And my summer blogging hiatus-ey kind of thing continues. It's been a pretty awesome summer though. Old friends in town. Screen printing. Disc golf (finally made it to St. Thomas this weekend). Other stuff. Great summer.

But I've returned because there are things I have to share... Hold on for a tonne of links, and then another long break likely... Exciting things coming in the future though, I promise.
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This Patches comic is one of my favourites in a while. SO CUTE. And sad. Don't you just want to hug him?
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Speaking of wanting to hug comic characters, I think I might need to make my own Beartato pillow. I was tempted by the shirt, but realized I don't really wear brown anymore, so I figured it was impractical. BUT, I have been wanting a stuffed Beartato (this guy is close, but not quite, and yes, we do own one) for some time, and this looks like it's as close as it gets...
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Wow, Coca Cola made a great move in the re-branding of Mello-Yello. Nicely retro. The one thing I don't like, is that the can seems to be having an identity crisis, trying to make the retro look a little more modern with the citrus in the back. Take the citrus out and drop the outline on the text, and the whole thing looks a lot better. But still, nice work.
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The best Emmy's opening ever?
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Love this pin-up girl hot chocolate packaging. Clever.
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These bottled smoke art pieces are beautiful and a little haunting. Really nice stuff.
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The Birds art installation in Vancouver's Olympic Village. That's something that would be exciting to come across.
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United States Postal Service theoretical re-brand. Really nice. If they switched to this, I would be so jealous!
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Stubby Beer Bottles. While tall cans of Red Stripe have definitely taken over my summer drinking, I'll never not love a stubby. They do look a little silly when I'm holding them though...
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I guess that's it for now, maybe you'll hear from me again sometime.

almost...

Here are some pics I took of the aforementioned carnival. Such a weird thing. Love the tilt a whirl sign though. Love it.
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This stuff looks crazy. Seriously. That's some time and commitment. Impressed (via Drawn)
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I live in a house where multiple clocks are set to the wrong time to trick their owners into doing things on time, so I totally understand the idea behind this clock. Pretty clever. If you think the whole idea is clever. I just think it seriously improves your ability to do math while tired, but, you know, to each their own.
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Some people's self promotional stuff is so awesome, like this memory set right here. I would love a set of those!
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The tiger on the front of this book is just too adorable not to share. (not unlike Tony Jr., whom I had to link to here) Apparently I like images of baby tigers. Who knew?
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Finally, a little Beartato. While I have to say that Beartato's goals are extremely honourable and respectable, I can't say that I wouldn't share Reginald's.

The above image is stolen from Draplin. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Long time no post. No good reason why, except that sitting down to start a post keeps feeling daunting. Ridiculous, really.
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I've long been pretty into materials related to the Canadian centennial, particularly the logo for it. When we go to antique stores, it's definitely one of the things I have an eye out for, though I don't think I've ever actually bought any of it yet. There's actually a house near to us that is #100 on its street, that has the centennial logo on the front of it. Clever.

Anyway, all this is to say; look at these amazing coasters. If I ever found these, I would pick them up in a second.
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I think this is probably pretty obvious, but I have to say that I find axes to be a very appealing form.

This company has gone and made them even more appealing, but made them far too expensive. But still, pretty. Could probably do something comparable for much less...

The first image I saw for them was the one on this page, and it sells them pretty well and hard.
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Staying on the whole manly tool front, I am intrigued by this exercise idea. If I already owned a sledge hammer, I'd be starting on it already. As it is, going out to buy one just to throw it around for the sake of exercise that I might just give up on in no time anyway seems kind of ridiculous. We'll see though, we'll see. I really need to get on doing something...
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Handheld NES. For realz.
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The newest Tony Hawk game is going to be controlled using an actual board on the floor. I can't decide if this is cheesy/stupid/ridiculous or awesome. I guess I'll have to wait until it actually comes out and I get to try it. I am kind of looking forward to trying it, I can't lie.
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If I knew where to buy this bread, I would buy it on adorable packaging alone. Can't beat the fact that it is Canadian either...

Let me know if you know where I can get it.
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Speaking of Canadian: Canadian Barbie. How amazingly cliched!
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Went to see Star Trek last night, which is pretty amazingly awesome. Can't wait for more to come from this whole new timeline they've created.

Seeing Simon Pegg who took the nerdy funny in the film, and then made it broadly funny, made me want to watch Spaced again. I recently gave the box set to my sister, but didn't get a copy for myself, so I had to find streaming copies of the episodes. Luckily I found all of season 1 here, and all of season 2 here.

