more weddings!

Guess where I'm off to this weekend? Another wedding! And a wedding shower tomorrow morning. And these pictures are of a wedding in Baltimore that my friend Carrie went to last weekend. From what she told me, and from the pictures, it looked lovely! At the wedding, they also had a photo booth set up with a trunk full of props for taking pictures. How sweet!

boxwood garland

I'd really like some of this baby leaf boxwood garland. I'm working on a couple wreaths as projects, and I couldn't find anything like this at the craft stores.


photo via caramelos etsy shop

picnic basket

My friend Jenny is getting married this summer, and her wedding shower is this weekend. So when I was browsing at World Market a couple weeks ago, I realized that I had an excuse to get that picnic basket I had been eying. I was with my mom, so we decided to fill it with fun picnic-y things and split the cost. Result: super cute!

our guestroom.

Only two pieces of furniture fill the room, one old and one new.

The old: a tiny twin bed, a hand-me-down that spent its years in a little girl's room, where there were sleepovers and dolls and stuffed animals in the early years, and magazines and makeup and CDs in the later years. A bed that often held sleeping cats, piles of clothes, and worn journals. A bed that was still there when the little girl came home from college, all grown up, bringing with her bags of laundry, textbooks, and a different pillow than the bed was used to. This bed knew the scent of nailpolish, the sound of laughter, and the weight of tears, because it had been there from the beginning. Finally, the night came when the little girl - not so little anymore - climbed into bed for the last time in her room. The girl never returned to sleep in the bed again, and soon the bed was covered in plastic and stored in a dark place. But after a couple years, the bed found itself in a new room, with big bright windows and white walls. And the girl, she was back, smoothing out new sheets and draping the bed with a soft canopy. Now the bed was ready for a new life, perhaps with another little girl someday, but for now as a place for guests to come and go and sleep comfortably.


The new: just a shiny white dresser, holding a typewriter and some books, waiting for what the future holds.

craft starter kit

Here is a little craft jar "starter kit" I put together for my friend who just got married. I used an inexpensive jar from the craft store, and filled it with loads of fun things, everything from glue sticks to lace. I went crazy with pink paper, scalloped scissors, twine, and pearl pins to wrap and package everything inside the jar. By the end of it, I was ready to wrap up everything else in the house with pink paper and twine, because it is oh so pretty. I think it would make our Xbox look much nicer.

highlights from our long weekend

It was a long and wonderful weekend full of food, friends, wedding fun, a movie out, and Monday off to sleep in.





Ps. the cats decided they'd had enough of my orchid when we returned home!

wedding weekend

I'm headed out early this weekend for our good friends' wedding. My husband and I are both in the wedding, so we have activities lined up from tonight until the wedding on Saturday. It should be a lot of fun, and we've been looking forward to this weekend for almost a year and a half now - my bridesmaid dress has been hanging in our closet for over a year, and I'm ready to finally wear it. Hope you have a lovely weekend, whether you are off to somewhere, or just enjoying the comforts of home.



ps: I'm so wearing sweats next week to make up for dressing up all weekend.

spring cleaning

I've been on a spring cleaning and organizing mission this week. Yesterday I did my regular cleaning (vacuuming, mopping, dusting) and then I went through our fridge and pantry (see photo), getting rid of leftovers, combining things into jars, transferring staples from the bag to its designated container, etc. And then when my husband came home, we organized the garage: took stuff to the basement that never made it there when we moved here in January (ha!), swept like crazy, sorted old boxes, and I even rubbed the doorplate to the house with vinegar to keep bugs away (more on that later). Today I've been finishing everything else, cleaning out closets, doing laundry, organizing papers and receipts, and so on. So anyone want their house cleaned? I'm definitely in the mood.

chicken saag

I made this for dinner last night. It was a recipe from Cookie mag's latest so you have some... feature. I had lots of spinach, some salt + pepper, olive oil, onion and tomato paste already, so all I had to add was chicken and half + half. The best part was that it was super easy, which is good because some nights I'm a lazy cook.

citrus smoothie pops

How cute! I want to make these.


(photo via Country Living)

local + fresh

Isn't this the best time of year (besides Christmas)? I'm so excited to go to the local farmer's markets and start making summery meals, and getting free tomatoes, lettuce, snow peas, and fruit from my parents' garden soon. I also love this recent post on 100 Layer Cake, showing how local flowers and fresh produce were used to dress up a table. They added in some inexpensive daffodils from Trader Joe's and voila! Check out their post for more ideas and photos.

(photos via 100 Layer Cake)

take me here

I found this restaurant on Desire to Inspire some time ago. I can't remember the link for it, but wouldn't this place be fun to eat at? It doesn't matter what the food is like, I'd just take a book and be happy.

(photo via Desire to Inspire)

fresh milk

Since the milkman won't be delivering pints of milk at our door anytime soon, I think this original photo postcard of one will do for now. It would look nice on my fridge. You can buy yours here at Lobster and Swan's shop.

