Tagxedo

I came across this cool site called Tagxedo recently that you can use to turn words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud. You can vary the font, colour palette, outline you want the cloud to take from an easy template and voila!

 

I created the bird cloud above by entering the url of laisezfaire and got this stunning piece of art!

I also had a go at typing in some random words that came to my mind and came up with the adorable elephant cloud above. 

If you like what you have created, you can choose to print your customised work of art on a range of products such as T shirts, cups, mousepads in their gift shop. I think this is such a wonderful way to create a meaningful gift for a friend.

Graphic Butterfly Collection

A beautiful gift for anyone looking for a slightly more humane butterfly collection. Butterflies come packaged in a brushed metal presentation tin and a set of pins. Made by a very talented graphic designer called Chris Waind. Available here.

Pupsik Studio is hiring!

If you enjoy selling beautiful baby products, you may be interested to know that Pupsik Studio is currently looking for responsible and people-oriented individuals to join them on a part-time basis as an Inventory Control Executive to assist with the all-round control of retail products, purchasing / logistic functions, systems data entry and maintenance. 

Your responsibilities will include:

• Reviewing inventory and wholesale orders
• Data entry and inventory maintenance
• Perform purchase order, stocks receiving and supplier invoice entry transactions
• Prepare monthly sales and inventory reports

The successful applicant should possess the following qualities/skills:

• High attention to detail, responsible and well-organised
• Independent worker
• Strong email communication skills
• Enjoy being in a retail environment, particularly in the baby/children's industry
• Any previous experience in retail – either store operations or a purchasing/inventory position in a retail environment will be a plus

You will be required to work out of our warehouse location at Bukit Batok

Working hours: 8am-1pm, Mon-Fri

Interested candidates please e-mail your detailed resume to pupsikteam(@)gmail.com with:

1. Recent passport size photograph

2. Last drawn/ expected salary

3. Date of availability

Qualifications: O ' levels and above with good passes in English

Only suitable candidates will be contacted by email. Open to Singapore residents only.

Do help forward this to someone whom you think may be suitable and interested in this position. Thanks!

225 Inspired Projects for Year-Round Celebrations

If you are in search of new craft ideas and inspiration, you will be delighted to know that the editors of Martha Stewart Living Magazine just launched a new book entitled Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts, 225 Inspired Projects for Year-Round Celebrations. I was lucky enough to get a preview copy of the book sent to me before its release and it was every bit what I imagine it would be - PURE INSPIRATION! 

This book features some of the best holiday crafts from Martha Stewart Living. From New Year's Eve to Valentine's Day to Christmas and every holiday in between, Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts contains page after page of tips, techniques, and inspiring ideas. Craft enthusiasts will love the gorgeous photography combined with the easy-to-follow steps and techniques that only Martha Stewart can deliver. Some of my favourite projects include:

Lace stencils on tags to create the most gorgeous stationery

Transform a sock into a fashion accessory for dad. Perfect project if you have socks with missing pairs at home and not sure what to do with them.

Finger stamping hearts on love notes and tags

Create your own fortune cookie with some felt, craft wire and fabric glue

So if you are in a crafty mood, do check out this book available now HERE!

Scratch-off cards

Create your own home made scratch-off cards with is neat tutorial! Great for creating unique save-the-date wedding and birthday invite! (via Martha Stewart Weddings)

Re-thinking the Identity of a British seaside town

Have been crazy busy for the past 3 months and so miss blogging. Thank you to those who still continued to visit this site and leave comments while I took a break from blogland. Am now back, refreshed, renewed, excited and ready to post more inspirational stuff I find, starting with this jolly eye-candy piece entitled "Re-thinking the Identity of a British seaside town". Absolutely love it!!

Simplicity is beauty

Absolutely love the simplicity of this logo.

Abigail Brown

Stumbled across these gorgeous handcrafted birdies by Abigail Brown on etsy today and was simply taken away. Each item is painstakingly detailed with layer upon layer of fabric scraps and tiny hand stitches.

Wear Sunscreen!

It has been an incredibly busy month in April for me and I have not had the chance to post as much as I would like to on laissezfaire. Anyway,been missing everyone on this blog and thought I will do a quick one and share this amazing video. I saw this a few years back and forgot all about it. My favourite piece of advice from this song has got to be:

"Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40; maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.

