Eunice's Nursery Style

Eunice, our co-founder and creative director, is due to have her baby this week and it's been really fun to see her pull together her baby girls nursery. We're loving Eunice's nursery style and would't mind moving in ourselves. She's still working on the final pieces and waiting for everything to arrive but we wanted to share the cuteness already in place.

Here's what Eunice had to say about creating the nursery space: The overall look I was going for was light and airy and modern with some sweet girly details.  The overall palette is pale pinks and greys and neutrals (inspired by my obsession with French interior design) with occasional dashes of neon pink.  I chose the photos because my 3 year old Jude is obsessed with animals (particularly baby animals) and I thought it would be great to make the baby's nursery a place he would enjoy as well.

Eunice got the sweet baby animal prints from The Animal Print Shop by Sharon Montrose. How absolutely adorable are they? Such a great idea for a nursery. The bunny lamp above is from Sunday In Color. And she found the bassinet on giggle, a great place to shop for kids and babies. 

To see more of Eunice's nursery style inspiration check out the pinboard she created. She's also working on a downstairs room for Imogen (her baby girls name!) which we'll share photos of as it comes together!

Links below to where Eunice sourced everything in her nursery: Crib, Changing Station, Dresser, Chandelier from ebay, Bedding, Changing Pad Cover, Atsuo et Akikio Pillow, Mobile (to come), Rocker (on it's way). 

 

Misty & Matt's Vintage City Hall Wedding

We will never tire of looking at San Francisco weddings. As much as we love a big beautiful celebration we have a soft spot for a simple, low key union. You can't bet the drama of San Francisco's City Hall, with its high sweeping ceilings and gorgeous architecture.

Lilia Photography took these beautiful photos of Misty and Matt's sweet San Francisco wedding at City Hall. We're digging Misty's vintage wedding dress and love that all the gentleman wore vintage style suits with brooches instead of boutinnieres, pocket squares and vintage tie-pins. Misty’s bouquet was made from flower brooches and put together by her father, which is so special.

When ever we see photos of weddings we naturally think of which of our wedding designs would match the celebration. We can't help it! For Misty and Matt's charming vintage ceremony we would chose our vintage inspired Sweetheart wedding suite in letterpress to match the drama and beauty of their big day.

Congratulations Misty and Matt! And thanks for letting us share your beautiful photos here Lilia!

Local Love: General Store

This weekend we made a trek out to the Outer Sunset in San Francisco and visited one of our favorite shops, General Store.

General Store has a wonderful collection of locally sourced and well designed goods for sale. We love the feel of the shop and the carefully selected items.

How amazing is this wall of cards? We love the simplicity of the wood and rope. Such a great design, there's something about the General Store that makes us feel like we're on a ship, which is pretty fitting given how close it is to the ocean.

Fat bags of local beans.

Terrariums and tea towels.

If you visit the bay area definitely make a trek out to General Store, it's worth the trip! And while you're out there stop next door and grab some cinnamon toast and something hot to drink at Trouble Coffee.

General Store

4035 Judah St, San Francisco, CA 94122

415-682-0600

11-7 Monday - Friday

10 - 7 Saturday - Sunday

Refinery29 Siblings Feature

Last week Refinery29 came by our new studio and took some photos of Eunice and Sabrina for a feature on San Francisco siblings. They were thrilled to be included along side some of the city's coolest siblings. The piece includes a pretty fun q&a with Eunice and Sabrina about each other -- including Eunice's favorite memory of the two of them growing up. You can check out the full Refinery29 feature right here.

 Thanks for including us Refinery29!

Eunice's Custom Made Potty Training Chart

Trying to convince Jude to use the toilet was NOT an easy sell and one of the few times in my child-rearing experience so far that I've really, really wished I could pay someone any amount of money to do it so I could completely avoid having to deal. I poked around online and discovered that everything available seemed to have about as much flair as a corporate power point, so I whipped up this chart with examples of animals joyfully peeing and pooping (some have better aim than others) with a bit of foam core, a sharpie and some highlighters.

Hilariously, he immediately got it - it helps that he is absolutely obsessed with animals - and was super excited to imitate the animals on the board,. Now that sucker is covered with stickers and he hasn't screamed "GIVE ME A DIAPER!!!" in three weeks! (Small miracles!)

New Kids' Party Invites from Esther Aarts!

We're so excited to introduce a new line of kids' birthday party invitations designed by the lovely and talented Esther Aarts. These invites were inspired by our popular series of birthday cards designed by Esther. And like all invitations on our website these designs can be personalized with the message you want and with your kids favorite color palette.

These cards don't match your party theme? Check out our circus birthday party invite, balloons invite and all of our other kids' birthday party invitations.

Wedding Inspiration Board - Nouveau Peonies

Today we're bringing you a wedding inspiration board for one of our most popular and dare we say favorite wedding invitations, Nouveau Peonies. If you're planning a celebration around this invitation you can go all out feminine or emphasis the 1920's vibe this design showcases. Pretty pink petal cupcakes above from All Things Cupcake.

If you love your wedding suite and really want to bring the design to the table there's no reason not to print up menus, they'll add to the place settings and reinforce your theme of the day. Big paper poofs in whatever color you chose for your invite are always a lovely addition to the decor. And how's this for a classic wedding getaway car?

There are so many different directions you can go for a wedding dress to match the charm and sophistication of Nouveau Peonies. Go all out 1920's with this flapper wedding dress or chose a more soft and subtle style like this pretty cream colored gown.

To see more curated inspiration for our Nouveau Peonies wedding suite check out our Pinterest board. Is there a wedding suite you've got your eye on that you'd like us to create a mood board for? Tell us in the comments and we'll get to work on it for you!

Unicorn Card Winner!

You have no idea how much we enjoyed reading your comments and suggestions for this card. You all are a witty, clever group of people. Thank you SO much for your feedback, it really helps us in this process when we are stuck on a design. In the end we settled on Are You For Real? And the final version is above. But that doesn't mean we didn't mock up a bunch of versions with your genius ideas before we settled on the final. Below are versions of the card with your words. They are all great, but we liked the silliness of Are You For Real? And thought the message could be interpreted more broadly.

We promised one lucky commenter a years worth of cards (totaling 12 letterpress cards). The winner of our caption contest is..... Tracy! Thanks for so many great suggestions Tracy, look out for an email from us so we can get your address and ship those cards to you.

Thanks to everyone else as well -- that was fun!

Card Caption Help and a Giveaway

We need your help! We're in the process of designing some new cards and we can't settle on a caption for this one. We're planning to release it for Valentine's Day so we're looking for something with a sweet sentiment.

Ideas we had include: Are You for Real?, You Amaze Me, You Dazzle Me. Would you vote for one of those or do you have a brilliant suggestion that would pair perfectly with this design?

If we chose your words for the card we'll send you a years worth of cards (12 total). If we don't chose any new suggestions we'll pick one winner at random who will win 12 letterpress cards from us.

So have at it and tell us what you think! We'll pick a winner this Friday 7/19.

Vintage Wedding in California

This real wedding featured on Wedding Chicks is just gorgeous. We adore the vintage vibe that this bride and her team pulled off and nature never fails to be the perfect backdrop for a wedding ceremony.  We're big fans of Rifle Paper Co. so we loved seeing the save the date postcard we designed for Brianne and Brandon paired with their lovely wedding invitations.

The couple carried the invitation design to the drink table with this table cloth from Rifle. They did a great job of setting up an easy do-it-yourself drink table as well.

How stunning is this ombre cake made by Crisp Bake Shop in Sonoma?

Dawn Ranch is the perfect setting for an outdoor wedding, and with just a few simple touches the space can really be transformed. We love the look of these streamers in the apple trees.

The flowers were done by Spiral Hand, just adding small vintage jars to the table with some colorful pops of flowers is all you really need for an outdoor wedding where nature takes center stage.

To see more of this wedding head over to Wedding Chicks. Congratulations Brianne and Brandon! Here's to many years of happiness!

Summer in France...

We're just back from a super amazing vacation in France - one week at this gorgeous little beach house in the town of Montalivet on the Atlantic coast, where Jude and his friend Hugo spent the week playing in the sand and sun and generally getting up to tons of hilarious 3 year old shenanigans.  There is nothing more relaxing on a family vacation than kids that are happily occupied!

At Plage du Pin Sec - endless miles of beach, shells to poke, surfers to watch...

Much time was spent doing absolutely nothing...

Or doing really important stuff like coaxing snails out of their shells...

We took the ferry to Royan to visit the Zoo de la Palmyre (completely amazing - the animals are close enough to touch in many cases - quite a different experience from the average American zoo), reading books before long afternoon naps, our bedroom window at the beach house (above which were roosting a family of doves - there's nothing quite like a late afternoon nap with the breeze in the curtains and the sounds cooing doves in the background)...

A brief pause in Bordeaux on our way to catch the train the Paris...the fountain at Place des Quinconces...

Oh how I LOVE Paris - every time we go, it just blows me away all over again.

The night before we got on the train to France, I told Jude (grooming him to be on my side for future campaigns for more French vacations) that we were going to spend a whole week eating gateaux, glace, fromage and croissants - he couldn't sleep he was so excited - and we did.  Macarons galore, chocolate every day! Vacation rules dictate that is is perfectly okay to have éclairs for lunch - who can resist a display like this after all?

Visited the Dynamo exhibit at Le Grand Palais - a pretty fabulous exhibit of notions of space, vision and light run through the abstract art of the 20th century which involved a lot fun of kinetic, op and light-based art which was a big hit with the toddler set. Here Jude enjoys a pretty remarkable installation piece that blurs the line between two and three dimensions.

Other highlights included the Galerie d'evolution in le Jardin des Plantes - literally like stepping into a cabinet of curiosities, hitting le Marais for the annual sales (held twice a year in January and July), le Musée de la chasse et de la nature (one of my all time favorite museums in the world), the carousel at Jardin du Luxembourg, and taking the Batobus down the Seine to get home one afternoon (touristy stigma aside, it was turned out to be a great way to get home after slogging all over Paris in the sun and Jude loved the boat ride.)

This adorable map from Herb Lester - Paris en Famille - a little guide to kid friendly places to check out in Paris, came in handy and had some great suggestions.

New Designs from Jacqui Lee

We're big fans of Jacqui Lee's work here at Hello!Lucky, as you may have noticed from the many collaborations we've done with her in the past. Today we're excited to talk to her about her latest release with us, birth announcements and kids stationery. We thought Jacqui's beautiful watercolor paintings and sweet designs would be perfect for such an important life announcement and we are thrilled with how they turned out. We talked to Jacqui about her latest release with us and her process.

These new designs are adorable! What was your process for making them and how did you decide on which animals to pair with each letter? 

Thank you! I had a lot of fun making them. Animals are always a favourite subject of mine to work on, so this was a dream project for me. In the beginning there was a lot of brainstorming to match up animals with each letter, and sometimes it was super tough to choose just one. For the letter A, an aardvark lost out because I felt I could create a more visually interesting image with an alligator. Many of the final decisions were made based on which animal and letter combinations had the most character.

Do you have a personal favorite? 

It's tough for me to pick favourites with this series, but I admit I have a soft spot for the letter L. I remember the lion was giving me a bit of trouble and I ended up doing a lot of revisions on him. I really like the way he turned out in the end.

Where do you draw inspiration from?  

For this project, I had a clear idea that all of the animals and letters in the alphabet had to be simple. I ended up taking a lot of inspiration from one of my favourite illustrators, Charley Harper. He was a master of creating distinctive animals using mainly shape and colour. 

Who are some of your favorite designers? 

There is so much great work out there that I have many, many favourites. I feel like there are too many to list, but I will say that I have always admired Louise Fili's work and her distinctive design aesthetic. As for illustrators, again, there are so many! Some of my favourites will always be mid-century illustrators such as Alice and Martin Provensen, Art Seiden, and Roger Duvoisin. 

What are you currently working on? 

I'm currently working on a children's book! It's actually the third in a series that I started on back in 2011 with Simply Read Books - the first is titled Murilla Gorilla: Jungle Detective. It has been an amazing experience so far. Jennifer Lloyd (the author) and I have been getting some fantastic reviews, and I feel really lucky to be paired up with such a great writer and publisher. Right now I'm still in the sketching and planning stage, which is probably my favourite part.

Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us Jacqui, and thanks again for another awesome collaboration. We can't wait to work with you again!

You can see all of Jacqui's designs for Hello!Lucky here. View more of Jacqui's work on her website, follow along with her on twitter & tumblr.

Inspired by: Rebecca Thus, Paper to Petal

We can not wait to get our hands on Rebecca Thus's new book, Paper to Petal. Rebecca's book features 75 projects to create with paper flowers. There are craft recipes for everything you can imagine from party decorations, bouquets, to floral centerpieces. Even if you've made paper flowers before -- as we have many times, this books looks like it has some sweet new takes on turning ordinary paper into gorgeous flowers.

Buy Paper to Petal here.

Head to Rebecca's blog for constant inspiration.

Form & Future Event at Makeshift Society

We were thrilled when Laura of Form & Future reached out to us about being a part of her ongoing series at Makeshift Society where she talks to designers and entrepreneurs. Laura will be interviewing us at Makeshift on Monday, July 15th. We'd love to see you there! For more information and to purchase tickets to this event here.

Form & Future Interview 

Monday, July 15th 

6:30 - 8:30pm 

235 Gough Street 

San Francisco 

Photo from Makeshift Society

Happy Independence Day!

Sabrina had a great time making this cake with her kids to get ready for the holiday. We love that it uses fresh summer berries instead of colored frosting as decoration. And the best part -- it's chocolate cake inside! For the complete recipe head over to Epicurious.

We hope you have a fantastic holiday weekend! We'll be taking off on Friday as well just to squeeze a little more sunshine out of summer.

Happy fourth of July!

Crafty Projects for your 4th of July Weekend

While we don't have a brand new DIY for your this 4th of July, we have plenty of craft projects in our arsenal that are perfect for celebrating the holiday and the long weekend ahead (we hope you have off or are taking off this Friday)! Last July we brought you this tea towel stencil DIY - this adorable design can be stenciled onto a table cloth, a pillow case or a plain white t-shirt.