(photo from Lobster and Swan esty shop)

orchid

My little orchid is doing good so far! I don't have a very good track record with plants, but I think my two cats are to blame. They like to dig the dirt out of pots, shred leaves with their teeth, and knock things over if it "gets in their way." So most plants that have lived with us haven't lived long. At least I have an excuse.

missed you notes

I love making little gifts, especially for my husband. One last thing I did for him when he returned from training was give him a little tube filled with things I missed about him while he was gone. Now he can take it with him on all his trips. I wrote one for each day he was gone, so there were 16.

new things

My husband brought home a beautiful orchid for me the other day. I had to do a lot of work hint-dropping to get this lovely little plant (flowers are so much nicer when they're a present), but it finally paid off. I love seeing it everyday in the window.

castaway cupcake

I just found this sweet little post on Urban Nectar about Kristen Lepore's video art. Here are some images of it, and go here to see the actual video and post.

(art by Kristen Lepore via Urban Nectar)

handmade journals

I love these little journals that are coptic-bound using re-purposed vintage books.

(photos from yoursecretadmiral etsy shop)

my olivetti typewriter

I love the little olivetti typewriter that my mom gave me (it was her's in college).

balloons and cake

When my husband came home this past weekend, I planned a couple things for him. I've already posted on the little picnic we had, but I also made him his favorite cake (angel food confetti), got him a bunch of balloons, and hid a few surprises around the house. Oh, and the cake looked kind of funny because I made the frosting ahead of time and didn't get it out of the fridge soon enough for it to be spreadable before he arrived. So I guess it made it more special.

stoke place hotel

When we go to England (someday), I want to stay at least a night at this hotel.

(photos via Stoke Place Hotel)

{picnic}

Sunday afternoon we had a little picnic. It was so nice. It was also a little windy, so my husband wrapped his arms around me, and right when he was telling me a funny story, a group of teenagers suddenly appeared (I literally jumped) and asked us point blank, what year it was. One of the guys was wearing a furry vest, no shirt, and short - I mean scary short - red shorts. They said they were doing a class movie, so I guess my husband and I are in some high-schoolers' video. So if you ever see us on youtube, let me know.

happy mother's day

I leave you with an insanely blurry photo, taken by an old camera of ours (my husband was gone with our Nikon). These are the mother's day packets I made (little card + little gift tags).

food for the eyes

I'm planning some things today for my husband's return on Saturday. He is on a two-week trip right now and I am so ready for him to come home.
By the way, I love these photos from this etsy shop. Maybe if I don't buy groceries next week I could order all these prints instead.




(photo from yvetteinufio etsy shop)

hooray for:

...this lovely blog, Studio Violet. You can read an interview about the author, Elizabeth Dunker, right now on the Inspiration Boards blog.

(photo from Studio Violet via Inspiration Boards)

little obsession

Sometimes, late at night, I make lists. My husband claims this is a weird thing to do. But you never know when it might be absolutely necessary to turn on the bedside lamp and scribble out a list for lemons, postage, and tea. And if I had this, I would always be ready for those random midnight obsessions.

(photo by simplesong etsy shop)

look:

Everyone should buy envelopes with secret messages on them.


(photo via sweetiepie etsy shop)

handmade detroit

The Rethunk craft booth and Swap-O-Rama-Rama (part of HandmadeDetroit) was also at the Green Street Fair that we went to yesterday. You can read more about Handmade Detroit on their website/blog. It's basically a community "hub" for indie crafters in Michigan. I like the labeled map they have of all the nearby shops that sell handmade goods in the metro-Detroit area. Oh, and they have a little etsy shop, too.

(photo via handmadedetroit etsy shop)

green street fair

I just got back from the Green Street Fair in downtown Plymouth and I want to go back already.
The Green Street Fair is a show full of vendors dedicated to local, eco-friendly, recycled, and/or organic products and food. It is amazing to see the creativity there. I loved IKEA's booth, with a stylish little cafe area set up inside (they would), and it was fun to try out some organic food samples at other booths (organic garlic salsa - yum!).

My favorite "stuff" was clothing and goods. I loved ellembee (etsy shop here) full of hand printed clothes, and dang argyle (blog here) filled with cute coin purses, bags, and accessories. We also met a friendly couple manning the booth for their daughter's shop woolly mammoth design. All of the items normally for sale on her website have been taken down to be sold at the booth, but she will have new products up soon. Her shop features cute bags made from vintage or second hand clothing ("recycled"), unique accessories, and embellished sweaters and shirts.

I wonder if my husband would secretly like this r2d2 bag?

(photos via dangargyle)

I can't wait to go back next year, and drag my husband along this time. It's almost worth the trip just to see all of the cute dogs and babies that people have.

a no-waste wedding

I recently got back from a client meeting and I'm glued to the internet looking for some fun ideas for favors and invitations for them, because they'd like to limit having anything "wasteful" for their wedding. Here are two cute ideas for favors, the second one is edible (vegetable-dyed breadsticks).

(photos via martha)

The breadsticks can be infused with anything from parsley to beets. I would much rather "have" my beets this way.