Wednesday LOL (interior design edition):

What if you lived at Ikea? Come on, you know you've walked around an Ikea store wanting to do this!

Tuesday LOL:

Sometimes you need to laugh on a Tuesday, too.

Last week, I was watching Parks and Recreation--which is becoming more and more a favorite, the more and more I watch it--and this happened:



I'm pretty sure Ron Swanson might be Mattio's hero.

Want:

I pity the fool that doesn't have this Mr. T teapot + mug set. Now quit yo jibba jabba and go out and get one. And don't give me no back talk, either.

First name mister, middle name period, last name, T. (I just added that one because it's my favorite. Did you know it's from Silver Spoons??)

(link found via swissmiss)

Friday LOL (interwebs edition):

I think we all have some of these Facebook "friends" in our lives:

Altoids "Curiously Strong Awards" from Marc Ritzema on Vimeo.

(via swissmiss)

Cooking with color:

I've been sort-of vegetarian for the past 15 years--actually, I was a straight veggie for the first 7, and when I found out I was pregnant, I added poultry to my diet in an effort to get more protein (well, that and I was so nauseous the first trimester that *when* I could eat, it didn't really matter what it was. But let's go with the whole protein thing).

One of the reasons I went veggie was that I'm not crazy for the taste and texture of meat--so when I added chicken and turkey to my diet, I wasn't out eating turkey burgers left and right, because, well, the texture of a burger--no matter what it's made with--is gross to me.

That is, until I found this recipe. The thing I love most about it is that it breaks up all the meatiness with loads of veggies. You can use as many or as few veggies as you like--although, if you go overboard with the veggies, the burgers fall apart on the grill. Trust me--I know this from experience. Veggie turkey burgers are a staple in my house come grilling season--they are so yum!



You'll need:
1+ lb of ground turkey
Veggies! I like to use 1 pepper, and 1 onion, but I always try and mix it up. Sometimes I'll do half of a red pepper, and half of a green pepper; a lot of times I like to throw in some jalapenos, or another type of hot pepper to spice things up a bit.
1/3 cup shredded cheese
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon soy sauce
a smidge of black pepper
a generous smidge of garlic salt

Dice all your veggies in a bowl. Add the ground turkey, cheese, ketchup, soy sauce, pepper and garlic salt and mix it up good. Form into patties, and grill!

*Hint: the colder your meat is, the better the patties hold their shape on the grill. Sometimes I'll make these in the afternoon and refrigerate the uncooked patties so they're easier to handle on the grill.

Want:

This Shoes Appreciation Society Poster (and, well, duh, membership into said society):



(via gariphic)

Listen:

OK. I know there have been rumors, and you guys, I'm finally admitting it. For all the world (or, at the very least, the internets) to read:

I kindofsortofmaybe like the new Britney Spears song.

So much so, that I kindofsortofmaybe downloaded it. From iTunes--like, I paid for it and everything.

You guys, don't judge! I can't help it--it's so damn catchy! And my Friday spin teacher--who's all kinds of fun, and makes class fly by awesomely fast because she has pretty decent taste in music (hello? LL Cool J spin? Hells yeah!)--has been playing it for WEEKS, and it wasn't until I shazammed it that I realized it was Britney.

And then I was all, well, NOW WHAT? Next thing you know, I'll be listening to boy bands, putting money in their pockets. And then it would be like I didn't even know me anymore.

Fortunately, there is a happy ending. And this happy ending features none other than my other fave female singer at the moment (the one who doesn't need all kinds of digital manipulation to sound good): Adele. Ladies and gentlemen, the best of both worlds--here's Adele's Rolling in the Deep, mashed up with Britney's Dancing Till the World ends.

Friday LOL (baseball edition):

I've always loved Alec Baldwin, but I especially love him in full Jack Donaghy (as a Yankee fan!) mode. He definitely doesn't disappoint debating with John Krasinski (uh, I hope he's really not a Sox fan!) in this New Era commercial:



"Go ahead, celebrate in April, we'll dance in October." Made me love him just a little bit more...

Cool:

When your friends who make music announce they are getting married, of course you are going to want to make them a wedding invitation that doubles as a paper record player:

Paper Record Player from kellianderson on Vimeo.

There is WAY too much to love here; starting with the fact that it would have been really easy for this designer to burn the song onto a CD, and package it with the invitation. Instead, she did a TON of research, and made a record. And since few people have turntables these days, she also made a paper record player to play said record on.

So much thought, so much care (so much science! And math!) went into this, it's awesome, adorable, and, well, awesome, all rolled into one. Plus, imagine the bragging rights the bride and groom have: "Oh, your wedding invitations were made out of paper, too? Yeah, but could they PLAY RECORDS???"

