Yellow is the hot color of summer 2009. Inviting this cheerful color to your party puts everyone in a festive mood. If you are planning to devise a yellow party theme, take a look at these:

+ serve lemon mint granita from the smittenkitchen.com

+ Big sunflowers make a bold statement. As you can see, they can look stylish. I like how they transformed vintage suitcases in a green garden where you plant seating cards – via Snippet & Ink

+ go green and wrap your gift in a Mustard Yellow “GIVE LUCK” reusable Fabric Gift Wrap from chewingthecud available on etsy. It is $10 each. She explained on her blog how to wrap a single box and more wrapping techniques with fabric.

+ Release your thirst with the Citrus Thyme Water by Sunday Suppers

You might also like these posts

I really like the burst of sunny colors found on the latest breakfastware at Anthropologie. Having plates, bowls and mugs only for breakfast breaks the monotony. It may even encourage you to eat at home the most important meal of the day.

It makes sense to reuse things. You can punch a soft green dinnerware with adding the Growing Season bowl or plate to your place setting. Any patterns from the Franca table linen series will coordinate well with this scheme.

Take a sip of your morning juice or serve water in the Fleur de Lys tumblers. The only con is that they have to be hand washed. These colorful tumblers stand next to the Strawberries-Au-Lait (I think) pitcher. I was not able to find the pitcher online.

+ Growing Season Bowl $16 USD
+ Growing Season Plate $14 USD
+ Franca Napkin in Two Tones $8 USD
+ Fleur de Lys Tumblers $32 for a set of 4

You might also like these posts

Brighten your kitchen with a dash of yellow. You can start with a few accessories.

You can grab and nicely display the napkins and tea towels by Heather Moore of Skinnylaminx. This illustrator and designer from Cape Town, South Africa, makes beautiful table linens. Her gray and yellow look sophisticated when put together. The mix feels soft.

For a twist, use her 13.5 x 13.5 inch napkins as placemats for a dessert course or a simple breakfast. The plant and flower yellow pattern is printed on 100% cotton hopsack using water-based ink.

Heather owned cool plates and mugs. I would like to find similar, so keep me inform if you know a source in Canada or the USA.

The plates may lead to a new venture. Heather decorated these plates for the South Africa House! exhibit. She transferred 3 of her design on ceramic dinnerware. Each place setting is different and devised from one color palette. Check the rest on her collection on her blog. The patterns are all superb.

>>> Sourcing:
Buy online: Specimens yellow table napkin – starts at $6.50 USD each
Buy online: Specimens pale grey table napkin by skinnylaminx – starts at $6.50 USD each
Buy online: Mugs in gooseberry tea towel by shinnylaminx – price: $12 USD
Learn more: Mountain Garden [Skinny laMinx]

You might also like these posts

If you are still looking for ideas on how to style your Easter brunch, I will share several design ideas this week. So do not worry.

The Fashionable Blue and Yellow

I am starting with two decoration ideas and the best looking desserts from Martha Stewart Living. Get inspired by these crafty projects and recipes to create your own version this Easter.

If you read my posts last week, you spot the resemblances with the Spring 2008 color combinations. Since the pictures were taken a couple years ago, simply adjust the hues to fit into the 2008 color trend.

Blue and yellow mixed with white is so far my favorite palette for Easter 2008. I am assembling my own Easter tabletop the one I will use in real life. Mine may eclipse the blue and yellow scheme; we will see when I am done.

For now, let’s go back to what Martha Stewart has the best to offer in my opinion this Easter. Like I said before, these are old projects from Martha Stewart. They still look interesting today.

Easter Table Decorations

Everyone can easily make these fuzzy Candy Nests. They look so cute. You can reuse the design to dress up your sugar and milk serving set. Brown and white sugar cubes will look better with this scheme.

The early spring tulips and daffodils symbolize Easter. It is simple to decorate a console table or you buffet table by disposing several eggcup bouquets on a tiered cake stand. Step by steps instructions for the Easter Tiered Bouquets are published on Martha Stewart’s Web site.

Take advantage of the white and yellow rage to design a stylish yet simple table top. Lay a lemon yellow tablecloth as your basis so your white dinnerware will pop up. Or you can be hipper and display the orange Chilewich Woven Lattice placemats plus the table runner. You probably own all the required dinnerware, except for the white egg cups which are widely available.

Easter Dessert Recipes

The food presentation of the Rich Chocolate Cake with Ganache Frosting and Truffle-Egg Nest is critical to get the full impact. You can find sets of brown salad plates at Rosanna or for a more affordable option, shop at Target.

