Handmade With Love
With the news making us oh-so-sad as of late, we thought it’d be nice to share some lovely things that brightened our days a bit early. Without further ado, this week we: dreamt of a pretty garden bag to hold our tools, fell in love with Dry Design’s simple + sweet packaging, wanted to fill our home with vintage-tinged felt bouquets, danced around to Camera Obscura’s latest song, wanted to hang darling porcelain planters off the wall and took to the oven to bake up peach crostatas. Spy the rest of our little diary after the jump. xo.
Pardon our absence! The last few months have been challenging and, frankly, not the best of times, causing this here site to take a back seat. But, we’re back and will begin sharing lovely works of art to brighten your day again soon. We’ve missed you guys! xo, Boys With Banjos.
Happy (almost) Valentine’s Day, everyone! Along with heart-shaped baking, this month, we’re running away with Daughter, want to make you and The Kooks happy, think you’re like “A Red, Red Rose,” fell a little bit in love with Lykke Li, joined PJ Harvey in remembering the first kiss and day dreamed with The Beach Boys. Dance around to the entire mixtape here, and have a wonderful, love-filled day! xo.
{Art by Emma Block}
We’ve been following Paul Celentano and his whimsical custom instruments for a few years now and have continuously fallen in love with his work. Under the (apropos) handle, Celentano Woodworks, he handcrafts unique ukuleles, three-string guitars, banjos and mandolins, with the latest crop of designs highlighting the beauty of the string instrument’s traditional shape and natural colors, but with an added twist: playful sound hole cutouts and illustrations. The attention to detail put into each piece is mesmerizing — he’s creating works of art to make art on — which you can spy below and head on over to Mr. Celentano’s shop for more.
Along with wearing pastel bows in our hair, revisiting Emma Block’s Style Icon series, channeling Lolita with sunglasses by Tumbleweeds Handcraft and keeping our mugs cozy with these adorable knit sweaters, this week, we made a confetti wall, couldn’t wait to get our tickets to see She & Him + Camera Obscura, sewed an angel collar, learned how to hand print pillows, geeked out over new songs by Conor Oberst and Iron & Wine, and crafted origami hearts for Valentine’s Day. Spy the rest of our little diary after the jump. xo.
Masterminded by Beca Lewis Skeels and Doug Switalski, Tumbleweeds Handcraft features original wood veneer sunglasses. The couple hand crafts each pair out of their home in Chattanooga, TN with vintage style shapes that channel Lolita (how magical are their heart sunglasses?) and past silver screen stars of the 1950s and ’60s. Stop by the Tumbleweeds Handcraft shop to check out more, and spy a few of our favorite designs below.
Hailing from Toronto, Extase features unique stamps, art and knits. Featuring crystal shapes, sweet yet simple bows, banners and products inspired by nature and the moon, the one woman run shop carries a clean aesthetic through her line of hand carved stamps. We love perusing through Extase’s catalog chock full of embellishments for dolling up packaging, labeling books, or putting a playful spin on stationary, which you can peek at below.
While there’s many ways to doll-up your coffee in the morning, husband-wife team Nawanowe’s way might be our favorite. The pair have designed the cutest line of knit sweaters to keep your tea and coffee cups cozy. The “Mug Sweater” arose after a sad looking cup in their home inspired the idea, and the couple have gone on to create impeccably stitched knitwear for others to enjoy. Have a look at some of our favorite designs after the jump, and head on over to Nawanowe’s website for more or purchase a sweater here.
