Oh. Meh. Gah. How fricken adorable is Blake Binchy?!!
Little boys singing Adele are my new kryptonite. Happy Friday!

I found a great tutorial over at Jen and Jake on how to make a hand-stitched notebook. It took me about 3 tries to get the method right. The trick is to only pre-fold the outer cover, not the inside pages, after the book is stitched THEN fold in half and put something heavy like Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts on it for a day or so to get it to lay flat.

I printed the covers 2-sided and there is a book plate on the inside front cover. The notebooks are 40 pages (front and back). Once I have perfected my hole punching and stitching skills, I’ll add notebooks like these to the shop. The best part of this project was that I needed a tapestry needle and, somehow, I had a whole package of them in my sewing stash that I do not even remember buying! Don’t you love it when that happens? Happy February everybody!

image © Aimee Elizabeth McEwen

Do you remember me telling you a couple weeks ago about the arc notebook system? (probably not, but I totally forgive you) It’s from Staples and a perfect compliment to the printable planners and organizers I have in the shop. Buy the notebook shell and an arc paper punch and you are on your way to making a notebook/planner that is completely unique to your needs. Speaking of which, the NEW planner designs are ready for viewing. Two patterns (chevron and arrows), three colorways each, more page options and you can now request special sizes —-> A4 and 5.5″ x 8.5″ at no extra charge.

Here’s a peek at what the “wove” printable planner looks like in the 5.5″ 8.5″ size (in an arc notebook system, no less!!) Special thanks to Etsy buyer, Elizabeth, for being the most lovely guinea pig on earth and also for sending me this pic!

images link to source

You can’t stay in your corner of the forest, waiting for others to come to you; you have to go to them sometimes.

W I N N I E  T H E  P O O H

I’m not much of a girly girl and I’ve never had any kind of wedding fantasy (a few nightmares, actually)… but this dress from BHLDN is amazing (Cascading Goddess Gown). There is a video showing how the dress flows as you walk… I would say I do to almost anything in this dress (wink).

image links to BHLDN

I got called out by my buddy, Adam, for not having any neato wallpapers available on the blog lately. My bad, ya’ll! Maybe I’ll whip some up this weekend, you know in my FREE time? Until then, you can click the image above to browse some insanely cute options available on this new-fangled thing they call “the internet”.

image links to source

image via Ben Slow
 

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.

A U D R E Y  H E P B U R N

There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met…

What do you do to stay creative?

vimeo via TOFU design

Did you have a nice weekend? I actually did! Even though I did not accomplish all that I had wanted to, I got a lot done and I was able to get some much needed R&R. Me and my BFF, (EM!) watched Midnight in Paris. She fell asleep (she always falls asleep!), but I was able to stay conscious (despite some serious pizza and cookie noshing) and enjoy the movie. It was good, so, feel free to rent it!

I finally posted the new planners in the shop yesterday, I’ll share those with you some time this week. Still no valentines available, I’m just not feeling lovey dovey enough – as of late. Despite all that, I really liked this Cole Porter song from the movie: