Most of you know that I love me some cameras. And that usually means Nikon over other brands. Earlier in the year I purchased a small, pretty cheap digital "pocket" camera to have on hand for quick snapshots and the like. It was pretty great, considering the price, except that I lost it somehow in October. Since then I've been biding my time (you've noticed, perhaps, the dearth of new Hazel photos? yeah that's why) until Black Friday. I knew someone would have something good on sale then, and sure enough, Target listed the Nikon S203 for $50 off:
A couple of samples from a recent product shoot, of a different shiny reflective product...
I received a beautifully done, wax sealed wedding invitation today from Harmony and Alex. Congratulations!
I met this young couple 2 years ago in London and remember we had a nice chat in an Italian restaurant one night, very inquisitive minds. I hope they still keep that in their spirits and don't let works bog them down. I'm not going to give you guys funny marriage quotes or advices, but let's see what I can find from an anagram of your names…… Harmony + alex…… "X-ray manhole"…. ok suppose marriage is like a manhole and... ok it means nothing….. here you go "Hoy! Relax man!" This I will sign in your guest book, and remember this gold sentence throughout your life!
Dear Grim Reaper: This past year you took away the following: My favorite Comedian (George Carlin), my favorite sidekick (Ed McMahon), my favorite dancer (Michael Jackson), my favorite actress (Farrah Fawcett) and my favorite pitch-man (Billy Mays). I just wanted to write a quick note and let you know that my favorite politician is SARAH PALIN! Thank you.
As I sit here with my coffee, I'm thinking ahead to the upcoming Christmas season. It brings about a certain feeling of both frustration and makes me feel just a little bit crazy. It seems that for the past several years I've struggled a lot with finding my Christmas Spirit.
I remember clearly last year when we finally arrived home Christmas evening after all of the family gatherings and gift exchanging thinking..."Wow it's finally over." Then I was suddenly filled with a slight feeling of joy inside that I had come through yet another Christmas alive. I actually joked with Bart all Christmas Season last year that all I wanted for Christmas was January 1st. For that year to just be over, fast forward through the holidays straight to the new year.
I wonder when it happened....
I wonder when I stopped getting excited about Christmas and instead started feeling a sense of dread and drudgery about the whole season.
Don't get me wrong, I love the whole food aspect of the holiday season,(Just take one look at my ass and you can TELL that.), but what I despise is the whole sense of consumerism in it. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, whatever you call it....people trampling each other for cheap plastic crap from china...I just don't get it!
You know when I do my Chritsmas Shopping? Generally between December 18th and Christmas Day. Payday is the 1st and the 20th for me so that's when I have money.
I always tell myself every year, "I'm going to get it all done before Thanksgiving.." and it never happens that way..EVER.
I don't use credit cards, I hate them, I think they are evil and get you into trouble. We're pretty much a cash only family, if you can't pay cash for it then you don't need it. The exception to the rule on this is cars and really big items like our house.
I know some people who spend literally THOUSANDS of dollars on Christmas on credit cards, and struggle all year to pay it back. Sorry but that kind of takes all the joy out of it. We buy what we can afford to buy and move on. It's Christmas, it's not worth going into debt or going hungry for.
I love giving gifts, but hate feeling like I didn't spend quite enough on people, and maybe they didn't like what I got them. It's almost as if some people feel like the dollar amount you spent is equal to how much you care about them.
I generally make up HUGE batches of homemade fudge and other treats and package them up for gift giving. I'll give those to friends and family either alone as a gift or with something else as an add-on gift.
Getting gifts is great, but still makes me feel a little uncomfortable, especially if what I get from someone obviously cost more than what I spent on them. It's a vicious cycle.
A couple of years ago I said to hell with it all and just started buying Master Card Gift Cards from my bank for all of the people on my list 12 and over. It took a lot of stress out of my holiday shopping and I felt it was a great gift because then the recipient could go and pick out whatever they needed or wanted. (Our local bank offers Master Card Gift Cards with no hidden fees and no expiration dates. They make great gifts and you get them directly from the teller and they take the money directly out of your bank account when you purchase them. I think they make GREAT gifts, and it's a really great service.)
