Weekend Recap

Andy and went for a walk on some hunting land a family friend owns over the weekend. It was a beautiful way to spend a Saturday morning. Although I must say my Uggs did not hold up nearly was well as I had hoped. I guess now is the time for winter boot sales--Sorels here I come!

How was your weekend?

Nice Package

I finally had time to catch up on some of my favorite blogs and came came across this wonderful DIY paper project over on Nice Package. If you've never checked out the site, it's a must click! They (Ez of Creature Comforts and Marichelle of Heart Handmade) offer great ideas, tutorials and patterns for all things paper. Happy Weekend!

{photo source: Creature Comforts}

Pretty Spring Dress

There are so many great pieces in the Elizabeth & James Spring Collection. I am loving these beautifully flirty spring/summer dresses.

Have Your Cake And Eat It Too

With today being my future-sis-in-law's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!) I thought this was a perfect time to post the recipe for chocolate cake that I mentioned a couple weeks ago. I came across this recipe in The Gastronomy of Marriage and my eyes lit up when I saw that it called for sour cream. That and the way author, Michelle Maisto, wrote about it made my mouth water--I knew it was a must try!

Easy Double-layer Chocolate Cake

FOR THE CAKE:

1 box devils food cake, with chocolate pudding in the batter; or, short of that, add a box of instant chocolate pudding to the cake mix

1 cup whole-fat sour cream

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup oil

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

FOR THE FROSTING:

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1.5 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 tbls sour cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-size bowl, combine all the cake ingredients and mix them well with a hand beater or spatula. Then pour the batter into two 9-inch greased cake pans and bake for 28 to 32 minutes, or until exactly the moment a toothpick comes out clean and the cakes have slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan.

For the frosting, mix the butter and cocoa until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar and sour cream a little at a time, alternating between the two and blending on low speed. Add the vanilla last, and beat for one minute. Frost tops of cakes and stack (double the frosting recipe if you want to frost the entire cake)

The frosted cake can sit for a day on a covered cake stand at room temperature, but I'd store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

I served this for some friends after dinner. Even the non-chocolate lovers were asking for take-home boxes!

{photo source: Divine Chocolate and Rebecca Thuss}

Wedding: Wood Grain

I spent some time experimenting with my new woodgrain rubber stamp this past weekend. I hope to find a way to incorporate it into our wedding invites, possibly in the form of a belly band like this (sans the twine). Either way I think it's a good investment...Faux Bois wrapping paper, cards and prints here I come!

Mara Hoffman Resort Swim 2010

With a trip to California and Arizona in my near future I cannot help but browse swim collections in hopes of having enough money or the perfect tan to wear some of these fabulous finds. I am loving everything about Mara Hoffman's latest Resort/Swim collection. The colors and prints are so refreshing. And what about the headband/turbans--how cute are those?

Anna and Emily's Valentine's Garland

A week ago today I was headed up to Minneapolis for an engagement party thrown by our friends and family. Luckily for me I have the most talented, creative and thoughtful friends ever--and they know how much I *love* garland! (here, here and here)

Anna and Emily created this pretty garland using paper, ribbon and black and white pictures of Andy and I. It added so much to the other decor; paper flowers and love "expressions" cards from Paper Source. This would make a really sweet gift for anyone or an easy holiday DIY project. I'm thinking about making some garland for St. Patrick's Day, using photos I took when lived in Dublin.

Happy weekend!

10 Wardrobe Essentials

1. The Little Black Dress. I love the beaded detail on this one from Shop Bop.

2. The Trench Coat. Doesn't every girl dream of one from Burberry?

3. Classic Dress Pant. I am loving this favorite fit pair of pinstripes from J.Crew.

4. Skirt. Must say I love the tulip skirt (via Banana Republic).

5. Blazer. When it comes to fit and tailoring Club Monaco can do no wrong in my book.

6. Classic White Shirt. Nothing better than a brand new white shirt.

7. Day dress. Anthropologie never fails!

8. Cashmere sweater. Every Christmas I put a cashmere sweater from J.Crew on my wish list and I have yet to receive one. I'm still holding out hope for a rich, prepster elf to answer my prayers!

9. Jeans. The classic low-rise straight leg jean.


10. Sweatsuit Alternative. Enough of the valour jumpsuits already. I prefer leggings and an over-sized sweatshirt for my "bum" wear.
*Bonus* One Indulgent Trendy Item Under $20. I can't help myself--I'm a sucker for a cheap pair of earrings.

You may remember the post I did a while back on The 6 Shoes Every Woman Must Own, well I had such a good response to that as well as lots of requests (well at least Emily) for similar posts that I decided to do another "Must Have" list. So here we go...The Top 10 Fashion Essentials, According to Tim Gunn. Well it's his list with my picks but I thought it was useful none-the-less. I'm curious, out of these "Essentials" what is your favorite go-to item? For me it's cheap accessories and skirts!

