whew! it’s been a long week here at d*s. as many of you have noticed we’ve been making some changes to the rss feed in an attempt to lighten the blow of our image serving costs. i really appreciate everyone’s patience- we’re aware that images are appearing in smaller sizes (or not at all) and hope to have the issue remedied shortly. we’re looking into a number of options to keep both rss readers and regular site readers happy. if you want any more details on the situation you can click here and see my explanation in the comment section (my comments are in pink boxes). i really appreciate your patience with us as we figure out a good compromise.

in happier news, today is a day-off for some of you so i’ll be signing off early today to celebrate ac actually getting a day off from work. i hope you’ll all enjoy the july 4th holiday and i’ll see you back on monday with gorgeous new home tours, a special guest blog/home tour from sweden, a new guest blogger, and much more.

also, i’m thrilled to announce that alissa and ryan from horne (our guest bloggers for the week) will be returning every month with their “behind the bar” column. starting in august, they’ll be posting a delicious drink recipe every last friday of the month. stay tuned!

*images above and below: a lovely (and hilarious) letterpress fortune teller by sycamore street press, $8.

• must-read posts of the week: diy terrarium video with sprout home! and bar cart roundup
• weeder’s digest: seasonal with a capital S
• new city guide: salt lake city
• new product guide: bar cart roundup
• biz ladies 09: contract law (do’s and don’ts), how to form successful biz partnerships
• new sneak peeks: fiyel levent, fosters, greg merryweather, jill crawford, madison and grow, george of material culture
• new diy projects: terrarium how-to video, bridesmaid gift spruce-up, recession friendly jewelry, maya’s twinkle board, elizabeth’s mountain of a headboard, morgane’s drawer coat hangers
• new before & afters: ashley’s pallet daybed, 2 kitchens and a bath, martina’s bench and kelly’s dining room, bonnie’s stereo cabinet and megan’s nursery, diana’s bench and jessica’s facade
• misc: faceted wooden carpet, paper goods from korean studio o-check, wire storage baskets, glass and wood carafes, landshark lager packaging, prints (inspired by saipua flowers!) by katie vernon, salvaged papergoods
• new d*s guest bloggers: alissa and ryan of horne! (don’t miss their diy project, home tours and drink recipe)
• new recipe: in the kitchen with melian hammer’s haloumi, melon, and avocado salad

alissa and ryan have seriously been knocking it out of the park this week. they’ve shared a great home tour, shop tour, and a delicious drink recipe (which we now plan on turning into a monthly d*s column!) and today they’re sharing a gorgeous sneak peek (into the home of ken and larry from foster’s in philly) and a recession-friendly diy jewelry project. i don’t know where they find the time to do all of this, but we’re so thrilled and thankful to have them on the site this week. click here to check out their new posts for today!

also, i feel like i’m always running around the house opening and closing drawers loudly, looking for a piece of paper on which to jot last-minute notes and ideas. i finished my last oh joy studio notebook a month ago and have been hunting for a replacement ever since- so when i heard from sarah roberto at ‘oh so good‘ i was delighted to find several cute notebooks that would do just the trick.

sarah describes herself as a “toronto-based designer with a borderline obsession for paper.” in her spare time she creates a lovely range of stationery, notebooks, gift tags and cards, all made from salvaged paper and “beautiful little scraps that would have otherwise found their way into a junkyard”. i think her collection is so sweet and affordable, what’s not to love? click here to check out her full series of work online. thanks, sarah!

d*s reader rebekah sent over a link to a beautiful collection of paper goods and home accessories designed by a korean firm called o check. o check sells their work at a website call and, spring and it is chock-full of beautiful things i’d like to call my own. not only do they design beautiful journals, notebooks, and calendars, but they also design some gorgeous tote bags and a series of free, download-able calendar pages (a new one each month). click here to check it all out! thanks, rebekah!

i’m heading out a little early today to pick up ac and drive down to the jersey shore for the weekend (here’s hoping it doesn’t rain all weekend). but before i go i wanted to end the week with an incredible project from arjowiggins, li edelkoort and french photographer gregoire alexandre.

arjowiggins is an international paper company that decided to celebrate the launch of it’s new paper range, “curious collection”, with the help of trend forecaster li edelkoort and photographer gregoire alexandre. gregoire created a seriously fantastic photoshoot that was designed to portray the creativity behind the papers. all i know is, they certainly make me look at paper in a different way. can you imagine what advertisements would look like if all companies thought this creatively about what their products could become? i’d love to see supply companies that make straws, cups, bags and other basics approach promotion this way- perhaps teaming up with people from anthropologie’s visual display team, or the visual merchandisers at a store like bergdorf goodman. the possibilities are endless.

on that note, i’m closing my laptop and will wish everyone a happy weekend! stay tuned next week for a gorgeous series of sneak peeks, a fun terrarium how-to video with sprout home and much, much more. see you monday!

• must-read posts of the week: lydia’s embroidered headboard, the yellow kitchen of my dreams
• biz ladies 09: free software for small business owners
• shows: vera at anthropologie
• sneak peeks: elephant props, basak of small square design, morgan satterfield, delphine, dave and surya
• diy projects: lauren and derek’s postcard journals, kate’s sprouting shelf, lydia’s embroidered headboard, erica’s tote bag pillows
• before & afters: barb’s knack nursery makeover, pierce and ashley’s bathroom, amy’s straw chair, kati’s dining room and dominique’s hall, lucie’s cabinet and heather’s living room
• misc: la dolce luce (photographs by jen altman), porcelain ice cream cones, unique boutonnieres by fritts rosenow, new textiles from three sheets 2 the wind, cards from we collective, ceramics by natalia gamez, plush figures by olivia mew, porcelain skulls by beetle and flor, reiko kaneko’s table and disco light, floral stationery by claire nereim, flowers by studio choo, caitlin moran interiors, yellow dream kitchen
• new d*s guest blogger: posts and great DIY projects from haylie waring!

claire nereim just released a lovely new line of stationery at her etsy shop. these simple but sweet floral and leaf sets are perfect for a special occasion, or just sending a summery “hello”. click here to check out clarie’s new collection online…

and over on the d*s guest blog, haylie has her final guest blog post- and a great new diy project: diy marbled paper. click here to check it out! thanks to haylie for her hard work this week!

good morning! i wanted to start things off today with some colorful new goods from nicole larue and her new company, white elephant collective. she just launched a cute new collection of cards, prints, tags and tees right here on etsy. i particularly love the colorful orange and green prints.

also, haylie has a beautiful new post up on the d*s guest blog this morning, including some of my favorite female artists, click here to check it out (images from her post are below)

after reading about new york’s plan to kill up to 2,000 canada geese (to prevent plane collisions), i’ve had birds on the brain. poor birds, they don’t mean to fly into engines. so in my bird sadness, i find myself drawn back to birds again- and these pretty tags ($8) and book pages ($4.30) from delila jemaiel are just the ticket. click here to check out delila’s full collection online…

*ps: for those of you in new york: how “ny post” is that story title (in the link)? they always have the most hysterical headlines. i feel like every weekend i pick up a copy and shake my head while saying “oh, new york post, you write the silliest things”.