we’ve all been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this design book to hit the shelves, but it’s finally here! for two long years, grace bonney has put her heart and soul into her new book, design*sponge at home and we can finally get our hands on the 400-page, 3.4 pound design*sponge book with over 700 photographs to inspire and delight us! grace has provided me with a few of the west coast homes featured in the book to share with you. sigh. i cannot wait for my copy to arrive and a free afternoon to indulge myself!

to enter to win a copy of design*sponge at home, simply comment below, and share with us what you’re most looking forward to in the book — is it the DIY projects? the home tours? the over 50 before & afters? do tell! comment by september 16th, and as always please make sure there’s a way to contact you. in the meantime, check out grace’s introductory trailer video to design*sponge — adorable.

• Home tours of 70 real-life interiors featuring artists and designers

• Fifty DIY projects, with detailed instructions for personalizing your space

• Step-by-step tutorials on everything from stripping and painting furniture to hanging wallpaper and doing your own upholstery

• Fifty Before & After makeovers submitted by readers of Design*Sponge—real people with limited time and realistic budgets

• Essential tips on modern flower arranging, with 20 arrangements

hey east coast crafters! if you’re in the NY area this weekend design*sponge is doing a DIY wreath-building class with amy merrick at the brooklyn flea’s ‘GIFTED’ fair this weekend. the whole class is only $40 and it gets you all the supplies and decorations for creating a 10-12 inch wreath.

they’ll be decorating with greens, pinecones, berries and succulents. everyone will get a big pretty wreath to take home with them. i’ve been wanting to do this forever, and so wish i was there this weekend! the class is this sunday, dec 19th from 10-11am. visit design*sponge to sign up!

*wreath image via vivaterra.

i saw this cold weather picnic pack from ingenious diy editor kate pruitt over on design*sponge and i just had to share. this is so adorable, and practical, too. for the how-to steps on make one of your very own, skip on over to design*sponge, just in time for the weekend!

‘deep south in the northeast’ is a new show at artstream gallery, curated by none other than that charming southern girl at heart, grace bonney of design*sponge. the show opens tomorrow, july 11th from 5-8pm and celebrates grace’s love affair with the deep south. she’s invited 9 of her favorite southern artists to take part in the group show. if you’re in the rochester, new hampshire area be sure to drop in, or have a look online. ‘deep south’ runs 7/11-8/31 2009.

and i do hope you all have a weekend filled with genteel, southern hospitality! have a great weekend ya’ll and i’ll see you here on monday.

my favorite diy duo, lauren & derek of the curiosity shoppe, have done it again over on design*sponge. if you haven’t checked it out before, lauren & derek post amazing diy ideas on design*sponge every wednesday, and this week i was so jazzed to see this beautiful camera strap cover made from a fabric scrap! i am making this pronto-like, and i was thinking it could work well made from an old vintage necktie, too. and i do believe i have just the perfect vintage tie to do it with! for all the details on how to make this clever camera strap visit diy wednesday at design*sponge, and thanks for the constant inspiration over there, y’all!

This is a little late in coming, since Grace of the always amazing design*sponge sent this to me while I was in London, but it was too good not to share. Grace was one of the judging panelists at this year’s Brlyn Designs show, the annual three-day furnishings design event which was held in early May. Grace was so excited by the new work she saw there, she created two inspiring videos of some of her favorites pieces. I completely concur with Grace, and think my very favorite of what Grace shared of the show was the work of Brooklyn-based designer, Palo Samko, a woodworker who designs furniture with humorous hidden, little secrets tucked into his pieces. Palo is from the Czech/Polish border and it’s amazing that he is a self taught builder, with no design school training. You can view more images from the Brlyn Designs show on design*sponge, and watch both of Grace’s videos full screen here on YouTube. Thanks for sharing, Grace!

One of my favorite bloggers, Jan of Poppytalk is guest blogging over at design*sponge this week! Jan has a wonderful post up about Stephanie Vogler of The Cross, a beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia home furnishings shop. Pop over to design*sponge and check out Jan’s interview with Stephanie, with a fantastic sneak peek at her super stylish home, as well as Jan’s other great design*sponge guest posts this week.

*Photos by Kim Christie for Canadian House and Home.

To receive: I really love the gift of books. and this year, Phaiden is putting out these special ribbon-tied, lovely box sets of their Wallpaper* City Guides. I used my City Guide to Bangkok extensively on my trip to Thailand this year, so now I’ve got a real hankering for the World Cities Art Fairs set, which features Wallpaper*’s City Guides to Basel, London, Miami, New york and Venice. One can dream, right?

The New York Public Library and design*sponge have invited the five artists to come to the library, become inspired by its collections, and have their entire creative process filmed from beginning to the final finished creative product. In this first episode they’re introducing the project and designers, and I just watched and found myself so inspired. You can find inspiration for your art in so many places, and I think the good old library is a long forgotten gem, so I’m super excited to follow the Design By The Book series. Check out the first episode!