First World Market Shopping Trip!

As I mentioned yesterday, over the weekend, my mom and I went shopping and I went to World Market for the first time! It was so so fun :)

I was a little tired from other shopping at eating all this at Maggiano’s:

I have shopped online at World Market before, and my awesome friend Janis has gotten me some cool gifts from there, but this was my first time at the store and I loved it.

Inside the store:

Here are some things I loved…  (sorry for blurry photos! I got a new phone and I’m getting the hang of using its camera.)

All the knobs!

The Anthropologie-esque blankets:

Chalkboard jars! (And just lots of jars in general) :)

These cool chalkboard labels that seem like they could be used for all kinds of fun…and could be easy to DIY:

This seems boring, but I loved their fun colored swag kit/cords for hanging/paper lanterns! Why not have fun cords to go with your fun shades?

I realized that place card holders would be an excellent addition to my “party box” to use for labeling dishes and appetizers:

And I enjoyed their variety of organizational trolleys. I don’t know where I’d put them yet but they seem like they’d be so so cool in a craft room…or really anywhere.

Of course there was much more, but these were my personal highlights. I feel like I am the last person who hadn’t yet been to World Market. Is that true? Do you love it there, too? What are your favorite random things there?

New Toy: Holga Lens for DSLR

We all have fun playing with the fun filters on Instagram and similar programs, so when, during my daily immersion in the internet one day, I found a plastic Holga lens to fit on a DSLR, I thought it might be a fun thing to play with.

I got the blue version :) because I love blue and because I didn’t really care if it looked a little nutty on my camera (there is a black version, as well as lots of other colors!). It’s a toy lens after all!

Before I got it, I read some reviews, so I was prepared to mess around with manual settings to be able to actually take pictures.  (Thanks, Shoot Fly Shoot, for teaching me how to mess with those!) 

Puppy the cat in the yard

Shadow the dog

Flowering bush

Siberian Wallflowers

The opening on the camera side of the lens is the tiniest hole ever, and the whole thing is plastic, so there are no aperture settings.  You adjust the brightness or darkness of the picture with shutter speed and ISO settings, and even then, it pretty much only works outside. :)  The day I took these pictures was sort of overcast. I can’t wait to get to try it when there’s some cool bright spots and shadows.

Here are some pictures where I was changing up the settings.

1/50 sec, ISO 800

1/15 sec, ISO 800

1/50 sec, ISO 800

1/25 sec, ISO  800

There’s a “focus ring” on the lens…I put it in quotes because it’s pretty primitive :) and really, the point of this lens is that it’s a toy lens, so I wasn’t too worried if the pictures were really in focus or not. I did notice when I took some flower close-ups it looked better when I had the lens set to “portrait” or whatever on the focus ring. The whole thing’s plastic, so I did have to be really careful when I was adjusting anything, for fear that it might pop off the camera! :)

I definitely want to keep playing with this lens and having fun with it. What do you think? Like the pictures? Would you want to play around with a lens like this?

Bigger pictures on Flickr.

Healthy Deep Dish Cookie Pie

Lately, work and life has kept me pretty busy, so some DIY projects (like this and this) are just temporarily on hold.  But, in the spirit of trying to become healthier, I have been cooking up a storm…making your own healthy meals is just another form of DIY, right?

As I was exploring the internet for new recipes, I came across this gem of a blog: Chocolate Covered Katie.

It is full of healthy, delicious desserts. That’s right. I said desserts.

So far I’ve tried her cookie dough dip (sooo delicious) and her deep dish cookie pie.

Photos from Chocolate Covered Katie

So far, those desserts were both so easy! Combine everything in a food processor and go!

Yes, those are chickpeas! Don’t tell anyone what’s in the dessert and they will never guess! These desserts really are so good!

Here’s my deep dish cookie pie:

I forgot to get pictures of it all sliced up and styled because we ate it too fast! I brought some to work and nobody believed it was chickpeas or “healthy”!

And a lot of her recipes are vegan (or mostly vegan!) – even if you’re not vegan or have no interest in becoming one, it means no raw eggs in the cookie dough dip! Which means you can finally eat all the cookie dough you want without feeling guilty. :)

Have you found any good new blogs lately? Any new food adventures? I’ve got a few more to share, too!

Cole’s Birthday Party!

I want to share a few pictures from Cole’s birthday party!

There was a LOT going on – and a LOT of friends and family over to celebrate, so I didn’t get as many pictures of the little guy in his various outfits as I would have liked. I’m sure his parents got plenty, and I’ll get some from them sometime. :) But here are a few good ones:

Cole got a new Radio Flyer wagon that he rode in with his cousins:

And he posed for me during his little meal after most people left:

What a cutie. He looks so good in his sock monkey bib. :)

His mom, Cassie, had some great decorating details. The house was full of paper lanterns and balloons.

She painted some letters in coordinating colors to spell out his name.

