You Feng Shui?

Feng Shui - Humorous Birthday Cartoon Greeting Card, at Amazon

So I'm cleaning up again (always) but - seriously now - I've got a whole lot of purging/arranging/painting/nailing ahead of me. As I lug furniture about, I've begun pondering the ancient Chinese art of feng shui.

The only thing I know, in compliance with this system, is that I'm not supposed to face a bed toward a door, a task that can prove challenging in Chicago's tradition of quaint and oddly-shaped bedrooms.

Since I just listed my only manual for sale on Amazon, I'm wondering...does feng shui really work?

Smart Art

You're Doing Everything Right, at Supermarket

The instant I saw this sweet print, it became my laptop wallpaper. Sometimes you just need that extra reassurance, you know?

Thanks to Laura George for creating the perfect motivational tool for and to the SCOOP for helping me find it.

6 & 7

Here are our weekend photos. Visit flickr to see the entire 6 & 7 collection.

Cardboard: left, Porcelain: right

Original inspiration by Stephanie & Mav at 3191

Weekend Flings

• Manuel Dominguez Jr. Can 6/7 With Us Any Day (seen above)
• A Pee-Pee Map
• Chantix: Smoking Might be Better
• Celebrities. Invisible Bikes.
• Roadsworth is Worthy

If you're new around here and have no idea what this list means, click HERE for a brief and witty explanation.

Bonus Bone: Vintage industrial lamp

Vintage industrial lamp, at ebay

I always love checking out Leah's list of ebay finds. When I saw this lamp, I audibly gasped!! If that isn't a sign that this should be a Bonus Bone, I don't know what is!

For these reasons, I, Porcelain, declare this a Design Boner.

Do It Your Own D*mn Self

Crystals, leather, lace, fringe, notions, plastic bags, sequins, and much more crafty goodness is for sale this weekend for super cheap.

Details:
Do It Your Own D*amn Self - Craft supplies for super cheap
Saturday, March 28
12-4 pm
Pulaski Park Field House
1419 W. Blackhawk, Chicago

Sip 'n' Save

Teacup Tiles, at Up to You (Click on GIFT IDEAS to Find It)

Each tile is its own cup - a tea-sized container I'd fill with bottle caps, buttons, organic gumdrops, loose cents...

Or maybe, I'd just put my weed in there.

Mama Cardboard is One Lucky Lady

Photoshop Magic: Happy Birthday, Mama C! & Cool CHAIN Box/6

Well, whatta you know! Mama Cardboard saw our post on the SCOOP's second birthday and decided to try her luck...which appears to be plentiful. She is one of the lucky winners!

I fully expect to receive one of these Orange Beautiful paper goods in the mail (along with a newspaper clipping on Denver real estate and an update about who just got married/had a baby/started taking dance classes).

Love you, Mama C! I need to rub your head for luck!

Tofu & Pasta Necessity

Pasta a la Bamboo

You guys have to try this recipe! I don't care if ham-on-the-bone or skirt steak is your favorite, try this:

Pasta w/Fried Tofu, Roasted Peppers, Olives *
Serves 4

16 ozs extra-firm tofu, cubed
3 tbsp canola (etc) oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
7-oz jar of roasted red peppers, drained and diced
10 black olives, pitted and halved
1/2 cup fresh parsley sprigs, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 handfuls of pasta (rigatoni?)

In a large frying pan, fry the tofu in the canola oil until golden brown. Stir and flip occasionally.
Transfer to a large bowl, and drizzle with the soy sauce. Toss well and set aside. Save the pan!
In a large pot, bring several quarts of water to a boil. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the water.
Meanwhile, in the same tofu frying pan, saute the garlic in the olive oil for 30 seconds. Add the peppers, and cook 2 minutes longer.
Stir in the olives, parsley, basil, salt and pepper and tofu. Toss well.
Stir the reserved pasta water into the sauce. Cook for 1 minute.
Place the pasta in a serving bowl, and pour on the sauce. Mix well, sprinkle on the Parmesan, toss, and serve.

* Adapted from Giant Book of Tofu Cooking

6 & 7

Here are our weekend photos. Visit flickr to see the entire 6 & 7 collection.

Cardboard: left, Porcelain: right

Original inspiration by Stephanie & Mav at 3191

Weekend Flings

• Hilarity Ensues (seen above)
• No
• Job Security in Borrowed Books
• Beating the Economy with Coffee & Tots
• Pope Stars in His Own Non-Reality Show
• Holy Sh*t - I'm Going for a Walk...in an Open Field...Barefoot...
• Scanwiches!

If you're new around here and have no idea what this list means, click HERE for a brief and witty explanation.

Keep Getting Screwed

Over-Compensation

OMG, you guys, my EX rly loved to screw! You may remember more of his aggressive handiwork from THIS POST. Ah well, what a Tool. At least I moved a mirror today and the home improvements continue...

ps. And yes, this is a photo of the very wall that inspired our tagline!

RuMe Bags

RuMe Bags, at Delight

Oh, pretty pattern! Not since the Envirosax have I been so attracted to a reusable grocery tote. Yet these RuMe bags (get it? roomy...) are less expensive (3 for $25) and they're constructed to stand open, like an "old-fashioned paper bag."

One last reason to grab some for yourself: apparently "Nicole Richie and Joel Madden LOVE their RuMe Bags" (yet the Delight link is broken so I'm wondering who, really, is behind this celebrity endorsement).

Bonus Bone: Wolli Snow Mountain Toy Box

Wolli Snow Mountain Toy Box, $150

I love this. Period. Yeah, yeah - it's for kids and - sure, sure - it's supposed to hold their toys but...agh, my heart...it just melted and I want this thing.

Etsy vendor BabiesBreath has, with a few stitches and a whole lotta' felt, has thrown me right back to when I was wee and my sisters and I would play with our felt board. With our imaginative "grubby biscuit hooks," as Porcelain would call them, we'd orchestrate fairy tales on the felted surface, adhering the floppy cut-outs - dogs, girls, buckets, trees - to our canvas with an amateur and wild grace.

This toy box, this masterpiece of "sturdy and flexible storage," may not be meant for me yet. But it could hold all my mittens...

For these reasons, I, Cardboard, declare this a Design Boner.

Look for the Hooks

Ah, Chiasso. They are the kings of form over function...

Disc Tissue Ring, $25

...and a warehouse of steel and glass (UgMod?)...

Status Entry Caddy, $68

...but, every so often, they show us a gem:

Hookaboo Multihook, $32

Happy Birthday to the SCOOP

Our good bloggity friend, the SCOOP, is turning two today! We're rounding our applause in their direction and we hope you'll swing over and congratulate them too. If you do, there might just be something in it for you...

In the tradition of gifting on your birthday, the SCOOP is giving away a few packs of the beautiful - Orange Beautiful, rather - letterpress notesets and GOCCO notes. And all you have to do to throw your pen into the ring is talk nice.

Happy Birthday, SCOOPERS!

Shuttle Stuff

Inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places. I, myself, have no "thang" for space shuttles but I know some of you crazy astronauts out there do! 10...9...8...here we go:

Space Shuttle Print, by laliv at etsy

Old Brass Space Shuttle Paperweight, at eBay

Apollo Pillow, by brokesy at etsy

Space Shuttle Apron, at Zazzle

Space Shuttle Lifting Off Wall Mural, at Art.com

The artifact is a little 'meh' but the kid's face is classic...

Space Shuttle Nesting Dolls, by Lavatican at etsy

Especially Nice! NASA Space Shuttle Bottle Opener, at eBay

Handmade Space Shuttle Puzzle Game, by usnavyretiredvet at etsy

Kennedy Space Center Salt & Pepper Shakers Florida!, at eBay

Rocket Print, by obotek at etsy

Even though it was made in 1981 and the trivia contains no mention of all this Pluto ambivalence, the best - the greatest - space age addition to your home is...

Space Hop Board Game 1981 SEALED, at eBay

Happy St. Pat's

Run of Luck Shamrock Wall Decal, by studiojk at etsy

Happy St. Patrick's Day...
...to you and all yer wee lasses and lads!

Just be careful today, if you're stumbling out in a tall felt hat, as it is possible to drink a tad too much green. Be witty, be lucky, get yer shamrocks home safe.

6 & 7

Here are our weekend photos. Visit flickr to see the entire 6 & 7 collection.

Cardboard: left, Porcelain: right

Original inspiration by Stephanie & Mav at 3191

Weekend Flings

• Arlo: GQ's Most Stylish 8-Year-Old (seen above)
• "Pool Boy Sold Separately"
• A Colorful Goodbye
• Come On, Morse, You Can Do It!
• Thoughts on Lonely
• A Helpful (Ha Ha) Virus
• Sorry, Guys!

If you're new around here and have no idea what this list means, click HERE for a brief and witty explanation.

