Easy (and Affordable) Invitations

I am hosting a birthday party for my dear friend, Daphne this week. Daphne is the kind of woman for whom and evite invitation just wouldn't do--think pearls and Hermes scarves. So, I decided to make paper invitations for the party. However, I don't have the budget to do offset printing at Crane's. Instead I picked up a pack of inkjet postcards from Staples and design them myself. They are very simple, but I think they turned out nicely. 200 cards and envelopes cost me less than $35, which made me think that this would be a great solution for a couple's save-the-date card.

Construction Coaches

My local hardware store had flyers for "construction coaches" at their check out counter. I picked one up out of curiosity. The idea is that you can hire a coach to help you with your renovation/DIY project for a lot less than it would cost you to hire someone to do the work. I was tempted to do this for my renovation project, but my friend T. (who knows a thing or two about renovation) assures me that it would be MUCH better to just pay someone to get it done in a timely manner. While I'm not going to hire a coach, I would be very curious to hear if anyone has any experiences with construction coaches.

Camper London Table Idea

I tore this page out of an old issue of Elle magazine, and it's been pinned to my bulletin board as "inspiration" for at least two years. I LOVE this table with multiple different legs in Camper's London store. It would end up costing you a bit, but it would be pretty easy to make. Someday when I have room for a huge dining table, I might just go ahead and build one.

Headed Upstate!

While I would have loved to head home to see my parents for the Thanksgiving holiday, plane tickets were pretty pricey. Instead, my sister and I decided to rent a house upstate and invite all our orphan friends up for a weekend getaway. Lucky for us, we have friends with an adorable rental house just a couple hours outside of the city. We were there last weekend with one group of friends, and we head back today with another bunch. Tomorrow will be spent cooking and eating turkey dinner with a collection of treasured friends, which is almost as lovely as a day spent with family. Here are a few photos of our light, bright getaway. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday.

Is This How They Make a Living?

In the last week or so I have come across two design businesses that made me wonder: Is this really how someone makes a living? What are these people's day jobs? The first was Domestic Construction, which was written up by Daily Candy New York. Domestic Construction (shown above) describes themselves as:

Domestic Construction is a multi-disciplinary design studio specializing in interiors, environments and one of a kind fashion and home products.

The second business that made me wonder was Chroma Lab (shown above), which was recently written up on Design*Sponge. Chroma Lab's 'About Us' page reads:

In 2006 we began transforming neglected but promising pieces of furniture by repairing and repainting them for ourselves and for our friends. It was a lot of fun, and it turns out other people like vibrant and repurposed furniture and accessories, too. We started Chroma Lab for anyone whose home needs a shot (or a lot) of pick-me-up color in the form of high quality furniture and unique, hand crafted clocks and durable floorcloths.

So, my question is, "Is this their livelihood?" Is this really how they make a living? If so, I have clearly got to get to work figuring out how to set up my own design studio. I love both of these studios' work, but I can't imagine it would actually pay the bills.

Toilet Paper Holder

I was over at my friend Nathaniel's house last night, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of his very funny toilet paper holder (above). I guess that's what to expect from someone who is an an avid skateboarder and the owner of a hardware store. At left is a red cross medicine cabinet, which I can only assume is a knock-off of the original Cappellini below.

Hatch Show Print

One delightful and unexpected find in Nashville was Hatch Show Print. We saw the posters for Hatch Show Print in the airport as we were coming into town and I noted the address on Broadway. Later we came across the closed print shop on Friday night while roaming around downtown. I was very happy that we came back on Monday afternoon to see the shop when it was open.

Hatch Show Print is a print shop that has been in business since 1879. The space is smack dab in the middle of a strip of touristy bars. However, the minute you walk in the door, you feel as thought time has stopped (or at the very least, slowed down considerably). Hatch describes itself as, "A wonderful amalgam of working letterpress print shop, tourist attraction, museum and historical archive." I'd say that their description is right on the money. I pulled a few photos from their website, but somehow the pics don't do their work justice. The handmade quality of the work is what lends it its charm. I was seconds away from purchasing a green and white version of the Clean Rest Rooms poster below. Check out their stuff online, if you can't make it down to Nashville.

Anthropologie Stacking RIngs

While in Anthropologie the other day I fell in love with this set of stacking rings. I walked away from them because $40+ seemed a lot to pay for a momentary whim. However, I really did sort of fall in love with them. Here's a shot of them on my hand. What do you think: Are they worth the investment?

DIY Nesting Dolls

Somehow, while I was down in TN I ended up in a Michael's shopping for holiday crafts. (Don't ask, these things just sort of happen to me.) I came up this very cool product: D.I.Y. nesting dolls. The set of three blank dolls was for sale for $9.99. (See kit above.) I couldn't find the nesting dolls on michaels.com, which is a shame. It would take some patience, but it would be a hell of a lot of fun to create a set of custom nesting dolls. Personally, my head is spinning with political characters.

Help the Parks Department

If you want to have a say in the future of New York City parks, click on this link and fill out the survey form the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.

California Dreaming

My alter-ego lives in Los Angeles. She drives an old Jeep with a soft top. She has a mutt named Lashka who walks with her on the beach in Santa Monica early in the morning. The thought of sitting in a cube all day is foreign, instead my alter-ego does set dressing for films. And, oh yeah, she lives in a cool L.A. loft just like this one posted on Design*Sponge's sneak peaks section. Go ahead, click the link and drool a little. Le sigh.

