As  you may have guessed, we love stationery. We love what it represents: the care and thought and planning put into ordering invitations, the personal touch and time taken to write a thank you note, the joy of sharing and receiving letters and cards and photographs during the holiday season. Who doesn't love getting real mail (not just bills and sale ads), or feel special when they receive a handwritten note or an actual invitation? We value stationery, and want others to appreciate it as well.

That said, we understand that, in the craziness of life, picking out stationery is seldom a priority and is often overwhelming. We also know that it is quite tempting to simply email, Facebook or Tweet someone an invitation, birthday wish or congratulations. In reality, sending a physical, professionally printed invitation for a "we should get together and do dinner... how does Tuesday work for you?" situation simply doesn't work. For bigger life events like birthdays, graduations, weddings, births, planning is completely possible, and stationery fast becomes a must in commemorating that milestone. 

Over the next week or so, we are going to look at some life situations and show how finding stationery, and coordinating it to your personality or taste or circumstance, really isn't that hard. We hope you'll stay with us for this, and that this little series is both helpful and enjoyable.

Congratulations! You're expecting a little baby boy in the next few months, and your mind has turned toward all things baby: cribs, blankets, showers, birth announcements. With so many options, what do you choose? Let's look at some of the possibilities. Perhaps you've registered at Babies 'R' Us for your nursery decor; they really do have some adorable sets. If you're having a boy, you might have selected one of the sets below:

A nautical theme, a sports theme, a classic baby boy nursery, a trucks theme and a jungle theme (obviously our favorite, since we've chosen 1, 2, 3, 4 to display). Absolutely adorable, but what does that have to do with stationery? Nothing, if you want. Or everything, if you like. Let's look.

If you chose a nautical nursery, we have two sets of nautical stationery to coordinate. Our Red Nautical set includes an invitation (perfect for baby showers), note cards (for thank you notes after the baby shower), stickers (which can be print with your address or simply the baby's name), gift cards (perfect for sending to family with pictures), and a placemat (to keep your table somewhat clean as baby grows up, or to use as a door sign). If red is not your favorite color, but the nursery still has a nautical theme, consider our Light Blue Nautical line: stickers, return address labels, gift cards (which can be enclosed with shower invitations and contain registry information), invitations, and announcements (great for sending as birth announcements to friends and family). Or, if your baby boy is already here, you can use our Light Blue Nautical digital photo card as a birth announcement and picture for friends and family to enjoy and keep! Other options include our Red Prep Stripe note card and invitation, our Red Chevron stationery, our Navy Rope stationery, or our Anchor stationery.  

For sports, our All Star line an excellent choice, and our Trucks line continues the theme set by the bedding above.  For the Classic Boy Nursery, our Andrew Train, Blue or Brown Swiss Dot, Blue Prep Stripe, Navy Braid and Taylor Blue lines all tie in the masculine tone with classic shades of brown and blue.

Since the Jungle nursery is our favorite, we'll show you how this all works with our Jungle stationery. You've chosen your favorite Jungle bedding (although we're having a difficult time doing so--they're all so cute), and your best friend/sister/neighbor/coworker has offered to host a baby shower for you. You can choose from several different jungle-themed invitations: 

From left to Right: Jungle Party, Jungle Buddies, Jungle Party, and Jungle Boy (also available for Girls) Invitations

The best part about these invitations is that they can be used for more than baby shower invitations; they can be birth announcements, birthday party invitations, class trips to the zoo, flyers for camps with a jungle or safari theme, and so on. In this case, though, they make adorable baby shower invitations. For those into scrapbooks, imagine a set of these: baby shower invitation, thank you card, birth announcement, first birthday, and so on, all following the same theme.  Which leads us to the next part of the Jungle set:  

The Jungle Buddies announcement card, top left, is one way to announce the birth of your baby boy after he has arrived; another way is our Jungle Buddies photo card (right), with a photo of your precious addition digitally printed on the card (perfect for far-away family and friends unable to come and visit your newborn in person). Our Jungle Party note card can be used as thank you notes for the baby shower, or later on as stationery for your child. Lastly, our Jungle Party placemat carries the jungle theme into your newborn's childhood (plus, our placemats are reversible, and the other side can have a completely different design). 

Obviously, none of these cards are limited to showers for baby boys and their mothers; there are many more uses, occasions and ways to enjoy them. We love our products, and we want to show you how wonderfully easy they are to use, and how life events and your preferences--in this case, nursery decor for a baby on the way--can be a source of inspiration in choosing stationery. Come back next week for more!

Every once in a while, you cross paths with someone and just... fall in love.  Maybe not love love, but you become life-long friends, mutual admirers and encouragers. They inspire you, continuing to do so the longer and better you get to know them. Their work just fascinates you, impresses you, awes you every time.  We're in love with a photographer (several, actually), and her name is Mika Beth Edwards.  