Greetings

Hello! I'm finally back from my extended weekend in Minneapolis. It was such a wonderful party (my friends really out did their selves with great food and drinks and beautiful decor--I hope to post pictures soon!). Thank you all for your lovely comments while I was away, especially the Wedding Bands post! A friend and I stopped at a couple jewelery shops this weekend and (with her consultancy of course) I am leaning towards something like this or this--both are out of our budget but at least I have a better idea of what I'm looking for and thanks again for all of your input, it's all really great!

P.S. These great "Literacy" Greeting Cards by Mateo Ilasco and their written message creates an abstract illustration when rotated 90 degrees.

Wedding Bands

With the big day getting closer I have started to look more seriously for rings. Although Andy and I are leaning towards getting our bands from Knox Jewelers (where he purchased my engagement ring) I couldn't help but scan the web for other options. I love the variety of these bands from Bario-Neal. The best part? They are handmade in the U.S. with reclaimed stones and re-purposed metals. I'm loving the second one.

I'm curious, what are your thoughts on wedding bands? do you wear yours? any favorite designs?

{Photo source: Bario-Neal}

Winter Craft Project

All right, I had originally planned for 2010 to be my year to be creative and artistic. To stop staring and start sewing, stop playing and start producing, to stop watching Real Housewives and start writing-you get the point. Anyway, I came across Paige's Felt Winter Wreath on Purl Bee and think it's just the thing to get me back into a consistent creative grove. If you've never created anything from Purl Bee you will be surprised at how easy and well written their tutorials are. Imagine the possibilities for all the other holidays out there!

{Photo source: Purl Bee}

Happy *Lovers* Weekend!

I am spending today baking chocolate cupcakes (recipe will follow soon!) and getting us packed up for another weekend in Minneapolis (and yes we do travel to other places other than the Twin Cities). Our friends are throwing us a mini engagement party-well it's more like a wedding party intro party. We thought it would be nice for our wedding party to get to know each other a little before the big day, as well as our parents (it's crazy to think that they have only met once before in our 5 years of dating).

Whether you love or hate Valentine's Day, I hope you have a lovely weekend. Be sure to do something you *love*!!

{photo source: Cuppielove}

LWD Spotlight: Modern Bird Studios

Yay! It's finally here. The debut of my new Q&A column; LWD Spotlight. As I mentioned yesterday the column will feature insights from real-life creatives. Here I get to pick their brains for fabulous information on anything from ideation, conception, the design process; to life as a biz owner and building a brand from the ground up. My hope? For it to be a resource for other creative minds to get info, support and inspiration. So...let's get to it!

First up is Modern Bird Studios. I originally became aware of this fab design studio through Twitter which lead me to their site and most importantly their work. I must say it was click-through love at first site and I knew right then that they would an excellent LWD Spotlight (and my first at that).

Gregg Deal, along with his wife Megan started Modern Bird Studios to create something new, original and cool, and that they did. Using graphic design, photography and hand painting Gregg creates one-of-a-kind customized wall art. Can it get more intricate and personal than that? These have "best gift ever" written all over them! From Gregg's first email, he instantly appeared to me as an approachable, witty and enthusiastic creative. The same goes for his wife Megan who manages their marketing and is the humor behind Modern Bird's hilarious tweets (@modern_bird). Here is a little insight on this dynamic duo and their Modern Bird...

1. You work closely with your wife Megan at Modern Bird, how do the two of you manage your work life with your personal life? What is a personal life? Excellent question. The short answer is 'Barely'. We have two kids, a 3-year-old and an 11-month-old. The 3-year-old is a girl in the midst of her terrible 3's/jealousy over the younger one and the 11-month-old is a boy who simply eats everything from whatever he finds on the floor to small children. Among this is the time I take to find freelance work as a Graphic Designer. We started Modern Bird to simply stop struggling by using our abilities. Where I am a graphic designer by trade, my wife is a marketing genius (and was a professional marketing genius before kids). As she says, 'she's the brains, I'm the beauty, only she's prettier than I am...in a more traditional way.' So managing the work of Modern Bird isn't so much managed as much as it is what it is: survival. We love it, and do it willingly and whole-heartedly, but necessity is the mother of invention and we just make it work in our personal lives because we have to. Luckily we work very well together, can laugh at things, have respect for each other's opinions, and are best friends.

2. More and more small businesses are turning to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogs to market and promote themselves. Which one have you had the most success with? How do you use that form of media to promote Modern Bird? Social media is the marketing vehicle we use. I run a blog based on cycling and include a podcast with it, and with those efforts, Megan and I began to realize that with a little work, we can use these tools in marketing efforts with Modern Bird that cost us nothing but time (and a lot of time, let me tell you!). Twitter seems to be the golden goose for us since we can have real time interaction with people, and we aren't limited solely to our friends and family on FB. It's telling of our personality (or rather, my wife's personality...she's friggin' hilarious) and in building relationships. I personally find Facebook disappointing, but perhaps I am not doing it right. Originally when Megan and I did the math on Facebook we figured "hey, between the two of us we know over 1000 people, so we can spread this thing like wild fire!". No. Apparently we only have like 50 REAL friends because the amount of 'fans' we have on Facebook doesn't lick the boot of our Twitter account that is growing every day with strangers. Facebook allows us to post images of work as it's happening, and that's good, but that's as far as it goes really. We post the links from FB (links of finished pieces and to our FB page) on Twitter so people can see what's going on over at FB, and we have gained FB fans that way. We can post updates on Twitter, but it is for a fleeting moment, and then it is over so we need to repost things a few times a day. We can't talk about us all day either because it will turn people off so we have really dug in our heels to create real relationships with the people we come across. Megan manages our Twitter account and is a champ. Her connection with other women running blogs and sites is real. I'm a guy and frankly kind of sarcastic to the point of being a dick, so she is clearly the best person for that job.

