Hooray for V-day!  Last Monday we did our Etsy Picks about Valentine’s Day Parties, and today we are bringing you some pretty pretty love-day fashion.  We all know how important it is to look and feel your best for Valentine’s Day – regardless of relationship status.  So, dig through your closets, browse some vintage, and definitely hit up Etsy to find your very special outift…

Stephanie May’s Etsy Picks:

I love love love this dress.  I can’t stop looking at it! ♥

Yes.

Breathtaking.

(lavender & lace dress by MagnolijaDress, red top from Pierogi Picnic, floral leggings by Vanessa Moore, red sheer dress from Butter Toast Boutique, leather necklace by I Heart Norwegian Wood, lavender bow heels from Marie’s Vintage, heart sweatshirt from Wayfaring Magnolia, floral headband by Mignonne Handmade)

Stormie Dae’s Etsy Picks:

I want these for everyday wear.

Everything she makes is fantastic.

(Arrow Cowl Tank by Recession, Vintage 1950s Prom Dress from FatRabbit1, Shakespeare Quote ‘In My Heart of Hearts’ Tank by Neena Creates, Heart Stud Earrings from Fall or Fly, Pink Tunic by Jen Fashion, Mini Heartlette Crown by Giant Dwarf, Arrow Lariat by Chain Chain Chained, Pastel Oxford Flats from GoldenPonies)

In case you missed it, MayDae is participating in Project ReStyle where we take unwanted, broken or used items and create something beautiful out of them.  If you want to participate, look here for the guidelines and join in on the fun!  Stephanie May and I will each be doing 1 per month – you can look at Stephanie May’s first project here – and today I get to show you my very first Project ReStyle.

Ready?  Okay! …and no I was never a cheerleader.

We have tons of fabric remnants lying around in our studio space that I decided to work with.  I am also very into fringe right now so I thought, ‘what better way to utilize our fabric than to cut it into fringe?’

I thought through a few ways I could use the fringe – and pulling from the inspiration of this fringed wall by ConfettiSystem, I decided to make my own fringe wall art.  I so wish I could do an entire wall – but I’m pretty sure that would take my entire life….yep, definitely would.

This project has definitely inspired me to do more fringe because I love it so much….I may just be putting fringe on everything from now on.  Don’t forget to let us know if you decide to participate in Project ReStyle, we would LOVE to see what you come up with!

Love love!

Stormie Dae

Movie season is here!  I am counting down the days till the Oscars!  I watch a lot of movies through Netflix, and as I was going through my Queue yesterday, I thought it might be fun to put together this list of my favorite movies watched in 2010.  They didn’t all come out in 2010, but that is when I happened to view them:)

Inception.  Loved the men’s clothes, and whole look and feel of this movie.

The Town.  This one surprised me because I haven’t been liking Ben Affleck for awhile, but actually really liked him in this.  It also made me root for the bad guys which is always interesting.

Inglorious Basterds.  This was another that surprised me – you just never know with a Tarantino film, but I so so so enjoyed the score/soundtrack, the set design, costume design, dialogue, Direction, ect….

Best Worst Movie.  This is a documentary about THE best worst movie – Troll 2.  It was hilarious, and just as good as the movie itself.

Coco before Chanel.  This movie was beautiful and inspiring.  I was sad when it was over.

The Fighter.  Pretty much any movie starring Christian Bale is worth watching to me, but I particularly loved this one.  I am so happy that he won the Golden Globe, and that he is nominated for an Oscar – he better win!

The Science of Sleep.  Creative, unique, humorous, and a visual feast for the eyes.

Don’t tell Mom the babysitter’s dead.  I actually first saw this movie when I was 10, but watched it again a few months ago.  I can honestly say that the theme of fashion throughout the movie shaped my outlook on fashion today.  You never know where inspiration will come from.

The Hurt Locker.  We did one of our first Etsy Picks on this movie, and I still love to look at it.  Thrilling, sad, and beautifully shot.  I hope that everyone has seen this.

Never Let Me Go.  Unique storyline and intricate details in the set design.  I was shocked to see that this movie didn’t receive any Oscar noms.  Shame.

Bright Star.  We also did an Etsy Picks on this movie, and I think that it has become one of my all-time favorites.  Sooooooooo romantic and gorgeous!

I love movies so much!  I almost did a section of my least favorite movies of 2010, but decided to focus on the positive (man-oh-man, there were some BAD movies last year!).