(via twitter)

New work:

You know what's a really fun project for me? Anything that has to do with a wedding.

I LOVE weddings! They are such happy occasions--plus it usually gives me an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes :)

But seriously, anything wedding-based is alright by me; I'm actually working on some invitation designs for my brother in law and his fiancée, and just last night I found out that a good friend got engaged, and he asked if I would do their invitations, too. SQUEAL!!

But back to the project at hand. Lydia Ross Taplett hired me this winter for a new logo, and internet friends, I got excited. Lydia is a wedding planner, who just happens to have incredible taste. In our initial meeting, when I asked her about other logos that she liked, it was pretty much like talking to myself. How awesome is that?

First, I played around with her initials. But I didn't want to go the traditional monogram route, because I feel like for weddings, that's done a lot:




I love the font Fling so much that I want to marry it. I thought it would be the perfect fancy-but-fun script:




One of the things Lydia noted in our initial meeting was a love of Greek key patterns. I found inspiration there, while designing something that would also make for a nice icon:




A tiara! No wedding would be complete without a tiara!




These next 2 logos incorporate the very technical design term "swirlies." I love playing with swirlies, and thought that this was a good way to incorporate some "wedding" into the logo, without going full on church script:






I know owls are the big thing right now, but man, I think hummingbrids rock. Plus, if you think about it, a wedding planner is like a hummingbird, all moving so fast behind the scenes you can't even see her:




Finally, incorporating a little Martha into it. I love the icon, and the script was placement for something a little more custom-y handwriting:




And, the winner is...



Hummingbird!

I'm so glad Lydia chose this logo, as there is SO. MUCH. we can do with the swirlies (there's that very technical design term again). I've already done an ad for her for Westport Magazine, incorporating those swirlies into it, and it was so. much. fun! Plus, I not-so-secretly love the subtle gradation at the bottom of the swirlies. Next up: I'm working on a blog redesign for her--can we say swirlies on the web?!

April showers:

Well, if April is going to insist on being all rainy and chilly (weren't we JUST talking about peeptoes?? Come on, Mother Nature!), the least we could all do is look cute out in such dreary weather. I'm all for this impossibly adorable rain coat (or Rainyday Duffle, as theiy're calling it) from Boden:



Oh, look at that: they have it in my size. Let's pair it up with some classic Hunter boots (in a fun color, natch):



Now let's go play in the puddles.

Shoes:

It's time.

Time to put away the boots. Time to put away everything fur-lined. Friends, it's time to break out the peep-toes.

While it's certainly not warm enough (in Connecticut, anyway) for sandals, it's time to start thinking Spring. And that, my friends, means peep-toed shoes, and--of course--pedicures.

And while you're at it, enjoy this adorable post about kate spade staffers' slightly unhealthy (says who??) obsession with shoes. If I worked in an office at kate spade, I would be hoarding shoes this way, too.

Get crafty:

This weekend, I got myself a little crafty. OK, on the craft scale of things, it was probably a way lot crafty. It involved multiple trips to Staples and Home Depot. It involved a power staple gun (after the guy at Home Depot told me that mine wasn't powerful enough, I thought he was saying that *I* wasn't powerful enough. I got way super insulted. Then, once I realized what he was talking about, I got way super embarrassed).

People, the dining room chairs got a nice little face lift this weekend. Let's take a look at before, shall we?



Oh, what's that? The stains don't look that bad (OK, really, they do. But I'm going to zoom in for you anyway).



Yes, this is what happens after 8 years and 3 kids get to them.

But now let's get to the fun part, the after. As I said earlier, I found 5 different kinds of fabric that I loved, and that I thought would be perfect for the project. I couldn't decide, and they all looked great together, so we used all 5 (even though we have 6 chairs. Two chairs have the same fabric).



The dining room is actually part of our living room--the walls are light and medium gray, and the sofa is charcoal. We're using yellow and orange accents throughout the room, so you can only imagine the squeals of excitement when I found this fabric.



Of course, we still have 3 children (one of whom is three years old). And some of these fabrics are pretty white. So I'm just going to enjoy these while they're still stain-free. And of course, stock up on those Tide stain remover pens.

Friday LOL (clever edition):

Anti-theft lunch bags.



I have heard horror stories of people in larger offices losing their midday meal to lunch thieves. Fortunately for me, I've always worked in smaller offices, so I've never really had that problem. But if I ever do, I'm totally getting some of these bags. Awesomeness.

(Thanks Lee Moody, for the link!)