Of all the recreational activities associated with summer, picnicking is far and away my favorite. It offers an irresistible mix of food, nature, nomadism, and efficient packaging. I should have predicted this love from the hours I spent playing Oregon Trail as child: I focused entirely on monitoring my list of sundries and supplies and packing up my wagon, and would never try to shoot the rabbits or make any trades. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t very good at that game.
My love of packing up supplies and heading out to parks and beaches remains to this day, so I decided to create a set of pretty picnic kits that provide your napkin, plate, and utensils all in one. I found these beautiful earth toned linens at my local fabric store, and decided to pair them with a couple fun prints, large wooden buttons, and geometric pockets. If you are planning a camping trip or have any summer gifts to give, these picnic kits are fun and easy to make, and would please any proper picnicker. Enjoy! —Kate
Read the full how-to after the jump . . .
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Rachel Castle is an Australian designer/artist specializing in handmade homewares. She is known for her bright and punchy embroideries and screenprints of various phrases and witticisms, in addition to her abstract prints and patterns. It should come as no surprise that her studio tour is every bit as cheerful and full of color as her collections. Read on for a glimpse into the colorful world of Rachel Castle! — Ginny
1. Design*Sponge: What is in your toolbox?
Rachel Castle: At the moment, I am preparing for a show full of paintings at Koskela in Sydney. So the toolbox is very distinct:
- About a billion paintbrushes, of which I only use 3, grrrrrr, and I do the naughty thing where I cut off the straggly ends with a pair of scissors.
- Cloths and rags everywhere
- A very heavy grade 500gsm pure linen, which has a specific “bump” to it that I really like, meaning the painted lines are naturally a little wonky, which I love.
- 20 coffees, although I have moved into a new studio space and have a broken foot, so I can’t get as many coffees as I would normally. I have to ring and ask a nice friend to bring me one.
- Computer, always. [It is a] constant reference, what would we do without it?
- The good old-fashioned photocopier. I do a lot of designs on the computer with hand drawing and blow them up on the photocopier. The big black box I love to hate.
- And all the paint. I would love to say I have every color, but I have every brand of the same colors, yellow, pink, orange, tiny bit of blue, and ALLLLL the fluro. Really hard to get great fluro.
2. Design*Sponge: Fill in the blank, “When I am in my studio, I feel _____________.”
Rachel Castle: When I’m in my studio I feel free.
Read the full post after the jump . . .
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 Hi Everyone. I wanted to take a quick break from normal posting to share a brief personal update. Over the past 8 years of running Design*Sponge, it has been an honor and pleasure to share moments of my life with you. I feel like the community we’ve built together is one that both listens and communicates openly, and while I’ve done my best to do that, there is a part of my life that I’ve been waiting to discuss until I felt fully healed and ready to share.
Last year amidst balancing work and the book tour, I was also going through some big life changes. One of which is that Aaron and I are no longer married. We’ve had over a year to process and deal with this change, and I felt like it was time to share that information so it wasn’t confusing to anyone who saw either of us out in the real world. I don’t think that my personal life is newsworthy, so I’m going to keep this brief. Many of you have reached out with questions or concerns over the past year, and I just wanted to say that I greatly appreciate your support and thoughts. I feel happy and in a good place with my life and wish all of you endless amounts of the same. Thank you for listening, and now back to our regularly scheduled design programming. Love, Grace.
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