We are always in need of photographs around here; primarily, we use them as samples for our photo cards, but they also inspire us through color, pattern, setting, occasions and subjects. We love looking at the photographs that customers send in with their orders, especially of the little kids and families. Last November, we knew we would need photographs to use with the new designs for 2009. Instead of using pictures of our friends and family, as we have in years past, we called upon our blog readers to submit pictures. There were a few stipulations (submitters had to hold the rights to the photograph and allow us to reproduce any selected pictures, the photos had to meet quality criteria, and had to be appropriate), but anyone whose pictures were selected won a gift certificate for our photo cards. Pretty cool, right? Lots of people submitted pictures, and we used as many as we could. This is where Mika Beth comes in to our lives. She sent us the following pictures:

How could we not fall in love with the vibrant, rich colors, the clarity, and the patterns? Simply beautiful!! We had to know more, see more, so we visited Mika Beth's website, which consists of galleries of her photographs (divided into portrait and senior categories), Bebe and Beau (a boutique with which she is affiliated), and her blog (where she showcases recent photo shoots). The business is run by Mika Beth and her husband (she takes the pictures, and he does the books), and her passion for her vocation and subjects shines through. We asked her for more pictures, to use or inspire us or simply to look at, and she sent us TONS! Here's a sampling of her work:

These family pictures are wonderful for framing on the wall, preserving in an album or scrapbook or sending out to family and friends on a photo card.

These portraits are all amazing! Some of them are senior pictures, capturing youthfulness on the verge of adulthood, while others are pictures of children in all their beauty. Her attention to detail--blades of grass or leaves in the background, a twinkle in an eye--is stunning, and the colors perfectly accentuate the subjects. And the subjects' emotions--playfulness, independence, innocence, love, peace, joy, strength--all shine through. Simply wonderful work!

Oh, the babies. Mika Beth seems to have a true passion for photographing toddlers, babies, infants, and newborns (especially fresh from the hospital newborns). She captures their innocence and beauty, their personalities (because those are already starting to come through), their sweetness and serenity. They are all so beautiful, and her lens does them justice. Mika Beth, these babies make us smile.

So, why have we introduced you readers to Mika Beth? First, she is a talented photographer whose works should be enjoyed by many and not kept hidden away. Anyone near Arkansas should give her (or her husband) a call to set up something. Second, to show the value and power of photography at capturing and preserving moments. Whether you hire a professional or not, take some family pictures; you will want them down the road. Third, to show how photographs, people or events in life (births, birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc) can provide inspiration. Is a loved one graduating soon? Getting married? Having a baby? Turning four? Are you stumped on how to celebrate these events? Over the next week or two, we'll take a couple of these pictures and use them as inspiration pieces for choosing stationery and invitations. So please, come back next week for more.

While exploring the internet, we stumbled across the website of Halsea, a California-based luggage and handbag company. With a subtle beach theme, vibrant colors, and bold patterns, Halsea's products exude California fun while maintaining casual sophistication. A nice array of products--weekend bags, clutch wallets, lunch totes, sunglass cases, totes and more--allows anyone to incorporate that casual sophistication into everyday life.  While picking a favorite product is not easy, we found two that we were drawn to:

The China Cove Weekend Bag, shown in Sunset Pink, is the perfect size for a weekend getaway; it is durable (canvas bag with leather trim and metal feet) as well as adaptable (there is a detachable shoulder strap in addition to the handles shown).  Best of all, though, are the subtle  shell pattern and fun colors.

  

We also could not resist the clutch wallets, available in all four Halsea patterns and shown above in Little Harbor Kelp and Coffee.  These can work as traditional wallets, holding all the essentials... plus a pen! Moreover, their stylish and fun exteriors enable them to stand alone as a clutch.  Our favorite Halsea pattern, Little Harbor, reminds us of some of our own products: the pattern of our Tahiti products is similar, while the colors in our Patio Trellis Green and Brown products parallel Halsea's Kelp and Coffee colors.  

We can't resist Halsea's love of pattern and color, and we love their concept of casual sophistication.  We hope that you are as inspired by their products as we are! 

Wouldn't this be a neat sofa for a loft in some urban district? A little bit of exposed brick, and some bright, airy, seemingly stark white walls would be instantly warmed with this whimsical, sittable, work of art from Squint in London.

Also inspiring: the aviary background pattern on Squint's site.

Images courtesy of Squint.

Yum: green chippendale chair, original painting by J. Grumbles at Uptown Country Home.

The next time you're in the Miami area, swing by Chapter Two. The Women's Alliance has created the organization to be a nonprofit, sustainable community element by collecting ready-to-wear, high-end, second hand clothing for the Chapter Two resale shop. Their cause? They use the funds generated from sales to help provide skills training and professional clothing to low-income women seeking employment. They've taken the consignment store concept to a new level, by providing the customer a unique brand experience, complete with chic signage, collateral, store layout and merchandising techniques.

Chapter Two called in design firm mono to create an identity system that aligned with the nonprofit's tagline: "Everything deserves a second chance". Enforcing the concept of sustainability, mono used vintage wallpaper scraps for their business cards. My favorite elements? A variety of inspirational patterns, great typography with use of a classic small caps face, and the vintage-inspired black boxes hanging off the page.

Found via Design Crush.

