My kitchen is DONE!!! So, a few weeks ago you saw the unboxing of the Kohler Karbon Faucet and Smart Divide Sink ~ well many an early morning, some banging, bashing, painting and more later... the 30s kitchen has had all its tiles ripped out, plumbing cleaned up, granite counters installed, and sink and faucet have been Kohler-ized... and i LOVE it.
Really it's one thing to play with the Karbon at trade shows, but to have been actually using it ~ doing dishes, filling pots, spraying people, etc... it's awesome! (i highly recommend playing with one!) ~ And the Smart Divide sink having a lower divider means far less splashage as i'm cleaning and moving things between the different sides...
As for how decisions were made... Yes. I became that girl in the ads who basically walked around with a faucet and designed counter around it... So see the advert, and the whole process from start to finish on the next page!
TO PAGE 2 of "The Kohler Kitchen Project"! ----->
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So amongst some of the family reasons i needed to be in Singapore suddenly last week... NOTCOT was featured in the Straits Times! I thought it was only a tiny article somewhere and possibly only digital, but when i arrived friends and family had saved me a few copies of this big pull out section - Digital Life - from the March 25th 2009 Straits Times of the Top 50 Websites!
See some pics of the actual pull out section on the next page ~ and when i get more unpacked will do some proper scans! It is truly one of the strangest top 50 lists for websites i've seen... but still immensely flattered to have made the cut!
p.s.
For you kiasu ones, please note "The sites on the following pages are numbered, but the numerals are for neat visual order and not to signal any order of merit."
TO PAGE 2 of "NOTCOT in Straits Times Top 50 Websites"! ----->
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NEW!!! Did you see it yet? I'm so giddy to share this new feature we've been crunching on ~ in fact, dan's still working on getting things ready for NotCouture ~ but i can't contain myself, so you can take a peek at NOTCOT.org while that gets going...
Did you find them yet? The dolls? We've tucked them in around the site ~ you never know exactly where they will pop up next~ and we're so lucky that Target *gets* our playful side to sponsor the first instance of this new NOTCOT.org/NotCouture gallery! And where do they take you? Well you'll have to click to find out...
Ok, well more to come on all of this in the morning perhaps ~ will let you play with it first!
p.s.
How awesome is the Target McQueen Collection? And the Blythe Dolls? SO fun to work on the last few days!
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2 Notes
Wow. Super crazy monday, just slowed down by the arrival of a very unexpected gift from one of my favorite artists, Catalina Estrada! Sat down in the hallway, popped open the tube, and it just kind of took my breath away. Gorgeously packaged (she decorated the tube so nicely and simply with stamps even!) ~ fun little cards greet you upon opening, and a signed print from the recent show she did with Pancho Tolchinsky: Backyard, with her illustrations beautifully layered over his photographs.
So, this post is a huge "THANK YOU, Cati!!!" ~ and i had to share how cool it is with all of you as well! I guess i'll have to hit up the framers soon! So many posters and artworks i've had stashed in tubes over the last year or so... i think the living room of the new house next month may have to become a secret NOTCOT gallery! Check out more pics on the next page!
TO PAGE 2 of "Thank You, Catalina Estrada !"! ----->
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15 Notes
Hi. So. I don't even know where to start right now, in a nutshell ~ who was i kidding (maybe pretty much myself) that i would be able to work during an the all day FM Conversational Marketing Summit that our Federated Media family is putting on? I think i've been running around since early this morning - all day through the summit, getting to know the advertising/marketing world, meeting the people behind the campaigns we love and admire, then drinks... then dinner... then... well finally home to linhchi's at like 12:30? Only to supposedly be up and do it again tomorrow? And be on a panel at 2?
