Enjoying

A great new CD

With an awesome video for this song

Get Fat, Be Happy.

For those of you who are not from Central Pennsylvania:

A whoopie pie, sometimes alternatively called a gob, black-and-white, or bob is a baked good traditional to the Pennsylvania Dutch culture as well as New England, made of two small, chocolate, disk-shaped cakes with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them

Thanks, Wikipedia! Sorry I mentioned whoopie pies a few days ago without describing what they are. I didn't realize that they are a regional thing!

Now, go make these, get fat and be marvelously happy. That's what I've been doing lately. They are best stashed in the fridge. And, don't fear, the thick "hide-the-fat-sweater" weather will soon be upon us. You can worry about your thighs come Summer.

HT: Culinary Creations by Peabody

Sigh.

This coat...... is perfect.

Fall Fashions.

Lately, there is just a bit of a chill in the air, especially in the early morning. This made me want to spend more time on my patio, but all I have is a pair of very cute, but not so comfortable, wooden chairs from IKEA. However, October is not the best time to be searching for furniture. I've found a few loungers left at Target, but they don't quiet match the rest of my outdoor decor. Oh well.

In honor of the awesome fall weather, here are a few outfits I've been craving lately:

Anthropologie

Paul by Paul Smith

Also Loving:
These Pumpkin Whoopie Pies which I made on Monday, and have been eating, rather stealthily, since then. They are wonderful all cold and right-out-of-the-refrigerator, as I prefer them.

Fabulous Fascinators!

Ack! I've been neglecting this poor, little blog! Sadly, my sweet Gram passed away last week, so I've been back and forth to PA for the past few weeks, first visiting her and then going back for the funeral.

Onto happier things. . . maybe it's totally cute Kenley on Project Runway, or this beauty recently featured on Making It Lovely, but I am loving fascinators lately! And, I recently found this awesome tutorial on Burda Style.

And, if you prefer to buy a fascinator rather than attempting to make one, that beautiful blue one above is on sale at Love, Lulu Mae.

"Let There Be . . . Paper Source!"

Folks, the clouds have parted and God has smiled down upon me. Nope, I'm not preggers. But, I have discovered that Charlotte is getting a PAPER SOURCE! Paper Source is my favorite place in the world. I have a weird obsession with them, actually. My wedding invitations were from Paper Source. I love handmade papers and I horde Paper Source's large sheets because it's too precious to make something out of. I mean if I used it, I would have to order more. (And don't get me started on the thrill of seeing the huge cardboard portfolio sitting outside of my door when I order from them.) But, now I don't have to get lost in Georgetown (as I did last month) or Boston (as I did last year) looking for my beloved Paper Source, because there will be one here in Charlotte! And it opens in November!

To celebrate, I might just make something out of the sheets of Japanese paper I've been hording in my office since my trip to the Georgetown Paper Source last month. (FYI- That beautiful Japanese paper above was the cover of my wedding invitations.)

Just So You Know.

This is not nearly as disgusting as I expected it to be. In fact, they are pretty tasty. I have now reached a point in my life where I am eating food from a can.

Home Envy

I am loving the flickr home shots from Bling On My Sewing Machine's Rachel Denbow. I wish Charlotte had better thrift stores, because I am totally envious of all the great finds. You can check out her etsy store, PonyParty, for a great selection of those awesome vintage finds. I wonder how she decides what to sell and what to use in her own home. If it were me, I'd keep it all!

Back to School

In the spirit of this post by midwest modern girl (love your blog!), I thought I would list of few of my favorite back to school items.I love this laptop sleeve by Etsy seller Janine King.

And this lunch kit, from Etsy seller Glue and Glitter, is totally adorable.

And these have been my favorite pens for the past few years.

What are your favorite items for back to school? (Or, if you're a grown-up, back to work.)

Trench Coat Dreams

I saw the new Richard Chai for Target line today and totally fell in love! Everything in the line is adorable, and I love this trench. I have no need for another coat, but this would be adorable with some dark wash trench jeans and flats. And, at less than $45, it's a steal! There are lots of other cute items available. But, like many other GO International lines at Target, they might sell out quickly.