Chocolate Egg in blue colored shell is a stylish idea to serve homemade chocolate. I suggest making these Chocolate Eggs as your party favors. Wrap them with clear cellophane to showcase them. Do not forget to install a nice personalized gift tag on your package with a stylish blue or white ribbon.

Sourcing:
Buy online: Orange Chilewich Woven Lattice Table Linens – starting at $20 per placemat
Buy online: Set of 2 White Porcelain Egg Cups at Kitchen Kapers – $4.99 for a pair
Buy online: Dinner Party Plates at Rosanna – price: $41.25 for a set of 4
Buy online: Coco Seal Salad Plate at Target – price: $24.99 USD for a set of 6

RELATED POSTS:
+ Egg candle holders by Michelle Mason
+ A more natural take on the Easter Eggs
+ Bunny shaped napkins at your Easter brunch

You might also like these posts

These pictures from Habitat illustrate well the trends I saw at the Interior Design Show (IDS) Toronto 2008 last month. It also demonstrates that a little color goes a long way.

Deep Dark Luxury

The purples, chocolate browns, deep blues and khaki greens of 2008 are colors that you do not have to be afraid to commit. Darker hues feel luxurious. In fact, most of the luxury market favors the darker tones right now.

You will see purples mixed yellow greens, gold and lilac in 2008. Whenever you select a color for your home, choose the tint in function of the type of room, the time of the day where you use it and the lighting. For example, the purples of the casual outdoor room are of medium values because they sit outside.

Punch Colors

I feel that the most interesting lesson that you can learned from these fabulously styled rooms by Habitat was is that the big expensive pieces can stay pretty neutral. The top picture is the perfect example that you do not need a huge investment to follow the trends.

Khaki green is perfect for a family room. Yellow green feels fresh in the kitchen. If you live in an open concept kitchen/ dining room / living room, you can mix the two colors but always give more importance to one or the other in each room.

Defining Your Open Space

Even though you want to create a cohesive look in a concept space, you need to clearly define each space. Otherwise, your house will lack dimensions. For that reason, I do not recommend to carry around the same, identical color palette over the entire open space.

As I told you in my review of 10 years of design, successfully decorated rooms mix several trends. It is the end of the package theme. You sculpt your design by playing with the shapes, the finishes, the textures, the contrast, the lighting, the symmetry and the styles of what everything that fits into the room. The goal is to create dimensions in an eclectic but harmonious way.

Sourcing:
Learn more: Living and Storage at Habitat

RELATED POSTS:
+ Spring 2008 yellows
+ Home Color Trends for 2008

You might also like these posts

What I am talking about today is how the presence of others colors can modify the perception of a color? It is an important element when you are designing a room or creating a tablescape.

I select kitchen and dining pictures from the latest catalogue of Habitat. They illustrate current trends in decorations.

You could easily spot how the same yellow accessories create a different mood whether they are placed in a crisp white room, next to vibrant colors and with black wood furniture.

The Peake is the latest picnicware collection by Habitat. Nigel Peake designed a collection with distinctive urban-inspired illustrations and bold colors. I love it!

Coordinating Principles

How the overall room or tabletop look depends on several elements. The first thing to remember is that any color is influenced by their immediate neighbors. The impact can be up to a point that a color can take a totally different hue depending on the colors that sit next to it or the lighting. So before making a final decision, I recommend you:

• analyze the relative proportions of each color in your design
• analyze how the colors looks next to each other – try several ways to dispose colors next to each other
• try to insert a neutral (white, grey, brown or black) between two colors and see how if it enhances or not the results

How to live with the Spring 2008 yellows?

The lemon yellow, canary yellow, mustard yellow, curry, marigold are the hot yellow colors of Spring 2008. Some tones evoke bright and lively while the ones with reds feel warmer.

I cannot be happier that the warm and cheerful yellows are hot again since I opted for bright sunny yellow walls on the entire second floor of my house. I love colors in home decor. My house is mainly decorated in darker and richer colors with a few bright colors for punch in specific rooms. I cannot live in a crisp pure white house, even for a day.

Living in a bright yellow room makes me happy. I like to use colors but I wish nonetheless to create a sophisticated atmosphere. So I toned down my sunny yellow in several ways.

First, you need to consider the level of natural light that you normally get. My row house does not provide a lot of natural light. Second, several lamps, wall sconces and ceiling fixtures allow me to modify the level of light intensity at will. I can go from a subdued mood up to the brighter task lighting level. From an architectural point of view, my space features a long, antique reddish bricks wall and an extensive use of warm medium brown wood. Both bring a rich feeling to the open spaced room.

