Back in June, we mentioned a little honor of which we are quite proud: Meagan being chosen as the design winner of the 2011 Biltmore Christmas Wine Label. After months of anticipation, we have finally been able to see this label in all its glory. It seems like everywhere we look it keeps popping up! Our first encounter was at our local wine superstore: Total Wine (from whom we ended up purchasing three cases!). Next, we found it at our local grocery store: Harris Teeter. From there it spiraled out of control showing up at Ingles, Target, World Market and of course Biltmore itself.
One of the biggest surprises was that the label actually mentions Meagan on the back and displays her quote she created for the contest:
“Like Biltmore, this label inspires magical memories
of Christmases past, present, and the wonder of those to come.”
Being a small husband and wife team, we are so extremely proud to have Meagan's work featured on a bottle that is sold all over the country. Her skill and artistic work are showcased beautifully and we are so happy that she won the contest!
Here is the finished product as seen on this year's Christmas at Biltmore wine!
Through a bit of serendipity, we came across this Wine blog on Biltmore's Facebook page which gives a nice overview of the taste and aromas of the wine itself while subjecting it to the critique of a wine enthusiast. Click to read the blog and find out what he thought! (hint: it isn't bad!) He also mentions Meagan, yay!
Thanksgiving is right around the corner & we wanted to give you a helpful hand in preparing those yummy holiday foods! We have so much to be thankful for so we wanted to incorporate that into a fun Thanksgiving design! These would make cute gifts & are a great way to keep those loved, special recipes for Thanksgivings past, present, & those to come!
Here's a recipe to get you started! It's a fun twist on the classic Pumpkin Pie, called Paradise Pumpkin Pie! We love that this recipe combines the best of all worlds! This is a yummy triple-decker pie that has a cheesecake layer on the bottom, pumpkin custard in the middle, and a pecan streusel layer on top. Paradise! We hope you enjoy these recipe cards... happy cooking & have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Happy Halloween from our two office assistants, Atticus Finch & Sylvie Grace. Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble... something wagging this way comes!
Just picked up the new Coldplay Album, Mylo Xyloto, & wow! These guys just keep knocking it out of the park! The artwork, done by Coldplay frontman,Chris Martin, and Paris, is outstanding! The packaging is extremely well done and carries out the colorful theme throughout.
Take a trip to the land of awesome, a.k.a. Coldplay's website, and you can get your own initials personalized Mylo Xyloto style! Great fun to be had :) Here's ours!
And if you ever need something to make you smile, check out their latest video, Paradise. We guarantee it will do the trick! :)
When there is something strange in your neighborhood, who do you call? One of our favorite Halloween traditions is to pull out the well-worn copy of Ghostbusters every year and laugh ourselves silly. However this year we had an extra treat, our local theater just happened to be playing it on the big screen for one night only! We love this movie so much we bought tickets five days ahead of the actual showing and it was soooo worth the wait! The movie holds up tremendously after twenty-seven years and shows little or no signs of aging (unfortunately the same cannot be said of our Ghostbusters VHS!) So here is to Venkman, Stanz, Spengler and Zeddmore, keep bustin' guys, we'll never stop watching!
And if that wasn't cool enough, we actually, by crazy luck, got to meet the one & only Dan Aykroyd the next day! He is currently traveling around promoting his new (& wicked awesome) vodka, Crystal Head.
He seems like such a nice, genuine guy! And we can't wait to try this vodka, sounds amazing, & get this.... is filtered through diamonds! Love it! Check out the bottle, a skull designed by artist & founding partner, John Alexander, based on the legend of the 13 Crystal Skulls...
Can't wait to try it out! There are some yummy recipes on the Crystal Head website. This one looks good for dessert tonight!
We received the cutest email ad from Bed Bath & Beyond featuring none other than the adorable little waddler, the pug! Love this pug & love the ad layout for that matter. Check out Bed Bath & Beyond's cool pet products here. Only 72 shopping days left until Christmas :)
This is from one of Target's Halloween Pet Displays... their costumes are so cute, it's ridiculous! Love the little Sheriff :) You can see all the costumes here! Can't wait until Halloween!! Our pugs, Sylvie & Atticus are excited too! They love greeting, err barking at, all of the trick or treaters :)
We are in love with color and when we heard about the chance to purchase a color to help Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, we jumped on it! This is such a great way to raise money for children in need worldwide.
How it works:
1. Go to the Own a ColorWeb Site. Pick a color, any color (that is, any one that has not already been purchased).
You get to name your color and why you chose it. You are then asked to describe your color in one word. The color name, meaning, and description will all appear under the color you choose after you complete the process. You can also choose to gift a color to someone, which is a great idea!
