paper goodness

Holy cannoli, y'all, check out these paper sculptures by artist Nava Lubelski that she makes from, wait for it, her tax returns. Cooler than cool, right?

Had to share this here even though Mint Design Blog did a way lovely job of writing about it first.

what to wear no. 042211

Happy Easter weekend, my darlings! Cute Husband and I are heading to the land 'o nova to delight in all things family and all things Caps...someone who reads this blog happens to have a game five ticket and it ain't me, friends...it ain't me. Have a delicious and delightful weekend, catch ya back here on Monday!

skirt | grey tank | belt | sandals | laurel denise rejoice necklace

ps: Zara? Who knew?! Well, aside from everyone, I'm guessing. Way to keep this gem of a shopping resource from me. Totally where I'm going to shop for all of my wedding attendee dresses this season. Holy low pricing for such cuteness!

pps: I can't decide if this is my worst fashion post ever or not. The shoes are throwing me off.

studio tour no. 042111

How is it already the 21st of April? Holy goodness gracious. We've had some Mother's Day madness a'happening here this week, friends. And some 2012 Calendar planning sessions. And some new design sketching out - seriously, y'all, I learned this week that I can write the exact same word about 100 times on a sheet of paper and still be left without one I really love. Starting a word with the letter "b" is not my power suit. The letter "s" though? Now that's a different story. The letter "s" is my jam. I also learned again that photo shoots with the lovely and oh so talented Marcy is seriously so much fun. Like, so much fun. It's been a busy and fun week and now it's definitely time to get back to it. Happy studio tour Thursday, guys and gals!

ps: You can still use code "six" for 10% off until the end of April! Moms deserve presents. Don't forget about them.

pps: Oh Em Gee those Washington Capitals last night, right?? Talk about holy goodness gracious.

stores shipped this week:
Cathedral: San Diego, CA
ABC Carpet: New York, NY
Nest: Sheboygan, WI
Ellens on Elm: Winnetka, IL
Elle2: Livingston, NJ
Vis-a-Vis: Nantucket, MA
Sugar Sugar: Seattle, WA
Room 6: Vancouver, Canada
Rock Paper Scissors: Charlottesville, VA
Handmade Gallerie: Sherman Oaks, CA
New Twist: Eugene, OR
The Gypsy Wagon: Dallas, TX
Le Papier Studio

weekend moments no. 041611

Where oh where have the last two days gone, y'all? It's been busy, busy, busy here, but I wanted to shoot some cute little weekend prom moments images to the ol' bloggy blog. I've been wanting to do that since Monday morning and just managed to upload the actual images yesterday evening. So, yeah, it's been busy I guess. Anyway, these girls were ah-dorable, friends, saying all kinds of cute "lookin' fresh" type comments (guess that's what the cool kids say these days) and braving shoes that literally hurt my feet and legs and back just looking at them. Ah, prom...it's all about girlfriends and hairspray and shoes that hurt, right? Loved it. After my prom festivities, I finally got the experience a Boylan Heights burger. Friends. Friends. Friends. It lived up to every single expectation I had. I mean, seriously, I got to put a fried green tomato on my burger. On my burger!! It was delightful and not just because that movie and book are the bees knees.

what to wear no. 041511

This weekend, friends, brings us two words: Junior. Prom. (and Game Two, but I think maybe this blog has has its hockey fill...for now?) Do you guys remember junior prom? Man, I still remember, I bought this vintage dress number from the SPCA fall sale thing (before they had the permanent location) and got it all hemmed and fixed up to fit just so and then? Then I chickened out at the last minute. I put it on, it was perfection, and then quickly panicked. "What the heck do I think I'm doing wearing this to Albemarle High School's junior prom?? Did I forget that I was still technically the new girl at that school?" These silly thoughts required my poor sweet momma to buy me yet another dress, a long purple (and safe) number. Lame sauce, right? Wonder what happened to that pink cinderella-ish vintage dress. Ah the decisions of a teenager just trying to fit in...

So, right, blog post, anyway...this weekend I am helping my niece, the one I held literally minutes after she'd been born and marveled at how much hair she had (seriously, y'all, it was curling it was so long!) and how big and blue her eyes were (and still are), get ready for prom. I know everyone says this when they see someone that used to be so little all of a sudden, oh, I don't know, driving a car and getting ready for prom and such, but - really - how is it that it's already time for me to go and do her prom make up and hair? How has time flown that quickly?

dress | pants | cardigan | flats | laurel denise smile tag necklace

red is best

Oh, friends, tonight is sort of monumental in my little household (slash The Room). It's the first night of hockey playoffs and this, my dears, means big business over here. We're nervous and still a little shattered from last year's super sad loss in the first round to Montreal. The fact that our team finished first in its division and the fact that everyone in the sports news offices that gets to pick things like this is picking them to win this series (as Cute Husband, who has had head phones in all morning, listening and watching highlight reels, just informed me), makes us, well, even more nervous. So, in honor of "rocking the red" for the Caps, I have chosen some cute red things to post about this morning. Because if I'm going to write a post about sports on this blog, I definitely need to balance it with cute things, don't you think?