Have you seen any of these movies?  Which one is your favorite?  Any really good movies in 2010 that I didn’t mention?

Love,

Stephanie May*

I have a secret…or two, or three.  Or really just a few things I feel like sharing with you today:

1. I am home sick from work today.

2. My first Project ReStyle will be posted on Friday…so excited and hope it turns out! (You can see Stephanie May’s first ReStyle here…so cute!)

3. I bought a new pair of shoes on Sunday to add to my vast collection(just couldn’t help myself) – don’t worry, I had a giftcard. {Shoes from Forever 21}

4. And the most exciting thing of all – Stephanie May and I have been going the last couple of Friday’s during our MayDae work time to look at houses…for me to buy!  Yep, it’s so exciting – I am looking to buy a house and the process is so much fun!  I can’t wait until I find one that fits me perfectly, and then our blog will probably be crammed with DIY projects and house photos for a long while:)

So those are my “secrets” for today…do you have any fun secrets to share???

Love love!

Stormie Dae*

How amazing is this illustration by Garance Dore?  I love the lines of the hair very very much.  It reminds me of a fashion sketch…does anyone know how to draw like this?  I want my portrait done:)

To-do list for this week:

1)  Groceries and a yummy new recipe

2)  Haircut (a must)

3)  Update our shop with at least 10 new items (!)

What’s on your to-do list?

Love,

Stephanie May*

Happy Monday friends!  After taking a break from Etsy Picks last Monday, we are back and excited to get into Valentine’s Day Party inspiration.  We know that V-day school parties are popular things, but wouldn’t it be cool if more adults gathered together and had a big dinner/dance party every year?!  We know that we would like to host one in the future, and we would LOVE to be invited to some.  There are so many great things about this time of year, but it can also be cold and grey, and V-day brings beautiful jewel tones to our eyes – just lovely.

Speaking of lovely, we get to announce the winner of our giveaway from last week!  Thanks so much for all of the comments, and CONGRATS to our winner:

Amber “Out of my way, the cake stand is mine!!! :)”

Enjoy these beautiful items from these Etsy sellers:

Stephanie May’s Etsy Picks:

Love these colors.

These invites are so cute!

Wouldn’t these make the cutest little party favors?

Yum.  Gorgeous.

(felt hearts by MMIM 2,  heart pie pops by Skipping Skones, doily decoration by My Haley Girl, eye invites from Kraze4Paper, wood slice ring by Alliterations, honeycomb heart from Betty and Dot, I love you vase by Timeless Creations LLC, wood heart bowls from Modest Millie, heart shaped whoopie pies by Tickle my Tummy)

Stormie Dae’s Etsy Picks:

These look so delicious and pretty!

Awwwwwww

(Wool felt ornaments by The Honey Pie Tree, Espresso cups from Lenny Mud, Lovebirds and hearts garland from Polkadotshop, Kiss me pins by The Shabby Chic Cottage, Cashmere heart by Raging Wool, Love notes cookie set from Crafted Cookies, Linen coasters by Imali Accessories, Valentine heart acorns from Morado, Red and white baker’s twine from Elizabeth St.)

I’m talking about the Pantone Matching System(or PMS).  An unfortunate acronym if you ask me…but they didn’t, so here we are.

Pantone Inc. is a company based out of New Jersey that began as a commercial printing company in the 1950′s.  Today, they are best known for their color matching system – typically related to printing but also sometimes used to manufacture other items, like paint and plastic.  Without going into the whole history of how color matching works in the design world, the Pantone Matching System is basically a universal way for designers to take their artwork to any printer anywhere in the world, tell them what PMS Callout they want(the color they choose and it’s relative number), and get the same result everywhere because they chose that specific color to be printed.

{Source}

There are literally thousands of PMS Callouts, all different variations and in every color you could possibly imagine – and they are all assigned a number to reference it by.  Working for a large format printer, I see and use the Pantone Matching System on a daily basis and being the design geek that I am, I get a kick out of jokes and random items related to design elements, like these:

Pantone coffee mugs {Source}

iPhone cases…want. {Source}

This is incredible..you can match your coffee or tea to PMS colors…mine would be almost white because of all the cream I put in it – but this would be amazing! {Source}

I am definitely making these sometime, I’m kind of in love.  Now to just find a party of designer geeks that could appreciate them and love them as much as I do…{Source}

So yesterday, after stumbling upon these delicious looking cookies – I decided I wanted to make myself something related to Pantone, because I don’t find a lot of time to do handmade lately – and I almost never make anything for myself.  Inspired by Stephanie May’s felt velcro tea bag heart from yesterday, I decided to use some of my felt that was just lying around to make this:

My very own Pantone necklace!

