5 Babies in the Next 5 Months!

I've seen more sonograms in the past few months than I have in my entire life. No, no, no. Not my own. Three of my best girl friends from home plus one of Matt's best friends from home plus Matt's sister (I'm going to be an "Aunt" to a third lil' one!) are all due in the next 5 months. That equals 5 babies being born to friends & family near and dear to us.

I am so excited for all of them but even MORE excited to put together sweet lil' baby gifts. I have an automatic "awww" and "ahhh" and "ohhh" when looking at baby clothes and gifts. Call it a girl thing, but the BabyGap just has that effect on me. In fact, I just went to their site to see what's selling these days and came across a line for the girls and the boys called "POP SHOP" which is for bebes under 24 months old who love patterned perfection. Oh. My. Cute. Little pears, fish, seahorses and strawberries plus lots of stripes and polka-dots for the girls in pretty colors. Tiny airplanes, monsters (cute ones, not scary ones), monkeys and stars also with their own color-combo-ed stripes for the boys.

So far the gender count is 2 for the boys and 2 for the girls (one more to be found out this weekend) which means I can have fun with all sorts of colors.

Kate's Lookin' Good This Spring.

Love these new stylings for Kate Spade's spring collection. Actually, I love the copy writing that goes with each of the outfits AND that they picked one main piece and dressed it three different ways with fantastic pops of color and accessories. Cute, right?

The gray and white striped jacket above (which I love!) has been titled:

"Gave it a Fresh Spin"
"Took A Chance on the Convertible"
"Stepped Right up to the Raffle"


And the white dress with black polka dots has been titled:

"Got Carried Away Selecting Her Next Read"
"No Wallflowers Here"
"Loved Salty Snacks and Sweet Surprises"

It's Raining, It's Pouring. I Needed a New Umbrella This Morning.

I know, it's crazy. Talk about global warming. It's 56 degrees outside and raining and it's the end of January. Go figure! The rain this morning did remind me I need to purchase a new umbrella since my 4 year-old wonderfully pink one (never mistaken for the omnipresent black umbrellas that grace the hands of all New Yorkers and all bodega owners) died in a horrible windstorm back in the summer. Sad? Yes. Belated replacement? Much needed. Of course in the winter in the northeast one needn't think about umbrellas since it is always snowing when it is precipitating but alas, Mother Nature had something else in store for us today. And unfortunately Matt's umbrella that I have been borrowing just isn't cutting it. It was tossed backwards at least thrice on my 6 minute walk to the subway and by the last 10 yards of my trek, I gave up.

Alas, my posting about these adorably patterned Marimekko rain stoppers. I am thinking I am going to have to decide on my favorite and make a purchase either at their Upper East Side concept store or via Amazon.

Blues & Greens: Calming from Anthro.

Checking out Anthropologie's home section of their website is sheer torture for me. Torture, I tell you! I start to envision their well-chosen collection in various parts of my home and see myself clicking "add to cart" on every other item I see. This time around was no different as I fell hard for their retro-inspired blue/green collection and have decided that if I ever decide to wear an apron while cooking (a look that I am sure might shock but entertain Matt all at the same time) I would have to wear this one above.

Items above from the Anthro website here: ceramic coasters, apron, timer, dessert dish.

Hable Totes.

Usually Sari is the one telling me about new Hable bags (and I am sure she has already seen these) but just checked out Hable Construction's site for new totes and am absolutely loving the shape and pattern on these two! It would be the perfect bag to tote around on the weekend, pick up produce from the farmers market or take to the park. I think I might keep my eye on these on their website for a sale and/or see when their next sample sale hits NYC...

JHill Design & Places in Patterns.

I've seen her work many times before (thanks to my trustworthy daily design blogs I read) but forgot how much I loved it! JHill Design is a VERY talented woman who I recently learned used to work for one of my favorite beauty companies, Fresh. Her fondness of pattern and typography totally won me over the very first time I saw her designs and still looking through her website just makes me ooh and aah. I remember this series of her "Places I Have Never Been" being part of a calendar but I just checked out her site and she has actual prints of those places. Beautiful patterns that grasp a hint of that particular city envelop the page and then the typographic solution of the city name at the bottom; followed by random facts about that city and exactly how many miles (from Boston, as that's where she lives) it would take to get there. So wonderful and clever!

Elum Design.

Letterpress is something that I have really always been fond of. I love the way it looks and feels; so EXTRA glamorous and just, well, nice! I really want to know how to do it and have been pondering taking a class. Until then, I will continue to ooh and ahh at pretty designs made prettier by their letterpress technique. One such designer I ogled this weekend in Austin is named Elum Designs (images above) which I found at this most fabulous home/design/artifacts shop called Mercury. I couldn't stop wanting to touch the inset of the textured uncoated paper! Though don't worry Mercury, I didn't because it was behind the plastic wrapping.

Marimekko for Spring.

Like probably most other graphic designers, I absolutely swoon over the textile patterns of Marimekko. I am not sure if this is because of my love of bold graphic patterns or because without realizing it at the time, when I was younger and staying at my Grandparents house they had Marimekko bed linens. Maybe a memory of being cozy and with family stayed with me and therefore my love of the Finnish designers stuck. Either way, every trip to their store on the Upper East Side or a find of any of their products in Crate & Barrell or just a stroll through their website makes my day. I just went on now and saw their Spring Catalog as well as some fun graphics made for their homepage; both of which were inspiring and I am trying to think of ways to incorporate into designs for a brochure I am doing (not for textiles though, for hair products).