Sean McCabe, the guy who designed the awesome 'Influence the World' poster (amongst many other things) has put together a set of video courses to help you become a hand-lettering artist yourself. In these videos, Sean shows you how to craft a hand-lettered composition from start to finish, including lots of tips on technique and style. In the more advanced lessons, he…
William Zinsser's On Writing Well—much like The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing—is one of those books that gets recommended to all writers sooner or later. And for good reason. Zinsser has been in the writing business a loooong time (nearly 70 years, in fact). He's taught classes and workshops, worked as a journalist, and authored nearly 20 books on…
This is one of those things I wish I'd known about sooner. My 2yo son has a habit of closing house doors a little too roughly, and this whole time we could've been using the Safety 1st Finger Pinch Preventer as a precautionary measure. It can be fitted on the hinge or knob side of a door, preventing those horrible finger pinches…
Bholsa is a small Portuguese shop that makes lots of felt, anti-pilling, water-resistant cases for various devices. This sleeve+wallet combo, which features two front slots for cards and bills, is available for iPhone 5/5s and iPhone 4/4s. It looks great, protects your iPhone, and may save you the trouble of carrying a separate wallet. Available on Etsy for $18.50.
The Sound 1 by 11+ are a beautiful set of Bluetooth speakers that won't break the bank. A lot of thought has gone into their design and packaging, as you can see in Andrew Kim's review on Minimally Minimal. The bottoms of both speakers are cut at an angle so that the speakers tilt toward you for better audio projection. Underneath each…
As any seasoned traveler knows, it isn't always easy to find enough power outlets to charge your various devices. It's also not very economical to carry an entire power strip around in your bag. This is where the Monster Outlets to Go 4-Outlet Power Strip comes in handy, despite it's overly long name. It sports four outlets (two on each side) in…
Matt Pierce runs the blog/shop Wood&Faulk, where he tinkers and experiments with various ideas for leather items. Sometimes those experiments turn into actual products, which is the case with the half-pint leather jar sleeve. Made of English bridle leather, these sleeves are designed to fit over half-pint mason jars. Drinking hot beverages out of jars has come back in style, and Matt's…
Prizmo is an iOS app that lets you use your device's camera to scan text and do all sorts of neat things with it. The scanned text can be exported directly, or saved in PDF or image form to be sent elsewhere. But that's only the beginning. It understands over 40 languages (10 are built-in, the rest must be purchased) and it…
Ed Catmull, alongside Steve Jobs and John Lasseter, co-founded Pixar Animation Studios. In fact, he played a key role in developing the rendering system used in several of their films and by the wider film industry. And now, he has written a book called Creativity, Inc., which grants the reader a peek into the creative process at Pixar and how other businesses…
The guys at Field Notes have done it again with the latest in their COLORS lineup, the cover of which is actually made of wood. It's called the Shelterwood Edition. As you can watch in their behind-the-scenes video, they've very thinly sliced up some American cherry wood and bonded it with kraft paper to form each cover. Due to the nature of…
Checkmark 2 is the latest edition of the popular iPhone task-management app. It's been rebuilt from scratch for iOS 7 and has lots of new features to help you get stuff done. My favorite new feature is the ability to set "location groups", i.e. categories of places where you'd want to get reminded about a particular thing. Let's say you set up…
The Edge 30 Backpack by Velo Transit is an ideal bag for cyclists—or really, anyone who ever has to deal with rain while carrying their things around outdoors. The interior lining is RF-welded and thus prevents moisture from leaking in or out. The bag's main enclosure is of the "rolltop" variety, meaning it rolls down when not in-use to keep rain out,…
The next time you plan on packing some boxes, you might consider using this neat bookshelf masking tape. Made by Etsy shop LightLife, this tape will add a (dare I say) bookish flair to your stuff. Dimensions are 20mm x 5m, and a roll costs $6.75 + shipping from Taiwan.
The SurfacePad for iPad mini is a Napa leather cover and stand that adheres to the back of your iPad mini and wraps around to protect the screen. It can be peeled off and reapplied whenever, without leaving any sticky residue or marks. The cover can be flipped around and propped up by the small, built-in kickstand, which is great for typing…
These days, who wants to plug their iOS device into a computer to back up photos anymore? All of mine end up on Dropbox anyway, so why not cut out the middle man and upload the photos directly? This is where CameraSync comes in handy. Once you've set it up with your Dropbox account (other options include Flickr, Amazon S3, Google Drive,…
Coffee Slingers is one of the best coffee shops and roasters in my home town of Oklahoma City. If you're ever in town you should really check the place out and get some delicious coffee, but a trip to OKC isn't required to get one of their awesome t-shirts. The design of the roasting machine and the iconography are all great, plus…
On those rare occasions when ketchup gets used in our house—meaning, when we're feeling too lazy to cook and just toss some frozen corn dogs into the oven—I always mix in a little sriracha to spice things up a bit. I gotta tell you, it's an addictive combination. With that said, I'm super excited to try this new thing called Srirachup, made…
When our friend Ben Brooks reviewed the ONA Bowery bag, I was drawn to the photo of his camera because of the beautiful leather wrist strap attached to it. The next day, he put up a short review of that strap, which turned out to be made by a company called Tap & Dye. This wrist strap is made from full-grain cowhide…
I recently happened across an article in The Atlantic that piqued my interest in the Sowden SoftBrew coffee maker. (Because, I don't already have enough coffee makers in my life, right? Please send help.) It's essentially a ceramic kettle with a large, easily-removable, stainless steel mesh filter inside. In fact, it looks a lot like a tea brewer. The filter has been…
One of the most important things you can have on a camping trip is a way to start a fire. The Sanborn Firestarter Kit ($16) fits the bill nicely, and includes the following: Eight cedar firestarters A match safe Some cedar kindling A small burlap bag to hold everything Sanborn is a company that makes great canoe paddles, and the scrap cedar…