On my mind…

Anthropologie has been on my mind these past few days…a longtime fan of their window displays, I've recently fallen in love with their holiday gift wrap (lucky me even received a birthday gift wrapped in one of these boxes.) Mini-procrastination break here.

Big day!

Balloons, flowers, and cupcakes…my birthday is finally here. Time to celebrate!

photos by danske

t-minus 6 hours…

…until I'm back in the Jerz. As if I wasn't excited enough, I'm re-posting my late summer top 10 reasons why I love NJ to get me ready. I'm going to play around and take some pictures when I'm home so I can make a winter-appropriate top 10 list. But until then, here's to early September in central Jersey…


1. Mom's peach pie
2. Running along the canal
3. Watching the Eags with Dad
4. Trips to Hoboken/NY for just $12
5. Jersey tomatoes
6. Kerr Farm corn
7. Lambertville
8. Terhune Orchard donuts
9. Cream King (especially its former employees)
10. Just being home

Highs & Lows

Low point of the day? Working on minimal sleep. High point of the day? Waking up to this note:


I knew I found me a good roommate.

Studio Week

School = crazy = this is how I feel:

(photo by Cig Harvey)

Another December birthday girl…

Time-out for another Birthday Girl: the one and only Chase Fuller! This girl might love her birthday even more than I love mine…only someone as fantastic as Chase can get away with renaming her birthday month "Chasember." So lots of love and joyful wishes to one of my happiest and most sincere friends.

Had to include this photo of Chase…this "Trash the Dress" shoot was taken a few weeks after her October wedding. More images from the shoot here.

Almost here…

Got this fun little message in the mail today…it's official! My birthday really is around the corner! And while yes, I am very excited about the 15% Anthropologie discount, I may be more in love with the little pouch it was sent in. Seriously, how could you not love that store?

(Sorry about the shotty quality of the images…camera phone can only do so much!)

Birthday vaca anyone?

Just finished up Christmas cards for two friends who live in Hawaii…gosh, how badly do I wish I was there right now? Now that would be an excellent birthday gift (although I have a feeling I might just have to settle for these pretty little polaroids taken by MIND|Castle Studios instead.)

Hot Jams

Some bands you can be expecting at my party (er…on my ipod):

Birthday Dessert

I'll take any all of these for my birthday dessert.

photos and styling by Colin Cooke (via Black *Eiffel)

New obsession

Remember my obsession with hats circa 1993? I think I had multiple colors of this beret (the perks of being able to fit into Baby Gap hats until the 4th grade):

While I don't think I'll be bringing back the berets anytime soon, I would love love love to wear any one of these headpieces to my birthday party (I'm not quite sure I could pull it off with my every-day look…) My favorite is the piece on the bottom left. A mini orange top hat! With feathers! Would it be too out-there to throw myself a birthday party where it was mandatory for everyone to wear a hat or feathered headpiece?

Birthday Girl (for real)

Quick time out from the countdown of this soon-to-be birthday girl for a post about an actual birthday girl. This pretty lady turns the big 2-5 today…woop woop! Happy Birthday babycakes - you're the best.

T-minus 1 month

photo courtesy of mrs. french

If you know me at all, you know how much I love my birthday. Call me self-centered - but isn't that the point of birthdays, anyway? (Ironically, I'm terrible at remembering my friends' birthdays…)

Exactly 1 month to the big day…so in preparation, each post from here until December 14 will include something related to my birthday: places I'd love to have a party, people whom I'd love to be there, gifts you can get me…

To kick things off, check out the work of Hisano Takei. Originally trained as a jewelry designer, she now creates some amazing organic wool pieces…part jewelry, part scarf. The perfect accessories for a winter celebration! I'm particularly fond of these pieces:



* And yes, I realize it's terrible that I decide to become serious about this blog when the posts will revolve solely around me. Oh well.

In love

Did I mention that my birthday is coming up? You can find my gift registry here. Since Top Design ended, I've been feeling lost without my weekly dose of Jonathan Adler. As a result, I've been spending wayyy too much time on his site. Needless to say, I'm in love. Check out his "About" section for a little laugh (and notice that he's originally from NJ…) Here are a few of my favorite things:

New digs!

New roommate, new neighborhood!! We've been in our new place for a few weeks now…and while it's been taking us awhile to unpack, we're slowly getting there (and $20 to whoever can get our couch up the stairs.) Being the total nester that I am, I love to decorate…now if only I had a budget to match my taste. I came across Loyal Loot Collective the other day and am totally digging their Log Bowls and Monsieur Dressup Hooks. Ahem, my birthday is just around the corner…

Fall = football = great ads

Fall is my favorite season…it means sweaters, leaves changing colors, and of course, football. Check out this new video from Wieden+Kennedy Portland (done for Nike Football) featuring LT and Troy Polamalu (better quality here.)

Love this girl

New toy!