If you haven't seen Spaced, you should go watch it.
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As far as Beartato and Reginald go, I have to say this comic made my day, and more so. (literally, the day it first went up, I went back to it like 10 times, just because I think it's so adorably endearing.)

That right there is my second bear related poster in a row. I've got another one in mind coming up. Finally living up the the Bearface name. Maybe it's compensating for the fact that I shaved my beard 2 weeks ago. Shocking event to say the least. Regretted it right away, and am growing it back as we speak. Owen took some portraits of me sans beard to commemorate it before I never see it again. Ever. It had been at least 10 years since I had seen my chin...
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Here's a little article about one of my favourites, Aaron Draplin. Best line it? '"I just like stuff that's really straightforward and unapologetic," he says. "Futura Bold. Done. If they didn't need something else in the last 30 years, there's something to it."'
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I'm not so much liking the Alberta logo rebrand seen here. The old one was just so unique. It was obviously dated, yes, but it just felt right. The new one feels really generic, even though yes, the new 'A' clearly is trying to evoke the old 'A'. What's with the box intersecting the tail of the 's' though?

More branding: Baked Lays gets way classier. The old one was okay, but it was too, I don't know, fun looking? The new one feels a lot nicer, and more wholesome. It almost makes me want to buy them...
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Another piece of the Beartato/Reginald saga. Obviously the punchline is great, and how often do you see something posted with the tag "throne of blood". But really, what makes this comic for me are the small details. The look on Beartato's face, and the lines behind him as he runs, which kind of evoke a rocking back and forth run? How adorable Beartato looks as he settles into the couch, sighing contentedly? That's the good shit.
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Nudes on skateboards. The perfect counterpoint to those Hook-Ups decks that used to be around, with all their scantily clad, huge busted, ridiculous comic ladies dressed up in all manner of stupid costumes. I always hated those decks.

Good stuff.
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Child size Eames replica. Amazing. Can you imagine, sitting around with your kid in matching Eames loungers? I almost can, but then the price tags always pop into mind...

I'm not really one to order prints (for a variety of reasons that include knowing Jenna already has a tonne, not knowing how/when/where I will display them and the fact that I have a tonne of showposters around [would it be inappropriate to put my own work up on my own walls?]), but Jenna sent me the one above, and after staring at it over and over again, I just had to have it.

You know what did it? Values • Integrity • Pickles. I don't even like pickles and I have to say that's a killer platform to run on. I mean, I love the mayor, but that part killed it for me. Must have. (honestly though, it came the other day, and I was a little disappointed to find that it's printed on glossy paper. Not a big fan of glossy.)

Another quick etsy gem for you: Kern ring set. Pretty great.
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I've recently gotten into a new webcomic whose characters, I think, would be the perfect companions for my absolute favourite webcomic characters of Glasses and Suspenders from Patches.

Meet Reginald and Beartato. That one just killed me. Even the title is perfect. Think about that.

So tragi-dorable. (I think I just made that up, and I think it's a pretty good description of many things I love, like the Patches guys and, obviously, Grumpy bear). Like tragi-comic, but, you know, tragic and adorable. Killer combination.

Adorable little Beartato poem. I love his commentary. That's the way tragi-dorable animals talk in my head too.
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BACK TO THE FUTURE SECTION.

Welcome to the Back to the Future section of this post.
Here you will find:
An awesome model of the DeLorean. Awesome.
A skateboard whose graphics are based on the hoverboard graphics. Pretty awesome.

Thus concludes the Back to the Future section of this post.
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Teddy bear natural history.

I am loving these imagined teddy bear skulls. So cute, and macabre. I love this concept so much. Her sketches in which she takes the bear and then imagines what the bone structure of that given bear would be like before she crafts the skull were enlightening.

Seriously, I would love to own one of those. Probably this one, or this one.

Did you notice that they are needle felted?

(Did I find those while looking for a bear skull shape to use while drawing bear skull and crossbones to go on teddy bear pirate hats? Maybe. Will you see the adorable pictures I took after crafting them? Probably not.)
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Did you know that there are about 8 million Ukulele song covers on YouTube? I found that out recently, and will now share some with you:
Sleepwalk - really great version.
Sleepwalk - pretty good version. (I absolutely love Sleepwalk these days, and as a result, Sleepwalking has also become my favourite Modest Mouse song of late)
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - One of the only newer Death Cab songs that I really like. Nice cover.
Such Great Heights - Found this while looking for a cover of the Iron and Wine version to learn. This one was pretty impressive. I still would rather learn the I&W version though, I think.
Baby Got Back - Just for some ridiculousness (okay, it's also a song I love...)