Every room needs a touch of black--that's Whitney English Design Philosophy 101. It anchors a room. The above has more than just a touch; the neutral tones seem grounded by the black wainscoat, the dark wine bottles, and the neutrally-framed chalkboard. I'm particularly fond of kitchen chalkboards, especially when they are in the reach of children. Nothing sparks the imagination like the opportunity for spontaneous creativity.

Image courtesy of Coeur de Beurre.

I've always loved that perfect shade french blue. A little bit gray, a little bit green, a little bit blue. Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage is a perfect shade for walls. When it came time to choose colors for our Oklahoma home, I chose Pratt and Lambert's Contemplation for the living room and master bedroom. (It was just a little less blue than Silver Sage.) While I've used shades of yellow and brown to make the living room a little bit more spicy, I wanted nothing but peaceful serenity in the master bedroom. So, I've gone with all shades of aqua, french blue and white.

Our Aqua Damask Note Card is one of my personal favorites, and it reminds me of the perfect color palette for our master bedroom. In the shot above, you can barely see dust skirt on the bed, but it is classic aqua and ecru damask. I found it on clearance because of a slight color variance, and bought all three remaining bolts. I think I'd like to do an upholstered headboard out of it as well.

The room itself is a work in progress, so this shot illustrates just a corner. My mother is an excellent resource for all things furniture. She has an estate sale habit that translates into great deals for us. The chest is a piece by Milling Road, so while not a true antique, definitely has the crackled appeal of one.

A recent post on Cote de Texas just took me back. If you will allow me the indulgence of recollection, I'd like to share my memories on a brief three months of perfection.

It was the summer after my junior year of college. As an interior design major, I had drooled for years over Charles Faudree's work. He is a cousin of an uncle, and uncle made the necessary call, and my internship was established. I made arrangements to stay with my cousins in a small town just outside Tulsa, but not far, so I could make the drive in each day. I felt like the luckiest interior design major in the entire country: I had an internship with Charles!

Years before, we had actually been to Tulsa to see his "Chateau Debt" (as he fondly called the money pit that was his dream house, now sold) when I was probably only 14. I remember walking through the front door, and feeling like little orphan Annie the first time she walked into the Daddy Warbucks mansion. On returning home to Oklahoma City, I insisted on painting my room a Pratt and Lambert butter color, and swooning over Ralph Lauren's sage green Charlotte floral, the closest thing I could find to a Bennison fabric on a 14 year old's budget. (I have a picture--I'll try to find it to post.) So, yes, that was me. A fourteen year old in love with interior design and chateaus and toile.

I can't even begin to describe the months of my internship. I don't remember my first day, but I do remember walking into house, after house, after house, of perfection. Nothing out of place. Dreamy antiques all over the place. Sarah Brightman, Frank Sinatra and classical music in rotation on the shop's stereo. Meandering over to T. A. Lorton to smell the candles when it got slow. Riding in the van to deliver furniture, to the lamp shade shop. Cleaning out the fabric room, ordering fringe for my first custom made silk pillows. Walking into the shop one day to see Charlotte Moss sitting in Charles' office, collar popped in crisp perfection. Every time I turned around, there was more fabulous.

I know life is never perfect, but looking back, that summer FELT like it was. Everything was beautiful--all the way down to the milk in the glass jar in the refridgerator. If I learned anything from Charles (and I learned a ton!), it was to take the time to savor the small things, the details, the littles. Maybe the beauty of that summer lied within the details he surrounded us all with. Charles continues to remain an inspiration to me, not only for his design work, but for his heart for humanity, and his divine sense of humor.

So let me throw the question back to you: do you mind sharing a time when 'life was perfect'? Maybe just a moment, or maybe a season, but a time when life seemed to have it's own soundtrack of bliss? If you don't want to comment, feel free to email me at whitneyenglish at yahoo dot com.

Summer is here, and there is nothing preppier than summer. In celebration of sailing, beach houses, flip flops and Lilly Pulitzer shifts, we're hosting a Week of Preppy! To kick it off, I'd like to introduce you to a few of my favorite preppy bloggers, a few of whom have offered to sponsor a stationery giveaway!

Readers, meet Third Coast Preppy. She's a thirty-something, married lady, preppy girl, first-time mama, shopping addict, recovering attorney, etiquette nazi, serial comma devotee, procrastinator extraordinaire. We have SO much in common, minus the "first-time mama" and "recovering attorney". My favorite Third Coast Preppy post is her Nautical Nursery. Didn't she do a great job with the water theme?

Next, I'd like to introduce you to Tres Poshe Preppy. She is so chic, and has a fabulous blogroll of preppy blogs, just in case you are bored. She likes cable knit cashmere and cupcakes. YUM. One of my favorite Tres Poshe posts is So Me vs. So Not Me.

Both Third Coast and Tres Poshe are sponsoring a Whitney English giveaway! Stop by their blogs to enter a comment to win one of the packages, and read a little.

Oh, and one more preppy blog mention: Sippycups Are for Chardonnay is hosting a Baby Shower Inspiration Board contest! Head on over, get inspired, submit your baby shower ideas!

Check back more tomorrow. I'm off to find the preppiest recipes, pink and green party ideas and luxuries for more Week of Preppy!