dear spring

please arrive soon.  we are tired of cold, rainy days...

sincerely.  juli + tula mirth

by juli

bowties come back

bowtie, by juli

i have a thing for dapper style and i have to say that the new love for bowties sits well with me.  i recently did a story on a raleigh, nc, company called lumina clothing company and they sell some pretty wonderful bowties.  i have included some of my favorites below...

  holladay's bowtie, $45.

              

 

the sunshine state bowtie, $45. 

the big bad wolf bowtie, $45

dolan geiman: contemporary art with a southern accent

i love the folksy, sustainable, mixed-media style of artist dolan geiman.  dolan, a native of virginia, lives and works in chicago.  his wife, ali marie, handles the business administration side of his artwork.  what a great husband-wife duo!  dolan's art is available for sale via his website, etsy, and various art events.

check out this charming interview with dolan on etsy's quit your day job.

dolan and ali marie also have a great blog about arts, crafts, cooking and decorating.  how do they find the time?

a peek at some of dolan's pieces...

the birthday party (cowgirl)

handmade paintings on reclaimed wood, only $45!  (look out honey, a couple of these may magically appear in the mail!)

made to order guitar cutout

thinking about beets...

i had a vegetable photo shoot to tackle yesterday for a book cover i am working on for a chicago author.  i bought an armful of vegetables for the shoot including one of my favorite photogenic vegetables, beets.  i took this photo of tula mirth holding the beets shortly before i quartered and roasted them.  yum!

beet love by juli

there are some great beet recipes out there including this 101 cookbook's roasted beet and blood orange salad with spicy greens, saveur's beet soup and butterflyfood's simple roasted beet recipe.

have a dance-tastic weekend!

via stereogum's 10 best videos of the week

more letterpress love...

if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know i am a little (or a lot) in love with letterpress.  i think it started when i scoured the internet for wedding invitations.  sadly, the letterpress designs were the most beautiful and the most expensive!

at one point i decided i wanted to make my own letterpress printer.  fellow blogger juli and my husband sweetly jumped on board with my hairbrained idea, although we haven't had time to get started.  check out these instructions for a homemade letterpress printer.  seems doable!  have any of you ever done this?  am i crazy?

i keep coming across julia farrill's red bird ink, a wonderful letterpress shop based in atlanta. red bird ink was a runner-up in garden & gun's 2010 made in the south awards.

check out julia on her press!


courtesy of redbirdink.com

some of my favorite designs from her shop...

eyewear flat cards 
(sometimes i wish i had an excuse to buy great frames like these, but i have perfect eyesight!)

red berries coasters

red birds stationery

photo geek love

1. instant photo frame pins via photojojo, $18-$30.
2. haoshi's camera head necklace via a+r store, $65.
3. fuji finepix x100 via photocraft,  $1,199.
4. lomography analogue dream women's shirt via lomography, $29.
5. 8x10 polaroid land camera print by candidate via etsy, $23.