the talented ashley meaders

Oh my, aren't the scenes in these photos enchanting? This fabric installation was made of braided fabric, hand-sewn garland, fabric strips, and lights by the ever-creative Ashley Meaders for the wedding of the uber-talented photographer, Max Wanger.

Ashley makes a lot of other neat things for events & parties... like plush yodel bubbles for photobooth props at Google's Annual Oktoberfest. I like the way this lady thinks....

kanzashi masks

I know the time of year for carnival celebrations has passed, but a few weeks ago I spotted these beautiful masks on Etsy, and I keep thinking about them.

These intricately designed masks are made out of paper kanzashi modules by Barcelonean Etsy user Ccaspia. Kanazashi is a Japanese art form of folding paper or fabric into small flowers which were traditionally worn in a woman's hair.

Ccaspia has used them to make masks for masquerade parties, carnivale, or whatever you desire. She has many other mask designs in her Etsy shop, be sure to jump over and check them out.

{all photos from Ccaspia's Etsy shop}

just. add. paper.

In need of another easy or last-minute valentine? I love these printable Valentines from Little Brown Pen. For just $5 you get folded notecards, flat notecards, gift tags, an envelope and 8.5 x 11 stationery. All you do is download and then print!

Nichole and her family are currently living in a beautiful apartment in Paris. I have been enjoying reading her updates on her blog and catching her daily tweets on twitter for the last few months. Her and her hubby started this ingenious idea of "just. add. paper" and I must say, ever since I first saw their idea, I have seen it popping up all over the place; Trendsetters they are indeed! You must watch their beautifully crafted video (it was made during the holidays to exhibit the concept of "just. add. paper"... but you get the idea, it translates to any of their products).

Check out the Little Brown Pen etsy shop, there are other valentines, stationery, calendars and such too.

made with love

Check out this fantastic little freebie made by Twig & Thistle... the idea is you make the heart-shaped brownies, download Twig & Thistle's free graphic, print the graphic on a paper bag or sticker, and tada(!), instant valentine's gift, appropriate for anyone. A genius idea if you ask me.

If you're feeling a little more adventurous in the kitchen, click here to see Twig & Thistle's recipe for individual apple pies and another free graphic to go along with them. Twig & Thistle is on a roll, make sure to give the blog some love.

{photos from Twig & Thistle}

pretty pumpkin

Today I am really loving this photo from a pumpkin carving feature Country Living has done. The pattern on the pumpkin is cool, but it is the styling and colors of the photo that I am really drawn to. Check out some of the other pumpkin design ideas they feature here.

Oh, and here's a little tip that they suggest:

"To keep the exposed flesh fresh-looking before a party, rub a coating of Vaseline over it, then wipe it off before the event."

{via Poppytalk}

the road to finding the perfect chevron.. err, ripple pattern

{Rachel Saldaña's bedroom featured on Design*Sponge}

There is something about the return of Fall TV that always makes me want to dig out my yarn and knitting needles. I would have normally said "the return of fall" but as I was about to write this post I realized this past year I haven't pick up my knitting needles once. This is probably due to the strike-inducing, terrible lack of television. Television is one of my very few vices, I love my DVR a little too much. And I will be honest, I don't really watch that much tv, I just have a few shows every season that I stay extremely dedicated to and insist on watching them from start to finish and never out of order (it's borderline OCD the order and way I watch tv). Anyway... to me, there is nothing more relaxing and rewarding than sitting down after a long day, turning on a good show and working on a great knitting project. (This makes me sound like a granny, doesn't it?)

{Rachel Saldaña's bedroom featured on Design*Sponge}

Last week I saw the beautiful home of Rachel Saldaña on Design*Sponge. The images of her bedroom in the sneak peak just stuck with me for some reason {see the two pictures above, both photos from D*S}. And then I realized what it was, I really love that blanket. I've always been partial to a chevron pattern, and I am realizing over time that (for whatever reason) I am drawn to pink/magenta shades of color. And this is how my hunt for the perfect chevron pattern began...

{above photo by Ripple-Along group member charlottelader, you can see her blog post about the blanket pictured here}

At first I tried looking for different chevron knitting patterns online, and to my dismay it appears all of the stitches I was drawn to weren't knitting patterns at all, but crochet. I currently don't know how to crochet. I've tried it a handful of times, but never really had anything pushing me to learn it. I suppose now I do!