Longer Than Expected!

So, that lull in posting was much longer than expected. My husband and I went to D.C. and Pennsylvania to see friends and family and then we brought my five-year old brother back to Charlotte with us. Wow! I now stand in awe of mothers. Constantly looking after a kiddo is a lot of work. We had a few craft times together, including pottery painting.

I recently got to visit the amazing Mary Jo's nearby. This place is incredible! It's basically just a huge warehouse full of all different fabrics. (Check out the very impressive store right here.) There was an entire wall of trim and another long wall of buttons. You can shop online from their site but, trust me, it's nothing like visiting the store in person. I could've spend hours (and a lot of cash!) there.

While at Mary Jo's, I picked up a few yards of this awesome Amy Butler fabric (for something like $6/yard) and am using it to redecorate my bathroom. My friend and I made a big cornice-like thing to go above the shower out of a huge sheet of foam insulation (less than $10!), some polyester batting and this fabric. I'll be posting pictures soon! I also have to post the "after" pictures of this awesome redecorating project as well.

Oh! And I just discovered that Mary Jo's has a blog, too!

A Short Break

I'm off for a few days. Be back soon!

The Big Picture

Have you discovered the amazing Big Picture blog? The blog, from Boston.com, tells big news stories through photographs. The stunning picture above shows an airtanker dropping fire retardant over a wildfire in California. The blog features amazing photography and is updated about three times a week.

Currently Loving:

The US National Whitewater Center

Hideaway by The Weepies

This great notebook tutorial
from Rachel Simonsen

These quilted postcards from Pink Chalk Studio



What are you loving?

Life Is Beautiful!

Have you ever had one of those days when things just seem to fall into place in a way that is both effortless and beautiful? I'm having a day like that. There are still things that need to be worked out, but I am just pleased with where things are right now for me personally. I guess this is that whole learning-to-be-content thing? Hope you're having a beautiful day!

Studio Tables

I have been lusting after this Pottery Barn project table for pretty much forever. I would love to have this in the studio that I will have some sweet day. However, at over $1000, I thought it was a bit steep. I know it would be super simple to recreate for much less, and look (below) what I discovered today at All Things Pink. A nearly identical copy for about $150! Holly gives great instructions on how to make one of your own. Thanks, Holly! Your studio is adorable!


I also discovered this over at Midwest Modern Girl. An Ikea kitchen island used as a studio table. Also great! I can't wait until the Ikea opens here in Charlotte. It is my favorite store!

The Art is Found

I just discovered this very awesome blog, The Art is Found. The prompts here are really creative and they have totally inspired me to take a second look at my recycling bin, which is my favorite type of crafting. How beautiful is this handmade book?

HT: Amber Ulmer

Dreamin'.

(image from Design*Sponge)

(image from Apartment Therapy)

Lately, I often find myself wishing that I could live in a house, not an apartment. I'm about to renew my lease for another year, and purchasing a house is at least 3 years away, but a girl can dream, right? I want a little patio, like the one above, where I can host charming parties and serve guests on vintage, mismatched china.

So, while I'm dreaming, I thought I would share a few little bits of funky-home eye candy with you all. Happy dreaming!


(image from Design*Sponge)


(image from Apartment Therapy: San Francisco via sfgiflbybay)

Looking Up.

My sweet husband came home this morning with a couple of small goodies for me, including these Martha Stewart Craft paper tags. It was a really small gesture, and could be considered rather insignificant, but it made me feel great. I've been rather down lately, just a lot of things happening, and this morning was kind of bad. I was getting ready for church, and I just felt horrible, so I put my pajamas back on and got back into bed. And my husband was awesome. He let me sleep and washed his car and came home with these and some stickers. And they were just a small thing, but they made me feel very loved.

Head On Over . . .

. . . to Creature Comforts for a very cool blog birthday giveaway! There are some awesome prizes up for grabs!

You Can Stand Under My . . .

One last wedding post. This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding. The paper parasols are from the very cool Pearl River which, if you haven't discovered, you must do soon! Pearl River is a brick-and-mortar store in NYC, but I have ordered from their website several times. They have a great selection of paper parasols, paper lanterns, bamboo blinds, bento boxes, restaurant supplies and thousands of other goodies. I got the lanterns for something like $4.50 each, and the color matched the dresses perfectly! My photographer (who was awesome!) had a lot of fun with these props. Parasols and paper lanterns would make great additions to a summer party! Pearl River carries them in a lot of different colors, too.

Centerpieces

Remember those centerpieces I promised? I am posting a picture from Rebecca Thuss' site. This is the image from the article in Martha Stewart Weddings where I saw this idea. They are branches (which I clipped from family and friend's yards!) with tiny crepe-paper blooms attached with brown floral tape. The little millinery birds (available at craft stores) are then glued to the branches. These were horribly labor-intensive, and my mom, husband and I made most of them in the days leading up to the wedding. I put the branches in clear glass vases ($3.00 each from A.C. Moore) and put white stones in the vases. The picture below doesn't show them well, but they looked exactly like the image above. They were so lovely, and so inexpensive, and I just fell in love with them. My aunts and relatives all ended up taking one home, and I now have one in our bedroom. These would be equally as lovely for a bridal shower or ladies' tea. Instructions are available here.

In case you were wondering, the table numbers are made from wooden fans (scored on Ebay!) which I hot-glued open. I then covered the glue strip with an orange ribbon bow and added the table number, which I had printed onto orange card stock. The reception venue had the little mounting things. These really accented the flowers well.

This Day In Crafty History . . .

Since this is an artsy-crafty blog, and since tomorrow is my second anniversary with my awesome husband, I thought I would post a few of the crafty things I made for our wedding. Easily the biggest (and some would say craziest) undertaking was doing the bouquets and such. About 11 pm the night before my wedding I started assembling them and wasn't finished until like 3 in the morning. I probably could've done them earlier, but I am a big procrastinator.

I ordered all of the flowers from Costco's website and had them delivered the Thursday before the big Saturday. I ordered about $300 worth of hydrangea, orange roses and daisies. I ended up only using about half of them.

They were delivered in perfect condition. Seriously. All but one single daisy was in mint condition.

I had a binder of magazine clippings for inspiration. Then, when I ordered the flowers, I just sketched out what I wanted the bouquets to look like. When arranging flowers, remember that odd numbers of blooms always look best. Each of the bridemaids' bouques had 3 hydrangea, 5 orange roses and about 5 (I think!) daises.

I got these butterfly pins from Macy's and I attached them to a long, stiff wire and incorporated them into the bouquets. I love the way these ended up. The photographer really caught the beauty of the jewelry. I also added orange dupioni silk around the stems.

My bouquet was pretty special. I used the pink daisies from Costco, but those lovely pink peonies (my all-time favorite flowers) were cut from a bush in my parents' yard. This made my bouquet extra sentimental. They were the exact color of the bridesmaids' dresses and in full bloom the day before the wedding, when I cut them. I added a dragonfly pin to my bouquet, and also a really long, beautiful silk ribbon tied around the base of the flowers. The ribbon hung down a few feet and looked awesome in the pictures.

For about $350 in flowers, pins, ribbons and silk, I was able to create 5 bouquets, several nosegays for the moms and grandmothers, 10 or more boutonnieres, aisle decorations, a flower girl's basket and still had half the flowers left! I would totally do this again, and I highly recommend it. It would've been a lot less stressful if I had done them earlier!

Later on this week I'll show the EXTREMELY labor-intensive centerpieces and a few other special touches. For now, I'll link to the the lovely Rebecca Thuss, who was style director for Martha Stewart Weddings, and provided loads of inspiration for my wedding two years ago through that awesome publication. I think I may have linked to her before, but she's worth a second look.

As for me, I have a whole day of picnic-ing, movie going and museum visits planned for tomorrow!

Farewell, Friend.

