My first tag!

Yay! I am such a dork, but I'm very excited about this. I was tagged by Heather of We Met in a Bar (which is where I met my husband, so I happen to love the name). I'm not really sure if I'm doing it right, but here it goes...

4 things I did today~

1. Had both a plumber and an electrician at my house to suck money out of me and do some much needed work. :) Geez...haven't they heard the economy is bad? 

2. Planned a bit of my New Year's Day brunch open house (I know...I plan everything really early).

3. Generally hung around and played on my computer while the electrician and plumber worked, so I've had a pretty uneventful day so far. I did find some new envelopes that I really like via The Scoop.

4. Went and picked up dd's carpool. 

4 Things on my To-Do list:

1. Go see the press that I'm going to buy. They keep having to reschedule, so I won't believe it until I'm there, but I'm supposed to go tomorrow. I'm so excited and will have pictures of her asap!

2. Put up shelves and arrange my work space, so that I can have a fun, inspirational place to work. I also need to clean out our basement and buy a large work table and some other things to use with my press. I want to make a homasote bulletin board, but can't find homasote anywhere in town. I'm thinking about making it out of drywall instead.

3. learn to play tennis

4. Start cooking more now that it's getting cooler. It's a bitch to cook in the heat of the summer here in AL.

4 of my guiltiest pleasures:

1. happy hour. I love drinks on the patio of our favorite restaurant.

2. Gossip Girl/One Tree Hill/ Road Rules-Real World challenges~ in other words...bad, but good tv.

3. Bravo shows

4. Expensive purses

4 random things you probably didn't know about me:

1. I used to be a cook for a living, but never went to culinary school, so I don't call myself a chef.

2. but I can't bake to save my life.

3. I love music! I have everything from The Allmans to Etta James to Snoop Dog to Booker T and the MG's on my iPod. 

4. I'm an only child and I don't have any cousins either! 

Now that I'm done, I tag:

Courtney from Under a Paper Moon

Joslyn from Simple Lovely

Kristina from Lovely Morning

Letterpress goodness...

{found this here, bride designed}

and an interesting article too! 

This article talks about the value of letterpress education is the design world and how most schools aren't offering it anymore. It's timely since I'm considering a move back to school to get a B.A. or a B.F.A. in Graphic Design and Printmaking at a local university. I'm very lucky because not one, but three local schools (University of Alabama, UAB (Birmingham) and Birmingham-Southern Collage) have very developed printing programs and UA (in Tuscaloosa) is one of the leading programs in Book Arts in the nation apparently. Enjoy!

Yes, please!

I'm in the process of deciding on whether or not to go back to school {I promise I'll share everything that's been going around here this week} and how great would this be for a laptop/book bag? Currently I use a ridiculous LV purse for a laptop bag and it kills my shoulder when it's heavy. For an extra $10, you can make the strap adjustable and wear it like a messenger bag. Yay! Moop makes a couple of more styles and I love them all. Check them out!

{here via here}

How cute is this?

OMG, how cute is this? They call it Persian Fairy Floss (it's fancy cotton candy) and it's just about the cutest thing I've seen. How cute would it be for a little girl tea party or a very sweet bridal/baby shower? Love it! I love the design on the box as well. 

What beautiful eyes...

{Paul Newman 1925-2008}

Maaaartha

Wouldn't these make the best favors for a Halloween wedding? I love Maaartha!

Font Love

I'm still on my blog break, but I found a new fun font on Veer tonight that I wanted to share. It's called Plumero and was designed by Diego Giaccone. He designed it using a calligraphy pen and looks really close to the real thing. I happen to think it would look great used on some letterpress notecards. Hmm...I smell a project coming up, Maybe it'll be my first. My best friend's name looks great in the 3rd example I think. Did I mention that it was only $39? Yay!

a little down time...

Here are some of my favorite looks from the Emmy Red Carpet. I'm taking a break for a couple of days, but I'll be back by the end of the week! Have a good week!

If only I were taller...and richer. Oh and super skinny. Beautiful.

On the road again...

We're going to Atlanta today to go to Ikea in search of this...

{from here}

It's the Stolmen and it's great! I'm in the process  of  making our front room (which is our formal-ish living room) into a work space/meeting area/ living room for my future business (I'm almost an LLC. Whooo hooo). So, even though these are supposed to be used in a closet, I've decided that they would make great bookshelves/storage for me. What do you think? I also just love a trip to Ikea, so we should have fun and come home a lot lighter in our bank account. Wish me luck!

Look what I got!!

