Image Credit: Boston.com

A World of Inspiration is a series of design color palettes created from inspiration from cultures and places around the world.

I posted two weeks ago about getting the exciting chance to work again with Amy for a redesign of Tapas Trays. Lucky for me that's not all Amy hired me to do. She also wanted me to design the branding and layout for her new blog, Lillian Burns.

I sincerely loved working on this project. It was fun and colorful, and a breath of fresh air. Doing business branding is what I do. I usually pass on blog branding, but there was no way I was going to pass on Amy, and I'm so glad I didn't. Creating this fun brand for Amy was so fun.

I recently launched a really fun product for The Possum Shoppe. Laura contacted me to design a website for her adorable embroidery and kid's goods business. Creating the branding for this was my favorite part. Look how adorable! And believe me, it wasn't easy making an adorable possum.

Even after getting my own compass tattoo, I'm still obsessing over them. They're beautiful; they're my favorite tattoo subject.

While I'm not planning on getting another compass tattoo, I still feel the need to share these. They're more traditional than my own, and oh-so-lovely.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Two weeks ago I finished up work on a project that I was so excited to launch. Last Monday that launch came for Pure Style Home, the eCommerce website behind the popular interior design blog by Lauren Liess.

Whenever I read my favorite blogs I always imagine these bloggers as however they portray themselves on their blogs. I'm sure everyone does this. The couple of times that I've actually spoken to the bloggers behind the blogs, and even met them face-to-face, I'm often surprised to see that they're nothing like I imagined them.

This was never so with Lauren. Though we've never met, we've spent a lot of time chatting via email and phone working on this project as well as some tweaks to her fabulous blog. She really is as sweet and hard working as her blog makes her out to be. Another fabulous client to add to my list of favorites. I was so lucky to have the chance to work with her!

With the launch of her new site came the launch of her new fabric line, which I cannot stop drooling over. I'm trying to figure out the best way to break it to David that I need to spend about $1000 on a set of new curtains. I know they'd be perfect.

I've been playing with the idea of changing my hair color for the first time since freshman year. Freshman year of high school, that is.

I grew up with very blonde hair and as I've gotten older it's turned from blonde to ash. After having Lily it got even darker. Now it's in this weird limbo between being blonde and almost brunette, but more of a colorless blonde/gray. I don't know, maybe I'm being too critical. All I know is that I don't love it.

So, I've been playing with the idea of changing it, and really there are two options: darker or lighter.

While perusing my choices I came across two of my favorite kid detectives: MK and Ashley. MK is brunette and Ashley is blonde. Both in their usual hair-perfection.

And now the questions of the week: am I a Mary-Kate or am I an Ashley?

Image Source

Image Credit: National Geographic via Pinterest

A World of Inspiration is a series of design color palettes created from inspiration from cultures and places around the world.

Tapas Trays is one of my all-time favorite accounts. Amy from Tapas Trays first hired me almost 2 years ago to design her eCommerce website and print materials. A little over a year ago she hired me to upgrade her hosting to Business Catalyst. Then, a couple of months ago, I heard from Amy again.

This time Amy wanted to redesign her website. Freshen it up - keeping with her original branding - and improve the functionality. I was so pleased to work with Amy again. She's fantastic. She's one of the most respectful clients I've ever worked with, and it's always such a relief to be able to work with Amy.

We redesigned the site, improved navigation, added more categories for her growing product line. We also redesigned her print materials, so they matched her new clean design.

I love the colorfulness of Tapas Trays' products. I'm already planning several Christmas gifts around these. Or maybe I'll just buy a couple of sushi trays for myself.

Fall is long gone here in the mountains. The scene from my studio is brown and icky, with a never-ending threat of snow. So, excuse me while I reminisce on color. It'll be a while before I see any of that around these parts.

I woke up on Tuesday morning sad that it was my last day in Paris, and unwilling to let a single moment of it go to waste. I got up and ready, had my usual breakfast at the café, and hopped on the metro heading for the Marché Raspail.

The food market on Raspail is supposedly the most expensive street food markets in Paris, and a favorite of the one and only Ina Garten. When planning my trip I knew I had to include this market on my list of things to do, as I had never bothered with going to a food market on either of my two previous trips. I wanted to see this.

And I was far from disappointed. There were the most fabulous fruits and vegetables I'd ever seen, fish, chickens (plucked, but with their claws still on, which weirded me out), cheese, seafood, jarred goods. I wanted to buy everything! And at that moment I wanted, more than anything, a tiny Parisian flat with a tiny Parisian kitchen to take a bag of fresh produce home to and dig in.

I strolled the market for a while, snapping lots of photos, and then headed out for some sightseeing on foot.

I strolled up to l'Église Saint-Sulpice on a whim, the same one made famous in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. It was so gorgeous. Much prettier than expected.

The area surrounding ended up also being a great shopping region, which is where I found a small Ladurée (where the invented macarons, I got a half dozen including rose petal and green apple, omg) and an Agatha store, where I continued to satisfy my jewelry obsession.

I walked on toward the center of Paris where my lunch-time plans waited.

I booked a cooking class with La Cuisine on a whim a few weeks before the trip, and it easily ended up being one of my favorite experiences during my trip. For a little over 2 hours we mingled and cooked, and then sipped wine and ate. Class had about 12 folks from around the US, except for a girl from Hong Kong who spoke better english than I do (I have to get Lily a foreign education, gees).

The menu included french onion soup, stuffed zucchini and tomatoes and madeleines. I can hardly think of three better French yummies to make. And the location was perfection. It was a small venue right on the Seine near l'île de la Cité. The "classroom" was a kitchen with a long counter that we worked around, with a perfect dining room setup with a view of the Seine. Per-fection.

After class I walked over for a quick sight-see of the Notre Dame Cathedral, where I got hit by an insane downpour (don't let those blue skies deceive you) which sent me immediately back to the hotel via metro to pour the water out of my boots.

After drying off and changing I headed out on foot again, but this time I headed northwest to the Sacré Cœur for a view of the city that I had fallen in love with all over again. When it started to get dark, I strolled down and hopped on the metro once more to the Eiffel Tower. I had to say goodbye.

It was the best way I could think of to spend my last night in Paris: sitting under the Eiffel Tower thinking about how the trip had exceeded my expectations. How I had exceeded my own expectations.

I met awesome people (I didn't even tell you about the motorcycle guy on one of my flights, the sweet lady at a jewelry store, or the friend I made at a bakery near my hotel), I had learned lots about Photoshop and met crazy-talented ladies at Blogshop, I had a "breakfast place" in Paris and made friends with it's owner. I traveled 5,000 miles from home all alone without throwing up from missing Cute Kid. I was on a business trip - a business that I own and run - in Paris.

Dude, I'm a grown up. (Well, except for the fact that I ate so many macarons that I gave myself a stomache, like a kid, and I totally overuse the word "dude.") What an odd thing to realize.