Oh Jesse Draxler… how I’ve come to love you, and now you have truly found the way to my heart. Your sketchbooks. Sigh.

I do love a good sketchbook, and yesterday Jesse Draxler launched his newly redesigned {full of work lots of us have never seen before} web site, which just so happens to have three of his sketchbooks present and accounted for. These simple/fantastic collages are a few of my favourite pages. I think it’s the effortlessness that gets me the most. Yep, there’s that soul-crushing ache… hey, no one said love didn’t hurt a little bit.

Dear Santa,

I have been very good this year… therefore, I would really, really, really like one of these! You’re going to have to pop down to Australia to pick it up though. Just park the sleigh when you hit Sydney and drop into the ceramics studio of Lynda Draper. I’m not fussy, so any of these ridiculously lovely/whimsical animal pieces will do {although I do have a fondness for that owl!}

Thank you… fly safe!

{Oh, and speaking of statuesque animals, pop on over to sfgirlbybay today… the house that jealousy built now has a trophy room!}

Oh boy, here I go again. Houses. I love houses… and I really love these houses drawn by American artist Jessica Ann Mills.  Ok sure, there might be a few loose boards here and there, but I think that’s their charm. They have character, a history. Yep, I would love to sit myself down on any one of those porches and sip a lemonade as the sun goes down… although that might be a little weird for the people who actually live there.

{via Art Hound}

I’m packing my bags, knitting myself a jaunty sweater, and heading to Utah! Yep… me, Brangelina, and a whole bunch of bloggers will be showing up in Salt Lake City this January. Ok, Brad and Angie are probably going to spend most of their time at the Sundance Film Festival, which just so happens to be on the same weekend, I however will be there for Alt Summit! The list of speakers is insane, and I could not be more thrilled to be on that list {I’m on a panel with three amazing women – an editor, a decorator, and a bride-turned-blogger}. I can’t wait to hear what some of my favorite writers have to say about the world of blogging, and I’m so excited to finally meet everyone in person, because, let’s be honest, witty twitter banter can only take a friendship so far, yes?

ps. you should come too… it’s gonna be fun! oh, and don’t forget your hand-knitted cap!

“Identities Now” will be a book comprised of select images submitted by photographers around the globe. The mission is to explore the current state of the photographic portrait through gathering the best work from a diverse cross-section of artists. ~ Peter Hay Halpert of Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art, New York

That could be you! If you’re a portrait photographer, you have until Friday December 3rd to submit your work to be included in this amazing book. Peter Hay Halpert has assembled a very impressive crew* to review the work, and make the selections… is it too late for me to try and be a portrait photographer? Yeah, ok, i know… but it’s not too late for you! Good luck!

* Selection committee shown above:1) David Harris, Design Director, Vanity Fair Magazine  2) Laurie Kratochvil, Photography Editor/Director  3) Sam Shahid, President and Creative Director, Shahid & Company  4) Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Photographer/Director  5) David Schonauer, former Editor in Chief, American Photo Magazine  6) Peter Hay Halpert, Principal, Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art

I’ve been known to snip a pretty good paper snowflake, and I’m not bad when it comes to folding paper cranes… but imagine what I could do if I had the design skills, the precision, and the patience of American artist Matt Shlian. Whoa. Now that would be something!

{via someone I follow on Twitter, but for the life of me I cannot remember who!? sorry whoever you are!}

You know how some people are really into their hobbies? Yep, well, these are those people. In this series titled Re-Enactors , British photographer Jim Naughten has beautifully documented some of the people {and their very accurate costumes} who choose to spend their weekends recreating various battles and drills from the First and Second World War. Re-Enactors is currently showing, until December 18th, at the KLOMPCHING Gallery in Brooklyn. Ahh, a gallery in New York, now that’s where I’d like to spend my weekend… because I’m quite sure that I wouldn’t have the commitment required to wear that gas mask for an entire Saturday afternoon!

Ok, so eleven days ago I wrote about an artist named Shaun Kardinal, an American artist who adds embroidery to found images… later that day I  found this ridiculously fantastic work by Stacey Page, an American artist who, as you can plainly see, also adds embroidery to found images {same technique, but very different results}. Now, not wanting to become totally predictable in what makes me jealous, I tried to space them out as much as I could.  For eleven long days these beautifully bizarre faces have been staring at me from my drafts folder, and I can no longer control myself! Call me predictable if you must, but the heart wants what the heart wants… and clearly my heart wants some embroidery thread applied to a vintage photograph.

{Oh, and did I mention that two weeks before the Shaun Kardinal post, I wrote about London based artist Maurizio Anzeri. Guess what kind of work he does…}

If LA based artist Alika Cooper asked me to hop in an RV so that we could go on a cross-country road trip to visit her very blond cousin who lives in a trailer park with a pink chair in her front yard… I would totally say yes.

Ok, I’m just going to say it. I’m addicted to Twitter – but it’s not my fault!! It’s because of them {…that’s right – you there, on that little list a few lines down}. Their witty 140 character quips make me click on shortened links to jealousy-inducing content at all hours of the day and night. So, how have I chosen to deal with my addiction? I’m not going to. I’ve decided to rope you in instead! Come on… just try it once. It’s not like you’re going to get hooked the first time or anything #famouslastwords

sfgirlbybay {@sfgirlbybay}

Design For Mankind {@erinloechner}

Junkculture {@junkculture}

SFMOMA {@SFMOMA}

yellowtrace {@DramaTomic}

Poppytalk {@poppytalk}

Pikaland {@pikaland}

Booooooom {@booooooom}

Design*Sponge {@designsponge}

The City Sage {@citysage}

Jeremy & Kathleen {@andkathleen}

Lisa Congdon {@lisacongdon}

Jesse Draxler {@jessedraxler}

{Bird art… of course! Brought to you by yet another fab tweeter: Dolan Geiman @dolangeiman}