Etsy Roundup: Movie Tribute Posters

I love movies. Okay, so does everyone else. But I really love movies. Anyway, something I have noticed popping up on Etsy are original "vintage style" movie posters. Sort of the artist's tributes to their favorite films. I would have to imagine there are some copyright issues here (especially with all the Star Wars tribute posters I found. You don't want to mess with Lucas!), but maybe no one has noticed.


Not only do I love this "Empire Strikes Back" poster, I think that this and its two counterparts (here and here) will be living in my house as soon as I am employed:

Poster by Restyle

My favorite from the classic horror genre is "The Shining". Here is evidence from last Halloween:

Myself and Megan as the Grady twins from "The Shining"

What I love about "The Shining" is not only how scary it is, but the style of the film is just so amazing (I could really write an entire blog post about that alone actually). This artist actually added the "fold lines" in this poster digitally to add to the vintage movie poster effect:

Poster by Team Wesler

When "The Royal Tenenbaums" came out, I went to see it with a friend. It got to me so much that I went home and laid on my bed and starred at the ceiling for an hour. I then went back to see it in the theater three more times (seriously). I love this Margot Tenenbaum "paper doll" poster. All of the characters in this film had such interesting signature styles, but Margot's was by far the best with her Lacoste dresses, loafers and fur coat:

Poster by Claudia Varosio

Speaking of iconic film style, Jean Seburg in "Breathless" is about as iconic as you get. I have to say I don't really love the film itself, but I could watch it over and over just to admire its classic style. This artist adds a little color to his tribute to the Jean Luc-Godard classic:

Poster by Adam Juresko 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! My cats didn't get me anything, but its okay. 


My mom seemingly hates all pictures that she is in, but I think this one is awesome. I would totally rock this outfit she has on actually. My hair looks exactly the same as it did in this pic, so somethings never change. 


Anyway, love you mom. 

Nerd Stuff: Cinematic Titanic

So I am still new to this whole blogging thing and I will just preface this entry by stating that I don't really have good photos to illustrate this story. This is for a couple reasons, most importantly because I didn't bring my camera (oops), just my iPhone, and I drank too much boxed wine so I decided to go home right when the show ended instead of meeting the guys like a professional blogger would have done (double oops).

My fellow nerds in line

Show poster

How amazing is this theater?

Anyway, last night my husband and I went to see Cinematic Titanic at San Francisco's beautiful Castro Theater. Cinematic Titanic is a comedy troupe of movie "riffers" who are all alums of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Let's back up a little, in case you lived under a rock in the 1990's (or, I guess if you didn't have cable).

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a show where a guy and two robots watch a "bad" movie (usually an old science fiction B-movie, but there was a variety of genres covered) and crack wise about the movie's crappy content. There is a whole story behind the "why" the guy and the robots do this, but I won't get into all that here. What I can tell you is that when I discovered this show as a teenager I thought "YES! These guys 'get it'!". They referenced everything from pop culture to art and literature and damn it, they were funny. Even my mom liked it and continued to watch it after I left home.

In MST3k, the riffers would watch in silhouette. 

Cinematic Titanic is a live version of MST3k basically (sans robots), and is just as smart and funny as its ancestor. The five comedians sit on either side of the screen as the movie plays and read their scripted jokes off of iPads to coincide with whatever lunacy is happening in the film (Yes, I realize a photo would be helpful here, sorry about that). The theater was PACKED (if you have never been to the Castro, its HUGE) and everyone was laughing hard. Like that kind of laughter that makes your face kind of ugly but you are so happy you don't care. It was a great show, and we had so much fun. 


(Note to Mom: I know last time I saw CT I said I wanted to take you next time, I failed. I will make it happen for next time!)

If you haven't seen Mystery Science Theater 3000, you can check it out on Netflix, many of the episodes are available on the "instant" feature as well. 

