Handmade Home

I've heard good things about Handmade Home. I'm thinking about asking Santa for it this year. I'd buy it just for the Beach Blanket to Go.

Something Different

Now who said bridemaids always have to carry a bouquet? These are equally as beautiful.



{via Green Wedding Shoes}

Cheap and Chic

More items have been added to the Cheap and Chic collection. I'm hoping to keep this collection going and just update with new styles.

Designers Take Over

Stella McCartney for GapKids (I like the silver moon boots)

Jimmy Choo for H&M

Anna Sui for Target (her line is almost gone. Did you pick up one of her dresses?)

Artist's Workspaces

If you are looking for some inspiration for your workspace, check out ShareSomeCandy. They have a section of artist's workspaces that is very colorful.

Dutch Colonial

This charming house is one of my favorite. It's not flashy or large; just charming. I get to drive by it often, and it always gets a double take from me. The current owner makes sure to have seasonal plants potted in the front door urns. In the wintertime you'll see evergreen topiaries. In the fall, cabbage plants with mums. In the spring, tulips. In the summer, little rose trees. Yeah...I've been taking notes. Buy it here.

Dear Honey...

Happy 11 year Anniversary! Remember this picture? This was our first picture that we took together. I think we were rolling around in the leaves or something. I like how my nose is smashed up on your cheek and you've got this blank expression. Anyway, we've had quite the adventure--good times and bad. Sometimes I miss the days when it was just you and me. Don't get me wrong...I love our children. But I have fond memories of the many, many years when it was just you and me. You remember a few:

all the fun road trips we went on blasting our music, midnight $1 shows at the movie theater, listening to local bands and dancing our hearts out, scrounging up loose change around the house and head to the ice cream store, mountain biking almost every day in the summer and snowboarding every weekend in the winter, you cooking special dinners for me, gathering our "homies" and playing ultimate freesbie until the moon came out, going to art galleries and strolling leisurely. And I admit it--there are times that I miss the brutal five-day backpacking trips you would take me on multiple times during the summer.

But hey! We still have fun. And we've been blessed with three beautiful, healthy children that complete us. I'm glad we've made it a priority to have a date night every week--no matter what. It definitely keeps the excitement going. Can't wait for tonight when you take me salsa dancing!

Oh.Dee.Doh

Apartment Therapy's Ohdeedoh featured Lucas's monster truck party yesterday. They posted his party to launch their Kid's Party Month. Thanks for the shout out! I reference that blog all the time for baby ideas. Thanks also to other blogs that posted his party. Here are a few that I remember:

Party Perfect
Tutus and Turtles
100 percent cottam
The TomKat Studio

From Sketch to Product

I just completed bracelets for a bride who has 12 bridemaids! Anyway, I love love the final product. It's so pretty on. It's got an elegant-urban style to it. The bride wanted the piece to have different shades of silver to coordinate with her color scheme. I think the bracelet came pretty close to my quick free hand drawing.

Halloween

We were super heros.

Ghoulish Cupcakes

For all the Halloween festivities I baked and decorated 60 cupcakes last week--witches, bats and monsters. (little hands helping of course). Sugar high? Yes. Glad it's over? Yes.

Pumpkins

Here are our pumpkins this year. And oops...I forgot to carve one for Jackson. Next year. Do you see the witch? Have a safe Halloween! Can't wait to see everyone's costume.

DIY Costumes

It might be too late to use it this year, but these DIY kid costumes are adorable and look really easy to assemble--felt pieces to a sweatsuit.

Flowers in Glass Vases

Love this idea of putting a variety of glass vases with different flowers as a table centerpiece. Pretty, pretty. And why not put a few of your favorite house furniture outside when throwing a party. It makes the dessert buffet a charming presentation, along with the pom-pom garland.

Let Me Out

On a nice Fall day last week, all that the kids wanted to do was play outside and ride bikes. Poor baby was feeling a little neglected by his siblings and just stood banging on the door and talking gibberish. I couldn't tell if he was saying, mom let me out or stella and luke come back in. Anyway, it's hard life when you can only crawl. You just don't get to be in all the fun.