A whole other paragraph is Blogs. We are completely working with and relying on blogs, particularly of the Mommy persuasion. Our demographic is modern moms and modern families, so Mommy Blogs seem to fit that well. We have some product reviews set up starting next week along with some giveaways to help get the word out quicker than we can on our own, drive people to join our FB page, follow us on Twitter, and to create a buzz about Modern Bird among the mommy blogger community. We figure if this type of marketing is what the huge, household name companies (i.e. Oscar Meyer, Dyson, Wilton, etc) are doing then there must be something special about it. We have also started developing relationships with design blogs and interior designers. We have some cool plans for later this year that will hopefully knock the socks off the design industry...stay tuned!

3. You are obviously a very creative person. What are 5 words that describe your creativity? Jeez, seriously? Damn it, that's 2 words already. OK, let me start over. After the colon: Super Modern Original Forward Thinking...jeez, that kinda fizzled out. Sorry. Edgy, sharp, forward thinking (does that count as 1 or 2 words? would a hyphen in the middle make it 1 word?) {in Gregg's defense, I had been asked a similar question by an ad agency when applying for their internship program back in the day, it was the hardest but most memorable question I have ever been asked (but a good one at that!) Sorry Greg, I couldn't resist!}
4. Modern Bird is such a great name! What's the story behind it? Great question. We don't get that question often and it's got a fantastic story! I am a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe (out of Reno, NV) and both of our kids have as a part of their legal names a word from my traditional Native Language. Our oldest has a mouthful for a name which is Sage Alexandra Huittsuu Deal. Huittsuu is pronounced Hoo-weet-sue and means Little Bird. I actually call her Huittsuu, not Sage. Little bird is what I envisioned the first time I felt her kick inside Megan's stomach. So the bird segment is from our first born, the modern part is part of the style of painting. We ran through this and wanted to do something like this because we wanted something personal and meaningful to us. Megan has a blog called birdsandbears.net which is under the same pretense (Bear is my son who's name is Phoenix Weta-bidenge'ni Deal. The middle name means Bear Warrior, but Weta is Bear. Jeez, long name, long story.). I should write a book.

A *big* thank you to Gregg and Megan at Modern Bird for your candid insights and being the first fearless LWD Spotlight contributor. Keep us posted on all the new work ahead of you!!

Want to be featured in LWD Spotlight? I am looking for creative minds who are willing to share a little bit about their work and design process (nothing too telling--i promise). To inquire and learn more email: marybeth@liveworkdesignblog.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Natural?

I came across this quote on T Magazine (by NYT) and laughed to myself. Although I don't consider myself to be as far off the "natural" spectrum as Donatella Versace. I must admit, I do not leave the house without putting on under eye concealer and mascara before running weekend errands. What about you? Are you totally natural?

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the debut of a brand new column: LWD Spotlight! The new Q&A will feature designers, crafters, writers, stylists, artists, business owners and overall, really cool people (well at least I think so). I am really excited for the new column, as it's something I've been mulling over for quite some time now. LWD Spotlight will cite real life examples of how the design process merges with the everyday.

Things you can expect to read about: finding inspiration when totally uninspired, launching a start-up during a recession, choosing a brand name, facilitating feedback, dealing with criticisms, marketing with zero promotional dollars and other fun design facts. First up...Modern Bird Studios, known for their fabulously modern wall art that combines urban-style, photography, graphic design and painting. Their work is awesome, I am so happy they will debut this column!

Do you want to feature your business/product/art/brand on LWD Spotlight? I would love to here from you and more about your work! Email: marybeth at liveworkdesignblog@gmail.com to learn more.

Black + Metal

J.Crew Vintage slub V-neck tee + Tory Burch Stephanie Necklace

I love the look of a casual tee shirt paired with a fun chunky necklace. Too bad this one is $300+. I will have to depend on J.Crew, Banana and Target for a more affordable option.

Letters by John Contino

I am loving these illustrations by John Contino.

Tory's Inspiration

{Venice}

{Southwest}

I was browsing ToryBurch.com the other day and came across her wonderful Style Guide. There I found these beautiful style boards composed by Tory herself. Each board includes notes that highlight the style inspiration behind her latest collection. I'm loving the mix-match of patterns in Venice and the earthy yet colorful look of the Southwest.

Blonde Ambition

My sister Ellie chopped her hair and dyed it platinum blonde last week. Being a stylist she's used to changing it up quite frequently but it has never been this short. It took me a little bit to adjust, but I cannot get enough of it!

Are any of you doing anything particularly ambitious this weekend?

Red + Grey

Red Ray Bans + Slate Striped Shift via Anthropologie