melrose & morgan

Oh my - if Melrose and Morgan were nearby, I know I would frequent it. It's a grocery shop & kitchen in London that provides seasonal food, kitchen accessories, and catering (they even have a picnic menu!).


(photos melrose & morgan, found via fee-amore)

gingham napkins

I made these mini napkins recently for my friend's mom. A friend was getting rid of a gingham shirt that no longer fit, and I thought the fabric was too pretty not to use. There wasn't enough for regular sized napkins or even legit cocktail ones so instead they are proportioned & folded like a dinner napkin, but in miniature size. I'm calling them picnic napkins.



(I also cut out some of the stars from the fabric scraps and love how they look. hooray for free cute fabric).

goop: cooking videos

One thing I love about GOOP is when Gwyneth includes short cooking videos in her newsletters. They're just simple, healthy versions of basic meals - like roast chicken or mexican - but they always get me in the mood to make them. It's hard not to crave guacamole after watching this:

(via goop)

weekend inspiration

A few bits of summer inspiration:



(1 jcrew, 2 phillip newton, 3 AT, 4 creative mint)

An old Jcrew cover I'm loving.
How I'd like to spend my summer.
Gallery wall & shelf inspiration.
Cute packaging I can't resist.

lived-in kitchen

I recently saw It's Complicated and fell in love with the set design. Meryl's character owns an incredible bakery/gourmet shop, and also has the most beautiful kitchen (one of the highlights of the movie for me). I loved the charming, clean-yet-lived-in look to it:

(via remodelista)

I think there's a fine balance between "lived-in" and messy, and they pulled it off well. Normally a counter lined with kitchen gadgets would be my worst nightmare (I get ocd about organizing), but the movies make it look so good.

wimbledon & cole haan

Wimbledon started this week and we are pretty excited around here. As an ode to tennis today, I'm loving the new ad campaign for Cole Haan called The Inspired Life, which includes tennis player Maria Sharapova, along with some other people & things they were inspired by.

(found via black eiffel)

(Everything is brilliantly shot by The Selby. See more here.)

birthday favors

This idea works great for a kids party OR an office full of engineers. I did it for the latter as a surprise for my husband's birthday. He loves Lego's, and I remember having Lego-style candy as a kid but I haven't been able to find it since then. I finally found it online here for a good price (amazon has it for more) and made it into small favors for Q's office. It tastes like SweetTarts and the best part is that you can actually build things with it - which, for the record, they did.

By the way, Q's brother Thad works with him and always delivers stuff like this for me. Thanks, Thad.

weekend inspiration: father's day

We have lots of celebrations this weekend, including Q's birthday on Friday along with other family events. With father's day on Sunday, too, here's what we've pulled together to make our dads feel special (minus the Katie Brown book, of course):

My cousin Sarah from RedRedOrange posted this free download for "Best Dad Ever" cards (she's a graphic designer & possibly one of the cooler people you will ever meet online), so I printed them off to go with pretty Weck jars from baum-kuchen. We're filling the jars with homemade jam because it was a hit last year (it's a secret recipe shh).

Oh, and we made sure to put a disclaimer in the card saying my dad and Q's dad are actually tied for #1 at being the best. We don't want any dad jealousy going on. Have a fun weekend.

handmade favorites

Last night I was going to clean my house but with the heat (we don't have ac) eating neapolitan ice cream and putting together these handmade finds sounded much better. I love those preserved flowers because they will forever look pretty.

1: "birds" poster by smallable (jennifer got this for her girl's nursery - love it)
2: preserved craspedia cluster by flores del sol
3: gift tags by parrott design studio
4: triangular laced necklace by marañón
5: pom linen cushion by be still
6: dot garland by this neck of the woods (via decor8)

lemlem: handwoven clothing

I'm so glad Carrie re-introduced me to Lemlem, a collection of handwoven clothing made by artisans in Ethiopia. The pieces are pretty and vibrant, and the creation process is impressive. I also love the story behind it and that it supports a good cause.

