Green Hills Antiques and Interiors

My little home furnishings, gift and home accessories booth is located in Green Hills Antiques and Interiors at 4108 Harding Pike in Green Hills, right by the Bluebird Cafe.  It is one of my many "side-hobbies".  I recently helped them to design and establish a blog to keep customers abreast of events, new pieces, new merchants, etc.  We just went live last week, and have been trying to post every few days with updates, sales, design ideas and photos of inventory.  It has been a fun design project for me, since I have a space in the interiors market myself.  Here are a few photos of my space.  Check out the blog if you get a chance.  There is such a varied assortment of items and vendors in the market right now, it is fun to browse through and see what sort of deals or one-of-a-kind treasures you might come across.  My favorite right now is the eco-friendly wooden baby toys and furnishings in the booth next to mine.  There is a beautiful organic moses basket and stand that I want in that booth!  And I love the old-fashioned wooden toys.  Enjoy the pics...

Baby M's Nursery

Here is a sneak peak at the nursery.  Still a few things left to do, like art for the walls, which I will have to put in another post, because I am designing some letter art to be matted and framed, and working on an abstract painting that will go over the crib.  Hopefully, I will get that done this week sometime before the baby comes!  If you are wondering where the amazing fabrics, furniture and lighting came from, the room was designed by AS Art & Home (the talented designer who also happens to be my mother)!

These pics were taken with my camera phone, so they are a little hazy, but you get the idea...

Hydrangeas!

This was such an exciting weekend, as my hydrangea buds began to peek out of their brown branches!  I do NOT have a green thumb and these hydrangeas are about all I can keep alive, but I think it is the love they know I have for them that keeps them coming back for me.  This reminds me of something I designed almost FOUR YEARS AGO!  This was my own wedding weekend packet, complete with hydrangeas blooming off of every page.  Yes, almost four years ago, but I still have a few pictures.

Here are a few pics from the wedding of the flowers and some of the other blue accents.  My favorite blue hydrangeas were the lighter blue, but I couldn't find many pics of those from the wedding at first glance, so here's what I found...

Spring is in the Air!

It might be rainy today, but it has been in the 60's and 70's the last few weeks, and everywhere I go, people are just floating on air!  Well, except for me and my huge belly...I could only float right now if I was in water.  I think my baby bump would make a nice floatation device.  But this weather - I just love what the coming of spring does to people's spirits.  We also associate the spring with new life, and I am expecting my new little sprout of life in LESS THAN THREE WEEKS!!  I am so tired of waiting for this little angel, but also not sure if I am ready at the same time.  I am not the only one, I know.  There are so many spring babies popping up (or out) everywhere.  Here is one precious baby shower invitation I designed for a friend's baby shower in Bluffton, SC.  I used her beautiful fabric from her nursery as inspiration.  And the little bird (her maiden name is Byrd) is just perfect for her and for her spring baby.

Nothing Compares to a Handwritten Note...

Isn't this the truth!  There is no substitute for a thoughtfully handwritten note on beautiful stationery that one can open, touch and feel.  Thank you, Diane Von Furstenburg!  See Smythson's post below for DVF's take on the importance of the handwritten note...

http://smythson.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/why-dont-you-spring-inspirations/


Photo Credit: http://artofmanliness.com

2010 Year in Print

A few of my favorite projects from 2010...

Here is a fun personalized 5x5" 2011 desk calendar I did for some close family and friends.  This particular calendar was for the husband.  He has it on his desk at work now.

Here is a fun and clean baby shower invitation I designed for a shower for a baby boy.

I obviously enjoyed this project because it was my own!  Here is my Christmas card...

Here are a few fun stationery items and invitation.

The holidays were very busy.  I was constantly mailing out Christmas card orders and party invites and packaging everything with festive holiday ribbon.

Here is my label from the back of one of my projects.

I loved designing this stationery for a baby boy.  It is so cute, but not too cutesy at the same time.

A fun invite below that I designed for a friend's Bourbon tasting holiday fete!

One of my favorite Christmas card designs.  I like this one mostly because of the fire engine red that matches his cute little outfit in the pic, and the adorable picture makes the card!

This client chose to use a fun army green for their holiday card, rather than a traditional holiday green.  I love this!!

Beautiful Details...Packaging and Labels!

I apologize that have not been posting about any of my recent stationery and invitation design projects, and I still do plan to post a recap of some of my favorite designs from last year (at some point...hopefully).  I really plan to be better about this once things settle down a bit.  I've been a very busy lady trying to get the house and nursery ready for baby.  It has been very fun, but lots of purging has been necessary.

I had two baby showers over the last month or so, one in DC and one here in Nashville.  It has been so fun to get all of these toys and gear and clothes for the babe, and I wanted to share with you a few truly amazing things that I received.  This is definitely inspiration for me, so hopefully it will inspire you as well.  I love beautiful wrapping and packaging, and it is also fun to see all of the brands and labels with cute fonts and designs.  And, of course, hand-made gifts are always inspirational.  The two gifts I must mention are as follows, and deserve more than just one photo:

GIFT #1:
Now this is a DIY creation, but only if you have your own fully-functioning organic farm, as do our incredible cousins, who live on a beautiful farm in Virginia.  What is most amazing is that they do this purely for the love of it.  For a wedding gift, they gave us a blanket made of their sheeps' wool, and so it is only fitting that they gave us these beautiful hand-stitched booties for a baby gift (also made from their sheep's wool).

The gift itself is not the only incredible part, but the beautiful box and packaging, with the sweet label printed with the name of their farm and sheep motif on a beautiful baby blue background.

Not to mention, the gift also came with a matching stationery card with a sweet note.  Then you open up this beautiful box to find these tiny hand-stitched booties inside.

This gift came to me in the mail, and the whole experience of opening it made my day!


GIFT #2:
Another amazingly talented friend of mine who happens to be both brilliant and incredibly creative gave us another wow-worthy gift.  Another DIY pro, my friend Nan made this beautiful patchwork baby blanket that looks like it should be in a Lily Pulitzer catalog with all the cheery bright colors.

She not only hand-crafted this sweet beauty, but also has her very own label sewn in the back corner.

How amazing!!  What a gift!