The makings of a color palette

How do you pick a color palette?  What draws you immediately to certain colors?  Are there examples of other things in nature, in fashion, online or elsewhere that strike a cord?

I love color.  It’s such a quick way to change a mood and feeling of anything – from paper goods to lighting to consumer electronics.  Often I’m struck by an image and pull colors from it.

Next, from these color palettes, I’ll pull together some inspirational images and sketch out ideas for putting together a color package to develop into an actual design!

Valentine’s Market at Randolph Street

Attended the Randolph Street Valentine’s Market, it was super fun.  Here’s a couple of pix & a quick review of the event.

Wow, what a way to make an entrance!

I loved, loved this awesome metal bookcase, but alas, no room for it… sigh…

There were tons of beautiful vintage clothes – everything from dresses, wedding dresses, gloves, coats, you name it!  Awesome houseware goods, nicknacks, collectibles, jewelry, seriously I think we were there for about 2 hours!

from Estate Chicago

from Estate Chicago

from Estate Chicago

Check out the rest of the season at the Chicago Antiques Market / Randolph Street Market Festival:

MAR 20-21 MID WINTER MARKET/indoors only
APR 17-18 SPRING FASHION & JEWELS EXPLOSION/indoors only

MAY 2 SUNDAY BIG SWAP BONANZA/outdoors only

MAY 29-30 GARDEN PARTY OPENER/indoors & outdoors
JUNE 19-20 AMERICANA/indoors & outdoors
JULY 24-25 FRENCH INVASION/indoors & outdoors
AUG 28-29 BACK TO SCHOOL/indoors & outdoors
SEPT 25-26 FALL HOME DECOR CLOSER/indoors & outdoors

OCTOBER 23-24 FALL FASHION & JEWELS EXPLOSION/indoors only
NOVEMBER 20-21 HOLIDAY MARKET/indoors only

The Randolph Street Antiques Fair will begin -

Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market

Looking for something sweet to do in preparation for Valentine’s Day?  Come check out Logan Square Kitchen’s Pastry Market this Saturday from 10a-3p.  Click the photo below to RSVP.

It’s one-day-only where you can taste small batch, sustainable pastry, cake, ice cream and handmade confections!!   Yummy.  Some local vendors will also be baking in the Logan Square Kitchen too!

(BTW Logan Square Kitchen has two main offerings: a shared commercial kitchen available on an hourly basis, and a dining room/event space, home to private and regular sustainable events.  They focus on community and sustainable practices and I’m really excited to check it out!!)

Randolph Street Market Festival

The Valentine’s Market was super cool – I’ll post some pix / review soon!

Here’s a little teaser from our friend Kim’s booth for Estate Chicago

Biz cards

Here’s my new biz card!

The Valentine Market

Looking for something to do this weekend in Chicago?  Check out the Valentine Market – the inaugural event from the Randolph Street Market fest folks -featuring vintage antiques, collectibles, designer indie goods!

Saturday and Sunday Feb 6 & 7 10a – 5p at the Plumber’s Hall 1340 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago (p.s. it is held inside!)

Paper Choice Thurs – Natural Whites

It is snowing flurries as I type this, so I thought I’d post about pretty neutral natural whites

© The Paper Studio

© Paper Mojo

© Paper Mojo

© Paper Source

Indie Wed Roundup – Part 2

I’ve put together some photographs from a select few of the wonderful vendors at last weekends Indie Wed Event.  There were so many great people there, its hard to pick out just a few.  I loved, loved Edyta Szyszlo Photography’s booth (check out her blog to see the beautiful pix!!), Float Paperie, Hairspray Revloution, Paper Stories Letterpress, Tartella, and, y’know what- before I list every vendor, check out the Indie Wed page to see the all fab vendors!! 

First up are some pictures from Pollen Floral Design. Seriously beautiful arrangements, great sense of color and sweet style – and ecofriendly to boot!!  Check out the Pollen website to learn more about the floral designs!

Next, Love Lulu Mae with handembellished, vintage inspired one of a kind head pieces.  I love the combination of vintage and modern edge.  Just beautiful.

Delicate Creatures event planning services – she made one of the most sweet tablescapes, I wish the pictures did better justice, but you can check out the Delicate Creatures flickr page & website to see some really lovely things!  Delicate and serious attention to details, definitely check it out!

Thanks to the Indie Wed people for putting on such a great show and providing such great photo materials!

Indie Wed Recap Part 1

Laura and I attended the first annual Indie Wed show this past weekend, it was really great to see so many interesting and fabulous vendors from around the (mostly) midwest area!

One of my favorite new finds is Layer Cake Shop.  Not only does it offer some great ideas for decorating sweets for your wedding, but in my world, decorating sweets is for everyday… yum!  Their super cool Cupcake Kits are so so fun!  I can’t wait to buy a few more things at their shop!

© Owl and Bunny

© Owl and Bunny

© Owl and Bunny

© Owl and Bunny

Color Inspiration Boards

Here are some color boards that are inspiring me this month as I put together some new designs!