(1 via Lemlem, 2&3 via jcrew)

They also have a line at Jcrew. The tunic above is hands down my favorite piece, it looks so breezy and versatile. See Carrie rocking her's here.

simple, creative lifestyle

I've been thinking about this great post Mary wrote on Olivet about simple, slow living and it prompted me to write this. Sometimes blogging about design on a regular basis feels like it idolizes things, when my real goal with blogging is to find, share, and appreciate creativity, art, & design. Does anyone else feel that way? I'd like to continue covering those topics but also share how they fit into a creative lifestyle, instead of just being "stuff". Lately we've been trying to simplify our home, organize, and eat healthier, and all of those things are part of living a creative lifestyle. So, for the amount of time that goes into keeping up a blog it's at least worth a try to change the focus a little. Anyway, thanks for reading - those are just some random thoughts for this Tuesday. Back to my nutella sandwich. :-)

(1 erin templeton 2 rachell ashwell 3 country living, via mary ruffle)

weekend inspiration: baum kuchen

To end the week I wanted to share one of my favorite new sites, Baum Kuchen, created by wakako from glass half full. She's a dear blog friend, and has created this lifestyle site that includes her beautiful photography, a blog with recipes & ideas, and a curated shop with goods for the home.

(photos by baum kuchen)

I love the story behind her site. She draws inspiration from Japan (where she was born) and Germany (where her husband is from). I actually just ordered some of her German weck jars, shown in the photo above. Oh, and she is also 10 months pregnant right now! And still doing stuff like this.

PS. We're going to a group picnic at the zoo this weekend. I've never been to the Detroit zoo before! Hope you have something fun planned.

saturday's sale

Saturday we had the yard sale, as planned. My friends and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7, set everything up, and then made a quick porch display (to beautify things) using my kitchen stool, roses from my parents' garden, and a yellow lantern I was selling.

Above are photos I took about halfway through the day of our stuff (not including the clothes tables). We ended up selling over half of everything, until it looked like it might rain so we packed up. I was glad to give so many of my things a second home - especially wedding presents I've never used. Hooray for passing things on to strangers.

And, by the end of it all our feet were killing us! Yard sales can be a lot of work. So we treated ourselves to chinese takeout & homemade sangria, and watched Alice in Wonderland while the storms rolled in.

talbots, revisited

I haven't visited a Talbots since our moms shopped there when my best friend and I were growing up. But we came across their website the other day and noticed they've done some serious re-branding, with apparel that includes party dresses and ruffly blouses.

They seem to be reaching out to a slightly younger audience (while still maintaining their Woman line with their traditional collections). What do you think of their new look?

anniversary request

Although I don't normally post on Sunday nights, I have a sweet little story to share about Mariah and Andrew, below.

Last week I received a thoughtful email from Andrew, titled 'this husband's 1-year anniversary request.' His wife Mariah has a new blog called size too small, so he wrote to each person on her blog roll and included this request: "as a surprise for our 1-year anniversary... somehow give her encouragement and delight, it would mean so much to her and that means a lot to me."


(images: 1 stephen dvries, 2 sources here)

He had me convinced with his email alone - so romantic, right? And, Mariah's blog is completely beautiful. I instantly fell for her style (see a peek at one of her mood boards above). So, I just wanted to send a little blog love to Mariah & Andrew on their anniversary today, all the way in Cape Town, South Africa. I hope anyone reading this gets a chance to visit her, too, and say hello.

dress & early weekend

I was surprised to find a nice selection of simple summer dresses at Old Navy on Monday. I picked up this striped cotton jersey dress (it's like wearing a long comfy shirt) in pink & white for less than $7. Love that it can be dressed up with a cardigan and tights for the winter, too.

I'm visiting a friend today and tomorrow so I'm taking off until Monday. Have a sweet weekend!

tag sale

This weekend I'm having my first yard sale at our house and two of my friends are bringing over some of their stuff to sell, too. I'm actually pretty excited about it, to 1) get rid of stuff, 2) make some extra cash, and 3) set up and organize the display. I've been reading all the tips and tricks to having a successful sale, so I think I'm ready - we even have refreshments and music (radio) planned so it's basically a party on my lawn this Saturday.

(images by thayer allyson gowdy via real simple)

PS. Some fun articles about tag sales on Real Simple, Woman's Day, and Young House Love.