secrets from a stylist

I've been totally obsessed with HGTV Emily Henderson's blog as of late, I enjoy her quirky writing style and lovely resource lists for all the rooms she designs for her show Secrets From a Stylist. She is seriously talented and actually gives useful tips for styling our own rooms at home. And her unstuffy delivery is refreshingly un-HGTV!

It has been a great jump starter for me to rethink how I decorate and what choices I can make for our own home. Here's to starting small! So far this is what is on my list:

• Choose and purchase art for the dining room wall (I talked about that here)
• Find simple and classic lighting for our dining area
• Find a child-friendly storage ottoman to replace our wrought iron and wood coffee table UPDATE: We just scored ourselves a new cream tufted ottoman today! Yes!
• Find new drapery in a lighter color (currently we have wine colored velvet curtains)

So far I've been trolling good ol' Craiglist every single day just waiting for the right listings to come up (I have a few search terms that I always employ), and I do believe that good things come to those who wait ... and by the end of the summer I'm aiming to complete this decor to-do list! I only have a few weeks to go, so here's to getting myself going! Yay!

renegade craft fair sf 2011

2011 was my third year of attending the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco, and this year was exceptional! Lots of loveliness to look at, and it forced me to be very thoughtful about my purchases. Otherwise known as self-control! All in all, I love being inspired by other people's work. Don't you think to yourself - I wish I had been genius enough to think of THAT? That definitely rings true for the wooden alphabet bunting below by Figs and Ginger. I purchased some bunting for my daughter's room, two delicate gold and leather bracelets for myself, and a bicycle birdie screenprint for our home.

Other vendors featured: Thief and Bandit (jersey necklaces), Diament Designs (delicate bracelets), Strawberry Luna (cute and affordable screenprints)

designing away

Okay, I'm totally behind on blogging, but I'm going to do my best to keep it up -- at least weekly! Lots has been going on lately ... mostly by way of design projects that have been cropping up. I've had at least 1-2 a week! Exciting.

A baby shower invitation and decorations for the event, a wedding invitation, a t-shirt design for our church youth group, and the cover of a songbook! Fun fun fun. I can't show all of the designs here yet, but here are two:

a baby shower invitation for my best friend

a t-shirt design commissioned by our church youth group, art directed by me

I am loving the design process for these events - each idea is very organic, and sometimes I find myself getting an idea after a night of sleep. It's quite refreshing to see them come to fruition with some sketching and reworking. My little notebook is filled with ideas, and some of them may not become a reality, but I like that other projects ride on the wake of those little thoughts. Sometimes it's difficult to be consistently creative and challenge yourself to think out of the box, especially when there is so much swirling around the internet. I feel blessed that there is so much creativity spilling forth right now. More to come!

n is for ...

Love the daily typography put out by illustrator Jessica Hische. I'd love to purchase this as a print from her shop. And what does N stand for? Neat, Nice, New. Maybe you'll see more of this N later!

walk all over me + crisp white

We've been very busy spending the last 2 weeks getting our condo ready to list on the market and now it's up! I'm a bit sad, but also happy that we did it! To put some finishing touches on the house, I made some quick runs to Marshalls and TJ Maxx Home Goods for some accessories and other fun home decor items. I bought this cherry blossom coir doormat from Cost Plus World Market - even though I don't like coir! It sheds too easily. Does anyone have suggestions for cute alternatives? This one will do for now with it's cute simple blooms, but I am dreading the little pieces that are going to come off of it and litter my front porch!


And then I bought this adorable striped bath mat from Marshalls for $10 - with all the colors of our bathroom in it! Chocolate brown, seafoam green, bright white, and light turquoise with a pop of bright green. Super cute. I was on a mission for rugs, I think.

And to top it all off I bit the bullet and bought a great king sheet set for $30 in white -- which I was always hesitant to purchase for fear that it would get dirty, but they look crisp and clean. For the future, I will now always invest in some classic white sheets! I think my hesitancy stemmed from the advice my mother gave about not buying clothes, sheets or towels in white ...

We're waiting to see if anyone will bid on our place in this market, but I really do love our cozy home and will be sad to part with it. We'll see what happens!

g shower photos

Remember the invites I did earlier? The shower turned out beautifully and it was such a good time! The baby is coming any day now, so it's very exciting.

My friend Jasmin took some awesome photos to capture the day - it's wonderful to have someone taking photos when you aren't able to. She did a great job! The highlights of the party were the fun games we played and the sweet garland made of paper circles that were sewn together. And the oh-so-large balloons that are so popular now were perfect to fill our large wooded party area. Check out more photos here.

desktop wallpaper love: part deux

I'm using my own photo for my desktop wallpaper again, based on a few shots I took but didn't use for our collaborative photoblog assignment. I'm really enjoying it, especially with the lovely fabric background. So here it is, just click to see it a little bit larger.

