First Aid

This is one of the best thrift store finds I've ever come across. St. John Ambulance First Aid book from the early 60s. Ya gotta love the fellas in suits doing first aid. The colour scheme and illustrations are supreme. Handy book to have around - you never know when you'll have to turn a lady's eyelid inside out. The best part was when I was about to buy this, the guy who worked at Goodwill said "you know this is out of date, right?".

Oliver Owl and the Old Boots

When I was walking through the park, I saw a pile of old discarded books and newspapers strewn about on a bench. Most were in rough shape, but I found this little gem from the early 70s amongst the ruins. I love the illustrations. It was a good find if I do say so myself.

Miniature Gardens

I got this book from the 1970s on terrariums and miniature gardens at a used book sale for a quarter. For some reason, house plants always make me think of the 70s. Could be because Janet from Three's Company worked in a plant shop, so their apartment had loads of plants. But pictures of my mom in the 70s always show her in houses with loads of house plants too. Regardless, I enjoy plants and I enjoy 70s style, so I made these miniature gardens.

Alex Pardee

Alex Pardee has art work that is sweet as a nut, sweet like tropicana. I enjoy the colour combos and the drippy effect he's got going on.

An Etsy Find

PersephonePlus has fantastic jewelry up on Etsy. I'd love to learn how she makes it, so I can give it a go.
Her style is great - it's art nouveau meets romanticism with some pop culture splash. I love the subject matter of the portraits. Each one seems to tell a story.

Sukie

I like these. They are from Sukie, which I believe is a husband and wife design team based in the UK. They have a great retro road trip feel to them. They fill me with a sense of nostalgia for an era i wasn't even alive in.

Apartment arts and crafts

These are light switch plates that I made. Super easy to do.
The top one is of course a poster from Georges Méliès A Trip To The Moon.
For that one here are the steps:
1. Take light switch off wall
2. Print and cut whatever picture you want so that its edges can cover the whole switch.
3. White glue the image to the plate
4. With an exacto knife, cut an X where the rectangular hole is
5. Fold the flaps in. Add extra glue to make them stick if necessary.
6. With the exacto knife, cut little Xs where the screw holes are and push them in using a sharp pencil (or the screws that go in them)
6. After the glue is dry, spray using Krylon Crystal Clear. Do about 3 coats, letting each coat dry for about ten minutes. Make sure you do this in a well ventilated area. I don't have a balcony so i had to do it in my apartment near an open window. That wasn't nearly well ventilated enough and i think i lost about 174 brain cells.
7. Screw back into wall and enjoy.

For the other style, I got the images from a sweet early 70's French comic book i scored at a garage sale. The steps for that one are:
1. Take light switch off wall.
2. Paint switch whatever colour you want.
3. Cut out images and white glue them on, but make sure you leave the holes open.
4. Once the glue is dry, spray with Krylon Crystal Clear. 3 coats, waiting ten minutes between each coat.
5. Screw back into wall and enjoy.

I'm going to do more of these soon. It's an easy way to add charming details to the ole apartment.

magnificent!

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
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Stunning photos of the universe like these always fill me with such awe. I once read that there are more galaxies in the universe than grains of sand in a typical sized sandbox. Each galaxy contains billions of stars and each star is light years apart.

We are tiny.

Furthermore, this will quite literally put you in your place: