Summertime gives me a naturegasm. With all the lush verdure, I sometimes feel like I can hear things growing, and it’s good to be filled with a sense of purposeful renewal. That’s why I’m so excited the nice folks at Woolly Pocket are sponsoring a GIVEAWAY for us, plus I’m guest posting over at their blog today. How’s that for cross pollination? Now, what the bleep is a Woolly Pocket, you may ask? Friends, prepare to be amazed.

Woolly Pockets are gardening systems that can be used indoors or out. They’re made from recycled materials formed into flexible, breathable pouches that have a moisture barrier so you can hang them on walls or set them right on your more delicate furnishings. All you have to do is add soil, plants, and water, and then — blammo! Instant garden. You can read more about the how tos right here.

Wally is a modular, wall hung pocket that can be used outside to build a vertical garden, creating a cool oasis (ok, a pool helps, too).

Or Wally can be used inside to recycle all that dirty carbon dioxide you’ve been shuffling around.

Wally is space saving and maximizes moisture, so you don’t have to water 1000x times a day.

Here are two Wally pockets placed side by side in the kitchen, where they’re being used to grow all sorts of yummy edibles. Brilliant idea for those of us with small outdoor spaces, or poor growing conditions (hello, Austin!).

You know you want to try a Wally on for size, and today is your lucky day! We’re giving away one lined Wally pocket in peacock blue, so you can use him indoors or out. All you have to do is leave a comment by 12 noon CST on Sunday the 13th for a chance to win. Due to shipping constraints, I’m afraid this contest is open to US residents only. The winner will be announced on Monday the 14th, so tune in to see if it’s you… it might be.

Now I hope that you’ll all hop over to the Woolly Pocket blog where I’ve written up a little guest post that includes lots of images designed to inspire you to get busy gardening, indoor style. You know you want to go to there, so what are you waiting for?

Go! Now!

But leave a comment first, ok?

We love peeping into the homes of others — in a legal way, of course. Well, a week ago Launch787 presented their third annual Austin Modern Home Tour, and where were Karly and I? Uh, not there. As K-Dawg herself would say: lametron. Thankfully, our good friend and awesome photographer Cory Ryan was Johnny on the spot with her trusty camera in tow. Cory was kind enough to let us use her fabulous images to wow you with some highlights from this year’s tour. So, bust out your coffee and donuts because this is one long, mouthwatering post, and we can’t have you drooling on your keyboards, now can we?

Concrete and steel get the sexy treatment with acres of gorgeous glass windows.

Wild horses couldn’t stop me from moving into that snazzy house on the left, but the affordability index probably will. Too bad, because those limestone and gently pitched roofs set me a tingle.

Did I already mention gorgeous glass? Add in a fabulous indoor/outdoor living space and I’m sold. Also, after seeing this, I am never ever showing you people what my own backyard looks like. Its shame shall remain secret until the day we move.

Don’t know about you guys, but I am all about the kitchen and bathroom pics. Bathrooms first.

I love, love, love, the clean lines and wide range of materials used in these homes. It’s so hard to pick a favorite, but the skylit shower and double travertine showers are making me want to rip out my own perfectly serviceable, but snoozy bathrooms.

The kitchens ain’t too shabby, either. Look — even the rich and famous use Ikea cabinets (bottom image). Of course, they also use carrera marble counters and back splashes, as well as custom wood cabinets. Marble backsplash, you are a fancy bitch for making me love you.

Have I already mentioned that Cory is an awesome photographress? Check out this shot.

I have to admit that I find some of the living spaces to be kind of boring — a little too cleaned up and soulless. But these dining areas have some nice pieces in them, especially the wooden trestle table and artwork in the right image.

I also dig the painting in this bedroom.

And this wall/curtain treatment is interesting. How long do you think it took them to match up the stripes? I guess you hang the curtains first, then tape and paint the wall, then rehang the curtains. It would be awesome if there were 10 million stripes that matched…

Some cute details of furnishings for your viewing pleasure.

Honestly, though, it is all about the windows. If we didn’t have limestone exterior walls, I would totally get crafty with a jigsaw and start cutting.

Ok, ok, ok, I’m about to pee in my pants with excitement over these last images. Did you get your donuts ready, like I told you to? Because you’re going to need to bite down on something to keep from screaming…

THAT IS A MOTHERBLEEPING CANTILEVERED POOL.

With a view of lake Travis, of course. Do you think I got a little carried away with the images? Neither do I.

One last view from the pool. Hey, guess what? This little honey is for sale. Situated on Mt. Bonnell, she is 3.5 million dollars worth of awesomeness, and worth every penny that I don’t have. Actually, the tour was presented by my old buddy David’s marketing and PR firm Wyatt Brand, and I’m a little concerned that he didn’t feel the need to ring me up and offer this gem at a deep discount (like, free). Dude, we’ve known each other since high school. It’s the least you could have done.

So, how excellent was that tour? Don’t you feel like you were there in person? Thanks so much to Cory Ryan and her magnificent camera skills for inviting us along! You can check out the rest of the modern home tour on her Flickr set. Also, Cory is truly a multi talented lady, so be sure to take a look at her online portfolios and services here and here. Lucky Austinites can view her Holga photography until February 28th at Thunderbird Coffee on Manor. Not in Austin? Buy her Holga prints here.

Whew, all that lust has exhausted me. My head is spinning and I’ve broken a sweat.

Wish I were floating in that pool right now.

I love things en masse.  Take something small and insignificant and multiply it by 100, suddenly you have an interesting collection.  Take something small and kinda cool, then multiply that by 1,000 and shape it into something awesome then, well, then you have a blog post. 

Scott Jarvie Recycled Straw Clutch Chair

Nendo Designed Fabric Scrap Cabbage Chair

Fully Loaded Chair made from shotgun shells by Alexander Reh (yes, I’ve blogged about this before here)

balloona stool confetti by natalie kruch for umbra made from 500 balloons

Tide Chandelier made from collection of man made debris washed up on Kent coastline by Stuart Haygarth

Tail Light Chandelier Also by Stuart Haygarth

Mr. Haygarth is pretty much the king of making things out of things, view his entire site here

Volivik 347, Bic Pen Chandelier by en Pieza

#2 Pencil Chandelier by Daisuke Hiraiwa Gallery via inhabitat

Last time I was in Albuquerque I drove past a lawn that was landscaped entirely in fake plants.  As in: little plastic indoor-sized plants and flowers stuck in the dirt with no rocks or grass (real or fake) in sight.  It was easily the most hideous yard I ever done did see and thinking of it still sends shivers down my spine.  While working overtime to maintain control of my gag reflex I begged the universe at large to please keep such monstrosities out of my sight.  The universe challenged my resolve by presenting me with this:

A bedroom designed by Marjorie Skouras.  I struggled, I fought, I really really wanted to hate it, but, well, aside from the real flowers, I pretty much love it.  It’s ridiculous, totally impractical, and those greens are gross together but I can’t help but revel in the fantasy of waking up there every morning.  What’s a fake branch in the eye every now and then if the trade off is the opportunity to live in an unliving, unbreathing fauxest (fake + forest, huzzah!)

This got my wheels turning so I decided to web sleuth more rooms with fake wilderness.  I have to admit, I didn’t find much – go figure – but I was very picky.  The trees (trees only) had to be HUGE and no wallpaper murals allowed.  3D only thankyouverymuch.

HG&P interiors tempted my tummy with this lovely, albeit temporary, event installation with monolithic trees

Here’s another view incase one wasn’t enough to satisfy your “wedding party I could have had” fantasies. 

Unfortunately, this is the only other example I was able to find.  Here’s hoping (fingers crossed extra hard) that the trees in TWBA’s offices are fake.  If not, I’m going to let the mossy abstractions on the walls count.  Plus, that grassy shag rug really drives the fauxest vision home.  Let’s take another look:

Klein Dytham Architecture converted an old bowling alley into what might be the only office I’d ever be willing to work in.  Ok, it’s good, but not that good.

If the slumping economy is bringing you nightmares straight from the 80′s of a suffering stock market, inflated cost of living, and an inexplicable rise in the popularity of MC Hammer pants, you’re not alone. Today, even the typically robust Austin housing market posted a 4% drop in housing prices over last year. Not a good sign. And cities across America have been so hard hit by the recent wave of foreclosures that tent cities have sprung up like mushrooms in the shadow of a dark econolyptic fallout cloud.

For now, Sacramento, CA, appears to be the capital of Hooverville, thanks in part to efforts by the Governator to set aside sanctioned areas for what one can only hope will be temporary living quarters.

