You’re My Obsession: Debbie Millman, European Delicacies, Sassy Cats and Extra Yarn

HOW Questionnaire with Debbie Millman

My obsession with Debbie Millman started back in October when I was reading her awesome book Look Both Ways. That book inspired me so much, and if I could find the time to start reading again I’d love to read more of her work. I did have time to read this quick Q&A on HOW Magazine. Looks like Debbie will be speaking at the HOW Design Live conference in June. It would be so cool to be there for that!

It’s always fun to discover new-to-me artists. In the Q&A, Debbie chose Lawrence Weiner as her favorite. He does text-based art, which I love. Some of my favorite artists that use text as art are Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and Ed Ruscha.

Lawrence Weiner :: Photograph by Juliana Balestin via purple DIARY

Nutella and Biscoff Spread

Once upon a time, for whatever reason, I read a lot of food blogs. I say “for whatever reason” because I don’t cook. Or bake. Or sauté. I microwave, toast, press the power button on the coffeemaker, and order takeout. Drew does all of the cooking and baking around here, and he’s awesome at it. He also really enjoys it. 

Ever since I fell down the lifestyle and design blog rabbit hole, Drew has taken over food blog reading. When he finds something that he thinks I might enjoy, he shares it with me, like this article on Serious Eats that compares the American and Italian versions of Nutella. Like the writer of the article, eating Nutella makes me feel like this commercial too, only I feel this way regardless of what country the Nutella came from.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGC9bDDVsZs?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

Another awesome thing that Drew introduced me to last week is Biscoff spread. This stuff tastes like spreadable cookies in a jar! Why am I just finding out about this?

The Bobcats on The Oatmeal

My friend Georgia introduced me to this funny comic. If I were pitching this as a movie I would say that it’s like Office Space meets Dilbert meets Garfield.

Delicacy

Drew and I are going on a date this weekend! It’s hard to believe how rare it is that we actually see a movie in a theater these days. We’ll be seeing Delicacy featuring one of my favorite actresses, Audrey Tautou.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3eGgpxBlOo?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

 Sigh. I need to watch Amélie again.

Extra Yarn

I love children’s books. There are so many amazing designers, illustrators, and writers who produce work in this genre. This weekend when we visited Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, I was drawn to the cover of Extra Yarn.

This amazing book was written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen. Jon wrote and illustrated another cool book that we bought recently, I Want My Hat Back. Extra Yarn is the story of Annabelle, who lives in a town with a gray, black, and white color palette…until she finds a box filled with neverending colorful yarn and starts sprucing the place up a bit. I love this book! You can see a preview at HarperCollins.