Celebrity Home Visit: Amy Sedaris

Amy at her wine cork typewriter (Image from "Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People")

Amy Sedaris' West Village apartment was featured this week in New York Magazine and I felt like I wanted to share it because its just so unusual and well more...fun than lets face it, all of our homes put together.

If you are not familiar with Amy, she is best know as Jerri Blank from "Strangers with Candy", but she has also written/co-written a number of plays and books, most recently, "Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People". I was given this book by my friend Megan, and I can say first hand that it is hilarious, bizarre and a perfect illustration of Amy's dark, off-beat style (Think half kitschy craft book and half cough medicine fueled fever dream). While it is a humor book, Amy actually is an avid crafter and has a dedicated crafting area in her home:

Amy's crafting area (Photo: NY Mag)

Amy is a big fan of unusual objects such as taxidermied animals and "fake foods" made out of plaster. She told NY1 in an interview that she doesn't have anything in her home that doesn't have a story, which I think is very cool, and wish I could say about my own (sure there are stories behind some things, but a lot of "That's cute, I want it" too).

Some of Amy's fake foods. This photo is from her previous apartment. (Photo: NYT)

Aside from the flocked silhouette wallpaper and wigs neatly hung on pegs in this hallway, Amy has 60 wooden flying bats that she had an artist make for her after finding two of them at a flea market and wanting more:

Photo: NY Mag

The lampshade here is made out of hair color samples like you would find in a hair salon:

Photo: NY Mag

 I hope this little trip to Amy Sedaris' house encourages you to be more adventurous in your home decorating! Check out her YouTube channel for demonstrations of some her "crafts for poor people".

Day in the Life: Monday, May 2, 2011

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I awoke to discover I had sold some earrings:

See more at my Etsy shop, Stellaspace

So I got those off to the post office and then went to the library, as a copy of Tina Fey's book "Bossypants" that I put on hold weeks ago finally came available for pick up! So excited to read this!

My husband is headed back to work soon so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather to go outside (would much rather get exercise outside instead of subjecting myself to the odd personalties at my gym. Really, some strange folks...). We headed over to Sawyer Camp Trail in San Mateo and hiked it for three miles:

Sawyer Camp Trail is located on the Crystal Springs Reservoir 

Under the cover of trees

Reservoir shore

Mini waterfall

Sun poking through the tree cover

One of five deer we spotted

In addition to the deer we saw TWO rattlesnakes (couldn't get a pic of those). Hard to believe all this beauty is right in our own backyard. Its good to get out of the computer and  embrace this every once and a while. 

Etsy Roundup: Bird Art

I wanted to do a little roundup of my favorite art on Etsy but I ended up with about twenty pieces so I will probably have to do this in a few installments. I noticed a lot of the things I liked involved birds so here is the first round up, narrowed down to birds:

Pink daisybird screenprint by Roddy & Ginger

Peacock 8x10 Digital Art Print by Puffed Peonies

18x24 Mid-Century Bird Poster #2 by DeeDee 9:14

House Wren loose reproduction block print by  Anna See

A Little Peacock Print by Dekanimal

Birds 16x20 by Dante Terzigni

How do I decide?? And these are only the birds! What is your favorite?

Inspiration: Long-Necked Cats

I'm sure everyone has noticed those vintage cat figurines with the long necks. Did cats in the 1950's/1960's have longer necks than they do now? Who started making these to begin with that they soon became the standard for all cat figurines? Why did they eventually stop making them with long necks and start making cat figurines with regular necks? I have thought about this for a long time and my questions were renewed when my friend Gina gave me a new long necked cat that she spotted in a flea market and thought "Tricia needs that" (she knows me well, we have been friends for 14 years...):

New brass long necked cat

Here are some others in my collection:

Shadowbox cats

Wall mounted cats

These guys look like they are up to no good

Danish teak cats. Gift from Sara.

I tried to do a little internet research to find out what the origin of these figurines is, but came up short. I guess we can just chalk it up to a "trend" in figurine production in the middle of the 20th century. Whatever the reason, I think they are very cute and very inspirational.