SUMMER TOTES

I love these bright bold beach totes made by Alphabet Bags.  Priced at £10 these are too cute to pass up.  All you need is a beach towel, a bottle of sunscreen and a margarita and you are all set . . . 

Check them out here.

ORANGE BEAUTIFUL SALE

The amazing Etsy shop Orange Beautiful is having a huge sale on everything in her virtual store.  Each and every item is handmade, usually via letterpress, and sports great designs in bright colors.  Check it out here for  fabulous deals on everything from notebooks to art prints to thank you notes.  Also check out Emily and Laura's website here and blog here, both of which symbolize their incredible eye(s) for design.

GREEN CHAIR PRESS + IKEA

The lovely design studio Green Chair Press has paired up with Ikea to offer this awesome print!  You can find it in Ikea stores nationwide starting in October.  Hooray!  Check out more about Green Chair at their website here and their blog here.

MORE COOKING INSPIRATION

Need more cooking inspiration?  I just discovered this amazing foodie/recipe blog called For the Love of Cooking.  Looking at the first page, I would happily devour everything proposed.  Check it out here.

FRESH COOKING

As the weather heats up the farmer's markets are starting to sprout all over the city.  I love strolling through aisles and aisles of fresh vegetables, fruits, and flowers.  Yum!  In keeping with that farm fresh spirit I have several cookbooks to recommend to you:

1. (top) Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It and Other Cooking Projects, by Karen Solomon, $16.50.  Beautifully illustrated and designed, this cookbook has delicious recipes for things like apple butter and rosemary and olive oil crackers.  Delicious! (Bonus: I have those light blue pinch cups seen on the cover! How cool is that?)
2. (middle) In Season: Cooking with Vegetables and Fruit, by Sarah Raven, $26.40.  This cookbook also has great photographs and scrumptious recipes for all your farmer's market finds.  The best part?  Raven breaks down the year into two month "seasons" so you can find recipes specifically tailored to what's available any time of the year.
3. (bottom) Meals Made Easy, Real Simple Magazine, $16.50.  As always, this Real Simple publication makes everything look incredible and easy and awesome.  I can't wait to pair these recipes with some great organic ingredients . . . 

CHANGES

I've been avoiding all of the important things on my to do list and instead have spent some time tooling around with the extras on my blog.  I have changed the typeface and added some fun new stuff: a search engine, month-by-month archives, email updates . . . feel free to take advantage and let me know what you think.  If you are feeling particularly generous you can also sign up to be a "google friend" of the o.i. or forward the blog website to some new readers.

UPDATE: I also just added "blogcast" to facebook so you can be notified about new o.i. posts through my newsfeed!

2009 LOGO TRENDS BY LOGO LOUNGE

Logo Lounge has just published a chronicle of 2009's trends in logo design.  It's surprising to see how much overlap there is!  Check out more examples in many more categories here.

ENJOY THE HOLIDAY!

I hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend basking at the beach or lounging with friends.  Check back in on Tuesday for more posts.

(See more of Yvette Inufio's beautiful photos on flickr here.)

SIR X

Wooster Collective always brings us the best stuff.  This stencil piece, by Sir X, was spotted in Gijon, Spain.  I think it captures the spirit of our times just perfectly, no?  We all want to get away . . . 

Check out the Wooster post here and more from Sir X here.

THREE POTATO FOUR

Three Potato Four just restocked their lovely online store . . . with beautifully bright and graphic plates!  Each features a different cityscape in different hue.  Unfortunately, they are are pricey at $50 each, but they are pretty to look at anyway.  Check them out here or the rest of their fabulous goods here.

TRIPTROP NYC

Triptrop is a really cool website created by Jonathan Soma.  It uses Google Maps to show you a beautifully colored grid demarcating how long it takes to get, by subway, from one point in the city to another.  Sweet!  You can even compare two different addresses.  Check it out here.  See my apartment's map here.

LOVE IS IN THE STAMP

The United States Postal Service has raised the prices on postage AGAIN.  It seems that snail mail is losing money in the wake of scanning and emailing.  Who would have thought?  Anyway, the raised prices have left me scrambling to find a decently designed stamp to replace my beloved Eames stamps.  I was surprised to find these "Love" stamps featuring a playing card style King and Queen.  I love the colors and like the idea of pairing them on a large envelope or package.  Buy a booklet of 20 for $8.80 here.

WORDBONER

Wordboner is a typographic design website that takes all kinds of pithy and cheeky phrases and makes them look super cool on a t-shirt, print or sticker.  Check out their blog here (which has links to all of the awesome places to buy their products!).

DON'T CAST ME AWAY!

I know, I know.  I've been away for like a month.  I've been caught up in exams and I won't give any more excuses because you've heard them all before.  However, I can tell you that I am back now and will do my best to post as often as possible during the busy upcoming summer.

With that said, how awesome is the smooth-lined trash can?  Made by Grace Youngeun Lee over at Innate Gestures.  Awesome!