We unofficially kicked off 2014 calendar coverage last week with the Bloggers Love Cats + Bloggers Love Dogs: A Calendar Fundraising Project, but in the name of all things official here we go! (Is it strange that I want at least ten more calendars, even though I designed two myself? I didn’t think so.) If you want to explore further, simply click on each image.
Thanks to a librarian aunt, as well as a mom and grandma who are both voracious readers, I’ve been a bibliophile for basically my entire life. So when it comes to the holidays I love to gift books more than just about anything. As it turns out Chronicle agrees, they’d like us all to take the pledge to give more books this holiday season. Just click below to sign up and you can download either a red badge or white badge to add to your site to support the Give Books campaign! For every #GiveBooks tweet, pin, or online signature Chronicle will donate a book to children in need through First Book with a goal of 10,000 books. As if that weren’t enough incentive, you can also receive 30% off and free shipping on everything at ChronicleBooks.com (excluding personalized products) through 12/31 with the promo code GIVEBOOKS.
Chronicle also invited me to choose ten of my favorite titles from their collection to gift to friends and family this December, no small task. But here’s the super duper part – you have a chance to win the same ten books! That’s right, a fat stack of reading material that you can either gift away or add to your own bookshelves. Included are One Line a Day: A Five Year Memory Book, Blog, Inc., Gem and Stone, Lists, 100 Years of Fashion Illustration, Pulled, Tartine: The Boxed Set, Little Paper Planes, The Art of Instruction, and Creature.
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS, ROD!
To Enter the Giveaway:
1. Make the pledge to Give Books!
2. Pop back here and tell me in the comments below that you’ve done so.
3. For an extra entry tweet about the giveaway using the hashtag #GiveBooks.
4. Pop back here (a second time) and tell me in the comments below that you’ve done so.
5. Do both before Sunday, November 10th at 11:59pm CST.
This giveaway is for U.S. residents only. Giveaway rules + disclosures.
The incredibly talented and awesome Gemma Correll illustrated all of the materials, including these downloads for Catmas gift tags, Hanukcats gift tags, and a poster!
Posted In read up, win it
01/ Skeleton Horse wins for best Halloween costume!
02/ A suspended bicycle roundabout over a highway in the Netherlands.
03/ Insane pumpkin arrangements make up the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.
04/ A beautiful old church was converted into a beautiful new bookstore.
05/ Loving this Day of the Dead sugar skull wallpaper!
06/ This cabin was built with $500 of repurposed windows!
07/ Shotgun shells are used to create beautiful mosaics.
08/ These PyroPet candles melt down to metal skeletons!
09/ A loving husband documented his wife’s battle with breast cancer.
10/ Camila Carlow sculpts human organs from foraged fauna.
This week on Design Crush:
Five of my favorite prints in Prints: October Edition.
Two fantastic new tile designs – Wave and Picket.
Inspired illustrations from Laia Arqueros.
I love sending pre-holiday notes, see eight of my favorites in Autumn Hellos.
Support the Humane Society of the United States by purchasing Bloggers Love Cats + Bloggers Love Dogs, two 13-month calendars for charity.
Check out this stunning jewelry collection – Erin Considine AW2013.
I hope you had a Happy Halloween!
Check out my Insta October.
A funny/tragic flip book for adults – Ten Thousand Stories.
Remember those children’s books that had flaps you could turn, and by doing so create crazy monsters or mismatched people? I do, I thought they were awesome when I was a kid. Now Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr have created an adult version – Ten Thousand Stories! Each page is divided into four mini-pages that mix and match to create 10,000 different story combinations, each with its own quirky watercolor illustration. Some stories make sense and some come out totally crazy, but all will leave you smiling. Check out the book trailer right here.
October is my favorite month of the year, and it inevitable screws me over. It’s like a bad ex that I keep going back to year after year. 2013 was no different, but the second half at least threw me a bone to come back in 2014.
I found an old stash of senior pictures – definitely a case of baby face in the left one. The dogs have decided they much prefer a $50 hypoallergenic pillow on the couch to either a dog bed or blanket. Figures! I finally had the garage sale that’s been five years in the making, and I couldn’t be happier it’s over. (More on that later.) Took a fast weekend trip home to Pennsylvania and couldn’t not stop at my favorite hometown bakery. Three days later I was in sunny Palm Springs, CA soaking up some sun with a few of my favorite ladies. I also attended Camp Mighty and added a few photobooth strips to my ever-growing collection! Then it was back home to play a serious game of catch up and get some Bebe cuddles in.
Posted In my life
PHOTO: School for Witches
Happy my favorite day of the year to you! Tonight I’ll be lighting a fire and lots of candles inside the house, playing some (hidden) scary music on the porch, and handing out plenty of candy. And I might wear a witches hat, too.
Posted In halloween, holidays
Erin Considine consistently creates out of the box, well-designed jewelry. She mixes materials like no one else and has a knack for choosing great colors time and time again. I’d love to mix her AW2013 collection with chunky sweaters and cocktail dresses!
I couldn’t be more excited to finally reveal a little something I’ve been working on for the past month – Bloggers Love Cats and Bloggers Love Dogs: A Calendar Fundraising Project!
This was one of those ideas that came to me in the minutes before falling asleep one night, that I somehow magically managed to remember the next morning without having written down. That idea was to reach out to the incredible network of bloggers I’m a part of to create two calendars that would feature our much loved pets, with all proceeds going directly to The Humane Society of the United States. I decided to make both calendars downloads instead of printed in order to give every last dollar to the animals. You can choose from Bloggers Love Cats or Bloggers Love Dogs for $7 each or pick up both for $12!
Bloggers Love Cats features 13-months of felines from Sugar and Cloth, Joy the Baker, Design Crush, And Kathleen (also our cover model), Cupcakes and Cashmere, Paper & Stitch, Justina Blakeney, Fieldguided, Oh So Beautiful Paper, For Me, For You, TeenAngster, Lisa Congdon, and Jojotastic.
If canines are more your thing check out 13-months of Bloggers Love Dogs! Included are the pooches of Smith & Ratliff, sfgirlbybay (our cover girl!), Design Milk, House of Brinson, Cookie and Kate, Style & Pepper, The Broke-Ass Bride, Design Crush, Honey Kennedy, Dog Milk, Lisa Congdon, bigBANG studio, and Jojotastic.
With the holidays just around the corner you might be wondering why I’d share a roundup of cards, so let me explain. Holiday cards are bit expected, mid-autumn cards are not. It’s a sweet way to let someone know you’re thinking about them before the madness of late November through early January strikes hard and fast, or to thank someone for a generosity before you get wrapped up in the season yourself. Snail mail always wins!
ROW 1: The Communicate Notecard Set by Olive and the Volcano Letterpress // You & Me, Friends Forever by Whimsy Whimsical // Greetings Notecards by The First Snow ROW 2: Thank You Citrus Cards by Bears Eat Berries // Greetings, Dear Friend Cards by Honey & Bloom ROW 3: Whales Box Set by Enormous Champion // What Up Notecard Set by LEIF // Night Light by Red Cap Cards
Posted In cards, paper goods, round up
Illustrator Laia Arqueros and his distinctly inspired creations are just what the doctor ordered this Tuesday morning. I love a bright, colorful palette but appreciate a muted, more monochrome look just as much and Arqueros has such a talent for it. My favorite is Watermelon, seen above.