SF Gate ran a sad story with lots of pictures featuring people eating out of tin cans and drying wet blankets on clotheslines, straight out of a Walker Evans/James Agee report on the 30′s dustbowl. But somehow I find this image of a guy playing frisbee with his dog the saddest. Dude, that is a tire.

Now hubby and I are fortunate enough to live a comfortable — if modest — life. But we’ve got a baby on the way so he’s (at least temporarily) the sole breadwinner, and if hubby got laid off we’d be living in a tent down by the river faster than you could say, “Rest in peace, Chris Farley.”

My point is that it could happen to any of us, so I think we need to come up with a contingency plan, because I don’t want to live in a filthy tent while my poop smeared baby plays with tires. I want to be homeless in style.

Plan 1: Squat in one of these amazing abandoned Detroit homes. Detroit’s real estate market has been decimated so completely that the median home price there has fallen to $18k, and an increasing number of people are fleeing the city center and moving outwards.

It’s a sad fact that real estate is all about location, location, location, because any one of these homes would fetch $500k plus in an historic Austin neighborhood. Since I’ll never be able to afford to buy one of those, I imagine that I would enjoy playing house in a ramshackle Victorian, Craftsman, or even a crumbling farmhouse, while blissfully ignoring the hoopty whips, potholes and plywood doors all around me. Beggars can’t be choosers, right?

Plan 2: Build a cardboard spaceship and wait to be rescued by aliens, because you know Calgon ain’t gonna take you away.

Seriously, Miwa Takabayashi designed this cardboard structure to fit inside a mall, so that it could serve as a “refuge for our over-simulated and consumer-driven world.” Or it could serve as a house in our very under-stimulated world. If you still want to pitch your cardboard tent inside the ghost mall, that’s your own decision; I’m sure the mall would be grateful to have even the appearance of consumers these days.

As long as I’m living in a cardboard house, I’d like a matching cardboard office. Obviously existentialist creative agency, Nothing, set up this corrugated funhouse in Amsterdam.

True, I may have to scale back the designs a wee bit to fit inside my space pod, but I’m pretty stoked that I can steal electricity from the mall and run it through cardboard. That’s not a fire hazard, is it? At any rate, I’m going to need a place to plug in my computer so I can keep blogging. Joblessness should leave us with some extra time on our hands.

Oh, ok. Maybe these sweet structures aren’t really in keeping with the whole “Tent City” vibe.

Plan 3: Live in a house that looks like a tent. See, it’s a house, but it has a tent facade! It should blend right in with the other homeless homes, right?

What? It’s totally down to earth. Look how minimal it is, what with the plywood walls, no pillow action and cheap folding chairs. Ok, so although it’s restrained, it’s not exactly living free. The glass alone must have cost a mint, but maybe I could fake it with some sticks and saran wrap?

FINE. I’ll take it down another notch.

Plan 4: Live in an actual tent city. Is this proletarian enough for you? Look enough like a tent city? Because that’s what it is. Tents. Together. Forming a city. Well, if I have to live in an actual tent, I’d at least like it to be pretty and colorful, like these tents set up by Studio Orta.

Whee, so whimisical with the colorful flags emblazoned on the sides — I feel uplifted already. On my tent, we’d fly the flags of Cardboard Corner and Derelict Drive, to show solidarity with our homeless sistahs and bruddahs. Now I know not a lot of stuff will fit into this tiny tent, but besides the obvious necessities — hubby, fetus, soap — I’m bringing one other, very important accessory:

My ratty tatty blankie that I’ve had since I was born. You’d have to pry this little scrap of security from my cold, dead hands in order to make me part with it. Besides, in Hooverville, the well worn look is in.

If you had to live in a tent, what one special item would you bring? Think of it as Hobo Survivor.

Swiss Family Robinson attraction at Disney World

Hi ya Design Crisis fans!  I’m Raina and I’ll be filling in for Karly today while she’s drunkenly heckling Pottery Barn shoppers on vacation.  My days are spent chasing my two-year-old daughter around and writing a couple of little interior design blogs, “If The Lamp Shade Fits” and “The Daily Bed.”  I’ve worked in design and retail since my teen years and previously owned an interiors shop and a clothing boutique for nearly a decade.  Enough about me, let’s get to today’s topic…

Who doesn’t love a tree house?  Given the worldwide economic bloodletting and skyrocketing home foreclosure rate, les cabanes dans un arbre (it’s sexier in French) may soon become the shelter of choice if not necessity.  Let’s take a tour through some superlative examples of the genre.

