country girl

It's great to take some time away from familiar surroundings and get inspiration from a new place. Especially for me, a girl from the suburbs. Back in November we visited a friend's farm just 30 minutes from here and it was amazing. Gathering eggs from their chickens, mucking out the pig pen, and picking fresh strawberries helps you realize what hard work goes into getting food onto our dinner tables. And colors are so vibrant! It really was so inspirational getting our hands dirty. Take a look at a few of the pics:





And the other day, our friend dropped off a dozen organic eggs from the farm for me. They were just so beautiful - green, white, and brown. And so yummy too! Can't wait to make an omelette with them. Just add a teaspoon of baking powder, whip 'em up and it's the best omelette ever.

sweet valentine

This weekend we were away at a retreat in the mountains with the kids from our church. And boy, was it ever pouring rain! On Valentine's Day we had a special dinner where everyone got dressed up -- so to do something a little special, I created goodie bags on a budget. Before getting to the retreat center, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up 100 brown paper bags for $3.75 and a tiny lined notebook for 79 cents. I brought some red cardstock with me and a whole bunch of pink and red candies from the Asian supermarket. I had lychee gummies, strawberry gummies, peach gummies, thin strawberry cream wafers, rice crackers, and haw flakes.

Two of the other counselors helped me to cut out hearts and stuff the bags, while I wrote a Bible verse onto 45 pieces of notebook paper. Then I took out the rings of the notebook so I didn't have to rip the pages out, and paired it with the cardstock hearts. Then we stapled the bags closed. Here's what we ended up with:


I would have liked to have printed the verse on the paper, but this still came out as I had envisioned. Simple, fun, and super cheap!

some serious bling

I have a confession to make. I have a bit of a thing for jewelry ... I am willing to invest in a piece if I think it's worth it. Now it's not like I'm into the really the fancy-shmancy gems and jewels, but I do like organic pieces that make a statement. So when I saw these amazing necklaces - my jaw literally dropped. Stuh. Ning. I was going to make it into a collage, but then I thought, to appreciate these babies you really need to see the whole thing. I wanted to post the whole lot of them, but couldn't decide which ones were best. They are all gorgeous.

Created by Smallthings Studio in Portland, they are part of a line called Stone and Honey. And honey, these are works of art! My favorites are the medium and small agate pieces. The agate is riveted with fine metalworking -- usually either a pinwheel, honeycomb, feather or crystal formation and each piece is one-of-a-kind.

Oh. My. Gravy.




via Design for Mankind

i love you more than ___________.

This is a great site, and so funny too. In light of V-day coming up, it's so nice to see others expressions of love. Yup, I love you more than Costco samples ... *smile*
Go to the site to fill in the blank yourself!

the dailies

I think it's so neat to take a sneak peek at what designers go through in a day -- what their thought processes are like, their work flow, what they find inspiring as they go about their daily routine. Over at Design for Mankind, artists/designers/bloggers are featured in The Dailies, an ongoing feature that is essentially, a "day in the life of _____."

Most recently, they featured Sally Shim of shim+sons -- who is now living in Busan, South Korea with her husband and two sons. The photos from her day were just so quaint and had moments of lovely quiet and I really enjoyed reading the whole post. It's also a neat idea to record what your day is like and what you were doing when. Maybe I'll take a stab at it one of these days.

image from sally shim for design for mankind

life is like a musical ... or at least i wish it was

This video is just the cutest, coolest thing ever. It'd been awesome to have witnessed this. Just fun fun fun! If life was like a musical, we could do this all the time!



Also, I found some other clips about the public's reaction to it, and how they made everything come together behind the scenes at Liverpool Street Station.





via darling dexter

cute as a button!

Ever since I was 11 or 12, I've loved baking. I think the first thing I ever baked was a batch of snickerdoodles with my cousins. From then on, I was in charge of baking the pumpkin pie and custard pies for Thanksgiving dinner every year. I even used to make sweet little leaf and turkey toppers out of leftover crust to jazz up the pies (example from this year below, done by my sis and I).