Gone to Tennessee!

I am off to Tennessee for four days for a visit with friends and family. While I am there, I aim to take advantage of southern junk shops. I also plan to makes stops at the Loveless Cafe, The Bluebird Cafe and the home of the late, great Elvis Presley, Graceland. Should be a great trip. Back on Tuesday!

Image courtesy of the Tennessee Preservation Trust.

Product Update: Oxo LiquiSeal Mug

I wrote about Oxo's amazing LiquiSeal Travel Mugs when I first started this blog. At one point, I must have had a half a dozen of them. But I'd lost all but of them to ex-boyfriends, roadtrips and the cleaning lady at my office who likes to throw out coffee mugs if I leave them by the sink. So, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond (aka the fifth circle of hell) the other day to pick up another mug. I was thrilled to discover that Oxo now offers the mug in stainless steel. It's much easier to keep clean than the older plastic version, and recent news reports about the possible dangers of drinking out of plastic make me feel a little better about stowing my coffee in steel. $20 may seem like a lot for a travel mug, but trust me, it's worth it.

Deep Thought: $10 vs. $245

Restoration Hardware's Lugarno Extension Mirror is $245.
IKEA's Frack mirror is $9.99? Which would you choose?

Three To Read

Celerie Kemble: To Your Taste, $45 (and yes, I love to hate her too)

Domino: The Book of Decorating, $32

Brooklyn Modern, $45

Bedford Smart Recharge Station

I'm thinking about buying this recharging station from Pottery Barn. Part of me thinks it is insane to pay $80 for a box to hide cords in, but I haven't been able to find anything similar at a lower price point. (I also happen to have a $95 credit at Pottery Barn, which makes the decision a little easier.) On the flip side, I absolutely loathe the site of a tangle of cords, and the value of hiding the usual cord clutter in my bedroom seems priceless to me. Unfortunately, it's only available online, so I can't go to a store to check it out in person.

Banner

I have a new banner. I drew it. What do you think?

Plastic Bag Tax for NYC?

Today The New York Times has an article about a proposal to tax NYC residents 6 cents for each plastic bag needed at the register. I think this would be a great way to reduce New Yorkers use of plastic bags. I try to use cloth bags as often as possible. In fact, I've gotten so good at avoiding plastic bags the my deli guys know not to give me one and I have to make a conscious decision to get more bags to line my kitchen trash can when I run low. My question is, what are you supposed to do to hold your trash? I always figured that re-using plastic bags was a more earth-friendly option that buying trash liners.

Last night in Brooklyn.

All those cheers of Yes We Can, turned into emphatic cries of Yes We Did last night. I am so proud of this country and so hopeful for its future.

Last night I watched the election returns come in at a friend’s apartment uptown. I saw people filling the streets and cheering as I headed downtown towards Brooklyn. What I saw in Manhattan filled me with happiness, but what I found in Fort Greene made me laugh out loud. I can’t describe how happy everyone was, but if you want to take a look, click here, a friend was kind enough to share some video with me. People were literally dancing in the streets. They were spilling out of bars onto sidewalks and sitting on brownstone stoops. The crowd watching Obama’s acceptance speech at Rope was so thick that I couldn’t even make my way through it to reach my friends. The bar actually ran out of beer it was so busy.

Come three in the morning people were still in the streets yelling their heads off. As my friends and I walked across Washington Street, we would cheer at everyone whose path we crossed and then they would cheer right back. Then the shouts would ripple up the street--a constant wave of ‘Wooo Hoos’ and ‘Yes We Dids.’ As I walked down Lafayette, I could hear a roar of voices coming from further down the street. Outside of Moe’s people were still crowding the sidewalks. Down on DeKalb people were singing, drumming and dancing at Madiba. My friend Jackie tells me that after she left she was riding the back of a garbage truck at four in the morning.

It was glorious, and I loved my neighborhood even more than ever. I loved it for its enthusiasm, for its almost reckless hope and most of all, for its unrestrained joy. There is no place I would have rather been as I finally fell asleep last night than in Fort Greene listening to the sounds of conga drums and my neighbors cheering.

Happy Birthday Neighbor

Happy birthday to my neighbor. Happy birthday to my neighbor, Happy birthday, dear Seana. Happy birthday to you! You got the best birthday present ever.

D.I.Y. Runner Idea

Here's a great idea from Remodelista: A kilim stair runner! I love the way this looks, especially against the dark colored stairs. However, I am not sure how easy it would be to execute. How would you get the runner to lay flat on the steps? I think I'd steal this idea and create a runner for a hallway, where it could simply lie flat.

Hugo Guiness Deja Vu

Today Design*Sponge has a post about an artist who makes lino-cut prints. D*S simply says, “beautiful new linocuts from stacey at perla anne….” I am sort of shocked that D*S didn’t point out how very similar these pieces are to Hugo Guiness’s work. If I were Mr. Guiness (or John Derian, who sells his work), I would certainly be a little annoyed. Stacey's work is above and Hugo Guiness's is below. What do you think?

Fingers Crossed

After many weekends canvassing and calling, I'm hoping for the best. Tonight will either be a very happy night, or a very, very sad one.

Red Accents

A recent post on Apartment Therapy (which I can no longer find) got me thinking about filling my kitchen with red accents, so I started to look for a red Copco kettle on eBay. Today one turned up in my queue. I think I will bid.