THE WEDDING FILES: PROUST

I was super excited to see swissmiss's post about Proust recently. Proust is a new service meant to help us learn new things about the people nearest and dearest to us. Who was their first crush? What is their favorite food? What would they do if they won the lottery? You can answer these (and many more) questions and send them to friends and family to answer. Then your answers are compiled into a digital book where you can add photos, videos and links. Pretty cool, no?

So, as a bride-to-be, I got to thinking that this idea would be great to addition to my wedding website. Wouldn't it be fun for the bride and groom to each answer some of these great questions—first impressions, first date story, favorite thing about the other person, etc.—and then have our friends and family answer similar questions about us? Speaking with the lovely Sarah, Content and Community Manager at Proust, she has informed me that some the advanced features I am looking for, which would enable me to drop this feature right into my site, are not yet available. But she noted that they are working towards making the 'books' of the compiled answers publishable in hard copy form. Wouldn't that be a great thing to have at your wedding? A book of wonderful stories about the happy couple, told by all your favorite people. Amazing.

Learn more about this great new service and sign up for Proust here.

CHROMA COLLECTION

The colorful collections of Kontor Kontor are seriously inspirational. The green set has been my desktop background for weeks now and it still hasn't gotten old. Do yourself a favor and get through this hump day with a dose of Kontor Kontor's bright, beautiful chroma—check it all out here.

Thanks to SeeSaw for the tip.

CHUBBY BUNNY PSYCH STYLE

I am feeling a bit harried and uninspired this morning so I thought I would share something undeniably adorable to brighten up my day (and, hopefully, yours!). This video is a super cute psychology experiment where an adult offers a child a marshmallow on the condition that if they wait to eat it they will be given an additional marshmallow as a reward. It's a test to check the willpower of these little boys and girls.

There is a great New Yorker article about this type of experiment here.

(Thanks to the A Cup of Jo archives for the tip.)

THE ART OF THE CUP: STARBUCKS MENU

Although I don't really drink coffee, I decided to pop into Starbucks the other day to pick up a cup to warm me up during this annoyingly long bout of cool weather here in New York (Hello, weather gods! Haven't you heard that it's spring?!). While waiting in line, I spotted these lovely menu brochures. Who knew Starbucks had such a great eye for design? I love the palette and simple illustrations. Sophisticated yet fresh and friendly. (Kind of reminds me of this and this, no?)

Unfortunately, however, I can't seem to find an attribution to the designer (despite looking carefully online and on the handout). If any of you happen to know, leave me a note in the comments! I would love to know more about their work.

THE SUITED CYCLIST: BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK

"We all get dressed for Bill."

Are you familiar with Bill Cunningham? He is a wonderful 'on the street' fashion photographer for the NYTimes who rides his bike around Manhattan in a sport coat with camera in hand. And this 82-year-old artist is now the subject of a highly acclaimed documentary by Richard Press entitled, fittingly enough, Bill Cunningham New York. It only has a short run in New York City so I have very excited to be checking out a late night showing with a few friends tonight.

If the trailer piques your interest (as it should!) you can find other showtimes around the country here, and learn more about the film here.

WRITING ON THE WALL

You can never have too much stuff on your walls, right? Or, rather, you can never have too much stuff waiting to go on your walls, in my case. I have lots of fabulous posters and prints stuffed in my portfolio and in packing tubes ready to be framed and hung. No matter, I can't help but share some great inexpensive finds when I come across them. Here are some of my recent Etsy picks:

top to bottom:

The Earth without Art is Eh, the ink society, $14.95•

Instant Rainbow, yumalum, $55*

Loving You, the love shop, $17.99

•I can't seem to find my source for this; if you posted this will you let me know in the comments?

*thanks to swissmiss for the tip

CONGDON COLLECTIONS IN PRINT

Having been an avid reader of Lisa Congdon's blog A Collection A Day, I was super excited to read that UPPERCASE is publishing a book about her collections.

Read more about the book here and buy your own copy for $35 here.

DEAR BLANK

Apparently I am super behind on the times, because I discovered the hilarious website Dear Blank, Please Blank. Basically it is an open submission site where readers can write creative letters that never were, but perhaps should have been. Check it out. Trust me, you'll get a chuckle out of it.

So what could make a clever, funny, well-executed idea even better? Add letterpress. The Etsy store Sapling Press has teamed up with Dear Blank to make letterpress cards out of some of their favorite letters. Check them out here. I am not sure what context would be appropriate to give someone these cards, but they are so well done I think the recipient will be grateful no matter what. Get your own for $4.50 each.

(Thanks to Daily Smudge for the heads up.)

THE ARTIST SPEAKS

(Completely inspired to do an Artist Speaks post by this guy.)

TOY STORIES

Ha! When I saw Aled Lewis' cheeky 'Toy Stories' on designworklife yesterday I could not help but giggle. I mean, really, he has the perfect combination of dry wit and a narrative/illustrative eye. Seriously, just two horns?!

