I like Girls

I'm kind of out of the loop when it comes to series television. Being a full time working mother with two rambunctious kids, the only regular tv shows I watch are on Nick or Nick Jr. I think I've seen every Max & Ruby, Dora The Explorer, and Ni Hao Kai Lan shows there ever was and for that matter I've seen them more than once. 

So when I started watching the hit HBO show, Girls, I had no idea it was on it's second season - that's how behind on the times I am. I literally got into this show that I ended up watching the entire first season on my IPhone in one day. Now I'm caught up and make it a point to watch it on Sunday nights. 

The critics say it's similar to "Sex and the City," but to be honest, I never watched one episode of that show. The show it resembles to me is one of my favorite shows of the 1990s - Felicity. Felicity is also about young friends in New York City. Hannah is like Felicity, although more wordy and with tattoos. Marnie is like Felicity's uptight friend, Elena.  Jessa resembles Felicity's cool, yet tad weird friend Meghan.  You can even say Hannah's gay ex-boyfriend, now roommate, is like Felicity's Javier (who is still one of my favorite characters that ever inhabited tv-land).  As for Adam? He's Ben, only more troubled and definitely a little psychotic. Girls is like Felicity, but way more funny and definitely filthy (in a good way).

Believe it or not, a lot of men love Girls too. The show is smartly written and the mistakes and issues these girls go through is definitely relatable to men as well. Problems with relationships and jobs is something everyone can relate to. The characters in this show are not perfect, in fact, they are all a bit narcissistic, self-absorbed and sometimes unlikeable. The friendships aren't all "lend me your ear" or "I'm here for you," but more real, brutal and honest. 

This is not some chick show. Check it out if you can.

hipster animals

Dyna Moe became known when she did illustrated scenes of the show Mad Men, she has since branched out and created a wonderful world of hipster animals which can be seen on her tumblr. She was influenced by the drawings of Richard Scarry, but she gives it her own twist by her cool, a tad bit pretentious, sometimes trendy, animal characters, all drawn with Dyna's tongue-in-cheek humor.  

The hipster animals are everywhere now. No longer are your children's rooms decorated with cutesy bunnies, kittens and puppies, but with more intelligent, sophisticated woodland animals (nothing says "intelligent" than a hedgehog with glasses, Harry Potter glasses that is).

I'll name this guy "Harry the Hedgehog" who likes to read "War and Peace" in his spare time...for the 100th time.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox like to sit together drinking their English Tea and chatting about the Fiscal Cliff.

Ruthie the Deer spends her days in the museum wishing she could inhabit a Seurat painting. 

Oscar the Owl, who is an accountant by day, but designs irreverent clothing at night (those Charlie Brown stripes with the space invader jacket is so....hip).

I've always been a duck fan. Growing up my family had ducks for pets (yes pets). Ducks always seemed so clumsy, yet cute. Clumsy and cute no longer, in homage to my post theme, I've created my own hipster duck:

Meet Lulu the disinterested lifestyle blogger.  Lulu is more interested in enjoying her cup of coffee than taking a picture of it or blogging about her experience at the newest cafe down the street.  She is just too hip for it all (but of course once she is done with her cup of coffee, she'll go right on blogging about the salted caramel brulee she is about to consume, because it's that good).

What a cubicle dweller dreams of...

Take a look at this photo:

Are you thinking Austin Powers? Something groovy? Sexy? This velvety lounge of goodness is actually one of Google's office spaces in London, England. Come on, who can get any work done in this lounge, my fifteen minute break can easily turn into hours of snoozing and relaxation. 

I prefer mine "shaken, not stirred."

This luxe office deserves a luxe stapler - maybe it uses gold staples?

My business cards will look all fancy pants snuggled in these Jonathan Adler card holders.

All this manly grooviness deserves some feminine charms.  This Kate gold and pink calendar would fit the bill. 

I wonder if there are actually cubicles in these Google offices? Just use "Google" to search the other Google offices around the world and see where all those creative minds come together.

