Loving: Earthy Inspired Pattern

Spring is all abuzz in my head which made me even more excited when my findings came together for my loving weekly post! Today I'm loving earthly inspired patterns. Textiles, wallpaper, and photography are all elements that help make a home feel welcoming, worn in, and loved. That's how I hope people feel when they come visit me in my tiny space I call home ;) What is inspiring you this Spring?

{Amy Butler Rugs}

{Ikea textiles}

{Wallpaper from Zeixs Pattern Design book.}

{EV Photography}

Wednesday Wishes

Good afternoon on this beautiful Wednesday afternoon! I'm especially excited today because I'm writing to you on a sunny 70 degree Spring day! Thanks for joining me for another installment of Wednesday wishes!

1. Summer plans. I wish to take out a map and plan out our summer road trip. While driving the other day, Joe turned to me and said, we should go on a road trip this summer! Since then I've been super excited to plan out the details of this trip. I'm not sure what coast we will head towards, I would love to travel to California or Portland area. Any recommendations?

2. Craft night ideas. I wish to find a fun Spring craft for next months craft night. My photo stylist friend Jill hosts this seasonal craft night and she's asked me to come up with some ideas.

3. Spring cleaning. I wish to make the time to start my spring cleaning. My tiny 700 sq. foot apt needs some serious loving asap.

4. Hunting. No, not the animal kind. I wish to find a gently used desktop iMac to help me work more efficiently, I love you laptop but I need to step it up!

5. Schooled. I wish to expand my creative wings and learn new web/design programs that can be useful to me in the future. As a first step I am buying the Adobe CS4 master collection.

I would love to know some of your wishes for today too! Also be sure to check out Courtney's, Kellie's, and Katie's blog to see what they are dropping into the wishing well today too!

Clicking On: Fossil.Life.Style

Have you checked out Fossil's website lately? I recently received there new Spring catalog in the mail and while I'm not really one to post about fashion, I tend to shop only when I need something, usually for a special occasion like an interview or wedding (really, I know!) I'm like a guy when it comes to shopping, I like to get in and get out. Accessories, however are an entirely different story ;) I digress... I love looking through there catalog to get ideas on layouts and graphics. So I headed over to there website and discovered a little treat called Fossil. Life. Style. It offers a behind the scenes look at there photo shoot, sketchbook, e cards, wallpapers, and my fav brand graphics! It's cool when brands open up there behind the scenes door so nosey people like me can enjoy another side of a favorite brand. Do you know of any other creative brands that are taking this approach online too? If so, please share! Enjoy your findings ;)

Shop: Sprout Home

I took the day off today and spent most of my day creating new images!! It felt so great to turn ideas into photographs (will share some soon.) What definitely sparked my imagination this afternoon was stopping into the Sprout Home store. It was full of ingredients and ideas to make lovely terrariums,herbs, modernly wonderful pots and planters plus much more earthy goodness! I was so inspired I just had to include a photo of my newly potted succulent, which spent all day outside in the sun! Have a great weekend everyone ;)

Free Font Friday

Although Friday has pretty much come and gone, I couldn't forget about posting my font find for the week! Speedball no. 2 has made this weeks top pick. I love the slight curls on the ends of the rounded letters and the spacing between the characters. It's got a modern day typewriter feeling that makes it my pick today. Enjoy ;)

Loving: Vintage Luggage

My blog friend Karyn over at Den 10 Studio just scored the ultimate estate sale find, vintage luggage! How great are these! I've been spotting lots of vintage luggage being put to good use throughout blogland lately. Below are some ideas for you Karyn. I also thought you could use these as inspiration for your next illustration? If all else fails they'll make for a beautiful display and serve as extra storage in a bedroom, mudroom, or sewing/craft room ;) I'd love to know what you use them for, keep me posted ;)

{Karyn's estate sale find.}

{My vintage suitcases, placed under my book shelf.
They currently store old issues of my favorite decor/design magazines.}

{ As seen on Design Sponge.}


{Fun decal suitcases.}

Wednesday Wishes

Another Wednesday, another round if wishes...Yay!! This is my third week keeping up with this weekly posting and I really do look forward to putting my thoughts down and poking around blogland to see what others are wishing for on Wednesdays. Here goes:

1. Balance. I wish to find a balance between work, play, friends and my family life. I feel like when one or two things are going great others in this category seem to suffer ;( I feel sad and mad that I have yet to find and keep a balance between what I love to do and who I love to spend my time with.

