wishing we had seasons...

Nick and I just got back from taking a little trip to Sedona and Prescott, Arizona. We met up with our friends Rob and Meghann in Sedona, and then traveled solo to Prescott, where I had spent a lot of time growing up, as my grandparents used to live there. It actually felt like autumn in Prescott, with leaves on the ground- it felt wintry too, at a chilly 27 degrees during the night. Now we're back in Tucson and it is a balmy 80 degrees today. Oh well, at least we were able to pretend we lived in a climate with actual seasonal distinctions for a few days on our trip!

Grace and Aaron

I was excited to see Grace Bonney's Savannah wedding featured in the Fall issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, and there was a tiny little photo of a sign I did for the reception included, too. Fun! She posted extensively about her wedding a couple of weeks ago on her blog. I especially loved all of the sweet attention to little details- I wanted to post of few of those photos here. Congrats, Grace and Aaron!

Grace had her invitations printed by Bird and Banner on 75 different vintage handkerchiefs, printing numbers on the leftover ones for table numbers. I loved this idea so much! What a sweet memento for guests to keep!
I loved the way the flowers were done at this wedding, down to the simple gardenia in Grace's hair. And look at those chair swags! Beyond beautiful. Flowers by Garden on the Square. Gorgeous paper flowers by Erin Heath.
Adorable flags for the straws made by Grace herself.
Favors were bags of grits from a local farm, with fabric buttons by Busy Beaver Button Co.
The signs describing the food and drinks were done by me.
Sweet ring pillow made by Llubav Choy-Duerr.
May your new life together be blessed, Grace and Aaron!

Photography by Bethalee.

green.

I've been feeling extra motivated to live as "greenly" as possible lately. All it takes sometimes is making a little extra effort to conquer laziness and be good stewards of our resources, you know? Hanging your laundry instead of drying it, bringing your own bags to the store, unplugging items you aren't using.....there are dozens of great little ways to change your lifestyle. But I've come to think that the key is really learning to change your mindset.

In our consumer driven society, we are trained to believe that our value is based upon our level of consumption. So we are continuously trying to upgrade our wardrobe, our houses, our cars, etc., and we are never, ever satisfied. Its a hard cycle to break out of, I'm the first one to admit. But it is crucial to start examining the excessive way we live, and start focusing on the things that really matter- our family and our friends, our spiritual life, blessing others through service, savoring the small moments, etc. Here is a link to a video called "The Story of Stuff" that really convicted me to start making some changes. What do you think?

Greetings from Hello Handmade!

Good morning! Shanna and I have been waiting for this season to roll around again for a whole year, and now it is finally time to reopen our Hello Handmade shop selling this winter's goodies! Listed starting today are the Tannenbaum Specimen Chart and the 2010 Laureled Tea Towel. At the end of November we will be listing some downloadable items, such as an advent calendar, ornament, and bunting.
It was such a wonderful experience getting to work together on these items this summer in Rochester. Creating beautiful designs with such an amazing, wonderful friend is such a giddy feeling. We are so proud of them and hope you will love them, too!

Boo!

To be honest, I'm not really into the whole Halloween thing very much, I just think it is rather creepy with evil underpinnings. But I was super happy with the way these envelopes for a costume ball turned out, complete with kooky, turned-sideways-house-of-mirrors-effect "head" stamps. I loved drawing all those creepy, twisty ribbons, too.

Happy 25th!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium turns 25 this week. Here's a cool little audio slide show about it. On our trip up the coast last December, this was one of our favorite stops. We read Cannery Row in the car on the way there, to help us get in the mood. I loved the jellyfish exhibit especially much. I would highly recommend stopping there, if you are passing through!

Heather and Evie

My friend Heather is an amazingly talented writer, and I just wanted to take this opportunity to link to her lovely blog. Isn't her little baby Evangeline the cutest?

Map Quilts

I absolutely love the idea of "map quilts," and here are two very different examples of the concept. The top image of a soft map quilt is by Emily Fischer, a Brooklyn based architect and artist, and the photo below is one I had bookmarked a long time ago- a paper quilt created by Susan Stockwell. I love them both!

(Reference to Emily Fischer via Snippet and Ink)

Rachel and Michael

I just wanted to share these gorgeous photos from the June marriage of Rachel Cardina and Michael Adkins. I had worked with Rachel, who is a fabulous designer, on this spread for Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles a while ago, and then she contacted me to provide some of the lettering for the invitations she was designing for her wedding. Please click here on their wedding blog to see some more invitation details. The wedding took place at the JCT Kitchen in Atlanta, and I just love the photos, taken by Jose Villa. Many blessings on your new life together, guys!

And just as a bonus, I think it is super fun that Rachel posted these pictures from their honeymoon on her wedding blog. Looks relaxing!

So sad.

