zuppa atelier

I'm smitten. These hand-drawn and illustrated plates from Zuppa Atelier are so endearing, and they remind me of simpler times in life.

gray works

Beautiful handcrafted cutting boards, platters, and furniture from Gray Works Interpretive Furniture Design. I want one!...Or all...

one fine dae packaging and branding

Hi there! Hope you guys had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. I had many rounds of turkey, mashed potatoes, and ice cream, and also caught up on sleep.

But the thing that I was most focused on these past several days was finalizing the packaging aspect of my shop, an ongoing project that I started several months ago but never got the chance to wrap up until now. Ha, no pun intended.

As a consumer I always love products that are nicely packaged, regardless if they're from big, small, or indie brands. I feel that enjoying a product begins with the excitement of opening it to get to the actual content, and it's part of the whole product experience that only happens once. Which is why I think it's special.

For One Fine Dae's packaging, I decided to go with a few simple elements using a neutral color palette: black, shades of gray, and light pink.

I created shop tags with ONE FINE DAE hand-stamped on the front, and a tag line printed on the back. The edge is detailed with light pink thread and finished off with a silver eyelet.

After doing a few test wraps, I realized that twine alone wasn't going to hold the bag's flap down, so I made stickers with a scalloped edge to hold it in place. They're translucent and so fun to make!

Here are the elements right before they're assembled: a handmade kraft bag sewn together with light pink thread using a zig-zag stitch to match the opening edge, a sticker seal, two different note cards—one for the gift recipient, one for the purchaser (only one is used per package), and a shop tag, all tied together with gray twine.

I'm a big fan of unified branding, so individual product packages also carry the same style as the wrapping. For the postcards, I created a slit in the back of the packaging to hold stamps. (They're free for domestic customers.) For the pencils, I also used light pink thread to create pockets to slip the pencils in.

And here's what a few pieces look like next to each other: shop tags, golf pencil just for fun, days of summer pencil set, happy trails postcards, and a label for this album.

make and eat pie...

...like this deliciously-sounding one, nicknamed Crack Pie, from Becky at Vintage Mixer.

And have a delightful Thanksgiving y'all!

linea carta

A few things I'm loving from Linea Carta by Diva Pyari. The shop name means "paper line" or "paper collection" in Italian.

violetjulia photography

These photographs from violetjulia, taken in the rural Appalachian region of Virgina, make the world feel so mysterious and magical. And they remind me of this beloved movie.

the ultimate table

From GRO design.

. . . . .

I am so entranced by 11 / The Beautiful Game, a luxury foosball (football) table that's designed and hand-finished by European craftsmen. It's currently on my things-I-wish-to-buy-if-I-won-the-lottery list, because not only is it gorgeous, retail price is at a whopping 48,000 euros, or roughly $67k!