Hello!Lucky
Letterpress greeting cards, thank you notes, DIY projects, free printables and craft inspiration.
We love the eclectic Anthropologie-ish goods over at London-based Plümo. They've got some great stuff in their shop right now, including this Argentinean belt, cheeky eco-friendly tote, and babushka key rings.
This slouchy woven leather bag is lovely. All these lovely items are available right here.
We've previously raved about our obsession with paper pom poms and lanterns, which make wonderful, inexpensive decorations for weddings, showers, and parties. We just love these paper garlands, balls, and snowflakes, from UK-based Re-found Objects.
Aren't these paper flower garlands adorable? (From Pedlar's, also UK-based).
For those of you who are looking for paper decorations state-side, we found a great selection of Mexican paper picatas at Lee Carter Company (above).
123 Party has a great selection of tissue paper balls, bells, and fans (flat circular shape - shown above) in a wide array of colors and sizes. We found this pretty tissue paper snowflake decorations at Target. We found a nice dove garland (similar to the one from Re-found) at Oriental Trading Company.
Happy decorating!
V&A Prints is an online collection of over 3,000 images from the Victoria & Albert Museum's collection of art and design. While the images are great simply for inspiration, you can also buy a print or canvas of the image in a range of custom sizes, starting at just £5! How cool is that? You can browse by artist, collection, era, color, etc. We found this gorgeous floral in the Art Deco section.
Stunning Art Nouveau furnishing fabric...
A fabric designed for Queen Victoria's Jubilee.
Fabulous Ikats. We're loving the inspiration. Thanks, V&A!
We're super excited about our latest card release - some of our best cards yet! The new collection features this fab psychedelic love card, and 3 new designs by Julia Rothman ("Support" is one of our faves - perfect for girl friends, moms, and bridesmaids! These were also just featured on Design*Sponge - thanks, Grace!).
We're giving the "Lookin' good" card (below) to Eunice & Sabrina's mom, who celebrates her 60th birthday this week but still has washboard abs looks a like a beauty queen, with no surgical intervention! (Go, mom!)
We're also thrilled to introduce a brand new collaboration with one our favorite UK-based illustrators, Kate Sutton (she also has some fantastic DIY card projects in our new book, Handmade Hellos). "Choo Choo" (inspired by the Simpsons!) is one of our favorites.
This globe illustration cracks us up and the sentiment is so sweet (awww!)...
Kate also did some wonderful Mother's and Father's Day cards for us:
We illustrated a garden-themed Mother's Day card as well, plus an anniversary card featuring a tattooed circus strong man (below). Both use a cool new watercolor wash technique we recently developed...
And finally, there's our favorite - the BBQ parade Father's Day card! The hilarious anthropomorphic grill items continue their shenanigans on the back of the card - you'll have to buy it to see them!
All these cards are letterpress printed on 30% post-consumer waste recycled cardstock, and are available right here for just $4.50 a pop! Enjoy!
Paraphernelia is a jewelery designer (for both ladies and gents) based in Manchester, UK. We love their Victorian (and slightly gothic) style.
We love this new series of buttons ("I'll trade this button for a...") - they'd be great party favors! And we adore their necklaces using vintage silhouette vignettes.
As you know, we love to visit our various stockists around London and especially those close to one of the four branches of Ottolenghi as there is nothing better after an arduous spell of summer shopping than a lazy lunch in this bastion of good food (...other than a lazy dinner!) The heaped displays of puddings and salads almost pull you, siren-like, through the doors and the fresh ingredients for the kitchens are stacked waiting along the walls of the dining room.
Their philosophy is to create familiar, straight-forward and yet highly innovative food such as the stuffed courgettes and pea salad shown below and both of which went down a treat! The only difficulty may be in choosing what to have as everything is so beautifully prepared and meticulously presented.
Ottolenghi also run cookery courses, cater events from the smallest of dinner parties at home and have published a book of their recipies. We prefer just to be spoiled from time to time - all in the name of work!
Ottolenghi have branches in Notting Hill, Islington, Belgravia and Kensington.
We paid a visit to one of favorite design shops and Hello!Lucky stockist, Magma in Covent Garden, the other day. As always, they had an impeccably edited selection of modern, design-led gifts which we coveted, fawned over, etc.
We couldn't get enough of these ridiculous Japanese soft toys, shown on the left and far right of this shop window vignette. We relate to the expression on both their faces!
And, in our persistent effort to build our brand in the UK, we couldn't resist these diva-esque business card holders.
Magma Books, 16 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London (Covent Garden tube) Opening hours: Mon-Sat: 10am - 7pm, Sun: 12pm - 6pm
We discovered these delightful greeting cards made from vintage playing cards last week at an a little antiques shop in Camden Passage, London (near the Angel tube station in Islington).
The concept of these cards is brilliant: a graphic, vintage playing card mounted with photo corners (usually face-down to take advantage of the decorated backs) onto a plain ecru card. They're perfect for a DIY project and would make great wedding seating cards -- since cards come in decks of 52 it's easy to make multiples! Some of these vintage graphics are truly inspired, particularly of the Erte-inspired ladies with their dogs on the right. See the entire collection here.
We admit it; we're complete magpies but we defy anyone to walk past the shop window of Jewels by Count Alexander in Islington without stopping, jaw dropping slowly, to gaze at the fantastic, glittering display set before you.
The shop is full of the most enchanting pieces made by Count Alexander von Beregshasy, each faithfully copied from originals worn by various members of European royalty or aristocracy such as Marie-Antoinette's sapphire necklace (above) or Grand Duchess Vladimir's tiara (below).
We can't think of a better way to turn a bride into a fairytale princess - or a frog into Prince Charming if bought for his very own Cinderella!
