Happy 4th!

Thank goodness we have a glorious 3 day weekend! I will manage not to stuff myself silly with scrumptious 4th of July desserts, which I will be baking up a storm for our family party. Hmmm...what to make....my mouth is literally watering as I'm posting these pics!







Happy 4th of July~ See you Monday =)

Photos from www.marthastewart.com

Work in progress...pt 2

This couple's whimsy and letter/stamp themed wedding is coming up very soon! Here's a cute little Save the Date postcards I designed for them. Invitation suite details to follow!

Work in progress...

Currently working on a Houston (fuchsia and gray) wedding invitation suite. This couple is so incredibly sweet and I love that her fiancé is really involved in this design process. Will post final letterpressed set later on! For now here's a few digital sample.

summer MUST haves...

I am in desperate need of some (non-Iowa) retail therapy. And I am SO hitting up Club Monaco first thing I get back to Chicago this weekend. Damn, I really miss this store. Aren't these just the cutest outfits for summer?

weekend treasures...

We had a fantastic and productive weekend! My husband actually enjoyed the farmer's market more than I expected (yay!). Afterwards, we went exploring in Des Moines and found so many cute little treasures there. Then we finished off the weekend by doing some bouldering, which I ended up LOVING! I can barely type today...my fingers and forearm are so sore...didn't even know fingers could get sore!

Happy Friday!

I'm dragging my husband to the Farmer's market tomorrow to pick out some veggies we've never tried (like Swiss Chard and Kohlrabi)...and he's dragging me to go canoeing + biking afterwards. Good compromise =)

Have a great one!

a nice yet embarrassing lunch break

Ever have one of those moments where you just need to get AWAY from your stifling cubicle and take a breather? I totally had one of those moments today. So, I went downtown and picked up an issue of Food & Wine (my favorite food mag), grabbed a half turkey sandwich as well as some sweet watermelon, chose a nice tree shaded area and enjoyed my lunch while listening to Beethoven's Ninth.
It felt WONDERFUL....until....

(sorry! camera phone again...)


I had some time left over and decided to stroll around our downtown area and the Bread Garden Market. La la la la laaa.... I come back into the office and my co-worker yanks a HOT PURPLE sticky note off my ass.

co-worker: "You have a sticky note on your butt"
me: "OMG!!!!"
co-worker: "You have your grocery list written on here. Here, you might want to hang on to this"
me: "......thanks......"

I walked around the ENTIRE downtown with a grocery list stuck to my butt the whole time. So much for a nice lunch getaway..... =(

Letterpress Class - Week 1

I completely forgot to tell you about how my 1st letterpress class went! It was AWESOME! I'm taking a 6 week course at the Center for Book Arts here at the Univ. of Iowa. I'm so thrilled to be part of this dedicated program and hope to produce some beautiful work on the Vandercook Press (SP 15 and Universal I). This makes it hard to go back to a Kelsey =(. I will document my progress as the 6 weeks go by....2nd class tonight!

(sorry - I took this with my camera phone. This was our 1st practice: setting text on a composing stick and giving it a run on the Vandy).

Dear Husband,

If you are reading this (which I know you are), please take me to this shop in London and buy all of these goodies for me to gobble:



I promise I will be a good wife and stop pms-ing and give you endless foot rubs....take me to Violet's??

Love,
Your Hormonal Wife

**Note: by the way, you can find Claire Ptak's (owner of Violet) amazing cupcakes at the Borough Market.

I seriously daydream about living in London and doing some fancy dinner ingredient picking at these amazing markets!! This is definitely on my "before I have kids" to-do list. If you happen to be taking a trip out to London anytime this summer, then please be sure to swing by these outdoor markets and take pictures for me =)

Borough Market
8 Southwark St.

Broadway Market
Broadway Market, London E8

Sunday UpMarket
Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Ln.

Backyard Market
Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Ln.