As someone who dabbles in map illustrations for wedding invitations, I can't even wrap my head around the task of mapping the entire geography of Westeros, the setting for George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones books. This is an interesting behind the scenes look at what it is to create epic maps (literally and figuratively):   http://huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-roberts/mapping-westeros_b_2365403.html

When I posted about the fun FOSSIL tins that came with the watches that my husband and I bought each other for Christmas 2010, I couldn't imagine what a fun connection I would make with Coralie Renaud, the manager of the FOSSIL store in downtown Paris. After stumbling on my post, she wrote me a lovely email complete with photos of her FOSSIL tin collection. I had no idea there were so many and that the design of these tins was such a big deal. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited when she sent me a box full of tins all the way from her store in France! She even included the book, Tinspiration, The Art & Inspiration of the Fossil Tin.  I've photographed some of my favorite tins for this post. Can you believe this isn't even all of what she sent me? These tins have so many uses - I think I'll use mine to organize my teas, sewing supplies, jewelry, and maybe some of my cooking spices. Merci beaucoup, Coralie!

Cocktail wallpaper. United States, 1936-56. Image source: www.cooperhewitt.org As someone who is always looking for new design inspiration, "check out the design world’s best new blog" was music to my ears. The New York Times made my week with their article about Object of the Day . Object of the Day is a site produced by the curators at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.  They are featuring one object from their endless collection each day. I know I'll be checking back regularly as their treasures continue to be revealed! I love the vintage papers and book cover designs. Who knew that there was such a thing as Cocktail Wallpaper?

This Christmas my husband and I put our creative minds together and printed nine custom Lord of the Rings beer labels, one for each of the nine members of the Fellowship. It started off being a fun gift for my sister and her husband, but developed into a much bigger project as he altered quotes from the books for beer selling purposes and I came up with the visual concepts. I loved the finished products: a line of beers to rule them all and in the drinking bind them! I have posted pictures of each label below.  If you're a real Tolkien fan who wants to live in the Shire like us, you can dig into the details of all the altered text after the jump.