11/02/2016

DC Guide: Where to Shop in Washington, DC!

Over the past few years, I’ve shared some of my favorite DC-area destinations, from where to eat and drink and eat again, to some of the DC area’s most beautiful gardens,Â attractions,Â and museums. Today I’m excited to partner withÂ Capital One’s new Auto NavigatorÂ® site to share three of my favorite independent local boutiques in the DC area, from the vibrant 14th Street corridor in Northwest DC to Old Town Alexandria to my own neighborhood of Capitol Hill in Southeast DC!

We’re a single car family, and I use our car every day for school and day care drop offs and pick ups, taking my husband to work, and a frenzy of errands during my kid-free hours. Not to mention fun family activities on the weekend and the long highway trips to visit family in Upstate New York and New Jersey. So we definitely need a car that is safe and reliable for our entire family. When our poor 13-year old car suddenly became totally unreliable this past summer, we took the opportunity to upgrade to a brand new car! Both my husband and I had ever only owned used cars before, so this was our first experience buying a brand new car!

Capital One’s Auto NavigatorÂ® site is a brand new way to navigate the auto financing experience. The car buying process can be so overwhelming and stressful, from trying to decide on a particular make and model to figuring out car financing. Capital Oneâ€™s Auto NavigatorÂ® site isÂ a one-stop-shop for everything you need to find and finance a car, all on one website from the comfort of your own home or mobile device. You can pre-qualify for auto financing and test drive financing options so you can head to the dealership with financing in-hand.Â You can even find the perfect car by searching the inventory of over 12,000 dealerships by make, model, and price. Click hereÂ for more information and to get started today.

I spent an afternoon in my new (and very reliable car) visiting some of my favorite independent boutiques in the DC area with my friend Rachel. If you’re planning to visit DC soon, you’ll definitely want to stop by each one of these shops:

Image via Salt & Sundry

Salt & Sundry: I’m a big fan of and regular visitor at Salt & Sundry’s original Union Market location, but this was my first time visiting their gorgeous second location on 14th Street NW! Aaaannnnd…. I pretty much want to take one of everything home with me. Gorgeous ceramic dinnerware and mugs. Cocktail tools and ingredients. Rugs and textiles. Jewelry and accessories. I came home with a beautiful new mug for myself and a bottle of cardamom bitters for my husband, but I’m totally going back for one of the hanging planters below.

Image via Red Barn Mercantile

Red Barn Mercantile is my go-to resource for finding the perfect gift. Located just across the Potomac River on King Street in picturesque Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, Red Barn Mercantile has something for everyone, from furniture and pillows to soap and candles to cocktail mixers and cookbooks â€“ and fantastic gifts for kids! They also have the best stationery selection in the entire DC area, including greeting cards, art prints, notebooks, notepads, and planners. If you’re looking for more extensive interior help, Red Barn Mercantile also works with local designers to offer interior design services!

East City Book Shop is an independent book store in my own neighborhood of Capitol Hill â€“ yay! They only opened their doors a few months ago, but they’ve quickly become one of my favorite go-to shops on the Hill. Not only do they have an amazing array of books, including a fantastic kids section that both of my girls adore, but they also have kid-friendly art supplies, a seating area for story time and events, and the best small but mighty greeting card collection in Capitol Hill. It was such a pleasant surprise to walk in for the very first time and see so many stationery favorites on those shelves!

Photos by Rachel Lyn Photography for Oh So Beautiful Paper, except where noted

This post is sponsored byÂ Capital One’s Auto NavigatorÂ®Â site â€“Â click hereÂ for more information and to get started today!Â All content and opinions are my own.Â Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!

11/02/2016

November Desktop Downloads!

Happy November everyone! As much as I love October and Halloween, I really really love November â€“ especially Thanksgiving. Gathering around a table full of wonderful food with family and friends? Yes, yes, and yes. So let’s jump into November with brand new illustrated desktop and phone wallpapers from Swiss Cottage Designs and The Good Twin!

Desktop | iPhone

For personal use only. All illustrations by Swiss Cottage Designs and The Good Twin for Oh So Beautiful Paper

If youâ€™re a designer or illustrator interested in contributing your own designs to this column, please email your design to submissions(at)ohsobeautifulpaper.com with the subject line â€œdesktop downloads.â€ If itâ€™s a good fit Iâ€™ll add it to the post for the following month!

11/01/2016

Monochromatic Illustrated Botanical Wedding Invitations

These beautiful monochromatic illustrated botanical wedding invitations from the ladiesÂ of Fourteen-FortyÂ are the perfect balance of elegant and understated. Inspired by the Hudson Valley wedding venue, the invitations feature a subtle sage green paired withÂ pearly gold foil. With fern and flower botanical illustrations woven throughout the suite, these wedding invitations areÂ full of traditional beauty with elegant natural touches!

From RachelÂ of Fourteen-Forty: Christine and John’s wedding invitations were inspired by their love for nature and their wedding venue. The wedding took place at Grasmere Farm in Rhinebeck, New York. WeÂ drew our inspiration from the simple elegance of the venue and its natural surroundings. We couldn’t resist drawing an illustration of the beautiful reception hall on the farm, which ended up as a recurring motif throughout the invitation suite.Â We played up the outdoor venue by adding in botanical illustrations. We incorporated ferns and flowers, which grew from the corners of the main invitation and RSVP card.

During our first design meeting it became evident that letterpress printing with some gold foil elements was the way to go. Once we decided on a lovely shade of sage green for the letterpress printing, a light and pearly gold foil seemed like the perfect complement to the very soft color palette.