I am the queen of lists! I make them for everything, but never quite get all the way through them. Now I have something to write them on that is fit for royalty. I'm hoping they'll actually help me get som stuff done! This little notepad (it's actually loose paper with that cute little clip on it) is letterpressed and so cute. It came from Suann at SimpleSong. I love them, but they might be too perfect to use. 

{Aren't they cute?}

{Now I want a set of these!}

{photos from here}

Candy Boy...or girl

Love this picture from Rebecca Thuss

Paper Goodness...

I'm going to meet with the guy who I'm buying the press from today and hang out around his studio! I'm so excited! So, before I leave here's a quick little post about....letterpress. What else? 

I found these on the blog of Linda and Harriet, a line of wonderful letterpress stationary and invitations.  They're out of NYC, I believe, but this weekend their in LA at the Emmy's gifting suite. How cool is that? Anyway, this was for a couple that really wanted letterpress, but couldn't afford the prices that went along with it, so the sweet ladies at L&H took two of their stationary pieces and used them to make the invitation! How sweet is that? I love that they were willing to work with the client to achieve their dream for their budget. Very cool of them. Go buy something from them to reward their kindness!

My girl..

 I got this today from a friend who took it this summer. I can't believe that was only 3 months ago. She looks years older than that now. Our sweet girl turned 4 in June and has started PreK this year. Where does the time go?

I just couldn't resist sharing this picture. Sorry.

Yummy Gilt Groupe finds...

Ah Carolina... so so cruel. All sold out!

Calligraphy on the cheap...

I totally understand that calligraphy isn't in everybody's (or even most) budgets, but for a small amount of money and a lot of work (it is NOT easy to use a printer to address envelopes) you can have great looking envelopes and all the little details you might want just by downloading a beautiful font. All of the fonts before were found on veer.com and range between $40-$99. These are some of my favorites, but for these 5, there must be 500 more I love and that's only on one site! 

{Debonair}

{BurguesScript}

{Riva}

{Feel Script}

Jenna Hein

I posted some of her work here, where she did the lovely envelopes and some parts of the actual invitation. Jenna is another one of those super talented women from Brooklyn (it must be in the water) and I've got to say she's probably my current favorite calligrapher after seeing the work she did for Kristina. She's actually going to do the lettering for my soon-to-be other blog and etsy store banners, plus the text and envelopes for my Christmas cards. I'm really excited. 

{birth announcement}

{envelope}

{envelope}

{invitation}

{banner on Jenna's blog}

Betsy Dunlap

I've shared her work before, but I'm going to do it again, because she rocks! Instead of her typical samples that she has on her website, I'm going to share pictures from her blog. These pictures are examples of different ways to incorporate hand-lettering into your events and your everyday life/business. 

{this is my sample pack that I found on her website. It caught me off guard to see my name!}

{this was a STD that the couple turned into the front page of their wedding website}

{darling little bottles of limoncello for wedding favors with Betsy's artwork on the label}

{her fabulous letterpress business card. I have one and it's beautiful}

{front page of her soon-to-be launched website}

Hand-Lettering...

In honor of the calligraphy class that I'm taking during my Year of Enrichment (more of that later) and because I'm tired and can't think of anything else to post today, I'm going to share samples from my favorite calligraphers through out the day. They're all insanely talented and no two styles are the same. It's such a personal way to wrap up invitations that I'm sure you've spent tons of time on already. I'm also going to include some different ways that people have used hand-lettering that you might not have thought of. If you have a favorite calligraphy that I've missed, please send me their info. I'm obsessed!

Enjoy...

Ugly free chair + great fabric= Fantastic

I've had Studio Bon on my mind for about a year, ever since Jordan blogged about it. Now that I'm ready to recover an old chair from my parent's house and make a homasote inspiration board for my office/living room, I can finally order some!! Yay! Aren't they great? Bonnee designs them and then they're all hand silkscreened in her workshop in Dallas. I can hardly pick just one! 

{Ellen}

{Bellows}

{Oodles}

{This actually looks a lot like the chair I'm redoing}

{other good uses for this great fabric}

Birthday Party Inspiration

Lillie's birthday isn't until next summer, but since before her birthday this year, I've been planning on having a Candy Land/Candy themed party and this picture is now my inspiration for Lillie's party. In fact, Amy Atlas's website is full of wonderful pictures of dessert tables and candy bars. 

Non-Bridesmaid Bridesmaids Dresses...

None of these are technically bridesmaid's dresses and maybe that's why I like them. Very cute dresses from the best store EVER. 

{This is a dress that you really could wear again...and again and again! Love a LBD!}

{This one also comes in a navy, which would be very cute for a preppy wedding!}

{This is my favorite. It also comes in a light grey! Yummy!}