The Best Part of Superbowl 45 Was...

The commercials.

Seriously, kind of a boring game over all. Granted, it got a little more exciting toward the end, but wow. And I won't even get started on the really horrific half-time entertainment.

But I digress... as expected from me and my typical interests in television, advertising and visual effects, my favorite part was the commercials. There were some really great ones, but I must admit, I was a little disappointed in the overall quality.

Anyhow, in case you missed them or want to relive them, here are my favorites from the biggest commercial free-for-all time of year.  You can see the rest of them here.

Pepsi Max "Love Hurts"


Chrysler "This is Motor City"


NFL "American Family"


NFL "American Family Side by Side" - this is neat because it shows the compositing used in the commercial.


Motorola "Xoom"


Doritos "Pug Attack"


Volkswagen "Darth Vader"


Volkswagen "Black Beetle"


Snickers "This Is Your Job"


And if you didn't catch this, it's a pretty entertaining short video titled "If Filmmakers Directed the Superbowl".

Happy Things For A Monday Afternoon

I've not been doing so well at blogging in 2011. Guess I need to step it up.

Anyhow, since I haven't done my usual perusal of the great expanse of interwebs lately, I don't have a design post or anything to share, so I figured I'd just share a few things that have been passed onto me in the last few days that made me smile on this Monday afternoon.

Hopefully they brightened up your day a little bit too.

Enjoy!

A fun website, courtesy of my friend Bobby: MTA.me

This beautiful photo of Sofia Coppola, courtesy of the blog Ooh Sofia.

This beautiful necklace from Lady & Gentlemen Studio. ($68)

Passed onto me from my friend Angela.

And this fantastic checklist courtesy of This is Glamorous.

She & Him's New Video, "Don't Look Back"

How cute are M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel? I never get sick of She & Him.

I love the set design and costumes in this video. Absolutely adorable.

She & Him - Don't Look Back from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Helen Musselwhite and Her Paper Art

I came across some pieces by an artist named Helen Musselwhite today on Pinterest.  I love cut paper art and I especially love whimsical cut paper art, so her work is right up my ally. I especially love her glass domes.

About her work (courtesy of her website):

By the use of bold colour, strong graphic line and familiar images I create highly individual and visually appealing pieces of art that make an instant impact. My work has a distinctive hand crafted quality that pays respect to all forms of mid century design, folk and ethnic art, as well as current and future trends.

Each piece combines the hand cutting, folding and scoring of a wide range of papers and card that are further worked on to create patterned and textured surfaces. They are then used to build scenes in box frames which are often complex and consist of many layers. This process means that each item of work is truly individual with no two pieces the same.Influenced by the natural world each piece is manipulated to become an intriguing place, a glimpse into another world of fiction and fairytale.

Each piece of work is handmade in my studio in the North West of the U.K.
If you would like to purchase a piece of work featured on this site or to
commission a new piece please email me at mail@helenmusselwhite.com to discuss your requirements.

If anyone would like to buy me a birthday present, feel free to contact her and have one made for me. I will accept it with a big smile and quite possibly a big hug and a kiss. Haha. Just kidding... or am I? (Nope, I'm not.)

All images courtesy of Helen Musselwhite.

Josh Groban is kind of awesome.

Thanks to my gal pal Christina, whom is another amazing friend that shares things with me throughout my day that I am sure to find interesting (just like Bobby from yesterday's post "Stonecrest") shared this little gem via her Twitter this morning.

It's pretty awesome. Enjoy!

Stonecrest!

I have an amazing friend named Bobby. We like to call him Bobby Stonecrest. He's amazing for a lot of reasons: he's a super awesome baker in his spare time, he's super cute, he is lots of fun, he's a beer, bacon, and burger connoisseur, and basically is my own personal rockstar.

Another reason my amazing friend Bobby Stonecrest is super amazing because he sends me links all day long of things that he thinks I'd enjoy watching/buying/listening to, etc. I wanted to share a few of these things today for everyone else to enjoy as well.

First off, he sent me this link for Pantone iPhone 4 cases! Super rad and as soon as they are available, I will be purchasing the Cool Grey 5 for when I do upgrade my iPhone.

Next up, again Pantone related, he sent me this link for Pantone Visa Credit Cards! If only I liked Visa, I would absolutely go for one. (Come on Amex, get on the Pantone bandwagon please?!)

And last for today, he sent me this fun video titled "The Brick Thief: A LEGO Short Film". Very awesome.



Thank you, Bobby Stonecrest, for all the wonderful things you send my way. You rock the casbah as far as I'm concerned.

My Favorite Christmas Song

I've finally managed to put myself back into the Christmas spirit! Hooray!

In honor of that, I thought I'd share my favorite Christmas song...

Wait for it... wait for it...

Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters from his White Christmas album.

Now, what's your favorite Christmas song?

A Bit of Randomness For Thursday

Random Note #1: I generated my "Top Words of 2010" on Facebook which are pulled from my status posts. Here are my results:

1: Love - used 22 times
2: Jesse - used 17 times
3: Weekend - used 16 times
4: Happy - used 14 times
5: Brown - used 13 times
6: Tonight - used 12 times
7: Morning - used 11 times
8: Night - used 10 times
9: Sweet - used 10 times
10: Nyc - used 9 times

Not too bad. For some reason I thought I'd been more bitchy than I actually was. Apparently not.


Random Note #2: Black Swan looks awesome and I hope to see it this weekend.




Random Note #3: I've been mentally pre-occupied lately, which is what I blame for not doing any good design posts and also being in a not particularly great mood.  Must remedy this situation very soon. (I know I keep saying this...)

I googled "mentally preoccupied" and this is the image that came up.  Interesting.

Random Note #4: I'm missing Columbia, SC very much at the moment. The holidays always bring this about.

Columbia, SC (Image courtesy of City Data.)

Random Note #5: Everyone is having babies. I am thankfully excluded from this.

Again, I googled "Everyone is having babies" and this image came up.

Random Note #6: There is apparently a serial killer in Brooklyn.

Another image courtesy of Google.

Hello There, Beautiful

My man will be playing Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven, which will be released in 2011.

Image courtesy of The Huffington Post via my friend Kellen.

Be still, my beating heart.  Oh John, I adore you.

Read the article here or IMDB info on the film, The Raven, here.

Weekend Recap: BAKING MARATHON!

This weekend, I baked. A lot. And I had a little furry helper, who didn't leave my side the entire time:

I love baking, especially during the holidays. It's so calming and just puts me in the most festive mood! I also love to share my baking, so my co-workers will either love me or hate me tomorrow (pending on how they are feeling with regard to ingesting large amounts of sweets).

I made...

Peppermint Bon Bon cookies (Left) and S'Mores Cookie Bars (Right)

Peanut Butter S'Mores Bars

I also made some Chocolate Chip Meringue cookies, but didn't get a good photo of them.

It was a really nice and relaxing weekend filled with awesome smells (from baking and some great candles we bought) and watching lots and lots of cheesy holiday movies.  I'm excited that Christmas is almost here to spend time with family and friends who I don't see nearly enough.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!