cute tape

it's the start of the fall semester for me, so i've had a hectic week all last week. of course, my favorite thing is back to school shopping. i love perusing art supply and office supply stores for pens, inks, paints and paper of course. i had a long list of things i needed for a rapid visualization class - which is a class where we learn to sketch quickly to render ideas. i needed pens, markers, pencils, drafting triangles, all the standard stuff, some of which i had already.

but every time i step into an art supply store to buy required items for school i always leave with at least one or two miscellaneous items...my fun purchase this time is this deco tape on sale for 1.99 at blick.



i ended up with 2 rolls! the one on the left, i bought several months ago at full price $4 because i couldn't resist. but i'm happy to buy them at half the price.

incoming/outgoing mail

here's my incoming letters! i love all the red, especially the wax seal which makes everything look official. i just bought some red sealing wax after receiving that letter from maureen. also in this photo are mini zines about india's post office and rubber stamp industry by alice, a letter from carolee who always has great handwriting and a photocopied typewriter manual for my smith corona + letter from donovan. all in all i had a good mail week!






here's some shots of my outgoing mail, which i still need to catch up on. i was excited to buy new stamps from my local post office and i bought the owney the dog stamps (he was a dog that traveled on mail trains in the 1890s) and of course the beautiful pixar stamps, which are here and even more exciting is that they are coming out with a second set of pixar characters including nemo, monster's inc, jessie and woody, the incredibles and a bug's life.

housewarming gift

my sister, anna recently moved out to have her own studio apartment. we went home goods shopping at Daiso, of course. it was the one trip where i only bought only one item from that store. i'm not sure how that was possible.

i was thinking about what to give as a housewarming present, sure a pretty bowl or tea towels would have been great - except i have never used tea towels. all i know is that they look pretty. but rather than the classic bottle of wine or vase, why not a giant pencil as a gift?

we have a small collection of giant objects that are normally very small, like a muni transfer, paper clip, clothespin and pen. so the giant pencil was the obvious addition for her new apartment.

i just tied some baker's twine and added a manila tag. some gifts don't need much wrapping.