(Google office photos found via)

Paper Cutting Art

I absolutely love the art of paper cutting. The intricacies of this art is unbelievable. It takes a combination of imagination and precision to create them.  The extent of my paper cutting skills were the paperdolls I made as a child, so to see something like the following is mind-blowing:

(Bovey Lee)

The art of paper cutting originated in 6th century China and now all parts of the world have their version of it. In my Filipino culture, the parols (which began as a traditional star shape lantern) were originally made using paper (the newer versions use capiz).

The famous children's author, Hans Christian Andersen, was a famous paper cutter. He often used his own cuttings to illustrate his stories.

The following are some artists works that I find amazing:

(Sher Christopher)

(Chloe Fleury)

(Elsa Mora)

(Fideli Sundqvist)

This is where an X-Acto Knife and a whole helluva imagination can take you!

(parol photo via, Hans Christian Andersen via)

Photo Art

One of my favorite classes I ever had in high school was my sophomore year photo class. I learned to love the camera and the ability it had to make your subject look like art. I am still a huge fan of using your photographs as a home decor element. It's not only personal, but sometimes can be quite inexpensive as well.

Some of my favorite home decor shots are the ones using large celebrity photographs as art on their walls. Being a fan of the world of home design, pop culture and photography, it's the perfect combination.

The following photo collage is such a fantastic way to display your personal photos in a stylish and artistic way.  I've begun my own project to frame my children's photos through the years this way. 

Polaroid Art.  A simple idea of arranging your polaroids into a heart shape and then taping it to canvas.  Love it.

Next time don't relegate all your photos to an album - frame it, hang it and be proud of it. 

(photos found here, here and here; if anyone knows the source of the Paul Newman photo, please advise)

Art is everywhere

You know I'm envious of anyone who can look at a crack on a wall and create art out of it. 

OakOak is a french artist who uses the urban landscape as his canvas. 

What I love about this guy is that he is says he is a "pen pusher" by day and not a trained artist, but his street art does what art is supposed to do - creates emotion in a visual way. They definitely make me smile.

Check out his blog and see how "graffiti" doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Have a seat

It's no secret that I'm a huge movie fan. If we're lucky enough to afford a bigger house, I would like to devote one room as a theater room. I'm not a fan of big, poufy, lazy-boy chairs sitting in the middle of our common living spaces, but I'm all for having big, poufy, leather entertainment chairs sitting in a secluded, darken theater room. Yes, I'm a anti-man chair kind of person. 

But what would I like sitting in the common spaces of our house? Vintage movie theater seats. 

These seats are similar to kilim rugs - the old world charm mixes well with the modern decor. 

You can practically place these seats anywhere in your home and it would blend in nicely with it's surroundings.

They may not be the most comfortable things to sit on, but then again if you want comfort than feel free to get one of those big, poufy, lazy-boy chairs to place your Big Gulp and bag of popcorn on and I'll join you in a darken theater room.    

(photos via here, here, here)

What a cubicle dweller dreams of...

I work in the insurance industry. The offices are everything you expect the insurance industry to look like - professional and certainly lacking in vibrancy and creativity. That's why I get a little jealous seeing office spaces that look, for lack of a better word, FUN.

Lego's office in Denmark is what you would think a Lego office should be - bright, colorful and oodles of fun. It has a slide for pete's sake!

The following Lego table is not in the Denmark office, but it might as well be. This brilliant piece of furniture was put together by abgc architecture and design using over 22,000 pieces of legos. 

And just for good measure, I had to throw in this Lego print...because it just makes me go ahhh!

(photos via lostateminor, dezeen, cubeme)

Art is everywhere

I really appreciate individuals who can see art in something we may find ordinary. It's a gift that I wish we can all have. Imagine a world full of art - that would be nirvana to me.

One such artist is Brock Davis. Brock Davis does mostly commercial work, but a majority of his projects have an underlying humor to it.  You know when your parents used to say "don't play with your food"? Well, there is always exceptions when you make things like Mr. Davis does.

If this guy wasn't cool enough, he even designed t-shirts for one of my favorite stores - Tar-zhay or as us common folks call it "Target." 

For the pessimist in me, Brock Davis even created a poster where he re-imagined a classic video game without the proverbial happy ending. 

The next time you look at that boring piece of potato sitting on your plate, think art and you'll be all the better for it. 

(all photos via Brock Davis)