Beautifully Modern Alice in Wonderland Playing Cards

I have a friend who somehow keeps getting into these situations where everyone believes she is obsessed with something she is not, so everyone buys her gifts on that theme. In middle school, it was Finding Nemo. Then it somehow turned into playing cards. Recently, as a joke, I brought her back a deck of cards featuring former leaders of China from my visit to Beijing.

But now I'm beginning to see why people might actually want to collect decks of cards.

Thanks to DeckStarter, kind of like Kickstarter for cards, playing cards have never been more beautiful. Like, so good looking you might now even want to play with them.

One of the most wonderful looking decks to hit DeckStarter so far is the Alice in Wonderland two-set pack from Turnstyle design studio.

Much of the design of the two-set pack is based on the idea of parallel worlds, a major part of Lewis Carroll's writing.  The decks inspired by the Art Nouveau and Art Deco eras, set in ornamental white, black and gold designs. And, of course, gold without foil stamping wouldn't be much fun at all, so the decks are graced with foil as well as embossing.

The deck even includes quotes from the Carroll's classic story, which is such a great touch.

My favorite part about this deck is the story of how it came to be. According to the studio's website, they donated their time and services to a local elementary school to help with the school's production of Alice in Wonderland. Awesome. Beyond the deck, they created a logo, playbill, cast t-shirts, posters and more.

At the time of posting, the pack had 240 backers and had raised about $9,000 of its $14k goal. Pretty impressive for a simple game. I think it speaks volumes to how much we value well designed things.

Also, double points for Turnstyle being a Seattle-based design firm. Love this city more and more every day.

You can support Turnstyle's Alice in Wonderland Design on DeckStarter, and read a review with designer Steven Watson (whose son was the Mad Hatter in the play) over on The Dieline.

(via The Dieline)

Motion Silhouette Book Creates an Ever Changing Story

Children's books can be completely enchanting. Children's pop-up books even more so.

Japanese designers Megumi Kajiwara and Tatsuhiko Niijima have taken the magic of story time to a whole new level with their new book, Motion Silhouette.

The designers explain on their website that by using the movement of light, the story changes with the "falling shadows that move about freely on the page". They encourage readers to "please enjoy the silhouette meaning and shape to change in various ways." 

Motion Silhouette is actually the second book from Kajiwara and Niijima. The first being Silhouette, with a similar take on the pop-up book. Both are such a great study of light and storytelling. 

So lovely. I would love to own both of these intricate, beautiful pieces.  

(via Anthology Mag)

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the most simple box bookshelves

Independent booksellers are on the rise again!

Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Printable

As a small side project, I've been creating a series of $0.99 printables for my Etsy shop. I've wanted to veer toward literary themes because I love the community I've found in the book world. (Especially today when I received some really wonderful surprises in my inbox... that will soon show up in my snail mailbox!)

I was thinking a lot yesterday about one of my favorite books, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I always end up drawn to it on September 11 each year. I think it's such a powerful work for those of us that have grown up in this post 9/11 world and I love all the stories Jonathan Safran Foer has shared about the writing process that went into it.

Although spurred by such a tragic topic, one of my favorite things about the book is the beautiful language Foer lends to his characters that have a difficult time communicating in tradition ways. Which is what inspired me to spend a little bit of time today to throw together this 8x10 printable for my weekly project.

Have you read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? I never saw the movie because the book is so precious to me, and my group of friends. I'd love to know other people's opinions.

If you'd like to download the hi-res version of the printable, simply visit my Etsy shop and grab the instant download for $0.99. And let me know if you do. I'd love to know. Better yet, tag me on Instagram with a snap of it up in your casa.

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my favorite John Updike quote

Wee Edgar Allan Poe

one of my most favorite photos

Can't Wait to Read: The Third Plate

Is there any better email than a notice from the library letting you know a book you had a hold on is now available?

NO.

I just picked up Dan Barber's The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food and I can not wait to devour it (ha! jokes!)

After discovering the work of food writer Michael Pollan in college, I changed my eating habits. First, I decided to only make meat 15% of my diet. Then, I gave up meat all together. Since moving to Seattle I've started to eat fish but not very often, and only if I know it was locally caught. My interest in the American diet has increased along with my changing food habits, anc I'm excited to read a book by a chef who has seen how the food movement has developed on a global scale.

From the book jacket:

At the heart of today’s optimistic, farm-to-table food culture is a dark secret: the local food movement has failed to change how we eat. It has also offered a false promise for the future of food. Our concern over factory farms and chemically grown crops might have sparked a social movement, but Chef Dan Barber reveals that even the most enlightened eating of today is ultimately detrimental to the environment and to individual health. And it doesn’t involve truly delicious food. Based on ten years of surveying farming communities around the world, Barber’s The Third Plate offers a radical new way of thinking about food that will heal the land and taste good, too.

Can't wait.

Have you read The Third Plate yet? Did you love/hate it?

You can learn more about Dan Barber through his TED Talks, or read/listen to this nice piece on NPR about the book.

Also, The Third Plate has a pretty nice book website, if you're into that sort of thing.

And, I'm convinced I need to eat at Barber's restaurant, Blue Hill Farm, ASAP.

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another great food book: Eat the City

My first Pollan read: In Defense of Food

delicious-looking fictitious dishes

Simple Box Bookshelves from Aust & Amelung

Dear readers of the world,

You may now furnish your living rooms. Germany-based design studio aust & amelung has created everything you need to read in style.

Designers Miriam Aust and Sebastian Amelung say one their site that "reduction and simplicity define the form as well as the function of their objects", which I think is pretty evident if you look at the photos of their work.

I love how this one product can completely transform a wall in so many ways. The possibilities are really endless when you think of the incredible book cover patterns, designs and typography that could cover your home. 

Miriam Aust has also designed "a bookshelf" (simple names are best?).

This book shelf offers for these books which became precious just a new presence and aditional function in the special „shelf architecture“. A quite arbitrary number of shelf boxes in different heights, cutting and turning round each, are forming this shelf.

And once you've chosen a book off the shelf, they've also created a couch to read on, as well as floor lamps and hanging lamps to illuminate your reading space.

I love their simple collections and designs. Great work for readers by Aust & Amelung.

(via Fast.Co Design)

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reading is dangerous

bookshelves that disappear into the wall

books that light up

Antique Books

I feel like I am no longer a collector of books, which made me kind of sad this afternoon when I came across a tiny collection of lovely antique books on a blog I love.

When I was in college, I'd bring home new old books on a weekly basis and treasure them dearly. I'd actually show them off to friends when they came over to visit. But moving from Ohio to Illinois to Washington meant letting a few of those books go along the way.

I still have lots of books I love, but at one point during packing I had to start asking myself "Am I actually going to read this?"

I guess that's not really the point of collecting, and I have a handful of books that are even too fragile to read, but it was a practical decision. Especially since I now live in a small one bedroom apartment with my boyfriend and cat.

Have you left books behind that you reminisce over? Am I just crazy? Please share.

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a seemingly endless archive of vintage paperbacks

what kids think about classics

what are you currently reading?