A Magic Birthday Present - Beliveve it or not!

My dear friends Amber & Ben gave me this Magic Garden for my birthday. According to the package, it's never been seen before, and it's almost unbelievable.

The garden consists of a mountain, grass, and trees made of colored paper. It comes with four packets of liquid that you pour into the tray underneath. The paper slowly soaks up the liquid, and as the liquid evaporates from the paper, crystals form. It's some kind of salty solution; I'm not sure exactly how it works.



It all began like this...


And here the paper is soaking up the liquid...

Crystals began to form...

Boyfriend watches in suspense and disbelief...




And the next day, it was complete. Snowy mountain, flowery trees, and all. Not quite as much foliage as the picture on the package, especially the grass. But I can't complain about something so beautiful and almost unbelievable. Maybe I should learn how to make these and design my own magic garden.

I Finally Saw "Ziegfeld's Follies"

For some reason, I had never watched the film Ziegfeld's Follies before. Turns out I was missing out on a lot. While the segments on this movie are hit & miss, the hits are really worth watching.

My personal highlights include the Water Ballet (underwater dancing!), Lucille Ball as a trainer of sexy cat women, and Judy Garland singing about the invention of the safety pin. You can probably see all these things on YouTube, but don't be lazy: if you're going to watch it, watch the DVD. The colors and sounds are utterly spectacular. Utterly! Spectacular!

Incredible Discovery of the Week: "Rock'n Popstars" biographies

I've been going to a lot of thriftshops lately for a photography project I'm doing for school (more on that in a future blog). This project has inevitably led to some unnecessary purchases and some heartwrenching decisions about what to take home and what not to take home. While browsing the children's books at Paws'n'Claws, one of my favorite dinky thrifshops in Vancouver, WA, which happens to have a ton of vintage children's books for less than $1, I stumbled upon the Incredible Discovery of the Week.

I don't even care much for Carly Simon, but this book really caught my eye. It was published in 1975, and is from a series called "Rock'n Popstars" published by Creative Education. It's a biography for kids, and contains gorgeous watercolor illustrations based on photographs of Carly Simon.


Some inspiring graphic design inside:

Apparently, Creative Education has published a number of these biographies, for they are listed in the back of the book.
I don't know about you, but I'd like to get my hands on the Bob Dylan one. And Chicago? This blows my mind.

A google searching spree yielded only two more images of books from this series:


I'm thrilled by this discovery. Just knowing that these books exist makes the world feel brighter and better.