weekly giveaway - City Of Dionne:

92

August 31, 2009

i've been lucky enough to meet the amazing + most talented Dionne at our LA blogger's lunch a couple months ago! She was so sweet and put on such a nice social for local friends. She runs a really lovely blog: city of Dionne, as well as her unique etsy shop. One of my favorite items from her shop are her stitch prints: what quality work! Each print is illustrated, designed, and hand-stitched by Dionne! Today you have a chance to win a stitch print or a notecard set from her shop. Be sure to stop by her blog and say hello!

win: your choice: stitch print
or notecard set, $20 value!

How did you get started in design? I was always interested in all kinds of art and design. When I was in the tenth grade, I wanted to be an Interior Designer and worked on weekends as an Interior Design assistant, putting together presentation boards for the Designers meetings, and after that I realized that i enjoyed creating things even more than pulling together premade materials/objects. So when I graduated high school, after taking a year off to travel and see Europe, I went to college and got to Bachelors Degrees - one being in Graphic Design. Then after I graduated, I left my home country of Australia and got a job as a Graphic Designer in Los Angeles.

You have such a unique style in your illustrations, where do you get the inspiration for your content? I am SUCH a girly girl, and always have been. I love anything pretty, delicate, and a little quirky. I am a sucker for little details, creating things with tiny details gives me a lot of fulfilment.

What is your favorite place to travel? I was born with the travel bug. My mother is Filipino with 9 brothers and sisters who live all across the globe, and my Dad was born in Australia to two Italian parents, so for most of my life I have traveled to visit relatives all around the world. We used to go overseas every second year when I was growing up, so when I was old enough to travel on my own, I jumped at the chance. The Greek Islands and Switzerland are my two absolute favorites, and then within the US - New York and San Francisco are high up on the list.

Favorite inspiration sites?
- Etsy: I love seeing what new stuff artists are coming up with, it's so inspiring!
- Simplesong: I always find some sort of lovely thing on there, from pretty fabric, to lovely pastries.
- the-stationery-place: Lyndsey posts daily all her favorite stationery finds from across the web, and I LOVE stationery!

Visit City of Dionne and leave a comment with
your favorite item from Dionne's lovely shop!

Be sure to leave your email address in your entry!
feel free to spread the love around your blogs, twitter, etc!
it is greatly appreciated friend.

giveaway ends on monday, september 7 at 8am, pst.

giveaway winner:

2

congrats to #15: copystrands,
the winner of the you are my fav polaroid subscription!

thanks to melanie for donating such a lovely item!

be sure to check out this week's giveaway from city of dionne!

utterly engaged:

29

August 28, 2009

utterly engaged: issue 003
is now available!

if you ever have a chance to meet lucia, henny, and eva of utterly engaged: you simply must. i first met lucia + henny at patchwork show: They are the most dear and sweet ladies ever!

Their work and contribution to the wedding community is such an inspiration: they launched their first e-zine a few months ago and each issue is more and more fabulous.

so i was honored when they asked if i'd like to be a part of the 'forgotten details' issue! i naturally did some packaging and a mini diy-note book.

so if you haven't read this magazine yet, grab some coffee or tea and enjoy utterly engaged this weekend, you'll be so inspired!

oh, hello friend elsewhere:

2

thank you to:

- amy of old sweet song: i was a part of her 'blogger crush series' - a series of blogger guest interviews i simply love and am so honored to be a part of!

- kelly of design crush: featuring oh, hello friend shop goods for a giveaway! (stop by her blog, you can win some goods and have till monday to enter!)

- brandy of the lovely list: i was a part of the lovely list this past tuesday at brandy's wonderful blog featuring lots of talented bloggers + artists.

- becky of sugar plum invitations: so lovely to be interviewed on this gorgeous wedding blog. i am also working on some packaging for becky, she is such a dear!

thanks for the love ladies!

