Posted May 31, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
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Fans of obscure holidays—or, today at least, macaroons—might find this article in yesterday’s New York Times to be of interest… apparently, at least 175 days a year are set aside to celebrate some form of food or drink. June 26 Chocolate Pudding Day. October 11 is Sausage Pizza Day. And March 23 is Melba Toast Day, at least according to this website. Unsurprisingly, most of these holidays were created by people who are trying to sell more food (Have a Coke Day, anyone?). Nonetheless, come June 13, you just might find me celebrating Kitchen Klutzes of America Day…
Posted May 30, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
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Even more important to me, in a lot of ways, than my date book are my many plain old notebooks. I carry one with me at all times—to jot down random thoughts and ideas, to take notes when I meet with my clients, to play tic tac toe and hangman when my flight back from Albuquerque is delayed… I’ve never been particularly picky about what kind of notebook I carry, though I do have certain well-defined preferences: I like a relatively sturdy cover so that I don’t have to find a hard surface every time I want to write something down, lines that aren’t too fat (my handwriting is pretty atrocious, and that tends to exacerbate the problem), and a smallish size that doesn’t take up too much room in my bag. Oh, and the cover needs to flip back so that I don’t have to keep on holding it in place as I write.
As it turns out, Quo Vadis’s sister companies, Clairefontaine and Rhodia, offer a wide selection of notebooks, and last week Karen graciously agreed to send me some samples of them. It’s too soon to say, of course, but thus far my favorites are the lined Rhodia flip book pads—with a laminated orange cover that flips over the top, reporter-style—and a pretty Clairefontaine spiral bound model with a printed plastic cover. The paper in each notebook is thick and smooth and velvety. I also liked the Rhodia graph paper pads, which made me want to start drawing Asymptotic curves (I’m a math geek; what I can I say).
Posted May 29, 2007 by Karen Doherty
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D*I*Y Planner is a community site of people who see the value of paper as a medium for planning, productivity and creative expression. I find them a great source of ideas on ways to personalize my planner. For example, reading about Gwen Diehn’s “The Decorated Page” on the site gave me the idea to decorate some pages from my own planner. So whenever I feel inspired or just need a lift, I take out colored pencils and other art supplies and with doodles, stamps, pressed flowers and photos turn the week into a visual memory. Remembering how I felt that week–or how I experienced it–may be more important than a mere log or record of what I planned to do.
Quo Vadis France has a contest- “My Quo Vadis is Me” for students to decorate their planners. Here’s one of the entries.
Posted May 25, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
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Here in the United States, we’re coming up on Memorial Day: a day of remembrance for everyone who died while fighting for the country. It’s been an official U.S. holiday since 1868, but it wasn’t until 1971 that Congress made it into a 3-day weekend.
The rationale behind the change was to make Memorial Day a holiday that could be celebrated the same time each year, rather than on a specific day. (Just as Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November regardless of the date, so Memorial Day is celebrated on the last weekend in May and not on the date of May 30 as it originally was.) Not everyone in the country was pleased: “Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day,” the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) asserted in 2002. “No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.”
Either way, here’s wishing everyone a happy, restful, and thoughtful holiday.
Posted May 23, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
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Yesterday I stopped by the Quo Vadis booth at the National Stationery Show, an event held every year at the Javits Center in New York. Actually, the booth was run by Exaclair—Quo Vadis’s parent company—so I got to see the full line-up of notebooks, stationery, pens, inks, and leather goods, as well. Among the cooler products was a kind of sealing wax called King’s Wax, which was originally manufactured for King Louis XIV of France and is still made today (scoll down to the middle of this page to take a closer look). I also saw the special kind of ink once used by Victor Hugo. How wonderful to see that these traditions are still alive today!
Posted May 22, 2007 by Karen Doherty
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I found this blog post from papersnobbery as I was searching for “Exacompta” on google.com/blogs.
“The great quest began sometime in mid-2006 when I realized the new Moleskine planners coming out didn’t include the one I loved so dearly, the “visual” weekly large. I love this format because it looks like iCal – everything mapped out at a week-to-view. I didn’t like the idea of the new softcover ones, through I considered selling out and settling.
Then my good friend showed me in glee her new planner! It was an Exacompta weekly visual planner – just what I had been looking for. She got hers at Barnes and Noble before the new year, and I was out of luck when I combed through their sale pile. None left.
Vickerey was my savior. Not only did they have my dream planner in stock, but it was on sale! It arrived today and I couldn’t be happier. Black “ostrich-skin” cover, very flexible and soft. The paper is creamy, smooth and slightly thicker than Moleskine paper – no bleed through. It’s 8.25″ x 6″ – almost the same size as my old Moleskine.
I love it. The saga draws to a close for now – and I get (almost) a whole year of using my beautiful new planner.
Read the whole post here.
I love a happy ending!
Posted May 21, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my newfound infatuation with the Robert le Héros date books. This week I began to wonder who’d come up with these lovely designs.
As it turns out, Robert le Héros is the name of a Parisian-based graphic design agency that’s been turning out colorful textiles, papers, and home furnishings for the past 15 years. The agency was founded by four women, and according to their website, they’ve now grown to 8 people. This website says they can be found in New York at Tatashimaya and ABC, at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, at Liberty in London, and at Tokyu Hands in Japan. Hmm…
Posted May 18, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
in Editorial, Where to Go? | 1 comment »
The Taos Pueblo—whose multi-storied adobe buildings have been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years—has very strict rules about photography. Visitors must register, and pay a fee for, each camera that they wish to use; they must promise not to sell or publish their pictures; and they cannot photograph any Pueblo residents without first asking their permission.
The rules are intended to protect the Pueblo’s privacy and prevent its commercial exploitation, but it also made me think about how needlessly over-documented many of our lives are these days—and how our obsessive urge to record all our experiences can prevent us from, well, experiencing them. Of course, it’s nice to have a visual reminder of the people and places we love. But can’t we also be content to let our memories do some of that work?
(The photograph above, by the way, was taken by a commercial stock photographer.)
Posted May 17, 2007 by Karen Doherty
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What was the #1 song the day you were born…graduated…fell in love…started a business…got married…?
Find the answer on a web site maintained by Josh Hostler, which lists the hit parade of songs back to the 1890s!
The top spot on the day I was born belonged to Vera Lynn singing, “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart.” Ugh. No disrespect to Miss Lynn, but I wish it would have been something by The Doors like “Waiting for the Sun” from Morrison Hotel.
Posted May 16, 2007 by Leah Hoffmann
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Aside from the obvious pleasure of exploring new parts of the world—and I’ll be writing more about my trip to New Mexico over the next couple of days—one of my favorite things about vacations is catching up on recreational reading. Last week’s New Yorker had a great story by John Seabrook about the ancient Greek Antikythera Mechanism, which scientists now believe is a very old and very sophisticated astronomical clock. It showed the months of the year in both the Metonic and the saros cycles (the former is a method discovered by the ancient Greeks of keeping the lunar and the solar calendars in synch; the latter is a way of predicting the likelihood of eclipses) and, according to researcher Michael Wright, it also indicated the phases of the moon.
