Jesi Haack, Mindreader...

If you know me (Kari) well, you know I have a thing for paper. Always have, always will. I am lucky to be working on a couple projects for clients that are paper-related right now, and very fun. One of the brides I am working with has an affinity for all things paper almost as much as I do, so I've been cutting, folding, and sourcing all sorts of fabulous paper. I needed a break from the folding the other day, so I hopped on the computer for what I promised myself would be only a ten minute break, so I could catch up on some blog inspiration.

One of my favorite blogs in the whole wide world is Jesi Haack's blog focusing on party design. I like to think that if Jesi and I lived close to each other, we would be bff's and would enjoy talking paper with each other on a regular basis. :) Anyhoo, I digress...

While on Jesi's blog, I came across her most recent wedding and knew I had died and gone to heaven. She read my mind with this wedding! It is a plethora of perfect paper. I've given you a little teaser with the photo above of some of the paper goodness, but you'll want to check the rest of the wedding out here. It's divine and totally makes me want to get married all over again so I can do a wedding design do-over! :)

So...my "ten minute blog break" turned into about an hour because I couldn't stop ogling the paper stuff in this wedding, but eventually, I was inspired to return to my folding. This wedding isn't exactly like the thing my client is asking for, but it proved to be beautiful inspiration nonetheless!

(P.S. Another thing I love about Jesi Haack's blog is that she is gracious about sharing ideas and how-tos. So, if you are looking for inspiration, head on over to her blog!)

Kari's House on HHFITD...

The very sweet and talented Camila from the blog, High-Heeled Foot in the Door, has been so kind to feature Kari's living and dining room on her blog today! The post comes as part of a series called "Open House" where Camila is showing real living spaces from readers. We hope you'll check out High-Heeled Foot in the Door and add it to your daily blog reads---it's one of our daily must reads and has been for awhile!

Thank you, Camila, for the sweet mention!

Amazing Cupcakes

We love different flavored cupcakes as party desserts! Cupcakes are the perfect size for an individual, and are easier to eat while mingling at a party than cake or pie. However, it takes a special recipe to elevate a cupcake from "kid-fare" to something truly decadent. The website MingMakesCupcakes is a great resource for recipes that take a humble cupcake to the next level. Her creations include, (from top to bottom), Number 13- Sour Cream Fig Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, Number 18- Sour Cream Apricot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting and Toasted Almonds, Number 6- Banana Cupcakes with Maple Brown Butter Frosting, and Number 32- Graham Cupcakes with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting. Any one of these recipes would be fantastic as dessert for a party. Enjoy!

Home Interior Decorating

We all love beautiful things. So, our homes must be the one of them, and therefore, the home décor is very important. Most of us enjoy making our homes more than a mere structure made up of four walls and a roof. Home decor styles range from a number of themes, designs, and materials.
While planning your home decor project, you can either opt for the theme being implemented throughout the house or use one specific theme for a specific room. For example, a house was once designed in such a way that each room was decorated with the styles of the different countries the home owner had visited. All rooms included authentic art and furniture from each visited country.

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Party In a Box:

We love, loooooove a good party. The planning, the food, the little details, the hard work paying off when a good time is had by all...Parties rock. There are just so many wonderful things to celebrate in life: weddings, babies, new jobs, graduations, friendships, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, the changes in seasons, etc. Life is full of good stuff to celebrate!

The problem is that parties can also cause stress for certain people. Face it: you're either programmed to be excited about details or you aren't. If you are a details-person, you probably revel in planning a party. If you find details pesky, you probably find planning parties to be stressful. As a matter of fact, the other day, one of us had a good friend say, "I just want this party to be over. I can't afford to hire someone to do all this, but I hate these little details!" If this sounds like you, chances are that you are never going to relish the idea of doing hand-calligraphy placecards at two in the morning before a fête, and that's okay! (This may be an important moment to mention that great gatherings and parties are NOT about expensive or time-consuming details---they are about people. If placecards stress you out, for pete's sake, do without!) However, if you are yearning to have a party with fun accessories and details but just don't want to put in the time because it ain't your thing, perhaps a party in a box is right up your alley.

The party in a box concept has been around for awhile now, and it's a great concept: all the stuff you need to throw a party in one box, for one price. You add people and food and you're done! Here are some resources for a "party in a box" that we think are getting it done well.

(1) Acme Party Box Company:

The Circus Collection:

The Woodland Collection:

The Chocolate Tangerine Collection:

The Blooming Lotus Collection:

(2) Tin Parade:

Oscar's Baseball Party:

Ben's Circus Party:

The Great Green Gala:

Emma's Green Party:

Ruby's Tea Party:

Jax's Train Party:

The White Shower:

(3) Pretty Smitten's fantastic Etsy store has these "party-in-a-box type kits:"

the Superhero Party Package:

the "pick your own theme & colors" package:

(4) Because of Brenna's Etsy store has these offerings (and more):

Girls' Spa Birthday package:

Safari Themed Party Package:

Of course, if you don't need a full theme-in-a-box kind of thing, we recommend Etsy for those special little touches that you don't have time for. Cupcake wrappers, invitations, placecards, favors, etc.---we love that Etsy provides a place to buy and sell those very special handmade items that make a party unique!

Happy planning!

