The entertaining story in our Americana Issue, “Group Participation,” introduced me to a new artist, Bobby Long. As a guest at the dinner party hosted by Amy Anderson and Anna Watson Carl, Bobby brought his guitar and provided the entertainment for the evening over a delicious gingerbread cake. I hadn’t heard his music before, but looked him up after reading the story and I’ve logged a lot of listening hours since.
In addition to his albums (A Winter Tale was released in 2011, and Wishbone just came out), Bobby recently launched a project recording a song a week out of his apartment which he posts on his website. So far there are about a dozen. I like to think listening to these casually recorded songs is a lot like listening to Bobby play for friends at a dinner party.
I was a picky eater as a kid. I remember one time my mom wouldn’t let me leave the table until I had eaten my entire grilled cheese sandwich and I was being such a brat because she didn’t use my preferred type of cheese. I thought the best thing to do was to hide the un-eaten bits in my napkin, declare myself finished, and flee the table. Little did I know that an inquisitive cat would reveal my secret. These napkins from Printing Grounds all too vividly remind me of that story and the resulting grounding I faced.
Printed on soft cotton, each napkin is a not-so-subtle reminder of who’s in charge and to eat your vegetables. Feeling especially bossy? You can also purchase a mixed set of sayings.
{Images via Printing Grounds}
Our affinity for both textiles and cartography made Haptic Lab an immediate hit with us when they first introduced their map quilts. (We’ve fallen in love with other map quilts as well.) Their price tag is quite reasonable considering they are hand sewn, but still a splurge for most of us. So when I recently discovered that they’d introduced DIY kits, I added a city quilt to my ever-growing project list.
The kits are available for a big range of cities, and if your hometown isn’t available, there’s a great U.S. and world map as well. After looking through the visual guide they created to walk crafters through the process, I’m confident that even a sewing novice like myself can take on this project!
{Images via Haptic Lab}
I first heard about artist Bella Foster back in 2009, when she collaborated with Kate Spade on a number of projects. Then a couple of years ago, I spotted her work in Wayne Pate’s shop, and was immediately drawn to her Central Park piece. (Luckily, I was able to snap up one of the limited-edition silkscreen prints, shown above, before they sold out.) There’s this dreamy, carefree quality to her paintings that I just love.
I only recently stumbled upon Felt & Wire’s 2010 interview with Foster, and really enjoyed learning more about her. Apparently, she garners much inspiration from books; many of her paintings that depict interiors are based on rooms she’s never been in, but mostly experienced through books and online image searches. I think I need to add one of these to my collection!
{ Kitchen, Interiors, and Love American Style prints available for purchase at Stampa }
I believe in quirky tea towels for the kitchen. Sometimes that handle on your oven door just needs a bit of quirk and humor, you know? That’s where the Philadelphia-based housewares brand Girls Can Tell comes in. Illustrated by ex-architect Sara Selepouchon, each tea towel features an annotated, highly detailed drawing of some inanimate object. From a rollerskate to the Eiffel Tower, each hand-printed floursack tea towel leaves you with a grin and just a bit more knowledge as you wait for dinner to be served.
As a recent transplant to Philadelphia, the soft pretzel tea towel is my personal favorite!
{All images via Girls Can Tell}
