Filex & Milou

I have two dogs and thus can tell you, with some authority, that a truly fabulous dog bed (and by that I mean one that isn't varying shades of neutral or plain ol' preppy striped) is tough to find.  Needless to say, I was super excited to discover Felix & Milou, a brand new dog bed line by Tove Jakobsson -huzzah!  Finally, something with a little style!

Her cushions are all made by hand from lovely graphic Swedish fabrics. They're sized for a cat or small dog, hopefully soon, a bigger size to come! I fear poor Indy is getting the shaft, being more in the medium to large range. But wouldn't they make great floor cushions around a low table as well?

This is the one I purchased - a fabric by Cecilia Hall Åhlens that has a lovely Josef Frank vibe - beautifully made and adorable in person!

All the cushion covers are removable and washable.  Check out the rest of her products here.

En Vacances!

It doesn't take much to get the average Brit. thinking about holidays, especially considering the hit-and-miss wash-out Summer that we've been having recently. What could be more enticing than these charming retro-inspired posters by the French tourist board that have appeared all over the capital in the last few weeks to gently tempt us wet and weary commuters into packing our suitcases and heading South.

We love the use of the different fonts and the wonderful graphic cartoons that put us in mind of those classic Pink Panther opening sequences.

Beautifully fresh and oh so very French - who but a Frenchwoman would co-ordinate her deckchair with her son's t-shirt!

Allez...en vacances! Bon Voyage

Eunice's Pinterest Picks

This week on Pinterest I've been mooning over Kris Knight's paintings - the palette, the ethereal clarity - so mesmerizing! I have been generally loving delicate, organic details like this amazing mushroom cake by Erica O'Brien (gorgeous photo by Elizabeth Messina) and the muted creamy colors blended with neutrals in this Parisian rooftop. Also loving florals by Saipua, so painterly, loose and natural! This ring by Eldel Precious, delicate champagne flutes from Joy de Vivre, gorgeous Emannuelle Junqueira dress and, apropos of nothing, Strictly No Elephants which amuses me.

Are you on Pinterest? Find us there or leave your link in the comments- we'd love to see what you're pinning too.

Signing Party: DRAWN IN by Julia Rothman

For those of you lucky folks in the NYC area, check out this must-attend event! Julia Rothman will be in attendance, in addition to several other artists included in her new book— Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists. They'll even have an assortment of original sketchbooks for guests to peruse.

Here's the Facebook Event Page, if you'd like to RSVP.

And the Google Books page if you'd like to take a peek inside, to see more of the diverse artists' offerings.

And a link to the (did we say gorgeous?) book on Powell's and Amazon.

The event will be held at:

powerHouse Arena

37 Main Street

Brooklyn, New York

Thursday, June 30 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Hope you can make it!

Pikku Designs: New Pocket Tees

Pikku is debuting some dapper, darling new tees! Some of the Hello!Lucky boys got them as a surprise gift, and we had to share a preview.

Click on the images to visit the Pikku shop.

Have you seen our Pikku baby announcements? If you like these simple, sweet patterns, peruse our Pikku birth announcement designs. With a simple change of text they can be re-purposed as a birthday invitation, too!

Summer Streamers and DIY Party Decor

The DIY experts over at Made recently posted this tutorial on creating colorful streamers that we absolutely love!

Wouldn't this make great decor for a summer wedding?

Perhaps a great compliment to our Mi Amour design with Mexican paper flags?

Sewing paper ... how perfect!

Beautiful Decals by Shanna Murray

We are huge fans of Shanna Murray and found this  post on Creature Comforts about her new decal collection.

We think a customized decal would be fantastic as decoration for a wedding, such as "The Smiths" or " Eunice & Daniel"!

Or maybe a sweet note on the wall of a baby's nursery or playroom...

How darling!

Custom Wedding Signs by Chocolate Butterbean

We absolutely love these hand-painted signs by Chocolate Butterbean! A perfect addition to your wedding!

This horseshoe sign would be an absolute smash with our Elegant Equestrian design!

Or a sweet wedding gift...

Kate Spade at Bed Bath and Beyond!

As you may have gathered by now, we are big fans of Kate Spade. So we were super thrilled to hear that Bed Bath and Beyond is featuring a new line of bedding by Kate Spade.  Picked up on it first on Family Style and we had to share.

Just love the tangy colors! Images courtesy Bed Bath and Beyond— be sure to have a look on their site as the colors are actually a little more vivid than you see here.

Or if you're more into graphic minimal, these stripes might suit splendidly.

Ooh, and these cheerful heirloom roses would surely keep a bedroom sunny! Love!

