My first craft fair

I will be selling my jewelry at the Memphis Taproom Handmade Market in Port Richmond/Kensington/Flat Iron or whatever you want to call it on the 25th from 10 am - 3 pm. Come visit!

I did it!

I finally...FINALLY...launched my Etsy shop. Honestly, I've had design ideas in mind for the store, but I was so afraid that what I saw as good work might be a laugh-fest to everyone else. So I did a test run by throwing some pictures of my work up on Facebook, and my amazing friends told me to get my ass to Etsy so I did. Check out my shop, here. And keep coming back because I expect to have some new and improved designs for sale, starting next week!

Below is a little ditty I whipped up to wear to my dad's 60th birthday/4th of July party, tomorrow. Expect to see a less patriotic version at the Etsy shop soon!

I think I can I think I can

I got some design ideas for some jewelry this weekend and decided to go for it! Here are the first three items I made. Think they'd sell on Etsy? Let me know what you think!

The Socialite's Rosary

Little George's Lie

Not Vintage to Nana

And I'm still knitting, too...

Here's a peak at my latest project. Another hat...a beret, actually. The working title is "Second Hand Store Hat." I'll let you figure out the reference...

Maybe I should just change the name to Laura Draper's Garden!

My backyard is really the only thing that I've made any progress on, lately. But now that I've been "liberated" (thankfully!) from a job that made my soul hurt, I'm hoping that I'll be able to dedicate more time to the things that make my soul happy! And maybe...just maybe...those things can make money for me, too. But for now, I'm just happy to have the time to do them.

I must admit that my lovely husband has truly been the force behind the backyard. He's teaching in the evenings, this summer, so his days have been spent buying flowers, veggie starts, and herbs to plant in containers. And once everything was purchased and planted and growing, we realized that our backyard was just a mess of containers with no room to hang out. So, today, we dedicated ourselves to fixing it up. We hung a couple of window boxes on a back wall, since we don't want to damage our new stone sills on the front of the house, and we organized all of the containers so that there was more open space. There's still alot of dirt on the ground that we'd like to get rid of, but for the most part, the yard is open for business (aka partying!). My one remaining goal is to build something to cover the kitty litter container herb garden...maybe next month.

The spruce is a monster!

One of our old windowboxes on the wall, with pots planted by the hubby.

The stuff in the long silver pots is our crazy endive (we trim it, it grows more...insane!), the big pot is an eggplant plant, and then more flowers.

The kitty litter herb garden in full effect.

The full view.

Work and out-of-town weekends have prevented me from finishing most of my projects, lately, but I was reminded of this post on the Crafts Dept. Blog at Martha Stewart when I came upon this little courtyard outside of the new Comcast Center, today. These flowers were so neat, and so big! I tried to take pictures with my new iPhone, but it didn't do them justice.

Gardening, Part Deux

As the house comes together, and the veggies in the backyard have started to grow (thanks to a week's worth of rain!), my husband and I have been able to turn our attention to decorating our front walk and the back yard with flowers...beautiful, beautiful flowers!

We are lucky to live just a few blocks from the wonderful and always-evolving Greensgrow. When we first moved here, Greensgrow was a new venture that had taken over a former-superfund sight to grow some hydroponic stuff and administer a CSA. They were only open a couple days a week and their selection was tiny. Today, they are a full-fledged garden center, their CSA has expanded to include a winter option, and they also have a produce market. Plus, they are open all week long. Not only is their product well-cared for (compared to the wilty, brown mess that we saw at Home Depot, today), but their staff is also extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We have decided to plant our flowers in stages this year, but it's even more exciting because I'll be able to go back to Greensgrow again and again, all summer long!

Outdoor kitty friends inspecting the new flowers out front. Oreo is on the left and Harry is on the right.

We love these galvanized tins from Home Depot. We drill holes into the bottom and presto! Large, sleek, sturdy planters!

This lovely lady is right outside the back door. You can't really tell in this picture, but she has bright purple flowers along those stalks.

One of our eggplant starters didn't make it, so we replaced it with a strawberry plant!

Our new herb garden. We have SO many of these kitty litter containers, that we decided to put them to use. We planted chives, rosemary, two types of oregano, and basil. Plus our mint crop has taken over two big containers, too!

We've had this raspberry vine for a while, but she is much happier with her new trellis!