Weekend Down South

I was at a wedding this weekend at the Greenbrier in West Virginia - a hotel with rich history and distinct decor thanks to Dorothy Draper. The look is pretty dense (patterns on nearly every surface), but I can't help but be attracted to the bold color choices & layering of patterns. My older sister wore a dress that matched the carpet so much we joked that we'd never find her if she passed out. The place is a feast for the eyes and for me, was a nice breather after a busy week at the show.

Neon

I'm in the thick of NSS prep these days - designing, tweaking, even selling already if you can believe it. Bright & neon colors continue to pepper my work this year - and possibly even more so. I'm so excited to show & share in the next few weeks. Speaking of neon, how pretty are these tea towels that Scholten & Baijings did for Hay Denmark? See more of their work at A + R.

[image courtesy of A + R]

Orly Genger / Rope

How beautiful is this Orly Genger rope necklace? With the temps getting into the eighties!! by next week, my mind is set on summer and not looking back. I know, we're not even into spring. But we didn't have a winter, so that's where my mind is heading. And this rope necklace would be a perfect statement piece to the simplest of outfits. 

[image courtesy of Steven Alan]

Slip

Introducing Slip: the genius little clip-in sleeve to help organize & reuse torn-out pantone chips. Currently, mine are in a little pile (below), so I'll be ordering a few Slip sleeves stat.

Slip so smart!

Discovered over at swissmiss.

Color Inspiration: J. Crew

I walked into J. Crew yesterday & found myself in color heaven. I love this warm red strap against the green shirt. I don't know why people always shy away from pairing red & green, as if it only means Christmas. I love red & green together. Also loving these bright hues below, as well as the two-toned yellows. So beautiful, J. Crew.

[images courtesy of jcrew.com]

Curtain Fabric

I've decided to make the curtains for the baby's room - which might just be one big excuse to buy Liberty of London fabric, and I'm fine with that. We aren't finding out the baby's sex, but I'm sticking with blue hues - mostly because the room is already painted a nice shade of grayish-blue, which I love, and also because I don't want green or yellow. I love the turtle pattern on the right, but perhaps the softer pattern on the left is better. Maybe I'll just get a yard of the turtle pattern instead - enough to make a little baby pillow. See? Excuses. Whatever, I'm getting the turtles!

Color Inspiration

This plant made me stop dead in my tracks. I've never really thought of pink as a natural color - but suddenly it was all around me - on these plants & the flowering bougainvillea in Florida, on the flamingos on Life. I'm definitely going to use this palette in an upcoming project.

And the winner is...

Coral & Lavender Rose!

Thank you all so much for your opinions & suggestions! I went with my gut and chose the colors that were speaking to me the loudest.

I know these colors above from J. Crew are a bit softer than mine - but how lovely are they, really? I might have to ditch the red, which was going to be the ribbon color. Might go with a calf brown instead. Or maybe even black. The ribbon color needs to go with every month, so it's a bit tricky, but I have a little time to figure that out.

Stay tuned for a sneak peek of the 2011 Calendar in just a few weeks!

And the Playing Continues...

I told you color was everything. It's definitely the thing I stew over the longest when finalizing designs - and especially for this - the cover of the 2011 Calendar! It's big. Everything else is done. Printed & printing. But I can't decide on this simple color combo. It might be the sunshine filling the room right now or my serious dependence on warmer weather or my craving for all things sorbet and water icy - but I'm leaning towards these cheery colors: Coral with Lavender Rose and Coral with Dusty Rose - and possibly ditch the red. Are they too girly, though? Besides you, Tommy, most of my customers are women, anyway. But still. Are they? Does it matter?

[btw, I was leaning towards combo #3 yesterday because I love turquoise and red, but I don't think that brown is punchy enough for this.]

Playing with Pantone

This is how I decide on color. I move Pantone chips around on white paper like puzzle pieces until they fit just right. The pairs on the left are in contention for the calendar cover and must go with the red on the right. I think I have a favorite, but which is yours? 1, 2 or 3?

Post Cards

I bought a huge lot of vintage post cards on eBay over the weekend in hopes of using them for a project. They arrived yesterday & I had so much fun playing with them on our kitchen table. I love the subtle color variations of old papers.

From the Desk Fridays: 2011 Pantone Chips

Our annual calendar is hands down my favorite project of the year. I love the process involved with a bigger project like this - coming up with 12 unique designs that combine colors and images to serve as one piece. When I start thinking about our annual calendar in January, I write down each month in my notebook and jot down thoughts, images, or colors for each month. As I start fleshing out each one, I tape down the pantone chips so I can see if the colors make sense together or if there is an overuse of a certain color or is glaringly missing another.