Enjoy perusing, here.

And again, a little plug, since we wouldn't want to miss you if you should happen to be in NYC:

Visit Hello!Lucky at the National Stationery Show, booth # 1536.

May 15th – 18th from 9-6

Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York City

Design Notebook: Katie's Big Day

We're SO excited to share this sneak peak of a custom design we recently created for the lovely Katie and Gary.  The concept was based on one of Katie's favorite childhood books, Katy And The Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton.  We just went nuts over the super detailed illustrations and knew her invite had to be something special!

Eunice hand-drew the illustrations and scanned them in to Illustrator where she created vector artwork and "mapped out" the details of the wedding suite (pun intended - hint, hint!)

Each ink color requires a separate plate and press run and Katie was able to meet with the printers and check in as the job progressed.

As each new color is added, the illustrations start to take shape with more detail and depth.

Katie and Gary met while on vacation in San Francisco and traveled to so many exotic locales that they knew they wanted a map to be central to their wedding invitation.  With so many adorable icons and illustrations is hard to choose a favorite but we have a feeling Katie's a bit partial to the Disney World flamingo - Gary proposed in the park!

And voila!  The finished invitation suite - a tri-fold map invitation and rsvp set alongside its literary inspiration!

Congrats and best of luck Katie & Gary!

Beautifully Embroidered Classic Book Covers

More to make us swoon today! Behold these beautiful embroidered book covers that Penguin Classics commissioned from Jillian Tamaki:

Makes us all want to curl up with cocoa and re-read these classics!

Styled!

We are ooing and ahhing over this eye-feast, a new mag—Styled— on A Subtle Reverie. Gorgeous! Here's a pinkie-taste of the deliciousness:

Find fab inspiration on all styles of entertaining, from Easter egg embellishment to lemonade stands. Decadent photography and Delectable DIYs. Love it! Again, the link.

Enjoy!

Lucky Friday, ermm... Saturday! Week #5

Now onto the fifth edition of our weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday (or Saturday, just for this week) we’ll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Heather S., Claire and Addie!

Heather will contact you early next week to arrange sending your Lionheart card.

Onto this week's offering:

Design: Going Strong

Artist: Eunice Moyle

Inspiration: The Beatles' “Carry that Weight,” feats of strength, the family circus.

Who to send it to: Your brawny beau; your leading lady; your favorite matrimonial marathon medalists.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one:  A pair of circus tightrope walkers, with the heading  “Because you’re mine…” seemed a little tenuous. The sword swallower couple seemed inappropriate, and we all agreed that clowns are a no-no.

Our favorite details: The marcel curls of the Missus and the Monsieur’s manly ‘stache.

Why Letterpress? We bet that strongman could bench press our presses, so we printed the card to be especially impressive.

Don't forget to post your comment on the blog and check next Friday to see if you've won!

Julia's Super Gorgeous Invitation!

We are thrilled to welcome the very talented Julia Kostreva to our fab design team.  She designed this gorgeous invitation suite...

Don't you just love the split fountain printing (that super cool blend from limey green to orange)...

...and the hand drawn type?  We do!

This was printed by the always fantastic Studio on Fire...

Trunk Show with Duchess + Elizabeth Dye!

We are thrilled to announce that we are hosting a trunk show with Duchess Custom Clothier (sartorial splendor!) and Elizabeth Dye (dreamy dresses!)  Please join us!

Elizabeth will be showing her full 2011 collection as well as some unique pieces, and Duchess will be showcasing gorgeous custom suits. Both are based in Portland so be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to meet them in SF!

Hello!Lucky will be previewing new wedding stationery designs and offering free wedding invitation samples.

For more information or to book an appointment, please e-mail info@hellolucky.com

La Moustache Party de Mr. Hugo

We were very pleased to be invited the La Moustache Party de Mr. Hugo (who you may remember from his recent appearance as a French clown)...

His mom, Vanessa, is hilarious and quite the style maven, and she did not disappoint with the many cute and funny details!

Like these snappy little moustache cupcake toppers (the cupcakes were DELICIOUS - from That Takes the Cake)

and these hard candy lollipops...

She had all kinds of simple, yet ingenious, touches - Washi tape bands add cute graphic flair to  plain glass bottles...

Love these little paper cups!

Of course, one must have a selection of moustaches on a stick!  These fab paper 'staches available here and the wooden 'staches here...

...and we loved the hilarious bunting made from photos of famous mustaschioed gentlemen - ah, Tom Selleck...

And the random celebratory moustache imagery that popped up in unexpected places...love those Y-fronts!

Ah, how we love a well-designed par-tay!  Bonne anniversaire, Mr. Hugo!

