I was so fortunate to spend the end of last week + the weekend in Ponte Vedra, Florida for an annual conference with my husband’s job. The last two years, we’ve gone to Amelia Island, but this year it was somewhere new: the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club.

Ponte Vedra is basically right next to Jacksonville Beach — so much so that in walking down the beach you will walk from one to the other — as well as Atlantic and Neptune Beach. They are all nestled right next to each other. I definitely got the impression that Ponte Vedra is the quieter area, being mostly about the gorgeous historic Inn and Club.

I always try to detach a bit from the online world when I go away, but one morning I took my phone along to snap some photos of the property. I loved that it was a collection of buildings rather than one big giant hotel — our room was actually directly on the beach, on the first floor, so you could walk right out the back porch and have your sand in the toes in no time flat. They have an amazing spa where I splurged on a massage and it was out-of-this-world, a big racquet club (tennis was definitely a big deal), and lots of delicious restaurants.

Of course, the designer in me fell hard for the gorgeous bright yellow scattered around the property…in the doors of the rooms, the sunny umbrellas and kayaks, and even the flowers. It just cheers you up right away.

It wasn’t so easy to get back to work today, I have to admit, when you’ve spent the last three or four days deciding between the beach or the pool…

…but I think I’ll survive ;-) At any rate, if you ever get a chance, this was a really lovely resort and perfect for a really relaxed getaway. I’d go back in a heartbeat!

Being in a somewhat in-between time for invitations lately, I’ve managed to find a little bit of time to take care of a few projects on the “other” to-do list. You know, the one that sits by patiently and pretty much never, ever happens because your must-be-done-today list beats it every time? That to-do list.

Now that we’ve been in our office for about nine months (can it really have been that long?), there were definitely some things that could use streamlining. For one thing, we had no closet. Fortunately, I have a very nice landlord and a closet across the hall that was just begging to be uber-organized and full of pretty paper. I set out on that mission about two months ago and luckily was able to make it happen, so we were able to move a lot of the storage type stuff out from underfoot.

So of course then it was rearranging time. I toyed with all sorts of ideas, but we ended up with relatively what we had as I think it’s ultimately the best solution. Rearranging did involve acquiring this fabulous bright blue piece from Nadeau though, with which I am totally in love…

Next mission – filing cabinet. We had had one in the home office but it stayed there for our personal stuff. So now that we had a little room, it was time to bring one into the office. However, being a bit crazy and far too in love with my office space, I couldn’t bear to bring in an ugly beige filing cabinet. If you’re going to be a part of my 175 square feet, you’ve got to bring something to the table ;-)

So I found one on Craigslist and planned to paint it. A few weekends ago the weather looked great and my sweet husband offered to help. So we borrowed my MIL’s backyard and got to work.

All was going great, and we popped into a neighbor’s house, only to come back outside to a straight-up downpour. Out. Of. Nowhere. We ran out and stood over it with some cardboard, thinking it would blow over, but not so much. Imagine three people holding cardboard over a Craigslist filing cabinet in the pouring rain…yes, I know, I am crazy and very lucky to have people like that in my life! We found a box that fit over it though when the rain wasn’t stopping and figured we didn’t have much choice at that point but to wait it out inside and see what happened.

The paint was dry to the touch when the rain started, so luckily the water beaded up on it and wasn’t much of a problem. It was dry enough to move that day, but I will say that it took a few days for it to completely lose its tackiness – i.e. setting stuff on top of it kind of thing. But overall, I think the blue was worth it!

And then there was the pegboard on which I had my heart set. They are not easy to install though. Again lucky for me, my wonderful assistant Kellie has an equally wonderful husband who’s a homebuilder, so he spent a Friday morning helping us hang up this huge beautiful pegboard. Yes, we have 32 square feet of pegboard space. For someone who loves rearranging like I do, it’s a really good idea.

I spent that Sunday afternoon throwing some white paint on it and dancing away. It really didn’t take long at all. White latex paint worked great.

And then that week, we got to start hanging stuff! I wish this photo was better, but we are blessed to get really nice light from our big window, and I’m not a talented enough photographer to adjust for that well.

Lastly, the invitation catalog. This is seriously the longest project in the making. Finding a way to organize samples and present them well is a huge challenge. They could be organized in so many different ways — color, style, date, name, venue, printing type, etc. Finally, I realized that the way I really identify each suite is with the bride for whom it was made.