Last summer, I found myself in a new city, with no friends and no real prospects for a job. I was terribly lonely. We went to visit my uncle, who gave me a brand-new sewing machine. I hadn't sewed for a really long time, but that machine was just the catalyst I needed to get off my bum and start crafting! Instead of wallowing in my loneliness, I starting sewing and painting and creating like never before. And I discovered the best fabric store nearby. Sewing Arts Studio, along with all of my favorite crafty blogs (see the sidebar!) gave me plenty of inspiration. Sadly, the sweet folks who run this adorable store are shutting their doors. So, sadly, I will go there today for one of the last times. Everything is on sale, and I hope I get the opportunity to tell them what a great catalyst their sweet little store was to me. So, if you get the opportunity today, be sure to tell your favorite inspirations what they mean to you!

Etsy Love

I just discovered Joannarutter's shop on Etsy. I just love the graphic style of her jewelry and the adorable bird designs. I want just about everything she has! How beautiful are these bird and branch earrings?

(via Creature Comforts)

Easy Clothing Embellishments

I was shopping with my friend Morgan yesterday when I started to notice a trend in a lot of the clothing I found myself attracted to. They all seemed to be covered with the type of embellishments I could easy make myself! This sweater (at left) from J. Crew is adorable, but I could easy replicate a similar look with fabric scraps and a sweater I already have. I also loved this sweatshirt from Anthropologie, but at $88, I could easily replicate the look by adding fabric-covered buttons and appliquéd fabric scraps to a cheaper button-up sweater or sweatshirt. I also remember seeing (but I can't remember at which store) a sleeveless blue shirt with a neckline covered in yo-yos. How simple would that be to recreate?

I'm Kendall, Nice to Meet You.

This blog is devoid of personal information about me, have you noticed? I won't post a picture right now, because I hate all of my pictures, but I thought I would post a few random thoughts about me.

1. I have a horrible sweet tooth.
2. I live 500 miles from my family and sometimes this hurts me. Well, a lot of the time this hurts me. Okay, most of the time this hurts me.
3. When I first moved to the South, I didn't know a single person for three months. I didn't have a job, and I did nothing but workout and read and watch television. Oh, and my husband and I would go to the movies at like 2 in the afternoon. But I didn't lose weight because in addition to all that working out, I also had copious amounts of candy and Chic-fil-a, which is heaven in a paper bag.
4. I am a full-time graduate student studying Christian Thought, which isn't as lofty as it sounds.
5. I am a big goof. A huge big goof.

If you are one of the few (but growing!) people who happens to read this blog from time to time, feel free to introduce yourself. Let's be friends!

How Cute!

This fabric kills me with its cuteness. I may have a problem with the stock I am working on for the etsy shop update. Because I love it all so much, and I kind of want to keep it. I am making a crib quilt with this adorable fabric from Moda, and I want to keep it myself. And I am working on some adorable onesies (pictures coming soon) and I want to keep those. too. Mind you, I don't have a baby, but that hasn't stopped me before. Perhaps I should only sew things that I totally hate?

Poomba Berry Loves. . .

I was at the always lovely Crate & Barrel today when I spotted these amazing white solar-powered paper lanterns. However, I couldn't find them on the website. I did, however, find the lanterns above, which look pretty much exactly like the ones at C&B. These are a little more expensive, so if you have a store nearby I would check them out there since they were only $20. A few of these would look lovely hanging outside during a memorial day celebration. Festive during the day and useful during the night! (Does anyone know how long the lights last?)

Poomba Berry Loves. . .

I thought I would start something new here on the blog. Since I run across so many things that are lovely, I am going to start linking them here under the title "Poomba Berry Loves."These fresh-looking note cards are a set from one of my favorite new finds Red Stamp. I am a sucker for office supplies. When school started back in the fall when I was a kid, I loved shopping with my mom and sister for shiny new pens and notebooks and folders. And then, when I got my books, I would meticulously cover them with brown paper and decorate them with stickers and magazine cut-outs. All of the beautifully-designed products at Red Stamp make me giddy as though I were starting school all over again. These green and yellow cards look pretty enough to eat! You must also check out all of their adorable kiddie products.

