What I Heart Today: Good Design Ain't Hard to Find

Welcome to my new Friday series called "Good Design Ain't Hard to Find." Look all around you, good design is everywhere to be found! I love it when you find some mundane item that incorporates good design, turns the mundane into the happy. Today's feature is the perfect example.

Check out the special edition Lilly Pulitzer animal crackers boxes! Found at Target. Wouldn't these make great favors for a little girl's party? Mais oui!

What I Heart Today: Cocoa & Hearts

Cocoa and Hearts is definitely my new obsession. I'm simply dying over the new online art store opened by one of my favorite designers, Jen Ramos of Made by Girl.  If you're not yet familiar with her blog it's a fantastic design read, one of my top 5 favorite design blogs (top 5 list to be revealed in a future post). She also has a great Made by Girl shop with great prints and stationery. I'm just trying to decide where to put this:

 

Such great stores, what will you heart today?

What I Heart Today: Piperlime

Shoes, shoes, shoes! A woman can never have enough shoes. A man on the other hand...

My husband is a less is more kind of guy. What that means is when he's done with a pair of shoes (ie he wore them golfing twice in the rain and everytime he puts them on his feet get wet) it's a mad scramble for another pair of shoes.

I'd like to let you in on a little secret, ok maybe it's not so secret anymore, called Piperlime. Piperlime is a Gap company, it started out as just shoes but has since added everything you could ever want like clothes and handbags. Here's the best part, they offer free shipping and free returns. So instead of dragging my husband to the mall (because he won't let me pick them out without him) I ordered him 6 pairs of shoes from Piperlime and had him try them all on at home. Jackpot! Unfortunately he only liked 1 of the 6 pairs, I would have liked to have one in reserve, but at least the emergency is over.

What I Heart Today: Thrift Store Finds

If only Gracie needed a bed. Check out this find from our local Goodwill, even better, check out the price!

What I Heart Today: Soul Searching

Do you ever feel like you just don't know which direction to walk in? You don't know what you want to do, what makes you happy. I think it's part of being a new mother, what a huge adjustment! It's one of the parts that people don't talk about a lot, the way your life gets turned upside down and you have to find your way to the new normal. One day I had a free afternoon while my husband was taking care of our daughter, "what are you going to do today?' he asked me, "you can do anything you want," and you know what, I couldn't come up with a thing to do with my free time. I'd become so wrapped up in being a mom that I didn't have anything outside of it. I That's where I was at when I started to do a little soul searching.

What makes me happy? I love creative outlets, I sew, I've designed handbags, I've designed stationery, I've designed parties, I love being creative. One of the things I've always loved is design, and especially interior design. I started taking interior design courses at a community college about ten years ago but my work took me to Montreal, Canada for three months and I had to drop out. I've decided I'm going to go back. For those of you who don't know, I have a degree in Political Science and Russian language. After graduating from college in 1997 I went to work for Boeing and was traveling to Russia quite a bit. After three years at Boeing I wiggled my way into the dotcom boom and worked for a company called RealNetworks. I worked there four years and then actually ended up back at Boeing until I started my own stationery design company in 2006. And now you know everything about me :)

I've really become interested in interior design as I work on my own house, and there's so much to do! So join me on my journey back to school and decorating this house!

What I Heart Today: Midori Double Faced Satin Ribbon

Ribbon love, who needs it? It's time for me to say goodbye to a lot of the supplies I have from my custom stationery designing days.  My overbuying is your gain! Right now I'm selling several lots of gorgeous Midori double faced satin ribbon in various lengths on ebay, check out my auctions.

What I Heart Today: I'm Back!

Hello my pretties! I've missed you all so much but a little time off did this lady good. But I'm back and ready to roll with all sorts of new ideas and new adventures.  I'm working on outlining my posts ahead of time so that I can present you with more well rounded and thought out posts. I'm also working on a special Friday feature that I hope you'll like. 
I'll officially be back in action on May 1st, but until then I've got a little something to make you smile.

The sure sign of a successful Easter...