I’m about to retire to my sofa for the rest of the day (I have officially decided to take a sick day). I just couldn’t leave my computer, however, without expressing my excitement over this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar award going to Argentina for “El Secreto de Sus Ojos.” (The secret in Their Eyes). Congratulations to director Juan José Campanella for this incredible film! It’s always so thrilling for me when Latin American countries are recognized in such a big way for their artistry.

I don’t know if everyone managed to catch his message at the end (it was in Spanish with the “wrap it up” music playing over it) but director Juan José Campanella made sure to send his love and well wishes to his fellow Latinos in Chile. I was so overcome with emotion. What a great Oscar night for Argentina! Congratulations!

*photos from Peru.com

I’ve been completely glued to the daily updates about Chile after the shocking and devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit on Saturday. The aftershocks and tsunamis that have hit the area since have made the situation in Chile even more dire.

With Chile’s needs becoming increasingly larger, it’s important that we all give this devastated nation a helping hand. To donate, please contact the American Red Cross here. You can also donate and find information about loved ones in Chile through the Google Crisis Response here. Chile needs our help! Please give what you can.

*photo by Chilean graphic designer Juan Pablo Vasquez Villanueva

UPDATE FOR OUR SPANISH SPEAKERS: I just spoke with Pamela Villamar of Grafikk Studio (based in Santiago) and she has passed along some information on more ways to donate and find out information about specific areas in Chile. Please visit the Chilean Red Cross by clicking here to donate and find out other ways you can help. You can also listen to an online radio stream for up to the minute information.

These polaroid collages by Colombian photographer Juan Felipe Rubio are STUNNING! I wish I could fly him up to Oakland and have him shoot my engagement photos (not that I’m engaged but I plan to be some day). Until then, I’ll just enjoy these beautiful love stories told through Polaroids.

Recently, the awesome Victoria Smith over at sfgirbybay came up with a wonderful idea to pull together 300 bloggers in her first ever “Blog it Forward” mash-up. The idea is for a few bloggers a day to blog about what inspires them, and then pass the blogging torch to the next few bloggers, until all 300 have shared their inspirations. I’m so excited to be a part of this inspirational blog it forward. I hope you enjoy the things I find most inspirational!

1. Adventure Traveling

about to jump of a bridge in Ecuador

When I travel, more than anything else, I like to seek out adventure! Sure, I like to sit on a beautiful sandy beach as much as the next person, but for me, nothing is more exhilarating than taking on the unknown and pushing myself to do whatever comes my way. Swinging on vines in the jungle, jumping off bridges in the rainforest, joining protests in Argentina, riding a camel through a Nubian village, making friends with the local animals, climbing all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower (no elevators for me), crawling through Pyramids, riding scary amusement park rides after one too many at Oktoberfest, dancing in the streets of Rio… you name it, I’ve done it. I find that nothing is more inspiring than pushing myself to my own limits and then finding my way back. I always come home feeling like I can take on the world!

2. Game Changers

photo via sfgate

The people that create products and technology that fundamentally change the way we interact with the world and live our lives. These people inspire me to push beyond my personal best. Some of my current favorites include Steve Jobs (apple),  Mark Zuckerberg (facebook), Max Levchin (paypal), Evan Williams (twitter), Rob Kalin (etsy), Bill Gates (microsoft), Shigeru Miyamoto (nintendo wii), Jeff Bezos (amazon), Caterina Fake (flickr), and so many more… I could go on forever.

3. Music and Lyrics

photo via gawker

Music has been there for me in the best of times and the worst. It has been such an instrumental (pun completely intended) part of my life. It’s my constant companion, my motivation, my escape, my passion, my everything. Some of my favorite things to read are lyrics. I adore the fanciful and clever use of language to convey stories and everyday emotions. My favorite lyricsts of all time is Robert Smith of The Cure. I have never come across another song writer who is able to conjure up his type of imagery to convey the most basic yet profound of feelings. Often times when I’m listening to lyrics, certain messages will jump out at me in a really significant way. A few years back I was listening to “The Food” by Common. The line “slow motion is better than no motion” has stuck with me ever since. I keep it in mind on a daily basis and find a tremendous amount of comfort and hope in that simple phrase.

