This week it is mostly illustration links. I went through my old bookmarks, and I found a tons of websites I hadn’t visited in years. Half of them were dead links, one fourth seemed a bit dated, but the last 25% is still going with tons of gorgeous work. Check them out!

1. Check out bookofbadarguments.com. This website is new and not from my long-lost archive, but I had to include it in this post. A super neat website where you can read through the entire book of bad arguments. It will tell you how to debate in a proper way. Neat text combined with awesome illustrations. Worth a visit.
2. If you love geometrical craft projects, head over to minieco.co.uk. I especially liked this free diamond template.
3. More beautiful paper crafts from essimar.blogspot.com. I have been following this blog for years. Simple and pretty, always inspirational.
4. Incredible paper-cuts from petercallesen.com. I don’t get how he does it. Mind-blowing detail.
5. Illustration work from byhanna.com. Pretty and wonderful, light and Scandinavian.
6. Awesome illustrations from yellena.com. I just want to draw, draw, draw when I look at her illustrations.
7. Super-intricate qulling-illustrations artyulia.com. God, how beautiful. No words. I wish that her website was better, because her work is awesome. Why do all the best artists have mediocre websites? I would love loved to see bigger pictures to really enjoy the intricate details.
8. Paper sculptures from carlogiovani.com. Neat!
9. Gorgeous paint and line art combined from danielegneus.com. Gah. Beautiful.
10. Geometrical illustrations from mayahayuk.com. Super neat and just beautiful. I love geometric art.

A couple of weeks back Tokyo got the best of me, and I headed to IKEA for a nostalgic plate of meatballs and gravy with my friend. Delicious!

Apart from IKEA – here is a homemade salad + a couple of pictures from a quiet neighborhood walk. I am still amazed with all the wires on the poles in Tokyo, I can’t understand there are not more people being electrocuted on a regular basis. Jeez.

I went to The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately it is not allowed to take pictures inside this museum, but I managed to snap a couple of pictures outside the museum. I haven’t been here for five years, but finally I had an opportunity to go back there a couple of weeks ago thanks to 黒キッキ! It was super nice to actually see the museum again.

(Just one. I was walking from Keio University to Hiroo. Took me about 35 min in 35 degree weather with high humidity a week or two ago. Way to warm, but the park was gorgeous.)

I saw these amazing pieces of jewelry from Sparkle Beast Designs, and I just had to share. Aren’t they magical? I want one.

Ladies and gents, I present to you; Timmins, Ontario! (Don’t ask me why I am here. Long story. Let’s call it a holiday.) At the moment it is a whooping 7 degrees celsius here, which is quite different from the 36 degree weather I left back in Tokyo. In any case – Timmins life is probably as opposite of Tokyo life as I could get at this point, and it is just what I need. Tokyo life was going faster and faster, so what better remedy than going to a small town with 45.000 people in Northern Ontario. Life here is sloooooow (and I’m lovin’ it atm). Now, let me give you a tour of this fine little town and its eh… unique establishments.

…this is the airport…

…and this is downtown! They have karaoke in all parts of the world, it seems.

And this was taken right outside a Wal-Mart! Check out my exotic location! I am at a Wal-Mart! Now, for the North Americans reading this blog it is probably not very exciting with a Wal-Mart,  but we don’t have those things in Scandinavia, nor in the middle of Tokyo. I even saw the electric wheelie-cart-thingies for overweight and disabled people at the entrance, but I was told you need a special license to drive one of those. (Is that true? In that case, what a bummer, I really wanted to try out one of those things.) I was ready and excited to experience some real North-American culture! And oh boy, the sizes of food here is insane. Everything comes in twelve-packs and bags weighing in at several kg. This wouldn’t have worked in Japan. Where would we store all of the food after we bought it? My trip to Wal-Mart ended with me being excited to the point where I forgot to take pictures inside the Wal-Mart. Oh well. Next time.

And here we have… uh… empty space? Oh Cananda(!), and all of your space! And cars. And a factory in the background. Scenery is complete!

I am please to show you little golden gems like “The Pita Pit” and “Joanne’s art and gift centre”. I don’t think I have ever seen more terrible typography mashed together in one place. This is not all bad though. It is kind of like the Eurovision Song Contest, there is so much ugly it kind of implodes and turns out to be a pretty exotic and funky sight. I am sure Joanne at the “art and gift centre” agrees with me.

More taverns. I didn’t know they were that popular. I also realized that the only type of bars in this town are sport bars. What a refreshing change. I haven’t sat my foot in one of those in years. And if I were to get tired of the sport bars, I can always buy myself an edible fruit bouquet. After all, it is the perfect gift for any occasion. And advertising never lies. Not in Timmins.

Hey Norwegians! We have Vinmonopolet, but Ontario has THE BEER STORE. How can we compete with that?! That is like ten times cooler than the Norwegian Wine Monopoly. The Beer store has a wonderful logo which I doubt they have changed or renewed in at least 30 years. Beautiful. And well thought through advertising, with the phone number covered up by shrubbery.

Look, more space. And another beauty bar that will open soon. This town is booming. Ok. Maybe it isn’t. But this town is really charming, the people here are real, the barbecue parties are awesome, and people know how to party even harder than the Norwegians. And the best part is – I have time to sleep in. (Look! I actually look kind of fresh in the picture below!) Northern Ontario bliss.

Oh, hello there Toronto! Nice to finally see you again, even if it was only for 10 hours or so. I haven’t blogged for a couple of days, and part of the reason was because we bought a ticket with United Airlines. United, you broke my Taylor guitar! Ok, you didn’t. (You did break Dave Caroll’s guitar though, see video below.) But you did lose my luggage, hence no blogging for moi.

(We went from Tokyo through San Francisco, had to grab our bags and recheck them because that is the way ‘Murica works. So we rechecked them in San Francisco, and jumped on the plane to Toronto. Unfortunately, our luggage didn’t make it onto the plane. We waited at the airport in Toronto, hoping that United would follow neat rules of logic and send the luggage on the next plane to Toronto. They didn’t. This wouldn’t have been terrible, if it wasn’t for the fact that we were going on another flight to Northern Ontario the next morning. And I felt quite… unrefreshed after 24 hours of traveling with no access to clean clothes. Air Canada was nice enough to give us a small overnight kit which even had a deodorant stick. A lifesaver! Thank you Air Canada! In any case – lost luggage isn’t the worst thing in the world. I’ll survive.)