( weekly roundup )

7

happy friday! :) what are your weekend plans? tomorrow bright and early i am heading to the los angeles printers fair! then nick and i are hopefully going to head out to this lovely friend's place for a bbq! so here are a few weeks for you to browse this weekend:

1) vintage glam at great full day. i love this post, the dresses are just gorgeous. and i love this blog!

2) wild poppy giveaway at a room somewhere. one lucky winner will receive this awesome alphabet print! so pretty.

3) 30% OFF everything at the kitchen shoppe. jennifer's shop is so lovely and she is moving! so everything in the shop is 30% off, hurray! i heart vintage.

4) city of you at city of dionne. okay, this is my favorite friday post. dionne describes her ideal city, where the mayor gives her free cupcakes, her husband gets off work at 2, and everyone dresses in costumes to football games. LOL. then you describe your city! it is fun reading everyone's descriptions and writings. such creativity :)

5) paper pastries giveaway at the bright side project. i first saw margaret's line of stationery at renegade los angeles, but she wasn't at her table so i talked with her boyfriend. but then i met her at our blog social, and she is the sweetest! three lucky winners will receive a big package of her amazing designs!

have a wonderful weekend!!

ps: right-click on the blog is back - i decided if someone is going to steal my blog content, well, that's just sad. and i do care more about my readers and what is comfortable for you guys! xo.

cupcake fun:

17

August 27, 2009

so this last wednesday, i took a nice drive along the coastline to visit my dear friends jessica jane and valerie! i hadn't seen jessica and valerie since renegade los angeles and now that jess is living so close, we decided we needed to hang out. i've really been LOVING red velvet cupcakes since rubyellen gave me some so i asked jess if we could make red velvet. jessica posted about it on her blog too: so stop by her blog and see her lovely pics!

i don't think i've ever actually made cupcakes from scratch before! it's so legit. go us! :)

okay. so to sum this awesome and pretty comical cupcake experience up: jessica and i went to henry's (an organic grocery store) to get the things we needed. they didn't have food coloring and we forgot the creme cheese for the frosting - which we asked valerie to bring over. so jess and i get a little desperate while we're waiting and decide we don't really care if they're red - they can be BROWN VELVET! so we make a batch of MINI cupcakes! lol. mm. it's just not the same as red. luckily valerie and her baby girl alina arrived to save the day! she had gel food coloring and it said 2 tablespoons but the tube was so tiny! so i put the whole tube of gel in, lol. they turned out really red, but i love it! then when we started making the frosting, jess realized she didn't have butter (to which she said, "how can i not have butter?!") so after seriously considering just making frosting without butter and debating on what it would taste like, i ended up running back to henry's to get butter.

here you can see our mini brown velvet and then our lovely red velvet cupcakes ;)

the recipe made SOO much frosting! we probably had double the frosting we needed. loved the raspberries on top.

hurray for cupcake friends!

these are probably my 2 fav pictures of the day. i just like the way jess looks in the first one , holding her camera in one hand (we're such blog-nerds) and a cupcake in the other. the second one is totally candid cause alina stuck her tiny little hand in jess's cupcake as we were taking the picture. jess's face is classic. valerie and i are laughing and you can see little alina's hang with the frosting all over it, haha.

and that is our cupcake friend gathering! jessica had a great idea that we're going to get together and make a new thing each time! can't wait for the next baking adventure.

( resource ) using social network icons:

5

how to add SOCIAL NETWORK ICONS:

i received some comments from readers that they downloaded the social network icons that i posted about a couple weeks ago, but they didn't know where to go from there. so for this week's resource, we are going back to basics: an html code that all bloggers should know!

note: this also goes for ANY image you want to post on your blog! just change the address + the photo link! :)

STEP ONE: Find the set you want to download -- LOTS available for free download! Here are a few places I've found free icons at: 25 amazing social media icons set + 20 free social media icons for bloggers + collection motherload: 600 icons!

