My friend Nancy is an accomplished surface designer who, over the years, has created a range of hand-painted dinnerware for various clients here and far. I asked her if she would send me the rough swatches of stripes and marks that are a product of her pattern development . She happily complied. This is only the smallest selection from her archive. Again, it’s the process that catches my eye. Sometimes I feel as though we are losing out to technology when it comes to the incremental stages of creativity. Maybe. Maybe not.

Another quick test of the newsletter. I’ve always loved this sign. Over the few years that it’s been outside the local farm and garden store, they have never once changed the words.

Working with some updated plugins and code, and want to see if the images come through on the newsletter. Lovely photo of the Roosevelt Island tram courtesy of Bobby Ghosh of @ghoshworld.

Saw this photo in the NYT this morning. Made my stomach lurch. The height of that wave is approximately 100 ft. And yes, that is a surfer, one Garrett McNamara, in the middle. The wave is off Nazaré, on the central coast of Portugal. Who knew? Photo by Tó Mané via Reuters.

If I hadn’t chosen to pursue life as a designer, I might well have been a scientific illustrator. As a student, I loved biology. I would spend hours with my pencils and paints making drawings of dissections and microbes. I was (no surprise here) consumed by chart making. I remember in high-school biology how I dove headlong into the science and visual representation of genetic traits. Gregor Mendel wasn’t exactly my hero, but I noticed early on how much I was enamored by what I imagined to be a life devoted to pea plants and bees. My friend Kay sent me a link to this site. It has a wealth of unusual and wonderful images. Thanks Kay!

I’ve made no secret of my love for the cigarette card collection at the NY Public Library. Here is a single painting broken into 45 parts. Click here to see the who and the what.

Some flash cards purchased when we were living in Chinatown. At some point in our tenure I tried (and failed) to learn to read Chinese characters. I did figure out how to say hello, thank you, and several variations of happy new year. I also added to my vocabulary the words for a smattering of fruits, vegetables and dumplings. And, if you ask me how to order a beer, I have your back.