Ramblings and webcomics from LeEMS
Also newly available in my Etsy shop is Levi Levi and the Time Machine, the second chapter of Levi Levi.
I did some online shopping and got an awesome new purse in the mail the other day. But there’s a mystery! All the packaging on the purse was in Chinese. The label plaque on the front says: MEDE DE ITALY – CIANMI VEASRGE GOUTUAH….Via dei Cesa 16 Milano. Google translate says the first part is Dutch, meaning “Also the Italy.” Google translate says the next bit it actually Chinese, but offers no translation. Finally, Via Dei Cesa 16 Milano is actually Italian. It maps to a Via Antonio Cesari, 16.
There is no doorway for number 16 on Via Antonio Cesari, but there is some graphiti on the wall which reads: Muri Puliti Popolo Muto – machine translated as “walls clean dumb people.” …Or, could it be, dumb people clean walls? There is a police station at Via Antonio Cesari, 20.
What does it all mean?
So, we have this 1.3-2 gallon jug that we re-used, from crappy orange juice finished long ago, to water plants with when we’re not on the side of the house that has the watering can. The problem with using a watering jug instead of a can with a spout is the uncontrolled and harsh stream of water that can upset soil, especially around new plantings. My solution? look for a do-hickey that puts a spout on the jug — why buy another watering can?
Finding such a do-hickey was both harder and easier than expected. And it led me to an amazing site I should have known would be there already: Shapeways — a site to buy and sell 3-D printed fabulousness. Here is some fabulousness:
Featured examples:Solar System Models, Steampunk Cup and Saucer, Bosch Bird, Jackalope Skeleton, 3D Printed Right Hand, Cityscape Rings, Sprout bottle spout, Hyperspace Button.
This post is long overdue. First it took me forever to get frames for these gorgeous little pieces of artwork, then it look me forever to figure out how to hang them on our walls. Now, it has taken me forever to share. These prints came from the Etsy store of CoeyAndShy. In addition to gorgeous art prints, the CoeyAndShy store has gorgeous art on totes and scarves.
When you are next shopping around on Etsy, check them out!
Calamityware has a kickstarter for Don Moyer’s newest design! I am not sure if I have already talked about being a proud owner of a series one calamityware plate. I couldn’t resist! They are based on the old willow pattern china that has been sold for decades in all sorts of places. I have a full set of the red willow and the only way that calamityware could be better than it is, is if it came out in red. Seriously.
I have decided that Australia is the best place on the planet to find inventive utensils. It all began with a Kick Starter campaign for the ButterUp. For those of you who keep actual butter in their fridge and not spreadable margarine, you are familiar with the bread destroying inflexibility of the chilled substance. Many of you may have moved on to French butter keepers. If you are a Floridian, you may have tried French butter keepers and found our humid, fertile environment too mold rich for this method. You face a dilemma.
After the ButterUp, what flatware collection is complete without a spork? I tend to make a lot of chili and stew in Fall which are both too meaty and chunky for spoons and too liquidy for non spoons. A spork seemed like the best solution, but my initial searching found only camping utensils and collapsible picnic ware. I wanted a table top edition, something that could fit in with the rest of my flatware. I found Splayd Utensils.
Some people say that the spork was invented by General MacArthur while he was in the pacific (“Spork’s Weird History” on Salon), others trace the roots of the spork to icecream forks and runcible spoons. Whatever the true past of the spork, the splayd was invented in 1940 by Bill MacArthur (explanation for the General MacArthur myth?), who apparently wanted to save ladies and their tea dresses from balancing plates, forks, and knives at outdoor barbeques. Splayd Utensils are a beautiful step in the evolution of the spork. The straight edges aid in cutting without being sharp or dangerous when using the utensil like a spoon. The bowl is a little shallow for good liquid retention, but it does the job. I found a used set that, like the picture, has a very angular design. New Splayd Utensils are a bit curvier and can be ordered from Australia.
Last, but not least, and, I suppose, not really a utensil is the Memobottle. This is another Kick Starter that I found answered a very specific question: how to properly organize a bag that carries your files, your laptop, paper, tablet, etc., things that are all flat and rectangular, with a water bottle as well? The answer is to make the bottle flat and rectangular. I know there are many of you who never encounter this problem, who do not attend academic conferences or corporate business retreats. You may not need this, but everyone else, all you paper pushers, should seriously check it out when Memobottle is finally made available for purchase online.
I was window shopping on ebay for beautiful, house appropriate goodies. I don’t have room or purpose for these, but aren’t they just darling?!
Years ago, when I wore clogs and Birkenstocks under my slightly too long jeans, I loved socks. I had them all, fuzzy, toe-socks, rainbow, argyle and chunky knits. Then I changed my whole style; started wearing skirts instead of pants, and suddenly, my sock collection didn’t quite work. I needed knee socks, or over the knee socks, or tights or fancy secret lingerie for my feet. And I wasn’t going to find them.
