Monday, May 21, 2012

Freshened Up!

Over the past several months, I've been working on a new logo and new website for Haddon Interiors. It was about time to freshen things up around here! Portfolios take a long time to create as most projects can take up to a year to complete before they are ready to shoot. I'm very appreciative of the amazing clients who allowed me to photograph their spaces.

For the logo, I worked with the wonderful, lovely and very talented Megan of Toast and Laurel. I had come across Megan after seeing the beautiful work she did for the west coast designer, Amy Meier, and I knew I had to work with her! We collaborated via email and phone, and we started the process with an inspiration board I sent her of random images/fonts I had collected over time. I love how a logo, which is mainly text, can be inspired by images - or at least that is the why I work best! Megan worked with me to create a beautiful, clean and classic logo.


My inspiration board



Using the inspiration board as a jumping off point, we finally came to this final design:



Now that I had the new logo finalized, the website was next, which was a much larger undertaking. I knew I wanted a very simple website so that my photos would be the focus. I decided to use the website company, Big Folio, because they were not only priced right, but had some wonderful templates that looked professional. They were incredibly easy to work with, and help was just an email away if needed.



I also worked with the talented photographers, Stacy Zarin-Goldberg and Amy Free to capture the projects and page photos for the site. Hiring a professional photographer is worth every penny!!!

I hope you take a minute to poke around on my site. My portfolio is a "working" portfolio as I always have projects in the work that will eventually be photographed and added to the site.

Thanks again to all the wonderful, professional women who helped me with this face lift. The blog is next on my list...

Monday, May 7, 2012

A Beautiful Weekend


Why are weekends so short!? We returned last night from spending a beautiful, relaxing weekend in southern Delaware and Kennet Square, PA with some dear friends. The weekend consisted of lazy mornings paired with a visit to the famous Longwood Gardens, a chef's tasting dinner at Terrain and then we topped off the weekend by attending the horse races at Winterthur's Point-to-Point.

LONGWOOD GARDENS:

Longwood was originally owned by Pierre du Pont, of the du Pont empire, who proved to be one of the more gifted gardeners in the du Pont family. The land was originally a farm, owned by a Quaker family until Pierre purchased the farm and turned it into what is now today. In 1946, Pierre turned the gardens over to a foundation, and after his death in 1954 the first director was hired so that future generations could come and enjoy the immaculate expanse of flora.

Perfect symmetry





Secret Garden






Justin hitching a ride from his bud, Watchman

Roosting goose
Tree house!


 



There are miles of walking trails within these meadows

Smelly Ian, as the kids call him, giving fun stroller rides

Inside the conservatory 
Walking through the gardens is truly a magical experience. The morning we were there, there was a mist in the air, and I felt as though I had been plucked and dropped into a story book. Paths take you along small ponds filled with geese, through a field of rainbow colored flowers and a court of whimsical topiaries where  Alice of Alice in Wonderland could have easily jumped out behind one of the arbor creations. I highly recommend a visit!


TERRAIN:
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the shop, Terrain, that is owned by Anthropolgie/Urban Outfitters. Visiting this shop has been on my bucket list for a long time, and when I learned that our friend Ian had set up a dinner there for us, I had died and gone to heaven! First off, the shop is really more of a nursery but the non-plant items they have there are beautifully curated. I felt like my brown thumb was turning green on the spot as I walked through the beautiful displays. The Mister asked me if we could make our house look like this and of course my reply was, "Well yes! Just give me the credit card."


Sorry for the poor photos...I only had my iPhone with me!

Inspiration for our backyard



I had no clue that there was a restaurant at Terrain, and I died and went to heaven twice that night!  Our dinner reservations were for a chef's tasting menu, which meant rounds and rounds of delectable food continued to pour out of the kitchen. We passed plates and ate our meal tapas style as we all tasted the various dishes. We enjoyed everything from steak, duck, squid, soft-shell crab, lentils, fiddle head ferns, to pecan pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, and cappuccinos. I literally rolled out of my chair...All the food was local and organic, and we had the chance to chat with chef at the end of dinner in hopes of stealing some of his secrets!

Dinner in the greenhouse
Our beautiful table setting


 WINTERTHUR POINT-TO-POINT:
(Brownie points to you if you are still reading) On Sunday, we got all gussied up in our hats, bow-ties, and preppy-wear for the Point-to-Point races at Winterthur. The Mister and I went two years ago and had a blast although it was a whopping 98 degrees that year. Thankfully, we were greeted at the races with a breeze in the air and slightly overcast skies that made the afternoon perfectly pleasant.  I'm an animal lover and loved being around the horses and dogs, but the best part was the people watching...seriously. On so many occasions I wanted to snap some photos of what-not-to-wear sightings, but I had brought my manners.

Here's our motley crew...we tried out best to not end up on the "not-to-wear" list!

Here is a taste of the action:

                                   

It was an amazing weekend!!! Here's to next Friday!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Artistic Happy Hour

Hello! Sorry for the radio silence. I've been working on rebranding Haddon Interiors, which I'm excited to share with you in a few weeks, and I've been starting on some fun, new projects. Things around here have been busy, and so I was excited to be invited to a little happy hour hosted by my dear friend, Lisa Shirk.


Le Artiste!



Lisa is an amazing artist who has recently launched her new website. She is also passionate about getting people to think creatively and take artistic risks regardless if you deem yourself an artist or more of a can't-draw-a-straight-line type of person. Lisa invited a few of us together last week to do a test run on an idea she hopes to get momentum behind - an artistic happy hour! About 8 of us gathered after work last week, and while noshing on wine and delicious appetizers, Lisa taught us the basics of creating art. She went through the various mediums (watercolor, acrylic, charcoal, pen + ink) and had us do few warm up exercises. Then....she let us loose. We each received an 8x10 blank canvas where we could experiment with any type of medium and paint anything that inspired us.






I had come across an amazing piece of artwork the other day through a blog, however it was too steep for my pockets to purchase. I figured this may be an opportunity to try and recreate it....

not too bad, but I'm no Lisa Shirk!



The evening was such a great way to relax post-work, and everyone left with an original piece of art. It was a win-win evening for all!

Please check out Lisa's work, and she is available for commissions as well!