Commemorative plates

It may seem as though we are just a wee bit obsessed with The Royal Wedding, but when we found these plates designed by our most favorite, Jonathan Adler, we couldn't resist! They are part of a series of designer commemorative plates that will be auctioned off on April 29th to benefit Shelter, a British housing and homelessness charity.

Party with Jonathan Adler!

....Jonathan Adler party cups, napkins, plates and paper lanterns that is! We've expressed our love for the talented designer before (and even met him once in person!) so throwing a Jonathan Adler themed party is right up our alley!

All products available here online. Found via Ruby Press.

Groovin' on Alexander Girard

A recent fixation on this super cool set of alphabet blocks originally designed for the San Francisco MOMA has lead to a mini-obsession with Alexander Girard, famed designer for Herman Miller and collaborator of Charles and Ray Eames (and, of course, muse to our most favorite boy wonder, Jonathan Adler)...

We love these hand-made dolls, designed exclusively for House Industries by Marilyn Neuhart.  They are based on dolls she sewed for the opening of Girard's Textiles & Objects Shop in New York City in 1961.  How hilarious is that lion?  We adore the folk art inspired motifs...

A 72-piece wood memory game, full of delightful illustrations...

Alexander Girard amassed a huge collection of nativities, most of which he spent the last years of his life curating for his wing at the International Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe (which is absolutely amazing!). This set is based on an original Girard illustration that hangs in his son's house.

House Industries also has a series of great Girard fonts (Girard inspired wedding invitations or birth announcements perhaps?!).

His work is available in all sorts of places - including these stylie carpet tiles from Flor..

These pillows, figurines and other items are available through maXimo — the company that distributes and manages licenses for the work of Alexander Girard.

Wedding Registry - Beyond Towels from Macy's

For those of you who are looking for a way to register for groovy, electic items you'd never find at Macy's, we just came across MyRegistry.com - this website has a handy little tool that you drop into your bookmarks toolbar that allows you to add anything from any online store to your wedding registry.

If, say, you'd rather fabulous vintage silverware, Scottish blankets, and colorful glasses from ReFound Objects, than the standard fare, this website is genius!  Pottery from Jonathan Adler and dishes from Anthropologie, anyone?  Unique table top pieces (like these bird terrines) from Mothology or glamorous finds from Jayson Home & Garden? Also, you have the option of adding cash as a gift by setting up a cash gift fund (no longer will you have to figure out a non-tacky way to ask for money for your dream honeymoon or towards the down payment you're working on for that house!)

If you like to balance out your karma with some charitable works (we know how difficult it is not to loose control with that little scanner thingy they give you over at Williams-Sonoma - it makes such a satisfying noise!), we also recently came across Global Giving via A Practical Wedding which allows you to create an easy-to-use registry for donations to good causes all around the world.

Celebrity sighting of the year: Jonathan Adler!

Today, we had the honor of meeting one of our biggest design crushes, Jonathan Adler, when he stopped by our booth at the New York Gift Fair. We can't begin to describe how happy this made us (see our died-and-gone-to-heaven smiles above!).

Maybe it was the feng shui of our booth, or maybe it was just meant to be. We used Adler's fabulous Utopia Totem Vase in our booth display, and just yesterday shot the cover story for The Nest magazine at Sabrina's house, which is features several of his pieces. The day before, we'd even received an order from India Hicks, host of this season's Top Design (on which Mr. Adler is a judge), for her lovely shop The Sugar Mill in Harbour Island, Bahamas.

We're thrilled to say that he was simply charming in person - and was even kind enough to pose for a photo with us. Our crush lives on! Swoon!