I got lucky a couple of times in the sock section of mainstream retail stores, but soon, I couldn’t find anything that would cover my fat calves. Partly because I’m a big girl and partly because I really enjoyed the calf rosie machine at my highschool, my calves are about 18.5 inches round the middle. No store around here was going to help me rekindle my sock love and buying online was too risky, what with not being able to do any type of stretch test. Enter Sock Dreams – Unique Comfy Colorful Sexy Socks.
I found Sock Dreams while searching for tights. I figured there had to be a pair of tights out there that were more like footed leggings than sausage casings. I mean, that’s what hosiery feels like to me when hopping into it in the morning: sausage casings. My search lead me to Sock Dreams where I not only found the closest thing to footed leggings I could imagine (Signature Cotton Tights by Foot Traffic), but also knee highs and over the knees that could accommodate my fat calves.
But selection isn’t what makes Sock Dreams so amazing. Almost every pair of socks, stockings and tights on Sock Dreams has a descriptive blurb about how well the socks fit on a variety of models, how much they stretch and whether they stay up or no. Sock Dreams does the stretch test for you! My first shopping trip was like wandering through wonderland, and my first delivery was fast, fitting, and perfect. If you love socks, if you’ve never found the right sock, if you are skinny or curvy, Sock Dreams will have something you will love. That is all.
It’s been awhile, but we all know what I do when I can’t find exactly the right thing while shopping. I draw it! Wish I had the ability to make these too.
Okay, there are a couple in there that are not from Etsy, but Etsy is an excellent place to find excellent indie comics. And find I did…
As You Were, an anthology comic available through Silver Sprocket
Best Day Ever by Sammy Borras
Bunny Behavior and Tigris & Vulpes by Lindsey Green
Minutiae by Aijung Kim
Monster Heart mini comic from Brogan Coral Kingsley
Poor Mick from Kat Martin‘s Etsy shop
Werebears and Only Children Minicomic from the Werebears shop of Jennifer Barrett
Whisper Grass a side comic of the Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal by E.K. Weaver
Witchling by Renee Nault
Surviving Whole Foods | Kelly MacLean = hilarious article.
I found these ties while I was searching for a straight razor tie tack for Richard. Instead, I got him a straight razor tie. The ties at Cyberoptix TieLab are gorgeous and truly do not suck, as they say.
Yo! I just bought these shoes:
Amazon.com: Aravon Women’s Maura T-Strap Pump,Black,10 D US: Shoes.
And I have to tell you all the reasons they are so awesome. 1.) I always wanted t-strap shoes. There is an old-time class about them without being crazy stuffy (like patent leather). However, the make of most t-strap shoes and the make of my feet never got along. You see, I have a size 10, maybe 10.5 foot that was born flat (of all the things flat feet means, for me the most annoying is width) and I have gotten used to shopping size 11 because all shoe stores carry whole sizes in medium/narrow width. Sizing up doesn’t help with certain shoe designs, like a t-strap. But THESE SHOES come in wide and half sizes. With the ultimate comfort of leather molding to the foot as it warms and a great insole: these are comfy!
2.) I was already captured by the construction and size options while ‘window’ shopping. I figured I’d save up for the ~$120 purchase (~ for inaccurate memory). A week ago, I was going over my saved shopping list and saw that they had been repriced at ~$36. Holy Cannoli, Batman! I must have those shoes.
3.) Even though I was relatively hopeful because of the sizing and construction (boxy toe for my Birkenstock feet), I have only had few and bad experiences buying shoes online. But they came and they are the awesomest of awesome. I wore them all yesterday with only a couple tiny spots on my feet that will need breaking in.
I am now greedy and spoiled. I need to replace my brown shoes as well with something equally as awesome…and, I am having no luck. Truly amazing shoes are, after all, few and far between.
my husband and friends have heard my diatribe during my long and clumsy search of a new shampoo. you see, I used to use herbal essences and then it changed formulas and everything had cocoa butter. I mourned the loss of the herby tea like scents and grumbled over having to seek something else in the fruity cocoa buttery world of shampoo. I don’t like the smell of the buttery. anyway, long story kind of shorter, when I was in the drug store the other day I found this. I didn’t know if it was back-stock found in a box somewhere or if the wonderful tea smelly herbaceous wonderment of hair care is coming back from the breach, but I bought it and will indulge my sense nostalgia to its fullest just the same.
lo and behold, when I got home I saw a commercial reminiscent of the original hair washing on the plane commercial from way back when. Herbal Essences has heard my plea and this was no back-stock. yes!
This is kind of really awesome: The World’s First 3D Printing Pen that Lets you Draw Sculptures | Colossal. A pen that spits out instantly hardening plastic that allows you to draw in air. It reminds me of Picture Pages and “Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings.”
