Say Hello to My New Header

Hooray! After a few weeks of planning, tweaking and emailing back and forth, Kelly of Succulent Love Designs worked out this pretty new header for me. You know that I love fabric, so I scanned a handful of pieces that I had, including two pieces of crocheted lace and two cross-stitched table runners from my Dad's mom Mildred. Here's a look at what we started with:

Once I saw this option, which Kelly skillfully put together using the best elements from a few different fabrics, I knew it was the one. It's bright, feminine, and clearly handmade, yet also elegant and unique. Plus I love that it was stitched by someone in my family. We played with fonts and colors, and I am so, so pleased with where we wound up.


So a big thank you to Kelly for being patient with me (as I am a little, ahem, picky) and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Friendship Bracelet Friday

The deadline for the friendship bracelet swap is fast approaching and I am so excited about the latest batch that I've gotten in. This one is from Allyson of the Sweatshop of Love and I am in love with her interpretation—interlocking bracelets made with yarn...so darn cool. (Which makes me wonder how I decide which one I get to swap with? It seems unfair to pick my favorite for myself...any thoughts?)

The next one, which again is so impressive as creating a design within a bracelet is something that I never learned how to do. This one is from Mala and I am also really digging her color combo—just in time for the 4th!

Apparently you swappers have been very modest about your bracelet making skills—check this one out from Kimberly which makes use of a bead as a hook, in addition to having a cool pattern.


You know, in addition to reminding me how much I love friendship bracelets and making new friends, hosting this swap has also given me the joy of getting a lot of really great mail. I am going to try to make a concerted effort to send more mail so that I can pass that on a little bit. And on that note, happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

P.S. If you have a bracelet that you just haven't mailed yet, but you want to try to squeeze in at the last minute, let me know and I'll be sure to include you in the swap next week.

Link Love: Birthday Goodies

Since I got a handful of lovely gifts for my bday last week that have made me so happy, I thought I'd use this post to start the week of right and share them with you.

Above is the Rainy Day tea towel from Leah Duncan, one of my new favorite illustrator/designers. I opened this up and immediately new that it would never be soiled in the kitchen—this beauty is going on a wall, likely in my office where it can give me endless inspiration.

You might remember that I posted about this necklace a few weeks ago. And my sweet boyfriend remembered too, and now I am the proud owner of this beauty from Corrine of September House.

I've also mentioned Good to the Grain: Baking With Whole Grain Flours before and to be honest, I have been tempted to cook my way through it it's so great. I can't wait to share what I make. (I swear I will not go out to lunch while my next batch of bread from this book is rising, I will not!)

A sweet and very unexpected gift came from one of my coworkers, who knows how much I love cookbooks (and sits behind the enormous stack of them on my cabinet). She very thoughtfully gave me the Fill-in-the-Blank Cookbook Log from the Small Object (makers of my favorite Today is Awesome print). The log is sort of like a library system of card cataloging—each cookbook gets a little pocket and a card, and then I get to write info about when the book came into my life and what my favorite recipes are. Given that I recently came into possession of one of my grandmothers cookbooks, and she left a handwritten list in the front of each of her current recipes, I know I'm going to start doing this, even if only to amuse me later in life...I am sure I will think, wow, I made a lot of baked goods when I turned 30!

Nature-Inspired Jewelry from Friedasophie

It's been far too long since I've posted about jewelry and today's featured maker is definitely one of my new favorites. Sandra of Friedasophie on etsy makes jewelry using shapes, colors and textures inspired by nature and says that she's loved to create since she was a kid.

Alex's grandmother was a fashion designer and her great-grandmother was a hat designer, and I just love that she's found her own creative outlet that we can all wear.

Actually, this style of jewelry really speaks to me. I like things to be simple, but also unique and eye catching. I can imagine wearing these pieces with a tee shirt and shorts or a fancier dress which to me is excellent multi-tasking.

New Knitting EBook from Allyson of Sweatshot of Love

Allyson from the Sweatshop of Love (please check out her site for a solid dose of energizing color!) sent over some info on her new ebook that I just had to share.

This ebook includes easy to read and super clear instructions for 10 fun summer knits and some helpful how-tos to get you through this summer knitting season. Projects include a few sweaters, legwarmers, headbands and bags.

 Let's take a peak at some of them:

Man I love those legwarmers and know that all of you proficient knitters out there would have a lot of fun making these designs. And actually, I'm finding this surprisingly motivating—maybe I need to pull out my neglected knitting needles soon!

Garden Goodies and Bread Gone (Slightly) Wrong

 [Reminder! Friendship Bracelets are due to me on the 20th! Don't forget to send yours in- I don't want you to miss out on potential friend making and new accessory wearing this summer!]

I have been a little shocked by all of the rain that we've been having lately, and that I've so frequently woken up to pounding thunderstorms during the past week. But I would officially like to put out the word to Mother Nature that we've had enough—the ground is completely saturated and there's just no where else for the water to go. In any event, the weather gave me a good reason to stay a little closer to home this weekend

As you can see above, the lettuce is holding its own and is growing pretty well. Thankfully we did get a solid dose of sun on Saturday afternoon, so these guys were able to dry out a bit. We actually picked a few to give the bigger plants more space—I just love the mottled color.

The other exciting news from the garden is that there are two tiny green tomatoes on one of our plants! Here you can see one of them, to which I say, YAY!

I also made a batch of Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain, my new favorite cookbook (thanks Josh!). I shared most of them with friends, but kept a few for home since they are just so delicious.

On Sunday I was out of bed earlier than planned (blame the torrential rain and thunder), so I decided to make bread using the new cookbook and the Oatmeal Sandwich Bread recipe. I like the recipe a lot, though I learned that you really shouldn't go out to lunch in the middle of the last rise of bread making—the bread rose so much that it almost spilled over the sides and then when I baked it, I couldn't get a knife around the edges. Which meant that the top broke off :(

Thankfully, we don't mind eating our bread in chunks, and when topped with butter and honey, this stuff is divine and I can imagine that had I not tried to do so many things at once, this would have been an impressive loaf of sandwich bread. (I'll post the recipe when I next make this and, fingers crossed, have a proper picture to share with you.)

June Print of the Month: Bliss by The Wheatfield

June is a month filled with birthdays in my family, so this print of the month is actually going off to someone special in my life. I would love to have this on one of my walls—I just love the bright yet soothing color combination and the cheerful design—but I thought it would also make a great gift.


This is just one of the many prints, which is called Bliss, I am loving from The Wheatfield by Katie. Her prints are inspired by "simple country pleasures, such as hiking in the woods, bathing in the creek & napping in a sea of prairie grass" and many of them remind me of Liberty fabric. Here's a little more about Katie:

My name is Katie Lombardo and I'm an illustrator wandering about the country. I'm originally from a farm and love all things rural. I'm inspired by vegetables, herbs, animals, weather, astronomy, trees, and so much more. When I'm not making art, you can find me canoeing down a river, hiking through the woods, or camping on top of a mountain.

I'm happily leaving you with this image for the weekend as I know it will help me stay sunny during the thunderstorms and rain we have in our forecast for the weekend. I'm convinced that a wet forecast just means I get to stay inside and quilt and bake, so I'm embracing this as nesting time! Enjoy the weekend everyone.