One Last Valentine

I'm sure you've seen tons of Valentine's ideas around the Internet lately, but I hope you'll indulge me in just one more. My friend Tracey handed these out at our Valentine's day lunch this weekend, and they were quite a hit. Such a cute idea!

Happy Valentine's Day :)

(Hearts & Footballs) Weekend in Pictures

{test valentines}

{crafting supplies and coffee}

{always so many birds at tracey's place}

{watercolor chevron painting}

{more valentine tests}

{polka heart}

{brooklyn heights valentines}

{superbowl party with king cake, a plastic baby, the brooklyn bridge and a pup}

I said last year that I don't really get that into Valentine's Day, which is still mostly true. But this year I'm giving in to the pink and red. Hence the Valentine crafting session on Saturday. Balanced out with some beer and tater tots eating during the Super Bowl, for a well-rounded weekend. Hope yours was lovely!

Instagram photos via Kate and Dara.

The best of Renegade

I wanted to show you some of my favorites from the Renegade Craft Fair. A few of them you might be familiar with from other blogs, but they make really great things so I'll share them just in case they're new to you.





Forestbound makes gorgeous bags out of salvaged textiles and hardware. They'd definitely be more of a big ticket purchase for me, but I drool every time I check out their site. It was great to get to see and touch the bags in person at Renegade. Check the site often.



Bettula is home to all things birch. Her birch vases are great (wouldn't they be pretty at an earthy, outdoor wedding?), but what really blew me away was her birch jewelry. Especially the cuffs.





If you read Cup of Jo you've seen these genius morse code necklaces from Coatt before. I've always thought they were a cute idea, but after seeing them in person, I'm definitely sold. I love how simple they are - I'm a huge fan of necklaces you can wear everyday. Rebecca even had a few necklaces wrapped around her wrist as bracelets!





And lastly, I loved Claudia Pearson's illustrations. She does a lot of great food and kitchen-themed prints and tea towels that would be great gifts for friends who love to cook.





But really, I was drawn to her shop by this Brooklyn print. My friends seem to be moving to Brooklyn in droves these days, so it reminded me of the excitement of finding a new apartment and getting settled in an awesome neighborhood.

A Seis de Mayo engagement party

This past weekend I helped host a Seis de Mayo engagement party celebrating the engagement of my friends Tracey & Greg. The theme has more to do with the date the party fell on than anything else, but the bright, festive mood of Cinco de Mayo seemed an appropriate way to celebrate the beginning of their happily ever after.





We tried to keep the menu simple but festive: chips, homemade salsa and cheese dip, a mexican beer cocktail (more on that later today), sangria, and key lime pies for dessert.



One of my favorite parts of the party were the pinatas. We made these pinatas and they were,
quite literally, a hit.





Tracey and Greg even shared their candy with each other. Aw, so sweet.

One last fun thing from the party—the photo "booth." I love how free and silly people get in photo booths, so we created a simple photo area in one area of the party.



The backdrop, if you can call it that, is a papel picado banner and the couple's initials made with fringey tissue paper. The original idea of the photo booth was to have people dress up like the couple, so I picked up this hilarious curly wig (they have matching curly hair!) as a prop. The pictures turned out so funny, I love them.





It was such a fun night. Congrats, Tracey and Greg! Thanks for letting us throw you a fiesta.

Top photo by Bryson Wyatt via Instagram.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

My friends Jessica & Ryan welcomed their sweet baby girl, Eleanor Joy, into the world this afternoon. As my little virtual birthday present to Ellie, I want to share the card I made for Jessica's baby shower in November.



What's more celebratory, or more welcoming than colorful bunting flags? I stole the idea from a whole lot of places—cute bunting is all over the place these days. The flags are paper (I don't really get along with sewing machines) cut into diamonds and then sealed over the string with a dot of glue. I used a stamp set I have to do the lettering.

Happy Birthday, Eleanor! And congrats to Jessica and Ryan.