our thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was amazing.  So much love + happiness + amazing food.  We discovered new recipes that we will surely be making a part of our own tradition.  Played games (i won!) Watched movies (how on earth did we wait so long to see The Hangover?!) And stuffed ourselves silly.  It was a lovely day full of fun memories I will cherish for a long time to come.  I am thankful.

In case you're curious....here's a peek at our delicious menu:
aromatic brined turkey
oatmeal stout gravy
apple + chestnut stuffing
spicy whiskey spiked cranberry compote
potato + apple + onion gratin
creamed spinach + parsnips
brown sugar autumn crisp with spiced cinnamon ice cream

thanks giving

It's just the two of us for Thanksgiving this year.  We planned to be with family + friends as always, but a few things happened and now it's just us.  It feels a bit strange, but also just a little bit exciting.  This is the first chance we have to create traditions as our own little family.  Traditions we'll instill in our someday kids.  I'm looking forward to spending a day of thanks with a man I owe so many thank yous to.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with an abundance of love, happiness, and good food!

well done you: Albert Exergian

I covet simplicity in design.  So i was totally in woo-ville when i came across these minimalist graphics by Albert Exergian.  He has so perfectly captured the essence of some of my very favorite shows with his simple but extremely iconic designs.

 found via fffffound

'tis the season to Craft Good Cheer!

Paige of Bash Eco Events and I have been busy little elves planning our fabulous holiday party and I'm thrilled to finally post our invite!

We're partnering up with some amazing sponsors to bring you a night of crafting, cocktails, cupcakes and cheer:  Holiday inspired crafting courtesy of Urban Craft Center (and benefiting the OPCC of Santa Monica), delicious comfort food from La Grande Orange and cuppielove, sustainable arrangements from succulentLOVE, serious imbibing thanks to Luscious Libations, 360 Vodka and Dry Soda, night grooves from DJ Nahchey, event photography captured by Raya Photography and giggle fests in our custom photo booth from Photobooth Love!  It's sure to be a fabulous evening and we hope to see all of our Los Angeles and SoCal friends there!  

please rsvp to: rsvp@bashecoevents.com as space is limited.

taste the rainbow

 

I know, i know Halloween's over and you're trying to squash your candy cravings.  But candy is pretty much a year round obsession for me, so you'll have to appease me.  Looks like photographer, Craig Kanarick has quite the sweet tooth too.  Afterall, he's been photographing candy for over 15 years.  I love these color studies he's created with candies of different sizes and textures.  They are so visually striking and look mighty good to eat!

Check out his site for more of his candy-inspired work.

http://www.rockmade.com/wall/

I have to go feed my inner sugar monster now.

via Saveur

drink me.

I had the great pleasure of designing these bridal shower invites for a very dear friend of mine who is getting married in January.  She's marrying a Brit and moving to England, so what better way to celebrate than hosting a ladies tea party?  The theme is inspired by a modern take on Alice in Wonderland.  It's going to be a splendid afternoond spent "down the rabbit hole" and I can't wait to share pictures of all of the fun things we have planned. 

it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....

had so much fun with this lady & this lady last night at the holiday book launch event for this lady. 

 

paige worked her magic and sprinkled the event with holiday cheer.  from the pretty little christmas tree to hands-on ornament crafting stations, I was loving my first foray into the holidays.  there's no looking back now, so, 'tis the season! I couldn't be looking forward to it more.

check out paige's blog in the coming days for more details on this snazzy event.

vote for me? yes, please!

hello lovelies!  i hope you enjoyed the weekend.  i myself am enjoying the chill in the air and my constant need to have Uggs on my feet.  I just love this time of year!

it's design challenge time over at minted again!  please support yes, please designs and head right over there to vote for my designs.  this time our challenge was to create a wedding invitation and corresponding RSVP card for special judge Kathryn Storke of Snippet & Ink.  I was thrilled to see she featured my "lovenest" design on her fabulous blog last week!

click here & here to vote for yes, please. 

 

Linnea + John's Wedding on Once Wed!

I am on cloud nine.  Just got back from wrapping the most amazing photo shoot in the desert.  I'm so excited to share that project with you at the end of the month.  In the meantime, the lovely Emily has made my day by featuring Linnea + John's wedding on OnceWed.

Linnea + John hosted friends and family to a modern and sophisticated affair at Campanile Restaurant.  Their guests enjoyed a pre-ceremony cocktail hour and mingled in the courtyard while the couple hid away upstairs.  After one of the shortest and sweetest ceremonies I've ever seen (it clocked in at 3 minutes, people!) guests enjoyed an amazingly delicious meal prepared by Mark Peel and his team.  And then it was time to party - their stylish guests hit the dance floor and rocked the night away.

I designed the florals and sweets table for their event.  Linnea loved the subtle color and textures of succulents, so we played them up throughout her decor.  My favorite piece is the seating card display we created.  My husband built a wooden box structure that I designed and filled with beautifully blooming succulents.  The tablescapes looked lovely with the succulent and dahlia centerpieces alongside small glass vases filled with single blooms on burlap runners. We cut and stained each wooden plaque before painting the table numbers by hand.

I designed a sweet and savory dessert table with everything from salted nuts to yummy caramels to peanut butter filled pretzels.  Custom gooco'd bags acted as favors for guests to take home their favorite treats.

it was a lovely evening with a fun couple.  thank you Linnea + John for making yes, please and succulentLOVE a part of it all!  xo

Joshua Tree or Bust!

 

You're Such a WILD THING!

I've almost made it through another Halloween:  The cuppies are baked and packed up for delivery and tomorrow night we've got a Halloween party to attend (STILL no clue what i will be).  Then  we're packin' up the ol Prius and heading to Josua Tree for this photo shoot I've been all sorts of giddy about.  I'm FINALLY collaborating with this brilliant lady to design a bachelorette party for UtterlyEngaged.  Our Where the Wild Things Are inspired celebration is sure to knock your socks off....i mean, what's better than a night in the desert with your best girlfriends, a bottle of whiskey and feather head pieces? Check out our inspiration board above, it teases at some of the clever things we've got planned. 

Uggs, check.  Flask, check.  Fire dance, check.  See the rest of you lovely ladies in Josua Tree.  xo

I Vant to Eat a Cuppie...

cookin' up some scary halloween treats.

just married

jaime snapped this photo last weekend at the ace hotel in palm springs.  fabulous, isn't it?  i imagine these paper pinwheels were somehow part of this couple's wedding decor and repurposed for their getaway car.  genius.  and those colors?  me thinks orange and gray is the new yellow and gray.  le sigh.

ah, the sky is falling!

 It's crazy windy outside.  Tree branches falling down, windows banging, dirt flying everywhere kind of windy.  So,here's a much needed dose of serenity.  the kind of serenity you can only get dangling from an elephant...

 

 

i needed that.


photography by elisabeth toll via {a glamorous little side project}

getting crafty

I've been up to my ears in design work and preparing for the upcoming UtterlyEngaged photo shoot next week - and loving every minute.  It's not every day you get to surround yourself with such fun, creative, fabulous ladies: Paige at Bash Eco Events, Courtney of ErinHeartsCourt, Alli from The Dry Bar, the girls at Fiore Beauty.  Insane, right?  It's going to be a blast. 

Who knew work could be this fun! 

one of those days

i'm having one of those days that's filled with high highs and low lows.  Does that make today a wash?  Or just a cruel from the universe.  Who knows.  What i do know is i LOVE these posters from Because Studio I saw featured on designworklife this week.  And they couldn't be more appropriate than today.  half empty or half full?  sometimes it's just both people!

 

creating a place of your own

i always love taking a peek at people's workspaces.  you can tell a lot about a person by how much of their personal life they allow to seep into their professional environment.  from framed photos on a desk, to many years worth of accumulated post it notes - these are artifacts that tell the story of who inhabits that space.  check out these gorgeous (and at times haunting) photographs by artist joseph o. holmes.  he captures "the quasi-private spaces people carve out of their public work lives" with great respect and purity.  what have you done to personlize your own workspace?

Scarlet's First Cuppie

Remember a couple weeks ago when Jaime and Miss Scarlet came over for a visit and left with somedelicious red velvet cuppies?  Well, apparently it was love at first bite - Miss Scarlet LOVES her cuppies.  I mean, LOOOOOOVES.   See for yourself....


Scarlet's First Cuppie from kelly robinson on Vimeo.

Scarlet, dear, auntie Kelly promises there are plenty more cuppies to be had in your little life, so please do your mommy a favor and eat your soup first.

A Scary Good Time

I'm not a big fan of Halloween.  I don't like dressing up.  I get embarrassed for girls who think donning a "sexy Harry Potter" costume is cute.  I prefer to stay home dressed in my Pjs snuggled up next to my hubby.  But this year I'm down right giddy about the morbid holiday.  Why, you ask?

I am collaborating on a super chic Halloween party with one of my very favorite people - Paige from Bash Eco Events!  There will be no flying ghosts or automated plastic decorations in sight.  You see, Paige is a Halloween-hater as well - so we're bound to class up the cheesiest of holidays.

After a wine and fun-filled planning session yesterday we set to creating our inspiration boards this morning.  It came as no surprise that our boards turned out scarily similar.  Check out Paige's version here.  Let's just hope our client likes what we've come up with.  I'm walking straight out if he asks where we're putting the smoking bowl of punch.

The Great Pizza Cook Off

The mister and I are huge fans of cooking shows of any kind.  We dutifully tune in to Top Chef every week and enjoy the occassional episode of Chopped.  I think it's our undying love of good food, and the passion that these "cheftestants" put into every meal they create.  plus, it's just plain fun to critique their choices and roll our eyes anytime one of the chefs gets too cocky - a sure sign they will be given the boot 40 minutes later.  Anyways, after our lovely weekend of nesting and enjoying home we wanted to cook in our kitchen after a very looooong dry spell of mostly frozen meals and carry out.  what better way to re-awaken our kitchen that with a cook-off Top Chef style?

Here are the rules.  This round (there will be many more of these to come) was all about pizza.  We each had twenty minutes to run around Whole Foods to gather our ingredients.  Originally we said we had $20 to spend, but we both went over by a couple dollars (we'll get better at this in time).  At home we split the kitchen table in half with some masking tape and laid out our ingredients.

And then with 45 minutes on the clock we imagined Padma saying, "Your time begins...NOW!"  And we were off.  First, tossing and rolling out the pizza dough.  oil on the pan for me.  a buttered pan for the mister.  things got hectic there at the end.

voting worked this way.  5 points for taste.  5 points for presentation.  5 points for creativity.  and up to 5 points deducted for time (1 pt per minute over the allotted 45).

the results?

chris took 2nd place with his bacon, corn and crispy onion pizza.  he had a bit of a timing issue (no surprise there) and lost a good chunk of points.

and, me, the non-cook won with my balsamic fig, prosciutto and gorgonzola pizza topped with arugula salad!  yippee!!