beastie badges

grizzly bear brooch

Look at these cutie pie badges by illustrator Elizabeth Pawle! Which do you love the most? The shifty-eyed grizzly? The startled badger family, all in a row? The snoozy kitty, wrapped up tight? Or the tiny-legged inquisitive corgi? I can't single out just one because they're all so precious. Well, if I were forced to choose, I think it would be the grizzly because something's going on there. He has a secret for sure, and he thinks you're onto him. Why can't you see his paws and claws? Because he's hiding them...a precursor to attack, I bet. Dangerous badges are the best badges--that's badges, not badgers. You don't need to specify that badgers are dangerous. I mean, that goes without saying. Same applies to bears. 

parade of badgers brooches

What are the Deathly Hallows?

I originally bought a wood burning tool to complete my heirloom recipe box project, but I realized that since I didn't know how the varnished wood (cedar maybe?) would react to the process, I might be safer going the paint route. Plus, I didn't want to burn the heck out of my nice vintage recipe box. So, there's the genesis of my wood burning odyssey...

Amanita kaleidoscope

I found these bizarrely yellow and green mushroom kaleidoscopes at Target last Christmas. I do believe
they were a dollar. Monika was there, so she can vouch. Not too shabby, except the color is, like I said,
bizarre. I acknowledge that mushrooms come in all sorts of colors, but these just looked like barf to me.
No, thank you. So, I decided to get out my paints and make these mushrooms look a bit more appealing. 

instaweek

disco light

first tomatoes

Etch-your-sketch cocktail glasses!

Nicholas loves to make cocktails, so for his birthday I decided to create some customized glasses for all of the delicious cocktails he makes.

Step 1--Ready the supplies. I bought all the glasses at Cost Plus World Market. I think everything was $3.99 a piece. The Armour Etch was leftover from a project Christine did years ago, but I did confirm that you can buy it at Michael's (with a coupon, it would run you about $6). You'll need contact paper (Target $5), a sponge brush, scissors, and gloves.

porcelain pretties

Take a gander at these stunners by Yumi of and O Design. Yumi, a Japanese ceramicist working from Melbourne, makes brooches, necklaces, earrings, and dear little porcelain dishes. I wish it were autumn right now, because I'd love to pin one of these beauts to my jacket, wouldn't you?

ceramic hot air balloon brooches

hello speech bubbles porcelain brooches

summer mists

It's Milo, the mist assistant!

All of my complaints about the unseasonably cool summer disappeared over the last couple of weeks when Spokane has made the sudden transition to hot weather. How quickly we forget, or at least I forget, once the temp jumps to 96 degrees. Ughhhhhhh. But while flipping through an old Martha Stewart magazine, as I am wont to do while eating my cereal in the mornings, I came across a simple summer pick-me-up: the all-natural mist. Part of my routine for keeping cool is to put water on every bit of exposed skin and just let it evaporate as nature intended. But this definitely seems a step above splashing over the kitchen sink. Plus, it's so simple and so instantly gratifying, I swear you'll mist the summer away. 

You'll need: an empty mini spray bottle or two. I picked mine up in the travel minis section of Target: 97 cents each. 

More stamping!

These aren't as amazing as Christine's DIY eraser stamps, but they're only $1.50 at Michaels.

Cat pod!

I picked up this cat pod sleeping station (that's what I like to call it) at Costco in May. 

Without question, that was the best thing that happened during May. Peanut likes it sometimes.

recipe for success

I've been on the lookout for vintage wooden recipe boxes as part of a gift for the sisters for a while. I found this one in time for Catherine's birthday (31 May...OK, this post is coming a bit late), so I decided it was do or die time and created this. 

Lincoln City shells

One thing I've always loved about the ocean is the little bit I get to take home with me and cherish all
those days that I'm landlocked. On my recent trip to Lincoln City I found these ocean floor treasures!