Jewels by Count Alexander: No. 13 The Mall Antiques Arcade, 359 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 0PD
Open every day except Mondays
Last weekend we paid a visit to Ryantown, Rob Ryan's new shop in the Columbia Flower Market, London, which we heard about from one of our favorite London bloggers, Wee Birdy. (The market was heaving with people and we couldn't get far enough away from the storefront to take a decent pic so this one comes via Wee Birdy's fabulous post, as does the shot of the tiles below.)
We've long adored Mister Rob's work, especially his gorgeous, intricate paper cuts. But we were practically giddy at the sight of all the fabulous new bits and bobs to which he's applied is fanciful, organic, folk-arty style.
One of our favorites: these delicate one-of-a-kind vintage glasses, which Ryan has decorated with birdies, stars, flowers, people, and sayings. At £10 each, these make great gifts and perfect collector's items.
We also loved these new ceramic plates. This papercut, which reads "Thank you for everything" pretty much sums up the generous, whimsical spirit of Ryan's work.
One of the wonderful things about the shop is that you get to be surrounded by Ryan's quirky world: these etched glass doors sit at the back of the shop, while this "You can still do a lot with a small brain" (here, here!) tile mural greets visitors at the entrance.
And of course we adore his line of four laser-cut cards for Roger la Borde. The one on the left is quite possibly the best romantic cards we've ever laid eyes on!
And finally, we peeked in the shop window at some lovely new flower vases - love them! For ongoing news and updates visit the Ryantown shop blog. You can also shop for a limited range of Ryan's work online here.
Ryantown, 126 Columbia Road, London (Old Street tube) Shop hours: Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Lately, we've been noticing vibrant and primary colors everywhere. We love the colorful palette in this shop window in Notting Hill (sorry, we didn't catch the name!).
We also love the combination of fuchsia and other bold colors in these pillows by notNeutral and this Agenda by Sukie.
And then there are the fabulous pop-art-inspired pillows by London-based designer Karen Hilton. These color palettes make us so happy!
We popped in to say "hi" to the lovely girls at Hide All's lovely Tower Bridge boutique (and to make a delivery of our gift wrap and cards!). They showed us new Orla Kiely catalogue, which we nearly died over - the Fall collection is amazing, and we are eagerly waiting for it to be added to the website (in the meantime, shop the summer sale)! In a fit of passion, we found ourselves leaving with this lovely new Fall bag...
Oh my goodness, the Paul Smith furniture stop on Abermarle Street in London is to die for! We drooled over this photo of a young Angelica Houston by iconic Vogue fashion photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri - see more from the exhibition here. The back room, pictured above, is especially tempting - chock full of one-of-a-kind vintage finds!
9 Albemarle Street, London (Green Park or Bond Street tube), open Monday - Saturday, 10:30 - 6.
We were thrilled to meet the lovely Katie Reynolds, beautician and founder of the Powderpuff Girls, last week. With their retro-chic pink outfits and impeccable beauty know-how, these girls are a must-have for any stylish party, including hen nights/bridal showers. They offer a full range of on-site services, including mani-pedis, make-up and hair styling and massage. Seriously, ladies, there is no excuse for not looking your gosh-darned best, and the Powderpuff Girls make it simple!
We celebrated the launch of our UK website this week with a smashing meet-n-greet with top UK editors at the luxurious Mayfair Suites. The launch came just in time for the current issue of Cosmopolitan Bride, which features neutral-tone versions of Antoinette (a slight variation on the one shown on our website), L'Oiseau, and Enchanted Garden letterpress wedding invitations, as well as our new Calla Lily wedding invitation. Stay tuned for big improvements to both sites in the coming months!
Hands down, the best part of our neighborhood in London is Borough Market, London's mecca for organic and gourmet foods and produce. We stopped by there for lunch today and had some gorgeous cheese sandwiches and hand-dripped coffee from Monmouth Coffee Company.
The market is also a feast for the eyes. We especially loved the shortbread owls from The Cinnamon Tree Bakery and these simple wooden spoons from Monmouth Coffee. The market is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and is just across Borough High Street from the London Bridge tube station.
We just created these calla lily wedding invitations and coordinating fan program, menu and place card, for Cosmopolitan Bride (UK), which debuts its new look this month. This invitation design features a loose, pen-and-ink and water color style of illustration that we've been developing. These photos show mock-ups that we'll soon be letterpress printing, making them even more gorgeous!
We just love this new wallpaper from Osborne & Little. Wallpaper is a constant source of inspiration for our design projects, and is also a great material for DIY crafting - from place mats to napkin rings to wedding favors. This pattern features flocked 18th century cameos. Love it!
We discovered the work of London-based illustrator Ellie Curtis on etsy and couldn't resist her fabulously eccentric screen-printed pillows, shown above in their new home. Sadly, she's out of stock for the time being (she's busy "across the pond" on an artist's residency), but check out her blog for new work and updates
We're fans of London-based artist and illustrator Joe McLaren and were tickled to discover the set of four posters he designed to promote old-fashioned letter writing, "First Class People Send Real Post." He's a man after our own hearts! See more of his work here.
At Hello!Lucky we specialize in Letterpress greeting cards, as well offer DIY step by steps & free printables. Led by sisters Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, our small team of expert designers and artisan letterpress printers specialize in creating neon & foil, holiday cards, birthday cards, & thank you cards, that are full of creativity and whimsy. We've been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Design Sponge, Style Me Pretty, Real Simple, and many other leading publications. Please feel feel to contact us via chat, phone or e-mail - we'd be happy to assist you!
Hello!Lucky | P.O. Box 17605, San Francisco, California