So when I came across Bake it Pretty and saw their adorable vintage button candy molds - it made me want to bake again. So cute and fun. Can you imagine a baby shower with the theme "Cute as a Button" and these candy buttons (I think I saw one with this theme in MSL)? Also, the toppers and muffin cups in their Etsy shop are great for a party. Love 'em!

images from bake it pretty blog

twee things

Last year I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco and stumbled upon some cool Canadian gals selling these beautiful little wooden buttons, necklaces, rings, and earrings. I didn't have any cash on me, so I decided I'd look them up on Etsy later and get some pieces made. So, just in time for my birthday in November, a little package from Twee Things came for me. And these little lovelies were inside!

The yellow earrings are now posts, but the whole set is just simple and beautiful. The wood is yellow heart wood, which grows in Brazil. This set is not in their Etsy shop, but you can make special requests, and they're awfully sweet to accommodate what you're looking for. Kelsey and Heather, you guys are awesome! I love the simple organic shapes paired with the colored suede.

Here are more lovely photos from the Renegade Craft Fair and the Twee website - how adorable are those knit flowers with the buttons?

images 1, 3, and 4 courtesy of twee things

honey is so sweet

For Christmas my bro-in-law and sis-in-law purchased a necklace off of my wish list and I wear it practically everyday. I really love that it's so delicate and small. It's like tiny pieces of confetti around your neck, and I can hardly tell that I'm wearing it sometimes. It's called the golden honeyed dots necklace.

You can find it at Elizabeth Rosas' Etsy shop here.

wonder boards: ice cream wedding

I got married over three years ago, but have always loved looking at inspiration boards for weddings. I created this one and just loved the poppy colors. It was inspired by ice cream, candy, and cakes! What a fun and delicious wedding this would be!


source list (from top left, clockwise): bakerella cupcake pops, yellow dress with sequin belt from nordstrom, nantaka joy thank you card, sketch ice cream shop invitations by passing-notes, sketch packaged marshmallows, bride and groom portrait by mel barlow and wedding dress by louise austrie, carnival dessert buffet and ribbon cake by rebecca thuss for martha stewart living

as time goes by ...

I'm still in denial that it's 2009 already. And I've really been slacking on getting a planner and/or calendar. I've seen tons of calendars everywhere in blogland, but hadn't really seen one that caught my eye until now. This one by Valery Design Works is so whimsical - I really love the fun looking toucan-birds with teeth on the front - what are those (click to see it larger)?

2009, you know what that means -- my 10 year high school reunion!
Valery Design Works 2009 wall calendar $30

a very special valentine

Tomorrow's the hubba's birthday. So since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I thought it'd be nice to make him a personalized card based on a joke between us. He likes funny quotes from movies so I'm sure he'll get a kick out of this. So here's the simple card I made (click to see it larger)And of course, I had to have the video playing while I was making it. Here it is in all it's cheesy gloriousness:

Happy early Valentine's Day!

a little artist: rosemarie fiore

I have a soft spot for dots. Call me cutesy, but I don't care. And the above pieces of art are anything but cutesy. These are Firework Drawings by artist Rosemarie Fiore. Rosemarie creates these collages by exploding fireworks onto paper in enclosed containers, resulting in rich colors that she then collages by layering circles of paper on top of each other. The drawings exude an abstract other-worldly kind of quality. I think it's so dynamic and vivid, the image on the right is currently my desktop wallpaper. I'd love to own one of her pieces, I'm quite sure I could stare at it for hours. Click to see the image larger.

images from rosemarie fiore's website

keeping up the wonder

As of the last year or so, I've been so tempted to jump on the blogtrain -- but just never had the time or a real inclination.

Now with some prodding from my dear sister-in-law, I am finally here! Hopefully much fun will be had and some fresh ideas will spring from this. Or, at the very least - a collection of pretty things and creative loveliness to inspire.

So here we go! In the near future I may be blogging about:

* fun n' crafty projects that I start (and sometimes don't finish)
* interior design
* graphic design
* peeks into my always growing inspiration folder
* my adventures with the husband and our sweet dog
* ideas and other coolness

photo taken in honolulu/oahu/hawaii - sept 08
polaroid made with the ever-cool poladroid.net