I just adore our clients. I had to share this… an actual email I got this morning.

What!? But the designs are of an 8.5″ x 11″ page report… ummmmm… how can you evaluate it properly on the iphone?  And why would you evaluate design on the phone?  Yes, the display is gorgeous, bit it is also tiny and a bit misleading to look at things so small.  And how much time would you spend looking at it on the phone.  Wait, and didn’t I ask him, albeit jokingly, to never evaluate design on the iphone?  What on earth should I write back to this email?  Eeeeeek!

I continue reading the email, on my own iphone.  As I scroll down, and after several bullet points of design comments my lovely client told me he was kidding.  My punishment for reading work emails on my phone before I sit down at my desk.

Phew!  Yes, I am gullible.

Yes, I know this is a design-focused blog, but I can’t resist posting these pics.  This weekend my husband made a “cookie-bar-wedding-cake” for our friends (it is one of the bride’s very favorite desserts).  Here are photos of the display.  In a struggle to figure out how to make this tasty dessert presentable we opted for a tiered cake display (and cut a hole in the center of the cookie so it would work).  I think this cookie-bar-cake looked as wedding-appropriate as a cookie cake possibly could!

May first is an official holiday for me: it is my sister’s birthday!  And, since I cannot resist, I am reassigning her a new Pantone color.  Pantone’s very cool Colorstrology assigned today’s color as shamrock green, which is not a bad color choice for my sister, but is a little calmer than my fabulous sister.  I wanted to liven things up and  make her birthday color a teal blue, since she sparkles in that color.

Even if I don’t love the color choice, I adore Pantone’s Colorstrology description for today.   It captures my sister entirely:

“YOU have a unique presence and people take notice when you are in the room. Your ability to express yourself and convey ideas only magnifies your allure. You are open to new experiences and like to be on the move. No matter how far you travel however, a restful home to come back to is important. Your personal color carries the qualities of stability and expansion…”

I wish my unique, energetic, and dynamic sister a very happy birthday today!

Today we wanted to share more fun stuff that we have stumbled across during the week.

• We love peas and carrots… and apparently pea and carrot love each other!  Watch this adorable video by Friends With You Studios for Match.com: http://vimeo.com/9337356

• For the voyeur in us all… glimpse into the personal spaces of creative folk at The Selby.  Look at Todd Selby’s very cool photography and marvel at the funny collections that some people have:  http://www.theselby.com/

• Finally, we are on a major tape kick lately… the question is: what can’t you do with tape?  Check out Rebecca Ward’s installation at Kate Spade’s flagship store in NYC:  http://www.rebeccasward.com/installations/broomest.html

I wonder where my mouse goes most during the day while I work?

Check out this cool little program, IO Graphica, that actually tracks mouse movements into a picture.  Jenny and I both tested it out for nearly six hours and our mouse movements are captured below. Why are the images so wide?  Well, we are both using two monitors that are side-by-side, so we have a lot of horizontal space.  We both tend to design work on the left and keep reference files open on the right.

Apparently we have very active mice!

What is Jenny doing with that big circle on the left?  We think that is her web browser where we use Google Docs for nearly everything.  And all those lines in the upper left corner are likely the tool bars in the Adobe programs.

What do I do in the lower corner of my screen?  I am ashamed to admit that is the email application… it seems like there are always emails to respond to!  And the big blob in the upper left is probably the tool bar for most Adobe applications.

An update to the post… since I couldn’t resist tracking my mouse activity again today.  Slight different patterns after 8 hours of work.

And look at a close up view:

Searching the web this week for things that amuse, inspire, or possibly help us work more efficiently.  To celebrate Friday we want to share the following fun finds:

• The Small Object cake toppers: (is it okay that I want to have another wedding just so we could have an excuse to order these?) http://www.thesmallobject.com/products/weddingTopper.html#

• The Pomodoro Technique (we have been trying this all week but having silly timer malfunctions… maybe next week!): http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

• Julia Rothman (I would like to wallpaper the studio with her patterns, stunning and playful!): http://www.juliarothman.com/

Entertainment?  Procrastination?  Inspiration?  We love searching the web for things that delight or amuse us.  To celebrate that it is Friday we wanted to share a few of the highlights we stumbled across this week.

Abi helped select this week’s batch of amusements.  These are not design-related.. or are they?

• Mugumogu’s cat videos (this cat is hysterical!): http://www.youtube.com/user/mugumogu

• xmoonbloom’s crocheted pet hats (can I order one in human-size?): http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40226650

• intructions to make chocolate space invaders – yum! (or eek!?):  http://www.instructables.com/id/Chocolate-Space-Invaders/