STEP TWO: locate the folder the images were downloaded to on your computer.

note: They will most likely come in a 'packaged' file.. for instance, this download is a .rar package file. This one is a .zip file -- either way, you need some sort of program to 'unstuff' them. I have "stuff it expander" downloaded on my computer and once I download a packaged file, it just does the rest for me! Then when I go to my downloads, it has the un-packaged file! Nick told me you need WinRAR to unpackage a .rar file. If anyone needs help with this, just comment with the icon link you want to download and I can possibly download them for you and send you the icons you want to use. I'll try to help everyone.. If there is a lot, maybe everyone can help eachother out :)

STEP THREE: place the icons you are using aside in a separate folder. In this instance, I am using twitter, rss, flickr, and facebook.

STEP FOUR. Go to an image hosting site such as photobucket, flickr - or you can host them on your own server if you have space! I will use photobucket. Upload the image files.

STEP FIVE: Copy & paste the DIRECT LINK or address of your image.

STEP SIX: Here is the HTML link that you need to post a linking image on your blog. Change the parts where I type URLofLINKgoeshere :)There is an example below:

COPY & PASTE:

STEP SEVEN: Lastly, in blogger, click "add a gadget" in layout and add the HTML gadget ;)

copy and paste your code and YOU'RE ALL DONE! :) Hurray! Please leave comments with questions, or if this was helpful to you.

Again, this works for ANY IMAGE you want to post as a link! Use it for an email button, an etsy shop button, a friend's banner, whatever!

( lovely goods )

17

August 26, 2009

some lovely vintage from etsy.
gotta love vintage.

Vintage sky blue bow tie ascot Blouse by halfCaf, $20
Yellow-Orange Rolodex by foundpaperco, $16
Daisy Chain Shade by nice, $138
Wooden Curio Cabinet by findingfabulous, $26
1970s vintage leather sandals by allencompanyinc, $55

Seamstress by CapriciousTraveler, $21

must share:

4

black & light

I haven't done a 'must share' in a while.. but I received the most lovely candles in the mail last week and I just had to share with you friends :) it is from black & light - simply sophisticated candles. (www.blackandlightco.com)

i feel like if i could compare these candles, they would be the comparison of apple computers. they are the apple computer of candles. the packaging & presentation of the candles was so lovely - they really have their whole identity and brand down!

well, packaging is one thing. product is another. but these candle's don't disappoint. they are super quality, in addition to having really cute designs. here are some images:

each candle comes with a box of matches.

packaged in a super quality cardboard box with quote.

lit in the darkness, i love how the light shines through the design:

SPECIAL: your simply must try these amazing candles..order some for a gift (christmas will be here before you know it!) or to go in your lovely home. use code ZAP120 for 10% off and FREE SHIPPING!

be sure to check out previous 'must shares' from k is for calligraphy, petite house, and made by hank.

mini-market followup:

25

August 25, 2009

so this last sunday i did the unique los angeles mini-market at space15twenty. it was a super hot day (despite the slight chance of rain forecast) but it was super fun! saw lots of friends from the blog social like monica from a designed life (who is getting married in 20 days, so exciting!) and margaret from paper pastries. (margaret took some awesome pictures of my table, thanks!) myra from double sided tape also stopped by - she is incredible!!

here are some pics of the table:

i really love the lace and chalkboard. it's simple. but i got the wood crates underneath the lace for a dollar at the swap meet. most of my table items are thrifted. i also made some 'mini grab bags' for the show. fun stuff :)

some new tags for the earrings. can you tell i'm really into eyelet / cutouts / lace / doilies? :)

i didn't know ruby was coming so when i saw her and her seriously adorable family, i was so excited! it was the first time i got to meet her husband, and ruby met nick. brave and true are just too cute for words. hurray for friends!

so they had oh snap photo booth at the market, these guys are brilliant and so full of creativity! my dear craft show-buddy steppie and i went to do it - i feel like we are miniature people with the big pencils, haha. if you're in the LA area and want to rent their service, it's so fun! they have awesome props and really cool 'themes' and everything.