Mint

This past weekend my family and I went to the mountains of North Carolina. We stayed in a cottage my great-great-grandfather built in the 1920s, and although it was really rainy, it was the perfect getaway. None of us got cell phone reception in the house and of course there was no internet. My definition of a vacation includes being able to completely unplug if I want to, so it was perfect! Here are some photos of the trip, and a few more are on my flickr.

The top photo is my uncle overlooking a waterfall, and the one above is the porch on the cottage.

B & I wanted to bring this lime green chair home with us!

When it wasn’t pouring, we took advantage of the gorgeous hiking trails.

The house is full of beautiful chairs, like this rocking chair which was probably made locally.

And here we are having dessert (yum… recipe coming soon!).

As I read through each of your comments about my “news,” I was overwhelmed by your kindness and by how insanely talented you guys are! Some of you are frequent commenters, and I know your beautiful blogs & work well. Others are new to me. I’m just showing one photo each from a few different commenters, but please follow the links in this post to see tons more talent, and click through the comment links on my last post, too. So much to be inspired by! Above is work by Ivana of Love Ardently.

This is an invitation from Libby Cole, who must be a Durhamite like me! Libby has done work for Duke and a new local restaurant, Dos Perros.

Jennifer Mao is an all-around talented woman from Seattle. This photograph, from her series “With or Without You” makes me smile.

Kate Miss is a designer working in NYC who does branding, books, illustration, packaging, photography, websites, and more.

This beautiful invitation was designed by Kate Arends from Minneapolis.

Great mix & match stationery from Avie.

Beautifully designed & printed invitations by Jonna Isaac.

and many more… go check each other out.

Thank you so much for all of your support! Your emails and comments have been so encouraging and helpful for me the past few days. I’m uplugging for a bit but I’m excited about returning to Mint on Tueday.

Yesterday, I was laid off along with nearly half of the other employees where I worked. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, because the design firm I worked for has always had financial difficulties. What did surprise me was that after two years of employment, I didn’t get any notice or severance pay (nevermind what was in my contract or verbally promised), and so today I’m trying to wrap my mind around what’s next. It’s a scary, unexpected place to be in. I’m sure many of you have experienced something similar over the past year or two, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the support and encouraging words of blogging friends on twitter.

I feel very lucky that I have something small in my back pocket between Mint and Hello Tenfold, and that I have a loving, supportive husband who is encouraging me to follow my heart. Two months ago, I cut my day job hours back to 30 to be able to spend more time on Hello Tenfold, and have been really happy with the direction it’s headed. My only disappointment was that I didn’t have more time to focus on the things I loved. The truth is, I wasn’t happy at my job, and Mint and Hello Tenfold were bright spots in every day.

I’m still undecided about what’s next, but Mint and Hello Tenfold are here to stay. I’m going to take this free time and focus my energy on the things I love, and who knows… maybe some doors will open for me. I’m going to take some time for myself and family on Friday and Monday. Although I’m staying pretty positive, the break will be good for me to digest what’s happened and rethink my goals.

As always, thanks for reading Mint. I think I have the best and kindest readers out there!

I found Virginia Kraljevic this week via twitter. I love how her work looks like the doodles I used to make on my school notebooks, only bigger, better, and way more whimsical.

I think her work loses something when it gets really small, so be sure to check it out in all its glory on her website.

Well, it’s not quite 90 degrees here in NC but it’s darn close. Despite the heat, I’ve been doing a little bit of fall shopping lately. These are a few things I’ve picked up, along with a few things I wish I’d pick up.

plaid scarf / tailored tee / cord skirt / in-bloom skimmers / three pom necklace / cloverleaf scoopneck / gold tights

Oded Ezer is an Israeli designer who blurs the line between design & art with his unique typographic style.

Gestalten published a book of his works this past Spring (click the link to see inside). For more, visit his website, flickr, and blog. {via gestalten}

For some reason, I can’t upload images to Mint… in the normal way at least. And that kinda cramps my style. So if things look funky around Mint on Monday, it’s probably because we’re doing some updates & trying to track down the problem. Thanks for the patience : )

[In the meantime, check out these cute pups my family brought home last week. Awww....]