Going back to the pictures from the Habitat Spring 2008 catalogue, you see three hot color trends for Spring 2008:

1. The crisp white room with yellow used as the accent color
2. The colorful, fun almost child-like yellow, orange, pink, and red scheme – you can also do the acid citrus
3. The black theme with yellow accents, done here as casual chic for the patio

Accessorize

You can read on the PANTONE Fashion Color Report of Spring 2008 – download the pdf at the bottom of the page:

Warm, cheerful Freesia, like an uplifting ray of sunshine, is a friendly, inviting color to which people are instinctively drawn. It is also a color that allows for diverse accessorizing opportunities.

Since not everybody is ready to commit to these lively hues, my next post will be about how a small amount of a punch color can go a long way?

Sourcing:
+ PEAKE city illustration dinner plate in melamine – price: £2.50
+ PEAKE picnicware collection at Habitat – starting at £2
+ SADIE champagne glass at Habitat – price: £3
+ SADIE tumbler at Habitat – price: £3
+ SADIE wine glass at Habitat – price: £3

RELATED POSTS:
+ Purple, Khaki Green, Yellow Green of 2008
+ Home Color Trends for 2008

You might also like these posts

I said it before; printed invitations grab more attention than an email or a phone invitation to a party. Except for wedding and milestone wedding anniversary where printed invitations are customary, sending a printed invitation tells right away that your event will be something extraordinary. You create hype which usually increases the attendance.

Letterpress and calligraphy create stunning design cards with a personal touch. Lots of small card companies have emerged in the last couples of years to suit a wide range of tastes. The printing techniques make their charms.

Custom letterpress cards and calligraphy are expensive because it is a labor intensive job. Egg Press offers custom letterpress baby book at retail locations around the USA. The Kangaroo card is from Egg Press.

You save even more by going with a card in a collection instead of exclusive design. With personalized printed cards, you select a model from a collection for which you add your personalized text.

Digital printed cards and notes are a popular option because of the price. A high-end look can be achieved when you match it with a better-quality colorful envelop.

Girl Metro, a Chicago-based design studio, sells their cute models in 3 printing options: digital, offset and letterpress. You can get letterpress baby notes with return address printed envelops for as low as $2.10 USD a set, while digital costs $1.25 a set if you buy at least 200 cards.

Vancouver-based social stationary brand Haute-Note lets you buy its signature 3.25×8.25 inches personalized cards in set of 8 cards (9 envelops) for $24 CAD. The whole personalization process can be done online and Haute-Note will ship you the cards.

Stationary stores also sell numerous fill in invitation cards. These are good alternative if your budget is more limited or if you are in a hurry.

But what do you do if you want something more special?

One way to impress is to send the invitations attached to an object or in a box. I will give you two examples.

If you host a party with an Asian theme, you can write the invite on a rice paper, roll it up and attach it to a set of wooden chopsticks with a raffia ribbon. You can wrap everything with paper or clear cellophane. Or you can put everything in the box that came with the chopsticks, if any. Specialty stationery stores are your best bet to find nice envelops. Bring your chopsticks with you to see if they fit in.

Going back to this great baby shower invitation that inspired me to write this post. Jordan, an event planner from San Francisco made it. She posted it on her blog Oh Happy Day. This Baby shower invitation is so cute and it makes a statement.

Set like a present in a box, the printed card lay on bright yellow Lemonheads. A personalized sticker with the name of the invitee on top and a poem on the back close the box with style. Personally, I would have added a piece of light cellophane between the lemonheads and the card. This is not a cheap project but I think it worth every penny. Good work Jordan!

The final budget question is the delivery cost. To save on shipping costs, you can hand deliver the invitations. You can ask the help of a friend or two that live nearby the delivery zone. Otherwise, plan ahead how much it will cost to ship everything.

Look at the mail service requirements since both Canada Post and USPS have their own rules regarding the maximum depth for envelop. If it is too deep, it will be considered as a package. The bad news is that a package multiplies by 6 or more the shipping fees versus a letter.

There are many rules concerning minimum and maximum lengths, widths and weights. The best thing is to bring a completed sample whenever possible. One of my friends discovered last year for her wedding that her response envelops was too small. She had to pay $1.05 instead of the regular 51 cents for the stamps.

None standing all these, having an atypical invite create a Wow factor that make a lasting impression. If you can squeeze extra money on your party budget, go for it. Otherwise, rest assured that they are lots of affordable options on the market. But be certain to use your imagination to make it a little bit more fascinating.

Link: Custom letterpress printing at Egg Press – the Kangaroo card
Link: Girl Metro Baby announcement card collection
Link: Haute Note Baby New Addition collection – the Bear card
Via: Baby Shower Invitations on Oh Happy Day blog – the last picture is her design

You might also like these posts