We here at Brown Sugar Design love cake, and in the words of Jim Gaffigan, “Pie can’t compete with cake…Put candles in a pie, and somebody’s drunk in the kitchen.”

This subject brings us to our new blog love: 100 Layer Cake. Fairly new on the scene, they have drawn some great attention – and rightly so. Their blog is beautiful and full of creative wedding inspiration and ideas. All this – and they haven’t even launched their ‘full’ resource site yet. We can’t wait to see what they come out with. If you haven’t yet, go and check it out. You won’t be disappointed and will quickly see the truth in the statement “pie can’t compete with cake…” especially if happens to be 100 Layer.

Memorial day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, and here in the Pacific Northwest, we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful weekend. Typically Memorial Day weekend is spent indoors, since it’s usually gray, dreary, or raining (or all three) but this year we received a special treat: 3 solid gorgeous days of sunshine and mid-seventies temperatures.

Who knows how long this sunshine will last (summer is so fickle here, we could have a cold and dreary June) but after this beautiful weekend, I’m geared up for a sunny and perfect summer. These wedges scream summer to me – the combo of hot pink and braided rope is so fun (and who wouldn’t want what looks like bougainvillea blooms on their toes?!?) So even if the Seattle weather doesn’t cooperate with my wishes, at least my feet will look sunny and summery.

I was turned on to these lovelies by one of our brides and had to share. These calendar necklaces are a great way to commemorate your wedding day (or any other important day in your life) and are so much fun! They come in your choice of metal (rose gold, yellow gold, white gold, or silver) in your choice of finish (shiny or matte) with a sapphire in your choice of color marking your special date. There are so many customization possibilities!

In case you haven’t seen this yet, Junebug Weddings, one of our favorite online wedding resources, is having a guest blogging series by Mindy Weiss.

Check out the first installment of “Ask Mindy” where Mindy answers questions on how to keep your wedding budget under control.

She offers some great advice on ways to keep your wedding budget in control without losing your personal style or the quality that your wedding day deserves. We can’t wait to read Mindy’s next installment!

I recently saw Nole from Oh So Beautiful Paper post about her new business cards designed by Simple Song Design. These are so nice and subtle – a very nice compliment to her great blog. The colors are great and the the blind de-bossed letterpress gives the cards and stationery a great texture.

If you haven’t seen Nole’s blog go check it out now; you won’t be disappointed by all the great ephemera, especially this week with her regular posts covering the National Stationery Show.

Well, it happened. One of our absolute favorite font houses, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, came out with a new typeface this past week. As always, it’s a beauty. Sentinel is a slab serif for all occasions. It comes in a variety of weights and because of its great design it defies what other slab serifs lack and actually has  italics.

Looks like we’re going to be out another $199.00.

Whitney has always been drawn to people with eye glasses, and in turn has always wanted me to have to wear glasses. I think this originates from the fact that she has to wear glasses.

Though, I must say, I have secretly wished for bad eyesight just because there are so many cool frame styles out there, to the point where I was actually a little disappointed when I passed my eye exam with flying colors.

It has been a few years now since my last eye exam and I haven’t really thought about this for a while… until I came across these Oliver Peoples glasses. I love these. (Although, I’m not sure I could actually pull them off.) If my eyesight is still pretty good, I may not be able to consider these for another 10 years when it’s likely that my eyesight will start going downhill. By that time, I’m sure I will be nicely seasoned with gray hair, so these might be a perfect eccentric accessory.

As we mentioned a while back, we had bid farewell to our old studio a few weeks ago. It served us well for a couple of years, but after the initial move we went into serious studio set-up mode.

Above is just a quick sneak peek into what we were dealing with as we started to get things together. As you can see, there are some good bones to the room: exposed brick walls, vaulted ceilings and windows with great sunlight. Stay tuned for a in-depth before and after shots of our studio setup that Whitney will post next. We’re excited about the new studio and the chance to meet our clients here as well as all our industry friends.

So my mom is is serious seamstress. She sewed dresses for me throughout my childhood (until I hit ten, at which point I refused to wear homemade clothes) and she has some seriously strong sewing genes – my late grandmother was also quite crafty (her sewing room is a veritable treasure trove). My mom insisted that I take sewing lessons as a preteen (I refused) and then insisted that I take sewing in high school (again, I refused: how nerdy! social suicide!)

Now though, I’m starting to look into learning how to sew, mostly because I’d like to be able to offer some sewn pieces in our wedding collection. As I look at sewing machines and sewing books I feel serious twinges of guilt for refusing my mom’s efforts to get me to learn these skills as a young person. Sorry, mom! Love you!

singer pro sewing machine | DIY sewing kit | both available at urbanoutfitters.com

lotta jansdotter’s simple sewing | zakka sewing | amy butler’s midwest modern

Okay – so, maybe these aren’t wedding worthy, but these new ‘The Simpsons’ stamps definitely need a mention, and look – they’re even the new 44 cent rate. What more can be said than this is a well deserved honor for one of the best written television shows in history. Now we just need to wait for the USPS to recognize Arrested Development.