Oh Happy Day is Sparkly and New!

I’m so happy to introduce you to the new Oh Happy Day. I’ve been working on this for a long time and I’m so excited that today is the big day! Last week was my 5 year blogging anniversary so it seemed a fitting time to launch my new site. I want to say thank you to everyone for all the support over the last five years and I have lots of surprises this week to do just that. We’re still working out all the little bugs in the site so feel free to come in and kick the tires! The new site has everything categorized into sections so its a lot easier to find ideas things you are looking for. Besides a sparkly new design we’ve changed url’s to www.ohhappyday.com Which means if you read this blog through an RSS feed you’ll need to update the feed in your reader right here!

I want to give a special thanks to Erin Jang my designer for the beautiful job she did. She is so talented!

And I owe my right arm and first born son to Mark Allen for the genius programming job. He is smart and generous and owns more tennis shoes than you.

I also want to thank all of you for reading Oh Happy Day. This blog is the best thing to ever happen to me (besides my family) I accidentally fell into blogging like most people so I feel super grateful I get to do this for my job. Every morning I get up eat a warm fluffy croissant and think “I’m so lucky.” Thank you for giving me the best job in the world.

Happy Weekend from London!

We are having such a great time in London. It is my first time here and I love it. So much history and beautiful architecture, and I love that everyone speaks English! I can express myself and have interesting conversations with strangers. It’s the best. We have one more day of sight seeing before we take the train back to Paris to meet up with my sister and her family for the weekend. I hope you are having a happy summer initiation weekend! See you back here Tuesday after the long weekend.

photo of the London Eye by Paul Ferney

I also write for Babble. Here are my posts this week.

Father’s Day Alert! 30% off at Jack Spade!
I can’t believe the cute dresses at Target! (And they are cheap!)
Doing some outdoor entertaining this summer? These party lights are genius. (No plug needed!)

Affordable Industrial

I love industrial furniture. I think what I love most about it is how you can add a piece to almost any room and it makes it feel a little unfinished and not too precious. And while I would prefer an authentic piece found in my grandpa’s work shed those aren’t always easy to come by. I am happy that there are so many affordable options these days for industrial furniture. I’ve done a little round up of my favorites and even came across a ton of more options I wasn’t aware of while I was hunting.

1. Metal Stools 2 for $75 Overstock.com
2. Utility Pendant $39 CB2
3. Metal Shelf $15 Ikea
4. Coffee Table $279 World Market
5. Tripod Floor Lamp $169 World Market
6. Side Table $169 Urban Outfitters
7. Campaign Bookshelf $279 World Market
8. Red Stool $100 Urban Outfitters
9. End Table $107 Overstock.com
10. Floor Lamp $229 CB2
11. 3 Shelf Console $329 World Market

Postcard Birthday Poster DIY

This project is part of a campaign I’m doing with Yahoo! Mail on different ways to keep in touch with family and friends. I had wanted to recreate an easier version of this big project I did for Aubrey last year and this seemed like the perfect time. I contacted the artist, Shanna Murray, to help me come up with artwork for a poster that everyone could download. It says “I’m so glad you were born” which is my favorite way to wish someone happy birthday. If you have a special person whose birthday is coming up here is how it works. You download the pdf below made up of 25 different pages that each have a part of the poster or “piece of the puzzle” on it. Then you email each page to a different person like their family and friends and assorted lovers. Then each person prints it out on cardstock, cuts it out, writes a note on the postcard, and stamps and mails it to the birthday person. The birthday person will get love notes and birthday wishes for a week or two from everyone they know as the postcards trickle in with the daily mail! Find detailed instructions and the download below!.

Step 1: Decide who you are going to give this surprise to and get their mailing address. You’ll also need to make a list of 25 friends and family with their email addresses.

Step 2: Download the 25 sheet pdf. Each pdf has some basic instructions explaining the project but you’ll need to include more detailed instructions with your email. Here is a sample of instructions you could include:

Hello,

I’ve put together this little poster project for (__________’s) birthday. It’s pretty simple and just requires you to print out the attachment of this email on cardstock, write on it, stamp it and drop it in the mail. Then (_________) will receive all 25 pieces of the poster in the mail like a puzzle. (__________’s) birthday is (_____) so please mail it between the dates of (_____and____). If for some reason you can’t send your card in will you please let me know so I figure out a plan B.

1. Print out the paper on a heavy paper like cardstock.
2. Cut out the card.
3. Address the other side of the card to (_____________) fill in address.
4. Write a note to (__________) feel free to get creative, draw pictures, or even mail it in an envelope and attach old pictures.
5. Stamp it and drop it in the mail between (______________and__________)

If you have any questions email me at (______________).

Step 3: Send an email to each person with a different attachment and instructions.

Step 4: If you want you can send a follow up reminder about the mailing dates. When we did it we tried to get everyone to send it in but I sort of liked that a few came up missing, it wasn’t “perfect.”

Download the 25 pages with postcards below!

A special thanks to Shanna Murray for the beautiful design, to Aubrey Trinnaman for the photos and for Alexis Birkmeyer for pulling it all together. What do you think? Would you ever do this? Do you think you could get 25 people to mail in a postcard?

All photos by Aubrey Trinnaman for Oh Happy Day

Anthology Magazine

I’m so excited to show you part of the story I worked on for Anthology Magazine. If you haven’t heard Anthology is a really beautiful lifestyle magazine that actually comes out in print! It is well done every single time.

This story is about some of the surprises that my friends and I have done for each other. We recreated them so they are picture perfect. The one below shows the installation that my friend Aubrey did for her boyfriend’s birthday. There is lots more to show you but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. (ps: Aubrey did all of the awesome photography.)

This issue is my favorite because the theme is Life is a Party, its choc full of awesome content. See the online preview right here. You can get a copy from any of these stockists and Anthropologie is now carrying them. Or better yet get yourself a subscription right over here!

All photos Aubrey Trinnaman for Anthology Magazine.