enJOY it

Paul and I have this pipe dream that someday we'll own a winery / paper store. (Okay so he's only 1% aware that next to wine we would sell paper…but maybe he won't really notice?) The man knows wine. And I love to drink wine. And I would LOVE to start with nothing and come up with the whole package. The winery decor, the bottle label, the business cards, the lighting, the menu, the paper shop tacked onto the side… The list goes on and on.

I get so inspired by good design and a well thought out branding plan. So inspired that one of my big goals for next year (… probably after the wedding and honeymoon and Paul's med school graduation and our likely cross-country move …) is to revamp my shop, and re-organize my brand. I get excited just thinking about it. I dove headfirst without much thought into my current online shop. It started with little envelope sets and then I put together a few books, and then I learned how to letterpress so next came prints. I absolutely love it, but I never stopped to put it all together. So I am excited for what is next. For some time to re-think and re-grow. To expand and make everything a little more cohesive.

This is all relevant today because I wanted to share some photos from the Hotel Vitale that we stayed at in San Francisco this past weekend. The Vitale is a sister hotel to the Citizen where Paul and I are getting married. In both cases, the hotel chain took existing buildings and turned them into places to stay. Each is completely different but similar in that the same attention to detail is apparent in both places.

Everything, from the lobby, to the elevators, to the hallways to the bathrooms, to the bar had a muted color palette and over-arching nature theme. Greens, yellows, blues, and purples mixed together perfectly to create a calming effect. Totally awesome & totally inspiring. I wanted to buy a house and come up with lighting treatments. I wanted to re-charge my online shop. I wanted P to quit the doctor plan and help me buy some grape vines. If it wasn't for the calming colors, I probably would have bounced right off the bed, through the roof and all the way to Home Depot.

Very cool.