Kelly and I commissioned 16 whirligigs from Vollis for our wedding in 2008; 15 tabletop whirligigs for our wedding party and immediate family members, and one larger “bike wheel” for ourselves.

You can see our order for the bicycle wheel in small black text on his door in photo 3 of 12 in the accompanying slideshow. It’s way down at the bottom…

And again, before it was covered with two more years of barn activity.

It’s wonderful to see him get this kind of recognition and I hope many others continue to have a chance to enjoy his work.

He has lived to see what he thought of as a hobby for himself and quirky entertainment for the neighbors become part of a seriously regarded corner of the art world, one that generates master’s theses, museum shows and significant money.

His work, which graced a window at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan last Christmas, is on permanent display in Baltimore, Atlanta and Albuquerque.

We love our whirligig.

Whitebox Weddings Blog – click to see a ton of incredible images

Our wedding turned out as well as we’d dreamed and we’ve been pleased that others seem to think it was pretty good too.

Save The Dates

Brooklyn Bride – featured
{casando idéias} – in portuguese – we’re at the bottom
Sparkle Thots – a repost with praise
classicly modern – we’re the ‘baby pics’ example
paper+cup – comment says ‘omg. adorable.’
snippet & ink – thinks we had a great idea

how we made the save the dates – in kelly’s flickr

Invitations

sew mama sew – feature post on the fabric pockets

Wedding

Official Whitebox Weddings Blog – many, many great images. beautifully captured.
Brooklyn Bride – Real Weddings – featured again – with Kelly’s big write-up
Amy Love Sweet Love – lots of love for the kraft paper and crayons on the tables
Oh So Beautiful Paper – love for the fabric invitations
Kayelily’s Blog – our officiant
all weddingstuff – in kelly’s flickr – photobooth shots, little us, savethedates

How We Did It
Whitebox Weddings – photographers sara and mel – fantastic
The Barn at Valhalla – venue in the woods
The Photobooth – we went with the ‘classic’ – dip and dunk – and a digital scanner

Moo – our little selves on little cards (and for a while, we’re the second listing on their weddings page)
Etsy – found our ringbowl and guestbook
IndieBride – advice, ideas, vendors, morale

William Travis Jewelry – engagement ring, palladium – we designed it, he made it

Wedding Ring Workshop – we made our own wedding bands, for each other, also palladium (use our referral code, SF8/308)
Urbina Designs – we used Alba Urbina’s studio to make our wedding bands
LaRussa’s Trattoria – rehearsal dinner
Clyde Cooper’s Barbeque – reception/dinner
Neomonde – reception/dinner

Vollis Simpson – whirligigs for our people

Kim Bloomfield – cake baker extraordinaire, working with Sally (and we’re the banner photo, mid-feb09)
quilts on the walls – family-made, hung on nc tobacco sticks

Thank you everyone who helped make the day a success. I’m so proud of all my people.

PARC / WikiDashboard

I had a wonderful time at PARC this summer. I worked with Bongwon Suh and Ed Chi in the Augmented Social Cognition group very closely and I feel we got some quality work done. I’d never been in a corporate environment myself before this summer, and while I realize that PARC is not the average corporate environment at all, I definitely have a newfound appreciation for the depth of knowledge and pace of development happening inside. PARC is a great place to work and I would highly recommend their summer intern program.

Daily Porsche Count

One of my developed habits while being in the Bay Area this summer consisted of counting the number of Porsches I saw each day. The Daily Porsche Count, at first, was just a joke as I realized I’d seen three or four in about fifteen minutes my second or third day out there. I was living in Palo Alto and also spotted a Maserati, multiple Lotuses (Loti?), a couple Lamborghinis (one red, one yellow), and of course, the latest entrant, the Tesla. (The Tesla showroom actually went up while I was there, and they are incredible (both the showroom and the cars). )

Over the summer, I realized I had started counting the Porsches every day – and the average was definitely around 4 or 5. But sometimes I’d reach that quota before breakfast. It was a rare day I saw zero. The biggest Porsche Count was 21, the day I rode my bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and over into Tiburon.

The other interesting observation was that on the way home, via L.A. and Tucson, the Daily Porsche Count dropped (as expected). What was unexpected was that the Daily Corvette Count increased proportionately as we headed to L.A.

Additionally, the only Porsche I saw on the drive back to NC was painted on a barn in Kentucky advertising a no-longer-in-business pit stop down the road.

Follow-Up: I saw four yesterday in and around Chapel Hill. Maybe I’m a little more tuned to their existence now…

Wedding

I mentioned it above, but hadn’t mentioned it before – I’m getting married.

This takes over your life for a short while. There are lists upon lists. Spreadsheets and registries. Deadlines, supplies, and shipping. Gifts, Flowers, Suits, Photos, Dress, Vows. What a process.

Good thing we’ve been working together for a while. We have a fairly fine sense of our strengths and weaknesses, tone and timbre.

1 barn. 233 confirmed family and friends. Many cakes. A few surprises.

What fun.