The Weather Outside is Frightful...

And if we had a fire, it'd be delightful...

Wait! It IS delightful.

I woke up CERTAIN that we'd have at least a two-hour delay, but we got even better than a two-hour delay. We got an early release followed by a two-hour delay on Wednesday. Life is grand. I finished addressing gobs of wedding invitations for my sister in law, and I'm pretty pleased with them. She is going to be a beautiful bride, so I felt like the pressure was on to really make them look good. In the process of revising my own writing style to match the style of her invitations, I came across some beautiful writers on the ol' interwebs. I've realized just how mediocre my handwriting is. I've also realized just how talented others are. Sooo talented. Shoot, they have to be to A) charge what they charge for addressing envelopes and B) to turn these out with enough regularity to stay in business! Really though, I'm going to be working on my penmanship. Stat.


As I've come across beautiful writing, I've also come across the best possible match for beautiful penmanship... letterpress... mmmmmmmm... letterpress. Dreamy. Here's a primo example of a match made in heaven. I think if I lived in Syracuse, NY, I'd probably want to volunteer to work for Bella Figura just so I could spend time surrounding myself with their gorgeous, gorgeous miniature works of art.

I'm also in love with Betsy White's work. Stunning. And as much as I love picking out stamps at the PO, why didn't I ever think about how important they are to the overall look of an invitation? I'm hanging my head in shame. Look how well these Presidential Library stamps fit with these invitations. So stinking dignified!

I feel as if I need to go clean my pen nibs now...

Shelf

We're using this picture as a bit of inspiration. I expect I'll put some cut glass, milk glass and hobnail glass pieces up there, but I need some (lots) of color. I love the monochromatic look that Bosworth Hodemaker has created, but it's just not me. So... after looking at yesterday's beauuuuutiful fabric prints, I'm thinking thoughts of plates and fabrics and any pretty things I can put my grubby little hands on! I'm on the prowl!

traditional kitchen design by seattle architect Bosworth Hoedemaker

No more Zaner-Bloser?

I can distinctly remember practicing looping in elementary school. I was so excited to learn how to write in cursive. We learned using the Zaner-Bloser method, and I loved being able to write like grown ups. I read this article today, and I feel a little sad. I have students who can't write in cursive... much less read in cursive. I can get the writing struggle. I mean, I can hardly solve equations with only one variable. I can't get that it's hard to read in cursive. That escapes me.

After giving the SAT and watching those kids struggle to write a few sentences in cursive, I guess this article is true. Sad times.

5th and State Giveaway

There are a few (Todd would say a gracious few) blogs that I frequent just about every single day. Sometimes I stray away from those to check out blogs that they frequent. 5th and State is one of those blogs. It's at the top of Eddie Ross' favorites, and that says a ton to me. Unlike Todd, I don't have one particular style. I just like pretty things. She's offering a home exterior restyling giveaway, and I'm going to enter. It can't hurt, right? I'm working on my entry now...

New Finds

I have a long-standing love affair with gift shops. I worked in a series of related shops in my hometown during high school and college, and I feel like I have to have a relationship with a local shop in order to really feel at home. When we first moved to Southampton, we actually stayed at a B&B in Winchester while we sorted out our housing arrangements. I'm actually not sure if we found The Hambledon on that first visit or not, but my love for it has increased tenfold in the many years that I've been gone. I love everything about the shop, but I mostly love that it fostered my love for Cath Kidston. I'm not so much of a Shabby Chic kind of girl, but for some reason, I love Cath's prints. Love. And The Hambledon introduced us to one another. When my sister heads home to Southampton she's good about feeding the Cath-loving monster with a piece or two, but I just haven't been able to satisfy my need from here... until now. I just discovered the cutest, cutest, cutest fabric site I've seen lately. Heather Bailey, I love your prints! Love. I think it doesn't hurt that I'm ready for spring, but I'm even more ready for some fabrics from her store!

I mean, these ARE our kitchen colors... Hmm... Could there be another UPS package coming my way?

Took a Whole Lot of Trying...

As long as we're living, it's you and me baby. There ain't nothing wrong with thaaaaat.

And there's nothing wrong with feeling great about getting this far along! I am loving unpacking everything and knowing that I don't need to save the packing materials. I love knowing that my china is in a mostly permanent location!

And we thought we were making great progress here. And we were. Little did we know in July that we'd be living with these cabinets for as long as we did, but they were certainly built well. Really built well. Thank goodness for the sledgehammer and sawzall. I really wouldn't've minded a little extra cash for some shopping, but I guess the tools have really be useful. At least more useful than I'd care to admit.