melon head

Etsy has clearly been on my mind recently! Shopping there of course, but now I'm delving back into selling a little bit.

So I whipped up a couple listings and did a little "soft open" of my shop last week. Currently there are only two items but I'm planning on doing more invites soon. If there's something you'd really love to see let me know!

One of the two items available is this fun fruit themed party invite above! Who doesn't love a good pineapple to start the party? I've had such a great time making little party paper freebies in the past that I wanted to do something new to coincide with my shop's opening.

Without further ado I present to you: MINI WATERMELON BUNTING!

(download here, for the impatient)

Seriously, the possibilities are endless for these tiny babies. I just hung them on my wall, but you could make a cake topper or wrap little gifts in it! Or just wrap your entire self int them and live a watermelon-y life.

Making them is super duper easy too, and if it's coming from me (my craft is.... sub par?) it must be true.

What you'll need:

• The printable file from yours truly
• An exacto knife or scissors 
• Twine or string in whatever color your heart desires
• Glue! I used Tacky Glue and it worked like a charm.

What you'll do:

1. Cut out the little watermelon diamonds!
2. Fold on the dotted line - if your paper is a little stiff like mine was you can try making a veeeery light score with your exacto knife. That way your paper won't tear!
3. Outline one of the triangles with glue. Make sure to get the glue in the crease! I applied it slightly away from the outer edges so that it didn't squish out in the next step.
4. Place the open diamond where you'd like it to be underneath the twine and squish it together! 
5. REPEAT!!!

 Now you have fun party invitations and fun party decorations... all you need is some cake and you're set!

unlisted #6

Another set of items occupying my mind grapes - from the edible to the legible! Previous versions: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

this simple cake recipe | Oh, Martha. What would I do without you? This layer cake recipe was in the most recent issue of Martha Stewart Living and of course I first laid eyes on it when I was stuck midway between Minneapolis and Washington DC on an airplane with no food in sight. I knew I had to make it as soon as possible, and luckily I got a chance to this weekend for Ben & Bill's birthday bbq! It was intensely easy and intensely good.

the burning house | I love a good very specific theme blog. The Burning House is exactly that: carefully laid out, reader submitted photos of what they would take with them if their house was on fire. Obviously it's mostly fantasy based, but these photos and lists still say a lot about their submitters. I especially like ones like elle townsend - they're almost portrait-like in nature without any actual images of the person's face.

janelle monáe's Q.U.E.E.N. | THIS IS MY JAM. Ms. Monáe is such a dreamy rock star and man oh man this video is filled with babes. I wouldn't mind it if every item of clothing in it could be in my closet.

prettify your power cords | I'm not always into DIYs, but this one from DesignLoveFest is simple enough and the end result is stunning. Plus... I've been looking for a reason to buy some washi tape, since all the cool kids have some already.

hallucinations by oliver sacks | My dad is an amazing genius and got me this book for Christmas, along with A Clash of Kings. It took me months and months to finish the latter but I'm finally done and just got started on Oliver Sacks' latest book last night. So far it's living up to the hype!

this gorgeous basket | Gorgeous colors and fair trade to boot? What is there not to love!

unlisted #2

Yep, I liked my little hexagon layout from the last time I wrote up the ubiquitous "list of obsessions", so I'm sticking with it.

This time around:

-tattoos. I keep thinking about them. This one is of Caroline Loosen shot by Stefan Khoo. Though Ms. Loosen seems to not have this tattoo in real life, it is my perfect floral tattoo. I keep coming back to the florals, and then get scared away from them. I'm also still not sure I want color. Luckily I'm waiting till Bill and I finish up the neverending project of boomboom $$ to splurge, and as this project is neverending .... well, I have some time to think about it.

-fun reads. It is almost impossible for me to click onto The Hairpin and maneuver myself away from it in less than thirty minutes. I tell myself I'll only read one article, and then I stumble upon the personal bests archive and it's all over. I may have read several articles just now when I went to get the links for this post. These are some of the funniest females (and sometimes dudes too) that I've ever had the opportunity to read.

-future diys. I'm definitely planning on taking this cute kid's playroom storage idea and spray painting the animals gold and filling the jars with cookies and giving them out as holiday gifts. YOU CAN'T STOP ME, THE CRAFTING WILL HAPPEN.

-wishlist additions. Gosh, is it almost Christmastime ALREADY? Oh no I will have to write a Christmas wishlist and OH NO, I will have to put The New Domestic's newest offering, the Bon Journey Bag on it. Woe is me!

-gift ideas. Speaking of the holidays, it is finally time for a new issue of Gifted Magazine from Creature Comforts! When the first issue of Gifted Came out last year, I was so thrilled to find a gift guide that actually had good recommendations, and this year's issue is no different. I already found something for my notoriously hard to buy for mother (whom I love sososososo much), what will you find? Also it's pretty to look at, which is generally a plus.

-fancy nails. I am terrible at painting my nails, but the tutorials on the beauty department have given me hope. I feel like maybe I can cover up how bad I am at this very important aspect of girldom by simply doing crazy designs over all my imperfections! I already tried my hand at black and gold nails, I'm thinking gold and pink next.

What's on your list?