art festival finds

This past weekend was one of my favorite festivals, Patchwork. It's a local art & craft show that brings a bunch of unique and talented individuals along with their creations to the Long Beach Marina for the day. Always accompanied by some awesome food trucks and beautiful weather. I picked up just a few items but I truly love the ones I got! A gold leather wrap bracelet from salvage shop (my mom got an awesome wallet from her too) and a pretty amazing postcard print from courtney oquist. I love being able to support local artists and being inspired by how hard they work.

{inspiration} seeing spots

One of my favorite patterns is definitely spotted, dotted, polkas whatever you like to call them. They honestly get me every time and I love it. I thought I'd share some spotted looks I've been loving lately.  Enjoy.

sweater//dress//clutch

DIY {colorful mason jar storage}

The saying goes "Diamonds are a girls best friend", but I just might have to argue that mason jars are a girls best friend. Don't you agree? The character that the jars have alone are enough to make a girl smile, let alone when putting colorful things inside to store around your home. I've discovered since getting my hands on these little guys, that I've used them for more things than I can remember and I must say I think this is my favorite use for them! So grab your jars friends and add some color to your life!

fool's gold

You might not know this about me BUT,  I am a bit addicted to gold lately. I just can't get enough. Even sequins are starting to catch my fancy, when they used to quite literally scare me. I wonder what else I could be inspired by that I used to see in a total different light. The options are endless, embrace the gold and get inspired friends!

glitter love // sweater // iphone case // chair // tray

chopped broccoli salad

My mom instilled in me when I was a kid to always eat my veggies. Of course there were a few disagreements on which ones were tastier than others (brussels sprouts have never been on my good side) However, for the most part I enjoy tasty veggies. One of my all-time favorites is broccoli. I remember being told as a kid that they were mini trees, so naturally I ate as many as I could in one sitting. With Spring in fully swing and summer not far around the corner, I have been trying to eat up as many veggies as I can to get in shape. The one thing I cannot get enough of lately is this chopped broccoli salad. I first discovered this at a local gourmet grocer and decided to whip up a batch at home. I've basically been making a big batch every week! It's THAT good!

chopped broccoli salad

ingredients:

1 bag of broccoli florets

1/2 cup of sunflower seeds (or as many as you'd like, they add a nice crunch)

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup mayo

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

salt & pepper

** other variations include red onions and bacon. add what you like! 

In a medium bowl, mix chopped broccoli, sunflower seeds and cranberries. In separate small bowl mix, mayo, red wine vinegar, sugar and salt and pepper. (I added less mayo and sugar to the dressing to cut down on extra fat) Add dressing to salad and chill. Enjoy! 

Sweet Friday

Happy Friday friends! I came across this print awhile back and absolutely love it. This is definitely my philosophy! I've been hard at work this week, stewing up come fun projects to share soon. In the meantime, hope you have a relaxing weekend and don't forget to have something sweet!

                        

print

DIY {Date cards}

I will admit that I can be the most indecisive person on the planet at times. Every time my fiance asks me what I'd like to do I fully cannot make up my mind at all. Well friends, I've come up with a cute way to choose what to do for date nights. I put together a few simple envelopes from kraft paper and wrote down the best ideas I had for date nights or daytime adventures. I figured the best place for them to be was on our fridge, strung on a cute string.

Happy crafting friends!!

DIY {fancy friendship bracelets}

I'm sure all you of, myself included, have made enough friendship bracelets to last us a lifetime. However, can you really have enough colorful and fun friendship bracelets? I think not! After seeing this fun take on embellishing them, I decided to give it a try and love the newest edition to my arm party. Get crafty friends! 

chocolate crinkles

A sweet friend of mine gave me this book recently and I've been dying to make something from it. The book is filled with the cutest illustrations of directions in a fun, nicely designed layout. Just my kind of book if you ask me (my friends know me oh so well)! I decided to make crinkles which I had never heard of before but reminded me of a traditional cookie I make during the holidays. Much to my surprise, the crinkles turned out to be more of a cake-like-brownie ball, even my not sweet loving fiance had a few. Needless to say, I can't wait to make another sweet treat from the cookiepedia.

Crinkles

Ingredients:
6 oz bittersweet chocolate. finely chopped
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3/4 baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
powdered sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 325. Use a double broiler to melt the chocolate and butter slowly. Beat eggs and sugar until thick and smooth. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate mixture. Sift flour, powders and salt and gradually add to egg mixture. Cover dough with plastic and let chill for 2 hours. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Rolls 1 inch balls or dough and toss in powdered sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes rotating half way. Cool the sheets 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks. Enjoy!

the local flea

This past weekend I actually had a day that was completely me. I got up early and headed out for the local antique flea. The weather was more than welcoming to spend a couple hours outdoors scouring the flea for fun finds and I was even more excited to get my man to come with me to pick up some fun new decor treasures for our home.

