I hate to say it, but in my life, I’ve probably sent more Evites than printed invitations. Birthdays, house warmings, dinner parties have all fallen to virtual letterpress–but weddings, this is where I will draw the line. Our big day is nearly six months away and that means it’s time to hunt for pretty Save the Dates.
I’ve browsed around on a bunch of different stationery sites but in terms of selection, pricing, and convenience, Wedding Paper Divas has definitely impressed me the most. They represent some of my favorite boutique stationers like Oh Joy and Cat Seto but back them with around-the-clock customer service, quick shipping, and an online editing system for easy customization.
In narrowing down our options for our Vermont winter wedding, we wanted something that hinted at the snowy season and rustic venue but without the obvious snowflake and pine cone conventions. Here are the five designs we’ve narrowed it down to (colors and fonts come later); let us know your favorites!
I’ve never purchased art for the matting, until now. Set a quarter-inch deep with a massive white border, the matting makes this tiny picture seem so grand. Prints rarely even come this small (or warrant such a big frame) but if you look into the collectible world of early 20th-century cigarette trading cards, you’ll find more. Scenes of beautiful women, baseball players, cinema stars, and other popular imagery used to be printed on stiff pieces of paper and slipped into cigarette packs to keep the fags from bending and add a little Cracker-Jack surprise to the smoking experience. Though I would have probably purchased this frame even if I didn’t adore the card inside, the 1940s subject matter was a definite selling point. A Japanese woman lounging nude in a living room, with jelly rolls proudly exposed, sitting on a side table admiring her red high heels—what’s not to love? Plus, the Marimekko-like blue floral carpet is pretty spectacular. The simple pen drawing is wonderfully graphic and the scene a bit mysterious.
I found this piece of art at this adorable boutique called Bucks County Dry Goods in Lambertsville, NJ but you can be sure to find antique cigarette trading cards on eBay, as well.
I adore having plants and flowers in the yard but tending to them is not how I’d like to spend my time. So my question this summer has become: How to have a pretty garden with the least amount of effort. And with a bit of research on resilient plants for east coast living, we may have just figured it out.
Before
Our shared-yard had been neglected for over two years but, thankfully, the tenants before us structured a garden with lazy people in mind. They tiered the perimeter of the yard with wood and stone to make nice raised plant beds so even when the garden starts looking pretty chaotic, it still has decent structure. They also made the brilliant choice of buying the most self-sufficient, gorgeous, shade-loving plant: The Hosta. I know this photo looks a little grim but any lush green you see on the ground is all hosta.
With good structure and hearty plants on our mind, we headed to the nursery and started anew.
Hanging Lattice
We love that our former tenants placed lattice along the back wall but they fell a little short when it came to the sides. To cover the not-so-cute chain link fences we put up more lattice (that’s our lovely neighbor Bridget helping us secure the wood) and planted clematis to grow over it. Clematis has exotic, star-shaped flowers and vines that supposedly climb like crazy. So in a year or so, the hope is to see just a hint of lattice and a wall of fabulous foliage.
Amazing Hostas
Knowing the kind of abuse the hostas can take, we naturally bought more. This time we planted Blue Cadet Hosta to get a little more color and height.
Promising Lily Turf
So our garden didn’t turn into a hosta farm, we decided to branch out with a bit of Lily Turf. These spunky grasses will supposedly spread out to make nice groundcover, grow violet-blue flowers in the summer and dark berries in the fall. We are banking on them being fairly independent in the future but for now we are watering them regularly.
Hydrangeasand beyond
In the front left of the yard and along the back wall, we planted white hydrangeas. Tall, wide, and packed with flower clusters, hydrangeas have presence. And in white, they should still provide a little shimmer at night.
I’ll report back at the end of summer with hopefully some progress to share but in the meantime, if anyone has any good gardening tips . . . we are all ears!
The Space Needle framed by the Frank Geary Sci-Fi Museum, sets the scene for a design-filled trip.
Sorry for long pause between blogs; Mike and I were away at a two-day wedding in Orcas Island that turned into ten amazing days in Washington state and British Columbia. We spent the majority of our trip hiking through old-growth forests and tide pooling along the rugged Vancouver Island coast but when it was time to hit the cities, we B-lined for the design shops.
My favorite home decor stores in the neighboring North American cities: Seattle and Vancouver
VANCOUVER
There is no other neighborhood in this British Columbian city as design-driven and charming as Gastown (despite the name) so if you don’t have much time in Vancouver, this is the hood to hit.
Koolhaus
Koolhaus sold fabulous furniture and accessories but better yet . . . they had brilliant display ideas, like this craft paper wall covering. With the right lighting and deep wrinkles, this crumbled paper becomes the most dramatic accent wall.
Perfect for a studio apartment looking for some shabby-chic charm, this old garage door doubles as a room divider, showcasing a credenza on one side and acting as a headboard on the other.
LYNNsteven
The clothing at LYNNsteven was far too chichi for me but the dressing room was right up my alley. Made of over 5,600 books, this award-winning tower wraps in a circle around a cement base and reveals its many colorful titles when you go in to try on clothes.
Inform Said to be the ultimate modern design store in Vancouver, Inform feels like a cross between an art gallery and an architecture firm. The space is massive and airy, with fashion-forward window displays and an impressive rare chair collection (the kind that say, “Don’t touch!” and Mike proceeds to touch).
SEATTLE
I won’t get into Seattle’s touristy design destinations (the Space Needle, Sci Fi Museum, Olympic Sculpture Park, Pikes Place Market) because any tour book will to tell you to go there–and you should. They are all worth the trip but here are some must-see shops that Foder’s might not mention.
Velocity Art and Design Velocity Art and Design may be one of my favorite online stores of all time so to go into their physical store was like a pilgrimage of sorts. Seeing amazing boutique companies like Ferm Living, Yellow Owl Workshop, Publique Living, Ibride, Teroforma, all perfectly mixed and styled together in real life made me love the website that much more.
SAM Shop You can always count on city art museums to have a pretty solid design shop—and the Seattle Art Museum Shop was no exception. They carried some of the typical trendy décor but the mix of local art kept it interesting.
Preparing for the Kurt Cobain exhibit, they had grunge rock memorabilia and unexpected tributes like the Converse hightop wallet.
Native American art, like carved wood totem poles and painted masks, was a reoccurring theme across the whole northwest.
Antiques at Pikes PlaceYou’d expect an antiques store next to one of Seattle’s most touristy destinations to be full of junk—but this shop around the corner from the legendary public market definitely bucked the trend. With over 65,000 square feet of stalls, Pikes Place Market was something for everyone—even those with good taste.
I loved these vintage can labels. These designs in the round never made it onto a tin so to see the wrapping patterns on one plane made them a whole lot more interesting. In the event I get a bigger kitchen, I may just frame a series of these.
I hate to say it, but in my life, I’ve probably sent more Evites than printed invitations. Birthdays, house warmings, dinner parties have all fallen to virtual letterpress–but weddings, this is where I will draw the line. Our big day is nearly six months away and that means it’s time to hunt for pretty Save the Dates.
