i Watch: ReMastered - Devil at the Crossroads

I remember learning about the myth and tragic life/death of icon Blues musician Robert Johnson when I was a teen.

The legend was that he went to the crossroads near Dockery Plantation at midnight and sold his soul to the devil to become the best guitar player in the world. Within a year, Johnson would go from a novice guitar player to a master player whose sound would change the Blues world and become the roots of rock-n-roll.

Netflix's doc ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads explores the myth and life of Robert Johnson. Go, watch it now!

Grief: Everyone you love has a 100% chance of dying

Nora McInerny nails her TED talk about grief, it’s honest, genuine, funny, brilliant, and oh so relatable. I love when we can find humour that makes grief, dying and death a little easier.

Nora's husband died of GBM aka Brain Cancer just liked my mom.

This talk is great for those of us that have experienced grief first hand and those of you that are grief-adjacent (which is pretty much the EVERYONE).

ps - check out her stellar podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking.

History Nerd: Food & Design

As you all know I'm a bit of a history nerd and that includes the history of graphic design. One of my favourite periods of graphic design history is when they use to colourize B&W photos of food for both cookbooks and advertisements. To the modern eye, the photos looks absolutely disgusting but hey maybe if you've never seen coloured photos before you might just think they look delish! Below are some colourize photos that I found in a 1935 cookbook that belonged to my grandmother. My absolute fav photos in this book are the ones of the aspics, I find aspics to be weirdly fascinating. I love-hate them, the same way I love-hate colourized photos!

ps - If you find aspics interesting like me then check out food history podcast Foodstuff episode about aspics HERE.

Vintage Design: Kodak Vigilant Junior Six-20

I was visiting my dad the other day in suburbia, and one of his neighbours who was a friend of my late mothers gave me a vintage camera that she had lying around in storage. She knew that I was a collector so receiving this camera was a real treat. The camera she gave me is very different than the ones I already have in my collection. It's a Kodak Vigilant Junior Six-20 a compact camera from 1939 - 1945. It would have cost around $39 at the time it was sold which is roughly $600ish today. In the pictures below you can see why the camera is compact!

Life On The Big Screen: Sticky Notes

Sticky Notes is another great film that uses dark comedy to capture both the essence of what a complicated and life-changing experience it is to take care of a dying parent and the grief that follows such a prolific loss.

ps - its available to watch on Netflix.

i Design: New Personal Branding

On a whim last night I decided to update my logo into something more "2017". I felt like I had reached the point where I had moved past the crafty, DIY, etsy-esque look of my old logo. I'm really digging my new more minimalistic, sleek, sophisticated, techy looking logo ❤️.

Vintage Design: Coffee Tins

I found these vintage beauties rusting away in my father's garage. My father inherited them from my Mom's dad, and for two generations they've been used to hold nuts, bolts, odds & sods. These treasures are now mine to clean up and put on display in my apartment! I'm starting to have quite the vintage tin collection. 

Artsy Fartsy: Cross Stitching

Cross stitching is making a come back in a very modern way. However, I still have an appreciation for cross stitching of the past like this piece that was created by my great-great-great grandmother in 1820 when she was eleven years old. Look at how detailed the almost 200-year-old piece is....