4. Cultivators of Style

photo via ashleygtucker.com

For me, there is nothing I admire more than individuals and companies who are able to select and curate in a way that creates a strong brand, a defined sense of style, and a deliberate point of view. I am so inspired by people and companies who thoughtfully pull together products, music, photos, etc. and are able to create a world that the rest of us want to step into. From a retail perspective, I think Anthropologie does this exceptionally well.

photo via viva cinema

On a personal level, Sophia Coppola successfully achieves this through film. Every aspect of her films, from the music, the wardrobe, the saturation of color, to the subject matter she explores are so highly stylized that, once you have entered, you know it’s Sophia’s world. She truly inspires me to be my own cultivator of style.

5. Self Affirming Poster Art

When you work alone most of the time, you find your own ways of coping, keeping yourself in check, focused, motivated, and (most importantly) inspired. I like to cover my office walls with what I call “self affirming poster art.” This “Don’t Give Up” poster by Print Liberation inspires me to keep going everyday. Something about those large red letters and straight forward message really kicks me in the butt. Other words of encouragement on my office walls include “Smile” and “Live What You Love” ( Hijiri K), “Get Your Sh*t Together” (Orange Beautiful), “Mind You Manners” (Roll and Tumble Press), and, of course, “Keep Calm and Carry On” (sfgirlbybay).

6. My Big Brothers

From one I have learned how to love and appreciate art, design, film, writing, and Brit-Pop. From the other I picked up my love of playing sports, a sense of fearlessness and adventure, silly humor, yoga, and rap music. They have helped me become a well rounded person, constantly introduce me to new things, and enthusiastically support everything I do. Even though we live far apart, they’re always just a phone call, email, or iChat conversation away. All of that and, they’re just incredibly fun to be around.

Thank you again for organizing Blog it Forward! This was a lot of fun and I’ve had the best time reading about what inspires other bloggers. I’m passing the blogging torch off to Lana de Lanna so be sure to check out her post!

This year I decided to make a Valentine’s Day card for my boyfriend based on our mutual love for the Wii. It’s so comforting to know that at the end of even the most stressful days, he and I can sit down and rock out on Guitar Hero, crash into each other on Mario Cart, and turn some tables with (our new favorite) DJ Hero! The couple that plays together definitely stays together. I hope he loves the card I made! Something tells me he will.

Wishing you all tons of love on this Valentine’s Day!!

I would love to introduce you to one of our newest designers, and all around wonderful woman, Argentinean artist Mercedes Hernaez! Mercedes is an extremely talented graphic designer who creates beautiful maps for the city of Buenos Aires and also creates beautiful notebooks under her own label, Mono-Blocks. Mercedes is one of the few designers I work with that I have had the pleasure of meeting in person on her recent trip to San Francisco. It was no surprise that she was as lovely as she is talented. I hope you enjoy learning more about a woman we are proud to work with!

*note to Mercedes: por favor, disculpame por esta traduccion no tan buena de tus palabras tan ermosas! :)

LAMA: Where do you live and what is your favorite part about living there?

Mercedes: Buenos Aires which is a super culturally active city. It is a place of curious and restless people. Palermo is where I work. It is an interesting and changing community. Sometimes I love it and other times it makes me suffer. I love Buenos Aires in November because the Jacarandas are in bloom and los tilos in December. I also love the bakeries. I live in a community full of olive trees. Near the city there are tons of olive trees and English houses. Our home is very humble, green, fresh and modern.

LAMA: Tell us about your business and how you got started.

Mercedes: I am a graphic designer with a studio in Old Palermo. It is a small showroom space in the back of a building where I create the maps of Buenos Aires. These are distributed free to several communities in B. A. Currently, we are also working on maps of Palermo and San Telmo. For the past few years, these communities have helped young artists and designers show their projects along side of the larger commercial businesses. This is how I started my work. I had the desire to tell others what happens in our communities and to participate in larger projects. I like to draw and think with a pencil and a piece of paper. Through the years of my life, I have collected a lot of notebooks that I find throughout my travels. One day I discovered a factory of left-over vintage papers. Some of them were so beautiful. With that, (and a love for notebooks), we put together our first collection for Mono-Blocks.

