You know, most of the time I tell Daniel how easy he has it in regards to fashion. He wears big baggy clothes and comfortable shoes. The most restricting thing he ever has to put on is a tie once or twice a year, but when summer comes around I feel sorry for him. He’ll never experience the wonderful ventilation summer dresses provide. It’s like having a fan aimed at your nether regions! How cute is Shabby Apple’s Bon Voyage dress? I’m loving those pleats.

1 Bon Voyage Dress from Shabby Apple
2 Simplicity Is Key Belt In Tan from Ruche
3 Go Green Ring from Shabby Apple
4 Carmel + Mint Woven Clutch from Blackbird and the Owl
5 T-strap Sandals from Seychelles

Shabby Apple Giveaway (Closed)

Shabby Apple has so many adorable vintage-inspired dresses, and lucky for you they asked me to host a giveaway for one $75 gift card! (You need to have a USA shipping address to be eligible for entry.) To enter the giveaway, Shabby Apple would like you to do two things:

1. “Like” Shabby Apple on Facebook—right here.
2. Comment below with your favorite Shabby Apple item. 

I’ll update this post next Monday (July 23rd) to announce the winner. But really you’re all winners, because you can use the discount code whistle10off for the next month to receive 10% off your Shabby Apple purchase!

And the winner is…

I used random.org to determine that the Shabby Apple giveaway winner is Corrin who said “I love the red Headliner Dress from The Block collection. So cute!” Congrats Corrin! I will email you shortly about your $75 gift card.

Don’t forget you can all still use the discount code whistle10off for the next three weeks to receive 10% off your Shabby Apple purchase!

I ran out of blank pages in my sketchbook, so I picked up a new one today. In college I had a professor who required us to decorate our sketchbook covers, and I’m going to start doing that again. Since I’ve had Danni’s washi tape notebook in the back of my mind for a while, I grabbed my new sketchbook and pulled out my tape stash. It was a bit tedious to cut all these little triangles, but I think my new sketchbook looks pretty sweet.

Now the scary part… filling the first page!

I’ve been designing a line of rubber stamps for the shop, and they’re almost ready to go. I’m just working out how I’m going to do the product photography and packaging. They should be available sometime in the next few weeks!

By the way, tea towels are in the works too! 

Last month I was inspired by Rachel’s photos of the Fat Hen—specifically the hand written pricing on a pane of glass. I loved the look and decided to recreate it in my home. It was a great excuse to practice my hand lettering too!

I didn’t want to draw off the cuff, so I lettered a phrase from one of my favorite verses and blew it up to use as a template. If you’d like to use my template, you can download it below. You definitely don’t need to use a template though, you can just write/draw whatever you dream up. The possibilities are endless! The wet erase chalk marker (not for use on chalkboards) erases with a damp cloth, so you can draw over and over again.

It was tricky to photograph the final product since it transforms as you view it from different angles. It will look totally different at night, too! It’s really quite beautiful, and I think you’ll like it if you try it. Next time I’m going to take a looser approach and sloppily write a long quote that takes up the whole window.

Update: This is what it looks like at night! Pretty cool, right?

Supplies:

“you shine like stars” template (free to download here—for personal use only please)
2 sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ paper
a printer
scissors or a paper cutter
clear tape
wet erase chalk marker (available for purchase here)

How To:

1. Print both pages of the pdf template.

2. Trim off a narrow strip on the right side of the first page of the template, and on the left side of the second page so the design bleeds off each page. (See the first photo for clarification.)

3. Line up the two pages so the letters meet seamlessly in the center. The pages will overlap about an inch or so. Tape them together when you have them perfectly aligned.

4. Now go outside and tape the template to your window facing in.

5. Go back inside. Follow the instructions on the marker packaging to get the ink flowing, and trace the template on the glass with your wet erase marker. Your final product is not going to be exact since the marker tip is quite large, so just use the template as a guideline.

6. When you’re finished tracing, go outside and remove the template from the window.

7. If desired add some doodles around the lettering. I went with triangles since I’m not quite over my triangle obsession yet.

Happy Fourth of July!

music: “checking things off a to do list early in the morning” by Lullatone

Before today I had never eaten a fresh fig. I’d been wanting to try one for a long time (since I figured Fig Newtons probably didn’t do them justice), but whenever I found them for sale they were all smooshy and rotten. Finally I found some ripe figs to try. It turns out that after all that waiting… I don’t really like them that much. Ha! Don’t get me wrong, they are all right, but figs are no pomegranates (my favorite fruit of all time). It’s possible that I set my expectations too high, but at least they’re cute! Have you ever had a fig?

We have another family of Carolina Wrens living in our kitchen window box! I wasn’t going to bombard you with photos (since I thoroughly documented the last family of wrens from eggs, to goofy looking chicks, to the day they left the nest), but yesterday they did something so bizarre that I had to get my camera. All four of the chicks wobbled out of the nest and set up camp at the edge of the window box. Last time around the chicks didn’t take one step outside the nest until the day they left for good, and these babies are still half featherless and definitely not ready to leave yet. I guess they got too hot snuggled up in there. It really threw mama bird for a loop, and she searched the empty nest several times before finding them.

Summer is definitely not my favorite season, but all the sweet, ripe fruit available this time of year helps make up for it. I can’t decide which I enjoyed more—photographing these gleaming berries or gobbling up my first piece of delicious triple berry crisp. This recipe is a keeper. I’m going to munch on this all weekend, and hopefully the 100° days will be over before I know it.

1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup butter (The original recipe called for another 1/2 cup, but I thought 1 cup was plenty.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, gently toss together blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and white sugar; set aside. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Press half of mixture in the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan. Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream!

recipe from allrecipes.com

This is for Gretchen and Leigh who wanted to see my new hydrangea! I just so happened to have snapped a few photos the other day. I think she needs a name… Geraldine! (A name from one of my all-time favorite movies, Some Like It Hot.)

Want to see something beautiful? These coneflowers are the newest addition to my butterfly garden (thanks Dad!). Most flowers are pretty because of their petals, but the center is clearly the best part of a coneflower. They’re so intricate—even from the moment the bud first appears. My coneflower-inspired doodles certainly don’t live up to the real thing!

By the way, I planted my very own hydrangea last weekend! Thanks for convincing me! :)