See more on his flickr, his tumblr and his website.

(p.s. His style reminds me of this guy's work or her work, no?)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: iPHONE PHOTOS

Hope you all had a good weekend!

It's rainy and kind of cold here today, so I decided to share a couple of my photos to (hopefully) brighten your day. Turns out there are a lot of great apps for taking great photos on the iPhone. These were all taken using Hipstamatic and Instagram which both do a great job of approximating different types of analog film. I love the saturation in the results.

See more of my photos here.

TELL ME A DESIGN STORY

Have you heard about DesignStory? It's pretty much a sample sale site for lovely, drool-worthy design products (aka it's very dangerous). As they describe on their website:

DesignStory is an online community for design lovers, offering an array of high quality hand-picked home and design products from the world’s leading designers and brands. From the everyday to the hard to find, DesignStory offers its members exclusive products at great prices to fit every lifestyle.

“Members only” pricing without a sign-up fee, DesignStory invites its community to enjoy exclusive offers, limited and special editions, as well as designer discounts on new and cutting edge products for the home. A curated and editorialized offering to discover the best in home design globally - from everyday products to the most exceptional - DesignStory highlights designers and brands with weekly campaigns throughout each six-week season and provides new ideas, inspiration and visualization tools for you to create your own unique design lifestyle.

DesignStory’s founding team, Inka Mero and Mia Lewin, are global citizens, with Nordic roots, who have traveled the world to appreciate the joy in beautiful design for everyday living. We love discovering the best new ideas around the world and mixing and matching of products to create a design style that speaks to an individual's design story.

I have been thinking about posting about them for a while, but I wanted to wait until they featured a product that I was really committed to and this week they have! From now through Sunday they are offering great prices on Baggu shopping bag sets and zippered pouches (we know how much I love Baggu: see here, here and here). I have to say, I picked up a couple for myself.

If you sign up here, you will get a $10 credit towards your first purchase.* Enjoy!

*I never post about products for compensation. The credit system on DesignStory is mutual, however, so when you sign up we both get credits on our accounts. I'd say that's a win-win, no? Either way, I really love the mission and the products over at DesignStory and wouldn't post about them otherwise. As I say, why buy boring when you can buy beautiful?

DAY OF SILENCE

Tomorrow I will be observing the blogger's day of silence to promote awareness for Japan disaster relief. It's a great initiative launched by Utterly Engaged to raise funds to go to the organization ShelterBox which provides temporary housing, food and supplies for those affected by natural disasters. Please visit For Japan with Love to learn more and please please consider making a donation. Any amount helps.

(My participation in the day of silence means that I will be bumping my previously scheduled post to this weekend. Check back in on Saturday for some extra inspiration.)

SEEING GREEN

In case you didn't know, it's St. Patrick's Day today here in the states. I don't particularly celebrate St. Patrick's Day (being of Swedish, German, and French descent), but I thought it would be appropriate to share some cool green products I have come across recently to mark the occasion.

Without further ado, from left to right, top to bottom:

Prato Umbrella Stand, MoMA Store, $35

Leaf Tray, MoMA Store, $18

Chef n' SleekStor Pinch and Pour Bowls, Amazon, $14.99

Double Dish, Joseph Joseph, $18

Fred Feet First Finish Line Doormat, Amazon, $32

Fred Loose Leaf Doorstop, Amazon, $9.95

JAPAN DISASTER RELIEF

The recent natural disaster in Japan is unspeakably awful. The lives lost, the devastation wrought, the trials sure to come . . . it is almost too much to bear. Living halfway across the world and knowing no one living in Japan, it is hard to feel connected or feel like anything you do would make a difference. But there is something you can do that is in keeping with the mission of this blog: buy some beautiful art. There are a number of designers that have created gorgeous posters—using the graphic red circle of the Japanese flag as a starting point—for sale where 100% of the proceeds go to the relief effort in Japan.

JamFactory, price to come

TheLivingConspiracy, $20

Daniel Freytag, £45

James White, $29.99

w+k studio, multiple donation levels

Dave Tansley, price to come

Zac Neulieb, $22.50

Thanks to This is Colossal and Flyer Goodness for rounding up these great designs.

Normally I refrain from talking about current events on this blog, but I have been overwhelmingly moved by the outpouring of support online over the last several days and wanted to share that with you all.

HEADING TO A HEADBOARD?

About a month ago I spotted this awesome printed headboard on Armelle's blog (first featured in Lonny Magazine). I was instantly in love with the pattern, the subtle undulating shape, everything.

Years ago, when I moved into my first apartment, I bought a West Elm bed. At the time I intended to buy a headboard to go with it but somehow never got around to it. Now, with tufted headboards on sale at West Elm I am tempted to finally 'complete the look'. These are some of my favorite picks. Now if I could just convince my bank account to regenerate a bit quicker after purchasing my new computer . . .

Check out all the options here.