little peanut: milo

original letterpress birth announcement design & photo by delphine

Congratulations Allison and Aaron on your sweet addition to the family! Next to my own son (of course) he's the cutest little peanut I've ever met.

happy colors

These colors make me happy.

in the press: Green Retailer

things i heart, but first purchased because of the packaging

Honestly, I haven't bought this lip gloss by MOR just yet ... but it's on my list. Available at ShopDreamy.com. I love all the colors, but the apple green is my favorite, of course.

wish list: green scarf

I loooooove this scarf from banana republic.

logo crush: jin patisserie

la vie revee tea gift set and orientchic tea tins from jin patisserie

While driving around Venice on my way to visit a client a few years back I spotted the lovely Jin Patisserie logo and have been ever smitten with it ever since. It's such a lovely logo--especially when blown up. The simplicity of the mum is really pretty, and I love any logo using the color orange! I've never had the time to stop into the patisserie, but I've found a few teas that I would buy for the packaging alone on their website: I'd love to try the Orient Blends Orient Chic tea. It's a blend of green and black teas, scented with Osmanthus, lotus and jasmine flowers, combined with pepper. Sounds so romantic, doesn't it? I love teas scented with pepper and with jasmine, but have never tried them both in one tea. But the tin is so gorgeous (and my very favorite shade of green), so even if the tea stinks I'd be happy to just look at the package!

color worship: pastels

espresso cups from anthropologie; wedding invitations by delphine

I'm always on the lookout for fun photo props. One of my favorite props to use is a cute cup. I usually pull them from my collection of vintage teacups, but I also love these pastel espresso cups from Anthropologie and couldn't resist buying the pale green one to use in the promo shots of our Ava invitation. The invite on the left is a sneak peek at our new Pacific Beach Blooms design.

studio makeover

white ceramic owl and green ceramic "chinese lion" foo dogs from z gallerie

WANTED for the studio (we're planning a little makeover): white ceramic owl and green ceramic "chinese lion" foo dogs (both from Z Gallerie).

merry christmas

stacking tree toy from plan toys

Merry Christmas!

in the press: Ranch & Coast magazine

We are "stoked" to be featured in the December issue of Ranch & Coast magazine. (Hey, we are in So. Cal, after all!). The editors mentioned ordering custom letterpress holiday cards from delphine as their "Green Tip of the Month." We're tickled green! To see some our other recent press please visit our "as seen in" section on our website.

client (and store) we love: orange & pear

all gifts shown available at orangeandpear.com

When Jennifer came to me asking for help with a logo for her new business I was intrigued. She promised a "fresh perspective on gift giving." Interesting, but possible?. She said her favorite colors are green and orange. Yes, yes. My favorite, too. Go on. Please add shades of grey, she said. No more brown ... happy dance. She said it would be the END of boring hostess gifts. Hmmm. Really? She was so sincere, so lovely, so darn NICE. So I spent hours sketching and playing with type, tweaking and improving, until I designed a fun, sweet, colorful logo for her. I had a blast working on this logo with her ... all the while I had yet to see nary a peek at her website, which was still in the works.

But guess what? She delivered!!! Not a one ordinary gift to be found on her site-- everything is carefully curated. Perfectly wonderful. It's the end of boring hostess gifts for real! Yay! Congratulations, Jennifer, on the successful launch of your shop: Orange and Pear.

vintage: floral wallpaper

wallpaper from second hand rose

Sometimes, when I'm feeling especially creatively challenged, I check out vintage wallpaper patterns for a little inspiration. I like the unexpected color combo here: olive, puce, pale seafoam, and eggplant.

wallpaper from second hand rose

This one makes my inner typofile happy.

new from charleston collection: cactus ranch

photo and designs © delphine

Know anyone getting hitched on a desert ranch? These cactus invites would set the tone for a fun, yet chic outdoor wedding in Arizona, right? Of course you could substitute any of our delphine motifs for the cactus, or we would be happy to design a little icon just for you.

what i'm missing

capri jewelry: pomellato

I think this is what my jewelry box is missing! Yum. Wish I could scoop up this pink gold, chrysoprasne and rock crystal "Capri" collection by Pomellato.

verdant

Lowcountry marsh • photo by delphine

A few weeks ago, while visiting with my cousins, I was challenged to do a relatively simple math problem in my head. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. Then I turned the tables and asked them (both engineers) to name as many shades of green/names as they could think of. They got stuck after about 6 shades. Here's what I came up with ... I'm sure there are many more out there and would love to hear from y'all!

GREENS:
Kelley, Lime, Chartreuse, Olive, Forest, Sage, Tarragon, Fern, Jungle, Sea, Shamrock, Emerald, Spring, Leaf, Lawn, Palm, Celadon, Mint, Spearmint, Evergreen, Moss, Seafoam, Grass, Asparagus, Pistachio, apple, linden, willow ...

fall fashion wish list

I'm a sucker for green handbags and I have a few too many already. This one, however, would make the rest of the purses in my closet bow with humility and grace.

Purse by Renaud Pellegrino, available on Vivre.com. The shoes are boho-chic done right (by YSL). And the adorable ring (only $45!) would be a fantastic every-day OR fancy cocktail ring. (Note to Santa ... my giant man hands take size 8).

tangled in green

photo: carrie gugger kelley

C took this photo on the 66th anniversary of D Day at Omaha Beach in Normandy.

happy birthday to me

bathmat: anthropologie

For my birthday this year my mom, dad and mémé pitched in to redecorate my bathroom while I was in NYC with J for NSS. My favorite part is that it was a complete surprise. My second favorite part is this wonderful bathmat from anthropologie.

posh travel jewelry cases

photo and jewelry boxes: pottery barn

I've always been a sucker for fancy jewelry cases: they feed both sides of my brain as they are beautiful & lovely AND inspire organization and order. I love the green one, of course. These McKenna Travel Folios are from Pottery Barn and come in lots of larger jewelry box sizes as well.

inspired by mother nature

photo: delphine

photo: salvatore ardillo

I'm in the midst of finalizing the new spring line of letterpress note cards. The designs were influenced by the beautiful wildflowers that are in bloom here in Southern California. Also inspired by Mother Nature, our newest products will be printed on recycled 100 percent post consumer waste paper. We have always used recycled paper and soy-based inks: our cards are printed either on paper that has at least 30 percent post consumer waste content or on 100 percent cotton (tree-free!) paper. But now that it is becoming more popular to go green there are many more options for us to choose from as far as papers go. It's exciting (and a bit daunting) to have so many choices.

As I'm planning my paper buys I feel like I'm spinning around in the middle of one of those convoluted word problems from eighth grade math class: If you have a press sheet that measures 7 x 10 inches, and parent sheets that measure 26 x 40 inches, and if the pink parent sheets come in cartons of 400 sheets and a carton costs $350, and the blue parent sheets come in cartons of 500 sheets and costs $625, and the blue parent sheets have a delivery charge of $45 and the pink parent sheets have a shipping fee of two percent, and you want to yield 10,000 press sheets of one color, what is the most cost-effective paper color to buy, keeping in mind that printing will waste approximately 15 percent of the press sheets and you many not break cartons? NOW I understand why we had to take math!!!