So we now have a “Bible” of sorts for most of the invitations we’ve ever created and they can be looked up by bride — it makes it so much easier when I’m talking because I know exactly where to find an invite I want to show someone.

Hopefully we’re good to go for another six months or so until some idea strikes. We are off to Florida this week for a mini vacation and I couldn’t be more excited. I hope summer is treating you well so far! What have you been up to?

On a rainy June afternoon, Louie showed up in the mail!

In case you don’t know what Louie is, it’s the award given by the National Greeting Card Association annually for greeting cards and stationery products. By some miracle, we won! It was pretty neat to get a shiny trophy in the mail :-)

And even though we’ve been around a little while now, I am still surprised / amazed every time I see my little company’s name “in print.”

Hope you’re having a good week so far!

A few weeks ago I finished up a project for a friend and fellow blogger Carly Totten. Through the magic of social media and blogging, I met Carly about a year and a half ago when she came down to visit Charleston, and we have remained friends ever since.

Recently we created a new home-on-the-internet for her called “Carly is Inspired” and I had the honor of helping her design it and make it a reality. Definitely go visit her as she has a wonderful writing style and great content!

By the way, total fluke that she had me on her blog when I took this snapshot. Did not do that on purpose ;-)

When we finished the project, Carly very kindly sent me a baking cookbook by Cooking Light. Since we were lucky enough to have a three day weekend this past weekend, I took the opportunity to crack that open and try out a recipe…

Double Apple Bran Muffins

I just had one for breakfast this morning and they turned out so well. I really like the apple taste and they really are much better for you than muffins you get from other places. I am becoming one of those annoying people that would rather make everything from scratch so I know what’s in it ;-)

Check out the recipe here. I pretty much made it as written except that I used Whole Wheat Flour, oatmeal for oat bran (who has oat bran around?!), and Splenda brown sugar. They came out great though, so I will be enjoying my breakfast this week!

Did you do anything fun over the weekend? Back to the grind today though, hope it’s an easy day for you!

We might not be attending the National Stationery Show in New York, but we do happen to be nominated for a Louie (eep!). So I felt to celebrate our nomination and the show (which we are so sorry to miss), we should at the very least put out some new cards.

I am jokingly calling this summer 2013 collection “the missing pieces.” Because of the way I’ve always approached our cards, which is really just to create them when the inspiration strikes, I’ve realized over the years that I was definitely missing a few occasions. So, I’ve been simmering on many of these ideas for those missing cards awhile now, and this week I finally took the time to design, print, photograph, etc. I hope you like them!

Check them out…Father’s Day, wedding anniversary, wedding congratulations, and graduation cards.

I experimented with some hand lettering with it…a few of them are actually my handwriting :-) Kind of fun and different from my usual.

Happy Friday & have a wonderful weekend!

This weekend we attended the Food Film Fest, and I have to say, I had had no idea what to expect and I was thrilled with what I got.

The whole concept is very clever — you know how when you see a commercial about doughnuts, and you think to yourself, “oh man I could eat a doughnut right now” — well, that’s kind of the idea. You watch a short film (less than 5 minutes) about a food, and while you watch it, they bring you that exact food.

…which is how I met my new favorite thing — Top Pot Doughnuts from Seattle, Washington. I mean truly, they were the best doughnut I have ever come across, maybe even one of the best pastries in general. Sadly it doesn’t look like mail order is an option, so a trip to Seattle may be in order.

That was what was so neat about it though – right here in Charleston, I got to experience food from lots of different places, over-nighted in just for that event. Canadian maple syrup, treats from Dirt Candy…all sorts of goodies.

Look at what a good little film patron I am! I kid. I was quite surprised when I came across that one of me when scrolling through the event photos!

Obviously, I did not take any of these photos, they are all courtesy of Food Film Fest’s Facebook Page and copyright Adam Chandler.

And just so you don’t miss out on the fun, here is my favorite film from the event: Dirt Candy’s “Vegetable: Friend or Foe?”

If you have a few minutes, it’s pretty hilarious. Good way to start the week!

Hello friends! I hope life has been treating you well lately. We have been busy as always, which is wonderful, and also taking time to enjoy spring too.

