We’ve been slacking on the blog entries. The holidays got the best of us. But we got some r&r and we are getting ramped up for a super great year. Hold on. While you are waiting here is a kinda entertaining commercial for Delta baggage app. No we aren’t sponsored by Delta, but we love watching luggage get moved around. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Wilma Plaatjies & Rico Syster   R43, Jonkersrivier farm, Western Cape, South Africa

There isn’t much we don’t like about bikes, storytelling or South Africa. This shot is from a series of portraits taken of South Africans and their bikes and is included in what looks to be a really nice set of 3 books. It’s available on Kickstarter. Check out the full story here. Good stuff. We’re ordering our copies now.

RedCamper roadtrips often happen right here in the heart of our beloved Denver. We are estate sale junkies. Simply, there is no better place to find true vintage souvenirs, and this one is a GEM. Honestly, I’ve been looking for a cactus lamp for YEARS and this one was forlornly still sitting on a mid century modern credenza on the last hour of the last day of the sale. Better yet..the actual owner, Chuck, was sitting RIGHT THERE ON THE COUCH to tell the story of buying that lamp on a family trip to Yellowstone in 1961. He followed this story with a story of getting his first camera on this trip, a little Brownie, and happily snapping photos of his adverntures. Unfortunately those adventures were left on the table in a restaurant somewhere along the way. Sigh…someone has those photos though, I guarantee it. We might actually..let me go look now….anyway, thank you Chuck for the newest addition to our studio.

While we were in New York we made some friends with a letter press company by the name of Gilah Press that not only kicked ass in pressing letters and designs into paper, but also in selecting housing for their company to stay in. Way better job than RedCamper did, though we do have some good stories to tell of it. Whatever the case, check out these two panoramics by chief panoramic operator, Mark V. One is the view from the Gilah apartment, the other is Time Square where we almost got a little bit lost in translation. Or maybe that was just my feet hurting.

So, the plan was ship only what we absolutely had to, have some rugs delivered directly to the place we were staying, pack as much as we could in our booth props the red suitcases, and find the rest in NYC at a thrift store or two. Shouldn’t be too hard, we want what every thrift store is filled with..your grandparents 1970′s era bad furniture.

And thats were the adventure started….17 thrift stores, 4 trips to Ikea, 3 desperate phone calls and 4 emails to try to fix the mistakenly shipped pink (instead of red) rug situation, some frighteningly close miscalculation on wallpaper and a moist basement housing situation were the start of our booth adventure in NYC. Pictured here, compliments of our traveling correspondent Ross Evertson, are some of our finest finds..a sweet pair of shoes for Mark, a nice white shag from Ikea that was just a little bit too small, a kick ass white phone from the lovely lady at the antique store, and yes…the one and only thrift store find..that was located at exactly the first store we went to, the PERFECT side table.

Well. We did it. The RedCamper crew packed it all up in every red suitcase this side of the Mississippi and made our way to the big apple, New York City, for the National Stationary Show. We met some great people, ate at AppleBees, had some Juniors cheesecake, missed our trains, got lost, were almost hit by the infamous NYC Serial Penny Dropper in Rockefeller Center (where there was an amazing window display by Anthropologie..right up our alley), rode the Cyclone in Coney Island, toured a jewish bakery, visited Ikea (4 times), made some new friends, sold some cards and slept in the basement of a historically important mansion in Brooklyn. We have tons of stories (thanks to our traveling correspondent…not shown here) and photos coming..stand by.