Wooden Square Bead Necklace

I'm not sure if this is vintage or not. I got it at an antique store, but it could easily pass for something a kindergartener might make for Mother's Day. Either way, I like it a lot. I couldn't get a good picture of me wearing it that didn't look weirdly staged.

I just really love the colors and the size and shape of the beads. It's pretty chunky and awkward, but charming nonetheless.

I'm starting to realize that a pretty good gauge of my tastes is whether or not something looks like it could be candy. That's what I think of when I see this necklace. Little candy cubes. With bubble gum in the center.

-c.

Martex Dry-Me-Dry

How awesome is this vintage Martex tea towel?



Weirdest name for a line of towels: Dry-me-Dry. "Dry" as a verb, followed by "Dry" as an adjective. Or am I reading into that all wrong? Anyway, I found it at a local antique shop called This N That for a few dollars. Usually this place is hit or miss and last time we were there the air was heavy with scented candles. So much so that it gave me a headache and made me feel like the inside of my nose and mouth was coated with candle wax.

I did a quick google search of vintage Martex tea towels and there are a few people selling this exact one on etsy in a variety of colors (and prices... $45.99 yikes!)

-c.

yhs: Fruits & Vegetables - Garden Update

Source: countryliving.com via sandra on Pinterest

Hot damn! We finally got out to the garden to plant! This rain has been really been... raining on our parade (jeez, i'm dumb.)

We decided to scale things back a little bit this year. We've been overly ambitious the past couple years and while it's been fun, it's also gotten to be a headache at times. Plus, we have this tendency to just cram everything in. So this time, since we have a little more room to play with we're giving everything room to breathe.

Yesterday (before it started pouring) we were able to get tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots in the ground. Unfortunately, we were so late that we missed our chance to do regular potatoes, which have been the most fun to grow in the past. All the seed potatoes were gone before we even could consider planting, and we didn't have any left from last year. Boo hoo!

Hoping to get the salad greens in and the fence up very very soon. The damn deer have already destroyed any strawberry plants we had left. They are such jerks! Heard this story on NPR the other day and it confirms my suspicions that the deer are hating on us hard.

-c.

p.s. How awesome is that garden in the picture above? Found it while looking for garden inspiration!

Owl Tattoo

A friend of ours is thinking about getting an owl tattoo and asked if we could mock up how it could possibly look. There are probably 10 million different visual interpretations of owls in the world, ranging from realistic paintings to cartoon-y Tootsie Pop owls to abstract doesn't-even-resemble-an-owl owls...huh?! Along with just the multitude of different styles, there are different kinds of owls that all have different shapes. Where to even start, right? I happen to have one of those owl necklaces from the 70's that I got at a consignment shop years ago. Our friend liked this shape, so this is what I based my drawings on.

Fun Owl-y awesomeness, no? Obviously, I had to change it up a bit (fatter body, not-so-scraggly wings, etc.) and I really like how it turned out. That branch is a mess, so don't even look at it. Now, how this will translate into a tattoo is still to be determined. Even if it ends up on the cutting room floor, I had fun making it!

-c.

Summer Weekends

Image by Cracking Jokes via Flickr

Busy weekend around these parts! Graduation party, two shows, and playing catch up with old friends made for a wonderful summer weekend. But, dang, am I getting old and tired!

Friday night was the pre-fest party for the Weapons of Mass Creation Fest in Cleveland. We went to see one of our NYC friends, Gregory and the Hawk, play some tunes at Happy Dog. It was wonderful seeing her play, even if the crowd was soooo loud and annoying. It's been a long time since I've seen her live. If you haven't heard her music before, please check it out here. (I've used her music in some of Q's videos, if she sounds familiar.)

Saturday, one of my long-time friends celebrated her recent graduation from medical school, hell yeah! Congrats Beth :) It was great to see lots of friends and eat good food. I think that was our first outdoor summer bash this season. The rain did make an appearance, but luckily not for long. Baby boy was a muddy wet mess, but he had so much fun. He was out like a light by 8:30 p.m.

Then afterward, Andrew, my brother and I headed to the Beachland Ballroom to see the New Bomb Turks play. Also another band I haven't seen in forever. It was a fun time, but I was so tired by the end. I could barely keep my eyes open on the ride home. I think we got home around 2:30 a.m (which I know, for some of you, is NOT late at all) and slept in until 10:00 a.m., which is unheard of in our house. I don't think I've slept in that late in YEARS!

I told you!! Old. Tired. But FUN!

Running: Day 1

Image by Ben via Flickr

Finally went running last night! And it's confirmed, I suck at running.

Ok, I know I'm not giving myself much credit. I ran a mile. And I felt like I was dying. I know some of you are thinking "A mile?! Big whoop." But I haven't run in awhile. It's been probably a year or so. And I wasn't very good at it then either. It's weird. My legs don't get tired, but I can't get my breathing under control. I sound (and possibly look) like someone having some sort of attack.

Andrew and Q ran with me, which helped a lot. Andrew pushed Q in the running stroller. It's hard for Andrew to run with me because he's almost a foot taller than I am and running at such a slow pace is almost painful for him. But he did it anyway, what a guy! And Q fell asleep a half-mile in.

Going to try to go running tomorrow. It's supposed to be a scorcher, so hopefully I don't pass out and make a fool of myself. Wish me luck!

-c.

Busy Week

Hey! Sorry I've been MIA. Been super busy, but will be back soon with updates and some other cool stuff to share. I'll leave you with this photo series I like to call "Hiding From Papa":

He's saying "HIDE!!! He's coming!!"

-c.

Bouncy Balls

Image by Peter Funch via Honestly...WTF

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Personally, it went way too fast for my liking. But it was enjoyable nonetheless. Lots of sitting around and sweating. Andrew, Q and I had a slumber party in our living room for the weekend. We pulled our mattress downstairs and watched movies every night. It was great!

Today I wanted to share this awesome video I found. I'm sure many of you have probably seen this, I know I'm a little late to the game. We don't have a TV (just a movie projector) so we don't see TV commercials very often. Which is usually a good thing, but then we miss the really good ones like this one for Sony Bravia:



But the best thing about it is that it was completely real! The creators of the commercial threw 250,000 bouncy balls down a street in San Francisco.  Watch the behind-the-scenes:



How awesome is that?

Found via A Cup of Jo and Honestly...WTF
-c.