Rubber Stamps

I love these stamp sets by Cavallini & Co. I can't decide between all the different sets, but I think I like these two best. Wouldn't it be fun to use these to decorate snail mail letters?

(rubber stamps by Cavallini & Co., photos via NoteMaker)

New Look for Cartes Postales

As you may have noticed, Cartes Postales has a new header. The inspiration for my blog design, which until now was only subtly reflected in the font colours, was those red, white and blue air mail envelopes.

Thank you again so much to my lovely friend Amanda McCuaig who designed the header banner for me as a going away gift. Amanda is a lovely and talented artist and free-lance graphic designer among the many other hats she wears (she is so busy doing so many awesome things, I don't know how she does it all!). You can check out her art here.

One Month

My date of departure was one month from yesterday. In one month from today, I will be in Paris.

This photo was taken by my friend Cynthia on her own exchange to France a few years ago. I think its such a beautiful shot. Wouldn't it be a dream to have such a view from your hotel room window?

SF Street Style

On our last day in San Francisco, after having spent the early afternoon hanging out and grabbing a drink in the Haight, Peter and I walked back towards our hotel making sure to stop by Alamo Square to see the Postcard Row houses.

On our way there we passed a cute girl whose outfit I fell in love with. I wanted to take a picture of her à la street style, but as I do not run a street style blog, I felt a bit awkward asking. Instead, I took a mental photograph. Her outfit was very simple but classic. She wore a simple white short-sleeved bloused tucked into a knee-length pleated red skirt and a straw hat. Since then, I've been looking for a similar red skirt to recreate the outfit myself. Browsing the internet tonight, I think I found one:

This skirt has similar pleats, although the back is different. I had been thinking about making the red pleated skirt myself; I think this photo will serve as reference.

Anyway, Peter and I continued on to see the Painted Ladies (I raving about how cute the girl's outfit was). Later that evening we went for a walk. Passing through Chinatown we saw a group of about 30 men playing songs like When the Saints Go Marching In on Chinese instruments. Our ultimate destination for the evening was the block home to the historic City Lights bookstore and Vesuvio's.

After browsing City Lights, we headed next door for a drink. We found a table next to a window overlooking Jack Kerouac Alley. Still taking in the day's events, it was a pleasant coincidence that the waitress who came to take our order was none other than the girl with the cute red pleated skirt.

(skirt by leolucaescobar via Cup of Jo)

One-Way Ticket

On September 23 I will be boarding a plane bound for Paris. The feeling of having just bought a one-way ticket is exhilarating.

Although I didn't take these particular photos, these are some of the views of this fair city I will see as the plane departs. Depending on the runway the plane takes off from, it typically circles around and you get a pretty good view of the city and the southern suburbs. Whenever flying, I would always try and find my house, which is visible in the second shot.

(photos by Stefan Brown)

Travel and Scratch

As I plan to travel around Europe while living in France, I've been thinking of some visual/map way to track where I've been. So how cool would it be to have the scratch map above? This is a neat twist on the classic map-and-pins.

If I had this map, I'd be able to scratch off:

• British Columbia (home province)
• Alberta (trips in 2007 and 2008)
• Québec (yearly trips growing up until 2002)
• Washington (neighbouring state)
  
• Oregon (summer 2009 road trip to Portland and down the coast)
• California (trip to Disneyland in 2004, and 2009 road trip to San Francisco)
• Massachusetts (trip in 2000 or 2001)
• England (trip 2006)
• Paris, France (trip 2006)
  

(Scratch Map via Cup of Jo)