Six random and only vaguely related things that I’m loving this week:

• “Snacks of the Great Scribblers” from the New York Times (a portion of which is shown above).
• Beyond the Perf’s 2012 stamp preview (I’m loving the cherry blossom design).
• Fab.com’s daily design bargins.
• Hipster Puppies– I feel this is pretty self-explanatory.
• Pinwheels and their symbolism
• The “Airmail Origami” T-Shirt from Milatree on Etsy (found via Good Mail Day… I think.  Pictured below.)

One of my most favorite Etsy shops belongs to Wonderland Room.  When I need to stock up on washi tape, Japanese or Korean stationery, and other clever paper goods I always browse there.  Just look what I found this weekend– the Happy Postbox!  If only I knew enough Korean to know what the happy postbox is saying here:

What are all those postboxes doing out there in the woods?  I don’t know!  But soon, a yellow one is going to be my very own– I hope it doesn’t run off.  Or, if it does, that it returns to me full of postcards, letters, and other goodies from its sylvan adventures.

Here is the thing, as a soon-to-be full time student, I feel that I shouldn’t just agree to spend $38 per month every month.  And yet, here is this awesome thing called Lost Crates that promises:

Each month you will receive a “crate” of items, ranging from classic notebooks from the best known brands, to hidden gems from undiscovered boutique brands and individuals. You will get anywhere from one to four products in your crate, including notebooks, travel journals, pens, pencils, tape dispensers, etc.

Has anyone out there signed up yet?  What sorts of things have you received?  I’m so intrigued… It’s just expensive enough, however, to put it out of the price range I’m willing to commit to right now.  After all, $38/month is very nearly $500/year!

(Thanks to Ariel for pointing me in Lost Crates’ direction)

Remember when I said I was going to stop cut back on buying new stationery and start making my own?  Well, this Emergency Correspondence Card Kit from Architette has made that difficult.  Mighty difficult, in fact.  As someone who cannot draw, I have a tremendous amount of respect for those who can.  Plus, I adore the whole technical drawings of non-technical things aesthetic– and Architette does that really, really well.  Seriously, check her out today.

Hyejung Bae, a graphic designer whose work is new to me, made this great poster displaying the evolution of the QWERTY keyboard and the typewriter’s contribution to that evolution.  Plus, the post includes some super cool shots of deconstructed typewriters.  Sadly, it doesn’t look like Bae has prints for sale… Too bad, because this would look awesome on my future (perfect) office wall.

Also found this via NotCot

Heather K. Phillips designed these Stamps of Disapproval.  I’m a fan– there are times in my personal and professional life that these would come in handy.  Oh, and if you used StazOn ink, you could even disapprove of all sorts of public signs…  They are available for purchase from Schooled.  Now, which one really captures my feelings most of the time?  Probably, “I’m not convinced.”

Found via NotCot

Just a quick note, I’m really digging the postcards that Found Image Press puts out.  Lately, almost every set f postcards I pick up comes from them. They’ve got some really great ones for DC (and it’s kind of hard to find tasteful, not too in-your-face postcards in this town). In fact, I love almost every postcard in their “sayings and questions” category.  Loads of good life advice there.

Do pop over there and see what they’ve got (and they’ve got a lot of good stuff).

Note: I’m not paid by nor affiliated with Found Image Press.  I just really like their stuff.

It seems awfully early to start the calendar obsessing, I think I said something about holding off until November 1, but there are just too many good ones to keep quiet.  Herewith, links to just a few of the calendars that are catching my eye:

• Pie Bird Press’ 2011 Seasonal Produce Calendar
• Plasticouture’s Until 2044, steel working perpetual calendar necklace in silver (image above)
• Atherton Lin’s Under The Sea 2011 Calendar (image below. I had their 2010 calendar and loved it)
• DekAnimal’s Little Colorful Peacock 2011 poster calendar
• Sadly Harmless’ Adventures 2011 Calendar
• 74 Lime Lane’s 2011 Calendar Letters desk calendar

Have you joined Design Crush’s 2011 Calendar Swap?  You have to Saturday evening if you want to join.

Spent much of this week in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area.  We arrived Saturday afternoon, surprised a dear friend (he knew I was coming, but not that Jon would join me), and spent most of the next 36 hours drinking strong, west coast coffee, eating great Indian food, wandering, shopping for stationery, and generally remembering why we’re all friends (giggles, puns, political debates).

Oh and my inner west-coast-coffee-snob is back in full force.  Man, it really is better out there.  I had Tuesday afternoon to myself; I spent it walking around the modern art museum, popping into coffee shops to warm up and sample the goods, and exploring downtown San Francisco.

SFMoMA has only one floor open at the moment, it’s a 75-year retrospective of the museum.  I had no idea that even back in the 1930s a woman was the museum’s director.  Should’ve known California would be a bit more progressive, especially in the modern art arena, than the spots back east.  Much of the exhibition was paintings, sculpture, and drawings.  However, there was a nice design presence in the show.  My heart almost skipped a beat when I saw this display of Olivetti typewriters.  It made up for the fact that two of the galleries I wanted to visit, the Prelinger Library and the John Held Jr. show at the Ever Gold Gallery, were both closed on Tuesday.  Happily, Red Letter Day’s Jennie Hinchcliff has a write up and some snaps from the latter.  As for the former, as my mother likes to say, “it’s always good to have a reason to go back.”

I’m sure that you don’t need me to tell you just how wonderful SF’s stationery shops are.  Between the incredible supplies I picked up in Japan Town (do you see that wall of adhesives?) to the great selection of some favorites from the blogoshere at shops in the Mission (and at SFMoMA’s gift shop), I’ve fully restocked my supplies.

After my meeting wrapped up on Tuesday, I went into SF and wandered.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, I ended up at the public library.  The photo above is the view from the desk I found on the 5th floor.  Sunset, a pretty building out the window of a library, and a good book is pretty much the best way to end a day in my world.

I’m on my way to San Francisco now, but I wanted to share this with you.  Just yesterday I came across what is sure to be a new favorite blog, Design Crush.  Seriously friends, why did you not tell me about this corner of the internet?  Of course, this might be for the best for my pocket book but… on the other hand, OH MY GOSH THERE IS SO MUCH GOOD STUFF THERE!  I spent ahem more time than I should’ve ahem at work looking through the site and its archives.

Second, the lovely lady behind Design Crush is hosting a 2011 calendar swap!  Oh yes, yes, yes.  Do we really have to go into how hard it is for me to pick just one little, bitty calendar each year?  Finally, an excuse to buy two (at least).  It is a bit of a pricey swap, $20 minimum, but I’m happy to get one picked out for me. If you’d like to join in you have until Oct. 31 to sign up.

I’m going to try to hold off on the calendar obsessing until at least November 1.  But… while poking around in Design Crush’s archives I did come across this day planer which might actually be perfect.