craft fair set up inspiration

While at an outdoor market in St Martin, I saw some great ideas for craft fair set ups. My favorite part was the pervasive madras-esque plaid. It was everywhere - on our tour guide, on bags of spices, wrapped around bottle tops.


Jars of jam wrapped with plaid. I want to sell something in a jar now.


Magnetic board wrapped in plaid. If my magnets weren't already plaid, I would do this.



Plaid topped bottles of island rum. Tom and I bought some even though we aren't the biggest rum drinkers, and even though it's probably terrible. We had to bring back some of the island flavor!


I loved these hanging baskets.

I won't repeat the picture (see below), but my favorite use of plaid was definitely the fragrant bags of spices

DIY: craft hub

For this month's Paper Dolls Magazine I created a one-stop spot to store all my craft supplies and magazine tears - a spot for bills and scissors alike. Since it was the "green issue", this particular project was created from materials I already owned.




Hop on over to Paper Dolls to get the details!

in case you were curious

my camera broke while walking through Customs. I was trying to snap a picture of these awesome old ladies - they had to be about 90 - who had gotten their hair "island braided". Complete with beads. One of these old ladies had actually joined my sister, mom and I on the dance floor and seriously cut a rug. Well the camera broke (LENS ERROR!) so I am camera-less, and therefore cannot post new items to my shop.

But fear not, because once I lay hands on one, I will have many books to post. My goal is to have at least 30 books posted by May 18. I'm at 7 right now.

Have a great weekend!

attention all East Austinites!

One of my favorite Austin blogs, East Austinite, is running a contest looking for the coolest houses on the East Side.



You can win seriously awesome prizes from Austin favorites like Birds Barbershop, Cafe Mundi, and Coldtowne Theater (plus more). I'm getting jealous just listing off the prizes... why didn't we move to the East Side, Tom? I will also be donating a few Texas shaped pillows and ornaments.

Click here to get the details on entry format. Oh, and make sure you include your pet in the pictures. I hear they give bonus points for that.

and we're back

Whoo! That was an awesome vacation that included, but was not limited to: snorkeling, beautiful blue beaches, margaritas and mojitos, singing all night at a piano bar (on the boat, yes), drinking rum punch aka "love potion #10" while floating in the caribbean, entering a karoake competition called "Westerdam Superstar" (I didn't win, but it was still fun), exploring beautiful old San Juan, collecting magnets from each locale, eating breakfast on our balcony while looking at the beautiful ocean, one bout of food poisoning (Tom), a very rocky boat, and laying out in a hammock looking at the ocean. I guess everything revolved around that damn blue ocean, which is kinda unavoidable since we were on a boat, most of the time.

Here are some of my favorite pictures...

vacation, all I ever wanted!

I'm off for vacation! It's my Dad's 60th birthday and we are all going on a cruise around the Carribbean! By we all I mean my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and Tom! I wanted to take a break from blogging/etsying, and purposely left my card reader behind, but now that I'm here and amazing things have already happened, I wish I could document it for you! Either way, here are some pictures to leave you with.


Of course I brought the old trust watermelon suitcase, and with Tom's matching luggage set (found at Savers on Burnet for $3 a piece, and yes that includes two different sizes of suitcase and a carry-on bag) our suitcases were unmistakable. Seriously, we travel in style. And I'd like to see someone mistake my watermelon suitcase. Hah!


Tom and I were having a drink at a German "beer garden" playing reggae music when a dude came by offering caricatures. We said no, but then when we saw the guy stumble off down the way, we changed our minds. This is the masterpiece he gave us. Tom's beard is a little... low... but he really captured the different highlights of my hair. And the setting sun and palm trees. Except it was nighttime and we were no where near a palm tree. Either way, Truly something to be framed! and I'm not kidding.

Be back in a week!

dinner party!

My bestfriend Heather is in town from Brooklyn, so we've spent the past few days eating BBQ (salt lick!), vintage shopping (Feathers!) and now we're making a nice little dinner to eat on the patio. Heather is an awesome cook and is currently whipping together a meal of yummy roasted chicken, fried okra and a heirloom tomato salad.

I got to use placemats at the table for the first time ever, and paired them with my cute plates from Anthropologie and dainty napkins that Heather gave me as a housewarming gift.






I used some old mason jars as impromptu candle holders, and bought some fresh tulips to put in my favorite vase ever (a Jameson pitcher!)



yay!

etsy find: mylavaliere's headbands

These two headbands come from etsy seller mylavaliere, and have been in my "Favorites" section for a while now, and I am often thisclose to buying them. The only thing that stops me is confusion over wether to buy the bow (classic, definitely my style) or the leaf (awesome, would be different from all the other be-bowed headbands out there. Ah...

vacation magnets

Another thing I got in the box from my mom (see a few posts ago) were all the magnets that used to adorn my Grandma's fridge. These were from our family vacation through the years, and I used to delight in arranging them on the refrigerator during summer vacations at the beach house. I especially like the multiple ships and identical (aside from the name) golf magnets.


I definitely get my collecting gene from my grandma. I've been collecting state shaped magnets (yes, I am obsessed with state shape things) for a few years now, slowly but surely. I always like the old school classic style (see South Carolina), but they are often hard to come by.



I can't believe I don't even have a Virginia!

By the way, this magnet really freaks Tom out...



which is understandable, because after many years the collected dust on the googly eyes are a bit creep-tastic.