reading nook

it's rainy this week in the bay area. all I want is a good book and a cozy seat:

donkee house


jane hearts crafts

pretty organized palace

apartment therapy

ohdeedoh

flickr

carrie can

fancy for nyc

flickr

tandem

dark cycle clothing

as bike enthusiasts, we at green bicycle, want one. the t-shirt, and the tandem.

summer on my mind

i will hug it and squeeze it and wear it and call it george. (thanks to coco+kelley)

thread social

is it okay that I want this?

john derian company

wedding invite inspiration

jen huang photography

the wedding season is rapidly narrowing its beady eyes on the blog world and while erin and I are now old maids, I thought it might be nice to share some insight and perhaps, some inspiration regarding invitations.

we decided to make our wedding invitations ourselves. and by ourselves, I mean we roped our friend and my sister's uber talented artist boyfriend, brian mead, into creating our invitations.

jen huang photography

our starting point was probably the colors and the maps. I knew that I wanted to incorporate little toy taxis into our centerpieces and that I wanted a dirty white and brown base with maybe a vintage rose color too. also, I wanted to incorporate vintage maps into the wedding - I didn't yet know how. brian took my simple starting points and created the idea to make a booklet, with pockets, as a variation on the classic card invite. with this information, we went to paper source and found the envelopes, the paper for the booklet pages and thick brown paper that would eventually become the band with the "K+B" embossed stamp on it.

jen huang photography

brian found the almost brown paper bag paper at an art supply store in chicago. we found the vintage airmail return envelopes at cvs, I think. I found the maps at blick art supplies. brian took a photo taken of kevin and I in new hampshire that fall and turned it into a rubber stamp (I kid you not, the kid has mad skills), which we used on the back of the yellow envelope (and on the save the date - it sort of became our wedding icon).



we then made each booklet by hand. including an accordion foldout page that had an extended map of the livermore area. (this picture also shows our save-the-dates and program, all designed and made by brian. we played up the red of the barn at the vineyard in the save-the-dates.).

made by mead

needless to say, it took weeks (maybe months) of work, but it was well worth it. the experience also brought us closer together with each other and with our friends and family as we had invitation making parties with wine and food, sore backs and finger calluses.

for the return envelopes inside the booklet, we ordered a custom-made stamp from paperwink.

after many hours of hard labor, we ended up with a pretty rad invitation. while I don't know if we actually saved money, I think we did, we also stepped away proud and so happy because we got exactly what we wanted - more - out of all the hard work and determination. it made both kevin and I feel like it was really our wedding (I know that sounds corny, but sometimes those buggers can get away from you pretty fast).

made by mead

chair and a half

Like a mini couch, but just for me. No sharing with a husband or a baby or a cat.

crate and barrel

sew wrong

It seemed like a simple project - make a new cover for the ugly throw pillow in June's room. The down insert is in great condition and a pillow's just a square, right? But I'm not a measure twice, cut once gal. I'm an eyeball it, cut, swear twice, then swear again kind of girl. And since Joann Fabric didn't have a zipper foot for my sewing machine, I decided to go with a fold-over pillow closure.

Trouble is, I didn't leave enough fabric for the overlap. So now my pillow has a butt crack. And the rest of it looks too tight as well - like sausage stuffed into a casing. Swearing and sausages....all the plumber's daughters from Chicago, can I get an ahem?

tas-ka

thanks to decor8, I am madly in love with a new design studio: tas-ka. to give you an idea why:



their collection reminds me of threepotatofour with fabric. love.

thank you, target

target

target

ottoman reconsidered

After much deliberation, I've decided to go with a solid-colored ottoman. Thanks to my brilliant cousin and blog conspirator, Bridget, for her insight. I'm drawn to so many patterns, might as well leave room for more of them, by keeping the ottoman solid. I went with Tommy Bahama indoor/outdoor fabric with texture. Here is the new final version of the living room.

old photographs

not really. but, my husband and I finally hung one of our wedding photos. we have had a hard time deciding which of the amazing pictures to hang, thanks to our crazy talented photographer, jen huang. we opted for this one in the living room (it will look better if I ever get around to painting the darn walls grey).

ottoman

Now, given my wingback chair fabric choice.....is my ottoman fabric still appropriate? I wanted both the chair and the ottoman to be patterned. And of course indoor/outdoor fabric for the ottoman. Remember...crazy baby and crazy cat. What do you think? My mother in law hates it.

wingback chair

Here is the hand-me-down wingback chair my aunt gave us. Circa 1994 - the fabric definitely needs updating, but otherwise it's in good shape.


However choosing a new fabric has proven to tough. I can't spend a ton of money it, since I'll need 7 yards and the labor to reupholster this bad boy costs $375! And I want a durable, indoor/outdoor fabric, due to Miss Junebug and a crazy cat. I also wanted a brown and white, slightly traditional, damask-like pattern. And of course it has to be the coolest fabric I've ever laid eyes on. Not too much to ask, right?

So here is the final choice - it's by Premier Fabrics and only costs $7/yard! I found it at Fabrics.com which is a site I love.


It's not my favorite ever, but given my constraints, I'm happy with it. Stay tuned!

isn't this an oxy moron?

A natural sponge "vase"? For $24? Won't all the water just leak out?

Anthropologie has totally jumped the shark on this one. The beach theme on crack! This sponge is probably an endangered species too. Some deep-water, slow-growing....see? Now they've got my marine biologist all up.

Emerald Isle

In honor of that ol' snake-hater, St. Padraig, here are some photos from our summer 2008 trip to Ireland with my dad and his girlfriend. We started in Galway City (our ancestral home and Bridget's old haunt) and then hit the Dingle Peninsula, Tralee, Killarney, and back to Shannon.

let's get intimate, intimate

well, well, well anthropologie, look at you with your cute new lingerie and swimwear. here to see more.