Added to the “Things I Would Like in My Future House” list: these lovely typographic wall decals from Harmonie Interieure. You can customize the size and color and stick them on walls, furniture, tiles — wherever you need a little type goodness.

[Writing] is like having imaginary friends that are the length of city blocks. The pages you write are like fingerprinting them, done to prove to strangers they exist.”

— Alexander Chee, 100 Things About A Novel, Pt. 1

I like to make lists. To-do lists, shopping lists, wish lists. I suppose this is why I’m the proud owner of the Listography Journal (thanks Pam). Last year, I started to think about making a birthday to-do list — one big list of things that I wanted to cross off before my next birthday.

I was first inspired by fellow list lover Andrea of hula seventy. Each year, Andrea makes a list of X number of things, with the number being one less than the age she will be next. I liked the idea. A lot. But as a girl who has a hard time making a single New Year’s resolution, I wasn’t sure that upping the ante each year was the best option for me.

The next list project I heard about was the Day Zero Project, where you try to do 101 things in 1001 days (a little under three years). My friend Kristen was taking the challenge, and I liked the idea of having nearly three years to get everything done. But truth be told, I have no idea where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing in three years, and I decided I wanted my list to have more of a focus on the now.

So that brought me to making my own list, the “Twenty-five To-dos” list. I made the first one last year. Here’s how I’m doing so far, with about a month and a half to go.

Twenty-five To-dos (Year 27)

1. Confront my fear of the ocean and learn how to dive. [March 2009]
2. Travel to a new country. [December 2009]
3. Visit Kyoto. [August 2009]
4. Make a traditional Japanese dinner. [March 2010]
5. Learn how to crochet. [February 2010]
6. Eat taco rice in Okinawa.
7. Give a professional presentation. [November 2009]
8. Have a picnic during hanami. [May 2009]
9. Pay off at least one student loan. [September 2009]
10. Paint with oils.
11. Update the content for my online portfolio and convert to WordPress. [October 2009]
12. Get a Thai massage. [December 2009]
13. Visit an onsen. [August 2009]
14. Write a letter to my father. [July 2009]
15. Climb Mt. Fuji. [August 2009]
16. Grow herbs. [May 2010]
17. Take a cooking class. [December 2009]
18. Participate in NaNoWriMo again. [November 2009]
19. Overcome my flying anxiety. [December 2009]
20. Start a new physical hobby. [March 2009]
21. Visit an aquarium. [November 2010]
22. Watch The Seven Samurai. [January 2012]
23. See a traditional music performance in Japan. [November 2009]
24. Own a great pillow. [July 2009]
25. Take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. [December 2009]

I didn’t have my personal blog when I started last year’s list, so I am looking forward to tracking my progress for the next list. In the meantime, I have 46 days to cross off more to-dos…and to think of what will be on the list for Year 28.

Here are my favorite finds of the week, starting with ‘A is for Argyle’ and ending with The History of the Ampersand.

The word ‘ampersand’ was first added to dictionaries in 1837. The word was created as a slurred form of ‘and, per se and’, which was what the alphabet ended with when recited in English-speaking schools. (Historically, ‘and per se’ preceded any letter which was also a word in the alphabet, such as ‘I’ or ‘A’. And the ampersand symbol was originally the last character in the alphabet.)”

Alphabet prints by Paperfingers, via design work life

Tas-ka shade made of paper cranes, via Oh Joy!

Chalk Chalk bike, via poppytalk

We thought it would be exciting to see what happened if you invite 10 typographers and graphic designers from different backgrounds, countries and ages to design a house number.” – MEDIUMISM

Whale bookmark by Atypyk, via swissmiss

History of the Ampersand

There are many paths, and if you wait for everything to be perfect before you show up and participate, you will have missed thousands of opportunities to establish your voice, connect with others, and make an impact.”

— Shannon Paul, Having a Personal Brand is Fine, But Making an Impact is Better

The new year is a time for dreaming big, making resolutions, and then diving in headfirst. Or at least it is if you are Justin “Bugsy” Sailor.

Bugsy kicked off 2010 with an ambitious goal: to have a beer with Richard Branson by the end of the year. But if you know Bugsy (and if you don’t, you should), then you know that it’s not just talk. He is a guy of action, and to prove it, he launched the Beer With Branson website on January 1.

The site, illustrated by the talented Angela Duncan, encourages supporters to submit questions Bugsy should ask Branson when they meet, give suggestions of where the duo should share their beer, and vote on what kind of beer they should drink.

Cool, right? But that’s not all. Bugsy also turned to Twitter, Facebook, and fellow bloggers to spread the word. The social media push has already proven powerful — it took only five hours for him to connect with a Virgin employee in London.

Inspired? Check. Hooked? Check. Lend a hand at beerwithbranson.com and help Bugsy make it happen, one connection at a time.

We tend to think of craft in the tangible things—in the elegant drape of handcrafted fabric, in the smoothness and style of the arm of a chair, in the way a well-made tool eases into the palm and places no burden on the wrist. But I’ve come to see craft in the intangibles as well—in the rhythm of a well-written sentence, in the exact number of pixels separating two columns, in the lucidity that emerges from an orderly line of code.

In this manner, the web is itself an enormous place for craft—in that every bit of markup or CSS, every decision about font-size or color, every float, and every sentence have within them the opportunity for craft—the chance for the maker (be it the designer or the engineer or the writer) to put more of themselves into it than they have to. The tools have changed—from wood and blade to keyboard and cable—but the craftsmanship is hardly diminished.”

— Mandy Brown, On craft

Evelin Kasikov is bursting with design talent that ranges from printed matter to handmade type, book design to graphic design. I was drawn to her website after her work with handmade type was highlighted by Black*Eiffel.

By transforming printing processes into handmade cross-stitch embroidery my work is influenced by craft, but still retains the context of graphic design. Whilst I work with variety of mediums, engagement with materials and love for detail remains at the heart of my practice.

This love of detail definitely comes across in the CMYK alphabet that Kasikov designed for UPPERCASE magazine, where each 5×5 embroidered letter combines two CMYK colors.

Handmade elements are also incorporated into some of her book designs and printed matter, as you can see in one of her poster sets based on Gill Sans Light.

Of course, Kasikov’s work is even more amazing up close, so be sure to check out the incredible detail in each stitched creation on her website and in the studio spotlight from Black*Eiffel.