I'm drooling over the design books from Japanese publisher Paumes. There are other equally gorgeous Japanese craft books. Tracking them down is a bit harder to do. The two easiest sources seem to be The Yvestown Shop and Modern Craft. Amazon.co.jp is another obvious source but I haven't figured out how to order and convert currency (yet). I found The Potholder Book (above) at Modern Craft. I don't need potholders but it's a nice composition, no?

RIP Domino. I've never loved a magazine as much as you.

I just can't get tired of this image. Remember when attention was so irritating?
Picture by The Sartorialist.

I love to buy things I do and don't need at Daiso. This sponge walks the line.

End of January, clean out the holiday photos...

Swedish man via The Sartorialist.
I like how all the little innocuous things (nails, earring, safety pin, cigarette) add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Moment of zen by Swedish photographer Daniel Hertzell.
P.S. His entire portfolio is a moment of zen.

Emi Guner of The End Consumer posted about her friend's blog Messy Life--a daily photo essay of the corners of his house. It's comforting to see familiar messes like a sea of computer cords and books taking over the bedroom [and somewhat exulting to think my house isn't that messy]. But then I don't have four children.

Oh! I'm so excited to go to DC with my mom! First time there! So much history to geek out over...not to mention new energy and possibility for our democracy.

This is a great little home. Almost every photo in this slide show is a lovely composition. True eye candy. A house to inspire creativity.

Moment of zen courtesy of Apartment Therapy. I'd like to sit in the chair on the left in that little bit of sunshine with a cup of coffee and read this book.

From Slate.com a fascinating and revelatory story about the International Tracing Service, an internationally-managed archive of the Holocaust, heretofore closed to the public. The Jewish woman writing the story, Sarah Wildman, goes to Germany to gauge the importance of the recently opened archive for historians, victims and victim's families. She is also looking for a piece of her own past; the archive affords her the chance to learn the fate of the Jewish woman who wrote her grandfather loving, demanding letters from war-era Berlin. It's an interesting story from her individual perspective but I'm compelled by the existence of the archive, it's seeming profoundness and mystery, and why I never knew about it.