*from page 96 & 97 in Est Magazine (click image to view magazine)

I’m excited that today is the first day of april AND it’s Friday. Can’t get much better than that. I plan on spending the weekend alone actually while the boy attends an industrial design conference here in St. Louis. Let’s hope I can get a bunch of things marked off my to-do list and enjoy a little down time. What are your plans?

I also wanted to let you guys know that because I love bloggers I choose to sponsor two lucky ladies this month, Busy Bee Lauren and Seablanket. Please stop over at their blogs and give them some love.

1. Have a photo journal made at Pinehole press. I’ve seen some really great baby books made with this company.
2. Are you interested in how minimalist design can enhance a brand? Some really great brand explorations with companies like Tabasco, M&Ms and  Evian.
3. This fancy pants electronic color picker. I need one of these!
4. A beautifully crafted online EST magazine. Click image above to flip through all 104 pages!
5. Build a high quality website for yourself at Cargo Collective.
6. Loving these art prints in ReStyle’s Etsy Shop.
7. The Quitting Your Day Job Esty Series on the Etsy Blog.
8. This beautiful cook book. All you foodies need to pick this one up!
9. These Mondernist Coffee Mugs and bowls from West Elm. I’m sooo in love!
10. The coolest site this week. Swap your art with other artist for Free!! How cool!
11. All Modcloth dresses. haha. Especially this one, and this one, and this one.

I’m still working on putting together my FAQ page. Please leave a comment below with any questions you may have. I’d like to get all questions compiled into one helpful place!

One last thing, I know I’m rambling…Know of any music artists similar to The National and Mumford and Sons?? (desperately needing new music)

Love you all!

It’s been a good week over here at The Veda House. Work has been “work” and the nice weather held out for the first half of the week, which was a nice way to start the week. I honestly believe the weather is the biggest factor in determining how my day is going to go. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true.

A side note: I really appreciate all the commenting on the blog this week. I love having conversations with all of you!

Hope you enjoy the links below. Some weeks I don’t come across a lot to share, but this week I was finding cool things daily and saying “Oh…I want to show them this for sure!” Enjoy.

1. Curious what a day in the life of an illustrator might be like? Check out Work/Life Book Bundle from Uppercase!

2. Want to know more about quilting? These Step by Step tutorials make thing super simple.

3. Buy this earthquake poster from Society6 to raise funds for Japan. So pretty! ($20) Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Society6!!?

On my wish list: Ganesha, Take the Scenic Route, Mountains

4. Kling online clothing company with little shops around the world.

5. This little studio that specializes in Print, web, and brand identities for small business owners. It’s darling and their website is great!

6. Beautifully designed digital desktop calendars by Shanna Murray.

7. These really cute and unique wall decals by Mae.

8. Rebuild Japan Pixel by Pixel. Do it!

9. I’m currently reading…Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

10. I would love to take a nap right here!

11. This adorable Gnome girl pillow on Etsy.

12. This delicious Lemonade Cake that I’ll be baking sometime soon.

13. I NEED this adorable bathing suit from Topshop.com!

14. For the babies: zigzag jumper & really cool little bed.

15. Hairdo Tutorial: Braided top bun.

How do you plan to spend your weekend?

*picture is from our local frozen yogurt shop. I get the cake bater flavor with oreo cookie and chocolate chips. YUM!

It’s been a much better week over here. Thank golly. The weather has been stubborn and it refuses to fully turn to spring, but we’re inching closer. I’ve received a lot of sweet comments about my first outfit posts and some requests to do more of them. I’m extremely flattered! I’d like to keep my blog as focused as possible, so I decided I’d only do outfit post if it was going to highlight a great vintage piece. (For those of you that asked, I’ll also style the poppy print skirt you saw in my closet inventory post )

I did a post yesterday about pen pals and I was pleased that many of you want to be pen pals. I’m a really good pen pal and send you special little things. I look forward to getting some new fun paper to write on. If you want to join in on the fun and haven’t let me know, please leave a comment in yesterday’s post. So excited!

Here’s some links for your friday or saturday morning coffee.
1. This amazing illustration by Etude 6. I’m in love and I think I need it
2. Dear Summer Santa, can I please have this vintage swimsuit?
3. This hairstyle and a video tutorial!
4. Everything about this picture. Photography, styling, hair color…everything.
5. These home interior shots. Dreamy!
Here’s a little video that shows all the little details of the shoots. Sorry the video is in German, but the cinematography is gorgeous and a must see.

6. I’m sure my boyfriend would love me more if I owned this sweatshirt.

I hope you all have an amazing weekend. I plan on not working at all and taking a weekend break from freelance work as well. I might actually take the plunge and start cutting out my fabric for my quilt. I also have a food adventure plan and I’m a little frightened. I’ll post about it later.

Love!

*This picture was taken last summer in one of our favorite St. Louis parks. Porter James was only 4 months old!

I feel like I recap each week by saying, “wow, this week was incredibly busy!” I’ve been in never ending marathon FOREVER and not sure I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet. I’ve spent the last couple days really thinking about warmer days and how the sun and heat just makes everything THAT much better. Come on spring!!!!

