two things i love: calendars and letterpress

a lot of the design blogs lately have been highlighting 2009 calendars by the many gifted designers out there today. i wanted to highlight my fav -- which i will be snatching up soon -- by tara hogan of ink and wit. the lovely tara designed some custom business cards for my freelance business last year and she is just super talented.
to buy the calendar, visit her etsy shop.

i also love these safari invites. it makes me want to pop out some babies so i can throw chic and fun kids' parties and send out these invites.

backyard fun

hubs and i are TOTALLY redoing our wreck of a backyard in the spring. we are tearing down the deck, fence, ugly concrete walkway, grass...EVERYTHING. the deck is a particular bummer because if the people that lived in the house previously had properly maintained it, we'd be able to stick with it. but, it's just so not cute.

we are going to uber-modern with the redo: horizontal slat fence, square stone walkway, right angles, symmetry, etc. it's going to be beautiful. if only we can actually get a couple of landscape architects to actually show up for scheduled appointments to quote us, we'll be in good shape.

here are some of our inspiration photos:

dream (second) home

Hubs and I daydream all the time about the day when we'll own a super cute second home that we can visit on the weekends or spend extended holidays in. I happened upon this STUNNING home located in rural southern Sweden. Seriously, how dreamy is this? The modern design totally fits my aesthetic and the setting totally fits that of hubs.

Love, love, love this. I can picture sitting by a window, laptop on my lap, writing a novel. Ah, bliss.

what's old is new again

when we first moved into our house we bought these old, grossly upholstered chairs from the wonderful louisville antique mall. thought i would share with you how wonderful they look with some hip new fabric: never in a million years did i think i'd enjoy antiquing, but there is so much cool stuff out there...it just takes some creativity and imagination to see the potential in some things!

speaking of eddie ross...

i was just browsing his portfolio and came upon two images that made me absolutely fall in love with him even more. it's been a few weeks since i've posted, so allow me to share some belated rooms of the week:

first up, this oh-so-simple-and-chic room. i adore the yellowy-green sofa:
what's not to love about this gorgeous desk? i have a feeling this is a grange desk. once again, the yellow is totally wowing me!

pumpkin fun

since we bought our house a little over a year ago, i've gone through periods of serious nesting and serious anti-nesting. some things about home ownership are fun for me: organizing! decorating! buying! some things, not so much. i tend to stray away from the "mommy" type of nesting activities because they make me want to hyperventilate.

so, imagine my surprise when i totally went nuts over the fabulous eddie ross' mad pumpkin-carving skills:

seriously, how stinkin' cool is that? i hesitate to say this, but eddie make pumpkins look, well, cool and chic. hubs and i went to a fall fest this past weekend (i'll be sharing some photos soon) and picked some cute little pumpkins. i totally know how i'm "carving" mine!

fall scene

as the end of september begins to bring with it the wonderful colors of fall, i thought i'd highlight some of my favorite fall etsy finds.

i love these adorable little gift tags from Sycamore Street Press:


this rusty copper pendant from Shy Siren is so gorgeous and understated:


this maple leaf necklace from an original jewelry is so fun and simple...a perfect nod to fall.


finally, i really love this gorgeous autumn colors scarf from wool mountain. this is something i could totally throw on when i walk my dog but it's not quite cold enough for a coat.