Well you know me. I'm about to pass out (and sorry this post is a bit ramblier than usual, SO tired) ~ but i had to find SOMETHING to post and share with you! It just feels too wrong to be running around chatting with people who love our sites, and not post to do so! So, for anyone at the summit, yes, that was me... in the grass outside the cocktail reception, in that perfect sunset lighting, sprawled across the grass in a little black dress shooting pictures of our new macbook pro and macbook that dan and i might have ducked out of an afternoon session to run over to the marina to pick up. And while i am embarrassed to say that i have not actually booted either machine yet, and may not get to do the inaugural booting/transferring/notcot loading until AFTER tomorrow (how wrong is that?)... i did take a bunch of pics of the packaging and details in the grass in the presidio before getting back to "work" ~ meeting some incredibly insightful agency creatives, marketers, sales people that i've probably swapped far too much email with. So, take a peek at the pics on the next page, and more to come after i try to survive tomorrow...
For those at the CM Summit, come say hi at the 2pm panel i'm on? I'm so nervous! And for those not here ~ one of my biggest goals here as a publisher, is to get to know some of the people behind the ads and campaigns, and ultimately see what it will take to turn advertising on NOTCOT into as much fun as the content (really, we all know there's no excuse for ugly, useless creative) ~ and how we can convince advertisers to support what the readers want to see more of! (On one thing i can leak... sounds like a really exciting competition with Adobe for CS4 is in the works, so get those creative juices flowing! And it just shipped today! I totally spaced on getting a copy while i was at the apple store...) As readers, any and all ideas you have on what you'd love to see more of ~ please leave a comment and i'll do what i can to make it happen.
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Hi! So, here's the deal, i've been slightly overworking lately, and have been getting ready for gift guide ideas, holiday season, new features, playing with new projects, and keeping up with the high speed stream of goodies at NOTCOT.org, NotCouture, and Liqurious... also off to a wedding next week up in Sonoma... and the Federated Media Conversational Marketing Summit (i was asked whether i wanted to do ticket giveaways, any of you interested in meeting me at the summit and chatting conversational marketing?) on the 15th-16th.
While running around someone has been poking me about how i haven't taken a "real" break in about 3 years - but that's what doing what you love and having it turn into your job means right? Apparently, wrong. So i'm going to try and take a breather for the next week, and have a quick favor to ask you... Help me out with a few questions? 1) When i take a break, and in general, would you rather have me hire writers to just run around the net showing you things here on NOTCOT.com? Versus having this be more of my personal blog? (I'm slightly biased, as it's pained me to watch some of my favorites hire a ton of people and the content gets old and not nearly as fun, but there's probably a way to find a balance?) 2) What stores for designer and fashion goodies can you not live without that we should take a look at while researching for gift guide? Which includes everything from scouring their stores for products, seeing if they'd be interested in discounts for readers, etc etc (ideas?)...
OH, and you know me, "break" can sometimes = more posts. I get excited, i post. But since i've been slowing down the pace the last few days here anyhow, thought i'd make it official. So i may still be posting, but consider this the heads up for the next week and a bit if i miss a day or two... but just check into NOTCOT.org to get your creative juices flowing! Here's a quick roundup of some of my current faves over there...
Click the images to see more, as usual ~ and would you believe there's something new going up there practically every few minutes?!?!?!
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New NOTCOT Gallery Tags!!! If you peek to the left and right you'll see the work of Kimberly Wu ~ talented illustrator and art center transportation design grad, currently working for Honda Advanced Design studio in Pasadena, CA. I love how the internet works - I stumbled across Kimberly's Blog and was intrigued enough by the images of the grad show projects to post it to NOTCOT.org (but too shy to email her for more info at the time!), and got an incredible response from NOTCOT readers! Then she posted about being on org, and i had to comment, at which point she emailed me back so many emails filled with high res pics ~ and i only fell further in love with her unique and gorgeous blend of illustration styles and car design renders! Many emails back and forth later, a simple post wouldn't do her work with JOY justice, so here they are in the NOTCOT Gallery and Tags! View all of Kimberly Wu's JOY in the NOTCOT Gallery.
