that mile-long list of bookmarks I mentioned? I intend to post a good majority of them, so prepare yourselves...

Maiden Blogging

Welcome to The Goods, a place where I will be selecting and sharing my favorite finds from around the web (and maybe the physical world as well). Topics may include design, art, fashion, food, or may not. Keep checking back to see what I'm into at the moment.