Inspired by Greta’s birth announcement that I shared last week, I decided to make a spring garland for our weird half-wall (have I mentioned I’m anxious for the day when this apartment will only be a distant memory and we’ll sit around in our Design-Sponge-sneak-peek-worthy-house with our goblets of grape cranberry juice and we’ll laugh with our heads tilted back about how we lived in a hole for four years?) Of course I’m not a fine artist and some of the strips of paper look like a kid took a faded marker to them but it’s detracting from the unfortunate shade of off-white so I’ll take it. I will take it.

Windows of poppies spotted on Sweet Fine Day

Art from a collection of bus passes spotted on Craftzine

A peek at a designer’s pretty studio spotted on From Me, To You

image: Jamie Beck

I’ve been admiring these necklaces spotted on Grey Likes Weddings

Stunning nature spotted on Short Story Design

image: James Duckworth

Anthropologie always gets their promotional pieces and packaging just right because they’re smart enough to hire designers like Alana McCann. Neutrals never looked so good.

via Design Work Life

If you ever read the comment section of this blog (there’s really no better way to spend your time), you’re probably familiar with Kelly. She’s my very best friend and most dedicated fan/commenter/cheerer-upper. She has the most adorable little guy who turned one a couple weeks ago. Since I couldn’t make the trek up to Montana for the party, I sent her a box of party supplies . They decided to go with an Australian theme since Parker was born there.

The invitations were designed and letterpressed by Suann (who is a superstar, I might add) and the envelopes were made from maps of Australia.

Parker (and the sofa!) worked perfectly with the green and turquoise color scheme.

The table was adorned with some of Jordan’s fringey streamers, wooden kangaroos, paper airplanes made from maps, and little globe paper balloons.




Each guest left with a boomerang tied with a cute tag, also printed by Suann (a superstar I tell you!).

Happy birthday little buddy!

This week has been a little slow. One of those most exciting things that I can think of that happened was learning Tina Fey was pregnant. We’ve had to slow down lately and just wait. Wait for the bar results. Wait for more job opportunites. Wait to move. Wait for warm weather. Wait for the return of Project Runway. But I keep on getting this feeling like something big is coming. And if it isn’t, I’m planning a vacation.

YAMF elsewhere:
- A nice feature from Standard Magazine.
- Twitter. My handle is @melanieblodgett because @youaremyfave was already taken (maybe we should spam her stream). I tweet about really awesome things, like my dislike of vanity plates.
- I’m thrilled to have joined the Momtastic team. Last week I talked about my love of paper flowers and this week I’m giving a tutorial on how to make a ruffled crepe paper wall.

Here’s to hoping the weekend is filled with bursts of color.

images: Getty Images, Pam Garrison via Jodi Mckee, Malene Landgreen, Abbey Hendrickson

Our friends Katie and Conor just welcomed their second daughter, Greta. Conor designed the text and Katie and her mom used watercolors for the edges of the birth announcement. Didn’t they turn out great? I love their simple prettiness.

photos by Katie

A mini flower truck/van/awesome spotted on Tea For Joy

Wouldn’t it be fun to give these kabuki streamers a tug? spotted on A Subtle Revelry

photo by Carly Taylor

Colorful dining spotted on Dwell Studio

photo by Magnus Marding

Love these homemade streamers from Kathleen and Reagan’s wedding (the color combo is tops) spotted onRuffled

photo by Meg Ruth

Spring! (this book is sitting in my Amazon shopping cart) spotted on Loveliness

We ventured out on Friday to view the latest version of Jane Eyre (limited release, sorry mom). While the acting and cinematography was sublime, fitting a 500 page novel into two hours does make for some missed suspense and character building. But I assure you if you’re a fan of period films, you won’t be disappointed.

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know much about the story until a couple years ago when I stumbled upon the Masterpiece Theatre version at the library. I added it to the pile thinking it would be a fun Jane Austen type piece. I casually started watching it but quickly got caught up in the suspenseful elements and couldn’t stop. I’m pretty sure I watched all 3 1/2 hours of it in one sitting. Now I’m starting to get caught up in the actual novel but I’m sure it will take more than 3 1/2 hours to finish (isn’t that how it should go, you watch the movie and then read the book?).

If you haven’t already seen either take on the book, I will warn you it’s much more gothic than Jane Austen but the dialogue is witty, the story highly romantic and it will leave you very much intrigued.

images: cover design by Megan Wilson, cover illustration by Petra Borner – available to purchase here, photo by Candice Austen, Jane Eyre hardcover

Guys, this project is pretty complicated. You’re going to need to pay close attention to the instructions so you don’t mess up.

Materials:
- a set of blank nesting dolls (or some ugly ones you don’t mind painting over)
- paint  (Sky blue, chartreuse and orchid is my color combo of the moment)
- paintbrush
- small hand saw (if you don’t have a friend as cool as Lashley to borrow one from, Home Depot has one you can use)

Paint.

Saw. Slowly. I may have almost cut off my finger.

Line them up and introduce them to each other.

Display.

Did you get all that?

This project isn’t earth shattering or anything, just practical. I wanted to experiment with printing on fabric and have bags on hand to wrap little gifts in as to avoid my arch nemesis, wrapping paper.

Materials:
- fabic (linen, canvas or muslin will all work well)
- fabric paint
- stencil (I used some of Lotta’s but you can easily make your own with cardboard and an x-acto knife)
- sponge or paintbrush
- string
- sewing machine

Lay your stencil down on the fabric and use the sponge to paint your pattern. Let dry.

Fold over top edge and stitch, leaving enough space for your string to go through. Attach a safety pin to the end of a piece of string to help push it through the hole created by the stitch (my mom taught me that trick).

Fold fabric in half so the edges line up (inside out) and stitch up the other two sides. Flip right side out.

Stuff with little surprises.

Enjoy your weekend!