happy weekend

It's going to be a rainy and snuggly weekend. I hope to spend most of it cuddled up right here...



from here

feet first

i wish i was brave enough to jump into things feet first...
these days i've been operating more like this....
i'm beginning to realize that sometimes all the planning and organization in the world is no good. you just need to dive in....

tabletop menagerie

oh jonathan, you never cease to amaze me....


from here

our wedding: DIY menus + napkins

From the very beginning i knew exactly what flowers and containers I wanted to use to dress up our tables. I was so excited about the natural beauty of the succulents juxtaposed against the pops of yellow from the billy balls. but hadn't put much thought into the rest of the table - thank god for Meg from La Partie Events. During one of our many idea-a-thons Meg asked what we were doing to add color to the table. white table cloths, white plates - oh geez it will be a sea of white! i love color. i crave color. this has to be fixed!

a few weeks later i was intent on sewing our own napkins using a mod yellow patterned fabric. thank god for etsy. after hours of scouring countless sites, i found a lovely fabric seller who had just what i needed. days later i had 28 yards of fabric waiting on my front step. yikes. thankfully my mom and MIL are talented at the helm of a sewing machine - AND very generous with their time. between the three of us, we stitched 100 lovely and homemade napkins for our wedding reception.



next up was the menu design. i wanted to keep it simple and clean. no need to compete with those spectacular napkins! just a dab of chevron and lots of yellow and we had a menu.



my favorite part of the entire package is the twine that ties it all together. my husband was never a boy scout, but you'd never guess it from his love of knots. he actually spent a summer making his way through a knot tying book - in his twenties! i'd say it's the engineer in him wanting to know the best knot for any given situation. with his expertise in the area, i enlisted him to create our "love knot" napkin rings - all 100 of them. he's taking a break from his knot hobby these days, i think he got his fill.

i love how so many people contributed to this part of the day. from Meg's advice, to our moms' sewing skills, to my design, to topher's knots - it was truly a labor of love.


I think ben liked them too.

photos by erinheartscourt

yes, please

ok, now i need a personal hideaway. this is one part whimsy, one part rock n roll. love love.

sinfully delicious

ok ok i know i'm a flats girl, but this new louboutin ad campaign could make a convert of me.


christian louboutin teamed up with a world renowned still life photog to create these decadent scenes. preciously fierce shoes surrounded by a bevy of colorful sweets? could be this girl's unexpected dream come true.

via

photo love.1

the hubby and i spent TWO nights going through pictures from our wedding. Erin and Courtney of erinheartscourt posted an amazing 1250 photos (!!!) - each one better than the next. it's amazing how magical photographs can be in transporting you back to that exact moment in time.

i really love the sentiment captured in this photo: the casual comfort of our gait, the way topher is holding up my dress, it's just so us and so lovely. we have so many amazing shots like this and i'll be sharing MANY more in the days to come.

our wedding: invitation inspiration

as someone who's always been obsessed with design and all things paper, i was really excited about designing the invitation suite for our wedding. invites are a visual sneak peek at the look and tone of the wedding. i wanted our invites to represent our "modern organic" theme and get our guests excited about the big day!

i scoured the nets for inspiration, and quickly found it in the expressive and charming work of linda & harriet. her chevron invites blew me away and i knew it would be a perfect graphical element not only for our invites but throughout the look of our wedding.


equally enamored by the floral "stamps" throughout much of her work - i was determined to use a succulent "stamp" on our invites. a designer friend helped assemble the design and created the succulent stamp, transportation icons, and a direction map.


to mix things up a bit i added a modern gray graphic to the back of the main invite tied them all up in natural twine and packed them in kraft paper envelopes emblazoned with the same succulent stamp.



with all the pressure I put on these things, i really think they embody the perfect expression of "modern organic".

all gorgeous photos of our invites courtesy of erin hearts court

Once Wed - lookin' good!

i'm just in love with the redesign over at Once Wed. It's so modern and lovely: two of my very favorite things!

Once Wed was an amazing source of inspiration and eye candy when I was planning my own wedding. So you can imagine how excited I was when Emily wrote to tell me they'd be featuring our day in their Real Weddings section!


Emily, the site looks amazing. I'm excited to see what's to come...

words.2

via hijirik studio

artist retreat weekend

full of sunshine, happiness and artistic inspiration, the ace hotel proved to be the perfect home for the first of many "Artist Retreat" weekends. in our pursuit of furthering our collective creative passions, we somehow managed to combine productivity with pleasure.

we approached the weekend with a certain degree of discipline. since palm springs generally = the perfectly lazy weekend for me, this was crucial to our goals. we arrived friday around 6:30 and discussed our schedule and hopes for the coming days - this pow wow involved a few delicious cocktails poolside of course! much like summer camp we mapped out everything: like when we'd work, when we'd meet up to critique/brainstorm/discuss our collective works, and when we'd shut down our lap tops and have some fun. we even planned for "lights out" at 11PM - creativity, much like beauty needs it's sleep. over dinner at the deliciously fresh King's Highway we bubbled with excitement and anticipation of two entire days dedicated to our side passion projects.


