Cacti & Succulents

Ever since planning my wedding over a year ago, I've been obsessed with succulents. I used them on the tables, as well is in my beautiful bouquet:

My sister took on the enormous feat of my bouquet and all of the floral arrangement at my wedding, and she blew me away with how amazing everything looked! I love the combination of a few traditional flowers with nontraditional non-flower flowers. There were succulents, billy balls, ranunculuses, golden rods (which my sis gleaned from the side of the road on the way to our venue), kale, another flower that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, and not in my bouquet, but elsewhere at the reception, trick carns.

Succulents are gorgeous, and unique, and a non-flower flower that even my black thumb can manage not to kill! Cacti and succulents are in the same family, and both come in countless, spectacular varieties. BONUS, they can be found in the garden section of pretty much any home improvement store or supercenter, AND they're really inexpensive. Which is why I decided to make a lovely little centerpiece using multicolored cacti and various succulents, and an antique muffin tin I scored at the flea market for a mere $3. 

Also, some more pictures of my gorgeous bouquet. Can't believe it was already almost one year ago that I carried that arrangement with me down the isle...

The Best Guacamole That I've Ever Had (if i do say so myself)

I worked at a "Gourmet Mexican" restaurant during college and just after. An experience that left me with a taste for margaritas and a skill for making guacamole. I've adapted the restaurant's recipe to suit my tastes, and believe me, it's an unparalleled avocado experience.  

Settling In / Farmer's Markets and French Toast

Though we've been living in Franklin for about a month now, it still feels like we're still not really settled. It's amazing how long it takes to unpack all of the boxes and get everything set up satisfactorily, especially since we moved from a tiny apartment to an actual house... we didn't realize how many appliances we were missing. We just bought our very own washer! You know you're an adult when such a purchase actually makes you really excited.

One lovely part of moving to a new town is that we get to discover all new places; It was lovely to find that there is a farmer's market every Saturday within walking distance of our house! We scored some fresh, free-range eggs, yams, peaches, and some homemade Amish sour dough bread, which we transformed into french toast using  this recipe, with some minor alterations. In stead of all purpose flour, we used white whole wheat, we doubled the cinnamon, and added a dash of nutmeg. You should also know, that though the recipe says it makes 12 slices, for me, it only made 6... which is all we needed anyway! Add a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some real maple syrup and you'll be set up for impressive deliciousness! Oh, and some piping hot french press coffee doesn't hurt either.

                                                      Fresh eggs + Homemade sour dough

= delightful french toast.

My Excuses

My absence is not entirely without excuse. In the past few weeks we've made the difficult decision not to go to England this year -- Andrew got in a school in Sheffield to get his masters in Archaeology, but the stars just would not align to make that a reality-- I got a job at an amazing boutique/design firm where I'll get to manage the store and be the buyer and merchandiser, and Andrew and I found a house in Franklin, TN; we are currently in the process of moving! We may not be picking up and flying across the pond, but it's definitely a life change! Franklin is a small, old, boutique/independent shop-filled town. I'll be able to bike to work in nice weather! And the house... well, lets just say our whole apartment could fit in the den. It's going to be a good change. 

Packing up some display items. I put the tiny items together and they looked so lovely. The type face from the wedding and from the antique store on our honey moon. The Eiffel Tower that I bought in Paris. The Oyster shell from the beach.

Two-Toned

When it comes to painting my nails, I rarely do more than a simple solid color, or just a bit of gloss. Not that I don't appreciate bright colors or the occasional fun design, but I just find it labor intensive for something so short lived. I feel like I can't go two whole days without chipping of the new polish... even if I do make it through the painting them without creating a mess. But this modern colored take on a classic was so simple, it was worth giving a try.

I decided to do a twist of french tip using two hot colors: mint and metallic!  I used Revlon colors Minted and Silver Dollar. They're reasonably priced, and they are well saturated with color. I hate getting a new polish home only to find that it takes at least 3 coats to make it somewhat opaque. Who has the patience for that?

