Guess who's back…

Well…after taking a short little (er, few month) break, I'm back! "I needed more time to focus on school" - that's my excuse and am sticking to it. (And speaking of school…I'm almost done, which will leave me with lots more time to post things that I love—and hope that you will, too.)

I had an absolutely fantastic birthday this year - in addition to a fabulous night of skee-ball and free pizza, I received The Small Print, a book of illustrations by one of my designers, Frank Chimero. I've posted a few of his state prints before - here are a few of my favorite illustrations from his book:






* Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and blogarific 2010!

The States

Frank Chimero is one of my favorite designers/illustrators. The States is an ongoing project of his…so so clever. I'm loving his new print for Hawaii, but think Texas is mighty fine, too. Fingers crossed NJ will be next…

Kareem Rizk

I'm working on some collages for one of my classes - while searching for some visual inspiration/motivation, I came across the work of Kareem Rizk, an Melbourne-based collage artist and designer. I just love the simple layouts in his pieces; the colors, vintage type, and bold shapes work so nicely together.

Check out more of his work on his website or at his etsy shop (Good news: 20% off his work until March 15. Bad news: still have to pay for international shipping.)

Jamie Oliver

I don't know what I love more - Jamie Oliver's voice, or the packaging for his new product line. Both are pretty gorgeous.

Designed by Pearlfisher, I am head over heels for the colors and type used in the packaging (particularly the hand-drawn type, done by illustrator Marion Deuchars). Sigh, if only my handwriting was that fabulous…

* Need a romantic Valentine's Day idea? Check out Jamie's Valentine's Day competition. Seems like the perfect way to procrastinate…

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…

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: