My corner-shop crush

Despite its generic, less-than-hip name, the very cool Make A Frame inspires me a little more each time I pay them a visit.

Our local frame shop occupies a storefront that pretty much blends in with the laundry mats and Middle Eastern food shops that crowd that part of the block, so it's always sort of a surprise to walk in and be hit over the head with the cool stuff that's inside. The walls are crammed with interesting mirrors, weird old maps, and bad-ass posters that the Urban Outfitters down the street will probably be replicating and selling to the rest of the nation in a year or so.

It's all due to the three or four guys who work there--each and every one has impeccable taste. They all seem to be super artsy, and I'm sure it helps that they have access to tons of frames that I've never seen anywhere else (check out the ornate lacquer frames from Roma in one of the photos below; in person, they ooze super-slick sexiness.)

Best of all, Make A Frame will make a frame for just about anything--and I am constantly scanning the store for new ideas. My latest favorite find? A framed floppy disk.

I'm filing away this smart little idea for later, as it would be a totally clever gift for a techie like my dad or my brother. Plus, I'm even thinking about treating myself. How fun would it be to frame my thesis paper--currently collecting dust in a never-to-be-accessed-again 100MB Zip disk--and hang it in my office?

Sigh, Make A Frame. You sure do make-a-me smile. 180 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn

If I were in a band

I'd dye my hair pink, play the bass like a champ, cuss a lot, and have these guys whip up the posters for my gigs.

Micah Smith:

The Small Stakes:

Florafauna:

Kevin Tong:

Aesthetic Apparatus:

Hatch Show Print:

Mat Daly:

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Going postal

I don't think there's too many of us out there anymore--especially with this whole Internet thing ruining everyone's postal fun--but, I'll admit it to you. And I'll say it loud and proud: I COLLECT STAMPS AND I THINK IT'S TOTALLY COOL.

I started my stamp habit after my great-grandmother passed away when I was in grade school. While cleaning out Grandma's house, someone found a collection she had in a shoebox. It was full of stamps mostly from the 1940s and 50s, but I was psyched to also find stamps she had from 1898. (How do I know this? Because she wrote the year across the front of these stamps. In pen. Which, if you know anything about collecting, completely devalues them. But still. 1898. Awesome.)

So I continued adding to Grandmother's collection. And over the years, as word of my geekiness spread, grandmothers, aunts, neighbors, and friends traveling abroad have been picking up pieces of postage for me. I even had a whole office of folks I used to work with in London sending me stamps after I left because they remembered how I'd tear off the corners of the envelopes from the mail each morning. (FYI, pieces from the UK are particularly lovely.)

I've traveled all over the world by collecting stamps. You name a country, I've got a stamp from that neck of the woods. Heck, you name a country who has changed its name in the last 100 years, and I've got it (Czechoslovakia, I'm talking to you). This collection has helped me learn, has helped me explore, and has even helped me pick out a travel destination or two.

Most of all, though, I've learned this: stamps really are just small pieces of everyday art--an easy way to send some delight to someone, even if they're just the person who opens your utility bill. I love the idea of this, and I love love love my growing collection of little art. And I kind of hope I'll have a grandkid who'll continue it on one day with his or her crazy Internet-based space stamps or whatever she or he will have.

Because seriously, that nerdy kid is inheriting stamps from 1898. (Completely worthless because of great-great-great grandma's ink pen. But still. Awesome.)

Color blockage

Sometimes I wish Josef Albers and Mark Rothko could have gotten married and had magical little color-block babies.

Rothko Color Block Pillow, $165, Haus Interior

Roy G Limited-edition Print by Grant Hamilton, $700

Nesting Tables by Josef Albers, $2,100, MoMA

Dot Bowl - Felted Wool, $54, Papaver Vert

Vintage Geometric Fabric Cushion Pillow, $39, bouji at etsy.com

Rainbow Rings Clock, $45, Chroma Lab

Concentric Squares Navy Pillow, $178, Jonathan Adler

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