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So I mentioned some thrift shopping the other day and thought I would share some photos. I feel like it has been so long without thrifting. I have been gone so much, and just plain busy, plus Heather is up to her eyeballs in photo shoots and hasn’t had to thrift to replenish her ebay shop in awhile. I miss the days she would come over and we would spend all day on our thrift route!

So I had a domed cake stand but the dome broke inside my very badly packed cabinet, and I have been on the look out for a replacement. Thomas and I are also planning a trip to find a used curio cabinet of sorts to hold some of my dishes. I have this funny long kitchen cabinet now that has to hold most of my baking pans, casserole dishes, and the like. The cabinet is so oddly shaped and has one door but stretches back far off into darkness. This makes it impossible to reach anything that you put into it without removing everything at the front first (and this can lead to broken cake domes!) So a curio cabinet would be a nice addition.

I found my new cake stand for $5, and I just love the little lines in the glass. In celebration I made a cake last night..a lemon cake based off the recipe here. It is filled with lemon curd, has a lemon buttercream frosting, and is vegan. It reminds me of lemon jelly donuts and tastes even better the second day!



Some other goodies I found are these delightful little bear paintings. They were .25 each and are signed by the artist. I am in love with the red polka dot chair, but could not split that little set up. Not to mention at a quarter each they were a bargain.

A new Pinocchio doll who cost me $10, but I still feel it was worth it. He is about twelve inches tall all wood and is jointed with elastic so that he can sit or stand. I also found a Pee Wee Herman doll that looks fantastic and still talks. I hid it away for K’s bday (like a freak I have started to collect presents for the holidays and fall birthdays) I feel like this way I can find all sorts of fun thrifted and handmade items since the holidays are such a busy time for me business wise.

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And this is how we celebrated…
+breakfast with Tom’s parents. I got festive with BLUEberry muffins and RED strawberries haha.
+seeing my parents in the afternoon, with a little bit of thrift shopping and a lunch date out.
+stopping to pick up sparklers and being wooed by other merchandise (I really wanted it ALL, the packages made everything look like a party)
+vegan smores! Tom has been getting the marshmallows from Sweet & Sarah locally every now and again and we tried them out for smores last night, along with some rice milk chocolate, yum!
+the rainy evening which I am listing as a plus because it felt like good cozy rain, and we made a pot of faux chick n dumplings for dinner, and the rain tapered off once it got dark so were able to watch fireworks on the upper porch and got to play with the stuff I bought as well.
-one sick 12 year old who spent the whole evening in bed. Seems to be something going around sadly..he watched the fireworks from his bed half heartedly and we saved a tank, sparklers, and box of poppers for this evening when he is feeling better.
I hope everyone had a grand day even if you had some of the rain like us!

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A whole big mish mash of photos for you. The eyeballs just made me laugh, I should of took a photo when I had a pile of 6 sets but I forgot. The next photo is a peek into the garden. Since this is my first year with a real garden I have already made countless mistakes (not realizing the spinach would bolt etc.) Another thing I did not plan well for was the fact that the plants would get so big. I had these neat little rows between the plants and they have pretty much disappeared with the giants my zucchini, tomato, and pepper plants have become. The pumpkin leaves are HUGE crazy things, like elephant ears! Luckily I have already pulled up the spring onions and spinach creating more room for some of the other veg. It is just funny how I didn’t think about the plants growing so big when planting little seeds into the ground.

The last photo is from the zoo. Tom had off yesterday so we took a trip to Washington DC for the day. Since it has been mild and not too hot it was good to walk around outside. We made a stop at Sticky Fingers Bakery too before heading home. We also got a roll of Teese brand vegan cheese there which I have been trying to find locally without any luck. They also have some of the best vegan cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted, and it makes me want to try out a different recipe the next time I make some.

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A few quick things…the tattooed body I worked on as we drove to Ohio. Kept me busy but then I was finished before the ride home, I need to plan a little better :) This is also something for my show…and looks quite different now that it is finished.

Yesterday the kids and I went to my sister’s house. She lives in the woods in the mountains around Harpers Ferry WV and she has all these wild raspberries growing all over the place. We picked raspberries and spent some time together. I had not seen her in almost two weeks and was missing her, the raspberries were just a bonus!

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Finally the shop is updated! I feel like June didn’t have much of an update at all, and since all my summer crafty shows have ended I can make a proper shop update.

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Here is the sneak peek I promised, obviously works in progress ;) They are a take on old paintings…like this, and this, and this, haha. But also sort of inspired by the house I made for the Alice In Wonderland plush. These are only the tip of the iceberg! I’ll show you some more sneak peeks over the next few weeks or so.

The shop update will be this evening EST, because I still need to photograph everything, July 1st certainly snuck up on me!

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So the show was amazing, as if I doubted it would be any less. This is the only photo I have though because they said no photographs in the auditorium and I respected that. Tom Waits was brilliant and full of energy from the first song! His son Casey Waits was on percussion which I found very sweet, and touching. I love the idea of a family making beautiful music together.