(found via Creature Comforts.)

Easy Peasy Apron

You will need:
1 tea towel
1 fat quarter (for pockets)
About 3 yds. grosgrain ribbon (for trim)
1 fabric-covered button
A scrap of another coordinating fabric (for yo-yo)
1 safety pin (for attaching yo-yo)


Cover a button using the fabric for the pockets. Make a yo-yo (great directions can be found here). Sew the button onto the yo-yo. Attach safety pin to the back of yo-yo. Set aside. (I made my yo-yo removable because I made this as a gift and I was afraid of washing the yo-yo. You could sew this on later, if you wanted to.)


Whip up some easy-peasy pockets. You can find a pattern for a “patch pocket” right here. Or, make one up. (Hey, I never promised a detailed tutorial, right? Right.) Moving right along . . .. After sewing the pocket, I added ribbon trim at the top. I attached my pockets about 5-1/2 inches from each side. I basically wrapped the apron around me and did a rough measure. If you don’t eat as much candy as me, your hips are probably smaller and your pocket measurement might be different.

I also added a length of trim around the bottom of my apron for some contrast. Add another, much longer (about 60 inches long) piece of ribbon to the top as a tie.


Safety pin your yo-yo above the pocket and, viola, a cute little apron! Tea towels can be found inexpensively just about everywhere. Wouldn't these be cute for apron-making?


This is my first tutorial, so I hope it was well written. If you have any questions, shoot me an email!

Dang.

Does anyone else (Blogger users, that is) have trouble uploading pictures? Like, sometimes blogger just has this random freakout and it won't let me upload pictures. And I totally had an apron tutorial to show y'all. Dang.

Instead, I'll link to this site. Rebecca Thuss is an incredibly talented photo stylist/creative person who, unbeknownst to me, was at the helm of Martha Stewart Weddings back in 2005 and 2006 when I was engaged and buying every issue that came out. The centerpieces for our wedding were these branches with crepe paper flowers from an issue of MSW and I just loved them. They were an insane amount of work, but the tables were beautiful and I was so pleased with how they turned out. Plus, they were cheap. (I'd show you a picture, but you know, Blogger is being so awesome right now.) Rebecca's bio says that she is no long at MS, so I wonder if the beauty of that magazine has gone downhill any since I got married. It was, by far, my very favorite wedding magazine.

And, once Blogger begins to behave itself, I'll be back with that apron tutorial.

I'd Rather Dance With You.

Opinions, Please!

I have a deep love of the blog Making It Lovely. I pretty much want Nicole's house and everything in it. Seeing how Matt and I have decided to stay at our current place for another year, I am starting what I call The Great Redecorate of 2008. So, like Nicole, I present our plans for your consideration:

The background color is our paint choice. We are painting the little media alcove (which now houses our television and media equipment) and the wall behind the sofa.

1. This is our current dining room table, which is staying. The blue square behind it is the color of our new curtains (actually, I'm just dying old curtains) for the patio door.

2. These are our cheap-o IKEA dining room chairs (only $14.99 each!) which, in the interest of saving cash, will also stay. However, I want a color change. I will either paint them or sew fabric covers. Any recommendations?

3. This is our old television cabinet. It will now be placed in the far dining room wall in between two bookcases. We are covering the frosted glass doors with this funky paper from Paper Source. The paper is the inspiration for the color scheme.

4. Our two overflowing bookcases will be moved from the office into the dining room.

5. This Amy Butler fabric will be used for a new table runner and a little skirt on the bottom of the media alcove to hide all the cords.

6. Matt's birthday gift, this Keep Calm print, will be framed and matted (in white, as shown) and hung above #3 in between the bookcases. (I purchased my print from sfgirlbybay's etsy shop. I highly recommend her and her delightful blog.)

If I decide to sew covers for the chairs, I'll do it in a coordinating fabric from Amy Butler's new collection, possibly this one. Any suggestions about the overall design? My ears (and email inbox) are now open.