The invitation journey started at Manami’s dining room table where we got the image file for the painting as well as some yummy homemade Miso soup and a couple of rounds of Just Dance on the PS3. So much fun!

The next step in the process was to use the image to create the invitation design. My best friend Christy (Bridesmaid of Honor and woman of many talents) took the creative reigns and designed the invitation and all of its components working in the image of the painting throughout the design.

She did an amazing job! We definitely could not have pulled it together without her. The back of the invitation was the image of Manami’s painting. She also designed the map and reply card to match the design which you can see below. I wish I was a better photographer and the images were more clear. I’ll add photography to my future educational endeavors!

After all of the components of the  invitation were designed, I formed the idea of how I wanted to “package” it. I found these great chocolate-brown folders online from paperandmore.com. Keeping with the colors of our wedding that were inspired by Manami’s painting—brown, turquoise/teal and mustard yellow— I chose a teal color for our outer and reply card envelopes also from paperandmore.com. To seal the brown folder, I made a trip to Sam Flax and thanks to one of their helpful staff, came up with a wax seal with a swirly design that was similar to the branches on the tree of Manami’s painting. So this is how it all came together…

Joe and I printed and assembled everything on our own. It was a tedious process filled with paper cuts, several trips to Office Depot to replace toner cartridges, moments where I had to stop being controlling and relax my need to be a perfectionist and many, many, many hours pulling it all together. It was a long, tedious process for the two of us but in the end we were so proud of the way it turned out. It was the perfect way to set the tone for our wedding. Big thank you to Christy for all of her hard work on the design and to Manami for providing the artistic inspiration!

Here’s a rundown of this week’s latest craves:

TOMS Ballet Flats
I love TOMS! Now they have ballet flats!! Woohoo!! What could be more awesome! Gushing aside, I have been an advocate for TOMS shoes for a while now and their One for One Movement, where they match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. I think they are a great company and an example to others to be socially responsible. I own three pairs of TOMS currently. Now that they have ballet flats, I know my TOMS collection is going to grow.

Revlon Lip Butter
Last week I stumbled across Revlon Lip Butter in my local ULTA store. Of course, as usual, I went in there to get shampoo and came out with a few more items that were not on my “need” list but hey it happens. I am not a big lipstick person. Rarely do I remember to wear it but I do love tinted lip balms. Some of my faves are from Burt’s Bees but when I saw the display for Lip Butter, I was intrigued. I mean doesn’t butter make everything better? I know Paula Deen feels that way at least. Anyway, I had to try it so I left ULTA with a Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Truffle. And, I love it. Just the right amount of color, no nasty taste/flavor, not sticky and it glides on really smoothly….like butta…ha ha ha, I’m such a dork. Loved it so much, I have since purchased another in Sugar Plum. So there you have my product endorsement for Lip Butter!

Music
The latest albums I have on constant rotation this week are Gotye’s “Making Mirrors” and Ingrid Michaelson’s “Human Again.” Check them out.

I’ll leave you with the cool video for Gotye’s Somebody that I Used to Know. Happy Weekend!

And while I am talking about art, there is a great website for affordable art prints called Society6. The artwork on Society6 is created by thousands of artists from around the world and it is a great place to get really unique laptop skins, iPhone cases and such. A while back I was looking for an iPhone case and could not find anything worthy of purchase  until I was introduced to this site through a co-worker. Definitely worth a look if you want to cover your gadgets with artistic expression. Here are a few prints to ponder:

Robin Trees print by Sandra Dieckmann

I Understand print by Nayoun Kim on Society6

MUSTACHE MANIA by Bianca Green

4 Owls by Valentina

And with that in mind, our engagement photo session by Hollie Butler Lytle at Lytle {foto} was not your typical engagement session. It had sort of a superhero/comic book theme and turned out completely awesome! Joe and I just played right into the crazy fun photo shoot….jump…”sure!”, eat cotton candy….”why not?”…..pretend Joe’s an evil villain swooping into to steal your heart? “absolutely!” We had such a blast! Here’s a peak at a few of the photos and head on over to Hollie’s  Lytle {foto} blog to see the entire comic book.

During the summer I had the opportunity to see Florence and the Machine live at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Not only was the music amazing but the stage design and Florence herself was visually stunning. It was at that moment that I added her to my list of individuals with inspiring style. Since then I have been following her on Facebook and I love that she posts what she is wearing quite frequently. This month she is on the cover of British Vogue and it is a gorgeous cover. I am trying to get my hands on a copy but until then there is a sneak peek on British Vogue’s website. Check it out and be style inspired.

Back to my day with Nate Berkus. Nate is one of my favorite interior designers and the best at making over small spaces. Last year when I heard that Nate was getting his own show, I was so excited and set my DVR to record the show every day. Well, let’s just say, that’s a lot of Nate Berkus Show episodes and I got WAAAYYY behind in keeping up with them. And I don’t know about you but when I have a lot of TV episodes saved on the DVR, I kind of feel guilty, like I have a messy room that I need to clean up. So, I started the day with 17 Nate Berkus show episodes on the DVR and I was determined to get through them and clean up my DVR gosh darn it. First, I went through all to see which ones I could nix based on description alone and then I got it down to a more manageable list of about ten. Now I only have one episode on the DVR and it is because it was filled with great easy design ideas and I want to save it for future reference. The episode was a montage of the best of Nate’s “House Proud” tours on the show this past year. “House Proud” tours are submitted by viewers who are proud of their homes and their personal interior design efforts and want to show them off. In this episode there were two ”House Proud” tours that I fell in love with and made me want to redesign every room in my tiny townhouse which I think would probably make my fiancé Joe mildly insane. His idea of good design, is being a complete minimalist and throwing out all of the furniture and having a blank room with plenty of space for Yoga and Tai Chi. Needless to say, we disagree on this design philosophy.

One “House Proud” in this episode that I fell in love with was Mandi Gubler’s home in Utah. Mandi has a blog call Vintage Revivals that I recommend you check out because she features a lot of great DIY design tutorials. Her style is kind of vintage, thrifty glam and there is a definite whimsical feel to her design aesthetic. From the wall of mirrors, to the teapot lamp and the tree painted on the wall, I took away of lot of ideas to file away for the future. Here are a few of my favorites from her home.

The second “House Proud” in this episode that impressed me was Lizzie Carney’s 1930′s bungalow. Her bungalow has a great feminine, vintage, shabby chic feel and I loved it. She has chandeliers in virtually every room of her bungalow even the kitchen which was really gorgeous. The most exciting room was her closet. Well, technically it wasn’t a closet. She took a spare bedroom and turned it into a glamorous dressing room which makes me green with envy. If you are like me and you live with limited closet space, you too will lust after this room.  Here are a few of my favorite rooms from Lizzie’s bungalow.

The overall lesson to learn from these inspiring spaces, is that you don’t have to have a massive budget to be creative and design a truly inspired space. Recently, I have gotten into “yard saling” and it is so much fun to stumble upon a great design find. In a future blog, I will share with you some of my recent treasures.

Here is my last design share for now. A gallery wall makes a great statement in any room and can be pretty easy to create from what you can find in your own home whether it is a wall of mirrors, framed photos or arts. Some of the “art” I have created has come from framing cloth napkins, vintage doilies, and pictures from old calendars, magazines or books. I also like the idea below that I saw on the blog Apartment Therapy. These framed bandanas actually look really cool against the blue wall. You could do the same thing with old scarves or interesting pieces of fabric. Here’s to creative and cheap design!