Really inspired by the light and colors of autumn lately.  This kitchen would be the perfect place to bake during a fall weekend!

Happy weekend everyone!

{image shown found via Mossiere tumblr}

This past weekend was my cousin Caitlin’s bridal shower, a wonderful afternoon for one of my favorite people in the world.  Caitlin is an avid reader and like many of our family members, a big tea drinker… so the bridesmaids and I thought what better type of shower for Cait than a Book Lovers Tea Party?

For the design and color of the invitation, I was inspired by vintage book covers along with the colors of autumn.  For favors, the maid of honor suggested we do custom bookmarks, so I found the perfect tea & book lovers quote from C.S. Lewis and created an illustration of a stack of books with a tea pot and a tea cup.

The menu was put together by the bride’s mother and the bridesmaids: an autumn butternut squash soup, various tea sandwiches, tea bread, scones (homemade with all the accompaniments), and finger desserts.  For serving, the entire extended family went through their fine china and everyone brought tea pots, tea cups, platters, and the like.  For anything that we couldn’t find or share, we rented from a local company called Fancy That Tea Boutique.  I recently visited their retail space and it is gorgeous!  They have the most amazing collection of vintage china & glassware and the pieces we used made the tea party extra special.

For decorations, I collected vintage books from a local library (and a few special ones from Ebay) and bought tea pots from thrift stores to hold the floral centerpieces that we put together ourselves.  The bride’s sister-in-law (and fellow bridesmaid) put together paper flowers made from book pages, handmade thank you notes for Caitlin, and two gorgeous boxes that looked like books to have as memory keepsakes.

It was a lot of planning but the women in the family really all came together, and you could tell how much love everyone put into the event.  Now I’m very much looking forward to Caitlin & Alex’s wedding next month!

{for more of my perfect parties images, check out my Flickr}

Love the photos from Krjrsten Madsen of teatime with loved ones on Kinfolk’s site.  Also really enjoyed scrolling through Krjrsten’s blog as she has recently moved to London.  Makes me excited for this weekend, the women in my family will be having a teatime party of their own… more details on that to come next week!

{image shown belongs to Krjrsten Madsen}

This image made me laugh out loud this morning.  Found this weeks after designing my new Autumn Leaves Note Card, and would’ve loved to see this beforehand for color inspiration.  An interesting side note, the photographer said they’re all from the same tree!

Getting excited for fall in New England… the colors have only just begun to change…

{image shown belongs to chrisglass on Flickr}

On a walk this week at my local Audubon Sanctuary, I couldn’t get over how many mushrooms there were.  Seriously, about every yard or so there was another, and another… and yet, another.  So many colors, so many sizes and shapes, it was unbelievable.  I don’t recall seeing so many at any time of the year before.  My husband said this is proof that now I need to do a mushroom print to match my lichen one.  Perhaps, perhaps…

{for more of my audubon sanctuary images, check out my Flickr}

I’ve tried Elderflower jam and juice before, but I’d love to get a bunch of fresh, delicate elderflower to put in a vase.  This photo from Pure Style Blog is simply gorgeous.

{image shown belongs to Pure Style Blog}

My great friends Leo and Leah filmed and edited this video for our friends Ashley and Troy (you might remember their wedding invitations).  It came out so great, and this is just the rough cut!  Can’t wait to see the finished version.

Check out Bonarrigo Weddings and their photography and film work here.

Ashley and Troy from Bonarrigo Weddings on Vimeo.

I cannot stop looking at this one page on BHLDN.  So much inspiration for color, texture, and pattern.  Seriously, I’ve been flipping through here for a few days now!

{all images belong to BHLDN}

I am speechless over Amy Merrick’s new website.  I have been in love with her blog writing for a while now, but I am head over heels for her new site.  If you do one thing today and one thing only: spend 10 minutes with a good cup of tea, pouring over every detail.  Swooning over the design, styling and photography.  Congrats, Amy!

{images shown belong to Amy Merrick}

Last Tuesday, my husband and I had the pleasure of being models for our friend Lara’s photography class (Lara is a co-owner of Studio Nouveau).  It was a little intimidating at first, staring into each others eyes and kissing countless times in front of the entire class, and in downtown Boston no less.  But my husband said later on that it felt like we were dating again, and it honestly was a lot of fun.  The biggest treat of all was seeing Lara’s amazing work from that day; the photos of us are stunning and mean so much to us (especially since a lot of our wedding photos didn’t come out the way I had hoped).  I basically want to frame every single one of these… I don’t know how I’ll choose just a few.  Listen to me, if you’re in the New England area and you need a photographer, you need to look at Studio Nouveau!

{images shown belong to Studio Nouveau}