---Jill & Kari

Recipe for a perfect summer day:

While neither one of us would claim to be a great mixologist when it comes to cocktail parties, truth be told, we've come up with some purdy tasty drinks on our own----necessity being the mother of invention and all that. The other day, we figured out how to make the most of a bottle of champagne and some ripe summer peaches. Sure, it's pretty much sangria, but we thought we'd share anyway! We highly recommend this little concoction. It's best served around the pool and in the company of girlfriends. :)

• In a pitcher, dump some ice. (See, we aren't real worried about exact measurements here...)
• On top of the ice, dump three or four diced peaches. We did a combo of white and yellow. Juicy peaches are preferred!
• Dump some more ice on top of this.
• Dump an entire bottle of champagne (we actually used a cheap sparkly rosé. The beauty of a recipe like this is that you don't need an expensive bottle to make it taste really good! The rosé ended up making this a very pretty drink. What girl doesn't like to drink something pink?!)
• Use a spatula to stir vigorously---you want to beat the ice against the fruit to release the flavor.
• Serve! Actually, if you can wait, this is pretty good after it has sat in the fridge for awhile---it gives the flavors an opportunity to meld. You might want to serve it with a spoon so after the bubbly is gone, folks can eat the leftover peaches.

Cheers!

Nap, Please...

Elle Decor, design by Alex Papachristidis

Normally, we love lots of color. That being said, it's nice to have a room or two in the house that just whispers, "Come nap here". This room is perfect for that. The color palette is sophisticated, but restrained, the furniture looks like it has history instead of being unpacked from a big box store, and those linens? Like a cloud. Beautiful. Now, if only it was possible to make time for a real nap around here...

Chandeliers on the Brain

The other day, one of our favorite blogs, Little Green Notebook, posted on a fabulous DIY chandelier project. Reading the post renewed my (Kari's) enthusiasm for making my own chandelier. You see, for about a year and a half, I have had an entire box of these glass "bubbles" from CB2. The intention was to make my own chandelier for a nook in our master bathroom where our freestanding tub sits. The ceiling there needs a little something, but I've put off making the bubble chandelier because I have had more pressing projects in the past year (like full-time school, starting and growing a business, traveling with my husband, etc.) Now, though, I am excited to start and finish a chandelier---but I want to put my own spin on the project. Here are some photos of DIY projects that are inspiring me today:

From Apartment Therapy, the same bubble chandelier project as mentioned on Little Green Notebook. (Click on any of the links to get to the instructions).

This amazing "Frou Frou Chandelier." I really love the volume of this one---lots and lots and lots of bubbles! Check it out here.

Lindsey Adelman is a lighting genius, in my opinion. I love her work. The photo above is probably one of my favorites by Ms. Adelman. Lucky for us, though, there are DIY instructions for the light fixture below---check it out here:

Interiors by Charlotte Moss

The two-bedroom unit was conceived as a New York pied-à-terre for a couple who met in Rome and married in the hills of Tuscany, blending the historicism of the Italian countryside with their new, urban lifestyle.
By Catherine Lee Davis

Read more here:

http://www.veranda.com/room-decorating/charlotte-moss-show-house-1208

Happy Weekend!

Wishing you a weekend full of celebration as we Americans consider how blessed we really are. We hope your weekend is full of sweet summer memories!

Restaurant Interior Design

The restaurant interior design is very important as it can draw customers in or it can make them never want to come back. Not only do you have to consider how to best draw in customers you also have to ensure the design allows for productivity of your employees. If the layout is poorly designed employees will need more time to complete regular activities which can lead to poor customer service. Don't leave this to chance. It may be best to hire a restaurant interior design firm to ensure you can meets the needs of your employees while giving your customers an atmosphere they cannot wait to return.

When considering restaurant interior design that will affect the customers, there are many areas you need to take into account. Space is important in the dining area. Employees need to be able to move around between tables with ease and customers don't want to be sitting too close to other tables. Yet you need to balance this by taking into consideration that open areas can be overwhelming when the restaurant is not filled to capacity. Don't forget a cashier area placed discreetly by the door. Ensure this does not interfere with normal flow of traffic. By considering all of these things when designing your restaurant, you will be sure to have a layout that is pleasing to all.

Asian Interior Design

There are lots of things to find out when that you are talking about Asian interior design, and it is specifically true when you happen to be hunting at this within the context from the atmosphere in Singapore. Mainly because we're essentially a Petri dish of mixed cultures and influences, there is no such thing as being a one dimensional interior style, and due to the fact of the, you have to recognize how this is going to be able to have an impact on the aspect of the design and style as a whole, and we can look at how trends have impacted Asian design and style in the 1st spot and how this will probably evolve from the future.

A person issue that you'll want to know about of training course is how that you are about to fit this in when considering about Asian style like a whole. Once the very first on the boats started out to are available in, the complete kampong idea of Singapore had to give way to some a great deal a lot more modern-day aspect of Chinese, Indian, and of course regional design and style aspects, that was punctuated once the federal government of Singapore then made a decision to segregate and divide Singapore into a sum of a lot of parts. But of program, today, we usually are not discussing on the finer factors of how Asian design came about, but far more so, in which it seriously isn't nowadays, and we can safely say that Asian style has used a much more contemporary take in this day and age, and some might say that it may be drowned out by a contemporary design imperialism that seemed to possess dominated the skyline in the design and style business

Modern day in this particular sense signifies much more use of white and clean components as opposed to the regular cluttered features of Asian style. Of course, there are already numerous hybrids right here and there, specially inside several landed properties in Singapore. They have taken the best of the east and merged it while using practicality and almost level headed pattern in the West and what you've got is just not actually a loss of identity, but the birth of a new one particular that makes sense in lots of senses from the word. One factor you have to know about Asian design and its new modern-day hat, is the fact that it truly is moving in lots of directions, and nearly post modern designs and occasionally even futuristic layout is coming into place. Asian design is any design and style, a fabric and template that's ready for adjust in much more methods than one.