Picnics Under the Moon

too cute to eat

My husband has a Japanese player on his soccer team, and he had him over for dinner last night. He brought me the BEST hostess gift EVER. The above rice crackers wrapped to look like kokeshi dolls. They're honestly too adorable to even consider eating.

it was a good day

 

I've been growing my hair out for the past year or so, so I've been seeing my hairdresser less and less. But, my hair had hit a point where it was no longer cute, so yesterday I had the pleasure of getting my hair cut! When I was there last, they had just started a major expansion and remodel, and I got to see the finished project yesterday. LOVE it. Just amazing.

Then I went to Common Roots to get some work done and to have some lunch. Yum.

Next, my son's 2nd grade class had a shadow puppet show - they wrote the script and made the puppets themselves. Adorable!

And when I came home, my Bobbi Brown Pretty Powerful prize had arrived and I love every single item! So, all in all, it was a very good day.

rainy day window shopping

It's been a quiet day around here, which is good, because after three straight days of rain, I don't have a lot of pep in my step. So when faced with the choice of doing accounting or writing a blog post, I hit the interweb for some good old [browser] window shopping. Today's big find, Sarlo (via 1st Dibs). They have an amazing assortment of jewelry, lighting, furniture, and home accessories.

But I think my favorites were these pieces by Woody Biggs. Gorgeous. Visit Sarlo here!

walking the lakes

By far, the lakes are one of the best things about Minneapolis. We live a block off Lake of the Isles and I adore taking the boys and dogs out for walks - lovely houses to look at, other dogs to sniff, and you almost always run into a friend or two. I got the sweetest email yesterday, which I'm adding to my list of things I love about the lakes...

This weekend, I was walking on Cedar Lake trail with my two labs and met a woman pushing a stroller with her 2 year old daughter and 10 month old Australian Shepard.  As we met, our dogs entangled, we mentioned the beautiful day, dogs, kids, etc.  I'm not sure how it came up in our 5 minute meeting, but I relayed the joy of expecting our first baby in August and how excited we were, now managing the paint/paper of the house as the nesting phase sets in.  She said, "I have a friend who has a wallpaper business, Hygge and West."  I put the name in my cellphone and when I got home, went to the website and have just ordered a batch of samples.  I'm so pleased with the paper options and can't wait to get the samples.  I sent the site to my designer, who also loved many of the same patterns.

 So, if you know which friend of yours it is that I'm talking about - 2 year old girl, 10 month old shopper, works, great frames.... please tell her "Thank you," for helping to decorate my future son's home.  :)
 
Cheers - Liz

Not only can you get exercise while walking the lakes, but killer interior design tips, too :) Thanks, Liz! Oh, and lovely photo of Lake of the Isles during the Luminary Loppet via here.

hide and seek

Can you spot the Daydream in this adorable office? If you need a hint...

So cute, and a great way to use extra wallpaper. I also love those little tassels on the cabinet doors and the vintage desk. Mostly I love how it's so clean. If you could see my office now, you'd know why. (via Sans Ugly).

launch love!

We were so excited to see our new wallpaper collection featured on Oh Joy! yesterday!

And this morning, we were mentioned on OhDeeDoh as well! We can't even tell you how happy we were to see our new collection on two of our very favorite blogs. Thank you so much for the mentions and kind words!

dinner and a movie

A few weeks ago, my friend Neelu (my great travel buddy from the NYC trip) invited me over for dinner and a movie. I try to eat healthy, but I don't really venture out too far. So I was extremely excited about the night's menu! First we made a cabbage and beet salad with a vinegar and honey dressing if I remember correctly - really good, crunchy and a nice sweet and sour flavor.

The main course was wild rice soup - wow! (Pictured in the book above; it disappeared too quickly for me to take a nice picture). We skipped the mushrooms, but added gnocchi. Both of us had multiple helpings. The soup recipe came from the Fresh Food Fast cookbook, full of healthy, quick and easy recipes. I can't wait to pick up a copy for myself!

And of course, there had to be dessert. We made popcorn with roasted almonds, walnuts and cashews in maple sauce. Heavenly!

We topped off the night with P.S. I Love You. Thanks for such a wonderful evening Neelu!

it's finally here!

We are THRILLED to announce the launch of our new collection of wallpaper by Emily Marie Cox!

Above, just a few of the designs that will be adorning hygge kids' rooms and nurseries very soon!
 

dreamy

Thanks to Apartment Therapy for choosing our Pieces wallpaper for their dream bathroom line up! I love what they've paired it with, especially the Marais chair and the pendant lights...

a pressing matter

This year, my mother asked for personal stationery for Christmas. I figured, why order it when I could make it and get it printed myself? People who know me well know how this ended - with me not having a Christmas present for my mother... Horrible, I know. But I just recently found out that my friend Jean does letterpress out of her home, so today I had the pleasure of visiting her studio and "designing" my mom's stationery!

SO MUCH FUN! I had a blast looking at all the typefaces and little decorative elements, and Jean was so sweet to indulge all my questions and poking around. I'd never seen hand letterpress done before and it was such a treat to see the entire process in action. Almost all of the type and blocks she has are antiques, many hand carved.

We picked out a few options and then Jean did a sample of each so I could decide what mom would like best. Her hands are a blur in this image because she was able to put all these teeny tiny pieces together faster than you would think possible.

Here are a couple things we tried that we ended up not going with. I have samples of the final designs, but because my mother reads the blog from time to time so I'm going to wait to post them until I have given her the final product so I don't ruin the surprise! Thank you so much, Jean! And if you are in the Minneapolis area and are in need of custom hand letterpressed stationery, invitations or announcements, just let me know and I'll get you in touch with Jean - she does fantastic work.