Stockholm-based architects Tham + Videgard Hansson Arkitekter have designed a hotel with individual rooms to be suspended in trees and accessed by rope ladders and bridges.

The suites will be clad in mirrored glass so as to give the structures a Harry Potter-esque cloak of invisibility.

Each unit will sleep two people and include a living room, double bed, small kitchen, bathroom and roof terrace.  The hotel is due to start construction in 2010.

Continuing with the box-in-a-tree theme, Canadian architects StudioLukaszkos designed this award-winning 410-square-foot lakeside project called “4treehouse.”  The first floor contains a sheltered bedroom with the two upper floors open to the elements.

British builder Amazon Tree Houses creates “inspirational bespoke retreats for inspired locations.”  Budgets for these more traditional fairy tale tree houses start at $7500 and head upwards of $150,000 (and beyond).

Lest you think tree houses can only be built in mighty oaks, I give you the “Palm-Fiction” designed by German builder BaumRaum.

BaumRaum (translation “tree room”) combines “the creative and constructive expertise of an architect with the long-standing experience of a landscape architect, a tree expert, and established, reputable craftsmen.”  Working internationally, the design firm specializes in modern shapes and luxe interiors.

As part of a recent marketing campaign for the New Zealand Yellow Pages, a tree house restaurant was built in a giant redwood (all suppliers to the project were Yellow Pages advertisers).  The restaurant, located north of Auckland on a privately-owned redwood plantation, was a limited-run engagement open from January 9th to February 9th. The structure, now available for private parties, seats 18 people on split levels with service provided from a kitchen located on the ground.

If you prefer to live out your tree house dreams in the safety and warmth of your own home, you may want to think about one of these fantasy beds.

“Under the Apple Tree” canopy bed from Attila Design.

“Tree Bed” from Shawn Lovell Metalworks.

“Tree House” loft bed from VIP Kids.

For further inspiration, check out the tree house porn coffee table book “Treehouse Living: 50 Innovative Designs.”

See thee in the canopy!

Friends, I am pooped. If you ask me, the holidays are all about overeating, undersleeping, and travel overload. My wee little brain needs a chance to recover from a dangerous sugar megadose, which is why I am pumping up today’s post with less talk but more pictures. Obviously, it will taste great and be less filling.

On Sunday afternoon, Karly, the very fabulous Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club fame, and I kicked it frugal style at Austin’s bimonthlyish Citywide Garage Sale. There were some definite steals and deals, and also just some weird crap. Check it, yo.

Karly bought this awesome Black Beauty tapestry for $3. Every girl needs a stallion in the bedroom, no?

Cubism and gnomes! They go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong.

She’s awfully haughty for a baldie, dontcha think?

This, also, is unfortunate.

I hate to spoil it for you, but this was the best picture I took all day. Sadly, it’s all downhill from here.

The dude that ran this booth sold killer vintage backdrops. If you live in Austin, some of them are at Uncommon Objects. He also runs Webb Gallery in Waxahatchie.

Texas = Armadillos

More dead stuff.

This was Alonzo Huxley, beloved security guard of San Antonio. Apparently Alonzo’s nephew sold his uncle’s 40 pound bronze head to the proprietor of this booth. Note to self: nephews are unsentimental bastards.

Peppers, popes and ponies. What more could you ask for?

Perhaps a phenomenal Peter Max piece…?

Here stands a groovy little screenprint.

Calling all anachronists and lovers of obsolete technologies. Hipsters, come in. There is now an alternative to buying your tech goods at Urban Outfitters. Over and out.

If you pray hard enough, maybe you can get this vintage nativity set for free. Ask and ye shall receive, right?

In case you didn’t already know, vintage dresses are freakishly tiny. That fills me with rage.

Cool it now with some shell chair love and capiz on top.

Sunny swagadelic lamp action always makes me happy.

I have a paint by numbers problem. It’s inexplicable and stubbornly incurable.

I almost bought this lamp, but didn’t. I may live to regret that decision, or the sugar withdrawals may kill me first.

That’s it for my Citywide Roundup. All you people who keep threatening to visit and/or move to Austin will surely be dragged by force to the Convention Center to check out the aisles of cheap goodies being offloaded by desperate proprietors. Times is hard, y’all. All the better to buy vintage.

