Happiness is a bevy of springs. Delight in all of the subtle variations. Seen at Lendy’s Electric on Grand Street in NYC.

I saw these prints on Swissmiss this morning and fell for them in an instant. I am a true sucker for the mundane and the obsolete appearing in numbers. And I love the texture and flatness of these images. Good job Tweed Tom (real name, Tom Rowe). And thanks Swissmiss for having such a keen eye. If you want to live with one of these, go here.

I don’t want to proselytize too much, but these wood burning stoves are fantastic! In a recent conversation with a designer who is planning to build a studio adjacent to her home, I found myself waxing lyrically about the beauty and efficiency of our own Morso stove (we have the little Owl…the 5th image down). The Danish company has been around since 1853, so in my opinion it’s got some cred. These stoves are so efficient, that when used properly there is no smoke coming out of your chimney and virtually no ash left in the stove itself. I was originally looking at some really fancy (read: expensive) stoves, but we couldn’t imagine spending that kind of money on a design for which we were not even that keen. They were lovely, but essentially too cold and hard-edged for our humble little A-Frame. There had to be something else out there that embodied the essence of Scandinavian design, but with some warmth and character. Morso designs run the gamut from very classic Danish court style to ultra modern. And, what’s even better, they use 98% recycled materials in the production of their stoves.

The French curves shown here are mine, and rarely used anymore. It makes me a little sad to think that’s the case because there is a certain joy and artfulness to using them. And more specifically, using them well. What got me to thinking about these was a quote I heard yesterday from a guy who manually charts the stock market. He said that “By doing something, you end up studying it.” And that pretty much holds true for drawing curves. Sometimes it’s a real struggle to get the curve you want and to make it fluid. And in that struggle, there is often an answer to the design.

I wonder, who is Carol Andrews and where is she now? I found this card on ebay while in the process of looking for reference when first working on development for a Tupperware project. It was 25 cents. I blew it up to 3 ft x 4 ft. It now hangs on my wall.