This is what happens when you volunteer to be the guy that goes to IKEA and picks up a lot of furniture for the office...

We moved to a bigger studio, so now we have a little more room and needed more storage. We had stuff just stacked up in piles in our old space.  Plus, we have added a person who didn't have a desk yet. Since I was already heading to Chicago I said I would stop and get the furniture.

Packed into my car (which seems quite spacious, possibly to a point of deceiving me though) is:

• 2 HUGE glass desk tops (these were the trouble makers)
• 2 desk frames
• 8 desk legs
• 2 book shelves
• 4 door inserts for bookshelves
• 3 file cabinets
• shoe cabinet for home
• lamp
• various small things, hangers, metal basket, etc.

It was pretty much a game of giant heavy Tetris to get it in there. I am guessing I gave my suspension a run for the money too. I know the bookshelves are 90lbs each, and the desks are even heavier. We also had to move the seats up quite a bit. Enough where I wouldn't be able to drive the car, so my wife drove while I crammed into the passenger seat.

As an added extra you get to see my awesome taillights. Too bad they weren't lit up, they just light up as bright red circles. AND yes, it was raining, which made the drive so much fun and taking it all up to my office a pain (it was a one man job to take it all up to the office, thankfully we have an elevator).

I was listening to the news as I made dinner tonight and there was a really cool story on it. It was about how there was a study going on at The Cleveland Clinic about how biking can actually help Parkinson's Disease. There was a video of a man having trouble controlling his hand, he then was able to get on a bike, rode it around a parking lot, and afterwards had a steady hand. He even said that he could feel the effects weeks later not having a lot of tremors.

That to me is amazing. So amazing. Hopefully the studies go further with it and they find a way to cure/prevent/decrease it.

[bike t-shirt on etsy]

The weather has been getting warmer here so last night I had the ambition to get the bikes out of the attic. Then I had an even greater ambition to ride my bike to work today. The ride went well except it is still quite brisk in the morning!

Now I just have to ride home, which is a greater feat. Since there is a giant hill between me and home, although much better then the hill on the way to work and therefore being really gross and sweaty.

Get out there an enjoy the weather!

[image is a shirt on threadless]

I often read a great design blog called AisleOne, written by Antonio Carusone. He is a great designer, blogger, etc, and recently he also has started designing skateboards. His first one was the Hello and the new one is the 39 Longboard.

I love this board! I don't skateboard, I have trouble staying on things that aren't attached to my feet, but I love it. The shape, color, type, wheels, everything is fantastic. Looks like it would fit right in with the color scheme here too.

If you've got some free time, go check out his boards, and go check out his blog. Lots of great info and work being shown over there.

$160 + Shipping for the complete board

I saw this awhile ago and thought it would be a good time to post this. I really like this, and oddly enough have something like this in a sketchbook from awhile ago. One of these days I'll DIY it.

It was available at Potter Barn but it looks like it no longer is. Wish I could have caught them clearancing them since the original $279 price tag was a bit steep.

[via AT ]

I am going to start this morning of with a poster from Paul Tebbott. Paul has a lot of different posters up in his store and on his flickr page but this one really talks to me. The shapes and the colors are so calming and he uses a bit of layering where the two colors meet to give it some depth. But all of that is just adding to it because he had me with the use of a really nice condensed font right from the start.

This is a poster I found in Change The Thought and it was for Art Crank Denver.

Artcrank was a poster show that took place in Denver in April and is all about bicycle inspired art from local artists in the host city.

I really enjoy the layering the use of 2 colors in this. I always feel that screen printing brings out some great techniques when it comes to printing. It's not like when you send something out to be printed and you are just paying for an extra color, you actually have to take the time to print it all over again with a second, or third, etc color if you want another. When I printed the poster in my etsy store, it was 3 colors, but the silver took a double pass, so it was printed 4 times, and that is a lot of work and time.

The show is coming up in St. Louis and San Francisco. If you're in those cities, check it out. The posters are only sold at the shows, so you gotta be there to get the art.

Posts were a bit non existent for the extended weekend since I went out of town to attend and photograph a friends wedding. It took place in Mackinaw City, and although the weather looked a bit bleak, it actually turned out really good. 

My wife and I made our way to the island when we were up there and rode around on that awesome yellow tandem. However, for anyone's future reference, a 1 speed tandem is NOT the ideal bike for an 8 mile ride. We made it around the island fine but it was not the easiest ride (plus bring water, we left ours in the car, on the mainland, far away from us on the tandem).

I also took a couple night shots while I was there, it was so dark out at our campground, and I couldn't resist. I only got a couple shots off (with a 30 second exposure, at f/4 and at iso1600 it wasn't light enough, and I got impatient and sleepy, I had been in the car for 10 hours right before this) and it was my first time shooting the stars, so they didn't turn out that good.

However, I still couldn't resist posting a bit of this blog's inspiration.

One of the things that says "summer" is riding your bike around. As a kid I rode my bike all over, which wasn't such an easy task since my parents lived out in the country and on a dirt road. Not as much fun if you lived in a subdivision, however, it was still a good time.

I'm a bit older now, but I still love a good bike ride. I have a mountain bike in the attic (in pieces, since I don't have room in the apartment for it) and I have my wife's and my bike hanging in our office. We got them for each other for our birthdays last year to get back into riding more. My wife's previous bike was the one that she had as a kid, and mine is that mountain bike, not easy to ride around town on 2.5" wide knobby tires. We both got new schwinns, mine is a hybrid, and hers is a comfort, and it's great to take them out and ride around town.

The bikes above aren't ours, but I wouldn't mind them taking their places. They are the Simple City 8 by Gary Fischer. I imagine having these and living in a beach town on the western side of Michigan and just riding around town. 

Great color on the woman's bike, the teal and white go together so good. I don't know how I feel about the yellow on the men's bike. I would have to see it in person, maybe it would grow on me. The front basket has a unique design and is more stylish then most bike baskets (except maybe the Carrie basket my wife has, a post on that another day). They are made to ride to the store etc, and carry your shopping home. However it seems like they would offer an equally stylish back basket system as well. Something with 2 hanging baskets in the back. Since a front basket makes your bike a bit unstable and harder to ride, a back basket is ideal especially for these bikes purpose.

None the less, a very sleek and stylish bike.