We always look for ways to add an extra something special to wedding invitation suites, whether it is a wax seal, a map, calligraphy, or in this case, a belly band. It literally tied all the pieces together into one neat package and added a nice strong band of color to the suite. We love how the sage green belly band served as a wonderful finishing touch to this elegant wedding invitation suite.

Thanks Tricia and Rachel!

Invitations and Styling: Fourteen-Forty

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more talÂented wedÂding inviÂtaÂtion designÂers and the real inviÂtaÂtions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Fourteen-Forty

10/31/2016

Twelve Awesome 2017 Planners and Agendas

When I first started Oh So Beautiful Paper in 2008, it was nearly impossible to find a well-designed planner. I remember hunting for the best available options and just feeling SO disappointed. Well, fast forward eight years and we’ve got some seriously GORGEOUS planners on the market from some of my favorite companies. In fact, this year’s round up is our biggest yet, with twelve awesome 2017 planners and agendas â€“ and there are even more cover and size options from the companies featured below! Yay for pretty planners!

1.Â Rifle Paper Co. released their first-ever planner last year, and this year they’re offering four different cover options â€“ plus a larger version for ultimate planning! The 17-month everyday agenda features monthly and weekly views, places to record important dates, and more. The pink desktop illustrated cover is my favorite design, but it’s so hard to choose!

2. The Ban.do 17-month agenda has a huge cult following, so if you’re already a member of the Ban.do Girl Gang chances are you grabbed your copy and started using it on August 1. But! If you’re still on the hunt for a great planner, Ban.do offers several different cover and size options, including this fun ice blue cover with hologram text. And there’s a TON of extras inside each planner, from stickers to coloring pages to monthly illustrations. So fun!

3. Sugar Paper just release their first-ever agenda, and it’s SUCH a beauty. Chambray cover with gold foil accents, extra thick paper, and a section to keep track of birthdays and thank you notes. Bonus? You can upgrade to one of threeÂ leather coversÂ (including the most gorgeous pale pink) with monogramming options. Total luxury.

4. 17-month linen hardcover planners from Hadron Epoch with weekly and monthly views, space for notes, and a pocket in the back.

5.If you’re feeling overwhelmed by daily life,Â theÂ Day Designer is all about providing a framework for balance, focus, and productivity.Â And it doesn’t hurt thatÂ theÂ Day Designer flagship edition has the cutest cover options, from spotty dots to this fun palm frond cover!

6. A gorgeous navy linen cover with gold foil polka dots in this 2017 planner from Blushing Confetti

7. If a weekly agenda is more your style, I’m loving the new hardcover options from Rifle Paper Co.! The weekly agendas are wrapped in pink or navy book cloth and printed with gold foil â€“ so pretty!Â

8. The 12-month planners from One Canoe Two offer plenty of room to doodle and write in the big open squares of the planner’s weekly and monthly views. I love this illustrated floral cover!

9. Loving this colorful rainbow stripe cover on the Simplified Planner from Emily Ley!

10. This 2017 planner from Fox & Fallow features a black fabric cover with copper foil and weekly views inside!

11. For the modern minimalist, check out these sleek and modern planners from Appointed Co.

12. The Get To Work Book is a mega planner for creative professionals and entrepreneurs. 246 pages with 12 motivational text prints that are perforated so you can keep them as art prints, full monthly calendars, Monday – Sunday week-at-a-glance spreads, space for notes and brainstorming, a “year-at-a-glance” spread with space to write plans,Â 14 “project breakdown” pages to help you complete large tasks,Â 13 “reflect and goal-set” pages to celebrate past successes and come up with action items for the next month, and a pocket on inside back cover. Whew!

So many great options! Which one is your favorite??

10/28/2016

A Wheat Beer Americano

Beer can do a lot of things to a cocktail. It can add effervescence, bitterness, or body. You can add it to a flat drink to fizz it up, or substitute the beer in for another ingredient to give it some extra oomph. That’s what we did with this week’s beer cocktail: we took the classic Italian aperitif drink, the Americano, and jazzed it up a bit with some German wheat beer.Â â€“Andrew

Wheat Beer Americano

1 oz Campari
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
Hefeweizen

Add the Campari and vermouth to a highball glass filled with ice, then top with the wheat beer. Give it a stir and enjoy!

The Americano â€“ which we’ve featured here before â€“ is a straightforward drink, matching bitter Campari and herbaceous vermouth and mellowing out those intense flavors with some soda water. It’s a wonderful, and wonderfully Italian, low-proof cocktail, the sort of thing you’d sip while sitting in a piazza in Trastevere while watching the beautiful people stroll by.

But sometimes you want to play with the classics, andÂ substituting a German wheat beer for the soda water adds an extra layer of fruity, spicy flavor, along with a chewy mouthfeel that you don’t get with the original.

We went with a BavarianÂ Hefeweizen here, one of my all-time favorites, Paulaner. Since the Campari is so bitter and the Americano so herbaceous, we didn’t want to go with a hoppier beer, like anÂ IPA, which could overwhelm this drink with bitterness. Instead, the wheat beer adds fruity notes, especially banana, and lots of spice like cloves. It comes across as sweet in contrast with the rest of the drink. I like to give drinks like this only a gentle stir, incorporating but still leaving all the flavors a little layered. So as you drink this down, it starts out fruity and mellow, and then gets progressively darker and more intense towards the bottom.

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Glassware byÂ Liquorary

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper