Chris Hadfield : Space Oddity music video

Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield, is now my hero.  Along with having his own YouTube station where he posts videos called "An Astronauts Guide To High Tea" and "Opening A Soda On The Ocean Floor", he has one of the coolest music videos of the year, "Space Oddity".  Amazing.

Second Sight : Bionic Eye

This past fall, LA-based Second Sight was set to debut an FDA-approved bionic eye that's designed to help the 100,000 blind Americans who suffer from retinitis pigmentosa.  After an aspirin-size implant is surgically placed inside an eye and wirelessly linked to video-equipped glasses, once-sightless patients can detect light, differentiate between objects, and even read large print.  "In the lab, we've been able to get one patient up to 20/200 vision," says CEO Robert Greenberg.  "Our long-term goal is to treat blindness overall."

~By Paul Wachter

Fast Company Issue 181

Low Fat Nut Bars

Low Fat Nut Bars

1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup almond or sesame seed meal
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup coconut oil (check your local health food store)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of raw honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
Method:

1. On a cookie sheet, toast nuts and shredded coconut until golden brown (you may need to shake the tray once or twice to make sure they cook evenly).
2. Once toasted, pour mixture into a food processor and pulse until nuts are chopped and the mixture becomes coarsely ground.
3. In a mixing bowl, melt coconut oil and almond butter (about 20 seconds). Remove from microwave and stir until smooth.
4. Add vanilla extract, honey and sea salt. Mix thoroughly.
5. Fold in nut mixture and almond (or sesame seed) meal until mixed thoroughly.
6. Fold in blueberries/cranberries.
7. Press mixture into an 8 by 4 loaf pan.
8. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm.
9. Cut “loaf” width wise. Should make 6 good-sized bars.
10. Enjoy! (or, if you don’t plan to eat immediately, you can store the bars in the refrigerator, covered loosely with a paper towel and plastic wrap.

Get the original recipe here.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! The season of hand turkeys!!

Shinola Watches : Dallas Entrepreneur Brings Manufacturing Back to Detroit

By David Brown via KUT
Think of Detroit, and you likely think of a city past its prime.

But while Detroit faces an uphill climb since filing for bankruptcy in July, Heath Carr, CEO of Dallas-based Bedrock Manufacturing, has taken a decidedly bullish perspective on the city: His group is the parent company of Shinola, a company manufacturing American-made watches, bicycles, leather goods and more in the Motor City.

Carr believes that Detroit could be the manufacturing capital for watches in America again.
"We saw the city, the community, the people of Detroit focused on the future," Carr says. "We just said 'we've got to tap into this, if we want to be successful with this story.'"

All Shinola goods are made in the U.S. The watches have gotten attention from distributors like Neiman Marcus to the French boutique Colete. The watches come engraved with "Made in Detroit" on the back.

“We're not anti-anything, this is just pro-manufacturing in the United States," Carr says. “There is a quality that can be made in the U.S., and yes, it's an uphill climb to teach people how to manufacture … [but] there is passion that cannot be replaced by mass consumption.”

 

Homemade Hot Chocolate via Vogue

It's still not very cold here in Texas.  I've put away all my sundresses in favor of sweaters but I have yet to really need them.  However, I have brought out all our cold weather food in full force; such as soup and hot chocolate.  I found this receipe for homemade hot chocolate in the December 2012 issue of Vogue and it sounds delicious.  Must try this soon-preferably with some sort of schnapps.

2 1/4 cup of whole milk

1/4 cup of flat bottled spring water

1/4 cup of super fine sugar

3 1/2 oz (about 3/4 cup) of chopped, dark, bittersweet chocolate

1/4 cup of cocoa powder, loosely packed

In a 2 or 3 quart saucepan, stire together the milk, water, and sugar.  Then add a little more sugar.  Bring to a boil over medium heat. Whisk in the chocolate and cocoa powder.  Keep cooking and whisking until the solids have dissolved and then thickened.  Reduce the heat to the very low.  Using an immersion blender in the same pan or pouring the liquid into a standard blender, whirl at high speed for a half-minute or more, until the hot chocolate is thick and foamy.  

 ~from Pierre Herme

photo from theroguenews.com

Vinylize by Tipton Eyeworks

Eyeglass frames handmade in Hungary out of old vinyl records?  Amazing!  I spotted Vinylize frames at a shop in Austin and they were great-cool shapes, well made, super cool story.  Even the cases are made out of 7" records.  Check it out.

  

Vintage Cars

A car that's perfectly in proportion to me-petite.

San Francisco : Foxygen

California duo Foxygen won my heart over with this song. At first I thought it just sounded like a Mamas And The Poppas song but then it grew on me. The video clearly belongs in a Wes Anderson movie-maybe they should at least be friends.

Michelle Williams for Louis Vuitton

I am looking for a signature makeup look. One that is super easy and I can throw on within 5 minutes every morning.  I'm thinking this is an excellent option for the fall.  A little moodier and all lips and brows.

Michelle Williams for the Louis Vuitton campaign photos.

How To Break Into The Optical Field

For those who are not complete optical fiends, there are two major conferences in the States where all of us eyewear lovers and industry folk gather together to check out what other people are doing and more importantly, for doctors to make large purchases.  We just weathered Vision Expo West in Las Vegas--where folks go party--and in the spring we'll have Vision Expo East in New York City where we all actually go to work.

I just worked my very first Vegas show and while I expected to the experience to be brutal and to come home feeling like a wet noodle, it wasn't bad at all.  In fact I'd say it was rather successful and I quite enjoyed myself.  Word to the wise: bring comfortable shoes.  End of story.  Leave the Vegas heels for later the night when all the fun begins anyhow.

This is a photo from our booth, Shauns California, a killer line based in California and handmade in Italy.  For every pair of frames we sell, we sponsor an eye exam, and donate a pair of glasses to someone in need--a little something we call "Soulful Luxury"  Check it out, the frames are very cool.

Joseph Markovitch

This first-person account by a life-long local from East London tickled me so much that I had to share it with you here. Featured in the Australian magazine, Smith Journal, Volume 5.  I adore this older gentleman, Joseph Markovitch.

Photo by Martin Usborne

Fixed Address

Writers: Martin Usborne, Andrew Breitenberg, Carlie Armstrong, Baden Pailthorpe 

~Hoxton, East London~
~Joseph Markovitch, 85, has lived in Hoxton for his entire life~

I was born right by Old Street roundabout on January 1, 1927.  Some of the kids used to beat me up - but in a friendly way.  Hoxton was full of characters in those days.  The mayor was called Mr Brooks and he was also a chimney sweep.

   

When I was a kid everyone was a cockney.  Now it's a real mix.  You never know who you'll meet.  I think it's a good thing: makes it more interesting, don't it?

Did you know that I stand still when I get trouble with my chest?  Well, last Saturday a woman come up to me and said, "Are you OK?" and I said, "Why?"  She said, "Because you are standing still."  I said, "Oh." She said she comes from Italy and her husband is Scots-Canadian, and you know what? She wanted to help me!  Then I dropped a 20-pound note on a bus. A foreign man - I think he was Dutch or French - said, "You've dropped a 20-pound note." English people don't do that because they have betting habits.  They take your 20 pound and go put it on the horses.  I think it's great people are all mixed up.

We used to have cabinetmakers and tailors and music halls.  Now we have a big stadium.  I'm not sure about it.  There's a man I know, and his son helped build the Olympics.  Now the son is redundant.  They make people redundant when they don't want them no more.  Once something's done, it's done.

I worked two years as a cabinetmaker in Hemsworth Street just off Hoxton Market.  But when my sinuses got bad I went to Hackney Road, putting rivets on luggage cases.  For about 20 years I did that job.  My foreman was a bastard.  Apart from that it was OK.  But if I was clever, very clever, then I would have liked to be an accountant.  It's a very good job.  And if I was less heavy...you know what I'd like to be?  I'd like to be a ballet dancer.  That would be my dream.  But I know what I definitely do not want to be is a funeral director.  What a terrible job!  Or what about those people that study the stars.  That's a very good job.  I'm interested in the universe.  In how things began and what's out there on other planets and lumps of energy that are millions of miles away.  It's more interesting than rivets.  If a meteor landed in Hoxton Square, you think anyone could survive?

I find all the modern art very strange.  I'm not used to things I don't understand; things what ain't paintings.  I like the old paintings.  I'm interested in Renaissance - you know what that is?  Things what are ancient.  Anything between 100 and 300 years old.  I also like things that are produced by Picasso, people like that.  Toulouse-Lautrec.  He was not too bad, but he had an unhappy life.  Do you know that Tracey Emin?  She lived around here.  You know that she stopped a skyscraper being built in Hoxton Square.  I'd have liked to meet her.

