Couture on Cuisine: Karl Largerfeld's Daily Affirmation

"Fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight." – Karl Lagerfeld

The Chanel photo spread is giving me totally mixed messages. Dear Papa Lagerfeld, don't you know those delicious French fries look so damn good (especially with the Chanel logo!) and swimsuit season is JUST around the corner? Tsk, tsk! 

via BryanBoy 

Dreams of Flying by Jan von Holleben

Photographer Jan von Holleben has got me hooked on his photo book, Dreams of Flying. Invoking the whimsy of a child's imagination, he plays with his subjects and their imaginary settings: among them, in space, mid-air in the skyline, etc, all while rooted in their everyday surroundings. 

Best iPhone Camera App: Quad Camera

Playing with this all weekend, Quad Camera by Tatayuki Fukatsu. Quad Camera is a quick iPhone app that lets your iPhone take continuous snapshots to create a single snapshot. Think, like a Holga or a Lomo with included color settings like bright, b/w, vivid, hi-contrast, etc. All this for a $1.99? Booya! 

Quad Camera accomplishes what it sets out: super fast shutter time, processing speed, and saturated/vintage finishes to your iPhone photos. It brings lo-fi to your digital photos. I can't afford to purchase a Lomo or a Diana but for my purposes, I love the efficiency (and quality control) of digital cameras. I'm OK with not owning analog cameras (which cost a pretty penny for their lo-fi hipness when you include purchasing and developing film). I also reviewed Poladroid, a desktop app that is a lo-fi tribute to analog film (in their case, Polaroids). Still, Quad Camera isn't perfect -- it has to work with the 1.3 megapixel iPhone 3G camera lenses. Just like with analog cameras, how you play with your natural lighting determines the quality of your shot as you can see in my play snapshots. 

The great thing about Quad Camera is its developer,  Tatayuki Fukatsu
created a free animated gif app, QuadAnimator, to add liveliness to your Quad Camera shots. Nice! 

Shameless mugging.

360 degree panorama shot of the University of Washington Quad.

Paulette Waltz: Spidey Salaryman

What is it with me and masked figures? See here. This time, I am in LOVE with photographer, Paulette Waltz' s series that she presented at Pecha Kucha Night in Tokyo: Spidey Salaryman. It's haunting me.

Photo Mood of the Day

Celebrity by complejo on deviantART

Fall Leaves

Glorious Fall coverage:

Japanese maple leaves falling outside my apartment's pathway. 

Korean Elle: This is how you do a photo shoot

 

Lee Hyori in Elle Korea

I love how Elle styled Lee Hyori, a Korean pop singer, for this spread. Adoring the dramatic eye makeup,  the clean white outfits, and the dreamy feel of the photography.  Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Click over at PopSeoul for more scenes from Elle Korea [PopSeoul]

 

Food Porn is the result of dining on a budget

This current economy hasn't been too friendly to dearly devoted's dining budget. Like everyone else, I've cut down my eating-out budget and inspiring myself and my bf to cook more. We've already ran through our limited inventory of quick-and-dirty 30 min. meal recipes: spaghetti, soups, etc. Our stipulation is to make meals quick + relatively healthy + budget-friendly. Well, late night web browsing leads me to these beautiful recipes from Apartment Therapy...and now I'm hungry as ever and its late at night....@*#)! So, what does everyone else like to cook on a budget? My favorite recipes, right now, are swapping veggies for pasta in low-carb spaghetti meals.  

Apartment Therapy: Sesame Garlic Noodles with Fried Egg 

Apartment Therapy: Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts

Lady GaGa

I love Lady GaGa and I *adore* the look she's pulling off here. Loving this, it's very Jem . 

Jack and Jil Blog

Jack and Jil Blog 

Seen at Paris Fashion Week 

What am I clicking on nowadays? Adding to the blogroll love: Jack and Jil Blog  blog. Fierce photography of the fashionable streets of New York, Paris, etc. I can get my photo voyeurism on. I *heart* the spike bracelets La Lanphear is sporting above. Fierce!

Seattle Artist, Narboo

oldie olson in san francisco by Narboo

Let's take a look at Seattle artist,Narboo  aka. Brandon M. Baker. Seen over at the McLeod Residence, he was friendly, answered tons of my questions, and yessssshhh his area had free stickers of his art. Mmmm...free. At first glance, I thought he was selling pictorial postcards but a closer look made me laugh. Narboo loves carefully inserting his cartoon illustrations in snapshots. I love the geriatric seagull above. It just screams Fort Lauderdale, Fl, my hometown, represent. Check him out. 

Edith creek bigfoot sighting 

chilling at kerry park 

Super Box Robot

Danboard Super Box by Steve Keys 

The theme for today's photo: Play! On a funny note, I'm not sure whether to feel threatened that Amazon's going to send a killer robot after me or this is a benevolent transformer...

To see Danboard Super Box in action, check out a Danboard  site 

Kids for Halloween

Halloween in Harlem by Amy Stein (2005)

 Halloween meets fine art. Let me introduce to you, dear readers, my favorite photographs involving costumed kids at play on the streets of New York. In the 1940s, Helen Levitt documented the play life of New York City kids. Sixty-three years later, Amy Stein follows up with her homage. The atmosphere in both snapshots are haunting and yet, I'm happy to see the spirit of Halloween on display with it. 

Untitled by Helen Levitt (1942)

Minding your ABCs: Typographic Inspiration

Light Writing Alphabet by Nir Tober 

Ruben Miller has an interesting graphic post about 22 Of the World's Most Creative Alphabets For a visual punch, high-tail it to his blog post and get inspired. Artists, photographers, designers show off their typographic work. Whether you're in the art/design community or like looking at art -- these examples make me pumped to be more inspirational in my daily thinking.  My personal favorite is showed above. Here are more below:

Meat Alphabet by Robert Bolesta    

Buildings and sky alphabet by Lisa Rienermann. 

Sign language matchbook alphabet. By Jonathan Keller

Management Approved Gift Product

Spotted at Uwajimaya Market: Boss Coffee. 

Trophy Cupcakes

A weekend "bon appetit."
Red Velvet Cake cupcakes, Trophy Cupcakes

Martha Stewart approves of this Seattle bakery.  Curious, I ventured to Wallingford to check the goods out. Beautifully displayed and designed, Trophy Cupcakes delivers an achingly sweet Red Velvet cupcake. Can you believe I got a tummy ache with it? You betcha I'm coming back for more. 

Click, Click, Click! Stedelijke Feestzaal Coffee Bar

Stedelijke Feestzaal Coffee Bar (2)

Originally uploaded on Flickr by gron51

Whaaaa? This coffee shop/lounge/cafe looks like a decorative mashup of Marie Antoinette, the Jetsons, and James Bond. Discuss. I dig the clash between the rococo and the white neo-gothic chaises, I'd nab those in a heartbeat.