I decided that I couldn’t just choose one color to do, because I want to be able to wear it with any outfit and whenever I feel like it.  So I made 6 different colors that are interchangeable by velcro.  Fun stuff.

All I did was cut out a 1″ x 2″ white felt rectangle and attach velcro to it.  Then I cut smaller squares of color and put velcro on them as well.  I tried using more white felt for the bottom portion but it was impossible to write my PMS reference numbers on so I just used white cotton and wrote on them with a Sharpie marker.  I added the chain and voila! – a cute necklace with a fun designer reference that I can wear anytime I want.

*Side note – for the last few years, Pantone has come out with “Pantone’s Color of the Year”, which is basically just predicting what the popular color will be and the color that will represent that year.  This year’s color is “Honeysuckle” which is….wait for it…..pink.  Blech.  Just sayin.*

***Don’t forget, THIS Sunday is the last day to enter our super cute vintage giveaway.  Commenting to qualify will end at 9pm MST so head over now and leave a comment here***

Happy weekend!

I am getting really excited for Valentine’s Day!  I have very sweet memories of this time of year in elementary school – a handmade box to hold all of my valentines from classmates, and hoping and wishing that the boy I had a huge crush on would write a special love note to me on his Bart Simpson card.  Alas, it never actually happened, but a girl could dream:)

These wood blocks are so pretty and such a unique idea!

Heart-shaped brownies.  Yum yum.

Such a sweet photo.

I just about keeled over in happiness when I saw these heart tea bags!  I love the felt hearts, and instantly had to make my own version:

I cut 2 hearts out of red felt, glued a small strip of velcro to each, and stuck the string of the tea bag through.  I did the velcro so that I could re-use the same heart again and again.  Why do I need to have my Earl Grey tea bag decorated for the 4 minutes it steeps?  Because it’s pretty and makes me happy!  I highly recommend making one for yourself.

What are your favorite childhood memories of Valentine’s Day?

(heart tattoo source)

Love,

Stephanie May*

What can I even say about Scott Schuman that would bring any justice to his genius at all?  Not really a lot…but I thought the least I could do would be to share one of my favorite blogs with you today.  I’m sure many of you have seen it, and have probably become just as in love with it as I am – but last night as I was looking at the fashion blog, The Sartorialist, I thought to myself, “Everyone needs to know about this…Everyone.”

Scott started with taking photos of people on the streets of New York which has since spread worldwide.  He photographs peoples personal style and taste on the streets with a goal to “get and give inspiration to lots of people in the process”.  I think he completely fullfills this goal and even goes beyond it.  The amazing thing about him is that he sees beauty in things the rest of us would completely look over, but when I look at them through the eye of his lens, I see the beauty too.  His photos are breathtaking – and things from high-fashion shoots to duct tape on the boots of a construction worker all come together to form his incredible and mind blowing blog that oozes his genius on every page.

Beauty is not only on the runway.  It’s not just for the rich who can afford designer clothing.  It’s in everyday life, and Scott Schuman not only recognizes this, but he is sharing it with the world.  I love his work and if you get a chance to head over to his blog(which you most definitely should), make sure you have time – because you will be stuck there for hours pouring over his photographs.

***We posted another giveaway yesterday of some really lovely items so make sure you click here to enter if you have’t already!  The giveaway will be going until Sunday night at 9pm MST and is open to US residents only***

*UPDATE:  The giveaway is now closed – the last counting comment was made by Amy Hudson.  We will announce the winner tomorrow morning!

Giveaway time!  We hosted this giveaway over at Smile & Wave with a few other sponsers, but the winner didn’t claim their prizes, SO their loss is your gain!  MayDae is giving away this pretty vintage set:  robins egg blue cake stand, kitchen cannister, and a quilted pillow.  They are all lovingly thrifted by us (the sisters, May & Dae), and we think they look pretty cute together:)

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post (one comment per person).  We will pick one winner at random on Sunday January 23rd, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. MST.  Comments left after 9:00 p.m. will not be eligible.  This giveaway open to U.S. residents only.  Happy commenting!

Love,