In just a few weeks one of the coolest apps I've ever seen is coming out! It's called Sensu Brush; basically it's a way to paint on your ipad. Sounds pretty fun huh? You can visit their site here and view a bunch of example videos.

And one more thing I wanted to share with you. My friend Emily wrote a insightful and humorous post about creativity over on her blog this week. It's a good read. You can check it out here.

Photo from Free People

It's finally here. Jake and I are getting on a red eye flight tomorrow night and are headed to New York City for a few days. If you remember Jake won a trip to NYC through his work a few months back. We are really excited to see the city. Jake has spent a little bit of time there before, but I have never been. Jake's boss is originally from New York so he has put together an itinerary for us of things to do while we're there. Did I mention we're going to see The Lion King on broadway?!

It's going to be so fun to explore the city. Our days are already filled with fun things to see and do. We already have pizza and a bagel on the must eat list. If you have any suggestions for visiting the Big Apple we would love to hear them.

I'm determined to be organized in our new home. Even though it is a bigger space than our past apartment, a new layout has its challenges. On Monday I spent the entire day deciding on how I wanted to layout the kitchen. There were multiple times I changed my mind and rearranged everything. I made a trip to the Container Store and found some things to help me make the space in my kitchen more useful.

Now I'm moving on to the other rooms in the house: bedroom, bathrooms, office...I've been searching around online for organization ideas. I think it's best to start off organized rather then unpacking and organizing later. Knowing me if I don't do it now it might be a while.

Here are some of my inspirational images.

Better Homes and Garden

Cute colorful baskets seem like one of the best tools for organizing most anything in the home. 

I Heart Organizing

More baskets

Better Homes and Gardens

Open shelving in the bathroom could add some more storage and a place to display artwork

Bo Bedre

Our entry way doesn't really lend itself to a table. I think this would be a perfect solution for having a place to drop off a bag and keys when you walk in the door.

The Kitchn

I love the hanging coffee cups under the shelves. I'm also thinking of repurposing those spice racks on the wall for storing stuff in the bathroom.

spice rack; lack wall shelf; rugby stripe bin; 3m hooks
slom jar; neo bin; stacking shelf

If you have any organizational tips or tricks that have worked for you I would love to hear your ideas too!

I just discovered designer, Molly Jacques and I just can't get enough of her work, particularly her lettering. See for yourself...

One of my favorite design techniques is pairing handwritten type with a clean and simple font. I've seen her do that a few times and the outcome is perfection. 

Kitchen, unpack yourself. I would like to draw today.

It was a busy and exhausting weekend, but it paid off because now we are moved into our new home! We are so thankful that we have such great friends that are willing to help us out. Jake and Erika literally spent all weekend with us, packing, moving, and even unpacking! Even though it was a lot of work we actually had fun. Yesterday we went back to our old apartment to clean up and grab anything we left behind. It was a little sad to leave just because that was our first apartment together. We're sentimental like that. Now we're in our second apartment together and we couldn't be more excited about our new home and new neighborhood. Let the unpacking begin!

I snapped a few photos of our place this morning. I know they aren't the best pictures, but I didn't want to wait to show you until we were all unpacked. Let's face it, that's going to be a while.

Ok, are you ready for this weeks Finders Keepers? Because it sure is a keeper. Cuppow is one of the best inventions I've seen in a long time. It's a drinking lid for a mason jar! Simple, right? Yep, but also brilliant.

There are so many great uses for mason jars these days. Anything from serving dessert--to your weekend craft project. In the past I've hesitated buying a whole case of mason jars just because I didn't want a bunch sitting around the house collecting dust when I only needed one for a project. Now that I've seen so many great uses for them I think I want two cases! How perfect would these lids be for brewing tea out in the sun and then just adding some ice and it's already in a cup ready to drink. That iced coffee is really calling my name right now too. 

I do have to say the best part is that beautiful packaging. It's such a lovely design and it's even letterpressed! 

The friends that collaborated on this project together deserve a high-five for a job well done. Check out their website to read a little more about the product. 

I'm a little lost in boxes today. My goal is to get most everything finished and packed up today. Crossing my fingers. I'll be back tomorrow with a Finders Keepers. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Don't you just love color? I feel sorry for dogs if they really can only see in black and white. After I picked out a few images with my favorite color palette, I realized that they are all very similar. They are all pretty bold and bright, but that's probably what attracted me to them. What do you think?

Love Me Two Times, 2011 by Kirra Jamison

Honey of a Thousand Flowers

Wallpaper gift bags DIY via Oh Happy Day

Jake chairs via SF Girl By Bay

Amrapali wallpaper via Designers Guild

Freedom collection via Desire to Inspire

There are few things better than a good album. Through one of my friends, I recently discovered Of Monsters and Men. They recently released their new and first full album. If you haven't heard of them yet do yourself a favor and go listen to them. They are from Iceland and let me just tell you they are amazing. I just love their sound. It's just what I need to motivate me to pick up the apartment.