{above photo by Ripple-Along group member Attic 24, you can see her blog post about the blanket pictured here}

After clicking through different links, and being disappointed with my finds, I somehow stumbled upon this blog post on Shelterific, which in turn took me to a Flickr group called Ripple-Along. Aha! So 'ripple' is the hip word used in the crafty community, not 'chevron' (silly, design-thinker me). I thought to myself, 'wow, this is where all those cool looking blankets are hiding' followed by a 'I should have known better to check flickr and blogs first'. Everything else I had come across was slathered in 70s vintage brown, and just wasn't the look I was going for... at all.

{pattern inspiration from this image at Pottery Barn}

But honestly, now I am even more confused. At first I thought I wanted to do a simple two-color chevron pattern, similar to something like this rug from Pottery Barn {see above}. And now that I've seen all these bright and colorful blankets from the Ripple-Along group, I am having a hard time resisting the bold beautiful explosions of color! And what-to-do? A ripple wave? Or a pointed ripple? Forget ripples, look at this astounding Tuscon crochet pattern {shown below in white}! Oh the decisions...

{Tuscon blanket made as a wedding present by the talented flickr user Pinkshoes Family}

Either way, I am looking forward to watching more Mad Men* with a new project in hand, and the hunt for some cool yarn. It never ceases to amaze me, where the blogging and flickr communities can take you. So much inspiration to be had and projects to embark on.



* Oh, how I love Mad Men! Don't get me started, I will have to save that post for another day...

{D.I.Y.} design*sponge & creature comforts

i had to post these two clever DIY projects. the first one {above} is a project from Grace at design*sponge. she decided she would try one of the suggestions from Blueprint magazine's article about stylish jewelry storage. you can read more about Grace's shadowbox jewelry cases at her blog. they seem pretty simple to make and are excellent way to incorporate your new favorite patterns in small way.







secondly, i had to post about Ez's crafty project for chocolate valentine wrappers! these {above, and Ez's instructions the right} also look incredibly easy to assemble and Ez has been nice enough to make a PDF guide to download. read more about this project at her creature comforts blog.




thanks grace / blueprint and ez for these easy ideas!

{photos from design*sponge and creature comforts, respectively}

don't make me cut you.

i made this polyvore set last week or so and meant to blog about subversive stitching. these cross stitching kits are not very expensive and take a stray away from the pastel kittens and horses-in-meadows motifs. my favorite is pictured in the polyvore set {above}. (also if you are curious about any of the other items in the ployvore set, just click on the photo and it will take you to my ployvore and show you the sites the items came from.)

love yourself.

felt heart rings by the funkyfelter etsy shop.



love orgami {more beautiful photography from the cox & cox store.}



"like carrying around a little piece of art when you go to the store," reusable tote bags from melissa vest designs etsy shop.

knitware

its that time of year that i go back to the knitting needles. (there is something so calming and comforting about cozying up on the couch with the heat on and a knitting project in hand.) in honor of the lovely hobby, i wanted to point out this incredible art by alyssa ettinger. it's called knitware. you can purchase it from her etsy shop.

knitware bowl, $65



knitware tumbler, $35

oh, let's just say a little bird told me so.

isn't this little guy cute? more birds like this can be found on etsy (made by cotton bird designs). they sort of remind me of the ever-so-infamous birds ann wood makes. i really love all the vintage fabric used!

paper + scissors = good [toy] design

today my boyfriend made himself this cardboy calendar. while trying to find the instructions and site he got it off of, i came upon several really neat places that had cool paper toy art.

[images are from the rag & bone blog]

you can download the cardboy calendar pdf here.





most of the sites i found thanks to the okee dorkee blog.




[above] there are a bunch of free downloads for these cool ready mech paper toys.



[to the right] a teeter totter mechanical paper kit, $9.95, from the giant robot online store.


the cannon [creative park] website, of all places, has some really cool paper projects. from origami, paper replicas of famous monuments, cards and even cool patterns to print out your own origami paper.


[above] i love the goldfish and rabbits origami pieces.

[to the left] an example of what one of the pages in the pdf download will look like. you print the pages from your computer (usually onto thicker photo paper) and then you cut and fold along the dotted lines. some are much harder than you probably think!






[above] a bird cage pop-up card and an origami pigeon.



[to the right] i especially want to try making this last one, we have a lucky kitty collection growing in the kids' room.