Also? Since when did I become a hockey fan? Marriage. Man, it will get you every time.

one | two | three | four | five (This was my absolute favorite book in the entire world growing up. Entire! World!)

makes me want to squeal

Maybe it's because I have the new laurel denise home-line on my brain (which, seriously, is going to be teeny tiny at its launch...just getting my toes wet here, folks) or maybe it's because this hand blown glass work is absolutely out of this world impossibly amazing, but don't you also feel that everything in this Kiva Ford Etsy shop is the coolest?? Because I do. I do a lot. It makes me want to squeal.

weekend moments no. 040911

A great weekend equals...This team finishing up number one in the east, a trip to this adorable country store for some candied ginger and delicious peanut butter, an amazing sermon here, a lovely walk through neighborhoods like this one, a lovely Sunday night dinner provided by wonderful friends, a first experience at this delicious restaurant (no images because, wow, I was starving), and a successful savings grocery trip inspired by this insane show (insane and inspiring, clearly). I mean, seriously...wonderful C'ville weekend if I've ever heard of one, right?

what to wear no. 040811

Other than some friends coming in from out this weekend, I have a completely empty weekend calendar, folks. Can I remember the last time this has happened? No, no I can't. Bliss! I can't wait to see what surprises are in store for us on this sort of rainy, sort of cloudy weekend with an amazing and delicious 78-degree and sunny Sunday thrown in for happy measure!

pants | tank | shoes | yellow cardigan | laurel denise joy ctag necklace

office mayhem

Well, friends, it took exactly 1.5 hours of working in the same office for Cute Husband and I to realize that something had to give with the set up and the disorganization of the office section of The Room...if left alone in this space with the clutter for any longer, I'm afraid the two of us might not have made it out. He went for a run (sent out with a smooch, I encouraged him to save himself until we could figure this out) and I panicked and did some work while trying to ignore the papers and products and jewelry that, literally, seemed to be crawling closer and closer to me...rapidly building a huge fort that surrounded me. I think my heart just started beating faster reading that scary sentence. Does that sound like a horror film to any other organizational-freak-o out there? After both of our emotional releases (me with work, duh, and him with running, so healthy he is), we were ready to combine and conquer. We settled on a cool black steel shelf thing that's really meant for a garage, but it fills the industrial modern sort of look The Room has going for it (sort of) and some cool silver locker baskets. When all was said and done yesterday, I might have cried at how different my working space looks and feels now. Yes, we now have two garage shelves in our bedroom area, but really, who cares? It doesn't look so bad and the fact that it's holding 99% of the things that were threatening to gobble me up inside makes me one happy jewelry designing gal. And that's a fact.

one | two | three | four

studio tour no. 040711

Folks, for this week's studio tour, I will welcome you into the twisted mind of a gal forced to create a new booth design. This, my friends, is my favorite and very, very, very least favorite thing to do. Favorite is when it's all said and done and finished. Least favorite is every single other part of it. Seriously. It hurts, y'all, it hurts my brain. I don't like waking up at 3am with anxious booth thoughts. This makes me feel certifiable. I have a feeling you're all in agreement there. What makes this new booth design even more of my worst nightmare is that I really need to step outside of the vintage organized mess theme I've been so comfortable in for the jewelry booth and step into a more organized (like, for reals), most definitely not vintage-y (but I can't help myself so some of that will be thrown in), most definitely not creams and whites and wooden textures, and most definitely not a high table featuring all of my product in the middle protecting me and making me feel comfortable sitting in my little tucked corner on a chair saying hi to buyers. No, friends, this stationery booth is stripping all of my little trade show securities away. Which I suppose I will be thankful for because it will help me grow, but right now it just wakes me up at 3am. First of all, we have ourselves a corner booth, y'all. A corner in all of its exposed and opened glory. Secondly, we have One. Product. The 2012 Laurel Denise Calendar. And that's it. Five cover colors, yes, but that's a'wrap after that. One product. Wait, I already said that. One product that needs to be blown up so big that maybe astronauts might be able to see it so that they can say "oh, hey, yeah, I bought that product years ago when that big huge publisher made it and I recognize it and, yeah, I totes want to buy that again" Thirdly, it's an organizational product. So things need to look all office-y and organized and clean or people will get confused. I've come to realize this is not how my booth brain works. Like, not at all. Which is odd because that's how my normal brain works. All organized and office-y. Fourthly, I've come to realize I have two brains, I guess? Y'all, it gets uglier from there, so I'm just going to leave it at that. What you see above is a little inspiration board behind what the booth may or may not wind up looking like. Let's just hope I get some sleep before then.

stores shipped this week:
Pinch: Northhampton, MA
Across the Way: Cape May, NJ
Claypot: Brooklyn, NY

what to wear no. 040111

Yay for April weekends, friends! That means, despite the text from my most bestest in Philadelphia this morning that it was snowing there, that Spring is...coming...question mark?? It is, it is. Doesn't feel like it, but it is. This weekend is a celebration of friends kind of weekend. Some birthday parties, some skinny marg and maybe this delicious treat making, some opening day at the Farmer's Market enjoying, some laid back friends gathering, and some general hanging around Charlottesville-ness. Couldn't be happier to report that kind of upcoming weekend. But before that, I've got some April 1st orders that need to ship, so away I go to take care of that! Happy Friday, friends. What have you all go on your plates this lovely weekend?

jeans | blouse | boots | laurel denise dwell in hope necklace

ps: don't forget, the 10% off of everything on laureldenise.com is still a'happenin'! use code "six"

pps: almost forgot! go to sparrow & whistle on the facebooks and enter to have a complete closet remix from the super talented Caite White. Dooooo it. She's awesome-sauce.