Perhaps the most rewarding thing about blogging is meeting new, exceptionally awesome people. Case in point: the other day, Karly and I got a lovely email from Virginia Fleck, who had heard about our site from super pal Sanders while buying paint at Benjamin Moore. Karly and I just about went into convulsions of joy when we realized Virginia is the artist behind these amazing recycled plastic bag mandalas seen in museums and public spaces all over Austin. Plus she was nominated for the Texas Prize, which is a HUGE bling bling deal around these parts. Plus she won the Juror’s Award at the 2007 Texas Biennial (another really big deal). Check plus she works with teenagers on beautiful ecologically conscious projects. Oh, and she’s a really nice lady, to boot. What’s not to like about Virginia?

Well, if there is anything, I haven’t figured it out yet. And certainly her artwork is enough to make you a believer in her cause: to “[reveal] the hidden beauty of the overlooked, disposable materials that continually pass through our hands… by collaging pieces of detritus from a consumerist society.”

There is a long tradition of art made from trash — Claes Oldenburg, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, even Marcel Duchamp, to name just a few — but rarely is art made from castoffs so seductive and meditative. According to her artist’s statement, Virginia’s “mandalas made from plastic bags analyze the activity of consumerism as a spiritual encounter.” I find it interesting that she breaks the cycle of numbing, comforting consumption, while translating that feeling into a more sublime experience of color and pattern and movement. The pleasure of viewing and thinking is intangible, but very powerful. See for yourself.

Can you believe that these used to be castoff, mundane plastic bags? Do they make you want to rifle through your own collection of bags in hopes of making something snazzy? (You DO recycle your bags, right???) The titles are just as good as the visuals. Clockwise from top left: flower pop, allah, heartland, tween.

Let’s take a closer look at some details, shall we?

Holy hours upon hours of work! The aptly titled, buymore, features bits of recognizable branding, like Footlocker, Target, and the like. Similarly, liberty co-opts familiar logos and subverts their original intentions to sell, sell, sell (or buy, buy, buy, depending on your perspective):

It’s more than a little disconcerting to see Lady Liberty hoisting a shopping bag in her hands, ringed by blankly smiling happy faces. It’s become pretty apparent in the wake of the recent economic collapse that our national identity is connected with the consumerist impulse, and that democracy can be bought in big box stores. As long as our capitalist society is vitally intact, then America lives to reign as Superpower another day. Ok, end of rant. Funny story: during the early days of the Iraq War and all of the anti-France sentiment, a certain person close to me I shall call “X” (no, not Hunny Bunny) refused to shop at Target because he thought it was French owned. It’s not. X, you may have single-handedly killed the US economy.

Back on point! It’s hard to see from the 500 square pixels on your screen, but Virginia’s mandalas range from big to enormous, like 7 feet tall. Let’s check them out in their natural habitat — on the wall:

At Austin City Hall.

A groovy backlit version at the Whole Foods headquarters.

A smaller version featured in Western Interiors. Don’t you feel like you need one for your own wall?

Just when you thought Virginia and her work couldn’t possibly get any cooler, you meet her teen proxies, the Angsty Teenage Eco Warriors:

Virginia has been working with teens for the past five years on ecologically conscious projects rooted in recycling. At this workshop, she taught them to make hip totes out of colored bags, as well as plastic bag mandala clothing.

I would call them adorable, but if memory serves, that is not the proper term for an angsty teenage lady. So I will just say that their interest in the environment is rad, and that their handmade clothing is amazing! Look at that mandala skirt, and I love the plastic bag tank top with matching belt modeled by the pink punk princess. What a great group! Virginia, your desire to educate the next generation in ecological practices brings a tear to my sentimental eye. I used to teach high school, and I know how important it is to start teaching kids to be self reliant skeptics as early as possible.

Oh, Virginia, I have such a crush on you. Your work is pretty AND smart, and you don’t hoard all your goodness to yourself. Talented people everywhere, let this be a lesson to you: Spread the Wealth!

Despite an entire Monday spent extolling the many virtues of cardboard furniture (although dingy brownness was not one of them), I am still in a recycling state of mind, possibly because all the trash floating down our street is making me sick. No more Church’s Chicken cups, beer cans and gross dirty band aids in my yard, please! While I haven’t found a use for old band aids yet (and I’m sure I never will), I have found a veritable cornucopia of cool items designed from repurposed materials.