Of course, beautiful weather means wedding season is here, so we have been busily sending out invitations and printing up fun day of pieces too, like these welcome kits for this weekend’s bride.

I know I’ve mentioned before that, for whatever reason, the spark finally came alive and I’ve become really interested in food and cooking. I think now that I know a thing or two (albeit not much), it’s a lot more fun because I feel like I can get creative.

I’ve also spent the last three and a half weeks really focusing some energy on health. I have to confess it’s not something I’ve spent much time on before in my life — I am a workaholic, so if there is time to be had, I usually work — but I’m really working on a lifestyle change. Making sure to exercise even just 20 minutes a day has made such a difference in my stress level. So it’s been fun to incorporate that into cooking and learning about food and nutrition and exercise. Wish me luck that I can stick with it :-)

In that same spirit, I’m really excited about the upcoming Food Film Fest!

A client of mine is involved in putting it on, so I can’t wait to check it out. Here’s what they have to say about it:

The Food Film Festival – the only film festival in the world where guests get to taste what they see on the screen – will debut in Charleston this spring with two events showcasing more than 15 food films! In Charleston, we will present a “Best of” exhibition of favorite food films from around the globe, along with the world premiere of a film about Lowcountry shrimping from Festival Director and Travel Channel Host George Motz.

Sounds really interesting doesn’t it? I will be sure to share some snaps and thoughts after the event!

In the meantime, though, if you want to check it out and are in Charleston that weekend, they were kind enough to share a coupon code with me that you can use (“MELT10″) to receive 10% off the ticket price. Tickets are on sale here. We hope to see you there!

So that’s all that’s going on around here right now. I’ll try to be better about posting – it’s just hard to find time sometimes between work, exercise, cooking, and play! Tell me what you’ve been up to in the comments…I love to hear from you!

Last weekend was very special for many reasons…not the least of which was that two of my very favorite brides got married. Funny enough, both of them were named Maggie! We had very different styles for each of the weddings though, which is part of what I think is so fun to see. Same name & same weekend, but oh-so-different in the approach, and I have to say, I love them both!

Maggie H and I have been working together for awhile on her save the dates, invitations, and day of paper. She adores paper so we hit it off quite well from the start, and she and her mom will both be missed as they dropped by the office from time to time. But I know her Southern Protocol wedding had to be amazing!

For Maggie H’s suite, we had a really fun blend of contemporary trends with the traditional. Saturated out-of-the-ordinary colors, more traditional fonts, and a really fun construction. The invitation is two color letterpress, backed with a metallic brocade pattern. We really focused on the stacking of the pieces as well and how they would play with each other — alternating the corner treatment (rounded versus square), colors, etc.

Once Paige Tanenbaum added her beautiful calligraphy, we had something really really special!

On the other side, Maggie D loves music and planned a beautiful gray and coral wedding. All of her paper had a really casual, fun and modern sensibility.

Don’t you just love that “awkward but enthusiastic dancing” bit?

What have you been up to lately?

You can imagine my delight to see Caren’s gorgeous wedding in the Spring Weddings Unveiled issue!

It was such a pleasure to work with the talented team at Yoj to create all the neat paper for this wedding. We made the adorable paper cones that they filled with rose petals to toss as the couple came down the aisle, the custom monogram cake topper, straw flags, and more. So nice to see the gorgeous results of some of the more labor intensive projects like that ;-)

Happy weekend and happy Easter!

It’s funny how color trends work, isn’t it? Mint is all the rage right now and I can’t help but love it too.

I’m noticing a lot of triangles in products and designs lately too. I really want these adorable coasters. Details bug me – as much as I love my Georgia Bulldogs, the red “G” coasters just stand out as so out of place in the living room I’m carefully curating. Yes, I know, that’s kind of silly, but aren’t these lovely?

OK so maybe those didn’t all end up being mint but I think they looked nice together, and I’d happily take any of them ;-) I have always wanted a globe for some reason. Not sure why. And the old style alarm clocks are just so much prettier than a digital piece.

How do you feel about mint? Do you fall in with color trends or stick to your favorites? For me, I might love the trends, but I almost always gravitate back to the blue, green, and gray.

Check out the lovely finds above in these shops:

mint green scarf | vintage blue alarm clock | vintage globe | wood bunting | polygon necklace | vintage camera | mint triangle coasters