2. Choose a donation amount
You can donate as little as $1.54 (£1 GBP/ €1.14 EUR)
3.Enter your payment information & that’s it! You are now the proud owner of a color!
The whole process is fast, easy, & a great way to raise money for children in need. We chose color #d65b0f a.k.a. “Orange You a Hokie.” We are proud graduates of Virginia Tech & chose this color whereas orange and maroon are our alma mater’s school colors. You can visit your color as often as you like on the website and see what other colors people have chosen :) We would love to hear your favorite colors! Give us a tweet @GraphicSugar & let us know!
One of our favorite things about fall is the fragrance of pumpkin & cinnamon in the air whether it be from our favorite candles or yummy goodies baking in the oven.With these lovely bursts of cool fall weather we’ve been having here in North Carolina, we are just itching to welcome autumn into our home & inside our kitchen!We searched the recipe boxes on one of our favorite sites, Pinterest, and found some amazing treats!Below you will find our pumpkin patch of pumpkin based recipes.Take a look & pick your pumpkin(s).Happy Fall Ya’ll!
What snorts & smokes at the same time?The Kettle Cooker Express!This is a new logo we designed for a client who started his own business selling yummy kettle cooked treats.The client’s vision entailed a few cool pigs on a train with kettle corn & pork rinds billowing out of the top. This project was so much fun to research & design!We even had the privilege to sample the Kettle Corn, which was amazing!So without further ado, we give you the Kettle Cooker Express logo!
It's officially the first day of fall, our favorite time of the year! Crisp cool weather is on the way, bringing with it a beautiful palette of crimson, orange, & golden yellow. We can count the number of Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks we've had on one hand so it's time to get it in gear & bring on the fall! Here are a few more reasons to love fall!
If you were like us and made your way to local Target stores Tuesday morning, you were in for a surprise, and not the awesome good kind. With dreams of zigzags and bright patterns in our heads, we merrily made our way into our local Target store to find this:
Or for those of you that prefer online shopping, this:
No bright cardigan sweaters. No cheery umbrellas. No cute pillows. No zig zagginess to be found, except for the lone few pieces we managed to find hiding on a lone shelf & in the home goods area. Our loot, which we're extremely proud to have come home with, consisted of a sprightly mug, an adorable frame, & a fun shoulder bag.
Needless to say, Target had a stellar day with sales through the roof and so much demand that their website "woofed." If you missed it here's a small sampling of what you, as well as ourselves, could have witnessed:
And being graphic designers, we have to mention the great marketing campaign! The commercials are young, hip, fun, & make Missoni seem like the cat's zig zag pajamas. The colors are spectacular & the branding is genius. Check it out for yourself & tell us how anyone can not want a piece of this action :)
You'll have to let us know if you grabbed any Missoni items, we'd love to see them!
Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the September 11th attacks... It seems like it all happened a year or two ago... Eric & I, like many others world-wide, remember exactly where we were when the towers were hit and the chaos began. I was in my dorm at Virginia Tech that clear blue September morning and had just received a phone call from my father in law that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers... I turned on the TV to see smoke pluming from the North Tower & remember thinking, "Wow, that was a horrible miscalculation on some pilot's part." It wasn't long until Eric came in from one of his classes & I told him what was happening. The rest of the day, after we called all of our loved ones, we sat in my dorm room, glued to the TV, and the madness streaming from it. The rest of the days & weeks were a blur & to this day we can not remember any other events that took place during the weeks after the attacks. On this day and every day, we remember those that were lost, those that survived, and those that gave their lives on that blue September day.
It is so exciting to see the progress of the New World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial in New York City. 10 years later, we are glued to the TV again... but this time to watch a nation remember, heal, and rebuild that which was lost in 2011.
We also found a 9/11 Memorial app called 110 Stories for your Android or iphone that creates a pencil sketch of the towers depending on where you are standing in New York. Once you take the photo, you can submit it with a personal story from that day and share it with others.
Eric is awesomely talented at building and constructing things. We loved the World Trade Center in New York and had the special privilege of being able to visit and enjoy it in its prime. We were devastated in 2001 not only for all the lives lost, but for the wonderful structure that will never be replaced. We will always have a great memory of that place and it will always hold a special place in our hearts. This was Eric's way of creating a small tribute so that the World Trade Center will always be close at hand. Although this is not Eric's design, he re-created the original by Spencer Rezkalla with no instructions or direction but by looking at photos of the original design. With over 19,000 Lego pieces and over 2 and a half months of building, it is now proudly displayed in our home.
And this is simply, a heart-touching story from The Dog Files about the Hero Dogs of 9/11. To help support these amazing search & rescue dogs, please visit the Search Dog Foundation.
Don't forget to visit the National September 11th Memorial Website.
