I love creating “desk-scapes” that represent important pieces of my history in my everyday as inspiration. My current desktop is below.

The tree stamp frame I bought in Paris on our honeymoon and the stamp itself I bought on ebay in the middle a hectic bout of wedding planning. It represents serenity and strength to me somehow. The clock my father gave me on my 13th birthday — it seemed so grown up and elegant (I still think that!). In front of the clock, the vintage brass frame that I picked up last year at my favorite thrift store in VT holds a scrap of a Bishop poem from the New Yorker that represents the best of love to me:
“Close, close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn toghether,
in their sleep,
Close as two pages
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.

Each knows all
the other knows,
learned by heart
from head to toes.”

I bought the gold frog at Swallow the first year I lived in NY and hadn’t figured out how to merge my work life and my creative life. The dish with clips was my great grandmother’s and the paperweight next to it was my grandmother’s. The tiny “stamps” box was given to me by my mother in-law after I blogged it here. And the tiny red chair I bought at an antiques store on the Cape last week.
I was inspired over vacation to finish a project that has been on the back burner for years: framing my favorite vintage bits in tiny frames. Here they are! I’m really pleased with how they came out. The top two are vintage 6 cent US postal stamps, the second two are vintage Wills cigarette cards from the 1930s from New Zealand and the last row is another vintage stamp and my personal favorite, two elephant chromos from the 1900s from the Paris flea market! They are all up for sale on Etsy so tell your friends and start your own desk-scape!

This past weekend, one of my closest friends, Emily, married her sweetheart Mike on a beautiful farm in New Hampshire.

First, the lovely wedding invitation that T. and I helped Emily design and print on the Gocco! The icon is of a marsh marigold, which was the flower of the wedding. Emily grew them in her garden and recruited friends to do the same.

The setting in New Hampshire:

As the bride and groom rolled up to the reception in high style, the farm’s other loving couples checked out the party.

Inside the tent, tables were set with vintage linens that Emily had found through months of scouring thrift sales and vases filled with wildflowers grown in friends’ gardens or picked on the road side. Guests cooled down in the afternoon sun with lemonade, sun tea and ice water served in mason jars.

After a delicious dinner of local organic ingredients….

….the party got into full swing and we danced into the night.

Congratulations, Emily and Mike!

I came across this vintage tiny photo album today on Etsy for $4 and I stupidly didn’t buy it — when I went back tonight someone else had snapped it up. Why is it that the terrible sensation of losing something wonderful is equal to the thrill of finding something wonderful? In other news, I’m back from vacation with lots of thrift finds, some new Abigail items that I’ll put up on Etsy this week and most of all, amazing photos of Emily’s wedding that will inspire you: think vintage table linens and an amazing farm and a perfect August day.

We’re on the Cape for a few days and then off to Emily’s wedding.  It is beautiful here and there is bountiful wi-fi so I get the best of both worlds.  A few snaps of thrifting/antique stores:

Suddenly I’m seeing elephants everywhere — trend in the making?

 

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In writing this post, I realize that I’m drawn to this naturalist style of display in magazine spreads. One of my favorite layouts from Martha Stewart Living from my notebook:

If my childhood was boiled down to a couple of influential books, A Practical Guide for the Amateur Naturalist would top the list (others: The Flowering of American Folk Art, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Tamarack Tree, The Witch of Blackbird Pond). The first two really informed my “design eye” and curiosity about the world and the last three really informed my sense of what bravery and being “grown up” would mean. What were your favorite childhood books?

Gerald and Lee Durrell’s book is a beautifully illustrated guide to becoming an amateur naturalist and encourages readers to explore the world of nature first-hand. The book mixes practical tips (such as what to pack in a naturalist’s daypack, how to take plaster casts of animal tracks, how to garden for wildlife, and how to use a hand lens) with detailed information about a wide variety of habitats (chaparral, grasslands, desert, tundra, deciduous woodlands, coniferous woodlands, tropical forest, mountain, ponds, streams, wetlands, cliffs, dunes, shores, oceans and more).

I loved the photographs in this book and would spend hours pouring over them. I also converted an old bag of my mother’s into a specimen bag and ran around the woods picking up rocks, plants and generally getting dirty. I guess somethings never change. The book is out of print but available on Amazon.com and Abe Books. If you have young children — I’m sure you won’t be disapointed!

When it comes to DIY, especially of the putting-holes-in-the-wall sort, my darling husband is a big fan/enforcer of the measure twice-cut once rule.  A trip to the Better Homes and Garden website (via the always helpful Lifehacker) turned up some great advice I know he’d love on how to mock up up a picture wall before breaking out the hammer and nails.

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In three easy steps, from BHG.com:

1. 1. Trace pictures onto brown kraft paper and cut out. Label each of the papers with a description of the picture or a corresponding number.

   2. Using blue painter’s tape (which won’t pull up wall paint), tape the papers to the wall. Experiment with arrangements until you have one you like.

   3. Install picture-hanging hardware directly through the paper. Pull paper away and hang pictures one by one.

 One note: given the difference between where frame manufacturers place hangers, you should proably mark on the paper where the best point to hang the frame is.

The end result looks like you paid a professional to do it for you:

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Since most of our framed artwork is currently resting on the mantle, this may be just the inspiration we need to try to fill out some of the remaining blank walls in our apartment.Â

It’s well established by now that I love paint color cards; no trip to any hardware store is complete without a trip down the paint aisle.

I just recently came across this nifty online tool, the GenoPal, an online color picker. While it lacks the physical satisfaction of skipping out of Home Depot with a stack of paint chips, it is pretty cool to play around with “regions” of color that are based on how we as humans perceive color. I’m not sure what to do with it yet, but I’m having fun playing with the color palettes.