Featured Outfit: Anna's Wedding

My awesome parents were in town this weekend (for my bday!) and when my awesome dad left on Sunday my awesome mom and I went shopping. As tradition dictates we went to Pacific Place to hit all of the normal stops: Club Monaco, Twist, and Barnes and Noble.

I was really shopping when I found something. It's always when you not looking, right? For the last month or so I had been looking for a dress to wear to Anna's, my former-roommate-now-engaged-and-living-in-SF, wedding next month with absolutely no luck.

We're Club Monaco for my mom and we spot a gorgeous silk sheath that looks conservative, a nice straight boat neck line, from the front but look at the back:

Oh, la, la! I wasn't sure if the Deona dress would look good on but I slipped it over my head and fell in love. As did my mom and the salesgirl. The best part?

It was on sale and they took a generous extra 20% off because of a small stain they couldn't remove in store. A steal at $79.20. Jumpy Claps!

Then we went shoe shopping and I thought these will be perfection:

My mom decided that I needed to go with nude in order to not detract from the dress. I decided on the round toe as opposed to a more strappy version because:

a) I'm girly but not in that over-the-top-way

b) I didn't want bridesmaidy shoes

c) I wanted the shoes to not call any attention on themselves, focus all on the dress- gotta show off just one thing at a time!

c) the shoes were comfortable

d) they made my feet look small

e) I can definitely wear them to work or out for the night

f) they're patent leather (great to have in the rain) and

g) they match the gorgeous bag I want to wear (I'll update with a photo later)

Le sigh! I have the perfect outfit to wear. I love it when that happens.

Style: Complementing Not Matching

I'm not a matchy, matchy person. I like it when an outfit or design components (well in my opinion an outfit IS a compilation of design components) complement but don't match identically. Which is way this adorable pair of earrings caught my eye:

See not it's two cats or a pair of mice but a cat and mouse (via Anthro)! Also, I'm a sucker for design that is quirky and funny- so I obvs. need to buy these asap.

Featured Earrings: Textured Metals

Last night I took a 4 hour textured metal earring workshop at Seattle's Pratt Fine Arts Center in the Central District.

I could have made earrings that look like these (via Anthro):

Instead I made these:

Much more my style! All you need is L-O-V-E :).

Personal Design: Wastal Family Holiday Card

This year my parents let me design our family holiday card. I originally went with this design:

Then my friend Casey mentioned that it might seem a little too edgy (def my style but maybe not so much for the family holiday card). So then I came up with this:

Here's the back of the card:

And then here's the inside:

What do you think? Suggestions for next year's card?

Corporate Identity and Personal Design: Thank You Cards

I've designed a couple of thank you cards in the last couple of months. I'll be writing thank you notes after Christmas, so I thought it would be an appropriate time to post them.

This is a corporate design for Mercent. The CEO wanted it be clean and minimal as to match the overall corporate brand. Here's the winner:

I decided for my personal thank you cards I wanted a look that combined modernity with antiquity. Usually, floral patterns and prints don't do it for me but I really loved the finished result: