I’m absolutely thrilled for Kelly and her gorgeous new home. Congrats! Ample spaces means room for visitors, right?!
While Kelly is busy settling in, I thought I’d do a special edition of This Girl for Design Crush. This Girl is a series I do on my blog, The House that Lars Built, and I had to try my hand at creating one for someone else. Welcome to This Girl!
This Girl // Eats Here // Relaxes Here
Posted In guest postHola, Amigos! Jessie Pepper here.
I’m the kind of gal who goes weak in the knees for a perfectly paired color combo… Something tells me you Design Crushers can relate?
Sweet slices of citrus go swimmingly with the soft shade that falls somewhere between dark and light. A swoon-worthy set that instantly brightens up everything from fall fashion to furniture to fabulous feathers.
Happy to lend this stunning scheme while dear Kelly is off getting settled in her new place, and to see more of my Color Crushes you’re welcome to visit me over on Style & Pepper anytime!
Chloe Pre-Fall ’14 // Capital Club // birds // desert dinner party // berries // cocktail // cockatoo // clutch & heels // candied zest // breakfast nook // glitter
Posted In guest post
Hi Everyone! I’m Billy from Wit & Vinegar and I’m helping out with a post while Kelly moves/buys a house. If it were me in that situation we’d play a game called how many margaritas can we drink before we stop packing boxes and cry uncontrollably in a corner.
Since I kind of dabble in food over on my site I thought I’d have some sort of food involvement in what I brought over here. It’s an Instagram account that I’ve been obsessed with ever since Kelly posted about it in a roundup a while back. I figured we could showcase the goodness!
Tommy Perez works with food, paper, and type to make all sorts of magic that he posts on Instagram and every time it happens I freak out a little bit and double tap as fast as I can.
Go check him out and follow. You won’t regret it!
Hi! Kate here, from Cookie and Kate. I offer fresh, vegetarian recipes on my blog. I had the pleasure of getting to know Kelly when I was new to blogging and living in Oklahoma. My dog, Cookie, and I moved up to Kansas City a couple of years ago. Since Kelly is in the process of moving back to Pennsylvania, she asked me to share a few travel-friendly snacks. Safe travels, Kelly!
Almond Honey Granola: This is my go-to granola recipe. It’s a great, wholesome snack for the road. You can eat it as is or stop for some yogurt and turn it into breakfast.
Lebanese Lemon-Parsley Salad: This simple bean salad is packed with flavor. Store it in a spill-proof container and don’t forget your fork! It should last at room temperature for a few hours, but pack it in a cooler if you intend to wait any longer before eating.
Apricot Almond Bars: These knock-off Larabars are easy to make in a food processor and feature one of my favorite flavor combinations. They keep hunger pangs at bay in between meals.
Banana Coconut Muffins: These tasty muffins are more wholesome than most. They’re made with whole wheat flour and naturally sweetened with honey. Pro tip: Don’t leave your dog in the car with an open bag of muffins.
Posted In guest post, recipes, round up
Dane Horvath is an artist, illustrator, and designer living in Pittsburgh, PA. She is the founder of the popular blog Steeltown Anthem, which she launched in 2009 as a way to showcase the creative energy of Pittsburgh’s burgeoning arts scene through local design, architecture, craft, furniture, decor, and interiors. You can find her artwork and illustrations in her shop.
If you take a drive in or around Pittsburgh, hand-painted ghost signs are common to see on the sides of buildings or barns. The faded signs tell us what businesses or products once existed here and are a constant reminder of the city’s rich history, the way things have changed, yet, stayed the same. As a designer and artist, they are a huge inspiration to me. I try to step back and think of all the hard work and detail that went into painting them.
Here are a few of my favorites. Take a look:
Hey there. Brittni here from Paper & Stitch. I’m excited to be guest posting today, while Kelly is busy moving. Admittedly, I have a lot of design crushes, but one in particular has really impressed me recently. So, I thought I would write about that today.