After clipping and filing my nails into shape, I started by applying two coats of the mint color, leaving plenty of time to dry between each coat - the hardest part for me. I then used sticky address labels to protect the lower portion of my nail, and painted the exposed tips silver. You could use scotch tap or any other stickers you have lying around, but just know that if it's super sticky, it's going to pull off the polish, so stick and un-peal it from your skin a few times to pick up oils and lessen the adhesive power. I painted two coats of the silver on my nail tips. Right before was completely dry, I pealed off the sticker and lightly pressed my nails with my finger tips to smooth the polish and make sure there are no lumps. It's pretty easy to do touch ups when need be.

My Real Beach Bag

I've already posted about what would be in my dream beach bag, so now I'll let you take a look at what's in my actual beach bag! I'm pretty proud to say that it's not too different. I take my own advice. Sometimes.

The best part is, everything I bought was really affordable.

Clockwise starting with the sneakers:

• Sneakers - I bought my shoes on clearance for $5 at Urban Outfitters, but they always have the Keds style shoe at a pretty reasonable price, often paired with "buy two for" offers. I also saw that Target had some solid navy ones for about $12 bucks.
• Sunglasses - These are from Target for $17. It's important to buy sunglasses that block 100% of UV rays when you're going to be wearing them for long periods of time in bright sunlight. A lot of the cheaper ones, though cute, don't actually protect your eyes. Plus I love the vintage slight cat eye that this pair offers!
• Sunblock - From Target, but available most anywhere. I especially love the Neutrogena Sensitive Skin. Sun screen has always burned my face and stung my eyes, but this stuff doesn't irritate me at all. Plus, it's 60 spf, and though in reality, 60 spf only blocks like half a percent more UV rays than 30 spf, when if comes to those easily burned areas, I feel like the safer the better.
• Water Bottle - Andrew bought this for me from Wholefoods/Wholebody for Valentines Day, so I'm not sure of the exact price. It's from Lifefactory, and it's somewhere in the $20 range. It's glass, so BPA isn't an issue, which I LOVE. But you don't have to worry about it breaking because it's encased in a silicone type material. Genius.
• Reading Materials - I pretty much ALWAYS have to  carry a book with me. I'm a compulsive reader. If I don't have something to read, I'm reading ingredient lists or posters and signs. So, I brought a lot of options to the beach... but these are the ones I actually read.
• Divergent by Veronica Roth - If you loved the Hunger Games Series, then this is the next one for you. I read the first book in two days (my copy is already dog-eared), and I can't wait to get the second book! Unfortunately, the third one isn't out yet, so be forewarned. Thrifty shopper tip: It's on one of BAM's book club lists, so they had a 20% coupon in the store. However, I encourage you to support the independent bookstores near you whenever you can afford to!
• Anthology - Amazing design magazine! I picked mine up at Anthropologie.
• Design Sponge News Paper - For the second year in a row, the fantastic blog, Design Sponge, has released their summer news paper. Lovers of print rejoice! The publication is available for a short time at Anthropologie and West Elm.
• Head Scarf - I got this scarf, and many others, at a flea market in Berlin, but I've seen them at thrift stores, and my grandmother has bestowed a couple of them on me. There are lots of ways to tie them, but one of my current favorites involves wrapping it around my head twice, and ending with a small bow to the top and side. 
• Beach Bag - $38 dollars at Anthropologie. I justified it because I could see myself  using this at the farmers market and for picnics in addition to the beach. Heck, it could even hold magazines in my living room! It's so pretty. And it's a basket... not just a bag.
• Blanket/Background - $6 Goodwill find.

Sea Creatures

It's about that time of year again. In a couple of weeks Andrew and I will join in family for their annual trip to the beach. Last year, to occupy me, Andrew took us to the Aquarium on Dolphin Island...

Turquoise Dip Dye

A few months ago before I chopped off my locks, I had bright turquoise tips. As usual, I did it myself. My baby sister, Harper, told me when she saw my hair that it was exactly what she was planning to do after graduation. So, now that my hair is different, and now that she has indeed graduated, it is time for a change.

