Method + Orla Kiely

In partnership with Method.

I’ve been a huge fan of Method forever so when I heard they were partnering with famous pattern maker Orla Kiely I was so excited.  It is such a great partnership of two beautiful brands. Method is so design conscious and is doing a lot of innovative things with environmental friendly packaging that the partnership makes a lot of sense. I loved this quote:

“We also believe that your home should reflect who you are. What you love. How you see the world. For us, that means keeping our planet clean and beautiful. Which is precisely why we’re so delighted to offer Orla Kiely’s gorgeous patterns paired with the naturally derived formulas and bright scents of planet-friendly method® soap. Eye-catching designs. no dirty ingredients. Cleaning has never been more inspiring.”

I went to Target and bought 6 bottles of  the pear hand soap. (It’s a limited edition and I did’t want to run out.) The new line comes in four patterns and four different scents.  ps: There is a really great interview over here at the Method blog with Orla Kiely.

Have you seen any of these in the stores yet?

Inspiration Edition No. 16

Here are some iconic, quirky, and happy little things I’ve been excited about this week.

A. My friend Jared Rusten makes the most amazing furniture. B. Every pillow should have a speedo on it. C. I’ve been scouring ebay for a vintage Creative Playthings rocker. You can get a repro right here. D. Love love love this tissue box cover. (Via Erin) E. The Curiosity Shop has a line at Target and it is so amazing (Coming Sunday!) F. I’m looking for a small coffee table or footstool and I fell in love with these. G. Love this red lipstick, my only complaint is the lid doesn’t stay on very well.

Planning for Fall and Holiday Parties

I’m getting a slow start today. I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. We had a good weekend but I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer yet. I always feel nostalgic and sad about change this time of year. San Francisco gets its warm weather in September and October so luckily we still have some hot days ahead of us yet. One thing that got me excited for the Fall was I sat down and scheduled out some parties I would like to host over the next few months. Planning things out a bit helps me remember when to send invitations out so I don’t feel overwhelmed when all of a sudden I realize the party date is two weeks away. I always forget to give people enough notice! Are you throwing any big parties for Halloween or the Holidays or New Year?

Here are some parties I am thinking about throwing.

-A house warming party (is it too late after 4 months?)
-A Fall Harvest Party (something simple but with amazing food.)
-A Progressive dinner party around San Francisco in taxis at Christmas time.
-Renting a Cable Car to go caroling.
-Birthday Party for Moses (I’m scared to ask him what kind because I know he’ll request Angry Birds.)
-New Years Day Open House (I love having people stream in through the day so you really get a chance to talk with them.)

A note to my friends: Halloween and New Years Eve is on you guys.

Pictures: Zig Zag Streamers | Progressive Dinner | New Years Fondue

Anthropologie Craft Night

Last night was the craft night I hosted at Anthropologie. It was a really fun event. Thank you to everyone for coming out and a special thanks to Anthropologie for having us. Also a big thank you to Carte Fini for supplying us with their awesome crepe paper. Here are some peeks of some of the materials we prepared for the craft night. We made these crepe paper floral party hats (see tutorial here) and Carte Fini generously offered to supply us with crepe paper. It is honestly the most beautiful crepe paper I’ve ever seen. It is made in Italy and the quality and amazing collection of colors is fantastic (they even have ombre paper!) The rolls are enormous (they are double or triple the size of the cheap stuff.) I’m officially obsessed with the stuff. Besides prepping the crepe paper. We also gave out little muslin bags to hold some of the supplies so I had some custom stamps made to add the Oh Happy Day logo. I’ve never tried stamping bags before and the process was so easy. For the instructions I really wanted to do something on my letterpress. (There are some perks for having your own letterpress!) First we made little watercolor paint splats (they looked like little polka dots) and then I printed the instructions on my letterpress with a deep impression.

See more photos from the event after the jump.

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Styled Eats: How to Perfectly Frost a Messy Cake

This post is sponsored by Nestlé® Toll House® Morsels, the perfect special ingredient for all of your family’s favorite treats!

Frosting cakes is one of those things that I would love to get better at. My mom would always decorate amazing cakes for our birthdays when I was a little girl and I loved them but I didn’t really inherit that cake-frosting-gene. When I am frosting a cake I usually choose a simple idea in my head how I want it to look but it it never quite seems right. I decided this year I wanted to try to get better at frosting cakes so I asked the talented pastry chef Hope Waggoner to give some easy tips on how to make cakes look perfectly frosted (ps: check out Hope’s awesome tattoo, so perfect-right?) Today’s post is on how to get that perfectly frosted and delicious messy look. Have you ever tried to frost a cake like this? It is harder than you think if you don’t know how. Today Hope is unveiling all the tricks on how to get it perfect.

Materials Needed: You can stock up on lots of cake decorating supplies but if you are going to put together a simple cake decorating kit all you really need to frost this cake is: A large Offset Spatula and a heavy duty pastry bag with large tip.

Step 1: Bake your cakes using your favorite recipe. (This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe.)
Step 2: After the cakes are baked and have cooled down, put them in saran wrap and put them in the freezer for a few hours. Cooling the cake will make the crumbs way more manageable. (As long as the cakes are wrapped, freezing it will not make a difference in the taste.)
Step 2: Remove the cakes from the freezer and trim off the top with a serrated bread knife (if needed) to create a perfectly flat layer. I prefer tall cakes which means I usually make 3-4 layers and sometimes I cut those in half to create even more layers.
Step 3: Put down the first layer of cake and taking a pastry bag of frosting create a nice even layer of frosting. Take an offset  spatula and spread out the frosting about 1″ before the edge. Repeat until all the layers are in place.
Step 4: Create a crumb layer. This layer will seal in all the crumbs before you are ready to decorate your cake. Using the large offset spatula tarting at the top of the cake and then working down the sides, create a thin and smooth layer of frosting over the entire cake. Put it in the refrigerator until the frosting sets. (About 30-60 minutes.)

Step 5: Now it’s time to frost! For best results it’s important to work with cold cake and room temperature frosting. To create that perfectly messy frosting look pile on a very very thick layer of frosting with your offset spatula. The secret to get it right is there must be a deep layer of frosting to create the texture and swirls that make it look so good. Once your thick layer of frosting is on, take the back of a spoon and begin making swirls and crests in the thick layer of frosting. Continue until the whole cake looks swoop-y and delicious.