The Cool Kids Are Talking About Spotify

Living on the West Coast, and specifically the Bay Area, comes with certain obligations. One big one is that you're expected to stay up-to-date with all of the techie trends—otherwise you'll risk looking totally ignorant at the next bottomless mimosas brunch. Getting your Google+ invite already seems like ages ago because now my News Feeds seem to be abuzz about Spotify.

I didn't know much about Spotify before trying it out, other than it was a music-streaming service and people were really happy about it. So, like any Bay Area sheep, I signed up to find out what it was all about. To me, the website was pretty unclear after a couple glances in regards to exactly how Spotify was special. They did have this odd graphic that seemed to suggest that music could be consumed like food, but I was too lazy to watch the promo video and decided it was easier to just sign up, start using it, and see what was what. At first impression, Spotify sets itself apart from something like Pandora in that it allows you to customize playlists. There's also a cool social element of being able to send your friends songs or collaborate on playlists. To me, the quality of the streaming is better than some of the media players I've experienced on artist websites or via Bandcamp. I did a quick search upon installation to see if some of my favorite "obscure" artists were available and surprisingly they were. So far it was pretty awesome, and I could clearly see why everyone was getting on the bandwagon.

As I started crafting playlists however, I discovered there were little bits of things that bugged me. For certain albums that were listed as available, I discovered that really only one song from the album was available for streaming (and unsurprisingly as I dug deeper, some of the music I love was not available). Then when I started listening to my playlist, I learned that after every few songs, a series of random audio advertisements were going to be blasted into my ears promoting either the Spotify paid service or artists I didn't care about. No more disruptive than if you were listening to the radio but much more disruptive than if you were listening to an individual album on Bandcamp. (I get that they need to monetize, but there is also plenty of visual advertising space that would not completely disrupt my music-listening experience.) However, if you're used to listening to mainstream music on the radio anyway, then Spotify is a vast improvement for you.

I'll probably still use Spotify pretty often while I am working since the selection is still decent and I like listening to more than one artist in one sitting sometimes, but it's not like Spotify is the best application in the world.

And in case you are wondering exactly what this obscure music is that I've been obsessing over that isn't necessarily all on Spotify, I am an embarrassingly devoted fan to British YouTube musicians. Check out this amazing chap hop song about tea by Professor Elemental here. Or dig deeper into my embarrassing tastes in music here.

| Art Credit: Me. |

Harry Potter For Designers

Over the weekend, I watched the last Harry Potter movie and gave myself a pat on the back that I only cried during about 10% of the overall movie, as compared to Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, during which I was sobbing about 40% of the time. I know, it's pretty lame to be crying over a movie adapted from a fictionalized novel. And one that is basically a youth version of The Lord of the Rings with more charm. But sometimes tears are just a little less cynical. (Truthfully though, I am an HP fan.)

Feeling much in the Harry Potter spirit, I was poking around on Pinterest when I discovered that there is some seriously good-looking fan art out there. I find myself particularly drawn to the minimalist approach. I'm sorry, but I was definitely not a fan of the illustrated covers we got stuck with here in the States. Maybe in publications generations later, those covers will be replaced with ones as gorgeous as these?



| top. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by M. S. Corley | middle. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by Christian Petersen | bottom. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Travis English |

| Art Credit: See links provided. |

Instamatic Hipstagraming For Your BlackBerry

For the most part I am pretty content with my BlackBerry. I like the way the size and shape are very comfortable for my child hands and I still really love having a physical keyboard over just a touchscreen. But I get serious iPhone envy when it comes to apps like Hipstamatic and Instagram which instantly add filters to your camera phone photos to give them a vintage, lomo-y, or artsy look. It's not that I am looking to become a hipster but moreso that apps like these are just plain practical when it comes to making an otherwise poor-looking photo from my not-so-great camera phone look a little more aesthetically interesting.

I finally discovered a similar app that does this for BlackBerry. The app is called PixTrix and it is free, with the usual banner ads running at the top. You don't use the app to take the actual photos but rather snap a photo first, and then open it up in PixTrix to apply a filter to it. Like most BlackBerry apps I've experienced, it is a little slow, but for on-the-go photo editing I think it's the best option for BlackBerry users right now. There aren't nearly as many filter options as there are on the iPhone alternatives and some of the filters seem completely useless to me, like "Fake 3D" and "Double Exposure", but there are a few decent ones I've had fun using to get that retro camera look.




Now that I've discovered PixTrix, I've been trying to actually use Twitter for its original purpose of microblogging. Sometimes I see something particularly nifty at the grocery store or I've assembled myself a nice-looking lunch—not really worth a whole blog post but still something fun to share. You can check out my mobile photos and mini-posts right here on my Twitter page.

| Photo Credit: Me, on my BlackBerry. |

Glittery Gold Slingbacks—Can you tell the $245 difference?

