Tiny Tiny Houses

I inherited my mom's love of tiny living spaces. Which is fortunate because for the first 6 months of our marriage, Daniel and I shared a TWIN bed in a very small, Japanese, one-room apartment. Our whole bathroom was molded from a sheet of plastic that we could hose down with the shower nozzle. We prepared meals on a fold-up tv table and cooked them in our toaster oven. And we line-dried our clothes on our 1' deep by 6' wide back porch (accessible only by crawling out the window). Ah, the good life.

In the past few weeks, as we've been talking possible future living arrangements, I've researched seemingly every possible tiny living space idea---from goin' it Gilligan-style on a house boat to hippie-chic-ing it up on a rehabbed school bus.

Having two kids and living in the city limits a lot of our tiny living options. Nonetheless, here are some of my favorite tiny houses:



THE LUSBY::TUMBLEWEED HOMES
My mom thinks, her last name being Lusby, that this house is meant for her. At a whopping 117sq feet it actually sleeps 4! The company, Tumbleweed Homes, makes this and several other models--all preeeetty small. Check out photos of the interior and the other home here.



SOLO::MINI HOMES
A few steps up size-wise is our other favorite (this, and the other Mini Homes). You can see an HGTV video tour of the inside right here. And it's made with all kinds of cool green materials. The kitchen counter?--it's made of craft paper!

OOORRR...


there's the idea of repurposing some sort of space or vehicle into a living space. Can you guess what this little pad really is? Yep! You guessed it! It's.....a garbage truck. Seriously, how DID this guy do it?!


You can see more photos on the Apartment Therapy post right here. I'm still not convinced that it's not some sort of photoshop trick.

So, I've been dreaming up tiny living space rehab projects as of late. For example, as we ALL KNOW, nothing says "I'm hip, I'm mobile, I'm eco-chic" like an old-school Airstream Travel Trailer. The "Silver Bullet" as those of us in the RV world call it. So I've got my eye on this Craigslist beauty right here.


Sure, you see a 30' hunk of metal with a bit of a rust problem and no wheels to speak of. I see the home of my next dinner party.... Coffee? or Tea? : )

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POCKET MIRRORS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOA! Lots of exclamation points going on in these last two posts. Things are gettin' out of hand around here!

I've very excited to let you know I've added some super cute little pocket mirrors with velvet pouches to my shop! There are 3 different designs so make sure to check them out. Carry one of these around and you WON'T be caught with nubs of food in your teeth ever again!! ---

"Arian's Studio Pocket Mirrors"
Keeping the World Tooth Nub Free Since 2008

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NEW SHOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just opened a new Etsy shop for my letter prints!! It's an outlet for my love of vintage signage, old books, and fonts. Because I have them printed out of house and they're on archival photo paper, (vs. the velvet fine art paper and archival ink I use when I'm printing the prints for my other shop) I can offer them for $8! The idea is that people can order multiples to spell out words, phrases, names, their address, whatever!

I'll be doing some fun promo stuff in the weeks to come so check back often!

Maeve Love

My friend, Rollyn, just gave me a copy of the cd I designed for her and the other Maeve chicks : ) Of course the look and feel of the design was REALLY the work of photographer extraordinaire, Erica Leighton Pelaccia. : )

Check out their new album right here!

Gift Certificates!

Want to give someone something from my shop but not sure what to pick? How about a gift certificate? They are available in $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50. Or if you'd like a specific amount, just let me know and I will set it up for you.

I'm A Social Reject : )

I'm a regular "Design Sponge Blog" reader so when I heard that Grace, the Design Sponge herself, was running one of her Biz Ladies Meetups in Boston, I thought I should go. The Meetups are a series of get-togethers she holds in big cities across the U.S. for women who run design/art businesses to connect with each other and learn about the ins and outs of "the biz" (as we in "the biz" call it ) : )



I had hopes of introducing myself to Grace, congratulating her on her engagement, snapping a photo of the two of us for my blog, maybe casually slipping her my business card. But come to find out, I am PAINFULLY SHY! I just kind of awkwardly hovered around her group the whole night taking fake sips out of my already empty cup. sigh. :) The closest I came to a blog-worthy photo is this one--Grace in the distance with her back turned. Nice.

Nonetheless, I'm really glad I went and learned a lot! I left encouraged to get my work out there and start giving my little art business the credit it deserves (i.e. getting it's own bank account, aiming to get featured in big magazines, etc). If you run your own art/design business or would like to, all the notes can be downloaded here.

::EDIT::

Hey! Got my "pic with Grace" afterall. I spotted this on Apartment Therapy today--that's me in the bottom right corner in light blue.

Relevant Store

Just a little screen capture to show the two prints that Relevant Magazine started carrying today. Woohoo, front page : )