I dream of flowers.

It's true - I can't stop daydreaming about bright, Spring-y gardens full of flowers and tables set with stunning, lush centerpieces. Specifically, I dream of poppies with their dramatic dark centers and fun, flirty, sometimes-crinkly petals. And of peonies with their fluffy, luxe texture and "look at me, I'm so pretty" personalities. And finally of ranunculas; from their tightly bound buds to their multi-layered full bloom faces, I love them from start to finish.

So, it's no surprise that I've been obsessing over the super beautiful work of floral design company Poppies & Posies out of NYC. The fab duo just really does it for me. I love pretty much everything about their aesthetic - the layering of textures, the pops of color, their fave flowers, the funky boxes and cans they use to assemble everything. It's all perfection to me.

Happy sunny Thursday, y'all!

(All photos courtesy of Poppies & Posies)

I'm coming undone.

(All photos courtesy of Angela Liguori/ Carta Inc.)

For this new imported Italian cotton ribbon that we have in the shop. The colors! The weave! The endless possibilities for use!

I can't get enough of this stuff and I'm so excited about the several projects we already have lined up where we can incorporate this gorgeous ribbon into the design. We have limited amounts in each color, so stop by soon for the best selection!

New Knock Knock!

Our favorite new Knock Knock product: the personal library kit! Tell me this isn't the cutest gift ever for your best bookworm buddy?

New Spring products are arriving daily here at Gus & Ruby Letterpress and we couldn't be more excited about them! Just in: new goodies from Knock Knock! They put the fun in FUNctional home and office gifts. Everyone can use a little humor, color and organizing in their day-to-day task list.

Just a few of the super awesome products:

Hilarious and helpful file folders. Put some pep in your filing!

Pocket-sized lists and notepads:

Sticky-notes sets to help organize your life.

(All photos courtesy of Knock Knock)

Eeep! Exciting blog press!

Whitney and I are super excited and honored to have one of our custom pieces featured today on our most favorite blog ever: Oh So Beautiful Paper.

The Beautiful Paper blog is truly a designer's dream. Nole, the writer, has an amazing eye for innovative design, stellar printing and trendsetting typesetting. Her totally relate-able, endearing voice keeps readers coming back for more every day. Thanks so much, Nole, for your incredible blogging and for keeping all of us inspired and happy to work in this fabulous industry.

Check our sweet shout-out here.

YAY!

Create your own inspiration board!

{Board courtesy of Snippet and Ink. Credits:Top row from left: flower hair piece by Austie, photo from Sunflower Events, photo fromBig Leo Productions, Jussara Lee dress from Martha Stewart Weddings Row 2: photo from Brides, cake from Martha Stewart Weddings, photo byMichele M. Waite, flowers byAriella Chezar from Brides Row 3: silhouette cookies from Wedding Style Guide, sabayon and berries from Martha Stewart Weddings, iris bouquet photo by Anna Kuperberg, envelope liner from Mika78}

For those of you brides-to-be who read wedding blogs daily like I do, you're probably loving the idea of putting together an inspiration board for your own wedding. Kathryn, the author of one of my favorite wedding blogs, Snippet and Ink, is famous for her daily boards and now, it seems, that every wedding blog is following this trend. When I first started planning my wedding (2 years ago!) I created my own board so that whenever I was having a hard time envisioning the event I could glance at this image and remember the overall feeling I was going for.

{I have to apologize because I created these boards so long ago that I don't have any of the photo credits. A big big no-no here in the blogging world, so if anyone knows of any of the photographers or stylists, please leave a comment!}

My original board above was created in Photoshop which is a design program most of you probably don't have. But, no need to worry because there are websites out there that will do it for you! Hooray! One of the latest to launch is Dessy. This name is familiar to you because they are the mother of all bridesmaid dress companies. Even if you aren't a customer of theirs, you can still log on here and create your own board. Using their library of Pantone colors, you can make sure you get that perfect robin's egg blue you are dreaming of and you can even pull in the guy's ties and the flower girl sashes. You can upload any personal pictures that you may have taken of your dress, the cake or the venue. And, the best part is that you can upload all the images on your desktop that you've been collecting from wedding blogs over the last six months! What's not to love? Below is my Dessy interpretation of my original inspiration board:

In addition to the Dessy site, here are some other wonderful options:

- Mosaic Maker

- My Kate Parker Wedding

- Style Me Pretty

- Wedding Wire

Super promotion from Wiley Valentine!

Guess what? Great news! The super-talented gals at Wiley Valentine are offering a fab promotion right now on all their gorgeous invitation suites. Order your invitations before March 31st, 2010 and receive 10% off the entire order! That's a pretty awesome savings!


The WV album is wonderfully varied; from rad destination-themes (see above!) to romantic florals and graphic contemporary designs, the album has something for almost every taste. Their fabulous album is shown flat-printed, but couples have the option of upgrading to their luxurious letterpress printing, too. Pretty awesome, right?






(All photos courtesy of Wiley Valentine)

Hi, Whit! Hi, Gus!

Whitney and Gus: workin' hard and gettin' it done.

I love these two.

PS - We drink a lot of Polar Springs seltzer water. A LOT.