hiatus

i've been mia lately, because we spent 12 days in amsterdam and prague. it was so much fun!! i took lots and lots of pics, but our computer has been temporarily broken and it is just now working. pictures will be forthcoming, as soon as the weekend ends. i am currently swimming in wedding bouquets and boutonnieres, which i will have pictures of too!
anyone have any fun plans this weekend? i can't wait till i have a free weekend to just make and sew some things!

flea market finds for me: bakelite and glass

sunday my family and i went to the williams grove flea market, which i told you about before here.
i love the old roller coaster. i was too much of a wuss to ride it when i was a kid.




my favorite dealer is a husband and wife that sell the BEST vintage jewelry. look at all this Bakelite! and this is only the bracelets.

i bought this Bakelite bracelet...

and this pedestal bowl, which i am in love with. i had a milk glass one that i sold and always wanted another one, so this one is for me!

the beginning of our vegetable garden

i came home to a pleasant surprise.

dave made the raised beds for a veggie garden! now we just have to fill them up and cross your fingers that i don't kill everything.

we're going to start out with some beets, swiss chard, beans, onions, carrots, arugula and lettuce.

a delicious fourth of july weekend

we had a delicious weekend full of lots and lots of food. i didn't take pictures of most of it, but this is what we had yesterday.
ribs and chicken, with a side of cilantro pesto pasta. a completely unbalanced, but yummy meal.

diy bookmarks

a few weeks ago i made some book marks to give to all of the lovely customers that buy things from the brandeye etsy shop. they were really fun to make and super easy.

materials:
-card stock or any heavy weight paper
-vintage ribbon or lace
-scissors or paper cutter
-sewing machine or needle and thread

directions:
-cut the card stock to the desired length and width. mine are about 5" x 2".

-cut the ribbon or lace to the size of the length of the bookmark

-with your sewing machine or a needle and thread, sew the ribbon onto the paper. i made mine all vertical, but use your imagination and place it anywhere you'd like. it'd also look good with the ribbon or lace layered with a few pieces.

-as an option you can use a hole punch to punch a hole at the top and put some ribbon around it.

and remember this about lace, "it's like pretty underwear."

and our garden

this year our back yard is actually looking pretty good i think. it's usually full of dirt/mud patches, but this year the yard is green (i'm sure most of it is weeds, but who cares) and the gardens are happy. next year i hope to make a raised bed to plant veggies in, but the only spot of the yard that gets (hopefully enough) sun is right off the patio. i really want to at least try to grow my own veggies! i have a bit of a black thumb, but i try. this year nature has been helping me and it's been raining pretty much every day.

so right now we have some herbs on the deck, which are wonderful to have.

and the flowers beds are in full force.


here are a bunch of daylillies, which are now blossoming in all of their orange glory.

and the other side...

and our little sofa area, which we don't use often enough. it is great at night with the lights lit and the fire going for smores. we need to use this more often!

urban garden

our friends ben and siobhan (check out her blog here) have a plot in a community garden a couple of blocks from their house in philly. these pictures are from a few weeks ago so i'm sure it's grown a bunch since then.

and a little radish.

plastic surgery for my shoes

i bought these shoes on sale last year and the bows really pissed me off. they would come untied all the time.

so i took them off...

picked some vintage buttons...

and sewed them on... voila... new shoes!