Clockwise from top left: San Francisco Metro Map Bowl by Etsy seller picapicadesign, Recycled wool blanket purses by designer Tieneke Beunders at Ontwerpduo, Recycled aluminum pop top purse by Brazilian designers at Escama Studio, and Recycled packaging lights by Anke Weiss seen at Yanko Design.

I am obsessed with maps (look for a future post devoted solely to their geographical goodness), so I adore the bowls by Picapica, and all the purse are very cute, wearable, and environmentally friendly. Yay trashless yard! The lamp made from recycled packaging is also a nifty idea, and it just goes to show that with a simple light kit (sold at Hope Depot or Ikea), many objects can be reborn as lighted sculptures. Par example, regardez Francois Legault’s amazing spoon chandeliers at Unik:

I’m relieved that he used spoons instead of forks. I am not sure how I would feel about a million pointed tines aiming at my eyes as I gazed up at their splendor.

Meanwhile, Tineke Beunders over at at Ontwerpduo is busy building more pieces out of materials that make you wonder why anyone ever discarded them in the first place.

The chair (which, in real life, I am quite sure is NOT as large as the cupboard), is strung like Danish rope cord but with old telephone wires. Being one of the landlineless legions, I had forgotten telephone wire even existed, but then I remembered waaay back to my awesome clear Swatch phone and its colorful guts. It’s a very surprising use of materials, I think. And the cupboard made of old metal file boxes really belongs in my house. I want it and its filthy industrial patina so, so badly.

If you’re looking for something a little more classic, something that screams less “Hey, I am recycled!” and more “Hey, I cost a sh*tload of money!” then look no further than the Phillipe Starck designed Kong chair, modeled after the ubiquitous Ghost chair, but this time cast and welded with 88% recycled aluminum:

I’ve got to say that those are some sexy chairs. Unlike the other pieces I featured today (all of which I am still in love with), the Starck chair bears no mark of its original incarnation as a thousand common cans. It must have cost a small fortune just to get the base materials into a finished state, so I’m sure the $2000 price tag is somewhat justified.

Maybe they’ll get recycled one step further and show up on Craigslist. Knock a zero off and those babies are mine.

People, I am tired. It was a boozy week (+ end) full of birthdays, house parties and the death of our beloved cat, Poop Log (RIP, little buddy, and yes, that really was his name). So maybe I’m still a little delirious, or maybe cardboard furniture is kind of… awesome. Sure it’s cheap and tacky, but recycling is good, right? And occasionally it can be very modern material-centric, like Frank Gehry’s quintessential cardboard chair:

Or cardboard can go for baroque like Giles Miller’s wardrobe and grandfather clock over at UK-based Farm Designs. Check out the cute mustache handles:

Miller also produces seating that belies its humble origins:

The one on the right looks kind of painful, like sitting on the flying buttresses of a Spanish cathedral, but lefty has potential. He reminds me of the Togo sofas from Ligne Roset but comes a little closer to fitting into my furniture budget (which has recently been restricted to about $100 for a sofa off Craigslist). At $1500 it’s still a pricey piece, especially considering that it’s made of material usually functioning as wrapping paper for whatever it is you’re actually buying.

Of course, the craft conscious legions have realized that cardboard is a great material for DIYers. The corrugated form is super strong, but it’s still easy to cut with — what else? — a box cutter. The good folks at Designboom have several projects that you can do yourself:

And taking it 500 steps further are the Cartonnistes over at Instructables:

That desk does not look even remotely like cardboard and I love the idea that anyone could make furniture cheaply! Cardboard is so very democratic. Usually I’m all about wood, but have you ever tried to make anything out of wood? It’s hard. Really hard. Plus I need all ten digits to type.

If you don’t feel capable of starting from scratch, you can always order cardboard Legos from Bloxes and build yourself an entire Hooverville:

Is it just me or do those people seriously need to get to work??? Or maybe I’m just jealous that no job of mine has ever allowed me to to build a giant cardboard giraffe.

Really, though, all of my cardboard dreams will probably amount to little more than this:

Sitting on the street, drinking a beer while chilling on my sweet cardboard chair, hopefully without an orange bar over my eyes.

Eat your heart out, Claes Oldenbourg.