lillie in the city » creativity

Bits of inspiration

lillie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:20:54 +0000

The past weeks have been flying by, crowded with work and home projects and a mix of little adventures. There’s has been no shortage of inspiration in the world and on the web! My online notebook lillieinthecity [finds] is a running list of images, words, and thoughts that have captured my attention. Here’s a few things that have caught my eye recently…

+ This little illustrated guide to DIY sustainable living at home: Make Your Place: affordable, sustainable nesting skills

+ Inspiring invocations and weekly goodness from white hot truth: We are here now to give witness to a shared truth / that absolutely everything is progress / that we have all that we need / that brilliance is unfolding. Here and now.

+ A lovely illustration by Ann and a quote to live by: One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. – virginia woolf

+ Reading about Heidi’s process for cookbook writing.

+ Inspired by Wayne Thiebaud‘s brilliantly simple sketches.

+ Agreeing, yes: All artists are entrepeneurs, all entrepeneurs are artists. – linchpin

+ Feeling this: There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other’s cooking & say it was good. – storypeople

+ Hungry for Tempeh Curry or anything involving tempeh or curry.

Spring always seems to be brimming with inspiration and possibilities. I’m looking forward to the new season’s energy and anticipating lots of new things in the next few months.

What, who, or where has been inspiring you lately?

listening to: On A Good Day by Joanna Newsom (listen)

creativity: notebook sketches

lillie — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:10:00 +0000

a few sketchy pages from my notebook today. brainstorming for some little projects and thoughts in my mind… i kinda love rough, awkward line drawings. and doodling a few everyday objects is like mental meditation.

hope you have a beautiful weekend. go out and enjoy the sunshine!

:: coffee & cast iron pans from lillieinthecity / flickr

weekend sun & sunprints

lillie — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:25:00 +0000

i spent a lot of time in the sun this weekend: in my backyard, at the farmer’s market, on my bike, across town, and outside some great echo park coffee shops. i love that summer in LA starts in april.

i finally played with some sunprint paper that i had bought a few months ago. this simple photo paper captures the shadow of objects in bright light. it’s a fun art/science that is perfect for a sunny afternoon. i experimented with an assortment of buttons, bread tags, and backyard plants for some simple little prints. check out more inspiring sunprints at anna atkins and boomslice and rinneallen.

hope you took advantage of some sunshine over your weekend.

listening to: rebel rebel by seu jorge (listen)

:: image from lillieinthecity / flickr

the love of glass jars

lillie — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:02:00 +0000

recently, my mom and my aunt had a shared revelation: they both suffer from (but mostly celebrate) The Love of Glass Jars–the insatiable need to buy, scrub clean, and save any neat glass containers that they find. as their collections build, the jars are repurposed to store food, buttons, art supplies, and collections of all kinds. my auntie phyllie’s latest glass loves are the “nice little squat” jars that, in a past life, held salsa. in their new incarnation, they live on her bookshelf displaying this awesome rainbow of colored pencils.

i know this love well myself, as there are rogue jars tucked into every cabinet of our apartment kitchen. too many times, i’ve bought grocery store items solely because of their containers (the food is like a bonus prize!). spega yogurt jars are one of my favorites.

someday soon i will post photos of our infamous kitchen shelf that is constructed of pine wood planks and 12 enormous jars of pickles.

are you a glass jar lover, too?

listening to: the woodlands national anthem by the arcade fire (listen)

:: image from phyllis mchugh leocha (auntie phyllie)

my first letterpress adventure

lillie — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:44:00 +0000

earlier this month, i went on a one-day letterpress adventure at the international printing museum in carson (printmuseum.org). their introduction to letterpress workshop (which was i was psyched to attend) was a great mix of fun, informative, and inspiring–and the museum itself is a hidden gem for anyone interested in printmaking.

the day started with a guided tour of their museum and a brief history of printmaking. and then we dove into the type room, learned the the basics of typesetting, and got to work on two basic printing projects. the museum has an awesome collection of type fonts and woodcut images to explore. for my name print, i couldn’t resist this woodcut of a windblown cypress tree (for love of the california coast).

if you’re in the los angeles area, the museum offers lots of classes about letterpress, book arts, and printmaking. i’m hoping to be back for their intermediate letterpress workshop on april 18. more printmaking soon!

see a few more letterpress pics at lillieinthecity / flickr.

listening to: feeling good by nina simone (listen)