charm & confetti

happy february ( + january re-cap)

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

it's feb, you guys. that means celebrating my husband's birthday, my mother and father's birthday and valentine's day. which means LOTS of cards to make. I don't mind.

gone are the days where we decorated a shoe box to receive valentine's from our class mates, but i think it's still a fun tradition to keep among close friends & family.

i've been working on my valentine's this week. if you follow me on instagram, you may have seen a little peek of what i've been working on. i'll share it in due time.

for now, ill leave you with my purple ( + tiny orange heart) nails to brighten up these winter days.

january re-cap
vintage christmas glass to remind me of my grandmother
vintage light-up letters
pretty watercolor banner stationery
serious loot from the cream event in austin
sharing my love for nautical & neon
we made this: industrial coffee table with storage
rah rah! a glimpse of the hypa gala
maui-inspired stationery

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women's stationery - neon pink & grey

2012-01-31T06:03:00.000-06:00

did i mention andie was getting married? ok, i'm excited! because of the upcoming nuptials, she's got lots of note writing to do, (like a proper lady would!)

among many other things, andie and i share a fond love for neon. these are also a little surfer-inspired -- she went to maui to visit her family over the summer and all of her photos are amazing. hopefully she'll share some on her blog soon. if she doesn't update, give her a break; she's usually in the rice lab studying nano crystals and conducting experiments.

thanks andie for letting me make these :)

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rah rah rah! just a glimpse from the HYPA gala...

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

last saturday we went to the houston young people for the arts i ♥ HYPA homecoming gala - and holy cow it was so. much. fun. big props to hypa founder heather pray for putting together such an awesome event. everyone was encouraged to dress as a high school stereotype and people really showed up with fun costumes.

i was in charge of decor so we really hit it hard with the homecoming theme, a nod to theatre under the stars' current show bring it: on the musical [now playing at hobby center!].

here are the photos from monsterbooth:

a few photos from my iphone - i wore a gold taffeta dress (borrowed from brandi - thanks!) and jon wore his some grungy clothes from his band days...

there were perforamnces from westsie high school marching band - so much energy.

a few more decor shots...

my big project, building these super-sparkly light up letters. loved how they turned out.

[HYPA letter photo by jordan graber]

i urge everyone who has any interest in the arts to join hypa. it's mission is to promote education of the visual and performing arts; advance cultural awareness of current events in the houston art scene, particularly among young people.

and the best part? it's only $20 a year to join. do it.

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we made this -- industrial coffee table with storage

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

really excited to share these photos because it's been a long project in the making. about four months ago i ordered a HUGE printer (to make my stationery) without really checking the specs. because we're lacking storage space jon and i decided to build a coffee table that could store the printer.

so here's our baby - we used an old door for the table top and vintage castor wheels as the base. everything else was new materials that we cut, sanded and stained on our tiny porch.

exterior storage for extra pillows & blankets.

table top complete with door handle hole. i want to find a little flower vase that will fit inside.

interior storage with my boat printer (or anything else we want to hide). the hinged door on this side is part of the original door used for the table top.

my wood shop gear.

jon assembling the botton on our porch.

we loved building this together and are already talking about our next project - side table for the bedroom!

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the cream event - austin, texas

2012-01-23T13:50:00.008-06:00

some of the amazing goodies we got in our swag bag from the cream event in austin. holy cow -- this was SO MUCH FUN. i went with my friend andie who is a bride-to-be and two other girls, amanda and brandi who, like me, were going for fun and inspiration.

from left to right-ish...
kazoo from 100 layer cake
chevron watercolor stationery from the creative parasol
polka dot letterpress stationery from toast & laurel
moon pies from ??
white impressed ceramic dish from loot vintage
gray & metallic print from james moes photography
white heart dish from BHLDN
stamps from the nichols photography
moose tea bag from paige newton photography
macaroons from ??

inspiring it was - so many awesome ladies making gorgeous stuff. my photos are grainy .. but here's are few snaps from the event. good drinks, food, paper and flowers. the next one is in LA (march 2012) -- if you like planning events, it is not to be missed.

...and amanda and i competed in the dance-off and 2nd place. there may or may not be some photos of THAT floating around soon. xo

UPDATE: p.s. forgot to thank my childhood pal paige of paige newton photography for letting us stay at her mardi gras house! proper 'thank you' correspondence is in the mail.

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sparkly fan

2012-01-20T12:40:00.003-06:00

What did you do during your lunch break? I hung sparkles on a 15-foot fan blades. cheers!

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women's stationery - nautical & neon

2012-01-19T18:52:00.004-06:00

i'm definitely loving this neon trend (and i'm still true to nautical). had to make some cheerful stationery to brighten up these winter blues (ok, we're not really having THAT much of a winter in texas).

you can't really tell but the navy envelope is actually glassine, making it slightly transparent.

anchors away, my friends.

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watercolor banner women's stationery

2012-01-16T08:49:00.005-06:00

here's some simple flat correspondance i made in a variation of colors. the water color brushstrokes you see are real -- painted by me. one of my new favorite designs!

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vintage light-up letters

2012-01-11T18:09:00.004-06:00

sneak peek of something i've been working on:

to see the full enchilada, purchase tickets to the HYPA Gala supporting houston's vibrant art scene. learn more about the event here.

stay tuned, i'll write a tutorial about how you can make some of these fancy letters for your home decor or next festive event.

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vintage christmas glass

2012-01-01T11:02:00.006-06:00

happy new year! here's a few pics from christmas stuff. the red glass things are my grandmothers... i love pulling them out every year and filling them with candy. always festive.

i made some dip-dye ombre tea towels this year for christmas wrappings.. easy and sustainable.

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merry christmas - 2011

2011-12-20T09:45:00.001-06:00

merry christmas from us. this year i went with a sloppy cursive (handwritten by me-- no fonts here!), hand-painted watercolor kind-of-thing. and confetti, of course! and i'm just obsessed with the screen-printed woodgrain paper i used as envelope liners. more of those to come!

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save the dates - personal with words

2011-12-10T09:32:00.002-06:00

simple & cheery save the dates i did last year. the text on the bottom was a special poem for the couple. love it when couples add something mor personal to save the dates.

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san francisco treats

2011-12-05T10:46:00.001-06:00

visited my friend chelsey in san fran (so much fun, food and gorgeous weather!)

here are a few snaps from the trip. many were posted on instagram. do you have it? it's addicting. chelsey convinced me to download it and i've never looked back. click that little button to follow me...

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paper christmas ornaments

2011-12-01T09:04:00.002-06:00

our little hobo christmas tree with paper ornaments. I wasn't ready to buy a bunch of stuff & have a permanent style for Xmas so we used marked up bingo cards & paper chains to decorate.

sewing a stripe pillow

2011-11-28T09:33:00.002-06:00

made a cheery striped pillow (ikea fabric). with a zipper! (had some serious issues with this zipper, so having this pillow complete is a victory).

geek glasses stationery

2011-11-18T09:40:00.007-06:00

geek glasses stationery I made for my friend Cristina. Girl loves her glasses and I love her for loving her glasses!

bzz bzz.... bumble bee & birdie stationery

2011-11-10T09:37:00.002-06:00

personalized stationery I made for a work friend with some vintage illustrations. melissa means bee in greek. bzz bzz!

yellow & black women's stationery

2011-11-01T16:27:00.002-05:00

fun little cards i did for a co-worker's birthday gift

modern art from the vatican

2011-10-29T09:39:00.001-05:00

favorite art from the vatican. after looking at beautiful, realistic oil paintings of saints for dozens of rooms, you get a little modern art cleansing before you see the sistine chapel.

In order from top to bottom, henri matisse, piero dorazio, henri matisse and giuseppe capogrossi.

topochico chandelier - ay ay ay

2011-10-16T10:05:00.001-05:00

topochico light fixtures at tacos a-go-go in houston, texas
such an easy DIY for maybe a festive patio? lamp kit, jigsaw, wood, seven sugary flavors and voila!

pretty orange cabinet

2011-10-09T10:03:00.001-05:00

want this shiny orange metal cabinet from installations antiques...

50th anniversary invites - woodville flora & fauna

2011-09-22T14:30:00.003-05:00

went to woodville last weekend for jon's grandparents 50th anniversary party. we had so much fun and lots of encounters with animals.

here's the invite i did! his grandmother borrowed this dress from a friend. And for the party, his grandpa got the same military-style haircut.. how cute is that? wish i had a photo of that.

for the party, jon's mother gathered these wildflowers from a friend's yard and we made about a dozen arrangements from the stash. so pretty... i want a garden that produces these kind of blooms.

and here's a cow in their front yard...

and me & chelsey riding a horse...

and some hummingbirds! there must have been more than 25, but these little guys are hard to capture.

vatican hall of maps - nautical dream

2011-09-18T00:05:00.005-05:00

so the vatican has a gallery of maps that is covered wall-to-wall with the most beautiful maps i have ever seen. i wish i had better quality photos.

viagreggio, italy - nautical inspiration

2011-09-17T23:54:00.003-05:00

buongiorno! totes back from italy and become obsessed with a little town called viareggio. here's some of the cute nautical inspirations i found. blue & white everywhere.

travel pack - great honeymoon gift idea

2011-08-30T23:48:00.004-05:00

this was one of our wedding gifts... a personalized fannie pack with everything we could possibly need for the heavy traveling that will partake on the honeymoon to italy. big thanks to our friends andie & russ! ( jon got one as well).