LAMA: Who are some of your favorite artists and designers?

Mercedes: Guillermina and her embroidery groups, Lola Goldstein, Guillermo Ueno, Marina Bandin of Maminas, clothing and textiles from Mina Perhonen (japan), Kiriko Nananan, Keiko Minami, Sejima, Hayao Miyazaki, Wong Kar Wai, Hiroshigue, Francesco Clemente, Calder, the drawings of Edward Gorey, Tibor and Maira Kalman, Argentinean designers like Mariana Cortés of Juana De Arco, and Veronica Longoni of Sopa de Principe.

LAMA: What do you find most inspirational?

Mercedes: Nature, spring, orchards, gardens, books, textiles, Japan, Holland, traveling, artist’s blogs and illustrations from different places (many Argentinean). Currently I am in love with many artists and illustrators from Nordic countries as well as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Nepal and their textile cultures.

LAMA: Where do you see your work going in the next 5 years?

Mercedes: We have grown a lot and we love where we work. We do everything from here (our studio)… from designing to producing to distributing. We are a very harmonious group. I work with Paula, Manuela and Hansel, and group of art students and photographers that add to the energy, talent, and look of our projects we produce in this studio. I hope to continue on with more of the same.

LAMA: When you’re not hard at work in your studio, how do you spend your free time?

Mercedes: I enjoy embroidering, drawing, reading amongst the plants in my garden, cooking, and making jams and cakes. In the Spring, I enjoy riding my bike around my neighborhood with my children. In the winter, I like spending my time at home.

Thank you so much Mercedes for giving us a little peek into your life as an artist in Argentina! To check out Mercedes beautiful work at the LAMA shop, click here, here and here.

Just wanted to say hello on this busy Monday with a gorgeous image by PinkFlor. Stay tuned to meet one our newest LAMA designers later this week! Happy Monday!

The week before last I had the good fortune to attend Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City. If you follow all the wonderful design blogs I do, I’m sure you have read all of the gushing, unrestrained loving, and endless Alt praising by now. Some of you may be thinking, “Really? Was it really that amazing? Maybe if you’re a blogging rock star it was. What about everyone else?” To those that wonder, my answer is an emphatic YES! Yes, it really was that incredible. So I thought (finally) I would share my own Alt story:

First, I would like to thank twitter. Without twitter, I may not have heard of this wonderful event before it was too late. So thank you twitter. You are SO not a waste of time. As soon as my curiosity was peaked by all the Alt tweets, I clicked over to the Alt site, read the homepage, checked out the list of speakers and was sold. Three days in gorgeous Salt Lake City with my blogging heros? Where do I sign?! The next best thing that happened was receiving an IM from my good friend Ben Silbermann which read,”i was thinking about going to that conference you twittered about.” From there, we bought our plane tickets, booked a hotel and headed over (grateful that I had a travel buddy to keep me company and calm… I think I may have social anxiety disorder and a definite flying phobia).

It didn’t take long for my fears and anxiety to start melting away. Right off the bat I got to listen to Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely, Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elefant, Jaime Derringer of Design Milk and Karey Mackin of Mackin Ink speak about their favorite design sites. Something about the way they spoke about their own love and admiration for other blogs and bloggers (some they knew personally, others they did not) made me realize some important things. These women are just like me! They admire the work of others and sometimes wish they had so and so’s great eye or writing style or photoshop abilities. They don’t have superhuman powers or large teams of people working for them. They do what they do because they love it and they do it at the highest level possible for them.

Lesson 1: You don’t have to have superhuman powers to excel at what you do. Passion will get you far.