I've never had a girlfriend.  It's better that way.  I have always had very bad catarrh so it wasn't possible.  That's the thing, my health.  And I had to look after my mother.  Anyway, if I was married I would have been domineered all my life by a girl and that ain't good for nobody's health.  I'm too old for that now.  I would have liked to have had girlfriend but it's OK.  I've had a happy life.  I've seen the horse and cart: I've seen the camera invented: I've seen the projector.  I never starved - that's the main thing.

Photo by Martin Usborne

The most important thing I own is my keys.  And my bus pass.  And my belt.  You see, if you lose a cigarette or a pound coin you replace it.  But if you lose your keys then you're left outside.  And you can't get home because you've got no bus pass.  And they won't let you on the bus if your trousers have fallen down.  This is important stuff, you know.

Computers can start wars if you're not careful.  You press the wrong button and a bomb goes off.  In my time, if a woman wrote on a typewriter and she pressed the wrong key she just took the paper out and put in the basket.  Now you press a button and the whole economy collapses.  It's not right.  And doctors...they don't look at you, they just look at a screen.  The thing is, people are meant to be more efficient.  But they're not.  I still got sent the wrong glasses.

If I try, I can imagine the future.  It's like watching a film.  Pavements will move, nurses will be robots and cars will get smaller and grow wings...you've just got to wait.  They will make photographs that talk.  You will look at a picture of me and will hear me say, "Hello, I'm Joseph Markovitch," and then it will be me telling you about things.  Imagine that!  I also have an idea that in about 50 years Hoxton Square will have a new market with an amazing plastic rain cover.  So if it rains the potatoes won't get wet.  I don't know what they will sell.  Maybe bowler hats.  Nothing much changes around here in the end.

Photo by Martin Usborne

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

I've never read this book before but the film trailer looks good!

Handmade Butcher Block

Conner made us a butcher block yesterday!  This makes me really want to redo the kitchen entirely.

Been Away So Long...

It's been so long since I've posted anything and there's really no excuse for it at all. So I'm going to reintroduce myself into the blogosphere with a short film from luxury frame-maker Barton Perreira, design in southern California and made in Japan. They made an excellent marketing move when they teamed up with Hollywood darling, Gianni Ribisi, and made several very cool videos. 

Retail Videos

I have begun seeing more and more retail videos lately.  It's usually online retailers that make pretty and artistic videos featuring a product for sale in their shop.  While it's more work in the short-run, I think it's a good idea and I'm going to have to think about doing it for Finn Handmade in the future.


Young Frankk x Pennyweight from Pennyweight on Vimeo.
via Pennyweight shop

The Modern Craft Project

Ketel One vodka and Wallpaper magazine have partnered to host The Modern Craft Project.  The two companies were accepting applications through March 20th to find contemporary craftsman who combine traditional methods with new materials, technology, or overall aesthetic to create something new and interesting.

In our opinion, a modern craftsman is someone who builds upon the past to create something unmistakeably contemporary.

Prizes include a share of the The Ketel One Legacy-a nice chunk of change to invest back into your business, features in Wallpaper Magazine, wider global exposure, and a chance to take their work to the next level.

Something to keep in mind next time around.

Young Frankk x Pennyweight Jewelry

I really enjoy reading the Pennyweight blog written by Nashville-based Elise Joseph; she has an amazingly keen eye for good, yet simple, design.  Her Pintrest and Twitter feeds are quiet lovely as well.  With this great design sense, Ms. Pennyweight has begun collaborating with various artists to create limited-run goods sold on her website.  My favorite right now is the Brass Cuff made in conjunction with jewelry artist Young Frankk although it sold out so fast.  I hope they bring this one back soon.

Pep Talk

I think I love this little guy.
via Black*Eiffel

Wildsam Travel Guides

Wildsam travel guides seem like my kind of travel guide-featuring interviews and essays from natives, culture creators, and historians.  Focusing on the zeitgeist of the place in question - as the jacket flap says the "bygone sense of place" - Wildsam has only release the Nashville edition thus far.  However...the Austin edition is scheduled to be debuted May 2013!  Looking forward to reading this one despite the fact that we live here; sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in one's own town.