Fun with Parallels!

Wow! We realized what Julia Rothman's new wedding invitation design, Daydream, reminded us of. A potter friend of Hello!Lucky makes whimsical work that coordinates beautifully with this design!

See what we mean? Pretty swell, huh? Jana Evans is the creator of this fun and funky porcelain— all hand made! She wheel-throws and hand-builds and then etches all those fine lines. Beautiful and fascinating stuff! But the curves and lines just made us draw parallels (so to speak!) to Daydream.

Jana is doing an artist residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. It's a mecca for clay and ceramic enthusiasts and pros. Check out the Bray website by clicking on the link above if you're interested in seeing more amazing work!

Had to share this fun pitcher, jar, and bowl set too. Can't get enough of that drippy green glaze! Gorgeous!

Design By Leftovers on Design Milk

Good Morning! Wow! We needed a pick-me-up with our coffee and these VIVID pieces did the trick. Aren't they gorgeous!?  Found on Design Milk— their creators are a Swedish group called Design By Leftovers. The above piece is called San Francisco Leftovers. Yes, Ma'am!

We'll take two, please. They're small.

Sometimes one just needs a triple shot of color to get going in the morning, no?

Jude's Big Top Birthday!

Saturday was Jude's first birthday party, and what a fun little fête it was!

We served fresh popcorn in vintage style popcorn boxes, sugar cookies frosted with royal icing (so fun to paint!)  and delicious cupcakes with chocolate frosting with little flags made from ribbon and satay sticks - classic birthday treats!

The cake was a yellow cake with buttercream frosting, with a cute little banner (it's been a hot trend this year, and I couldn't help myself - so perfect for the circus theme!) And how perfect were these napkins?  I found them (as well as stripey straws, paper fringe and more) at a super adorable little shop called Shop Sweet Lulu!

We provided clown noses, for those who didn't happen to have any appropriate circus attire on hand...

...or who just happen to look ridiculously cute in one...

We made these charming birthday hats out of pom poms, ruffly paper trim, stickers and poster board - so fun!

One of Jude's birthday presents was this amazing Schylling baby piano that Sabrina picked up at the super marvelous shop  Paxton Gate's Curiosities for Kids which was a big hit at the party - she brought over hers too so we could have dueling pianos...

Jude, striking a pose...

One of Jude's friends, the ever charming Miss Eva, arrived dressed as a tiger!  How apropos, given the presence of this Ring 'o' Fire - hilarious!

We painted an upside down flower pot to look like a circus pedestal - a perfect place to pose this vintage Dumbo doll and his strong man friend...and I made simple striped slip covers for our ottomans to transform our living room into an instant big top!

Now, a great party is all about enthusiastic guests:  Sabrina's son James, seemingly unperturbed by his amusing head wear and sporting a natty suit!  Quite the sartorial splendor!

Darling Hugo, who's half French, looking very adorable as a tiny French clown!

Our friends Jillian and Toast of Because We Can, came in hilarious cowboy attire...(props to Jillian for staying up 'til the wee hours the night before decorating cookies!)

The whole family, getting our circus on...

Alas, the birthday boy was a little less than enthusiastic about sporting a birthday hat!

Sabrina and her son Alex, having a jolly time! (How could you not, while double fisting kazoos??)

The party reached it's peak with an all kazoo birthday salute!

Happy Birthday, Jude!

We'll be posting tutorials for the Ring of Fire, Pennants, Circus Sugar Cookies, the cake topper and more, all week, so stay tuned!

Photos by Jillian!

Introducing Lucky Fridays!

We're delighted to announce a new weekly feature: Lucky Fridays! Each Friday, we'll feature one of our letterpress cards. Then we'll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we'll announce the winners on the following Friday!

Design: Oompah Band

Artist: Esther Aarts

Inspiration: Tahoe Swiss Chalet restaurant; Swiss Oompah bands,  Lowly Worm, Esther's fabulous retro illustrations

Send it to: Your best drinking buddy, nephew who is learning to play the recorder (gateway to any number of crazy, erm, AWESOME, instruments), anyone who plays the flugelhorn or tuba.

Our favorite detail: The musicians' curly chins

Ideas we scrapped for this one: Dutch milkmaid milking a flower-garland & bell-bedecked cow: "Happy Birthday! Milk it for all it's worth!"  Erm, might conjure up image of cow's udder...

Why letterpress? Makes it feel like an heirloom you found in your Swiss uncle's attic, next to his size 56XXL lederhosen.

Photo credit:  Alan Morrison via Just Brass

Remember, post a comment and check back next Friday to see if you won!