 We started by discussing how much of her hair she wanted to be colored, and what it should look like. We decided that the color should have an ombre look, sort of fading into the brown instead of a blunt change from one color to the next. Then, we broke out the bleach kit and the foil. I purchased a kit for $10 at a beauty supply store, but I added in a couple of brushes, one to spread the bleach, one to spread the color, and aluminum foil to keep it all nice and neat. I also bought the demi-permanent color at the same beauty supply store for  about $8. P.S. I also highly recommend plastic gloves.

We broke our processes up into two different days so it would take less time. For hair as dark as hers, the bleach processing time was a little over half an hour. 

She thoroughly washed out the bleach, and the next day when her hair was all dry again, we let the color pigments stain her hair for another half hour or so. When you wash out the color, it takes what seems like ages for the water to run clear, and I always get a little panicky that none of the color will hold... but it always does. And as you can see here, it looks AMAZING. Especially on my already gorgeous baby sister.  

Of course we had to try a fish tail braid. It looks so pretty with the color woven in.

10 Things In My Beach Bag

I'm an oddity of a girl in that I don't dream of the beach all year. I'm generally bored after a day or two. I don't tan (I burn), I don't fish, I don't excel at water sports. I enjoy swimming in the sea, but after a jelly fish sting or two, I'm land bound. BUT, I do enjoy the sensation that I can spend my day reading and taking walks, and that's all anybody expects of me.
I have two weeks to prepare for our short beach trip with Andrew's family, and ever the list person, I've compiled the 10 things you'll never see me at the beach without.

1. A vintage inspired one piece
2. Retro sunglasses
3. A protected glass water bottle. Never underestimate the importance of hydration
4. A pair of Keds. Much more practical for those down the beach strolls than dainty sandals
5. A 1920's style cloche. Again, something I won't just use at the beach
6. A hard-to-put-down book. I've read this one already... still looking for the next great series

7. A well curated AND well written magazine, like Anthology

8. A Multi-purpose tote that I also use for picnics and farmers markets
9. A sunblock of at least 50 SPF that does well on sensitive skin
10. SPF healing lip treatment

Don't Wanna Buy Groceries Meal

Sometimes when we don't have a lot of food around, we improvise.

At the end of this past week we were running out of groceries. Since we were going out of town for a few days, we didn't want to spend money on things that would just sit in the fridge and possibly wilt or ruin while we were away. We also didn't want to eat out since we knew we'd be doing that quite a bit while we were gone. SO, we played the improvise game, and I think it turned out pretty well.

We used eggs, a dash of milk, sea salt and seasonings, swiss cheese slices and baby spinach we had left over from previous, more planned out meals to make the omelets. Andrew's is so much prettier than mine because of the color of the bell peppers he added. The crepe is a little trick I do when there's not much in the pantry but I want something that looks a little fancier. Are you ready for this? It's a tortilla. You just butter your skillet or griddle, and place your topping-laden-tortilla on the butter. Cook it just enough to lightly toast it and make it all warm and melty, then roll it up and enjoy. These particular crepes are filled with cream cheese and strawberry jelly, but I've made them before with Nutella and sometimes peanut butter. Voila, looks so fancy.

Once Upon A Time Themed Watching Party

Every now and again a show comes on that not only fascinates me, but inspires me. Pushing Daisies was one of those shows before its untimely cancellation, and now ABC's Once Upon A Time is that show. Like many people, Mary Margaret is probably my favorite character. From her apartment to her clothes, she's has become an icon.

For the season finale, my friend Jill of Blackberry Jelly and I decided to have a fairy tale themed evening. We decided that bread crumbs and apples were the way to go, so we made cheese fondue with pumpernickel bread cubes and apples, plus rosemary roasted potatoes and broccoli for good measure. If you've seen the show, you know about The Evil Queen/Regina's apple turnover, so some sort of apple pie was a must. We made Apple Pie Cookies loosely following this recipe, and we washed it down with a blueberry beer.