Bonus Bone: Every Cloud screen print

Every Cloud screen print, at Keep Calm Gallery

I am an eternal optimist. I always try to find the bright side of the situation. I'm like the annoying counterpart of Debbie Downer. But even the best of us have our bad days. Perhaps seeing this sweet print might be the kick in the pants you need to get out of your funk.

For these reasons, I, Porcelain, declare this a Design Boner.

Sick & Silver

The Silver Room, at Crazy Bear Oxford

I'm all laid up in bed, burning through both the first season of 30 Rock and an entire box of kleenex. I feel like crap...if crap had sinus passages that could get all clogged up and then - after the 40th sneeze of the day - they clear for two precious seconds and I CAN BREATHE AGAIN and this is so wonderful (!) and....oh ow, my head... [re-snot]

You get it. But I'm thinking an ornate silver bed might make me feel a teensy bit better about this situation.

Photo credit: Telegraph

Cloud shelf

Cloud shelf, at Modern Dose

I will happily renounce Satan for three things: My nieces, my nephew, and this adorable cloud shelf.

6 & 7

Here are our weekend photos. Visit flickr to see the entire 6 & 7 collection.

Cardboard: left, Porcelain: right

Original inspiration by Stephanie & Mav at 3191

Couch on the FLOR

A Little of This, at FLOR

I just received the most recent FLOR catalog and flipped through it, mostly out of courtesy, as I'm not currently in the market for carpet squares for the flo(o)r. But - lo and behold! - I found something I wasn't expecting: I fell in love with a couch in a carpet magazine. It's lovely!

From this angle, it's hard to tell if the structure of the sofa (loveseat?) is the perfect accompaniment to the Rock of Beef Bus. I quite simply adore the fabric. I'm a total sucker for nubby tweeds, in earth tones, that are also...[trifecta drumroll]...soft.

But now we have a predicament, one can buy the FLOR tiles HERE but who knows anything about that sofa? Do you think it's a store standard or a custom job? Um, Cost Plus? Room & Board? Anyone...?

Weekend Flings

• A Lifetime of Bento (seen above)
• Our New Girl Crush
• Porcelain's New Girl Crush
• Colorado Says, "Sike!"
• My Loitering/Laboring Neighbors
• The Most Worthless 'Guess Who'

If you're new around here and have no idea what this list means, click HERE for a brief and witty explanation.

Essentially DB

If you're visiting us for the first time, you special new readers you, there's a good reason for it: you must have seen us mentioned in this week's Time Out: Chicago! Welcome! (And a gracious "hai luv" goes out to you old faithfuls.)

Apparently, Porcelain and I are still getting out of bed and firing up the laptop enough to earn design boner a feature in the "Essential Chicago" edition of Time Out. Along with DB, our web friends/rivals Strange Closets, Orange Beautiful, Making It Lovely, PrairieMod, and, new BBFF*, BackGarage, were also mentioned.

Thanks to Time Out: Chicago for giving us the cover (ha ha, ways out!), to Jessica Herman for the lovely interview/write-up, and to Nicole Radja for the lively portrait session. A final nod goes to Photoshop for allowing me to (kinda) fix my lame-ass bangs. See the entire article HERE!

* Best blogger friend forever

Bonus Bone: Wood Grain Folders

Wood Grain Folders, at MoMA

Wouldn't you like to be able to count the rings on your files and figure out how old they are? Surely, that would help spur an excess paper purge?

I would totally buy these attractive folders, offered at the MoMa store for $7 for six, but I fear they'd just end up locked inside my big ol' paint splattered filing cabinet. And that's the sad truth.

For (or maybe despite) these reasons, I, Cardboard, declare this a Design Boner.

The Highs & the Lows

There's a right way and a terribly wrong way to use those multi-tonal chunky color highlights. Allow me to illustrate...

WRONG

RIGHT

Frank Table, by James Tooze at batchdesign.

(Top) Photo Credit: Jules Berg at photobucket

Industry pendant lamp

Industry pendant lamp, at CB2

This weekend I watched The Parallax View. The final, climatic scene up in the rafters of a convention hall reminded me of how much I like this light fixture from CB2.

(Good movie, in my opinion. Hardwood, however, did not care for it as much.)

6 & 7

Here are our weekend photos. Visit flickr to see the entire 6 & 7 collection.

Cardboard: left, Porcelain: right

Original inspiration by Stephanie & Mav at 3191

Weekend Flings

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo

• Death in the Family: Rocky Mountain News, 1859-2009 (seen above)
• NYC: Cheap and Happy
• "This is Why..." You're Going to Throw Up
• Another Shining Bushism

If you're new around here and have no idea what this list means, click HERE for a brief and witty explanation.