We had such a wonderful time the past couple of days. We just got back last night from a mini road trip to Arizona to meet up with my parents. The first few days we were all exhausted. I think our bodies finally had a break and just gave out. Once we were rested, we explored the town and lake where we got to see the real London Bridge and some really huge cactus. During our trip, we all ate delicious food, got some sun (maybe a little too much) an even bought new shoes (Jake got one pair and I got three pairs). That's a quality vacation in my book. Although, I'm already missing my parents.

Now to tackle this week. Still some packing to do. We move on Saturday!

Babies need the classics too, right? I think so. The brightly colored illustrations are just adorable. Currently available from the Babylit series is Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland, Romeo & Juliet, and Pride & Prejudice. 

Jake and I are taking a mini road trip to meet up with my parents for a few days in Arizona. We haven't seen them since the beginning of last summer, so a visit is long over due. I love my parents and I can't wait to spend some good quality time with them. I think we even have a bike ride planned for the weekend! I'll probably be updating my Instagram throughout the weekend so if you would like to follow along--our username is apairofpears.

I used to love road trips; but driving 14 hours back and forth from college to home for four years kind of took the fun out of it. There wasn't any exploring involved. It just became a start to finish trip with nothing fun in between. I'm hoping this trip refreshes my love for the road. Now if only one of these vintage campers were involved. ..

From left to right: 1. Enjoy Cupcakes via Style Me Pretty; 2. Jane Frosh;
3. Honeybean Boutique;  4. Oh So Lovely Vintage; 5. Poppytalk

Don't you just want to drive around with one of these, spend an afternoon lounging in one, or better yet buy something sweet from one? I'll take all of the above please. It got me thinking how cool would it be to renovate one and give it a fun paint job? I'll put it on my "someday list".

Here's some more of that hand written type look that I just love, spotted on Oh So Beautiful Paper. And does that not look amazing letterpressed? These wedding invitations by Ladyfingers Letterpress are so fun. They definitely aren't afraid of mixing beautiful colors. 

Yesterday I spent most of the day designing my best friend's wedding invitations. I alway tend to focus on the design first and then, once I've nailed that down, add in colors. I wasn't sure how much color I actually wanted in the design--but now these invites are really inspiring me to play up color a lot more. I can't wait to show you how they turn out, but first the Bride has to approve.

Here is another fun typography game called I Shot the Serif. This one even has a free iPhone app. The object of the game is to shoot all the serifed characters in the designated amount of time in order to move onto the next level. It's perfect for waisting a few minutes in between projects :). You can play it here.

How was your Easter? Jake and I had a wonderful day. We ate lots of good food and just relaxed all day long. For some unknown reason though, I feel exhausted today. That doesn't seem fair. Shouldn't I be energized for the week ahead when I had such a lazy weekend? Maybe I'll have to take a nap later.

This morning I came across a project called Type Fight, where two artists design the same letter and then battle it out to see who has designed the best looking character. All the letters are beautifully done. Take a look. I'm feeling inspired already.

Have a happy Monday!

Believe it or not I have never dyed an Easter egg before. I guess it just was never a part of our Easter celebrations. Which I'm kind of surprised about because my mom was very craft oriented when it came to entertaining my siblings and I.

I found some dyed eggs that look more like little art masterpieces to me. They are all so beautiful and would be perfect to decorate the table for Sunday Supper. So if you find yourself dying eggs over the weekend, here is some inspiration for you.

1. Vibrant Eggs, Dyed Naturally; 2. All Natural Easter Egg Dye Recipes; 3. Neon Dipped-Dyed Eggs; 4. Watercolor Easter Eggs; 5. Gilded Eggs; 6. Gold Dipped Easter Eggs

Happy Good Friday everyone! Enjoy your Easter weekend and remember what Christ did for us.

Did you ever do paint by numbers as a kid? I think I tried my hand at it a few times. Well Katie from Katie's Pencil Box has come up with the most brilliant idea ever, no really! Inspired by two different vintage paint by numbers pieces, she made her own mural for her son's little art studio. The best part is that she left some numbers for him to paint when he gets inspired. I will be stealing this idea some day when I have my own baby artist.

I just discovered Katie's blog and it's really lovely: sweet, simple, beautiful. I browsed around a bit and here are some of her past posts I'm loving: Happy Happy Mimi (doggie birthday) Christmas Lyrics Glitter Banner Tutorial, and  Make a House a Home. Check them out. I think you'll like it.

I woke up this morning to discover that Instagram just released their app for android! I have to admit, I've been pretty jealous of the iphone users who were spoiled with such a nice camera application. Nothing quite satisfied me on the android.

This morning I took some pictures around our apartment to try out the app. It's a lot of fun. Here are a few.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I've been dong a lot of packing in the evenings. I think we are in good shape so far. Also, as you can see my Basil is still going strong! I used some just the other night and it was yummy.

I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more pictures from now on, especially on our Facebook page.