[Friday Link Round-Up]

1. This recipe for cookie dough brownies via Brown Eyed Baker. I want some. Five minutes ago.

2. If you're in Seattle (and I'm so jealous if you are), learn more about Seattle Rep's FREE neighborhood pie social. Who doesn't love pie? And being social?

3. Loving this baby elephant ring from Michelle Chang's etsy shop. She's got tons of other adorable jewelry as well. 

4. And for something a bit more useful, check out this color palette generator. It locates the colors of a webpage and pulls out the color scheme for you. How fancy! An awesome tool for customizing photos, borders, and text.

Image via creature comforts

[Green Thursdays] Ireland's EcoVillage

Photo via ConstructIreland

Today is a really green Thursday because it's St. Patrick's Day! I'm not Irish, but I do like Jameson, Guinness on tap, and verdant countrysides.

This morning, I read about the first ecovillage currently being constructed in Ireland, called Cloughjordan (say that ten times fast... if you know how to speak Gaelic).The community includes its own farm, 114 low-energy homes, workspaces, and a school where the members of community and tourists alike can learn about permaculture, organic farming, and sustainability.

In reading this, I also found out that Europe has its own ecovillage network. If America has something like this, I want to move there, like, tomorrow. Otherwise I need to get a visa and move to Europe.

Read more about the project in the ConstructIreland article and on their website, The Village.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I know this day is not historically about getting wasted, but since when did Americans care about history anyway?

Ohhh, yeahhhh. Or maybe not.

[Scissors + Glue] Refurbishing Crappy Old Desks

I am so inspired by Project ReStyle and all the cool things you can do with the most unpredictable of objects. This comes just in time, too, since I just moved into a new house in San Francisco. My mission: re-style a lovely desk where I can write, study, and memorize ridiculous vocabulary words like "inchoative" and "pusillanimous" (which is a synonym for "craven" and an antonym for "plucky", in case you were wondering).

Here are a few of the blogs I've been going to for inspiration on this project. I'm currently in the process of finding said crappy old desk, so I can sand it, re-paint it, give it some new hardware, and love it to death. Now I'm just wondering what type of paint to use so that the color and texture will really make the wood stand out.

Decoupaged Oak Desk

Before:    

After: 

from purplelemondesigns

Cute Desk That Could Have Otherwise Been Hideous (though I'm not a fan of the lilac)

from Teal Tree

Love the Wallpaper-Lined Drawers

from Some Things I Know

Mustard Yellow Writing Desk

from mint home

[Friday Link Round-Up] Design Blog Designs

This Friday Link Round-Up is dedicated to all those design blogs with lovely designs. We're working on the details of our own blog design (we need more intuitive organization, more pages, and a prettier, non-stark feel), so we're loving all the inspiration that's out there. You should READ all of these if you're bored and feel like you need to spruce up your spot/see pretty things/see everyday things in ways you've never thought of them before.

blprnt.blg. How can you not love that Flash header? I feel sorry for you if you read that blog from an iPhone.

Odd Girl Out has a super-cute, image-heavy design.

LOVE all the menus and drop-down pages on Under the Sycamore. And that wallpaper is killing me.

Door Sixteen is clean and simple with featured blog favorites every month. And it helps that the author is a book cover designer. Anyone else who works in the world of books is cool by me.