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I’m super excited that I have a lovely little giveaway for you guys today! Keep on reading to find out how you can win the notebook set + pen pictured above!
When one of your favorite fashion blogs collaborates with one of your favorite paper companies, you do a happy dance and thank your lucky stars. I was thrilled when I heard that Garance Doré and Rifle Paper Co. would be collaborating on a stationery collection. To celebrate the launch of the new line, there was an Open Studio here in NYC last Friday and Saturday.
I ventured out on a rainy Saturday to visit the Open Studio. Not only could you purchase merchandise from the new collection (along with other Rifle Paper Co. products), there were also several different fun activities. In one area you could write and send a letter to a loved one. Calligrapher Nicolas Ouchenir was also present to jot down notes in his beautiful handwriting. When it was my turn, I just asked him to write down my name and I have to say, it’s never looked prettier.
Garance herself was also walking about and signing things. This is completely unlike me, but at one point we were close to each other and made eye contact, so I stuck out my hand and introduced myself! I was totally fangirling- she was every bit as chic as I imagined her to be and also so gracious when I gushed about how much I love her blog and her stationery collection.
At the Open Studio, they served free coffee from Jack’s Stir Brew. I’d never tried Jack’s before but you can consider me a fan now. The coffee was rich and flavorful and just what I needed to combat the rainy chill outside.
Later in the afternoon, Garance sat down with Lola Rykiel to talk all about etiquette. They were live-streaming the chat on Google+ at the time, but you can now watch the video online here (along with the video of the conversation between Garance and Anna Bond that took place the previous day).
Now, back to the giveaway! While I was shopping for myself, I also picked up a little something for you, just to say thank you for reading my blog. I’m giving away this notebook set along with one white signature ballpoint pen from Poppin. It’s super simple to enter- just use the Rafflecopter widget below! This giveaway will run from 12.00am Wednesday April 2nd- 12.00am Thursday April 10th and I’ll announce the winner on Friday April 11th.
(P.S. The entire Garance Doré x Rifle Paper Co. collection is now available online- shop it here.)
Since childhood, I’ve kept a journal in one form or another. I usually didn’t write in them consistently (often months would pass between entries), but I kept coming back to them. It’s so funny to look back at what I’ve written years later, when I’m a little bit older and hopefully also wiser.
You know that I’m a fan of all things digital, but I also have a strong love of paper products. I still enjoy writing down my thoughts in a journal from time to time- sometimes you just need to put down your words on paper. I was browsing The Everygirl earlier this week and saw that they’re doing a 30 day journaling challenge in April. I think I want to do it! I currently have a Q&A a day Journal, which is a type of short-form journaling, but it will be fun to challenge myself to write longer journal entries for 30 consecutive days. I have plenty of notebooks already, but that didn’t stop me from browsing for a new one for the challenge.
Tell me: Do you keep a journal? If so, how often do you write in it?
1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 (still waiting for this collection to become available in the US!) // 8
I had many more miscellaneous pictures that didn’t fit with my other two Philly posts, so I tried to narrow it down to a few of my favorites here. You already know that we had hot donuts + fried chicken that Saturday morning and then we walked around Center City for a bit. It was a gorgeous day out and we popped into several cute shops, including a stationery store called Paper on Pine, where I tried not to buy everything in sight.
After wandering around for a bit, we went to 30th Street Station to pick up some more friends who were arriving. From there we went back to my friend’s house and prepared for her birthday party later that same night. On Sunday morning we got up for round two of the celebrations- a birthday brunch at a family friend’s house.
I’ve been to this house once before and it’s so fabulous. Our hostess is an elderly lady with an eclectic sense of style who’s collected various works of art and displayed them all around her home. She prepared a delightful spread for us and we ended the afternoon by cutting the three (!!) cakes for the birthday girl. By then it was time for us to head back to NYC, so we said our goodbyes and drove to the bus stop. See you soon Philly!
Tell me: What was the last city you visited?
Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a major sweet tooth. When my friend suggested that we have hot donuts and fried chicken for breakfast on our first morning in Philly, you should have seen my eyes light up.
So we hopped in the car and drove to Federal Donuts. Can I just say- this place is awesome! First of all, when I say hot donuts, I mean piping hot, fresh out of the oven, delicious donuts. We tried a few different flavors- lavender vanilla, spiced, and cinnamon sugar- and they were all scrumptious. They also have glazed options that I’ll have to go back and try next time.
The people at this store are so friendly and threw in an extra donut with our order. Before our chicken was even ready, we’d pretty much demolished those donuts.
Oh boy, that chicken. You can order different dry rubs or glazes with your chicken, so we decided to try the coconut curry rub with the honey ginger glaze. It was good, really really good. One of my friends said it may be the best fried chicken she’s ever eaten. Federal Donuts- you had me at “donuts and chicken.” See you next time I’m in Philly!
