The 2012 stamp program is a tad uneven if you ask me. But of course I am over the moon for these gorgeous Love stamps! Designed by Louise Fili and lettered by Jessica Hische. Super fun!

You can see the rest of the offerings for 2012 right here.

Maggie has a big family and lots of friends with kiddos, so she had the brilliant idea of creating book tags for each child. I think this is such a fun idea! Books are treasures and should be treated as such. This is a great way to instill a sense of pride of ownership in a child’s library, don’t you think?

I was given a list names along with a few of their favorite things. You can see the end result below!

1. Zinc Letters, $18; 2. Fantabulous Fabric Letters, $8.95; 3. Around the World Letters, $12; 4. Acid Etched Letter, $10; 5. Marquee Alphabet Light, $179; 6. Pinwale Alphabet, $14.

Fast forward a decade or so, and suddenly concert posters have become something to behold. Bold, graphic, illustrative, stylistic. Dare I say downright appropriate to frame and hang. Observe:

What do you think? Would you decorate with any of these concert posters?

From top left: The New Pornographers, $30; Feist, $40; Iron & Wine, $30; Jack Johnson, $20

From bottom left: Dave Matthews Band, $40; The Shins, $85; Bon Iver, $35; The Decemberists, Sold Out

If you’re bookish, you might enjoy decorating your iPhone with some classic literature. Out of Print offers iPhone covers with your choice of six classic books. To Kill A Mockingbird is pictured below. They’ve also got The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita and Moby-Dick. $35 each. (Will someone please explain to me why these small pieces of plastic can fetch so much money?)

Out of Print also has a cool selection of t-shirts that you should investigate. Why? Because for each t-shirt they sell, one book is donated to a community in need through their partner, Books for Africa.

My first thought is that I’d love a long wool coat in Cedar and it would be nice to paint every wall in my house various shades of Quarry. A scarf in Emberglow would be fun, too. What do you think? Do these color predictions have any effect on the things you’ll buy this fall?

So it should come as no surprise that tub time is one of the highlights of my day. Throw in these marvelous bath toys that I purchased recently and it’s all the more fun. Baby Ingrid LOVES these toys. Mama loves them because they spawn zillions of design ideas. The shapes remind me of a Matisse painting and the colors choices are inspired. I’ll see three soapy pieces of foam floating by and think, “we should redo our room in those colors.” Or “I need to try that palate on Client X.”

So thank you, Boon. If you’re a mom and love nifty things for your kids, check out their site. You might find some fun toys of your own. Maybe even a new color palate for that pesky powder room.

I was flipping through an old issue of Budget Travel the other day and discovered those evil geniuses at Pantone have done it again. In addition to lusting after a $110 set of coffee mugs, various stationery products and folding chairs, you can now rest your pretty head on a Pantone pillow at the Pantone Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

I love to travel, but admittedly have never been in a HUGE hurry to get to Brussels. Namely because it appears to be named after one of the most vile “vegetables” in existence. But then I’m reminded of three things they’ve got going for them: chocolate, waffles and beer. And now this hotel.

This is a great example of a brand creating a unique and memorable experience for the end user without abandoning their main objective. I still refer to my Pantone swatch books on a daily basis, but now I want to immerse myself in the Pantone culture. It’s a cool place to be and will only set you back €99 a night.

{ All photos from Hotels.nl }

They tried to hoodwink us into buying an obscenely expensive iPhone cover at the Apple Store, but we declined. I told my husband I could find something cool on the cheap. I lied. I just wanted an excuse to try out the custom options from Uncommon that I blogged about here.

I figured it would make a great father’s day gift, so I based the design around that. Baby Ingrid loves to babble. “Dadadadadada” is currently among her favorites. My husband thinks this is her way of communicating her unending love and devotion to her daddy.  Ok, sure.

Anyway, her babbles provided the inspiration for Daddy’s shiny new iPhone case. Take a look:

The process was super easy. Uncommon even sent me a .png file photo of the finished product to tweet or post. How convenient!

$34.95 plus shipping is more than I would normally spend on a piece of plastic, but in this case it was worth every penny.