I love the Kate Spade look and have amassed a decent collection of Kate Spade accessories by always keeping an eye out for some of their really good sales. But when it comes to shoes, it's hard for me to justify splurging when I know that no matter how pricey, they're still going to get scuffed up against the ground from my awkward, flat-footed gait. Which is why I think these sparkly slingbacks by J. Reneé are a good find for getting the glittery Kate Spade Charm look for less.

I haven't seen the more affordable version in person but I'm guessing that since they are being sold by Nordstrom, you're not missing out on a posh shopping experience in any way by going with them. These shoes have the same bow styles, are both open-toed slingbacks, and are both covered in glittery gold goodness. The ones from Nordstrom even have a kitten heel which, albeit a little less sexy-looking, are probably going to be a lot more comfortable at the end of the night. What do you think? Is the difference of the heel worth the difference on the price tag?

| Photo Credit: See links provided. |

A Piece of Doctor Who for Your Dresser

I consider myself a big Anglophile and a big nerd, so of course I am a huge fan of the British science fiction television program, Doctor Who. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Doctor Who is about a sexy alien man who travels through time and space, typically saving the universe but breaking hearts of impressionable young women along the way. They've really tried to spice it up lately with younger actors and cuter outfits, but the sad part is that Nick and I became devoted fans back when it was really really bad Welsh CGI and not a whole lot of production value.

Don't ask me how I noticed this because it is pretty geeky and embarrassing. If you take a look at this still from the "A Christmas Carol" episode, you can see that there are a bunch of pretty, pseudo-Dickensian white knobs on the cloud-controlling switchboards to each side of Matt Smith.

Now, I can't say for certain where the set designers got them, but these knobs look an awful lot like the Ceramic Melon Knobs from Anthropologie. I recognized them immediately because I happen to have them. Anthropologie sells beautiful knobs that are great for sprucing up Ikea dressers, which I have done with mine.

So, if you are a Doctor Who fan wishing to pretend that you have a piece of Doctor Who without going to the extremes of this or this, you're welcome.

| Photo Credit: top. Still taken from this BBC America clip; bottom. Me. |

My Wedding Is on Style Me Pretty!

I am very excited to announce that my wedding is being featured on Style Me Pretty today. This is a pretty big deal for me because I poured a lot of heart and soul into styling my wedding last year, and it is so great to have an opportunity to share all those little details with other brides looking for ideas. You can check out the full post right here. And to those of you who helped make that day such a lovely one—thanks again for being awesome.

Here are just a few shots of some of the details from that day. If you are looking for someone to design party invitations or style your wedding, shoot me a note at theyuppielifestyle@gmail.com and I would love to find out how I can be of help.

| Photo Credit: Wedding photos by Aubrey Trinnaman and Blake Henderson of Jerry Yoon Photography. |

Veggies Are Good for You and Pretty Too

I am kind of obsessed with monochromatic art so this print caught my eye on Pinterest. Pinterest is a neat site for creating virtual pinboards for beautiful things you stumble upon on around the internet. You just put a little bookmarklet in your browser toolbar and you can "pin" any image right away. They're a startup out of Palo Alto and I was lucky enough to snag an invite from a friend in the first couple months of the site, when people were really using it for what it was intended to be and it was awesome to see what designers, photographers, and other creative types were sharing.

This fantastic print is called "Hello Spring" by an illustrator named Heidi Schweigert; she has a shop called Red Cruiser on Etsy that has other great work like this. But for some reason, when I saw it on Pinterest it was credited to Eric Carle with no backlink to the Red Cruiser shop listing. Not cool. Like a game of telephone, it got repinned over and over with the wrong information because people assumed it was labeled correctly in the first place. So, this is a little reminder about how important it is to give people credit for their work.

You can follow me on Pinterest here.

| Art Credit: Red Cruiser/Heidi Schweigert. |

Hello! I'm Going on a Vacation.

Here are some photos I took around my neighborhood as practice for becoming a tourist. This will be my last post for a little while, because I have some other things to take care of before I dash off to London later next week. Updated on 03|05|11: Just kidding!

I hope that you'll all stay tuned for when I return and report back on living the yuppie lifestyle in London and Paris. In the meantime, here are some things to entertain you while I am away and help you partake in the spirit of my trip.

• Listen to (Baby) Hold Me Tight by Kitty, Daisy & Lewis—a London-based sibling trio with old-school charm. I'll be rocking this on my iPod during the plane ride.
• Pretend you're touring Versailles right alongside me, with help from the very cool Google Art Project.
• Watch the video for the best Harry Potter fan tribute song I have seen to date: Like it's Quiddich.
• Check out this cute little interactive map of the Boulevard Raspail market in Paris. I'm so sad I won't be there on a Sunday for the organic market.
• Watch Jeremy Clarkson attempt to score a goal with a giant football (soccer ball) and a Mini Cooper at the beginning of this clip from BBC's Top Gear.
• Learn about as much French as I know by watching Flight of the Conchords's Foux Du Fafa video.

| Photo Credit: Me. |

Scrabble Designer Edition for Designers

I cannot help but share when I find something on the internet that appeals to not just one, but multiple loves of mine. This proof-of-concept by Andrew Clifford Capener for a designer edition of Scrabble combines my love of wood grain, typography as art, and—of course—Scrabble.


