19 November 2009

accepted: ME!

Shanna of Daughter Sharp Cookies and your's truely got ACCEPTED to the Handmade Holiday Craft Fair on December 12th from 12-6 at 3rd Ward!!! It's an awesome art space in Bushwick. Must get busy, holy crap! Hope to see all you New Yorkers there! WOO HOO!!!
xo Lea

17 November 2009

shopped: an afternoon in Brooklyn

I decided to do a little window/Christmas shopping the other day. I live in Brooklyn and I love the stores we have in North BK. Williamsburg is a great place to shop for unique gifts. The first place I went to is A&G Merch

here are some of the things that caught my eye...


temporary wall paper! Awesome for renters, like moi, and it doesn't require any glue, so super easy to install. I'm 99.9% sure that the gray and cream graphic print one in the middle is going here

Yup, that's right in MY entryway. It will be the perfect accent in there.

I also spotted a pretty neat pillow with a Brooklyn Bridge graphic, and even if this isn't a new idea, I think on a black, gray or white couch, it would look tres chic. It would be awesome as a neutral accent on a brightly colored piece too. And plus its cool to represent, yo.

oh, and I loved this idea, a traditional table painted glossy black with graffiti accents on it. I really love the contrast of traditional and modern or urban design. If my living room was wide enough for a coffee table, I would strongly consider this one.

one last pic from A&G Merch, this is some 3D wall art and an awesome clock that M and I both really liked, perfect for an office or fun in a kitchen, I think.


After A&G, we walked over to Whisk

which it is a cute gourmet kitchen store with some really great stuff, I dabble a bit in the kitchen and I love cookbooks, so Whisk is right up my alley.


such a great store, lots of cool gadgets. And as a random little aside, they have mini muffin paper baking cups! Do you know how hard those are to find??!? I was looking for them twice just recently... If only I had known.
But the best find of the entire day were these!

alphabet cookie cutters! Just think of all the fun things to do with that! I'm thinking 4-letter word cookies for all my bitches (that's how me and my BFFs refer to each other) and my Mom is a cookie baking extraordinaire and I think her initials and these cute little measuring spoons

will be a darling gift for her birthday!
Well, time to get back to work making tons o Christmas cards...
xo Lea

entertained: a fabulous fall drinkfest

I collaborated with Jen this weekend to help her throw a killer cocktail party. She is another gal, formerly from the South, who loves to entertain and is an amazing artist, check out her website! She wanted to do something with a fall theme and decided this shindig was to be a fun fall Drinkfest! Oh yeah, we love to party. I started off gathering a little inspiration


to get our brains a' stormin' and we also had to do a little space planning because this is New York City and most of us live in freakishly small apartments. Here is what Casa Clown Car looks like...


Yeah, um, its TINY! So we decided to keep the hors d'oeuvres in the kitchen, 1. because that was easy and 2. because it had the most horizontal surfaces... I know that food in the kitchen isn't really, ummm, that innovative but what is cool is how we kept the guests from bottle necking in the kitchen. We put the bar in the bedroom!

Which is on the other side of the apartment. We also moved the furniture to create a big open space for gathering and a few groupings of seating for conversations when your feet start hurting from your fab heels. That afternoon we went to pick up some flowers for me to make a few simple arrangements

(don't you just love the tiara in the background? It makes an appearance for all the parties)

As for the menu, we made these delicious apple spiced muffins with walnuts and cream cheese frosting (like the ones I mentioned here) and some seriously delicious butternut squash soup "shots"

and salmon topped with caviar on baguette with sea salt and honey, sour cream rolls (aka: crack rolls, aka: fatten you right up rolls), an awesome cheese plate (we got the cheese at Murray's which is a stinky lil slice o' heaven right in the West Village) and last but not least we had some delicious fig and ricotta treats from none other than Shanna of Daughter Sharp Cookies!
oh, and did I mention that we just HAD to taste test all the cocktails a few days before we could officially commit!?!? (we take this stuff seriously, folks) We decided to go with Bourbon & Cider punch, Champagne Pomegranate Cocktails and Blood Orange Screwdrivers.