It feels like Christmas here - I just got my new Holga camera in the mail! Holgas fall into the category of "toy cameras" - inexpensive plastic cameras that are fairly simple in design (however it's because of this simple/cheap construction that the cameras take the surreal types of photos they're known for.) Unexpected blurs, light leaks, distortions, and vignetting are all part of the surprise. Don't they say there's beauty in the flaws?

Check out this Holga Camera pool on flickr for more…

More invitations I love…

Rainy day here in North Carolina (quick trip here with Mom) - which means spending the day in our pajamas, baking cookies, and doing lots of logic problems. Of course this also means I have no real excuse not to work on some designs for third floor press' ready-made invitation line. Turning to some of my favorite blogs for inspiration/motivation, I came across Erin Jang, guest blogging this week on Black*Eiffel. Erin works as Associate Art Director at Esquire magazine, but posted some of her invitation designs on Black*Eiffel. I especially love the poster invite she designed for her own wedding:

Poster invites: what a fun idea. I love her more traditional invitations as well:

New Jersey Love

I've been home in NJ for the past week or so for our school break…and sadly I have to head back South tomorrow. Even though the Jerz tends to get a bad rap, I wouldn't want to have grown up anywhere else. So, in honor of all that is great about Hopewell Valley, I put together a little top 10 list of reasons why I love being home:


1. Mom's peach pie
2. Running along the canal
3. Watching the Eags with Dad
4. Being able to see the fabulous Kaity Ry for just $12
5. Jersey tomatoes
6. Kerr Farm corn
7. Lambertville (and New Hope - which should really just be considered part of NJ)
8. Terhune Orchard donuts
9. Cream King (and especially its former employees)
10. Sitting in the backyard with no one else around

Going to the Chapel…

No, not me. But someone very very dear to me is - and she was gracious enough to ask me for some help with her wedding invitations (all incredibly exciting!) While I don't want to spoil the surprise of what her invites might look like, I thought I'd share some of my personal favorites…although none are quite as special as this wonderful lady's will be xo Enjoy!







from top: Ceci, Hammerpress, Bird and Banner, Linda + Harriet, Oscar + Emma

Come back August…

Don't get me wrong: I love the fall (by far my favorite season.) I'm just not ready to say goodbye to summer quite yet.
photo: cig harvey

Birthday Girl #2

Melissa Conley: newest member of the "we're officially in our mid-20s" club. What a good friend you've been to me these past 20 years or so…how I so wish I could be with you to celebrate! (But only if you make the same face as this little girl when you blow out your birthday candles…)

Happy Birthday Jessie!

Very special birthday wishes sent out to the one and only Miss Jessie Prewitt! Welcome to the "we're officially in our mid-2os" club. What I wouldn't give to be home celebrating with you…eat some extra cake for me.

She may not be pretty…

Ta da! My very own press. Sort of. After months of sitting in pieces at the foot of my bed, I finally put my tabletop press together (design courtesy of ReadyMade, construction/elbow grease courtesy of Mom.) In case you don't already know, I'm slightly obsessed with letterpress printing (think of my Christmas cards.) Quality/affordable presses are hard to come by, so last winter Mom helped me (re: I watched her) make a tabletop press to call my own. I'm waiting on an ink shipment right now, but I'm excited to run some prints soon.

Vandercook Press; C&P Pilot Presses

I'm not sure how she'll compare to the real deal, but until I have enough space/money for one of these, she'll have to do!

Playing catch up…

Well…it's been awhile! Since wrapping up a string of family vacations and lots of lazy Sundays, I've finally caught up with all my school work…so I figured I'd try and catch up with the tfp blog as well. I thought I'd share a few photos from the highlight of my summer - my good friend/sister #2 Sarah's wedding. I think I may just have to quit school and move to Colorado…

{photos courtesy of Courtney Wilson Photography}

Whimsical meets Minimal

I recently came across the work of illustrator/printmaker Sanna Annukka - how fabulous! I've recently hit a bit of a block with one of my projects for school: I'm designing a playbill/poster/direct mail piece for the movie Amelie…my goal is to evoke a sense of whimsy and fantasy, yet to do so while still sticking to my personal aesthetic of clean, minimal, and simple design. Whimsical yet minimal? I think Sanna's work nails it.

What great energy in these 3 proud little roosters.


I've been thinking of trying my hand at patterns and textile design…I love how the colors pop in this one.

life's a beach

Off to Bald Head for a mini-Brewster family vacation! This is one of my favorite places to be - and these are by far my most favorite people to be with. Unfortunately I'm just here for the weekend (and even more unfortunately, I have to work) but I've already squeezed in kayaking, croquet, and (of course) plenty of time reading on the beach. With a new work station set-up like this, it'll be hard to leave!

Ta da!

Welcome to my new little blog! After realizing I spend way too much time reading other designers' blogs, I decided it was time to take the leap myself. Here I'll share all things I find entertaining and inspiring...and (of course) the progress of third floor press, the very-small and very-new stationery and invitation studio of Abby Brewster.

To get things rolling, here are a few tfp personal favorites...enjoy!