home with the sniffles and sneezes

I am home sick this afternoon (as is my big sister) and am enjoying having all my windows thrown open. I am waiting for the bubblegum children's cold medicine that I just took to kick in and stop my incessant sneezing and runny nose. In an effort to forget how lousy I feel I decided to focus on all the things that are currently making me happy.



10. Yesterday I finally succumb to my overflowing laundry hamper and empty refrigerator and did my laundry and some grocery shopping. This means I have fresh orange juice to help fight my cold and fresh fruit, but also drying laundry hanging in every free location in my apartment!

9. This weekend the bf and I took mini road trip to Cincinnati to Great American Ballpark for a Reds game. Although the reds didn't play particularly well it was the perfect day for baseball!





8. Last week I bought a lovely dress pattern that I'm just looking for a free moment to make!

7. It's almost MAY!!

6. My herbs are sprouting!! Well, 2 out of 3 anyway. I was skeptical whether they would do well in my window but everyday I see that they have grown just a little more.

5. I have Thursday off of work. (For now, we'll see if that lasts)

4. The Masterpiece Theater mini-series on PBS Little Dorrit. I've watched it the past 4 Sundays and am sad that it is now over. I just found out, however, that for a limited time you can watch full episodes on PBS.




3. Having a reason to browse all the fabulous wedding blogs out there! My two best friends are planning weddings and I get to help!

2. I have a long list of great projects for weddings, family, and my etsy shop. I'm even starting to teach myself calligraphy!

1. I am spending my afternoon browsing through my evernote images for inspiration to design my BFF's wedding invites for her southern inspired wedding in August. For further inspiration I even drove across town to the only bookstore that carried Southern Weddings to pick up my very own copy of their premiere issue. I felt a little judged by the salesman who I could tell snuck a peak at my ring finger.

EMILYHAMPTONSCOTT.COM LAUNCH!!

While I am still working out some of the kinks, I was just too excited to wait!!

The newest version of www.emilyhamptonscott.com went live this morning. Emilyhamptonscott.com is my design portfolio site. Please feel free to wander in that direction and take a look at some of my student and professional design work. More will be added soon.

accessorizing my laptop

Since my computer is an essential part of my life I allow myself the luxury of "dressing it up." My first purchase was a lovely case via Etsy from the wonderful TillyMoss. It is covered in gorgeous Amy Butler "Morning Glory" fabric and 100% Irish linen. Even several months later, I couldn't be happier with it!

I also change my desktop background depending on my mood so I try to accumulate a large collection in which I can choose from. I recently found Kindred, started by Heather "Ez" Pudewa of Creature Comforts and Holly Becker of decor8, where they display seasonally themed desktop wallpapers designed by themselves and fellow artists. There is a wide selection of wallpapers to choose from, in addition to free downloads of notecard and thank you card designs.

Below: All from www.thekindredsite.com Top left: By Hadley Hutton Top Right: By Danna Ray Bottom left: By Amy Ng Bottom Right: By Heather "Ez" Pudewa.


These backgrounds are from Farmidable. You tile the squares in order to create a repeating pattern on your screen.

i'm looking forward to this...

brilliant radiator cover

As charming and interesting as radiators are they can also be a pain. They tend to take up quite of bit of space and I have a horrible habit of bumping them and burning myself. I have two in my apartment and haven't quite found a way to work them into my design scheme. I have been looking at building a little shelf for the top of them to make them more practical but I haven't quite gotten around to it. These new covers from Byung-seok You are genius! The Natural Wave allows you to warm your coffee and treats right on top of your radiator. It might be a little awkward in my apartment, however, given my most easily accessed radiator is in my bathroom.

From Modest

one down, four to go!

I finally finished the block printed tablecloth. Here is the final result...

Some things I learned in retrospect:

1. Turpentine is not your friend. It is best to use it as little as possible so plan on cleaning up only once.
2. Prepare to get everything within a 5 feet radius pink!
3. Buy larger fabric.
4. Carve a bigger stamp!

anthropologie inspired decorating

If I could afford to, my wardrobe would be exclusively from Anthropologie. Not only do they have well designed clothes, but the store and catalog are always beautifully designed as well. Every time I visit I always come away with projects for my own apartment or design work. It is the perfect source of inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, I came across this project on Once Wed introduced as a wedding decoation idea. The crafty Pam Garrison seems equally obsessed with Anthropologie and came up with a lovely garland idea that I have added to my list of projects. She was inspired by a similar garland she saw in her local Anthropologie and after eying the original for over a year decided to figure out a way to make her own.

She made her garland with coffee filters(!), crepe paper, sheets of music, tissue paper, and some ledger paper. Her finished project looks exactly just like something you'd see in an Anthropoloie window display!
























Materials used

the GREATEST business cards ever!

I loved legos when I was a kid. I remember buying the kits and putting together things like pirate ships and getting frustrated with the leftover pieces. I even have the Harry Potter legos and those might have been purchased after childhood. Anyway, I think I just found my dream job, based merely on the awesome business cards that I would have.

From Guardian.co.uk

Staff at Lego have business cards with their details printed on a toy figure which looks like them.

"asterism"

The bf wanted to learn how to screen print this weekend and he appropriately used his favorite punctuation mark as his subject. Here is his completed print...

for the love of chalkdust

I've been on the hunt for a chalkboard for my apartment. I am looking for a hanging chalkboard, preferably antique, and found some pictures which just added to my already overwhelming love of all things reminiscent of elementary school.

Chalkboard as artwork from Domino Deco Files.





















Vintage chalkboard from kitchen_gnome.














From sfgirlbybay.

From sfgirlbybay.