We're guessing you'll be sipping something delicious this weekend-- these drink flags will turn any ordinary beverage into a party and can easily be made with some wooden dowels and scraps of paper. Even if you don't make them our stop motion how-to video is pretty fun to watch.

Here's a recipe for a super simple but delicious lemon poppy seed ice cream. You can bring it to your picnic in the park! Invite download available here.

Whatever you do this holiday weekend we hope you get plenty of sunshine and relaxation!

Free Wedding Table Signs and Numbers

Last week we did a guest post for Snippet & Ink and shared some free downloads for table numbers and wedding signs. You can view and download those signs here. It was so much fun to create corresponding signs for two of our newest wedding suites, La Vie En Rose and Lemonade Stand and one of our most popular wedding suites -- Nouveau Peonies.

Today we're sharing even more free downloadable wedding signs. This one is for our new suite Love & Marriage.

Simply click the links below, download and print!

Love & Marriage Bride Sign

Love & Marriage Groom Sign

Love & Marriage Guest Book Sign

Love & Marriage Reserved Sign

Love & Marriage Table Numbers

Be sure to check out the DIY section on our website for printables, more free signs, and wedding craft recipes.

Wedding Inspiration Board - La Vie En Rose

If you follow us on Pinterest you know we can't resist a good wedding inspiration board and we're always creating new mood boards based on some of our favorite wedding suites. We thought we'd bring some of those inspiration boards to the blog and do a regular feature showing how you can style your wedding based on your invite. Once you decide on your invitation it can really be the anchor for all of your wedding decor and design-- from the wedding flowers to the bridesmaids dresses. Today we're showing off one of our favorite invitations for a summer or spring wedding, La Vie En Rose. We just added this suite to our collection and we love the pretty elegant feel of this floral invitation. La Vie En Rose is a versatile design that can be perfect for a rustic outdoor wedding or a more formal affair.

If you go the rustic route for decor this dessert table is a great addition, it's casual and cool with just some burlap and vintage pieces added to the table. We would carry the soft pink color from the invites to the treats and think these pink heart cookies would pair lovely with the feel of a La Vie En Rose wedding.

This line up of bridesmaids in mix and match colors and floral dresses is a lovely way to keep a variety of colors in your wedding decor and not commit to just two or three colors. And what bridesmaid doesn't love getting to chose her own dress? Flowers picked fresh from the garden and roses in mason jars and vintage bottles would pair well with the original floral wedding design.

To see more wedding inspiration check out our Pinterest boards. To see the full La Vie En Rose wedding suite head here. To view all of our floral wedding invitations click here.

Is there a particular design on our site you'd like us to create a mood board for? Let us know in the comments and we'll feature it here next.

The image of the flowers is from Style Me Pretty, the bridesmaids dresses were found via 100 Layer Cake as was the pretty dessert table.

Flower Fairy themed party from Vanessa Mason

My daughter Sienna was 1-year-old last month and “girl” what a bash we had! We had a guest list of 12 children ranging from 1 to 8 years old and I had decided on a flower fairies theme, which worked out beautifully. The girls all arrived wearing fairy wings and Scott and Sienna wore theirs. The delicious chocolate cupcakes, perched on a cardboard themed stand, were decorated with little flower fairy figures and the table was adorned with mini fairy stands depicting magical flower fairy girls. The mood of the party was happy, fun and innocent! The main eye-candy was a homemade-layered rainbow cake, which I had made the night before. Sadly, I ran out of steam to do the seventh layer to be true to the rainbow, but nobody noticed a part from me.

The floral centerpiece was made up of a selection of vases carrying fragrant white lilac, baby pink cherry blossom and fresh mint. We served our guests with pink raspberry lemonade and Italian Prosecco, depending on their mood. English classic pastel party rings and pink wafers were also served as part of the buffet. And Sienna’s godmother Grace surprised us by bringing a huge box of pink gloss Krispy Kreme doughnuts, yummy. Halfway through the party, a children’s entertainer named Barry from Loopy’s Laughter Show put on a needed distraction, whilst the grown-ups chattered away in peace.

If you’re looking for the same innocence and return to nature for your wedding or party invitations, check out Hello!Lucky’s Floral or Vintage wedding invites, all of which can be customized and changed into birthday party invites as well! Table decorations by Talking Tables.

New Cards in the Shop!

Our latest release of greeting cards has something for everyone. We've got gold bling, neon rainbows, victorian circus acrobats and tiny baby dictators. To celebrate this new release we're offering 15% off all our greeting cards until July 1st. Just enter NEWCOLLECTIONS at checkout.

Enjoy!