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.

room of the week

i love fridays. work is just so much less stressful when you know you've got two days at home coming up.

today i'm really excited to share two room shots from Joel Schmelzer, whose amazing photographic talents i discovered (and subsequently bookmarked) on desiretoinspire.


seriously loving this series of three photos from a really gorgeous home.

inspiration boards

i'm a huge fan of inspiration boards. i think they are such a great way to give a visual focus to events, projects, parties and even daily life. i wanted to share with you two boards.

the first is the inspiration board that i created a year before my wedding. it served as starting point for me and was a great way for me to concentrate all of my style ideas in one place. the room i posted a few days ago was also a big source of inspiration...i discovered it about half-way through the planning process, so it more closely reflects the final product.

things evolved throughout the process, but i think, in the end, that my wedding really reflected my initial design intentions. here is the inspiration board:
And here is a board that I created from wedding photos...which I am presently obsessed with :-)

I love creating inspiration boards. I am a multi-tasker, type-a deluxe, and inspiration boards always help keep me focused and quickly bring me back to projects.

p.s. yes, we had a caricature drawer at our wedding. It was a HUGE hit and I recommend it to everyone.

When the lights go down in the city...

So, hubs and I are recovering from six full days with no electricity. It's been quite an interesting week...reading by candlelight, taking long strolls to the park with the dog, sitting out at the coffee shop talking with neighbors, lingering on the porch a little later. I'll be honest -- if it wasn't for the fact that we couldn't cook on our electric stove, I'd have to say that I much prefer the 19th century lifestyle. Everything kind of slowed down here in Louisville. It was, well, rather refreshing.

I moved forward nearly 100 pages in Augustus, which I must say is an amazing book about one of the most significant leaders in the history of mankind. The success of a historical novel depends so fully on the quality of the writer and Anthony Everitt is as good as they get.

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of normal posting...all of those days off made me lazy (and I loved it).

powerless

some serious windstorms hit louisville as a result of hurriance ike and i have been sans power for six days. i promise new posts when the power comes back and i don't need to fight for an outlet at local coffeehouses to charge my electronics :-)

is it inappropriate if i hang this up at work?

loving this funny and funky 12"x18"
print from paper moth.

the blues

all joking aside, today is actually a pretty good monday! i've got on a really cute, new cotton taffeta skirt from jcrew. it's a beautiful blue color:it inspired me to browse etsy a bit for some jewel blue paper and gift products. i want to share some of the amazing things i found:

Love this adirondack chair notecard from the paper peony.

This necklace from The Atelier is truly mesmerizing, but at $3,269 it's a little out of my price range.

Love this bold and graphic notebook from Sue Bleiweiss. I totally need something cute like this for my bedside table so I can jot down all of those random thoughts that come into my head at 2am.

The colors popping from this necklace from Sarah's Sky are fabulous.

And, last but certainly not least, I'm totally crushing on this blue sapphire ring from Eidel Precious. Can I please hit the lottery now?

favorite room of the week

i've decided on my first regular blog feature, the room of the week. i absolutely love interior design and architecture and i've been bookmarking awesome stuff for a while now just waiting for a good outlet to share. here is this week's favorite, courtesy of the immensely brilliant Robyn Karp. be careful or you might find yourself drooling over her web site at work!

i also want to share this gorgeous room, which was the inspiration for my entire wedding.

how convenient (and cute!)

love this boxed assortment of cards from Vitamin D(esign). How handy it would be to have a card for various occasions always on hand!

on sale right now for $10. what a steal!

completely obsessed

seriously, seriously obsessed with this oscar de la renta gown that i just stumbled upon on the saks website. if i had found this before my wedding i would've had it made in white and totally rocked it on the big day. i love it.

i found it while searching for inauguration ball-worthy gowns. depending on the election outcome, hubs and i may be heading to dc (where we met, went to college and lived for five years) for some of the festivities in january.

casual friday

if there is one thing i've learned in the past few years of being in a steady office environment, it's that everyone has a different interpretation of "casual friday." for some people it means khakis and a button-up; for others, it's jeans and a sweater; for some, it's shorts and sneakers.

i used to struggle with wanting to be comfortable, but still looking professional and appropriate. one resource i discovered for solving my casual friday blues is jcrew.com. they always seem to have a chic selection of quasi-professional wear. what i love about the stuff for this fall is that a lot of it totally translates from day-to-night, so if hubs and i want to go out for drinks after work i don't need to worry about looking underdressed.

