I was fiddling around with some photoshop stuff (well, actually learning how to use it) and couldn’t resist matching the words (okay who doesn’t already own at least one version of this poster? We have a hand-drawn repro by Maira Kalman in the living room that I stare at every day) with these roosters we saw just hanging out on a lazy sunny afternoon (p.s. not in Brooklyn). 

Last weekend, a trip back in time to the Saugerties Lighthouse. A lovely Sunday of beautiful sights, new friends, and the most delicious buckwheat pancakes.

We saw this great fence when we were driving around upstate New York. Love it! Elsewhere: bookplates, Meet Your Printmaker, and I’m adding Alphabet City to my wishlist.

This morning I read an article in The New York Times about a hundred-and-one year old lady who started painting when she was sixty years old using a paint-by-numbers set her husband gave her. Coincidentally, a couple hours later when I was on the computer, I came across Something’s Hiding in Here’s new work, states, that uses old paint-by-numbers sets. And from some random googling because I was looking for a completely unrelated reference image, I came upon an old post at Drawn, about a paint-by-numbers charity auction at the Corey Helford Gallery (click on past shows, “Charity by Numbers”). Oooh. Very nice.

in Brooklyn are like the Empire State Building is to Manhattan. A bit cheesey, a bit of a cliche, but they always make a nice picture.

For those in New York, this Sunday is the opening of the Brooklyn Flea. We’d be there looking around at everything but we’ll be at a weekend getaway in an upstate New York lighthouse. Anyhow, this is not your typical flea market ~ with vendors including Greenjeans and a whole slew of designers  from Supermarket, I don’t really get what’s even flea-markety about it. So if you attend, don’t expect to be rummaging through the remains of some great-grandmother’s attic, but do expect to buy some really great craft and design pieces (most of them useful of course), and treat yourself to some cupcakes and other delicious baked goods.

Here are the event details: 10am to 5pm—rain or shine—starting April 6, 2008, at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Ave. It’s on every Sunday through the spring and summer, so if you’re around, stop by!

And for all you people near Oakland, Shawn wants to say he’d be at this print sale buying things if we weren’t on the other side of the country. Prints by The Small Stakes and Bloom Screen Printing, and talk about affordable art, each piece ranges between a whopping $5 to a wallet-friendly $25. It’s on this Friday night, April 4th, From 5:00 - 10:00. Bloom Screen Printing,2310 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612.

Lots of things to see: the third issue of Design for Mankind’s e-zine Inspiration (filled with gorgeous studio shots), we picked up The Acme Novelty Date Book Volume One over the weekend and I couldn’t stop looking at it, and there are so many mouth-watering sketchbook excerpts over at Book by It’s Cover.

even when they’re almost thirty. And of course he paints it blue.

Oh and check out Shawn’s new apron. We like! Made from a real vintage flour sack, you can get your own one here.

I think we need a corkboard to put up all the pics we like.

Elsewhere: amazing(!) vintage Japanese children’s illustrations, really clever designs by Jasmine Raznahan (had me chuckling), and Will Ashford’s play with words.

We heard it referred to that way in Sling and Arrows. Must be a Canadian thing. Oh and I should take this chance to tell you that I think Slings and Arrows is one of the best TV shows I’ve ever watched. We highly recommend, with two thumbs up.

Not so high on the we-think-you-should-try list, pizza from Patsy’s. We ate it after swimming the other day (and you know when you’re hungry everything tastes good). Even with voracious appetites we still couldn’t finish one small pie (and I can eat a lot). Patsy’s, the famous old coal-oven pizza place, seems to no longer live up to its reputation (well I’d only eaten it once before some five years ago, but it was pretty darn good back then). Oh and on the way out I read on the placquard that coal-ovens are no longer allowed in restaurants because they’re an environmental hazard but Patsy’s is proud to have one because it pre-dates the environmental regulations. Hmmm. I already contribute to my share of environmental decline by owning an air conditioner. I think I can pass on the pizza.

The leaves aren’t in yet; everything around seems to be some shade of red or brown.

We saw this cute tricycle when walking around Park Slope. I think I must be one of the few people who live in Brooklyn that doesn’t know how to ride a bike. Well, I’ve learned to, but I keep falling off.