And so folks, it looks like we had done a pretty good job of fixing ourselves up a swanky affair. And it was a blast! Thanks Jen (and Joe, her other half) for the fun times!!!! You guys rock!
xo Lea

09 November 2009

applied: 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair

so I applied to the 3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft Fair this weekend! I'm sooooo hope I get picked! I will be sharing a booth with Daughter Sharp Cookies, yay! cookies! We will hear back from them by the 17th. Here are a few of the pictures I sent in... Wish us LUCK! xo Lea


06 November 2009

designed: a new name

hey! so y'all probably noticed that I changed my name. My company is now called PAPER+SPACE! It's a better representation of what I'm really all about.

PAPER is all about the stationary, fun cards and beautiful invitations.
SPACE is for design, interiors and organization AND party planning!

I really worked hard on coming up with an idea that was fun and totally me. What do you think?

Today besides all the awesome name change business, I'm photographing the cards to enter a crafts fair right here in BUSHWICK at the 3rd Ward! It was so cool last year, I really hope we get picked.

And who is the other person making up the WE, you might be wondering? Why its Shanna from Daughter Sharp Cookies and she is sharing a table with me! So delicious cookies and cards!


Oh yeah, watch out! TWO crafty ladies, formerly from the South, are gonna make Christmas rockin' this year!

And just for a bit of fun... I snapped a pic of my helpers

they are working so hard...

ok Loves, back to making my dreams happen!
xo Lea

05 November 2009

entertained: a winter wedding

I have the pleasure of working on a lovely winter wedding that is just a month away. It is going to be a fabulous wedding and there will be pictures and posts galore, but I thought I would share a few of the special touches that are making this wedding such a personal and elegant affair.

The ceremony will be held outdoors (this is only possible way down South where generally December is still quite temperate) in front of a giant freestanding stone fireplace. An article about the this awesome fireplace is in last months issue of Southern Living.



The fireplace will be surrounded by a forest of lighted Christmas trees cut from the bride's family lodge in North Georgia, so they will be married surrounded in a lighted forest of trees!



After the ceremony, that space will be turned into a fireside wiskey lounge, so awesome right??? They are going to have cigars and good scotch and burbons and spiced wine warming over the fire. Doesn't that just sound super warm and cozy? I really love this idea! I will be sure to get lots of great pictures of the fireside festivities.

Do y'all have any good wedding tips to share? Like how to turn a potential negative (outside wedding in December) in to a positive (perfect time for roaring fires and a winter wonderland)?

04 November 2009

entertained: a easy spicy soup

so last night I had to whip up dinner in a pinch. it was cold and I was kinda tired so I wanted something quick, easy, and satisfying. I came up with dumpling soup!



Now let me start off by saying, I am so NOT a chef, I barely know how to boil water! But just like everyone else has been tightening their belts and M and I are no exception, and so to the kitchen I go to whip up my own CHEAP and healthy meal.

OK, I started with a bag of frozen chicken dumplings from Trader Joe's and a bag of frozen Asian stir fry vegetables, also from TJ's. I'm thinking I need something fresh, and then I spy a half bag of spinach, double points for using up something before it goes bad!

Alrighty, I've got stuff to work with but, now how to put it all together?
I put some chicken stock, I usually have that in the pantry, into a big soup pot and throw in the frozen veg. I brought that to a boil and added the spinach and dumplings and brought them up to temperature. The directions on the bag of dumplings said, "Don't over cook!" so I made sure to put them in last. And Voila! a soup was made (in like 7 minutes!)

I let my concoction simmer till M got home from work and then gave it a another taste... and it was good but... it needed something. So into the fridge for the ever present and often used chili garlic sauce (btw- this is the only thing not purchased at TJ's, did I mention that I love that freaking place?) and a heaping tablespoon of it went into the pot. Be CAREFUL, that stuff is H-O-T, but so so very tasty. It really made the soup. And best of all M loved it. He had 2 giant bowls.

Another successful dinner... I'm getting pretty good at this! I will keep ya posted on new culinary dscoveries

xo Lea

03 November 2009

entertained: music for the holidays

so I'm printing, stamping, printing, and stamping lots and lots of Christmas cards. and I will have them ready to share with y'all soon, but I wanted to let you all know what is helping me get into the spirit of the season right now.

Spiced apple muffins from TraderJoe's (go check out their website they have lots of helpful things like pre-made lists and recipes, it's pretty rad).

and music on Pandora! it is so great; you can make lots of stations that will play what ever you like and they have a ton of Christmas music.

ok well... back to work!!