jolly holiday
A long time ago in a gallery far, far away….
Happy May the Fourth from Designer Daddy!
Concepción Studios is a California-based graphic design studio that specializes in vintage-style prints, posters and photographs for its music industry clients. They’ve worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, MUSE and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, merging 60s-style design with contemporary irony and whimsy.
Yet it’s the studio’s Etsy store that drew my attention on this most blessed of holidays. The shop features, among other things, an out-of-this-world collection of Star Wars-inspired prints. Let’s take a stroll through the gallery, shall we?…
My favorite is this set of Princess Leia and Han Solo silhouettes. Click to enlarge and read the obvious, yet hilarious, captions.
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Rolling With My Homies: The 2013 White House Easter Egg Roll
I’m about a week behind on life (checking calendar… make that two weeks), so pardon the untimeliness of this post. However, I couldn’t NOT document it for JJ — and for myself, as I am getting older and more forgetful. Plus, have you ever actually met anyone who’s been to the White House Easter Egg Roll? I hadn’t, so thought sharing a bit of our eggsperience might be eggciting* for you.
The White House Easter Egg Roll (henceforth, The WHEER) is one of those things you grow up knowing about — especially around these parts — but never imagining you’d go to. I even remember a few years ago hearing about same-sex parent families attending, and that it was kind of a big deal. But again, I never thought I’d end up at this DC Bucket List-worthy shindig.
But out of the blue, a few days before The WHEER, I got an email from a friend offering us some tickets! He’s got major Obama connections and had taken his nieces last year; but he thought of our family this year. [Thanks RyRo!] Needless to say, we hopped at the chance!
I won’t go into too much minutia — I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anybunny with dreams of going themselves some year… But hare are the highlights:
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THE LINES:
The throng waiting in eggticipation. It started out overcast, and was drizzling about the last 1/2 hour we were in line. Papa also tried to teach JJ to say “obelisk.” I commented to a woman next to us, wondering aloud how many of these kids were going to be sick the next day. Despite all this, it was a surprisingly well-behaved horde.
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Papa and I took turns holding JJ, as he’s a runner. Hare’s a huggy photo I’m particularly fond of.
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Dora’s Back-er: And Gets Even Realer-er
As promised, here’s Part 2 of Dora The Explorer and The Destiny Medallion! Still not as good as the original concept trailer, but it was fun to see Benny the Bull in human form, and the explanation of B.A.C.K.P.A.C.K.’s acronym was worth a chuckle. Yet while Part 3 looks promising with an appearance from Grumpy Old Troll, if The Map never shows up I’m afraid this whole exploration was por nada.
PRECAUCÍON: As with Part 1, this installment is a tiny bit NSFW/NSFT (not suitable for toddlers).
In somewhat related news (and a subject I’m SURE you’ll read more about on this blog in a week or so) our family will be attending the annual White House Easter Egg Roll! This is a pretty freaking huge/exciting/awesome deal. The Mother of all Easter Egg Festivities. Plus, our gal Dora is gonna be there, so that will be muy egg-celente.
If you can’t join us on the South Lawn with Dora, Bo, and various other celebrities, you can at least download the 2013 White House Easter Egg Roll Children’s Activity Book HERE.
Hop on back next week for the (hopefully) thrilling conclusion!
Have a Happy, Twisted Valentine’s Day!
Click to view larger...if you dare.
I created this disturbing little Photoshop masterpiece on Valentine’s Day, probably the first or second year Papa and I were together. It features my much-less gray (but still gigantic) head on Papa’s bare-assed baby body. We always joked that this would be what our children would look like. Thank God we were wrong.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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JJ’s Top 10 of 2012
As with any toddler, JJ’s moods tastes shift like the wind. Make that a whirlwind. But these ten things stood out in 2012 as being particularly popular with our breezy little boy…
Fridge Wisdom: Holidays Edition
It’s been said many times (and yes, in many ways…) that Christmas goes by too damn fast. Not the “Holiday Season” itself, mind you. That’s an ever-expanding, multi-month period of excessive eating, spending and stress we could all do with a little less of. But December 25th comes and goes in an instant, so I find it beneficial to not only savor it while it’s here, but reflect on it afterwards. This is also helpful because I can never remember who gave me what.
