clever (and warm!) marketing

How clever is Caribou Coffee?  To promote a new line of warm sandwiches, they've installed some special transit shelters around Minneapolis that resemble giant ovens.  The best part--they're heated!  This would definitely make me want to wander into a Caribou Coffee and sample a sandwich.  It's certainly an innovative way to promote--please forgive the pun--warm feelings.

via Food Beast

cluster of worlds

So this weekend, while I was not putting together door posts (maybe they'll get done, but no promises. This looks like it'll be a maybe/maybe kind of week) I dragged a towel out into the yard to bask in the sun and finally read the latest Elle Decor.  There were several things which were marked for "tear out and ogle at leisure," but the most immediate was actually an ad.  Behold:

It's an ad for closets.  But why, I ask, if you really want folks looking at your sleek and pretty closets, would you include that incredible chandelier?

Want want want want want.  Whoever came up with this is officially the coolest person ever.

suspended in snow

Sometimes the near-constant perfection of Anthropologie's styling actually makes me angry.  This is not one of those times.  This just makes me want to buy everything.

Seriously.  Could you find a more perfect and wintry way of displaying jewelry?

hello friend

Have you seen any of the ads made by Rhett and Link of I Love Local Commercials?  Oh, you just have to.  They walk the line of kitsch and spoof and they do it SO WELL.  Here, I will make it easy for you:

looking for signs

More things I love! Earlier this month, Anne had a lovely post of Austin's neon signs, and today Diana had a post FULL of mural signs--my favourites! The post has lots of commentary from Walter Grutchfield, a self-proclaimed "archaeologist of signs." I want to join that club. Awesome.

"He has set himself the task of photographing every old sign in Manhattan between 14th and 42nd Streets, a 300-block area containing some of the most densely inscribed buildings in the world.

Mr. Grutchfield's specialty is what he calls the wall-painted sign—what others call mural signs or "ghost signs"—which are advertisements painted in huge letters across buildings. Most of these advertisements were painted more than 50 years ago."

light up

One of the more recent additions to the list of things that make me smile are signs. I particularly love those of the paint-on-brick variety, but really, anything goes. I love the neon beauties Anne saw in Austin.Sorry for the lack of blogging of late--I've been writing papers. It's probably not going to change anytime soon, so please accept my continued apologies. I hope everyone had a great Halloween and Election Day!

ps: did you vote? I did :o)

hey you kids

Ah, a Saturday night spent making flashcards to the sweet background music of a Law and Order marathon. I knew there was a reason I came back to school. By the time I'm done, I might be in the market for:
via Douglas Wilson