I spent a lot of my spare time playing Scrabble when I was younger because I was a big nerd but this set makes Scrabble look way cool. You can see and read more on Andrew Clifford Capener's site.

| Photo Credit: Andrew Clifford Capener. |

Lady Gaga's "Telephone" as a Vintage Children's Book

I usually don't feature completely unoriginal content like this, but I was so very charmed when I first saw Andrew Kolb's illustrations for turning Lady Gaga's "Telephone" into a vintage children's book that I feel I must share it to anyone who missed it splashing on the other blogs (here). I am not much of a clubber in the music video sense, which is why I couldn't stop smiling when I saw this.
It's like the yuppie lifestyle set to Lady Gaga lyrics! What's not to love about that? The whole set can be seen in Andrew Kolb's Flickr stream.

Gray and White Striped Sheets—Can you tell the $200 difference?

I saw these DwellStudio sheets on one of my favorite blogs this morning and thought— Joy Cho has my West Elm sheets! I quickly realized that they were in fact different sheets, and that they were almost $200 more than mine. I rarely find that those "get this look for less" situations are really quite like getting the same look as a designer item for less but I felt like this one was a case worth noting.

These sheet sets are basically the same. Yes, the DwellStudio sheets are 400-thread count, compared to only 200-thread with the West Elm set, but the percale weave of the sheets I own make them feel so very smooth and luxurious that I find it hard to believe the discrepancy could warrant the difference in price tag. And DwellStudio's ash color does seem to have a little more of a burnt gray look than the feather gray stripes from West Elm, but if you are going for a gray motif in your bedroom, I think either shade would look lovely. Plus, with the funds you save by getting the less expensive sheets, you could buy this awesome coverlet which I also own.

| Photo Credit: See links provided. |

Tourism for Locals

Nick and I are going to London and Paris in March. London is my favorite city in the world because of my massive Anglophilia. It'll be my first time visiting Paris, and while I am not nearly enough of a romantic to buy into all of that "City of Love" business, I'm betting it'll still be a nice treat. Other people in my life seem to have been caught up in the excitement of my trip-planning too, which I think is adorable. My boss bought me these cute little books full of fold-out maps for Christmas and my friend Taleen bought me a sheet of Ladurée stickers in anticipation.

I have been spending a lot of my spare time researching things to do and I am finding sites like this and this to be extremely helpful; they feel a little more like they are written by a kindred spirit of mine than a professional travel guide writer. It makes me wonder, why doesn't someone make a site like this for San Francisco? While I'd love to make the time to take on such a project, I am not sure I can, or that I am hip enough to be that person. So in the meantime, I'll keep posting here about my lifestyle tips and observations as a local San Francisco tourist. Stay tuned for my neighborhood profile on Cow Hollow based on the lovely afternoon Nick and I spent there on Saturday.

| Photo Credit: Me. |

Lifestyle Tip: What to Do If Transparency Leads to CMYK in InDesign

This isn't in any way a techy and/or crunchy blog but a couple days ago I discovered a solution to a big InDesign conundrum and figured I would share it. Plus I am also trying a new thing here where I do a better job of using the post titles to describe what the post is about.

A few months ago I was collaborating with a friend of mine who is a designer. He was putting together a nifty branding guide in InDesign, but we realized that every time he used a transparency effect, all his RGB colors turned to dull-as-doldrums CMYK. I've made this little graphic to illustrate the difference. The same color swatches are displayed in the CMYK color space on the left and the RGB color space on the right.I ran into the same issue last week on a separate project, and a quick Google led me to this where I was able to pick out the solution. If all your RGB things turn to CYMK when you're using transparency in an InDesign document, do the following:
1. Go to Edit.
2. Go down to Transparency Blend Space.
3. Select Document RGB.
Your colors should be back to their bright and shiny RGB goodness.

The Bay of Pig.

While on the subject of things that have both a pig motif and a San Francisco motif going on, here is this adorable poster by Alyson Thomas. Embedded in the drawing of the pig is a map of all the San Francisco neighborhoods, but what I think makes it cute is how the important pig parts are still labeled alongside them; I love how the northwest corner of my neighborhood touches the ham border.

I almost want to write to the owners of Plow about how they should put one of these in their restaurant. But for now, I have one hanging in my own dining room.

You can get your own here.

| Photo credit: Alyson Thomas of Drywell |