I also love the charming color palette they are using this fall. it's rich, but not to extremes, and a big focus is on simple silhouettes with accessories that pop. I love the mustard colored clutch and black and white shoes in the large snapshot above. I'm the type that is much braver with accessories than pants and shirts!

in my opinion, jcrew really hit the mark with their cuff bracelets in this most recent collection:


in addition, their flats are tre adorable this fall. i don't wear flats a lot because i'm so short, but i'm so very tempted to buy a pair -- particularly the pair right in the middle. love them!


hubs and i both believe that a consistently polished appearance makes a big impact in the workplace, especially among certain older generations that grew up wearing a coat and tie every single day!

the ultimate budget tool

hubby and i had to pay for a pretty decent chunk of the wedding expenditures. for the past year it's been really hard to save because of that and now that the wedding has come and gone, we've decided to create and stick to a fairly strict household budget.

i exported our checking account data from January - August and analyzed it in excel, created a budget and was so happy with myself! then yesterday, i found mint.com. i'm still really glad i did all of the work because it was eye-opening ($160 on coffee per month!) and educational, but mint.com makes everything sooo simple!

you give mint.com all of your account data and it organizes, analyzes and trends it all for you. at any given point you can log in and see how much you've spent in certain categories. you can either use the budget that mint.com suggests based on your past spending, or create your budget. it's easy to categorize and move things around as needed. because you can see all of your accounts (credit cards, bank accounts, student loans, 401k) in one spot, it's a great way to truly measure net worth and to see the financial "big picture."

trust me, when you see how amazing this site is you will fall in love (again!). it's a great tool for newlyweds that are trying to join finances and really take hold of their future. hubs and i have been living together for four years and sharing accounts for one and mint.com has given us, for the first time, a really clear picture of where we stand. love it!

entryway issues

let me be clear about something before i start this post: i did not suddenly get married and become a martha stewart robot. in fact, at some point in the past 4-5 years i actually started to find myself drawn to interior design, cooking and organization magazines. it was a scary thing at first, but i've become completely comfortable with my transition into the adult stage in my life.

ok, so a big issue that hubs and i have is organizing our mountains of mail. credit cards offers, bills, grad student information, magazines, etc. so, i've got to admit that i wish i had a spot to hang this totally cool and helpful wall organizer featured on MarthaStewart.com. i love that it's slotted, which would make catagorizing things so much easier. we get those annoying coupon circulars in the mail and i always trash the whole dang thing even though there is some good stuff in there. why? because i have no good place to put it! this would be a great answer to that. i also love love love the notebook in the middle part. i can't tell you how many times i've had to search for a pen and paper! love it. it looks a little "i'm in my thirties with young kids," but i think there are some definite ways to liven it up a bit. i'm currently trying to plot a way to get this or something similar into my kitchen.

yes, sir. thank you.

hubby and i are thinking of enrolling in some etiquette classes to brush up on our skills. i've never had any formal training and it's been since high school (he went to a ritzy boarding school) since he's taken a class.

i mentioned this to a friend and she thought i was crazy. an etiquette class? really? that seems to be the general response among 20-somethings, but hubby and i think it's a tremendous idea. yes, the "millenial genereation" is exploding into the workplace, but i can't tell you how much boomers and y-ers appreciate good manners in the workplace, at work functions, etc. etc.


in fact, there have been a few books published on the topic. the one that i've heard the best reviews about (and that is on my list of biz books to read) is The Etiquette Edge: The Unspoken Rules for Business Success by Beverly Langford.

The whole etiquette class idea also got me thinking about the fact that i need to buy and read the emily post guide. can you believe i've ever never read it? tisk tisk.

keeping it old school

my husband and i are pretty old school when it comes to writing thank-you notes, letters, congrats cards, etc. we both believe that nothing can really take the place of a handwritten card or letter.

i'm a sometimes-designer, so i'll be making our new couples note cards, as well as personal stationary for us both (and really, really chic thank you cards for the wedding gift-givers)...BUT, that doesn't stop me from browsing one of my favorite sites, etsy.com, to scope out all of the delicious paper goods out there. here are some of my favs that I've tagged over the past couple of weeks.


totally loving this letterpress birthday card from the paper peony. this shop's goods totally rock my world. they are so modern, yet wonderfully sophisticated. what i love is that you can buy lots of different single card designs and keep them on hand for special occasions that arise.


i would be remiss if i didn't also share this GORGEOUS card, also from the paper peony. how chic is this?


now, this one isn't totally my style, but it doesn't mean i can't think it's super cute and fun. i have a friend for whom this card set is PERFECT. in fact, i've also favorited it so i can buy it for christmas for her! this set is just one of many chic, classy and fun products from etsy user avie.


i love this simple, yet bold design from enJOY design.


every time i think the bird motif is overdone, i see something adorable like this. it makes me think that the bird motif, when used creatively, is absolutely charming. this card is courtesy of armato designs and press.

when you see just how much cute stuff is out there, you realize that letter/card/thank you writing doesn't have to be a chore. it can be really fun!

btw, i'm an etsy junky, so expect more where this post came from!

officially hitched.

so i'm starting this blog for a couple reasons. first, because now that i no longer have an excuse to read the 85,346 wedding blogs that live on the internet i seem to have a lot more time on my hands. second, because i think it's fun to write about things that i like. third, because besides sites like the nest, there isn't really a good spot to discuss all of the random things i care about being newly married. well, and four, because sites like the nest can be really lame.

who am i? i'm 25, live in louisville and enjoy walking my dog, reading (books, magazines, blog, nyt) and shopping. i really like shopping. i hope you all like me :-)