If you needed a tank of gas, or a haircut, or a lunch out, or a new sweater you could make the choice yourself what to spend the money on. I personally LOVE gift cards for anything.
As a matter of fact I have let it be known to all that might be shopping for me this year that I want gift cards for Lowes for Christmas. Why? Because for the past year I have been without a working dishwasher, and it would thrill my heart to no end to be able to put all of my Christmas Gift Cards together and purchase one.
Hand washing dishes for 5 people has become a nightmare chore for me, and my hands, and my nails. I can't even imagine how joyful it would be to be able to just load all the dirty dishes into a machine and close the door and walk away. I think it would be downright heavenly.
Of course if I don't wind up getting a dishwasher for Christmas it won't be the end of the world. We'll just save our pennies and other change for awhile and get one ourselves.
And on that note I'm going to hit publish on this post and go and try to find something productive to do....there's plenty of dishes in the sink that need washin'!
Here's some more photos of the real Moleskine Surprise boxes I've received on Monday. Last year when the Volant series was launched, collaborating with Moleskine Asia, we created beautifully designed envelopes for people to put colorful Volants in and send as Xmas gift. From our experience with huge Moleskine display during City Notebook's TOKYO/KYOTO release, we know people would love a gift box in the form of a Moleskine notebook for this Xmas. In addition, the retail price is almost like 30% off buying the contents individually. Its never done before.
What's unique about these boxes is that when sending them as gifts, you can almost certain they are on the top of your can't-go-wrong gift list, no matter what the content is. That's one big achievement as a brand. But don't get it wrong, these boxes aren't one of those quick and dirty ways some retailers would do to clean up old stocks, they are thoughtfully designed into themes for customers to choose easily when they think of their gift recipients.
For a more elaborated present, you may find it hard to stuff these big boxes into a Xmas hamper, but that's the point isn't it, a hamper full of discovery… and surprises. I can tell you the Luxury, For Him and For Her sleeves are the most handsome, they can be easily adapted to your hamper's color theme.
To give you an idea how large these boxes are, I've put some pocket and large sized Moleskines beside the box. There's plenty of space still to add more stuffs to your present, and again the box is not only a nice packaging but can be doubled as a storage box approximately the size of an A4 paper (unfortunately because of the round corners, an A4 paper cannot be laid flat inside).
It will be great fun to assemble your own perfect stationery Xmas gift box based on these. Put in a few more interesting products like MT masking tapes, Amadana calculator, rubber stamps, etc and a personal note written with ink and paper, voilà! A thoughtful and useful gift. The Moleskine Surprise Boxes are going to arrive city'super and LOG-ON before this weekend. For a list of available countries in Asia, please contact Moleskine Asia.
Today I finished blocking the Clapotis I have been working on for my grandmother:
Sorry people, I thought I could post some more photos of the Moleskine Surprise Boxes tonight but I screwed up with the photos I took today. The colors were just plain wrong under office lighting. I'll just post here a sepia preview first, hopefully I will be able to find a good spot to take photos again during the day. Stay tuned.
Here you go a collage book cover for 1Q84 made from scrap materials, MT masking tapes, printed photos and glassine envelope. Today I could only find time to read 2 pages because of errands to run. Call it tantric reading pleasure :)
Saddleback Leather briefcase. Overpriced? I think so but I own one, 100 year warranty, no breakable parts, smell great and handsome. Heavy? At least 6.5 lbs. by itself yes, but I carry it every day. Most of the time I use it as a knapsack, it can be converted back to a messenger bag or briefcase in seconds. Get ready to spend hours on their web site exploring all the stories and customer photos.
Dig deeper into Saddleback's Facebook fan page, you will find some lively discussions over there. Dave Munson, founder of Saddleback, is now hosting a Christmas Suitcase Giveaway here! Anybody can join, just take a picture of what you would carry to fill up a large satchel if someone were to give you one for Christmas, you can even draw or paint that picture and it is legit. The judges of this >US$865 prized suitcase are the Saddleback Leather fans, the person with the most commented picture in the fan page wins. Deadline is midnight Texas time 15th Dec, 2009. Go for it no matter what!