Dance...even if you have no where to do it but in your own living room."

The rest of the lyrics to this song can be found here. Enjoy! Dance!

x Su Ling

Easter Egg Project

What a wonderful Easter Egg project. For the full tutorial, click here.

DIY Modular Storage

I am a box junkie, I admit. And I simply love this idea of turning a bunch of ordinary crates from Ikea + some brightly coloured paint into a design masterpiece.

Fortune cookie coin purses

These fortune cookie coin purses literally holds a small fortune. Each purse comes with a dust bag, laser etched ID number and printed fortune inside.

What Wood you Say

If you could carve a phrase or sentence into one continuous strip out of wood, what would you say? What Wood You Say is a project developed by artist Sighn who has made it his life's mission to handcut one million limited edition pieces. More of his work can be found here and purchased here.

Domestic Vacations

Captivating photography by Julie Blackmom. I particularly like her work entitled "Domestic Vacations" (seen below).

The Dutch proverb “a Jan Steen household” originated in the 17th century and is used today to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings. The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, helped inspire Julie's work.

Julie is the oldest of nine children and now the mother of three. The stress, the chaos, and the need to simultaneously escape and connect are issues that Julie explores in "Domestic Vacations".

"We live in a culture where we are both “child centered” and “self-obsessed.” The struggle between living in the moment versus escaping to another reality is intense since these two opposites strive to dominate. Caught in the swirl of soccer practices, play dates, work, and trying to find our way in our “make-over” culture, we must still create the space to find ourselves. The expectations of family life have never been more at odds with each other. These issues, as well as the relationship between the domestic landscape of the past and present, are issues I have explored in these photographs. I believe there are moments that can be found throughout any given day that bring sanctuary. It is in finding these moments amidst the stress of the everyday that my life as a mother parallels my work as an artist, and where the dynamics of family life throughout time seem remarkably unchanged. As an artist and as a mother, I believe life’s most poignant moments come from the ability to fuse fantasy and reality: to see the mythic amidst the chaos."

Illustrations in styrofoam

Amazing illustration by Cheeming Boey, a computer techie by day and artist by name. Now this is a disposable you wouldn't want to dispose of! Read his interview with Don't Panic here.

Bunting stamps

Adorable bunting rubber stamps by Olive Manna. The fastest way to a handmade party invitation or personalised giftwrap, I say!

Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year! x

This may come a little late but I would like to wish everyone a belated and blessed Christ-mas with your family and friends and a very wonderful New Year ahead! Looking forward to sharing more inspirations here on Laissezfaire in 2011!

xoxo Su Ling
(image above from Martha Stewart Kids. A wonderful idea to turn missing socks to good use!)

Packaging that Pop

Beautiful food packaging by Fontos Graphic Design. Seeing this on any supermarket shelf would definitely make me want to buy it, if only just to keep the packaging. Love the colours and modern fonts!

Tea Bag Coffin

An ingenius way to bury your teabags. (via yanko design)

Stump stools

These stools were made to resemble snow on forest stumps were harvested from a fallen maple tree on the forest floor. The upholstery is white leather and copper tacks over sustainably-harvested-latex foam.

Fun drinking fountain

Tapi by Australian company Dreamfarm is a clever invention that turns your ordinary faucet into a fun drinking fountain. Simply press the bottom of Tapi to change the flow of water. What better way to make brushing teeth more fun for kids! (via Designmilk)

Knife Lid

Who needs a spreading knife when you can use the lid? Perfect to your sandwich on the go! (via thedieline)

Make your own doll face

This tutorial on how to make a doll face with a ball and some paste certainly got me intrigued....

Pretty Downloads

If you are fan of all things pretty like us, then you would love these printable wrapping papers and pretty pastel desktop wallpapers with calendars. Free to download from here. All these are designed by Mae, a wonderful brand of wall decal we carry in our store. Thanks Mae! x

Chalkboard calendar

I am absolutely in love with this chalkboard calendar decal by Ferm Living. Just the perfect proportion to frame a yellow post-it note for a very special date.

Hand Cut Leaves

Gorgeous handcut leaves by Owen Gildersleeve for Poogla. Doesn't it set you in the mood for Fall? via Debi van Zyl