I’m so impressed with this product. I just wanted to get that out of the way right off the bat. The Sahabo shop creates handmade books (a personal favorite craft) in a variety of flavors that are all spectacular, but this particular variety is so fun. The 100-page journals are made from repurposed vinyl records and their sleeves. The binding looks top-notch too. I love this creative way of recycling a bit of vintage goodness into something beautiful used to record thoughts and ideas. The great part is that an extensive list of album titles are included in the Etsy shop so you can pick your own album to reflect your own inspiration. Honestly, I can’t wait to get one.

Today I thought I’d share a font I’ve been crushing on lately. I guess it’s both a font crush and a retro crush. Do remember those label makers in the 70s and 80s? They had the rolls of vinyl label strips and the dial that turned for choosing letters. Mine was a kid version shaped like a turtle and I can remember getting pink/orange flowered and blue/green striped label rolls in addition to the standard red and blue. Anyway… IMPACT LABEL packs a lot of retro fun and is available in regular and reversed. (You’ll find a free download here.)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted a CRAVE in Plop! land — probably because I’m in crave overload from some of the creativity I’m seeing online these days. I was looking through my archive of bookmarks and had to share this one right away! I’m not a seamstress. Not even close. But, I’ve fallen in love with these DIY dolls from MIKODESIGN. The illustrations are so sweet and whimsical, and I can imagine my Baby Girl squeezing the love out of this little Parisian and her stylish bunny. I particularly love the tiny camera, tote bag and itty bitty bottle of Chanel No. 5. I also noticed that you can purchase remnant bags of the Parisian fabric in a couple of colors — just the right touch of frou frou, if you ask me!

Programming note: I’ve been weeding through past posts recently getting inspired again, but mostly cleaning up inconsistencies I see, fine-tuning topics and categories and tweaking here and there. I hope you’ll poke around too!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted some of the design projects I’ve been working on in the Pond, so I thought I would share one today along with something I learned about myself last week. I recently had the opportunity to do some graphics and printed items for Starkville, Mississippi’s 175th Birthday Party. It was a fun and festive project with an old fashioned flair. My client is a stellar event planner and really wanted to create a kid-friendly, nostalgic atmosphere. I created the theme graphics with a primary color palette and produced a postcard invitation that we also translated into an e-vite and other online media graphics. In addition, Jenn wanted to give a hand-made quality to the Party with some custom printables that would mimic our “look.” She asked me to create cupcake toppers, tabletop signs and pennant banners to be used in the decorations. The Party was last Friday and it was just as festive and nostalgic as Jenn envisioned. Plus, my kids gave a resounding thumbs-up to the cupcakes!

Oh yeah, and I also learned something about myself. Or at least remembered something about myself. For the party, I did some chalk lettering on a vintage chalkboard to be included in a wacky photo booth vignette. On Thursday, I rolled up my sleeves and started chalking — armed with a wet cloth, a dry cloth and some colored chalk my kids loaned me. The result wasn’t a spectacular feat — only about 600 inches of hand-drawn serifs and chalk dust. But, it reminded me of something. I spend so much of my creative life behind a screen or a lens, pushing and pulling anchor points in drawing software or highlighting and kerning text or zooming in or out of a digital camera lens. It was refreshing to actually get my hands dirty — to have my fingers not separated from my medium by a piece of glass or a rectangular focus box. It was a fun and much-needed change of pace to spend an hour creating lines and shapes without any digital help. I think I’ll try it again sometime.

With the goal of exposing Facebook connections to your other online media spaces, including a Twitter feed as one of the top apps is a great approach. I’ve tried several Facebook apps for adding a Twitter feed, including the Involver app, Tweets to Pages. It works great and is an easy, free installation. However, I have to admit, that the one I like best is the Twitter app from Tradable Bits. It’s just as easy. It’s free for up to 5 apps installed per page, and I just like the interface a little better.

You can see from the screen shot of Tradable Bits Twitter on my Facebook page that the app works well within the Timeline page format. The thing I like about Tradable Bits over the other apps I’ve tried is that it includes your Twitter profile pic and bio at the top of your feed along with the “follow” button. I just like the continuity of having the bio present. I like the polish that it gives the tab’s view. The other plus for this app for me is that it also includes the tweets in your feed that come from Twitter’s easy re-tweet function. Some of the other Twitter apps I’ve tried didn’t do that. I tend to use the RT function a lot with links I find useful or interesting on Twitter, and showing those tweets in the feed demonstrates an interest in sharing information and engagement — something I actually look for in other tweeters.

The installation of Tradable Bits Twitter couldn’t be easier. When you click through their website and give Facebook authorization, you reach a screen similar to this one where you can simply type your Twitter handle and click a button to the right to publish to your Facebook page.

I’m always drawn to the details when I’m looking for marketing tools, and Tradable Bits Twitter app for Facebook pages has those small things that I think that can be very valuable in strengthening your online presence.

I’ve been trying to incorporate that same sky gazing into my routine back at home and work. Are you taking time to gaze today?

No, it isn’t my normal post of inspiring design or coveted products. But it is inspiring, nonetheless.

“The better world we want is coming. It’s just waiting for us to stop at nothing.”