Of course it wouldn't be a successful trip without picking up a few goodies. We found a rustic deer antler and spiced it up with some paint. We also snatched up a vintage metal card drawer and decided it was perfect to use as a succulent planter. Naturally, I got to peruse a bunch of glitz and glamorous jewels that were beyond hard to resist. Luckily, I only came home with a few gold pieces. A girl's gotta have a little vintage glam right!

fancy meeting you

I attended a few fun events in the past few months and have started myself a nice business card collection. As a visual person myself, I take interest in looking through the cards I've collected and seeing what these cards say about the person/business. I've enjoyed and been inspired by these cards and thought it only fitting to share them along with one designed by yours truly as well.

DIY {dipped wooden utensils}

After I saw these dipped wooden spoons, I knew my next project would be to jazz my utensils up a bit. I browsed through my collection of paint colors and my indecisive self couldn't pick just one color, so I opted for good ol' white. I think it brings a fun aspect to my otherwise plain utensils and who knows I might jazz them up a little more by added some gold dots, because those are my favorite!

{my version}

Happy crafting friends!

textured adventures

Lately I find myself being inspired by the patterns and textures that I found in my day to day activities. I realized that when looking back through the photos I snapped this weekend, most of my album was exactly that, textures and patterns oh my! So take the time to look around and breath in your surroundings friends! 

one of grandma's old suits // glittered linens // rainbow striped wall // accent hotel wall

DIY {dye-free easter eggs}

My grandma was the one who rooted most of my family traditions and one of my greatest memories was every Easter heading over to her house and finding a basket with my name in it. She would hide them all over her house and out of 12 cousins there were a lot of baskets to search through. (of course we would help each other out if we found one another's) I've been going strong on keeping that tradition alive in my grandma's honor and this year is not any different. Well the only difference is that I tried out a new way to decorate the eggs. Instead of traditional dying, I opted for a more fun, yet messier way, glitter and markers. It's always fun to put a new spin on an old tradition, try it!

{inspiration} sweet paper goods

I've been wanting to add more inventory to my etsy shop and have finally got enough free time and a bit of inspiration to get started on it. I worked over the weekend at a few blocks and designs for some exciting new paper goods. I can hardly wait to get them finished. Stay tuned and in the meantime stay inspired by these pretty papers. 

love// tags// flag// xo  

DIY {dotted card}

Last week I said goodbye to something that I have been doing for a long time and although it was bittersweet, I am excited for new adventures and taking more risks. As a send off, I made this fun dotted card to say thank you to those people who have immensely effected my life for the better. It was the perfect blend of handmade character and simplicity, everything a card should be. 

shades of green jeans

Lately I can't help but ignore the fact that all I want to wear is green pants. I don't know what's gotten into me, but it's hard to fight the urge to have a bright colored bottom half. I recently read the best comparison to colored jeans from one of my favorite ladies of fashion, "Colored pants are like girl scout cookies. They are everywhere and I can't stop buying them!" Needless to say, I have a similar feeling so here are a few of my favorite brand of jeans in shades of green. (If you have short legs like me, these jeans are the best, no hem needed!) 

pattern // jeans

DIY {pretty tassel garlands}

Last week I discovered an insane gold mine in my neighborhood for craft lovers. An entire warehouse full of party and crafting materials. Needless to say my mind was going a mile a minute and I was ecstatic to pick up some mylar sheets so I could make this pretty little lady for a close friend. I've been eyeballing these garlands for quite some time and shared my favorites last week as inspiration for my version. It's amazing how easy these are (here's a great tutorial) and how much of an impact they give off. I plan on making a couple others and adding a few more things along the pretty string for flare, perhaps some metal stencil letters I've been waiting to use. The options are endless friends, get crafting!  

pie heaven

In honor of pie day yesterday, I decided to make an traditional chicken pot pie but with twist. Instead of pie crust, I topped the dish off with good old buttermilk biscuits (my man's favorite) It turned out a million times better than I thought and really tasted like chicken pot pie. My two secrets were using cream of chicken soup and the biscuit topping. You can add whatever veggies you feel like that day and chicken of course, bake without the biscuits for about 20-30 minutes. Then top with biscuits and cook for 20 more. Pretty much the best comfort food, hands down. Get your pie tins friends and get to cooking! 

source

{inspiration} confetti systems

Ever since I first came across these sparkly fun garlands, I've been wanting to try my hand at making my own. I've attempted smaller versions and have seen many others and can't wait to try mine. In fact, I'm leaving to go get my materials right now.