Cheap and Chic

There are a few pieces now available from the Cheap and Chic line--all under $25. Slowly but surely getting them up on the site. The pieces are under "new arrivals" and will say whether they are apart of the collection and of course the price! These are the "Ryan" and one of my favorites that I've been sporting around town.

Brunch Baby Shower

Over the past weekend I hosted a baby shower for my girlfriend who is pregnant with twins. We decided to go against the norm and have the baby shower in the morning time and serve breakfast. The food was fresh and delish, especially since Amanda (who needs to start her own catering company) cooked most of it. All the food was prepared that morning--buttermilk pancakes, cinnamon rolls, quiche, sausage balls, dutch babies. Amanda made an almond syrup that was heavenly.




For decorations and a gift for the twins I made these mobiles. I love them. I think I'm going to make some more for my kid's room. Click here for mobile instructions.


Since the mommy is going to have double duty on diapers, I asked the guests to bring a bag of diapers for entry into a door prize. I think she is now set for the first three months. We also played twin trivia.

One night when the kiddies were in bed, I went a little crazy and jarred peach jam for each of the guests. Perfect breakfast treat.

The invitations are what set the colors and styles. I put two giraffes side by side to go with the theme of twins. And neutral/unisex colors since she is having a boy and girl.

It was fun!

Busy...

I'm busy working on jewelry. I hoping some of the new pieces will be up before the week ends. I'm excited because there is a Cheap and Chic collection--all under $25. And they are all fabulous and still made with quality material.

In the meantime, bridal custom orders are now available on my website! When I mean custom, it starts with pad and pencil. Brainstorming, design sketches, material shopping, samples, final product. This is great for the bride who wants full control OR wants unison pieces from bride to bridemaids to flower girl OR the bride wants to match an heirloom piece. Click here for more information.

Cupcake Kit

These cupcake kits from Saint Cupcake are so fun and look really yummy. The kit comes with your choice of 3 cake flavors, 3 icings and 3 sprinkles and packaged in a really cute box. This would be the perfect care package to wish a friend a happy birthday or congrats on a new baby. And only $21 with shipping. Not bad.

{via One Cool Pick}

Vintage Tags

Pretty vintage tags from Paper Eclectiques. Perfect for upcoming holidays.

Pumpkin Patch '09

A field of pumpkins ready to be harvest.

Beautiful autumn scene

me and baby

Halloween Garland

We haven't pulled out any of our Halloween decorations yet. Last year I made this bat garland for our fireplace. I think I saved it. Here are some other Halloween garland that would spook-up a wall, window or doorway.

Martha;BHG;Angry Chicken; Martha; Pottery Barn

French Cottage

Have you been reading up on the renovations of Stephmodo's 400-year-old stone cottage that is located in the south of France? It's very inspiring especially since she and her husband did it with 3 young children and thousands and thousands of miles away from their homebase. And what is cool is that you can rent out the cottage. Somehow I need to convince my honey that we need to vacation there. It's gorgeous. See the before and afters here.

Colorful Window

I love checking out store windows when shopping in the City. Just that alone will keep you entertained. Anthropologie always has neat window displays and Kate's Paperie. And during the holidays, you actually have to stand in line just to view some of the department store's windows.

Funny Barb

Ms. Funny Girl just released a new album that I'm lovin' and just downloaded from iTunes. It's classical and pure Barbra.

Fancy Table

Look at this fabulously, long table. Styled very pretty by Santa Barbara Chic.

Hello Kitty Party

Stella turned the big 5 and choose to have a Hello Kitty party for her celebration. Her request this year was no boys because well...boys don't like Hello Kitty. But, I think she secretly wanted to invite a few boys from her class with a few comments she made. So, what do you do at a Hello Kitty party besides plaster Hello Kitty's face everywhere? Good question.


