For Mother’s Day, I treated my mom and future mother-in-law to a fun flower arranging class at West Elm in Palo Alto. We learned how to arrange flowers using the new Studio Choo book, The Flower Recipe Book. Our teacher, Caleb, gave us tips on using simple flowers to make beautiful arrangements. Taking the class was also perfect because we’re planning on making our own centerpieces for the wedding so the book will definitely be an inspiration and come in handy. This was a lovely way to spend time with my mother and mother-in-law and we all got to take home the book and flower arrangements we made. I definitely have flower fever now! See more photos from my weekend on Instagram.

photos by jforjamie ©

Buy the book!
Studio Choo
West Elm

Happy Friday everyone! On a trip up to Oakland the other week, I stopped on College Avenue in Berkeley to visit one of my favorite stores, Tail of the Yak. This store is truly one of a kind, you can find the most precious gifts, decor, stationary and handmade goodies here. I had a hard time not buying one (or a few) of everything I saw. I did pick up a few goodies – a letterpress calligraphy guide, a foldout paper flower garland, some gold glass glitter, bamboo paper clips and a Japanese pencil set. Once we get our wedding decor more finalized, I’ll be back to buy out the store. They don’t allow photos in the store but here are my purchases.

photos by jforjamie ©

image found here.

These days, you can’t have a wedding without a website. Thankfully, our wedding website is up and running! Chris did a lovely job setting it up via Square Space, designing it and decking it out in the beautiful engagement photos Bree took of us. Chris hand drew the heart “logo” too! It’s fun to update the website as we plan and have a 21st century method of communicating with our guests. My favorite is the page called “Chris + Jamie” with the adorable blurb Chris wrote on how we met, read:

The Perfect Match

For those of you who didn’t know, Jamie and Chris met through long lines of zero’s and one’s that can only be deciphered by the silicone guts of a hardwired machine. In non-nerd speak, they met on the computer via the Information Super Highway.  

Several emails and postponed dates later, they finally got the chance to fall in love at first sight over cocktails and dinner that was far too close to the house jazz band.

The rest as they say is history. Another classic tale of girl emails boy. 

{via square space}

I bought Scott Albrecht’s postcard series box set at a little boutique in Oakland last year. I love giving them to friends, especially when I can’t find the right words to say. I recently visited his website and found his other works of art, some of which inspired the postcards, that I absolutely love. Not only are his sayings inspiring but his handwritten typography and use of found objects is so cool. Scott seems like a cool guy – I’d like to be his friend. Here are some of my favorites. Happy Monday everyone!

all works by scott albrecht.

Silly me, I completely forgot to share our holiday card with you! Good thing I have a second chance to wish everyone a happy (Chinese) new year. Chris designed our holiday cards that were sold exclusively on minted. Of course the photo is from our engagement photos by Breanna. Gung Hay Fat Choy everyone!

card design by iheartdesignstudio.

It’s official! I have 8 wonderful ladies to stand by my side on my wedding day (detailed bios to come). I wanted to do something special and handmade so I designed small accordion books that folded out. Then I painted wooden boxes from Michael’s with two tones of wood paint in variations of our (several) wedding colors. I topped each box with the first letter of each bridesmaid’s name which I covered in gold glitter. It was so much fun giving each person their box and watching their reaction. Lucky for me, all of them said yes!

photos + crafts by jforjamie ©

I got to meet one of my blogging icons last week. Joy Cho of Oh Joy! Blog came to our neck of the woods to launch her book tour. She is the author of Blog Inc., a great book about “blogging for passion, profit and to create a community.” West Elm in Emeryville, CA hosted her book launch and Q + A.  Joy’s blog is one of those blogs that has something new and thoughtfully designed daily and inspires me to focus my blog and craft better. She has a great sense of style (of fashion and design) and makes juggling a full-time freelance and blogging career and a family look easy and fun. The launch at West Elm had some delicious finger foods, a peek at her adorable paper crafted book trailer and, of course, a book signing and photo-op with Joy Cho herself. I also met a few aspiring bloggers and I’ve been inspired to build our own community of bloggers in the Bay Area. Now that I’ve met Joy Cho, I just need to meet my other female inspirations, Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga, and I’m set!

Buy Blog Inc. here!

photos by jforjamie ©

I’ve been going on a redecorating, house cleansing binge lately – mostly so our lives aren’t cluttered with stuff while we prep for this wedding. I finally got to the bathroom decorating and wanted to utilize my Apothecary jars. I thought it would be cute to fill them with pretty soaps but I couldn’t bring myself to spend $100 on 10 soaps from my beloved Anthro. Since I was planning on using these soaps for pure decorative purposes, I decided to make some on my own – the budget friendly way. I went down to the drugstore, bought a $5 pack of 10 bar soaps and used some pretty scrapbooking paper I had at home to wrap those babies up. It cost me about $10 total! I love the color it’s adding to our bathroom and if I ever need a change-up, it will be as simple as finding new pretty paper.

photos by jforjamie ©

It’s amazing how much time I spend with my co-workers. Considering I’m at the office an average of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week – I spend a lot more time with them than I spend with my family, that’s for sure. That’s why it’s important to me to treat all my co-workers as family. Luckily, I’ve been dealt a lucky hand in the co-worker realm. That’s why when someone has a birthday or big life changing event, I think it’s pretty important to celebrate. I’ve put myself on the unofficial birthday/celebration committee because I love bringing in sweets and treats whenever possible. I think it’s really easy to get caught up in the business of the day so when we can take some time to celebrate someone, I try to take advantage. My latest treats have been chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and homemade washi tape flags for a birthday and handcrafted welcome banners for our two newest employees on my team. Can’t wait for the next big event so I can get my craft on!

photos by jforjamie ©