I’m always searching for new independent designers that have a similar aesthetic to my own. Minimal, modern, and a tiny bit trendy. And since I’ve been on the hunt for a few more specific pieces to add to my collection lately, mainly in the textile department, my casual search turned into a more specific quest to find the perfect shop. Shortly thereafter, I stumbled across Swift. After reading the background of the designers behind the label, I bookmarked the shop immediately and started adding things to my wish list.
Textile designers Michal and Roni are melding modern design with traditional textile techniques, like tie-dye, block printing, etc. So, in that way, each piece is one of a kind, which makes these designs all the more special. And puts this shop at the top of go-to list for all things textiles.
Tie-Dye Scarf // Kitchen Tea Towel Set // Natural & Black Tote Bag // Numeral Tank Top
Posted In accessories, bags, guest post, house and home, kitchen, wear it
Hello! It’s Susan from House of Brinson stopping by Design Crush while Kelly completes her big move. I’ve been knee deep in renovating our 1850s historic home this summer, living in dust and piles of tools. For a visual person, this is hard, and sometimes depressing! I normally keep a neat home and living in a constant mess is really difficult. To keep me in a positive mood and focused on the end result I dream of what our finished space would look like, and look for color and interior design inspiration around every corner.
I discovered Eric Blum’s work online, and it has been an endless source of inspiration. First, his color palettes are soft, yet saturated. The inky blue and light pink color palette are so appealing. I love the combination and was inspired to use it in the interior design of our house. Eric’s use of texture feels so sophisticated to me, I could just get lost in the layers. He uses silk as a surface, applying ink and wax, which I’m sure in person is lovely.
If you have a moment, visit Eric’s site, this is a small sample of his large body of work, which includes drawings and prints. He also has an impressive list of galleries he’s appeared in.
As I drive out of Oklahoma City this morning on my way to the next chapter awaiting me in Pennsylvania, there really seems no more fitting post than a tribute to the city I’ve come to love beyond measure. Seamus Payne of The Coolist visited recently and put together this documentary – City Rising // Oklahoma City – that captures the city I know and have watched grow for the past decade. Our city is everything here and much, much more. So goodbye for now Oklahoma, you’ll always have a piece of my heart.
There was a time, not long ago, when cities like Austin and Portland didn’t exist as we see them today. Before these towns became great American cities, they were communities on the rise just waiting for their stories to be told. There are more like them, and one stands out. For every covered wagon or cowboy hat in Oklahoma City, there’s a tech startup and cultural story waiting to be discovered. I traveled to OKC to witness these stories firsthand. I trained with Olympic athletes, spoke to entrepreneurs and craftspeople about the businesses of tomorrow and even stood on the Chesapeake Arena’s center circle where NBA star Kevin Durant goes to work. I left intrigued and encouraged, having witnessed a city on the rise that is just waiting to be discovered. OKC will surprise you. (It surprised me.) It’s a rising beacon of tech, culture and sport in the center of the Great Plains. Join me as I experience Oklahoma City firsthand.
Posted In oklahoma, see it
Who knew that a simple gradient, making its way from dark to light on its way from bottom to top, could make a planter pop so much?! Thanks to rotational moulding technology and a hand-finished border, Alba is a fantastic display of what can happen when high tech meets lo-fi creationism. Each “vase” is available in either two or three colors, with three options available for each and made for use either indoors or out. (There’s even a range of lights which are a hanging version of the same design!)
(via Design Milk)
Posted In accessories, house and home
Four the past four years Melbourne-based artist Lisa Lapointe has been working exclusively with paper and colored pencils. That’s right, her work has zero digital manipulation involved. The fields of vibrant colors Lisa creates work alongside opposing shapes and manage to feel contemporary and timeless all in the same moment.
Coloured pencils are such a challenging medium – the drawing process is long and the works in turn become so honest, so revealing – in one work you have to contend with so many different mindsets – it’s a real effort to link them all together to make one coherent work…[a bit like life]… at the end of a work its like looking back at that section of my life in code – so raw and fragile and yet so potent and resilient – all wrapped up and hidden in a prismatic construction of composition and colour.
(via The Design Files)
Posted In create, illustration