That night began with some speed networking and ended with a glamourous opening party that included delicious food (I should say delicious looking, I was too nervous to eat), live music, and an open bar (dangerous!) I arrived to the speed networking session at the same time as Jean Aw from NotCot. In fact, we chatted a bit about how we were both very unsure of what we were supposed to do there. I decided to play it cool (like I didn’t know that it was Jean Aw from NotCot) even though I was thinking, “omg! I’m talking to Jean Aw from NotCot!” I know, I’m such a dork. The opening party was tons of fun! I got to meet the people that would  become my “Alt clique” for the remainder of the time: Mackenzi Farquer (Site Design NYC), Sara Jensen (Lost Bird Found), Aaron De Simone (I Heart Media Inc.), Mat “with one T” Thorne (who was there to speak on behalf of Blurb but is also a very talented artist), and of course my travel buddy Ben (Pinterest). With them, I was able to courageously approach Joy from Oh! Joy (Aaron was so red) and eventually make my way over to Maxwell of Apartment Therapy (who, btw, I had a a big Alt crush on). It’s comforting to know that he probably doesn’t remember the slightly tipsy little Latina girl that was stumbling over her words and staring way too wide-eyed at him. Maxwell, if you ever read this, will you consider my apartment for your next Apartment Therapy book? It’s worth a shot, right?

Lesson 2: Everyone has someone that makes them nervous. Generally, most people are actually quite approachable. Trust in your friends to get you through the uncomfortable times.

The remainder of the time was a huge blur of excitement and inspiration. Keynote breakfast with Grace (Design Sponge), Heather (Dooce), Jean (NotCot), and Maxwell (Apartment Therapy)… inspiring! Panel after panel listening to my blogging heros talk about how they do it… inspiring! Lunch with DJ Earworm… inspiring! Wait, this is starting to sound like that Priceless Mastercard campaign. Maybe because I actually got to hang out in the Alt Lounge having casual conversation about the time I lived in Berlin with Jeroen Bours, genius marketer and creator of the “Priceless” campaign! And yes, chatting about Europe in a beautiful room with Jeroen Bours… PRICELESS!! Did I mention I stopped in the doorway on my way out to chat (again) with Jean Aw and she actually remembered a post I had contributed to NotCot? Priceless! (geeking out again)

Lesson 3: Opening yourself up to inspiration can help you do things you never imagined you would and sometimes, you can even inspire yourself.

I have to say, some of the best experiences I had at Alt took place during the downtime. The little moments in between chatting with some of the most interesting people I have ever met, the dinner I had with my Alt clique, the evening I spent sitting in the lobby with my new friends listening to an awesome string quartet playing Kids by MGMT, and the conversations in the hotel’s Gibson Girl Lounge. I got to share a cab to the airport with Joy from Oh! Joy and laugh THE ENTIRE way home with Victoria of sfgirlbybay (I think we were high on Alt) and my amazing friend Ben whose energy and brilliance inspires me everyday. Ben, btw, won the ultimate grand prize of the weekend… drumroll… a trip back to Salt Lake City! Awesome.

Lesson 4: Always enjoy the little moments in between. They’re the BEST!

Thank you to all the hard-working, kind and generous people that made Altitude Design Summit possible. This experience was exactly what I needed to finally make some big decisions and commitments to my own business, LAMA. My newfound motivation has enabled me to make some enormous progress since I have been back to work. I have finally made the decision to take LAMA in a new and amazing direction (details to come at another time).

I can’t wait to go back to Alt next year!

Lesson 5: If you think it might be worth doing, DO IT.

** all photos taken from the Altitude Design Summit flickr page Next year I’ll bring a camera! **

Adorable video sent over by the lovely Sara Jensen. (Btw, check out this awesome project Sara was a part of on Design Sponge today here. OMG! I just realized that I’m going to be that girl that everyone buys llama paraphernalia for. Good thing I love it all!

I was recently introduced by the incredible Sara Jensen of Lost Bird Found to the most stunning blog belonging to Riley, an incredibly talented textile designer, ceramicist, and photographer. Roe is full of Riley’s gorgeous photography which has the most tactile quality to it. I just want to reach out and grab her work. I especially LOVE her gorgeous photography from Peru. It really takes me back to my own time in South America, walking around the Andes trying to snap shots of the gorgeous Alpaca. Oh, to be there again…

Check out this MUST see blog here.