Special delivery

I just received my Spoonflower order in the mail today. It's going to bring to life a particular project I have in mind. I had never ordered from Spoonflower before, but I really like the fabric I got. They're a bit pricey for me but the patterns. Oh, the patterns! Needless to say, the patterns really caught my attention. I didn't need too much fabric for the project, so I went ahead and clicked "add to cart" a couple of times. 

Check out the whimsical fabric I got from the gollybard line.

Seeds and feathers! How spectacular!

Cat lockets!?!?

Yeah, you heard me--CAT LOCKETS! What's better than wearing a cat locket with a picture of your cat inside the locket? Answer, nothing.

Head on over to Cheap Frills to pick it up!

Cats not your style? What about a really sleek fox necklace? (You should probably work on liking cats more too.)

Etsy store found here.

I would like both, thanks!

Do I see some tenting?

Okay so I have officially wasted hours, well not wasted, but just spent hours on Pinterest this morning. Why shouldn't I? I'll tell you why. It was during one of the only times today when it won't be too hot to go outside, and I am sure Olive would have really loved a nice quiet morning stroll; but Pinterest it was.

 Two reasons why I was so captivated. First, I started a new pin board entitled Tents that features, you guessed it, tents.

Camp Decor

Soul Sweet

Anthropologie Altair Tent

 Lucy Hutchinson

Zeynep Arda

 Second, I started another new pin board Pinwheels for Dawn.
This board is for my lovely friend Dawn who is soon to be wed.

I love these colors. So fun.

wedding chicks

Martha Stewart

iseethemoonphotography

 If you want to see how we sisters are progressively wasting hours on pinning you should follow us.
Come now, you know if would be fun.



Good thinkin', Lincoln.

If you're out of the loop, I really love Abraham Lincoln. I mean really love him. This kind of love makes it mandatory to stop by Ford's Theatre while in DC. Granted, I had been there some 16 years earlier, but I had never been to the Peterson House (the house across from Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was taken after he was shot). This kind of love also gets me in trouble because I tend to buy way too much memorabilia and then I become the weirdo with too much Lincoln memorabilia. There's nowhere else to put it!

My love for Lincoln is a special elitist's type of love. This type of love meant that my mother and I ditched the lecture at Ford's Theatre and went on our own guided tour. You can't teach basic Lincoln assassination to Nicolai's--we already have that covered, trust me.

JWB's derringer

Mary Surratt...tsk tsk.

JWB's boot--Dr. Samuel Mudd had to cut it off in order to treat Booth's broken leg.

From Ford's Theatre looking into Peterson House.

Replica wall paper

Replica Lincoln death bed. Don't fret, I've seen the real one in Springfield!

All of the books ever written about Lincoln.
I heard somewhere that Lincoln is written about more than Jesus...?

 Happy Friday the 13th, may you have better luck than Lincoln!

cats on cats on cats

Rutherford Gibson mans the phones at IBKC fundraising headquarters. Photo by Laurie Cinotto

This is just a little reminder about The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee fundraiser. They're at the nine day countdown and still have a ways to go before they reach their $75,000 goal. If you're feeling generous, consider stopping by the IBKC's First Giving fundraising page and leaving a little something. If you're more inclined to look at pictures of adarlingable (yes, that is a mash-up of adorable and darling) kittens, check out the IBKC blog for sleeps, squints, meeps, nips, and frolicks.

And finally if, in addition to both of the ideas above, you need to drop some USDs on a frivolous bit of feline wonderment for your walls, please see the recommendations below.

1. An official IBKC poster by Boo Davis, with all proceeds benefiting the fundraiser!

2012 IBKC Fundraising Poster by Boo Davis

2. Cats of the World print by Gemma Correll from L'Affiche Moderne

Cats of the World

3. This rainbow cat poster, on sale at Urban Outfitters. SALE!

Rainbow Cat Poster 

4. This celestial cat print by Zippora Lux on Society 6.

The Persian and the Ashes of the First Stars

As always, this post was written with an active cat tail covering a good many of the keys and some little paws curled right up against my arm. As it should be.