2. Pen Pal Mail. I'm in between finishing some letters to send out and was super excited to receive my first lovely letter from Katie yesterday! Thank you for making my day ;)

3. New Music. I wish to find new tunes to keep me inspired, happy, and help get me through the work week.

4. Financial Life. I wish to plan more for the future by saving and putting more funds away for a rainy day.


Thanks for joining me today. What are you wishing for on this Wednesday? Be sure to head over to Courtney , Kellie's and Katie's blog to read what they are hoping for today. And join in with your own post of Wednesday Wishes and share it with us too ;)

Featured Spotlight

{Photo by Vicki}

Good Morning! I just found out earlier this week that I will be featured over at Simply Hue during Vicki's March/April spotlight features. She features a new artist every Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday. Stop by to see who else made the spotlight this month and how you can submit your own work! Here are some of my favorite works from artists who have been featured this week. Pssst... head over to Simply Hue now to enter to win this beauty of a necklace.

{Jewelry by Vanya}

{Photography by Maegan Beishline}
Oh, and she also sells her own line of soaps!

{Art by Michelle}

An Instant Classic

For those of you who have ever had the opportunity to develop your own film and work in a darkroom to develop your prints, you can relate when I say that it's such a great feeling to see your visions come to life on paper. I've been craving to print in a darkroom again, but I know that they are hard to come by these days. Mostly because not many places are investing in the space, equipment, chemicals, and money it takes to keep one running. A girl can dream though, right! I found this fun free download of a pin hole camera, Rubikon. It's a paper cut-out that (once assembled) becomes a fully functional camera and creates beautiful dreamlike images. For today I'll settle for sharing some of my portrait black and white darkroom prints from college with you;)

Blog Header Design Concepts

I recently came back into contact with a childhood friend of mine from middle school. She's just as sweet and talented as she was back in the day ;) A creatively passionate Interior Designer, Amy launched her own design firm A.L Design in 2007. She recently wrote me asking if I could help with redesigning her blog header. I jumped at the chance, as I had such a fun time with my recently redesigned header. To give me an idea of what she was looking for she sent me an inspiration page with ideas, colors, and fonts. Her logo is a leaf, so I made sure to incorporate that into the design as well. I am SO excited to share with you my design concepts that I have been working hard on all this past week!

{Amy's Blog Banner inspiration}

{These concepts included a photograph of some of her work.}

{ These were my first concepts, simple and sweet

with colors and whimsical touches I hope she'll love!}

I'll keep you posted in which design she chooses. I really enjoyed this process and hope to do more in the near future. If you know anyone who is looking for a fresh new look for there blog, I would love to talk to them! Or if you would like some tips on how to help you with your own design (including photography questions) email me with your questions and ideas to:

[evphotogal@me.com]

Free Font Friday!

Friday is my favorite day and I'm excited to share with you my free font pick of the week. This weeks pick, Jane Austen is partly influenced by the moody weather we are scheduled to receive this weekend. It includes everything from snow, rain, clouds, wind and who knows maybe even sleet. It's going to be a weekend for staying in, that's for sure! I could totally put both of these movies on repeat and play them over and over all day! Even thought the day of hand written letters have become so far and few in between, I like knowing that there are authentic fonts available even in our analog world. Happy Friday, enjoy your weekend!

When life hands you lemons...

I had a bit of disappointing news last night that was hard to take. Nothing horrible, just sad ;( I'm interested in finding out how you deal when life hands you lemons? On the upside, Joe and I are heading to the city this afternoon to be part of this taping! We are meeting up with his family, so I am at least in good spirits about that.

Wednesday Wishes

I can't believe that this week is half way over ;) I am happy to say that I did fufill a few of my wishes from last week. I got to spend time with one of my sisters, I am making a conscious effort to expand my network of blogger friends, and I'm in the works right now with collaborating on a design project with a friend I just recently got back in touch with (more details to come later). Phew... do you ever wonder if all you have to do is ask, and things will start happening?
Okay so here are my wishes for this week.

1. Warmer Days. I wish for warmer days ahead to be able to start playing tennis again!

2. Thrifting Adventures. I wish to go on a hunt to score my next vintage find. Warm weather makes people want to purge a lot of there belongings. But what is sometimes there trash becomes my treasure!

3. New ideas. I wish to make time, space, and energy to create new photographs. I love the process behind creating an image and look forward to making more soon!

4. Knowing where my food comes from. I wish to support local agriculture and eat only the freshest, tastiest veggies and fruit minus all the pesticides and waste producing methods that big company factory farms use. Imagine if you knew the farmer who grew your food, wouldn't that just be great!