We started off with the invitations--Hello Kitty face, stars, pink, purple...you get the idea. Stella wanted to help so she glued and glued cardstock on top of cardstock. Gluing is a big thing in kindergarten. It took a long time for those invitations to dry.

Next I decided that it would be fun if the girls actually got dolled up as Hello Kitty at the party. Oh boy. They liked that. So a few days before I went out and bought black stretchy headbands and white felt. I cut Hello Kitty ears out of the felt and hot glued the ears to the headbeads. Then I bought pink felt and made hair clips--perhaps I'll do a tutorial post on making the hair clip. I made enough hair clips for each girl. At the party the girls were able to decorate their hairclips with gemstones and other felt shapes. Then after they were done decorating their hair clips, their face was painted with whiskers and nose. And voila! You have a Hello Kitty.

Another activity the girls did was stamping. I gave each a few notecards and envelopes, pulled out all my stamps and pads and they had a blast stamping away. Very Hello Kitty. We didn't play any games--I think the hair clips burnt me out. But that was okay because all the girls wanted to do was play in the playroom and with each other. Decorations--white flowers, paper lanterns hung all over the ceiling with pink table items. The favor buckets I bought from Target in the dollar section. All the Hello Kitty and girlie items were purchased from Target in the dollar section. The food--I took English muffins and with a cookie cutter shaped them as stars. I made little star pizza and served with strawberries, pretzels and Izze drinks.

The cake. Oh I loved this cake. So beautiful and it was so yummy with strawberry buttercream. There were a lot of little details that made it just perfect. And no. I did not make the cake that is the talent of Palmer's Market.

Look how cute these kittys are?! I saw a few of them the other day, and they were wearing their Hello Kitty hair clips. I think that means the party was a success.

Applesauce

Yummy, yummy applesauce. I am not an applesauce girl, but Mom's receipe makes my mouth water. So, so good. Okay, I finished the applesauce. I think I learn something new everytime I can. This time it was put screw tops on when cooking! Can you believe I completely forgot to put the screws on?? I was wondering why the lids weren't popping. Well, I did manage to get a few bottles and we already went through two bottles. Here's my Mom's yummy applesauce recipe.

Pan full of apples (peeled and sliced)

1 (8 oz) can of frozen apple juice

1 cup of pure maple syrup

1-2 tsps of cinnamon

Cook and mash until apples are soft. If you like chunky applesauce ladle into prepared jars and process for 30 minutes. We like our applesauce smooth, so I whip them in my blender and then ladle into jars and process for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Dear Ashley,

My dear, dear friend.
Thank you for your friendship. I feel so grateful to have you in my life. Although we are hundreds and hundreds of miles away you are still like a sister to me. Thank you for always remembering my birthday and sending me random gifts. You are always so generous and think of others. Thank you for your humor and your crazy personality. When I get to hang out with you, you keep me feeling young and it's always an adventure. I love hearing all your crazy stories, although I always question if they are true. I miss the everyday but glad we always get to see each other each summer. Well, I've been thinking about you all day today as you prepare to give birth to baby number 3. I think it's a boy. Okay... I actually think it's a girl but I'm wishing for a boy. Best wishes. I'm praying for a quick delivery. Love you, D.

Modern House + Half-Marathon

This past weekend I ran the Hamptons Half. Since I didn't get into the New York Marathon, I thought I should at least do something instead of nothing. Okay...so I'm going to do some bragging--I got 8th place in my age division and 30th in women's. Not too bad. But I didn't beat my goal of 1:35, perhaps I might need to run another. My favorite part of the weekend was that I got to hang out with all my running friends and we made it a girls weekend in an awesome, very minimalist, modern Hamptons house. I need to do girls' weekends more often.

All the running girls lounging by the pool minus Melinda.

Front

Back

White on White

Spiderman on chalkpainted sliding doors

Glass shower perfectly positioned right by the ceiling to floor, wall-to-wall window. Hello neighbors!

Out door shower