I was so disappointed to learn yesterday that Gourmet magazine will be closing its doors after nearly 70 years in print. This is my favorite magazine by far, and I will sorely miss it. Nick was asking what the big deal was since all of the recipes can still be found online at Epicurious, and he has a point, but I told him there is just something so satisfying about flipping through an issue, getting inspired, trotting to the kitchen with the recipe, and getting the pages all splattered with the evidence of a meal prepared with love. I'll take actual, tangible cookbooks and glossy issues of Gourmet any day over a recipe I have to print out on computer paper in the office.

Lauren and David

Congratulations to Lauren and David, who were married this past August at the Encantado Resort in Sante Fe, New Mexico. I loved all of the "southwestern" detailing, such as corn husks on the chairs, succulents on the cake, and a turquoise bracelet on the bride's wrist. And take a look at those monsoon-y looking clouds- what a breathtaking backdrop. May your new life together be blessed, Lauren and David!

Photography by Twin Lens, LLC.

a sneaky peek...

Well, ladies and gents, here is a tiny little sneak peek of some of the items that Shanna and I will be selling through our Hello Handmade shop this upcoming season! We can't wait to unveil everything more fully.....just pulling together some loose ends at this point. Cheers!

States United

I checked out the HBO series John Adams from the library to watch while I was working last week, and it was excellent. I would highly recommend it. It made me feel very patriotic, thus the link to this awesome letterpressed poster from the Etsy shop Beauchamping. Did anyone else watch and enjoy this series?

We will miss you, Bellie.

This is a picture of Belle as a kitten.

It has been pretty sad around our house lately, as last week we had to have our little Belle put to sleep. She was only three years old. It is amazing how much you can grow to love the pets that live with you....I feel like there is a giant "Belle-shaped" hole in my heart now. But we are so very thankful for the short time we had with her. She was the sweetest little cat on earth.

opposite of the desert:

One thing I was pretty obsessed with while staying in Rochester was the lush greenery everywhere you looked; having lived in Tucson for most of my life, this was somewhat of a novelty, and I'm pretty sure I drove Shanna a bit nuts with all my many, repetitive declarations of, "Oh goodness its so green here! I forgot what green looked like! Wait, I have to take a photograph!"

One of my very favorite parts of the trip was the last day I was there, when Shanna took me to visit the "moon gate" that her sweetheart C had built last year. It was so breathtaking, and you can see some more photos of it here on her blog. It reminded me of something right out of The Lord of the Rings, don't you think- for those of you that love that trilogy? So whimsical and otherworldly. Anyway, I just wanted to share these refreshingly lush photos with you- like a gulp of a cool, minty drink, right?

quota reached.

Here is just a peek at the hundreds upon hundreds of towels that Shanna and I washed and ironed and cut and ironed again and hemmed while I was in Rochester. This is just a fraction of them. It was an overwhelming endeavor, but I can't wait to show you the end result! However, I just might boycott ironing from here on out, as I believe my personal lifetime ironing quota was reached and then more than surpassed during this project. I think Shanna would agree.
Photo of Shanna's attic taken by Shanna

No place like home...

I just returned from Rochester, New York, where I met Shanna Murray in person for the first time. We had an amazingly beautiful time together, as we worked like maniacally driven crazy people designing, printing and packaging some gorgeous items for the winter line of Hello Handmade. It was a jam packed couple weeks, but the end result was more than worth all the effort. I can't wait to show you everything a little later in the year! Shanna is a wonderfully kind friend and a beautiful person, and I'm so thankful for the time I was able to spend with her. It felt a little bit like a really long slumber party, as there were many times when it was late at night and we were up working hard and delirium got the better of us and we would melt into fits of giggles over really silly things. Those were sweet times.

All that being said, there is no place like home, and I'm so very, very glad to be back.

Julene Harrison

Nick's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I commissioned Julene Harrison to create this amazing papercut piece for one of his gifts. Pretty amazing, don't you think? The lyric is really special to the two of us, and I can't stop looking at the framed end result. Check out more of Julene's amazing work here on her blog.

Oh my.

I was having a chat the other day with some girlfriends about what we would do differently with our weddings if we could go back in time and do it over again. I tried to describe an amazingly unfussy, homemade, low-key sort of event, but couldn't quite get my words to match the images in my head. Then I saw pictures of this wedding and my jaw dropped. This is the sort of party I would go back in time and create if I could (with the same husband, of course)!

Via Frolic.

cupcake party...

I'm wild about this new vermillion sumi ink I found at my favorite art store the other day....it is the cheeriest color, especially for cupcake party invitations, don't you think?

Book Club

My friends Marianne, Kara, Erin and I have embarked upon the journey of wading through the entire book list outlined in The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. I typed up the book list here, if you would like to take a peek. I'm pretty enthused, but am imagining it will take about twenty years to get through the entire list, reading carefully and critically. First up- Don Quixote, which I somehow wriggled out of reading in both high school and college.