And my “happy birthday” bunting/banner was much larger than expected! But it hung across a big wall in their living room nicely.

Here’s another angle, because I know you were dying for it.

There you have it!

Happy 1st Birthay, Cole!

(If I get any more pictures of him in his shirts, I will share them!) :)

Things I Love Thursday: Chalk Pens

So I’m a little late to the chalk pen game. 

Now that I think about it, I must have seen the results of this amazing product everywhere, but just wasn’t thinking about it, or realizing just how glorious it must be. 

I love chalkboard stuff: paint, labels, you name it, but the chalk, of course, is messy. (There used to be a nice layer of yellow dust under my island where the dogs eat.)  Then I saw this post on Evolution of Style, and when I asked Jenny what she was using to write on her chalkboard labels, she said “chalk pen”!  I was excited.

She got hers at Hobby Lobby, I got mine on Amazon.  And ever since, I have been one happy gal. The chalk pen is inky and wet-erase, so it goes on like a paint marker and doesn’t wipe off as easily as chalk. And your writing is much neater and cleaner.

I shared a little sneak peek of the cute jars my friend Janis got me from Anthropologie: they are much cuter and more practical when written on with a chalk pen.

I covered an old Nestle Toll House container (the big one from Costco) with some Contact paper (from Marshalls), cut a Contact paper chalkboard label out on my Cricut, and labeled it with the chalk pen.  Voila, dog treat container!

You know I love dry erase things, and for some things I still do love dry erase, but in the instance of these jars I have, my labels were just getting erased. The one on the right used to say “raw sugar” and the on the left used to say “hot chocolate” (that label was completely gone!).

But now, with chalkboard Contact paper and chalk pen, I’ve got this!

(The dark blue canisters above still have dry erase labels that have remained in tact!)

And my island! I still have regular old chalk around for when kids (or adults!) come over because it is totally fun to write on the island and erase and start over…but in the meantime, I’ve semi-immortalized (what would that really be? just “extended the life of”?) this cool horse drawing that a friend’s daughter drew and neatened up my “dog’s diner” with the chalk pen! Doesn’t it look nice?

I don’t know how those dogs are so messy when they eat/drink, but chalk on that side never lasted! But chalk pen is so far holding up great!

So tell me the truth, am I really the last person to have heard about chalk pens? Are you as excited as I was when I found out? Are you going to go buy one right now? :)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A little bit of love for and from one of my new favorite artists, Katie Daisy.

Let’s all spread some love and teach some love! Today and every day.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

I have been a bit under the weather since this weekend, but I survived thanks to Jerry Seinfeld’s web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Please watch. They are all hilarious and he’s got some really great guys and real stars on there. I was obsessed with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. (I’d heard of this web series, but it was brought back to my attention by the lovely Joanna Goddard of Cup of Jo. Also, this article and video about Jerry Seinfeld were fascinating. It’s amazing to see people work at their craft. As a blogger, seamstress, and DIYer, I love seeing how other creative people work on the things they love.)

The second most amazing thing is Plex.  I do not really understand it (my head it still a little too stuffed up to understand anything), but I do know that Brian signed up for an account, and somehow now we can send videos from our smartphones or computer (I have a “Plex it!” button on my browser window now) to our Roku box, thereby allowing us to watch YouTube (or any internet) videos on our TV!  It’s so awesome – it makes a web series like this much more enjoyable. And with all the HD video out now, even YouTube videos look great on TV (which is amazing! Remember the crappy quality of videos on dial-up? If you could even see the video, that is!)

And lastly, Happy Inauguration Day!  I, of course, love Michelle Obama’s dress. I love most everything she wears. Plus, she’s a great role model for women and girls everywhere!

What have you been watching lately?

Ideal Bookshelf Book and House of Hepworths

So, I’ve been telling you how I’ve bought (and been in love with) some of Jane Mount’s “Ideal Bookshelf” prints on 20x200.

I just found out (via Cup of Jo) that she’s illustrated a whole book of ideal bookshelves! My Ideal Bookshelf is totally going on my Christmas wishlist!

Head over to Cup of Jo for some more pictures from inside the book!

………………..

And here’s a new blog I’ve been reading: House of Hepworths.

I can’t remember how I found it…it was either Pinterest or Young House Love. :)

She’s got lots of great ideas, including this “fake pinch pleat” which I totally plan on using when I finally get to making my living room curtains.

I’m also in the process of making some Christmas artwork inspired by this post.

And this post.

Head over there and check it out!

Fun Fonts and a New Blog

So, I’m just going to post things I find and like.

Follow me on Pinterest, and you’ll see a lot of this stuff, but I’m gonna be posting it here, too. :)

Here’s a blog I just found, via my favorite, Young House Love, with a fun vibe and great look: Homemade Ocean.

And here’s her list of fun fonts and where to download them from…I love every one!

Go check out her blog!