Picnics Under the Moon

huh... that explains it

Christiana and I are putting together a Mother's Day newsletter, so I was going through the baby book looking for photos of my mom when I noticed something. We had a LOT of wallpaper in our house. A lot. So I thought I'd take you on a tour of some very fine examples of 1970s home decor, starting with this, my favorite - flocked red damask. I'm not sure if this is at our house or my grandparents...

My adorable nursery - I'm sure my mother put this all up herself. I'm looking pretty big for my britches at 9 months old.

This is awesome - I'm thinking bathroom. The floral definitely has some mirrored surfaces and note the other pattern, which I think must be a hallway? Looking good, dad, looking good.

More flocked damask and me in a bonnet. Classic. By the way, let's all take some time to notice that my mother has a less than 6 month old baby in this photo and has quite clearly lost all the baby weight. I'm wondering why I didn't get those genes or level of willpower.

You can't see it that well, but there's a 70's floral green and yellow wallpaper in the background - I had to use this photo for that one, though, because look at my grandmother! She is a total glamour queen!

And this one shows 2 different wallpapers and some really great shag carpeting. My mother has always had impeccable taste when it comes to interior design, so the fact that she was able to put this all together at the age of 25 on what I can only imagine was a pretty limited budget is beyond impressive.

People always wonder how I went from being an attorney to selling wallpaper, and I never really have a good answer, but after looking through these photos, it makes sense.

open invitation

breathing in hygge

My best friend from college, Mary, was in town a last weekend for a long overdue visit.  We spent the majority of the weekend walking around the city, sipping cocktails, catching up on the latest, and reminscing about college - the better choices we could have made in the boyfriends department, the better choices we should have made in the when it is okay to ride your bicycle home from a bar department, the NR420 nightmare (Integrated Natural Resources Management - a horrifying experience at the time that has since provided hours of laughter), and the summer at Pingree Park where we had to learn about 100 different scientific names for about 100 different grasses (not including the kind people may or may not have been smoking up there just to get over the fact they had to learn how to spell that many latin words...).

My short term memory is almost non-existent, but Mary could still remember the song we made up to remember the name for blue grama prairie grass - Bouteloua!  Unfortunately, I can't even remember the name of the tiny flower she pointed out to me last week that is blooming on my steps and smells amazing!  She's an avid gardener and was quite fasinated by the city garden I'm lucky enough to overlook.  Her enthusiasm was the perfect reminder to feel more grateful for my life as it is and not to miss the opportunity to stop and smell a flower every now and then.  Today's been one of those days where just about nothing has gone right.  So, on my way home for the post office, I stopped to breath in the little white flowers.  For just a few moments I was reminded of unconditional friendships and the promise of new spring beginnings. 

tea towels

When Christiana and I brainstorm new products, tea towels always seem to rise to the top of the list. This morning, Daily Candy London had this adorable British company featured and I am in love with their Cake Time (cause when is it NOT cake time?) towel. It reminded me of the second lovely we'd seen ages ago - because in my book, the only thing that's better than cake is Daniel Craig.

My personal favorite product I'd like to do next is tote bags. I cannot get enough of canvas tote bags (like the super cute ones above). Probably because whenever I leave the house with the kids, I have a lot of things that need to get tossed in a bag quickly and totes just seem to work well for that. Plus, when you're sitting on the ground at a 5 year old's soccer game, you don't need to be worrying if your LV is getting water stains from the dew on the grass.

new and improved

We made a BUNCH of progress on our website this weekend! We're so excited about the new look and we hope that you all will like it as well. Our goal was to make the navigation a bit more intuitive while keeping the look and feel of the original site. We're not 100% done, but we're getting there...

april shower

I just got back from a LOVELY baby shower and just had to post some images. Everything was just wonderful - food, drinks, decor, no tacky games... Take a look at those gorgeous (and handmade!) poms!

Plus champagne poured over wild hibiscus flowers! Delicious! Wonderful event, A - you are definitely the hostess with the mostest :)

you gotta co-ordinate

That line from "Boomerang" never fails to pop into my mind when things like this occur to me... But on Twitter this morning, one of our fab followers posted the incredibly cute earrings above by Molly M Designs and I couldn't help but think of our Pieces wallpaper. Would it be too much to start allowing wallpaper to dictate my fashion sense?

Have a great weekend!

Oh - and to find us on Twitter, just search for hyggeandwest!

afternoon tea

I had a lovely afternoon tea (and of course some bubbly!) with my friends Kristi and Jessica at the Hotel Ivy yesterday - so hygge! There was a table full of older ladies next to us in full tea regalia - hats and all. I tried to get a photo without seeming intrusive, but it didn't happen...

Along with the beverages, we had a delicious assortment of finger foods. It was such a fun way to catch up and spend some time together. Jessica designed these lovely votives for us last fall, and just launched this gorgeous new pattern! And my friend Kristi is in the process of launching her own marketing and communications firm, so we had plenty to talk about and to celebrate! Thanks, ladies - let's do it again soon!

it's out!

A while back, Shawn Gilliam, editor of Mpls St. Paul Home magazine, contacted me to talk about possible stories about the wallpaper and over the course of a few conversations they decided to do a "Stylemakers" piece on the wallpaper, and, sort of, me. When I heard there was a photoshoot involved, I was less than excited. I am notoriously, horribly and utterly unphotogenic. But eager to get some exposure for the lovely wallpapers, I agreed. Plus, it gave me an excuse to buy some new clothes. Stephanie Colgan, the wonderful photographer, made the shoot painless and almost fun, and Shawn was so sweet and a joy to work with. But for the past month or so, I've been dreading the piece coming out a bit because of "the photo."

I went out with a friend last night for dinner and a play and when I got home, my husband said that some of our neighbors had come out when they saw him outside with the boys because they were excited about having a neighbor on the cover of the magazine. WHA?!? I threw up in my mouth a little. Luckily, by an odd coincidence the lovely family that lives kitty corner from us were the cover subjects. Phew.

So today I went down to the grocery store I always shop at and picked up a copy (okay, 3 copies - my mom wants some). When I checked out, the woman asked if I really meant to buy 3 and I said yes, and she asked, "Oh, are you in it or something?" to which I sheepishly responded, "Umm, yeah, actually I am." So she thumbed through and let out a little shriek when she saw the piece and then proceeded to call everyone in the cash register area over to show them. I was mortified, but it was really sweet of her and her excitement (and all the other Lunds employees congratulations) was fun and flattering. I imagine it's as close to an Angelina Jolie moment as I'll ever have.

Then when we got in the car, my son Jackson said "Mommy, are you really in the newspaper?" So I corrected him and told him that it was a magazine and not a newspaper, and he said "That's awesome mom!" He must have sensed that I was responding in a way that said "less than awesome" and he said it again, "That's awesome, mom, right?"

Well, if the lady at Lunds and my 5 year old son think it's awesome, I think that I should at least be okay with it. For the record, the story is great and very complimentary, and the photo, well, I've looked a LOT worse in photos. Which is about the nicest thing I'll say about a photo of myself. :)

Thanks so much Shawn and Stephanie!

sidewalk talk