Childhood, too, is known for speeding by much too quickly.
Case in point: I had this post planned for a couple of weeks, to showcase various holiday phrases JJ mispronounces in his cute toddler vernacular. But by the time I got around to hunting through all the letters and taking the photos, he’d already learned to say two of the phrases correctly. Slow down, buddy!
So yeah, I’m writing a Christmas-themed post after Christmas. And yup, JJ no longer mispronounces “Candy Canes” or “Merry Christmas” (He’s thankfully still working on his “th”s, so Frosty the Snowman’s refrain remains adorable). But I needed to write it all down before he races ahead to the next milestone — and so I can savor this little morsel of Holiday sweetness a bit longer.
The 12 Days of Christmas Past: Day 5
The kiddo’s settled down for a long winter’s nap, so I’ll crank out one more Card of Xmas Past…
We were at my parents’ house this weekend for Christmas I, which included opening presents with my brother and his wife, a couple of way-too-large meals, and Sunday morning service at my Dad’s church. Christmas II will be at our house. Grandma & Grandpa are coming up here for another round of presents and a ginormous lasagna.
As we were leaving my parents’ house Sunday night — all a-flurry and a-scurry to make sure we got all our loot (presents), crap (non-present stuff), and JJ’s everything — my brother asked, “Do you want to take your little girl home, too?”
Yup, we almost forgot the dog.
As many other parents of both dogs and humans will tell you, our dog (Cordi, short for Cordelia*) truly was our “first baby” — a test run of sorts. She’s a 7 year-old “pre-Obama” Portuguese Water Dog, and is the sweetest, smartest and most adorable dog of all time. Don’t believe me? Check out her headshots after this 2006 Holiday card featuring a be-spotted buttshot. Another well-loved card, many of which I sold to local pet and gift stores. Several years later I was out walking Cordi, and someone stopped to admire/pet her. This person mentioned how much she looked like a dog on a Christmas card she received once. She’s not Bo famous, but it’s a start.
The 12 Days of Christmas Past: Day 4
End of the world, blah blah blah… Mayan calendar, blah blah blah… Apocalypse blah blah blah…
I had told myself I wouldn’t get sucked into writing about all that nonsense, but this DoXP card seemed to fit nicely…
2008 was the first of the “lean years” in our economy — at least it’s when Design Nut first felt it. Subsequently that year I decided to recycle/upcycle/repurpose/whatever and instead of printing all new cards, packaged several holiday and note card “Greatest Hits,” put them in a nifty, green photo box (LOVE me some Container Store!), and digitally printed a label for the top and a message card for the inside.
The 12 Days of Christmas Past: Day 3
This year’s card is a collage of some of our photos from Italy — they were just too delicious to not use. So on a related subject… today’s DoXP card is from our first trip to Italy in 2003, AKA The Honeymoon.
Thankfully I had the forethought to take a sketchbook to the breathtaking, life-changing, awe-inspiring Amalfi Coast, and thus ended up with an incredible keepsake of drawings from all the wonders we witnessed. Sketching (as opposed to zipping around with a camera) was a wonderful way to experience the country. I had to actually be still and soak it all in. (Obviously, this was pre-JJ) My favorite moment was sitting with my pen and pad in the square with the Amalfi Cathedral looming overhead.
Upon our return home, I scrapped the original idea I’d had for the Holiday card/promo, and used my sketch of the Cathedral for the Christmas card. Additionally, I had 8 different note cards printed featuring various sketches and photos from our trip. I designed a belly band/cover, boxed them up and gave them as client gifts — by far my most popular client gift to date. I was even able to sell quite a few sets in the years since.
Sketch of the Amalfi Cathedral (Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea)
The 12 Days of Christmas Past: Day 2
Lately we’ve been using Santa’s naughty/nice list (and the above song) to motivate JJ to niceness (hey, whatever works) — which reminded me of this blast from the past…
Day two of my journey through Christmas cards past brings me to a one that proved quite popular… and delicious! The card was 2-sided, so depending on how you opened it you got either a “naughty” or a “nice” message.
Interior greeting: "sinfully sensational seasons greetings"
Interior greeting: "happily heartfelt holiday wishes"
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