when the holidays roll around it’s always fun to see what sort of seasonal designer favorite companies create. yellow owl workshop added some great new cards, gift wrap (in their LCD “right your own message” style) and a cool winterscape stamp set that i’m currently drooling over. you can click here to check them out and shop online. [thanks, evan!]

i was a big fan of jean pelle’s wooden candle holders so i was excited to hear about her new assemblage series at etsy. this limited edition series was designed “to meet the needs of a specific ritual that occurs every day” and is made from found objects and off-the-shelf parts and accessories. i think this bedside tray and light is such an interesting combination. click here for more information on (and to shop) jean’s assemblage collection.

also, i’d like to welcome denise of studio d.Sharp to the d*s guest blog! denise is a product designer who has worked on everything from paper tiaras to letterpress cards (which she sells through her site). i’m a fan of her blog so i’m excited to have her join me for a week at d*s. her first post is a fun holiday advent calendar craft project (with downloadable pdf project steps) so click here to check it out! welcome, denise.

the holidays are almost here and i’m so excited for next week and a few days of family time and good food. until then i’m working on our 2008 gift guides which will start the week after thanksgiving- we’ve got some great budget-friendly themes, as well as ac’s guide for guys and a slew of others arranged by theme and price. but for now i’m off to the city to wait in line with friend sara and every other 13 year old girl in the city to see twilight. ah, to be the makeup girl who gets to touch robert pattinson’s face every day. swoon. have a wonderful weekend and i’ll see you on monday!

ps: i also wanted to share these colorful, eco-friendly (made using eco-solvent and low voc wallpaper) wallpapers from kreme life. designer cadee wilder sent them over and i’m positively nutty about the sherbet-colored print above. click here for more information on kreme life. [thanks, cadee!]

• must-read post of the week: debut of d*s and nypl “design by the book” video series!
• the winners: 2008 ugliest pillow contest results
• new: budget-friend design section at d*s
• new product guide: bar stool roundup
• new sneak peeks: candice waldron, jenny sauer, amenity home, cursive design, mini peek of leslie’s blue room
• new diy projects: wine bottle candle holder, kate’s felt votive centerpiece, decoupage ceiling
• inspiration: heather’s vintage textile wedding
• new before and afters: taryn’s lanai, laura’s hutch, carrie’s cabinet, maya’s chair
• textiles: number napkins from butterfly inc, moontea pencil bags, sammelan by om home
• paper: rifferaff and black pearl press gift wrap, old tom foolery gift tags, new port2port 2009 calendar, nora whynot calendar, small square design gift and name tags
• misc: stamp class with lena corwin, misha handmade wallpapers
• thanks to roseline for her wonderful guest blogging!
• new recipe: lisa’s holiday drinks

i’ve just started wrapping a few small gifts for christmas so i’m on the hunt for great wrapping paper. so i was psyched to hear from shannon at rifferaff about her new limited edition collaboration with elisabeth of black pearl press. shannon and elisabeth hand silkscreened beautiful patterns onto michigan-made french papers to create 19″x25″ sheets of gorgeous gift wrap. you can buy sheets in sets of 2 ($8) or you can buy them in set form ($26) which includes 4 sheets of wrap, 3 yards of loose-weave italian ribbon from angela liguori, and 4 gift tags (two letterpressed and two silkscreened). click here to check it out and shop online- it’s always nice to find a way to support small independent companies even when you’re wrapping a gift.

today’s “in the kitchen with” is a special drink recipe duo from dinner party blogger lisa cericola. lisa runs a great blog (in addition to writing for bizbash) about entertaining at home and creating menus for dinner parties. i was thrilled when she offered to share two drink recipes with us for the holiday season: fall sangria and “the big apple”. so if you’re looking to spice up your holiday parties click here for lisa’s full recipes (or just click “read more” below). thanks to lisa for sharing!

[image of lisa by tony schreiber]

read more …

today i wanted to share two special wedding-related notes and then i promise i’ll cut back on the happily ever after talk.

i’m excited to announce that for the next 6 months i’ll be guest blogging at martha stewart weddings. the team at ms weddings reached out to me about blogging our wedding planning process and featuring our wedding in the magazine next year and i decided it would be a fun project- and a chance to talk about something different for a while. i know some of you have had it up to hear with any wedding talk on d*s, so you’ll be happy to know 99% of my wedding babble will now remain over at the ms weddings blog. click here to check it out.

and in other wedding news, i was super excited to hear from d*s reader and textile designer heather palmeri about her beautiful vintage-inspired wedding. heather and her husband andrew (who is a web designer for the nytimes) were married at buttermilk falls inn and spa in milton, ny. they took advantage of the beautiful natural setting, and heather’s incredible collection of vintage vera napkins, to create a special day that i thought would be inspiring for anyone planning a wedding, a holiday party, or just looking for some ideas for special meals at home. all of the vintage fabric really got my mind going so i hope you’ll find heather and andrew’s wedding as inspirational as i did. thank you to heather, and her photographer, julia newman, for sharing these shots. (click here for extra shots of the wedding)

[My stepfather cut down all of the stumps for the table. The menus and table numbers were just printed out at home on our ink jet printer. All of the apothecary and milk bottles were found at antique shops by my mom. All of the flowers were dahlias and were purchased from Stems in Red Hook, NY. My friends Allie and Mara did all of the floral arranging and styling of the tables. Allie even made all of the boutonnieres and corsages! (My bouquet was created by the designers at Stems)]

[My stepfather has a sugar shack in CT. and makes the most amazing maple syrup. We knew this would be a great favor and he loved being involved. I used a few of the leftover napkins and cut them up (painful!) and tied them around the jars with twine. I loved the impact of all of them on the table at once!]

[The napkins are all vintage Vera. As a textile designer, I knew that I wanted to incorporate a lot of pattern. We decided to forgo the idea of choosing a specific color palette and instead decided that we wanted it to just be colorful! I had help from family and friends collecting the napkins from ebay and flea markets and vintage shops. A lot of people were so excited by them that they took them home with them after the wedding (which is fine by me, b/c I don't really have room to store 100 napkins anyway!). Additionally, I used the napkins to make fabric flowers to decorate the branches that held the place cards as well as for the fabric covers on the maple syrup jars (see below). We also had a Vera tablecloth (that came with one of the sets of napkins) that we used as a backdrop for a Polaroid photo booth.]

[All of our invitation stationery (invites, rsvp's, thank yous and place cards) were printed by my wonderfully talented friends Anna and Mara at Dutch Door Press. I did all of the artwork and my husband did the typesetting. It was truly a group effort and one of my favorite things about the wedding. All of the calligraphy was done by the incredible Betsy Dunlap.]

[The cake and cupcakes were made by Anne and Rebecca of CAKED in Brooklyn. It is a secret family recipe of chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and they're delicious!! The cake topper was made by a friend of mine, Laura Keenan.]