{welcome} saint rooster

calling all anagram and furniture lovers!

liz martin, of saint rooster is a new kid on my small block, here at brown linen. 

as a former hip-hop dancer AND fabulous roommate, you better bet that I am SO pleased to introduce her lovely creations to you today.

from her creative and beautiful additions to old furniture, to her quirky and exciting blogs - a visit to her sight will be quite the highlight to your week with out a doubt!

be sure to give her some lovin' on her blog and her etsy store!  and if you are in the Atlanta area, her stuff can be found on sale, (in person!!) at the infamous Paris on Ponce!  Happy shopping!

{la vie thursdays} intro & spanish countryside

I LOVE THURSDAYS.

let me explain.

Thursday is the day before Friday, and I don't know about you, but I personally see Friday as the tiny budding glory into the weekend.  It's the day you sit at your office desk with a certain tap in your foot, and a special stroll in your walk; and you seem to sing a different tune that is only special to Friday.  (I like to refer to it as the "Friday Singy-Song")  You know that as soon as the clock hits 5 o clock, your time has begun - and there is nothing holding you back until 8am on the following Monday.  And even if you don't work the regular 8-5, there is a magic found in weekends that just doesn't come about on the other days.  The grocery store is busier, more people are out walking their dogs at the park, festivals in the town square are found in hoards, and the beer just tastes better!

What is more exciting, is weekends give you longer than the standard 6 hour time frame to go seek out a new adventure.  Depending upon where you live, you might be able to hit the beach all weekend, or run a race that spans across 3 states, or maybe stay in a nice hotel in your own neighborhood that you've always dreamed of splurging on just -- for the heck of it!  

You see, anything can happen -- and that's the magic.  

I'm a firm believer that we not only need rest to help with our mood, and to help keep away the bags from forming under our eyes...but we need rest in order to dream bigger, and think outside of ourselves more than ever before. 

So I've decided, that in honor of weekends and in honor of the mantra that "anything can happen"  I will be showcasing a crazy dream and wish that I have in store for that weekend.  Most of what I share will be outrageously luxurious, perhaps even a bit silly, and mostly just very simple and sweet.

So this weekend begins:

Longing to be in the Spanish countryside...

With a dark & broodingly handsome tour guide that I met in the patisserie early Friday morning while sipping on the most delicious, creamy cup of espresso, and reading InStyle Espanol.  We'll spend the weekend meeting the locals and struggling to understand my god-awful Spanish and his terrible English.  He'll buy us cheese and wine from the local markets, and I'll make him a crown from gathered wildflowers.

What about you?

What are you dreaming about this weekend??

{photo via: this is glamourous}

...violets are blue

With the onset of summer, I've found recently that the late afternoon evenings are better with my hands playing in the dirt then anything else that I think could seem worthy of my time.  My mom and brother and I have spent more time and more money at the local nursery picking out flowers, and going back to buy more flowers, and pining over which flowers will look best in what area of the yard. With the combination of planting and watering, my lazy evenings seem to be soaked up with the outdoor air all the way into the night. 

But being spoiled by the natural beauty surrounding our home, I've had a terrible time going to the boring and plain office space that I call my "other" home for 40 hours of my week.  So I decided to plant a piece of the heaven there too!

Choosing to start off with the beautious African Violet, after doing much research and talking to many of my "expert" indoor gardening friends, I found the most precious online store that specializes in the [usually] purple lovelies.  

You can just feel the excitement that this team of growers has for their little babies, and it was so fun to look through all the colors and pick and choose which pretties I wanted to find on my doorstep. 

{meet Cotton Ball, Delicious, Hot Tamale, & Cloudy Sky!}

From ordering, to packaging, to shipping - I was so excited to see that a few of the plants had already started to bloom!! I have never had so much fun!  I HIGHLY recommend a trip over to Rob's Violet Barn, and pick out some of your very own friends to make your home or office smile-worthy.  They are super super easy to care for, and the blooms are just so endearing.  

Happy gardening!!!

{wendy umanoff}

Last fall I had the privilege to meet and work with an incredible designer from the Richmond, Virginia area named Wendy Umanoff. Through doing some seasonal merchandising and setups for a local showroom in Atlanta, I was able to run into Wendy, who happened to be the head designer of the showroom and merchandising development for the company's Spring 2009 line, and even had a chance to work alongside of her for a few days. Well, as you know, working beside someone for 8 hours a day, people start to connect and share life - which is what I LOVE!!
So naturally we began discussing design, and the work that we were doing outside of the showroom. Wendy is a phenomenal designer, and I'm convinced that creativity, rather than blood, is what truly flows through her veins. With a background in sculpture, she brings a texture and depth to her work that I've yet to see anywhere else. Her take on life and her perspective on teaching and training is rare and profound as well. It was fascinating to listen to all the places that she's been, and things that she's seen...and I'm sure that there are more to come.
After many hours of hard work in the showroom, and getting to know each other better, the favored topic of "the world wide web" came into the discussion.
I won't go into all the details - but I'll say that 530 miles a part & 5 months later, Wendy and I continued to stay in touch, and she commissioned me to design her website.
So here we are!

I am so proud of her and all her work - and even more proud to to present the finished and LIVE product here!
Be sure to check her work out and send her some email lovin!

check back tomorrow for more from this incredible designer!

{courtney & austin}

After a weekend drenched in rain - I thought that starting the week off with a little calligraphy love would be suitable.

Back in November - I had the awesome privilege of being a part of a super hip event here in the city, along with some other pretty incredible vendors. With talents such as Joy Thigpen, Oh My Deer!, & Chocolate Pink - one can imagine that my finger nails were bitten to the quick from the nerves of being able to showcase my work at such a festive event. The NotWedding 2008 marked a super fun time in the history of Atlanta Weddings - as well as gave us great face time with the leading consumer's of our industry - the BRIDES!


If you had the opportunity to attend the NotWedding - one can remember that raffle tickets were sold at the event - and every ticket purchased could be placed in a chosen give-a-way.
One particular bride-to-be, Courtney, was smart enough to not only attend the event to check out all the new goods in the wedding market for herself - but her brains really came in handy when she thought enough to rally up her whole entourage of a bridal party for an evening of info and mayhem. So when one of her trusty "ladies in waiting" was the lucky winner of the Brown Linen & Co. giveaway - there was no hesitation to pass on her winnings to Ms. Courtney herself.


Working with Courtney was a pleasure and having the opportunity to work with beautiful materials for her special announcements was so fun!
It got pretty down to the wire when Courtney found out that her fiance, who is a Naval Officer was going to be deployed earlier than expected, and they had to move their wedding date up a month!


So here they are!! Beautiful rich navy paper envelopes with white ink - didn't they end up so sweet with the French threading around them??




A warm congrats to the happy couple, Courtney & Austin! SAILOR'S AWAY!

And keep your eye on that RSS feed! - I have some other goodies up my sleeve that I just can't WAIT to share!!

presenting...

...the new editions to the brown linen family!

hopefully you'll be seeing these more often.

happy wednesday!