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The lovely Stacie and Geoffrey Lang of Lang Photography have decided to use my Instamatic camera drawing in the logo for their photography business. I think they did a really great job with the type. How fun! I wish them the very best with their business. I received that request on the same day as my very first non-friend sale on Etsy, so I couldn't be happier.

Le Dog is top dog

Le Dog, Ann Arbor

There is a hot dog stand in Ann Arbor called Le Dog that I've been wanting to try since I first saw it in the fall. Funny enough, their specialty is actually soup. They have a rotating menu of hundreds of soup with four to five available at any one time. They have very limited hours and seem to have closed up completely for part of the winter. But, I finally had a chance to try them yesterday and all the hype is worth it. I tried the Pozole -- a Mexican stew with hominy and pork.
I've never had hominy or pozole before — it was DELICIOUS! A little bit of spice, a little bit of freshness and a whole lot of flavor. This place rocks! I can't wait to go back. If you're in A2, you should check it out! It's on Liberty between Main and S. 4th Street. I'd also like to try to make pozole, so I may try this recipe I found in Food and Wine: recipe for Pozole.

OKAY, revision: I'd like to try THIS Pozole recipe from Urban Farm Girl that has a TON of chiles and sounds terrific. I was in a bit of a hurry when I linked to the F&W recipe and didn't scrutunize it fully. Chiles would be a must.

Poem-a-Day

Every day in April I'm sent a poem by email thanks to the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day program in honor of National Poetry Month. When I was in school, much of my illustration work was inspired by poetry — particularly that of Billy Collins. His poems are so accessible and everyday — I had never really been a poetry fan before hearing him read some of his work on NPR. I immediately went out and found all of his books. It's so nice to again find inspiration in poetry. Yesterday's was Rita Dove's Ludwig Van Beethoven's Return to Vienna. It's usually just one little piece of imagery that sticks with me and it was that way with this one. I won't include the whole poem (you'll have to click through for more… I hope you will!) but here is a bit of it:

Three miles from my adopted city 
lies a village where I came to peace.
The world there was a calm place, 
even the great Danube no more 
than a pale ribbon tossed onto the landscape
by a girl's careless hand.  Into this stillness …
[read more here.]

The Academy also has a history of enlisting fantastic designers to do their
National Poetry Month posters.

This year's is designed by the incredible Paul Sahre. It is available for sale
in the archive, along with past posters by Chip Kidd, Spot Co., Milton Glaser,
Christopher Niemann… you get the idea.

And, finally, as promised yesterday, the snow outside did turn my drawing to flowers… but I am wondering if the piece works better without them. One or the other will make it to my shop by the afternoon. Would love to get some feedback… any thoughts?

Love at first sight

I cannot get enough of this lovely little lady. I just saw her in a post on decor8 about Swedish art & design studio Lula and then, of course, had to click through to find out who she is. I think her name is Lumi and she was made by Fanja Ralison of Le train fantôme. The photo is a collaboration with stylist Elisabeth Dunker and prints can be found on big cartel here. Ooh-la-la! Is she crying, or is it raining? I love everything about it.

It's April 6th. Do you know where your mittens are?

That's right. This picture was taken today: April 6, 2009. It's snowing. I'm not talking about a couple of flurries. I'm talking six to ten inches. I just keep thinking: the poor crocuses. I couldn't find any even peeking out and yesterday they were everywhere. Maybe that would be a good name for a band, the Poor Crocuses. We could go on tour with the Darling Buds. Perhaps in Siberia. I feel like a poor crocus. Then again, how pretty are these hyacinths in the snow?!

I'm off to do some drawing now. Don't be surprised if I show up later with tropical flowers and beach scenes!