Greetings from The Well-Appointed Desk summer road trip! That’s right, I had to stop at the legendary I-80 rest stop in Iowa that features a giant pen nib out front.
The site is designed to recognize the writing heritage of Iowa. From its universities to authors who’ve both lived in and traveled through Iowa, all writing is celebrated.
Not just giant pen nibs are featured, the lights around the property are pencils and the “erasers” are lights!
Each of the covered seating areas feature laser cut metal sheets with quotes. This is a Tennessee Williams quote.
On the floor inside is a quote from Jack Kerouac from On The Road: “…between the East of my youth and the West of my future.”
While I mostly focus on workspaces of the average modern office worker, today I thought I’d share this video I found of Casey Neistat’s highly-functional and slightly OCD video studio. This will also offset some of the complaints that I often collect and share workspaces that are too ideal, too “magazine”. This is a super cool space designed and organized exclusively to serve those who work in the space.
There are two other videos in the series as well, Part 2 and Part 3. So, go get your lunch, queue them up and enjoy!
Marvin Kleinmeier (AKA Bob Sala Photographie) recently photographed products for a German stationery shop “Brevi Manu” for a future online store and catalog. I see familiar products like Hardmuth, Koh-i-Noor, and Kaweco — all excellent German products — along with Palomino Blackwings and other beautiful products. Brevi Manu creates the O-Check products which will also be featured. Lovely products and fabulous photography.
Heather Smith Jones has created a collection of pocket-sized Stockman notebooks letterpress printed with array of vintage farming images. There are four different designs and contain 40 pages. Each book is a petite 2 5/8″ x 4 1/4″ — perfect for pocket or purse. $5 each.
Men have the advantage of having pockets in just about every garment they wear. Their trousers have pockets; be they jeans, chinos or cargo shorts (extra capacity!). Their shirts have pockets, and sometimes even their t-shirts have pockets. But we ladies face the challenge of where to put our phone, cash, cards and keys. Most women’s clothing do not have pockets and, even the items that should like jeans have these ridiculously small pockets that are almost there solely for looks. “Fashion industry, I’m talking to you! Its time to put pockets and useful additions into women’s clothes while still making them stylish!”
So sure, we can lug handbags, totes bags and briefcases with us everywhere we go, but sometimes, the need arises for a slimmed down solution.
Enter the wristlet. It is a small “portable pocket” large enough to hold those items you need for a jaunt to the grocery store, a trip to Chipotle or just around your enormous (corporate) campus. The solution for a lady’s everyday carry (EDC).
I found the Fossil Key-Per wristlet with pencil shavings pattern on Zappos for $35. It is large enough to hold the average smartphone, has pockets inside to keep ID and credit cards and a gusset on the side to keep coins and loose items from falling out. A short pen like a Fisher Space Pen or Kaweco Sport would also fit. There are other wristlets available on the Fossil site and of course other brand make other options. My co-workers carry a Kate Spade, Coach and BlueQ zippered pouch which range in price from around $10 to well over $100 at retail so there are lots of options to suit your tastes and your budget.