5. Shopping my closet. I have yet to transition my winter wardrobe into my spring one. It's the best, because it gives me a chance to bring out pieces from last year and create new outfits with newly bought pieces from this season! Shopping my closet lets me know what I'm missing and what I can donate for the year.

What are you wishing for on this Wednesday? Be sure to head over to Courtney and Kellie's blog to read what they are hoping for today. Join in with your own post of Wednesday Wishes and share it with us too ;)

Spring into Monday

Specially designed desktop wallpaper to give your computer a spring time makeover and a sunny outlook to the start off your week! Check out my newest addition of freebies and tutorials (coming soon) to download- located on the right hand column of my blog. I would love to see what and where you use them . Send me a link and I'd be happy to post your finished product ;)
Cheers to the start of a brand new week!

Free Font Friday!

To kick off the installment of my newest weekly post and to share my love for fonts I've found the free download and my font crush of the year, FLING! You may remember it as it graced the cover of the beautiful Blueprint magazine a few years ago. Honestly, I can't tell you how excited I get when I have free time to hunt for my next favorites and organize my font book application in the process. Does anyone else share my nerdy love for fonts?

{How I miss you, Blueprint!}

Happy Friday!

Friday!? Is that you?? Where have you been all this week? As I exhale into the start of my weekend I'm having thoughts of flocking in a field of green grass, splashing into a puddle with my umbrella for two, and calming the clutter in my ever expanding closets. The brink of Spring is upon us and change is in the air! And what a great feeling it is!

Tonight I am looking forward to spending time with my sister, along with niece and nephew while sharing our day over delicious fish tacos, yum! I've been looking forward to date night on Saturday because Joe and I are celebrating 6 months, woo hoo! We have been looking forward to dinner at The Bristol restaurant. There locally sourced (partnering up with 4 independent IL farms ), seasonal menu is rooted in Mediterranean flavors. A modern vibe and rotating chalkboard menu round out the reasons for my continued enthusiasm! Oh, and to make the night even sweeter, I hope to go to Hot Chocolate to share a yummy treat!

What about your plans for the weekend? Anything you have been looking forward to all week?

{A BIG Thank You to all your sweet comments this week, they have helped to make my week even brighter.}

Wednesday Wishes

My blogger and real life friend(we went to college together),Courtney from you will. won't you?
started a Wednesday wishes post last week and asked her readers to join in on the fun. I think it's great to set goals (it's something that I have to do better this year), but to see it on paper or in this case online is a great reminder to help turn goals into the real thing! No matter how small or large they may be, it is the first step that motivates me to take the next leap! So here are my wishes on this rainy Wednesday morning:

1. Take a new approach to working out. These days it's hard to fit fitness into my schedule. So I wish to find new creative ways outside the gym to help me stay healthy and keep me interested.

2. Create a network of blogland friends. I love finding new blogs and reading about the creative people who run the show! In an effort to establish new connections, I signed up to partake in this!3. Collaborate with other creatives! I love sharing my thoughts, insights, and ideas with other people to help them solve any design, crafty, or photography dilemma or to just get a second opinion on a project.

4. Be a better sister. My sisters, (I have two) are so special to me and I feel like lately I haven't been acting like they are. Making time to spend an afternoon together with them soon is my final wish for today.

Be sure to check out what Courtney and Kellie have in store for their wishlists today!
Wanna join in on the fun? Start your own Wednesday wishes installment on your blog. (and send a link to Courtney or Kellie via the comment section. Click here to find out more ;)
Happy Wishing!

Etsy Showcase

I'm all about the Esty love today, which is why I decided to sign up to be featured in today's art showcase! Check it out, plus so many other fab creative works ;)

Sunday Photo Shoot

My stylist friend, Victoria asked me to take photos of her two beautiful babies to sign on with Lily's Talent, a model/talent agency in Chicago. Her kids had both been in our photo studio before, so I knew they'd be great in front of the camera. We had a lot of fun with outfit changes and poses. Here are some of my favorite shots. How was your weekend?

New Blog Header

Horray! I made the time this week to finally redesign my blog header! It was in need of a major redesign and I just felt like I needed to spruce up my look a bit. I love the way it turned out! The bird is my Springtime inspiration. What makes a good header great? I think color, simple design, and a dose of the bloggers personality included in their header makes the biggest impact. Below are some of my favorite headers being featured now in blogland.

Sweet Tidings

Josephine Kimberling

sfgirlbybay