Magical Rainbow Whale

Good morning, is today the day?

Maybe so!

My Kind of Igloo

Sure your color-coded bookshelves are neat, but can they do this?

That's right, it's a self-supporting igloo made out of books. Colombian artist Miler Lagos made it and it just about kills me dead. Can you imagine how comforting it must smell in there? I would pile cushions all over the bottom of it and then just curl up reading ALL DAY LONG.

Heaven.

Spotted on Colossal

People of Awesome

Episode One:

Rawaan Alkhatib

You know those friends you have that just sort of excel at everything and you really want to hate them for it but they also happen to be all sweet and lovely and gracious so you are forced to end up admiring them instead?


I've ended up with enough of these people in my life to leave me in a constant state of either insecurity or inspiration, depending on the weather.


I am lucky this way.

Rawaan Alkhatib is one of them.

I mean, she's just your standard Brooklyn-based poet-baker-painter-chef-printmaker-silk scarf designer from Dubai. Big whoop, right?

Seriously, though: Would you please go look at these scarves she just made?

my fave!

Ugh. She's so cool. A little group of us in Iowa used to have epic feasts together and she was always contributing things like pork belly simmered for two days in duck fat, and homemade pistachio and rose petal ice cream...

She even baked us the most delicious wedding cake which I still dream about eating.

Basically just go look at her website right this moment. There you can check out a bunch of other stuff like the chapbooks she's designed and the illustrations she's done and the postcards she's made etc.

Sadly you won't be able to taste the food she creates, or read her writing (Rawaan, where are your poems, girl?) or like, hang out with her over the internet, but that's probably for the best. You don't want to start feeling, I dunno, inadequate.

Rawaan, you are a Person of Awesome.

Top photos by: Eric Felipe-Barkin. Models: Bettina Huang, Kathryn Egelhofer.
Cake Photo by Jagger Photography 

Evolution of a brother in law

I broke out my grandmother's old travel watercolor set this past week to make little portraits of my sister Olivia and her soon-to-be husband Tristan for their wedding invitations.

I'm not really a painter, but I had a lot of fun messing around. I think I hadn't opened the set in something like seven or eight years?

Here's the evolution of Tristan:

And here's the lovely Olivia:

There will be flowers and words and things eventually.

Yes to love!

ALL PAPER ALL THE TIME

The reason this blog is called Paper Buttons is that a very long time ago I used to make (and sell) tiny little cut-paper collages of animals that I pressed into wearable buttons with my hand-held Badge-A-Minit button maker.

It was a silly little hobby that just happened to coincide with the launching of a brand-new site called Etsy, perhaps you've heard of it? In fact, and now I don't mean to be all I-liked-it before-it-was-cool or anything, but I ended being one of their first members. #HUMBLEBRAG

I think I sold a total of eleven buttons.

(I like to think this may have been because I had to dip out of the burgeoning Handmade Button business and move sort of abruptly to Zurich, Switzerland, but that's a story for another day.)

Anyway, MY POINT is that I happen to think that paper art is basically the highest form of art, and to that end I am going to show you some really cool stuff.

Exhibit A)

Artist Chris Gilmour makes these incredible life-size cardboard sculptures, like this Fiat and this super-detailed bicycle and this set of globes that I would just DIE to have in either my living room or my "study."

Find plenty more of his cardboard brilliance here.

Exhibit B)

Do you know about quilling? It's this crazy and time consuming process of curling hundreds of tiny strips of paper and Lisa Nilsson (unfortunately no relation) makes these slightly creepy yet ultimately badass anatomical cross sections with it, like this:

and this:

Wowie, right? Check out more of her intricate work here.

And how about Exhibit C) my ultimate favorite, basically the godmother of paper cutting: Mary Delany (that's Mrs. Delany to you.) 

She was an 18th century paper rockstar who at age 72 began messing around with cut-out flowers, and then went on to create over 1,000 of these exquisitely detailed botanical collages. 

I mean take a look at these and tell me they are not paintings...

THE SHADING!

Bananas, right? And this was in the 1770s, when scissors were really big and unwieldy, and Paper Source hadn't even been invented yet. The mind boggles.

My mom bought me this book last year which I highly, highly recommend. Mrs Delany was charming and sassy, and had an incredible life beyond her paper-stardom. Do yourself a favor and check her out.

And, you know, if you ever wanna buy a tiny paper animal collage in wearable button form, you know who to call.

A smile as your umbrella, a plant as your necklace, etc

Have you seen this?

Do you know you can wear plants now?

I DIE.

Your bike can wear them too.

Your bike dies!

How About A Mary Oliver Poem?

Wild Geese


You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Artwork above is You Are Not Alone by the incredible April Deacon. Go see more of her work here and be thrilled.

And get yourself a Mary Oliver collection why don't you? She makes me swoon.

Gray Nail Polish Leads to Questions

Question One: Is it possible to take a picture of your awesome new home manicure without your hand looking like some terrible claw?

Question Two: Why do I keep painting my nails and then taking pictures of them? What am I trying to accomplish?

Mysterious mysteries.

The Tao of Neon Cap Toe Pumps

Hey! 

Did you know that old shoes + tape + leftover paint = happy feet?

Well, now you know!

Genius Little Magnets

Have you seen these Tiny Polaroid Magnets that Ambrosia Creative made?

So perfectly executed. I plan to make a million of them in short order.

Though, they will have to vie for space with my current magnets, which are these little ceramic animals from Anthropologie that I love so much I can't bear to use in any functional way. 

True story. I just move them around the refrigerator and like, gaze at them. 

So good!

Anyway, full tutorial for the polaroid magnets here. Go forth and multiply.

The Caravelles

You know when they say someone has a voice like a silver bell?

They are talking about these ladies.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

(Also, listen to the lyrics of this song, they're pretty intense! Joan Baez has a great version as well.)

Tree Line

I am basically just stealing this post from The Jealous Curator, but just look!

Look at what Zander Olsen made!

Are these not fantastic?

I love and I love.

btw, I also love The Jealous Curator, check her out if you wanna get jealous too.

The Smartest Thing I've Done All Day

This morning, as I sorted through and assembled our seemingly endless pile of tax documents, I looked down at my fading manicure and sighed.

Tax time is dreary enough without having to look at such uninspired fingernails.

So, I unbent a paperclip, dipped it in white nail polish, and added tiny polka dots to my chipping fuchsia polish.

And just like that, tax time became delightful!

OK maybe not delightful, but, you know, at least it's polka-dotty now.

Future DIY

I saw this vintage suitcase charging station DIY on Design Sponge today and fell in love.

Full instructions are here.

Someday, when I have a table saw and a giant drill and some pegboard and a vintage suitcase, I will make this puppy.

Sandwich Artist

Look at these art sandwiches that Brittany Powell made!

So clever and tasty. I think my fave is the Mondrian, but the Christo made me lol. 

There are even more here. Can you guess them all?