If it were 73 degrees and sunny out today I would wear this outfit. Instead I'm wearing sweats and a sweater and trying to ignore the gray rain out my window.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sarah Richardson
If you haven't watched Design Inc. on the Fine Living channel, you must start watching NOW! Before I left Ithaca I DVR'd all of the episodes and had a Sarah Richardson marathon. I literally watched hours and hours of her show and I even got the hubby into it as well. The premise is simple. Sarah Richardson is a Toronto-based interior designer and she works with her clients to transform ho-hum spaces into absolutely gorgeous, livable rooms. But don't confuse her with the generic HGTV designers. She has impeccable taste and never misses a beat. In fact, I don't think I've ever disliked one of her rooms. The other great thing is that you see her sourcing the fabrics, visiting the vendors and scavenging flea markets for the perfect items to make the rooms come together. By watching you discover that design is a process and it takes patience and tenacity to see it through. Mostly I watch because her design sensibility is brilliant- clean and classic with an outstanding eye for colors and textures.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Erin & Matt's Wedding
I had the pleasure of helping my good friend Erin with some of her wedding stationery. She has fabulous taste and it was a wonderful collaboration all around.
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We started off with the save the date. She came up with the concept and I designed it. The pictures were taken by Erin and were representative of each stage in their relationship. They met at the beach, the piano bar is one of their favorite date night spots, the heart cloud is a picture from a vacation in Paris and the bench is in the park where Matt proposed. Erin had them printed and on semi glossy paper and cut at Staples and we rounded the edges with a paper punch.
A few months later I did Erin's wedding invitation calligraphy. She wrote a cute post about it here.
We threw the bride-to-be a bridal shower and I created the favors: cute bud vases with a personalized tag.
Her cousin, Robbie, designed the beautiful wedding invitations and we carried the theme throughout.
I created the goodie bags for the wedding favors by designing a sticker from the monogram Robbie designed on the invitation. They were printed on adhesive paper and punched out with a round 2 inch hole punch. We stuck them onto white paper bags and trimmed the top off with pinking shears to give it a finished edge.
Finally I designed the wedding program for the hotel bags. The cover was based off of the invitation and we used the same fonts. We printed them double sided on 8 1/2 by 11 and folded them in half vertically.
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We started off with the save the date. She came up with the concept and I designed it. The pictures were taken by Erin and were representative of each stage in their relationship. They met at the beach, the piano bar is one of their favorite date night spots, the heart cloud is a picture from a vacation in Paris and the bench is in the park where Matt proposed. Erin had them printed and on semi glossy paper and cut at Staples and we rounded the edges with a paper punch.
A few months later I did Erin's wedding invitation calligraphy. She wrote a cute post about it here.
We threw the bride-to-be a bridal shower and I created the favors: cute bud vases with a personalized tag.
Her cousin, Robbie, designed the beautiful wedding invitations and we carried the theme throughout.
I created the goodie bags for the wedding favors by designing a sticker from the monogram Robbie designed on the invitation. They were printed on adhesive paper and punched out with a round 2 inch hole punch. We stuck them onto white paper bags and trimmed the top off with pinking shears to give it a finished edge.
Finally I designed the wedding program for the hotel bags. The cover was based off of the invitation and we used the same fonts. We printed them double sided on 8 1/2 by 11 and folded them in half vertically.
Having a consistent theme through colors, fonts and designs ties all the special elements of a wedding together. It is an easy way to make your wedding memorable and distinctive.
Congratulations Erin and Matt... it was a beautiful wedding!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Best. Sandwich. Ever.
I'm obsessed with bacon, as most of my friends know. It is one of the single, most satisfying foods out there... crispy, salty, melt in your mouth yummy goodness. I make a killer BLT sandwich. My secret? Cooking the bacon in the oven at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Lay the bacon out in a single layer on cookie racks over a foil lined (easy clean up) baking sheet so that the grease can drip down. Then sprinkle some brown sugar over the bacon so that it will melt and caramelize over the top. This method creates flat, perfectly crisp, caramelized bacon that is killer in a BLT. You know how to do the rest.
Library Card Shower Invitations
These are some shower invitations that I designed for my friend's cousin. The bride is a school librarian (hence, the library card and school theme) and her fiance is a drummer. Their style is relaxed and non-traditional so I chose kraft paper cards and envelopes to give it a more casual look. I ordered the library cards from Paper Valise and the names were stamped with individual letter stamps in red ink. I made the card holders by hand from manila folders. The pattern can be found here. I designed the card layout in InDesign, printed them out on adhesive paper and rounded the corners with a corner punch.
All packaged up and ready to go out
