Manimal has a new webshop (designed by Nothing Is New) with their new Alaskan Winter collection and I! Want! Everything! My birthday is in less than a month… There are even vegan options, which may possibly even be my favorite style of their shoes.

There’s so much good new music coming out this fall. Besides Sufjan and Iron & Wine (can’t wait to hear a new song!), I’m also super excited for the new Deerhunter album out at the end of this month, Halcyon Digest. Two songs from the album above that make my heart swell with music love goodness.

I’m going to make a historical move and not post Bits Of My Weekend until next weekend. I know! First time ever when no week-long vacation was involved in the year+ I’ve been doing this. But, I didn’t finish my roll of film yet! I’m halfway there, so I’m just going to use the rest up this week and weekend. But I will say that Philly was great, but too brief. But I did take a photo of Wendy before we left, so here it is, for some of you obsessive Wendy fans (Should I be nervous about you guys…?)

My grandpa sent me a couple great vintage family photos last night that I thought I’d also share. How lovely was my grandma? (She’s on the left in the second photo, fyi). I wish I could have met her, I’d like to think I see a bit of myself in her.

Highlights from the blogland this week:

Fantastic interview with one of my favorite artists, Stacey Rozich, on My Love For You. I rarely read a whole interview in my google reader, but I read this start to finish and loved every bit of it. I’m super sad Stacey and I weren’t able to align our schedules to meet up when she was here recently.

A beautiful photo of Meryl Streep on Untamed Lion, via Reference Library. Just because.

Wedding invites usually rank high on my list of things I don’t usually get too excited about (there are just so maaaaany blogged about out there!), but Tamera’s invites are so incredibly creative and fun they stopped me in my tracks. They came inside a custom made box filled with trinkets handpicked for each guest. I would die of excitement if I received an invite like this!

Lisa Congdon’s wonderful blog, A Collection A Day, is being turned into a book by Uppercase! I knew that this would be inevitable for the amazing series, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Sandra posed the question today: who was your first love? I thought the timing was uncanny because just last night I found mine on facebook. You know how you think that everyone you know is on facebook and there’s just no more discovery left? But then one night when you’re bored you come across a random photo via one of those terrible Mean Girls you went to high school with that you felt strangely obligated to accept a facebook friend request from, and there in the background is a familiar smile. The boy you were so lovesick over when you were 10 years old, you’d lay in bed and sob over his perfectly parted Jonathan Taylor Thomas blond hair. And he’s not the same person anymore (or is it just you that’s not the same person?): into hunting and Glenn Beck, is a father and married to a Mean Girl, still lives in the little town you grew up in that you cannot stand and you probably couldn’t hold a conversation to save your lives now, but that smile on his face is exactly the same as it was when you were 10 years old. You just have to ignore the camo and gun in his hand. Ah, facebook, you crazy beast.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Bits Of My Weekend won’t come til Tuesday again as I’m shooting a roll of film. Fashion Night Out + 24 hours in Philly = hopefully great weekend photo material!

Everyone and their mother has been and will be blogging about the Alexa Chung for Madewell line, now for sale online today. But I had to blog about the one piece that I really, really want to buy – the silk Iris blouse. Perfect Fall color, and the perfect shirt to tuck into high-waist pants.

Now, to have a pep talk with my bank account…

I haven’t shared recent flickr favorites in a while so I thought I would. Apparently I’m going for a blue/green theme lately. We’re going on an overnight trip to Philly this weekend, so I’m soaking up some analog inspiration as I’ll be leaving my digital at home.

thom fougere – esmée (via dreamcats) – Elohim Barros – Famapa – chih chen

I mulled over this post for a while, writing and re-writing too many details, the ups and downs, the good and the bad. But I deleted it all and decided to keep it short as that’s what I’m trying to do lately. The 3.5 day weekend started horrible awful, then it got better. Another weekend of taking frustration and bad luck and showing it who’s boss. Billy’s MFA opening on Friday was at first a classic “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” evening, but then it got better and so many wonderful friends braved the Queens train disaster to come out. Our apartment was briefly infested with flies (despite the fact that we are super clean people), but between Billy and our nice landlord, they’re gone and the apartment is better. We had dinner with Billy’s parents who were in town, we ate and drank our way through Eataly, and I had an incredibly productive Sunday and Monday that were the opposite of what Labor Day is all about. Oh, and of course, there were more tiny pies: apple, peach, and blackberry. No weekend could be terribly awful if it involves tiny pies, right? Not to mention beautiful, beautiful weather. The cool breeze coming through my window now is pure heaven.

Two lovely songs for your Monday:

Harper Simon’s “Berkeley Girl” featuring the lovely Jena Malone
via TeenAngster

Alain + Gia. via Amanda Mooney

Good morning, friends! I have two jewelry-related announcements this morning in place of Bits Of My Weekend, which will come tomorrow. (It’s still my weekend today, thankfully – I need it!)

First off, I’m excited to announce that I will be teaching a beginning jewelry making class at Lena Corwin‘s studio in Brooklyn in a couple weeks! I’ll be teaching the basics of using chains and beads, and even thread if you choose (there won’t be enough time to teach thread weaving, but some basic thread techniques can be incorporated.) It should be a lot of fun! There are full details + sign up instructions over at Lena’s studio blog, but the details in short are:

four 1-1/2 hour classes
monday evenings,
sept 20th
sept 27th
oct 4th
oct 11th
7:00 – 8:30pm

And my second announcement is that I will be having a mini shop update this Wednesday, September 8th at 9am EST with 10 brass drops necklaces. I did a big studio clean out yesterday and realized I had lots of supplies leftover for brass drops, and because they’re the most requested necklace I make, why not make some to sell? I don’t have a new stamp made for my new logo, so just ignore the old packaging you’ll receive if you buy one:)

And don’t forget about the Bakers Dozen necklace for sale AND did you know there is ONE Indian Summer necklace left in the shop from the last update? Somehow I missed that. Snatch that baby up.

Dream engagement rings by Satomi Kawakita on Unruly Things. Alyson is the queen of finding amazing rings!

I gotta admit something: I don’t think Don Draper is sexy. I want to punch him in the face this season of Mad Men, and sometimes I catch a glimpse of him and think he’s kind of goofy looking. But this photo of John Hamm behind the scenes (combined with his previous adorable stint on 30 Rock) made me realize that while I am not attracted to Don Draper, John Hamm can be my boyfriend any day.

Moshun from Jeroen Krielaars on Vimeo.

My coworker sent around this AMAZING animated typeface called Moshun. The idea of an animated typeface excites me in a way that reminds me what I love about being a designer.

I know many of you also read Smitten Kitchen, but this peach shortbread recipe looked too amazing to not share. I love shortbread more than words can describe. And peaches? My summer love.

And two personal bits…

A pink sunset last night

And for you Wendy fanatics (you know who you are), Wendy’s favorite thing on the whole world: Billy’s beat-up shoes. She’s also been enjoying a shoebox lately.

Have a great weekend everyone, and stay dry East Coasters! Monday is a holiday here in the states, so Bits Of My Weekend will come Tuesday, but a Music Monday post will still be on its way!