04/22/2013

Janet’s Nautical Vintage Map Party Invitations

Happy Monday everyone! I’m feeling refreshed after spending the weekend working in our garden, enjoying the beautiful spring weather, and visiting one of my favorite spring spots, the Mount Vernon estate just outside of DC. We’re starting the week with some really fun nautical and travel-inspired party invitations from Bonnie at Tenn Hens Design. I’m particularly loving the amazing map envelopes and gold wax seal!

From Bonnie: An event planner in Nashville that we’ve partnered with over the years, Elizabeth James, came to us with a very special project this past winter. Her client was hosting an intimate party at sea. And not just on any old boat, but a ship.Â They wanted to treat their guests to a truly unique affair.Â There were various parties tied around this weekend so we designed two different looks that still complemented one another.

Each invitation was hand delivered in an envelope made from map paper and secured with a gold wax seal. The first invitation was letterpressed on both sides and duplexed (just to make the cotton paper even more luxurious). We ended up adding an addendum tag at the last hour when Hurricane Sandy came into the picture, but mother nature certainly has a way of being unpredictable!

The main invitation was a more subdued palette of warm grey letterpress + gold foil. I adore the look of the foil and the texture it adds.

Thanks Bonnie!

Photo Credits: Tenn Hens Design

04/19/2013

Friday Happy Hour: The Dark & Stormy

About this time last year, Nole and I were enjoying our first trip to the Caribbean. To celebrate the memories of the trip, here’s a quintessential Caribbean cocktail, the Dark & Stormy. This is a drink that’s really great on a hot day, rich and fizzy and full of flavor, and somehow both spicy and smooth at the same time.Â â€“ Andrew

Illustration by Caitlin KeeganÂ for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The Dark & Stormy

2 oz Dark Rum
3-4 oz Ginger Beer
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Combine everything with ice, give it a good stir, garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

The proper rum to use here is Gosling’s, a Bermudan rum that’s a little spicy and a touch funky. But any dark and heavy rum, like a rich Demerara, could do nicely. The lime is not original to the recipe, which also hails from Bermuda, but is a great addition that really makes the other flavors pop.

The Dark & Stormy is a trademark of Gosling’s, which has been making rum since 1806, since the early 20th century. But the drink’s origins probably go a little further back than that. British sailors started receiving a daily rum ration sometime in the 17th century* which, by the mid-1800s, was two ounces of heavy, dark rum of the sort Goslin’s made. Sometime later, the British navy also decided to build a ginger beer bottling plant (weird, right?). Some enterprising sailors (the original inventors of so much of what we drink today) likely started putting together their rum rations and ginger beer quickly thereafter; Gosling’s just made it official.

*British sailors received their last rum ration on July 31st, 1970 â€“ Black Tot Day. There’s a very small amount left from the last consignment, and I hear it’s very unusual and very delicious. It’s also very, very expensive â€“ I’ve seen bottles for sale for nearly a thousand dollars â€“ so, sadly, I don’t think we’ll be featuring it in any Cocktail Fridays any time soon.

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

04/19/2013

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone! With all the gorgeous spring weather we’ve been enjoying lately, I just want to close my computer and sit outside all day long! The lilacs are blooming, peonies are just around the corner, and my favorite Kazan cherry blossoms are in bloom all over the city. Yay spring! Also, I just realized that there’s only ONE MONTH until the National Stationery Show! I can’t believe it’s coming up so soon! But in the meantime…

Photos by me via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend:

Love
Did you see Jenny’s faux Malachite painted desk? Amazing!
Loving everything in this collection
PDX residents! An awesome sample sale from Egg Press and Schoolhouse Electric
MAKE: Peanut butter bacon pancakes

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

A round up of favorite Mother’s Day Cards: Part 1 and Part 2 (with the full round up here!)
Rustic burlap + wood wedding invitations
Quirky “awkward family photo” save the dates
Modern mint + coral wedding invitations
Inspiration for incorporating menu signs into your wedding
Well Said Type:Â Filmotype Lacrosse
Sweet illustrated Aspen tree invitations for a wedding in Colorado
Pretty + Paper: Emerald and Gold

Check back soon for this weekâ€™s cocktail! Â I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and Iâ€™ll see you back here on Monday!Â xoxo

04/19/2013

OSBP at Home: In the Garden

It’s been a few weeks since we moved to our new house, and although we’re still not completely unpacked I have lots of house-related things on the brain as I dream about all the updates and improvements I’d love to make to our home. I hope you won’t mind if I share some of my thoughts with you from time to time? And since spring has firmly arrived here in DC, I thought I’d start with my plans for our outdoor spaces!

1. Patio; 2. Rain Spout Trellis; 3. Foundation Garden; 4. Foundation Garden; 5. Camellias; 6. Herb Garden

Outdoor space wasn’t a high priority when we first started looking for houses, but somehow ended up with a house with a bit of green space in both the front and back! Our back yard is more of a patio with a large area of paver stones and a smaller space for planting, but it should be more than enough for my limited gardening skills. We’re planning to fill our space with some of our favorite flowers and shrubs, including lilacs, English garden roses, peonies, and hellebores. I’m also hoping to train a few vines (I’m thinking jasmine and clematis) around the yard and perhaps even create some narrow raised beds for herbs and select veggies along the fence. My goal is to create a colorful and fragrant little oasis for eating and grilling outdoors during warm weather months.

TOP ROW: Roses, Peonies, Lilacs

BOTTOM ROW: Phlox, Jasmine, Hellebores

In our front yard, the previous owners left us a mystery rosebush (I can’t wait to see what color blooms emerge soon!) against the foundation and some wonderfully fragrant lavender closer to the sidewalk, but there are some bare patches to fill. The front yard receives lots of direct sunlight in the morning, so I’m thinking of doing pretty spring-blooming phlox next to the lavender and a colorful foundation garden under the mystery roses. The yard in front of our old apartment was completely shaded by a giant old maple tree, so I’m excited to have a full sun area to dig into!

Are any of you planning new garden projects for spring?

04/18/2013

Tania + Nick’s Coral and Mint Modern Wedding Invitations

Coral and mint green happen to be two of my favorite colors at the moment â€“ so how could I resist when James and Vinti of OOXX sent over these modern wedding invitations? In keeping with the bride and groom’s personalities, James and Vinti kept the design on the informal side with playful wording and the bright color palette.

From James and Vinti:Â Nick and Tania are a couple based out of Stratford Ontario. They are a really young couple who didn’t want their invitations to feel like they take themselves too seriously, especially since their are just having a small ceremony with their family and friends and then a cocktail reception to follow on a Thursday.

Their wedding colors were coral and mint and they wanted their invitations to reflect that, so we created this dynamic invitations using the different colors for different cards and this helped make this invitation more playful.Â We really love the simplicity and graphical elements in the design of this invitation. We used a great font with lots of movement to contrast the hard edges of the black borders.

Thanks James and Vinti!

Check out theÂ Designer RolodexÂ for more talÂentedÂ wedÂding inviÂtaÂtion designÂersÂ andÂ theÂ real inviÂtaÂtions galleryÂ for moreÂ wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: OOXX