. daily daydreams . a blog by love ardently design studio

It’s no secret that I love children books a lot. On my spare time (which rarely ever happened these days), I often go to the library and browse around their children book collection. I was on Flickr the other day and stumbled upon vintage children book collection by trywhistlingthis. She also did a marvelous job of keeping track of the author and illustrator names. What a delight!

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I feel so bad for having neglected my blog for quite a while. Sorry! I have no reason other than being swamped in school and work. It’s Spring Break now, though, so I’m back to blogging.

We don’t own a house just yet, but when we have one, we knew we want to decorate it around the theme of nautical elements and the sea life. We both just love beach and sea creatures so much. Hub’s number one hobby is fishing and although fishing is not always super fun for me, I love to tag along most of the time, just like what we did last weekend.

That’s right. Spring has finally sprung in Dallas. Hooray for lovely weather from now on (hopefully)!

Back to the sea life theme, when I found these sea life and nautical collections by Thomas Paul, I was screaming, “Perfect!”. They are in a perfect color palette we intended our future house to be and the overall design style can’t be more suitable. Just love it.

Here are the melamine plates, which would look lovely on the wall (what?!). Yes, on the wall like these.

We don’t currently use coasters, but certainly will especially with coasters as lovely as these.

Perfect coral rugs.

Vintage nautical beauties.

And other non-coastal items by Thomas Paul also made me swoon. The doily plates and the wood pillow are my two favorites!

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I couldn’t be more excited! Remember Jeff and Jessica? We designed their invitation and wedding stationery a while ago. They have just been featured on the Southern Weddings blog! Click here for part one and part two. Their photographs were all taken by Josh McCullock.

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I’ve never known any shoe that has the same name as me, so I was particularly EXCITED when I found this on Zappos.

Plus, I am looking for a pair of shoe in champagne or gold-ish color (*check*) for my bridesmaid duty to my best friend this coming June. Although this one has a medium-width, I’m just not sure if I’ll be comfortable standing all day long in a 4 1/2″ heel. Moreover, not sure if my hubs is gonna be too happy looking at the price tag. But, it’s cute! Really cute rosette tulle on the side! And it has the same name as me! Looks like we’re destined together, no?

Absolutely love this Japanese paper goods store I recently just discovered, Uguisu. They sell the recently-big-hit Japanese masking tape, but other than that there’s so much other things that are pretty and gorgeous in a subtle and simple way. One of my favorite is the oh-so- lovely alphabet stamp.

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Here comes another vintage treasures. When I discovered this Betsy McCall paper doll site, I was immediately feeling nostalgic. Although I didn’t grow up with Betsy specifically, I did grow up with lots and lots of paper dolls. I probably bought them almost everyday at the street stand in front of my school. Gee, how long ago was that? So nostalgic! *squeals*

Being a bit environmental friendly, I put together my Betsy paper dolls on Photoshop with the handy Magnetic lasso tool. Of course it’s more fun to print it and cut it, but oh well… :)

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I found this amazing Tumblr page filled with vintage postage stamp designs (via designrelated). I was one of those people who embraced collecting stamps as a hobby when I was a child. I remember that I had 3 big books filled with vintage stamps back then in my home country. I must remember to look for them when I go back there for vacation this year! :) Meanwhile, this vintage postage stamps were found on Tumblr and I’m smitten.

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The snow finally arrived in Dallas. And it was heavy. HEAVY. Yesterday it was pouring all day like it’s never gonna stop. I saw at least twenty snowmen in my apartment complex alone. People were outside playing and having fun. I was driving in a winter wonderland, so that part was not so fun for me. Everything is now so white and pretty, though. This morning reminds me of our white Christmas last year.

No FFF links today, sorry! Instead, enjoy the heart button string-tie envelope DIY if you missed it two days ago, and send someone a love note :) Have a wonderful weekend to you and happy Valentine’s day!

{“hello” wood plate from my printmaking project}

{mr hay-haired snowman that my hubs and i built last night}

After the heart button string-tie envelope DIY yesterday, it’s time to reveal the inside of the envelope that I sent to my swap buddies  at Weddingbee and Crow & Canary.

Err… this time I really have to credit the inspiration to Martha. I couldn’t find a wider solid pink grosgrain ribbon on Michaels the other day (can you believe that?!), so I just used a less wide ribbon I had on hand. I hope it resembles a candy enough :)

This year, I’m participating in two Valentine’s card swaps: one held by Crow and Canary, and the other one by Weddingbee. I have to tell you that I’m a huge fan of the snail mail. I think it’s just so fun to receive them and to send them as well. That brings us to a last minute DIY I want to share to you!

I use these heart button string-tie envelopes to send my Valentine’s cards for the swap. Although, errr… you might have seen something similar on Martha. Seriously, I found out AFTER I planned doing this DIY. Oh well, that’s okay. Mine is using a slightly different method and this tutorial doesn’t include sewing.

MATERIAL

. envelope (anything you wish to use. i got mine at envelopemall.com)

. foam mounting tabs (i got mine at office max)

. heart cut-outs (approximately 3/4″ in width, or you can use a craft punch)

. 12″ – 15″ of string or twine (i got my baker’s twine on etsy)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut the mounting tab into a square, to fit the size of your heart cutouts.

2. Attach one side of the mounting tab to one of the heart cut-out, and the other side to the envelope, upside down below the enclosure.

3. Cut another mounting tab into a square and stick it to another heart. This time, attach one end of the string onto the mounting tab before adhering it to the envelope.

4. Now, stick it above the enclosure and press down a little bit to make sure it’s fully adhered.

5. You’re now ready to string-tie your envelope and send someone a love note!

This envelope would works best if it’s hand-delivered. I honestly don’t recommend using it for mailing stuffs, but if you’re a daredevil like me, you’d probably try it out just to see if it would reach your recipient as neat as when you sent them. Hopefully it wouldn’t be screwed during the mailing *fingers crossed*. We shall hear from my card swap buddies, then! :)