I'm wrapping up our 2011 Calendar now and am still playing around with some of the colors. The color, to me, is just as important as the images and even as important as making sure the dates of the month are right. It's everything, really. And I really enjoy the process of tweaking colors until they match up just right. Really looking forward to being able to share more on the calendar in a couple months.

Have a great weekend!

Where are you Mr. Sun?

It's been such a bear of a winter here that I literally cannot stop thinking about warm weather (researching a trip to FL as we speak), lighter clothing (these shoes!) and vibrant colors (the 2011 calendar is going to be bright). Connie tweeted about these Loeffler Randall sandals yesterday & I was hooked. The pattern, colors and little heel lift are perfection. If I only had the tan feet & legs to go with them. (sigh) We'll get there.

[images courtesy of Loeffler Randall]

Bedding

When we moved last year, we upgraded to a king size bed because we had the space in our new bedroom for it. (And because my 6'5" husband has never not had his feet hanging off the edge.) But I've been stalling on buying the bedding for it, mostly because I can't decide on a color. We used to have a white duvet that we paired with a an old quilt & colorful pillow cases. But I'm ready for some color. Our walls are a very pale green color. I'm inclined to go in either the red direction or the emerald green direction. Above are some of the patterns I've been eyeing. It helps me to lay them out like this to see what happens when you put them next to each other. They all seem kind of summery. Hmm, is that bad? I really am so ready for Spring!

[images top to bottom, left to right: John Robshaw Pepper quilt, Roberta Roller Rabbit quilt, Roberta Roller Rabbit quilt, John Robshaw sheets, Azure Fern sheets, Filigree Leaf sheets, Kerry Cassil pattern, John Robshaw Maya Sheets, and Kerry Cassil pattern]

From the Desk Fridays: Vintage Post Cards

I love using found papers & giving them a new life. These post cards were left over from the ones we used as gift bag tags for our Maine wedding. I'm working on a fun project for next week & feeling really inspired by the subtle color differences in these aged papers. I'm not sure post cards will work for this specific project, so I might need to "age" my own paper - but this is a great starting point.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Marble-inspired Rug

I'm so not over my marble kick. While I was at the dermatologist yesterday, I spotted this rug in Elle Decor. Cynthia Rowley designed her "Love Letter Marble" rug for elson & company as part of its Fashion Under Foot line. I usually don't like crazy-colored rugs - but this one got me. I love the colors, and of course the pattern.

Lobsterman, the book

I picked up this book when we were up in Maine last month. I knew I had to have it when I saw the inside cover - nautical imagery in a very non-nautical color palette of yellow, gray & black. Love.

[Lobsterman was written & illustrated by Dahlov Ipcar.]

Paper Quilting

I've been spending a little time curled up on the couch this week - drowning myself in water & hot tea to try & shake this stupid cold. I took this old family quilt off our bed - & maybe it's my fuzzy head - but I couldn't stop thinking about quilts & quilting patterns. I haven't made a quilt since 2003 when I made one for my friends' wedding & I think it's time for another quilting project.


So last night, I took a break from reality tv (maybe that explains the fuzzy head!) & got out some paper scraps to make this little paper quilt. I glued the pieces on a piece of cardboard but next time, I think I'm going to sew them - I like the visable stiches. This measures about 7.5" - but I'd love to make a larger scale version - like 3 feet wide - and with way more colors. Maybe I'll get to the real quilting another time. I've got this paper version on the brain for now.

From the Desk Fridays: Wedding in the Catskills

You may remember a From the Desk Fridays post back in July with a sneak peek at this invitation that we did for our dear friends who are getting married this weekend. I love the way this invitation turned out. Fall foliage invitations can be boring (and this couple is so not) but I feel like the sharp angles of the triangles spice it up a bit - and the heart shape, well I just love that, and it feels very them. I can't wait to celebrate this awesome couple this weekend and in such a great spot. I hear it's like Kellerman's from Dirty Dancing. Yessssss!

Have a great weekend.

(Katie's back from her honeymoon on Monday - double yes!)

Tags: Face Lift

I decided that our tags needed some more color, some more pizazz. And since I'm the boss:) I decided to switch up the ribbon from twine to double-faced satin. We use the same ribbon for our annual calendar (stay tuned for the launch of 2010 on Friday!) and I love the contrast of the shiny ribbon and the matte finish of letterpress.