Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the twenty-fourth edition of our Lucky Friday Giveaway! Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Whitney, Emily and Zoë!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Dinosaurs card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Octo Sailors

Artist: Eunice Moyle

Inspiration: A bit of Busby Berkeley birthday stylishly swirly and smiley sailor shenanigans.

Who to send it to: A beloved Octogenarian or perhaps a favored seafarer with a taste for tako.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: “Here’s lookin’ at you, Squid” with a giant squid’s giant fish-eye was too creepy.

Favorite detail: The overall effect of the pinwheel pattern of poly-podes is pretty octo-riffic.

Why letterpress: Octopi (or octopodes, if you prefer), like pressmen, can do a lot with a little squirt of ink.

Don’t forget to post your comment, and tune in next week, same time, different stationery, to see if you’ve won!

Paris is full of pretty things, but some of my favorites teas and sweets I found at La Grande Epicerie on Rue de Sevres. Atelier de douces guimauves - translated to marshmallows but these are so much more melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

Pretty fruit sweets from Comptoirs Richard

Mariage Freres teas

Rainbow pasta!

Les Deux Marmottes teas (love the illustrations!)

Petit-Beurres - butter and chocolate cookies

Delicious in more ways than one!

The setting of a wedding can really enhance the mood of a celebration, especially when it takes place somewhere as breathtaking as the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito! Ingrid and Howard’s summery and stylish wedding just screams happiness – how could anyone feel otherwise when you’re hanging out in a field of lavender and loveliness?!

The couple chose our Woodland Damask letterpress invitation – doesn’t it fit nicely with the bridal party?

Love the collection of vintage stamps and the stunning calligraphy by Michele Papineau.

Check out more photos of Ingrid and Howard’s wedding (along with an adorable video!) at Style Me Pretty!

All photos by Jose Villa

Our final day began with beautiful and delicious pasteries from La Patisserie des Reves in the 6th…

Yum!

Bonton – one of the most inspiring stores in Paris!

Stationery and gifts at Magna Carta

Petit Pan - another Paris favorite!

Pretty window at traditional French print shop

Colorful children’s scarves at Bleu Comme Gris

Beautiful Japanense-inspired children’s clothes at Noro

Annick Goutal perfumes

Brooke and Ryan’s wedding photos make us melt! Pretty Little Weddings shared a lovely story of their engagement, and it’s obvious the two are madly in love.

Bald Head Island, North Carolina served as a perfect seaside setting.

The couple modified our Seagulls design to create paddle fan programs, and used their designed monogram throughout the event.

Sheets and blankets were available to relax in the open air!

Their monogram was printed on tote bags as wedding favors – what a great way to carry on the theme!

All photos by Jagger Photography

Our weekend in Paris, continued! We spent our second day exploring Jardin du Luxembourg.

It’s the ideal place for kids and home this lovely 1879 vintage carousel designed by Charles Garnier (of Paris Opera fame).

We started at the Jardin des Enfants, where the little ones roamed the lawns…

… and splashed in the wading pools.

Next were yummy crepes from the kiosk by the carousel.

We admired the kiosk’s design…

…the sweet sign…

…the striped awning…

…and a cozy interior seating area overlooking tennis courts, in case you get caught in a torrential downpour (which we did!).

We sheltered from the rain in the art gallery!

My only regret is that we didn’t have time to rent the vintage toy sailboats! La prochaine fois!

Over 4th of July weekend (um, yes, it took me awhile to get around to this post!), I attended a really lovely cheese making workshop at Lucky Goat Family Farm in Big Sur.  Milking a goat, was somewhat intimidating at first, but in the end, and after some man-handling that this particular goat was very patient about, pretty fun!

And the baby goats are le cute!

Turns out that super delicious goat cheese is actually not terribly difficult to make (or so it seemed under the capable direction of Sequoia Chappellet and her mom, our instructors. Of course, they’ve been making cheese for 27 years, so I’m not sure if I’d get the same results in my own kitchen!)

We decorated our cheese with edible flowers picked from their garden.  Mine was a little nod to Fourth of July with a fireworks motif!

The work of our various artistes!  Who knew that cheese decorating could be so creatively fulfilling?

The workshop ended with a cheese tasting that was SO delicious – it doesn’t really get much better than goat cheese paired with fresh baked bread from Big Sur Bakery (which is, by the way, not to be missed if you ever find yourself down that way), a delicious wine from the family winery and other delicacies!

Note to brides out there looking for a really lovely rustic venue:

Lucky Goat Family Farm is available for wedding rentals (they have a beautiful artist’s loft that opens out onto a perfect spot for an outdoor celebration) and there are several houses available as vacation rentals on the property that would be a great place for friends and family to stay!  Alas, I did a terrible job of getting any photos of the space but trust me, it’s lovely and well worth a look!

This is my hilarious son, Jude, wreaking havoc on his dinner.  He has recently begun objecting to his high chair…

…so I was thrilled to find this amazing vintage booster chair on Sweet Lucie on Etsy via ModernKiddo!  How genius is this? I swear we had something just like it when we were kids…so cute and love to 70′s floral…

*eunice

After two weeks visiting our London office, I nipped away with my family to Paris for the weekend. Paris with two 16 month-olds felt a little daunting at first, but everything turned out beautifully (with the exception of a couple delicious meals that arrived too slowly for a toddler’s taste, so were hastily wolfed down!).

First stop: La Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature. My husband, J., was skeptical given my known obsession with taxidermy, but it proved to be creative, gorgeous, and amusing!

Strolling around the Marais, we spotted gorgeous fresh flowers from a street vendor…

… some fab outfits…

…a French book titled Madmen: Un Art de Vivre

Vintage photography shop Images & Portraits

Gorgeous bead shop Tout a Loisirs…

ie boutique - colorful Indo-European children’s clothes and decor created by a Japanese stylist and a French-Nepalese architect.

The best part was just to “faire une promenade” around the streets (and boutiques!) of Paris. The evening’s dinner (sans petits) was at Le Train Bleu at Gare du Lyon – a gorgeous beaux-arts interior serving traditional French cuisine. A lovely start to the weekend!