Saturday morning we took our coffee on a little walk-about around the hotel grounds. i was delighted by all the nooks and crannies hidden throughout. around 10am we split up to get to work. i settled in at a table under the canopies by the pool. for the next 6 hours i worked tirelessly designing the look & personality for a new project i'm working on (hush hush for now, but i will share the details shortly!) - finding inspiration in everything from the mountain view to the eclectic mix of guests milling around. as we worked, critiqued, brainstormed, worked, shared, sipped champagne and worked, our creative energies came to life and brought forth a fountain of ideas and a sense of new found purpose.


the weekend proved uber successful: i left with a clear vision for my new "brand", jaime made great strides in completing a book proposal based on her blog, and erin (who took my breath away with her poetic and heart-stingingly honest song lyrics - truly amazing) continued to write.


we all came away thoroughly energized by our experience. as creative women with full time jobs, it's not often we have the freedom of time to tap into this part of ourselves. it was both eye opening and exhilarating. but also a bit heartbreaking knowing it was only a temporary hiatus from our everyday. thankfully, we're already looking forward to artist's retreat weekend part two...perhaps we can even open it up to other women looking to tap into their dormant creative spirit!

happy weekend

i'm off to palm springs with my girlfriends! we're going to the ace hotel & swim club (swoon) for our first ever "Artist's Retreat Weekend". we'll be spending an entire weekend dedicated to our side passion projects - a book proposal, song writing, and creative design. the ace hotel feels perfect for our purposes - it's a funky, stylish commune full of personality and creative inspiration. plus, they serve spiked sno-cones by the pool!

wish us luck! i'll be posting lots of pics of our experience on monday.

photo love art project!

post wedding i had a TON of metal ikea planters on my hands left over from our placecards/favors. what to do? art project? yes, please! we'd been trying to come up with ways to showcase our A-MAZING engagement photos without making our apartment look like an ode to ourselves. i mean we'd wallpaper every room in them if we could. I loved the banged up metal contrasted against the bright, sunshiny feel of the images and inspiration struck.

the hardest part was choosing which of the images to use. then it took just a bit of crafty fun



and voila! mini photo blocks.

our wedding: DIY pom pom splendor

early in the days of our wedding planning i knew i wanted a festive, fun, playful end to our ceremony. i was so excited when i visited Once Wed and saw this gorgeous image - i knew then we'd be spending the next 6 months crafting hand made pom poms in our wedding colors! my MOH made the trek to Michael's to find out how the heck to make pom poms. We found this amazing invention and there was no looking back.
after enlisting the help of said MOH, fiance, and mother-in-law we had 800+ pom poms ready for the pelting.

next, we needed to make the cones. i bought a roll of kraft paper at staples and made a pattern to cut out the shape of the cone. topher helped with cutting out the shapes, and i glued and stuck on the labels i designed. the night of my bridal shower we had a little factory going - you can see it really was a family affair!


after all the work we put into this tiny moment of the wedding i absolutely ADORE how it turned out. the best part was i completely forgot about the little pom poms until they started flying at us. it was such a fun, magical moment.


oh, and we also made a pom pom string for the aisle so no one would trample Meg's amazing petal design.

hotdogs and babycakes

during our "mini-moon" topher and i took a little bike ride to the palm springs art museum to see the Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting exhibit. i've always enjoyed Thiebald's whimsical food paintings (especially those cupcakes), but his use of color is what struck me as we spent more time with his work. from lollipops to hotdogs to landscapes each painting is both vibrant and subdued all at once. he magically layers color like frosting and brings life to the most inanimate of objects. amazing.



we got in trouble for taking this one...but i couldn't resist the hotdogs.


randomly, this painting used to live in my old office. our president is an avid collector and we were lucky enough to be surrounded by a rotating collection of art. he's since retired and had donated the collection to the palm springs art museum.

dear husband....

please make this for me.

from home sweet home

photo booth it: meet the photogs

ok, confession...topher and i are OB-SESSED with our photographers. seriously obsessed. besides the fact that they are obscenely talented and creative they are just a damn good time. these pictures prove it. don't worry court and erin, i'll prove your awesomeness in MANY posts to come. promise.

words.1

via wordboner