list twenty-one: favorite unexpected design obsessions

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1. foreign food packets...especially candy! I love most candy...especially when I can only pretend to decipher what the contents of foreign-candy wrappers may contain. Japanese candy is always a fun food roulette.

2. beer labels. Boutique and indie beer labels can be seriously genius.

3. ditto for wine labels.

4. skateboard art. You're never too old to love skateboard art.

5. vintage advertisements. From shoe polish to absinthe, chocolate to trips to Tanzania, I love, love, love vintage advertisements.

6. Japanese craft books. Seriously cute kawaii amigurimi or clean, aesthetically-calming clothing patterns, I'm a big fan. Perhaps it stems from my 5th grade obsession with origami? Who knows.

7. huge boxes of crayons. The smell alone is enough to obsess over (surely, I can't be the only one who loves the smell of crayons?), but the tidy rows of brilliant colors...it's almost enough to make me not want to use them, to keep all my crayons perfectly pointy...but only almost.

8. Bolts of fabric. Oh the joy of wandering around a fabric shop. I want to touch everything, but especially the wool felt. If I could make my entire wardrobe out of wool felt, I would. I'd be sweaty and gross all summer, but part of me thinks it's worth it. It's almost impossible for me not to want to buy just a yard...just one more yard.

9. Paint chip displays at home improvement centers. Without fail, every time I go into a store with a paint chip display, I make a bee-line for it and dream about painting every surface of my home in fresh color. I can't resist taking a few...just to stick on walls at home and pretend I can afford to repaint. Again.

10. European homes. Whether it's Galway, Ireland or Cinque Terre, Italy, brightly-colored homes, weathered cottages, cobbled footpaths, and thatched anything always tug at my heartstrings. There is something magical about certain places and old European homes do it for me.