The boy and I randomly decided today that we need a vacation, so the planning begins. Where to go?? We both would like to go somewhere in the western part of the United States, since this is an area that we both haven’t spent too much time at. I would love to go someplace that is warmer than here, so a Southwester vacation is sounding kinda nice. I’m taking suggestions! Send them my way.

I’m going to go finish up a bunch of stuff at the agency today and hopefully I won’t have to work over the weekend. My closet desperately needs some spring cleaning, so that’s on my to-do list this weekend. I’ll leave you with some link love.

I feel like I always stumble on the greatest things during the week, but don’t have the time to actually sit down and look over everything! Hope you can start your weekend off right with these goodies and a little “You” time. I tried to gather all my links that were either creative or artsy and compile them into one list. So wa la…here’s the list. ( Quilting, printmaking, gift wrapping, typography, online art communities, and more! )

1. I’m absolutely in love with this DIY quilting project on the Katie Did blog. I’ll put this on my list of things to make. Seems simple enough!
2.  These pillows ! OMG cute.
3. This book, The Print Making Bible. Who doesn’t need this? $50 from Chronical Books!
4. Free downloadable photo frames for your blog!
5. This Emigre wrapping paper for $12. (so unique!)
6. This online art community called Eat Sleep Draw & this online photography community.
7. The behind the scenes sketches of how Acorde, a typeface was created. Super neato.
8. This letterpress print, titled “Office” by Eight Hour Day.
9. Reupholstering furniture -> this great before and after heart chair on Design Sponge.
10.  This video.

*above image* Check out picture 6. My (demon) cat Lucy is stabbing me in the thigh with her dagger nails.

THIS PAST WEEK: I must say that this week has been a major improvement compared to last week’s black hole. I’ve been working my tushy off with working at the agency and doing freelance in the evening/weekends, but it will pay off..pay off my new camera. I look forward to being able to breath a little this weekend and do a little thrifting and antique store perusing.

THESE LOVELY LADIES: Over the last couple weeks I’ve been doing a lot of blog “soul searching” and drawing lots of inspiration from the lovely ladies below. I love how everyone’s blog is totally unique and has something different to offer. I guess that is the golden ticket, right?

Stop by the blogs of these lovely ladies. I’m sure you’ll fall in love with them as much as I did. Enjoy!

Style by Emily Henderson – See all the behind the scene from Emily, winner of HGTV’s Design Star. Her new show Secrets From A Stylist is great and she pretty darn humorous too!

Love & Photographs – Follow the lives of Stacey and Chris with little photo shoots.

The Design Files – An Austrailian based design blog that gives readers interviews to read, shopping guides, and home tours.

Pugly Pixel –  LOVE THIS BLOG. (the simplicity is amazing) Not to mention she has a ton of downloadable cutesy art that you can use on your blog, tutorials, and pug puppy!!.

Lulapalooza – Pretty much greatness, brought to you by Lula. She’s creative as all get out and extremely funny. Follow her on twitter and you’re bound to laugh.
” wazzz I just exfoliated the shiz outta my face, feel like I got sunburnt” -Lula

Somewhere Splendid – Eyecandy baby! Featured posts include: Splendid List of Things To Do, Living in Color, Real Party

Eileen Josephine – A cute and crafty mama sharing her life with us. Her daughter’s name is Vada, so there was an instant connection!

Hudson’s Happenings – Mom, Dad and handsome baby Hudson. Musings on love, everyday beauty, and life’s fleeting moments.

Sea Blanket – This girl is beyond amazing. Great sense of style, great humor, and her posts make you want to read more. (She’s from Portland!)

Little Chief Honeybee – If you love big BIG pink hair and a really cute blog…go here!

If you haven’t noticed I’ve done a little visual re-branding over here at The Veda House. I really adored my previous logo, but I was finding that usage was limited do to its script like nature. I NEVER use script font, so I stepped back into my comfort zone of san serif goodness.  I also updated my sidebar to be simple and straight forward, with a little bit more color than the previous version. I hope you enjoy the new look and I’m always welcoming feedback to how I can make the site more user-friendly.

If you follow my blog regularly I’d love it if you click the little “Join This Site” button in the sidebar to follow this blog. Thanks dearies!

Have a great Friday!

Yum yums.
I’ve been trying to eat a little healthier these past few weeks, but it’s a real challenge for a gal with a two-year-old food palette.  I kind of fell off the healthy eating kick when I had pizza for dinner wednesday night and only a smoothie for dinner last night. Oh well. They were both delicious! Simple smoothie recipe below. ( I cheated a little)

blender
fresh strawberries & bananas (knife & cutting board)
spoon for stirring
ice
milk
french vanilla ice cream
cup to hold smoothie

Cut up some fresh strawberries & bananas and place in blender. Add about 1 cup milk and  a few spoonfuls of ice cream. Blend until mixed well. Add a few cubes of ice and blend until desired thickness. Pour smoothie into cup and throw in some more fresh strawberries.

I leave you with some links for the weekend. Enjoy!
1. Smallable– A French brand that has everything adorable for baby! Clothing, little toys, decor, etc.
2. Downloadable vintage textures for all your crafty designers out there!
3. A collection of Poster designs. All posters are 11X17 and are designed around the current social issues of today. Inspirational.
4. For all you Twilight fans out there. Here’s the first book of the series written from Edward’s perspective in PDF form. Draft by Stephanie Meyers.

5. My new found love for Port St. Willow thanks to Kelly Ann over at The Flowerchild Dwelling.

You can also stop over to Brooke’s Blog, Bright Wishes and participate in the Handwritten Blog post that she’s asked me to do. You’ll see my responses up soon.

This friday I’m mixing things up a bit. As you can tell from my sidebar, I’ve made the Buy Handmade Pledge. They idea of buying handmade is really important to me, so I try to support other artisans when I can. If you know me, I’m a real big bag lady. I’d take a new bag over a pair of heals any day. I’m also absolutely in love with printmaking, so you’ll see a lot of love for my friends over at Brainstorm Print & Design.

I chose to post 3 of my favorite videos of artists creating things with their hands and producing quality product. If you are a follower of A Design Mafia, you may remember some of these videos, but I felt like a re-post on a new blog with new readers was alright. Plus, they are videos that are beautifully put together.

Are you inspired yet?
I’ve got a lot of great links to share with everyone today. Hope you can sit down with a cup of joe and check ’em out.

1. Fringe, Union Square- Are you into collaborative workspaces as much as I am? I’m still trying to figure out a way to make this idea part of my career. Fringe is a 4,400 sq ft. creative business incubator and co-working space in Somerville, Ma.

2. Photojojo– Photo gifts and gear for photographers. Camera lens bracelets, iPhone lenses, F-Stop watch, and other novelties.

3. Spoonflower– OMG! Custom printed fabric. Design your own pattern and have Spoonflower print it for you on natural fabrics. The custom fabrics are a little pricey, but completely one of a kind. They even have a weekly fabric design contest!

4. Lucy Rose– I was introduced to Lucy Rose when I stumbled upon a ‘links for your weekend’ type post over at Sometimes Sweet. She has an amazing soft voice!

5. Blythe Doll Wallpapers– You can download your favorite doll wallpaper to your desktop. Thanks Stylist.co.uk!

I also have the winner of this weeks giveaway. It fits perfectly with the hand-made theme of this post since this chicken was 100% hand sewn by NEST’S loan recipients in Guatemala. The winner of this little chicken will be getting an email soon so I can gather the right shipping address.

How do you plan to spend your weekend? I can’t wait for mine, but I’ll tell you all about it later! So excited for saturday!

Picture of Tieka of Selective Potential was taken from her Harbor Front Place post. Picture of Elizabeth from Delightfully Tacky was taken from her Nature is a Haunted House post.

I’m all giddy this week due to the INDIE e-conference that was set up by Tieka of Selective Potential and Elizabeth of Delightfully Tacky. This is my first official blogger related event that I’ve been a part of and I’m so grateful that these two gals decided to spread some blogger knowledge with the newbies, like me. This year, the girls were unable to attend the IFB Conference (AKA Independent Fashion Bloggers) in New York (In conjunction with Fashion Week) so they thought it would be a good idea to share what they’ve learned from the previous years of attending as well as years of blogging experience. I’ve also been listening in on all the panel discussions at the IFB Conference via live feed and following the chit chat on Twitter,(#ifbcon). The combination of the two has been like bread and peanut butter.

As someone who has only had a blog for little over a month and a half, I feel like I am learning so much right from the get go. I’m learning the do’s and don’t even before I have the chance to make the mistakes. I know some things I’ll just learn along the way, but it sure is nice to cut through some of the BS right from the beginning.

My favorite take away from today came from Elizabeth of Delightfully Tacky. Thanks Elizabeth for the seemingly obvious, not so obvious advice.

I hope to do a little recap at the end of the week session, but I was so excited I needed to share a little bit with you. If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late and you can always jump back and forth through the content you may have missed. It’s perfect for people like me who have a non-blogging job during the day. If you are attending, I’d love to chit chat with you about the experience and what you are learning.

I leave you with some links for your weekend.

Are you inspired yet?

1. This cute bunny tutorial that reminds me of Skunkboy Creatures
2. This amazing love story, First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage.
3. This video that I’ve had on replay since last Sunday. Bon Iver For Emma a capella.

4. Sewing machine applique project. I’ve bought all the supplies to do this, now I just need the motivation to start.
5. The perfect birthday party idea. Cereal buffet!
6. Download some great vintage inspired valentines. Brought to you by Veer!
7. For all the hopeful romantics like myself. An engagement story with Melissa from Without Melissa blog.

This weekend is our golden retriever puppy’s first birthday, so I hope to finally announce Porter James to the blog world with some great b-day pics and adventures. Check back…he’s a cutie!