In her own words, here's what Kimberly had to say when i asked her about her background and the JOY Project: "To answer your questions, I was very interested in illustration, mainly doing a lot of figure and landscape painting, before deciding to go to Art Center for car design. It was a completely different route than I thought I would be taking, but I ended up using my illustration skills towards my style in designing cars. I think my goal was to try to separate myself from the typical way car designers sketch and design-I'm kind of obsessed with color and style in my work. What's next is to start working! I was lucky to land a position at the Honda Advanced Design studio in old town, Pasadena.
The Joy project was something I decided to do in my free time. I didn't have any constraints from school or instructors so I was free to do whatever I wanted. The project began in the Fall 2007, and it matured through each season until I finished in Summer 2008. The idea was to create a character vehicle, instead of just designing another car to be driven; I wanted the Joy to be like an animated toy almost. The colors all reflect the mood of each season, and are important in showing off Joy's attitude."
So, with that ~ click the tags to view all of Kimberly Wu's JOY in the NOTCOT Gallery... and if we're lucky we'll be seeing more of her illustrations (and maybe even driving one of her designs!) in the near future!
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So far, NOTCOT has really been growing by pulling in my close friends ~ but over the last few years, we've had a lot of requests from people wanting to be our interns or joining us as a day job (which blows my mind, since this is still so much fun it's often hard to think of it as a day job!). Anyhow, so many fun opportunities have been coming up, to the point where i have started to even turn some down (!!!) that i thought maybe this winter is the right time to try taking on some help. Some fun, design loving, energetically curious, internet savvy, shopaholic, kind of help! So if you're interested, i wrote a letter to you on the next page... if not, keep browsing, flipping pages and what not...
And as for that "office" up there ~ well NOTCOT is run out of wherever dan and i happen to be ~ we're all digital and very nomadic ~ although primarily LA based at the moment... so wherever you are, if you have the time, energy, and super fast internet connection, let's chat! And that office, is a peek at the newly revamped Manerba Spa' furnitures for ATM Milan that just showed up in my email, it felt very "work" like... and pretty much the complete opposite of what life with NOTCOT will probably be like!
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Happy Pi Day ~ and for all of you who wonder where all these crazy posts and ideas and inspiration come from... well for the sake of my amusement, here's something silly i ended up with tonight (blame the lack of sleep and insanity that is LA this week... also Linhchi brought me a sun jar and combine that with my vinyl cutter.... ) Naturally all the craziness that you see propagating across the network comes from somewhere! But where? My glowing jar full of NOTCOTs! (Whatever a NOTCOT may be, that, as surprising as it is to most, is still quite unknown). So for today's random project, NOTCOTs are like fireflies, visual manifestations of all the crazy inspiration lighting us up?
Ok, so basically, Sun Jar+ Vinyl Cutter = Jar of NOTCOTs (and this will probably continue to evolve into other ideas...) Also, on Sun Jars, although i've gifted and recommended these solar powered glowing jars often, this is the first time i've been gifted one! And i must say for the next one i gift, i will ditch the packaging, personalize it in some subtle way for the recipient, and present it as simply the jar, with a beautiful ribbon to tie a notecard on. See more pics below! (also the dissection of my sun jar...)
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1 Notes
Well, this is certainly unprecedented. I have received some very cool rather meta snail mail... from Germany! I chat with Johanna Krimmel via email, then send some NOTCOT Buttons in the mail ~ and then she sketches out a a picture of those buttons being opened on her laptop (yay, mac) down to the details of the air mail stamp, and snail mails me back! So to complete/continue the cycle i wonder if i need to now paint her a picture of me opening her envelope of her picture of my envelope.... etc etc etc you get the point. Or is posting it enough? Anyhow, this was a first, so thought you guys might liked to take a peek! More images below...
TO PAGE 2 of "NOTCOT Thank You Art?"! ----->
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It is a total trip (for me) to open a magazine or website and see myself on it ~ i am definitely a behind the camera kind of girl? Remember that 
