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- Designed by Sarah: May 2025
Designed by Sarah: May 2025
I don't have any work to show this month! And here's why!
This is a little bit of a different email this month – I was out of the office all of May, and if you’ve been following along you probably already know why: I got married!!

I married my love of 12 years on Saturday, May 10th, and then we immediately left town the following Monday for a 2-week whirlwind around Europe. I’ll include a few photos below for some things that I thought were either clever, designy, or fun and then we’ll be back to our usual programming below.
(This is the back side of the cake here, but Honey Blossom Bakery made me the most beautiful floral cake of my dreams.)

The Thursday before the wedding, we hosted a small welcome reception for family and friends who had to come from out of town to visit. I know when I travel to a wedding, I often feel like I only saw the couple for 5 minutes on the day of the wedding and wish I could’ve spent more time with them. This was a great way to actually have full conversations with everyone.
On top of that, we asked my friend Maroxby Toons to do onsite caricatures for the folks who came, and they were SUCH. A. HIT. Super silly and nice keepsake that people were arguing over who got to take it home.

The Friday before the wedding, instead of doing a rehearsal dinner, we took ~25 of our people way down yonder on the Chattahoochee River for a big group float. We had a full age range present from ~5 years old to ~75, and met a goose who came to chill with us for most of the float.

In Barcelona, we stopped by a tiny bar called Morro Fi which is where Spanish vermut became my personality. They make their own, and even sell fun little picnic kits that you can see at the top of the pic that include vermut, chips, and tinned fish and olives. I love that they had the menu on the tiled wall, which makes it easy to erase and re-write if you need to.

In Begur, we stayed at La Bionda Hotel, which was one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. I loved this wall mural in the middle of the lobby room, and:

Thought that the ‘honesty bar’ concept was really charming and wholesome. It’s not unlike the self-serve driveway sale I do every spring with plant starts.

We visited the Cap Roig Botanical Garden (in a nutshell: two rich eccentrics buy the land in the 1920s and transform it over 20 years, aka, goals) and I loved how this ooooold old terra cotta pot was repaired when it broke: weird stitches? Staples?

Loved this simple but effective sign from a lookout point in Begur.

In Vienna, we did a schnitzel + strudel cooking class and left with a cookbook of the host’s grandmother’s recipes. Looking for someone to let me cook them everything out of this book, stat.

Being in Vienna convinced me that having a bike-based flower or plant start shop would be a good idea in Atlanta. Not sure if true. But if you see me post about this next spring you will absolutely know where I got the idea from.

I saw this mirror in a Vienna consignment shop (bonus: check out the broom in this pic) and thought it would not be that hard to make at home with a jigsaw and some free time. Only tricky part is where to get a mirror this large for the full effect?

And lastly, a barista in a Polish bakery in Vienna made me this cappuccino to match my sweatshirt. Amazing.
I’m back, and home, and refreshed – and ready to go. How was your May? What did I miss with you?
Warmly,
Sarah
Ok, this is a follow up to last month’s Neat Aminal Fact: My friend Liz was in Utrecht when she read the email about the fish doorbell last month, and decided to go hunt it down and see it in action. That was so cool!!!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Quick note on the workshops below: AirBNB revamped their Experiences platform this summer and have been adding more options this year. I have always low-key loved AirBNB experiences (even though I feel conflicted about AirBNB rentals), and so I wanted to share some I love and will actually do this summer. The cooking class I mentioned above was from AirBNB experiences! I am not a paid affiliate, I just don’t know where else to find a diverse list of actually cool workshops hosted by people who live nearby!!
Design mugs with a Castleberry Hill ceramist Paint, glaze, and dip a ceramic piece in a hands-on session at Charlotte Smith Studios. | Make Atlanta-style pizza at Phew’s Pies pop-up Create unforgettable pies with a mobile pizzeria founder, using award-winning recipes. |

I give away a $1500 grant to artists once a year but want to help you find funding opportunities all the time. It can be hard to find opportunities that seem interesting and also reasonable (I don't personally think it's a great use of time to apply to some global program with 400,000 other applicants). Here are some with that in mind:
Upcoming Grants & Residencies:
Amount: $5,000 stipend + housing + studio access
Deadline: July 1, 2025
Eligibility: Artists working in photography or image-based media, U.S. and international
Funding Goal: One-month residency to focus on new work with access to full photography facilities.
Amount: Housing + studio + small stipend
Deadline: June 15, 2025
Eligibility: National and international artists across disciplines
Funding Goal: 1–3 month residency in Chattanooga fostering collaboration, experimentation, and studio practice.
Amount: $1,500 unrestricted grant
Deadline: June 23, 2025
Eligibility: Artists of all disciplines residing in Washington State
Funding Goal: Funds career-advancing activities like equipment, research, or project development.
Amount: Unfunded, but includes housing + studio access
Deadline: June 15, 2025
Eligibility: Women and nonbinary artists working in print, book, photo, or ceramic arts
Funding Goal: 4–6 week residency with 24/7 studio access to develop new work in a feminist art space.
As always, please tell me if you participate in any of these so we can cheer you on!
Hey! Thank you for reading. It means a lot to have this email in your inbox.
Want more?
Here’s the totally optional paid tier where you tell me you want to get cool stuff in the mail too!
What will it be? It depends. But I have some ideas and this tells me how many things to make or order.
When will it happen? When there is something cool to send. Here’s what I’ve sent to newsletter subscribers in the past:
![]() Ridiculous interactive board game postcards that use AR | ![]() Silly bumper stickers (and other stickers from other artists) | ![]() Issues of Unfolded, my quarterly-ish newspaper about creativity |