The fabric is a hand screen printed remnant from Ink & Spindle, a studio in Melbourne, Australia. The lovely Lara Cameron who designed it gave it to me while we were visiting the studio back in March because I wanted to know if there was any more of this print. I love that it's so free form and simple. Just so sweet, really. Seeing their work space and meeting the designers/screen printers in person was a real treat as well, I love seeing the process. And they were so friendly too, which sometimes you don't find with other artists.

Melbourne was a great city and one of my favorite stops on our trip. I enjoyed the Royal Botanic Gardens, the craft and art scene, and the Queen Victoria Market. Here are a few photos from our trip there:

I miss it! Hope to go again!

weekend delights

This weekend was fun. We attended a friend's wedding, visited my parents and fiddled with my dad's vintage camera collection (film! love!), spent Sunday afternoon with friends, and then made a simple dinner of cold soba noodles to enjoy. I love the simple moments in a busy weekend. Here are a few photos:

The soba noodles were on sale at the Korean market and they were organic (asian organic, get out of here) - and the packaging was just so appealing to me. You can't see it in the small version (click to see it larger), but they were the most beautiful colors and had this metallic star pattern printed on the package. It's the little things that keep me inspired. What little things inspire you?

wonder foodie: food patterns

I saved this photo in my inspiration folder a while ago and just had to share it. I love the shapes and the graphic pattern of the lotus root. It's amazing that food can be so striking and pretty. Nice!

from jugalbandi blog

bike love by urban outfitters

In the last few years, it seems like everything old is new again -- fashion trends are coming back around (leggings, harem pants?!), crafts are returning to the old techniques (letterpress, screen printing by hand!) and old pastimes are being revisited. Urban Outfitters is jumping back in time by bringing a new spin to a favorite pastime, biking! They are partnering with Republic Bike to customize and build bikes. The colors are brilliant and the combinations are modern and vintage all at the same time. You pick the colors of the handlebars, seat, wheels, rims, chain, and frame - and you can make it look just like you want it for $399.


I have such fond memories of biking through my neighborhood with the wind blowing and my heart racing. We always had hand-me-downs but they were wonderful. So two years ago, I bought my first new bike. A pearl white Raleigh. Fun fun fun. Go check these fun bikes out in their gallery.

brought to you by the letter g

One of my old roomies from college (Lori) is pregnant with her first child, so Es and I got together to plan her a shower. It's coming up quickly, so we had to get invitations done in a hurry. Something economical and not typical "pastel baby shower" was in order.

I had lots of white cardstock at home, so it gave me a good starting point. I definitely felt inspired because we could come up with a very modern baby theme. Before designing anything, I like to come up with a color scheme first, so I visited one of my favorite websites, Adobe Kuler. This is a site that allows you to try out, browse, or create your own color palettes. It's so much fun! You can even upload a photo and it will give you a color scheme that draws upon the colors in the photo. This is a great tool for deciding on party colors, your house colors, or even fashion choices. Lori had wanted all ocean colors, so I came up with a few palettes for her to choose from by typing in the keywords "ocean" and "sea" in Kuler. This is the one we finally settled on:

To break it up a bit, I thought we should add some yellow accents for a pop of fun. So here is the simple design that plays on all these colors:Here is the logo close-up - I really loved all the colors overlapping one another with a kaleidoscope kind of effect, and the striped type made it fun and lighthearted. It came from Dafont.com and it's called Lane. A beautifully simple typeface with clean lines. The other font I used was Champagne and Limousines (what a name!).


Then I found some vellum envelopes on sale at Paper Source, and thought that they'd be neat if I printed on them, but the only problem would be privacy! I didn't want people to be able to read the address, so I came up with a paper cover of sorts so the logo could still peek through. Here are some other photos of the invitation:


Overall, I really hope that Lori and Chris like it and that it conveys their style. And there are lots of other fun goodies in store for the shower! Can't wait!

graphic grow poster

The clean lines and sweet color palette get this poster's message across. I really like that it's a tree, but not obviously so. And who doesn't need the reminder that we all need to grow a little? Only $14.95 for a 18 x 24 poster here.

from right brain terrain

spiros

Many times in the middle of the night, I'll lie awake and all these great ideas will come to my mind. Then I'll jot them in my notebook, so I won't lose them.

One of my recent ideas reminded me of spirographs, from when I was a kid, remember those? The graphic patterns they made as your pen or pencil went around and around the pieces? Sometimes if you drew too fast, the spiros would get all messed up, and you'd have to do it again. What a great toy it was. Hope I get to show you what I plan to do with these fun geometric shapes!

image via wikipedia