Watercolor Stationary

Watercolor (or watercolour if you are British) is my favorite medium to use and one of my favorite mediums to admire. I have noticed lately an increased interest in watercolor on Pinterest and design blogs. Modern watercolor paintings are expanding beyond the canvas to invitation, menus and other stationary. Here are some that have caught my eye recently.

Julie Song Ink

How gorgeous is this wedding paper suite by watercolorist Julie Song? Definitely check out the rest of her work on her site. Such a feast for the eyes!

Lucile Prache

I instantly fell in love with the loose brushstrokes of Lucile Prache's watercolor paintings when I spied them on Design Sponge. I love her food-centric pieces. They would be perfect hanging in the kitchen of your favorite cook. She has more work in her Etsy shop.

Yao Cheng Designs

Beautiful correspondence cards from Yao Cheng Design. Visit her Etsy page for more of her work. 

Oana Befort

I love the whimsical watercolor calendar and cards from Romanian illustrator and graphic designer Oana Befort. She has more work on her site.

Happy Menocal

Her name perfectly captures her work! I love the menus artist Happy Menocal recently created for a lunch hosted by Aerin Lauder. She also designs custom crests. Who doesn't need their own crest in bright colors? View her cards, pet portraits and other creations on her site.

For anyone who wants to attempt some watercolor creations of their own, Yao Cheng offers a great "Watercolor Basics" tutorial on the blog The Alison Show.

Have you spotted any beautiful watercolors recently? If so, let me know in the comments. I would love to know about them!

Clean Slate

Happy 2013! I love the start of a new year. I am not really a resolution person but I do like to think of an intention or mantra for the year. This year I am focusing on Letting Go.

My new 2013 Wolf Kahn desk calendar....beautiful!

I hope this will take all sorts of shapes and forms throughout the year, and right now I am focusing on letting go of excess and simplifying. So far this year, I have unsubscribed from so many e-mails and Facebook feeds and done some serious decluttering around my house. I will definitely share some of my organizing projects and tips on The Zoo in future posts.

I have also made a commitment to myself that I will not buy anything new for the month of January (minus essential....and I am really having to challenge at MY definition of essentials) and instead focus on and use all of the things I already own.

I have noticed I am not the only one with this mentality right now. I have seen so many organizing and cleaning pins on Pinterest and a friend shared with me that she is cleaning out 40 bags of clutter in her house for 40 days.

There is something about starting with the physical letting go that seems to clear the path for other more figurative forms of letting go. Are you letting go of anything this year?