You can watch a shaky almost 6 minute video of the start of the Ohio show that some one put up on YouTube. We ended up with some pretty good seats, end of the row, dead center orchestra. So we had a great view of Tom the entire time. The highlights of course besides the music were the times he would talk and make jokes. I loved the little sing a long he got going during Innocent When You Dream, and the disco ball-like hat he donned for Eyeball Kid. Such a super night!

The only thing that annoyed me a little was the way so many adults could not seem to stay in their seats for the 2 hour show. I am betting almost all of those folks could have sat through a 2 hour movie, but for whatever reason seemed the need to get up leave, and then come back during the performance. I’m just saying…really…haha.

We had dinner before the show at Whole World Natural Restaurant. The food was pretty good, but the desserts we got to go were not so great. The bar I got tasted really bad, soggy too, so I threw it away. Tom didn’t care too much for his dessert either (although he did eat it all) Don’t get me wrong I love finding a place that offers vegan food! We tried to stop in to Patty Cake Vegan Bakery on the same street since their hours online are listed as 9-5pm on Saturdays. Sadly we arrived at 4pm and they were already closed. Still the trip was for Tom Waits and that did not disappoint in the least ;)

It does feel really good to be home though! I already worked on some stuff this morning, sewing and all. Felt so good! Sorry the blog entries have been mostly travel related lately..I should have some crafty photos for you tomorrow. I am finishing up my stuff for my solo show in Seattle in August. I don’t want to post everything, but I will give you some sneak peeks. My sister will hopefully be coming over next week to take some photos for the show postcards and that should give you an idea. I have felt very recharged and inspired with the stuff I have been working on, and I hope you will like it. Alrighty it is back to the sewing machine for me…more tomorrow.

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The drive home from North Carolina is about six hours, so before we left for the beach we had planned that on the way home we would stop half way and stay in Williamsburg for the night. I have wanted to stay at a Great Wolf lodge for a couple years now, so when I saw one was in Williamsburg I jumped at the chance.

The whole point of the lodge is the indoor water park that is for use by hotel guests only (making it not crowded). They regulate the temp inside so it is always 84F even in winter. We basically left the beach a day early so we could go and stay here, but it was very much worth it. Like two vacations in one.



On the night of check-in you can start using the water park by 1pm. We actually didn’t arrive until close to 4pm but still had plenty of time. You can even pay more for a room and get theme rooms where the beds look like tents or log cabins etc. Once checked in you get a wrist band that also doubles as your room key and can even have a credit card # added so you can buy food without having to carry a wallet or anything while you are in the water park. So we changed into our suits and headed down to the water park pretty quickly.

You can feel a change in the air as soon as you walk into the park, the water is all warm without being too warm. We had such a good time and even B could go down every water slide (with an adult) except the Howling Tornado. I found the Howling Tornado to be so scary that I only went on it once, you can watch a video on their website that shows it if your curious, but it has a steep drop in the beginning that makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster (and that part is too dark too see too!)

My favorite part of the entire park was the big fort in the middle. It has water going from everywhere and two smaller water slides coming off of it. It has a big bucket on top that dumps out 1,000 gallons of water every five minutes. It is fun to stand under and get soaked. Sorry if I sound like a commercial for them, haha..I just love a good theme hotel!

We didn’t eat at the hotel though we drove to Williamsburg to find something that might be vegan friendly for Tom. We ended up stopping at a place called Food For Thought. They had 4 vegetarian dishes, plus a grilled portobello sandwich, plus one of the specials not on the menu was vegetarian. I ordered the special called Wild Art Pasta. It was wild mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and tomatoes in a cream sauce over penne pasta, and was so good. Tom was able to get the eggplant marinara without the breading or cheese, with a side of asparagus. Our waitress was very helpful with finding out what was vegan or not too. They brought out a basket of parmesan rolls and sweet potato cornbread. They were both so good, but the sweet potato cornbread was so good that I want to try and recreate a vegan version so Tom can try it. The other thing that impressed me is the kid’s menu even had vegetarian meals which you do not see very often. I got a slice of the mango raspberry cheesecake to go and then we stopped at a snow cone place on the way back to the hotel for everyone else.

The hotel also offered this crazy magical scavenger hunt. You did have to pay extra for it, which kind of sucked but you got to keep the magic wand that you used to find things with. It was all interactive things like treasure chests, talking trees and fairies. Lots of fun and good exercise since you run all over the hotel finding things. After that we retired to our room for the night, but then went back to the water park the next day. Although check-out is 11am you can keep using the park until 9pm that night. So considering you get a very nice hotel room, 2 days of water park fun for 4 people, I don’t think it was all that expensive. Especially when I consider some of the prices I have had to pay for 1 night at a hotel some times during shows.

Okay phew, I think that is everything. It was a crazy long wondrous week! We are leaving soon just Tom and I for Ohio this time. I’ll be back to sewing and working on Monday. I have so many emails from people asking why the shop is empty, everything will be back in stock on July 1st!

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We were in Outer Banks NC with everyone from Classic Electric and their families. We all stayed in a big beach house with a pool + hot tub! (Thank you Eric!) Some of us got a little bit burnt, and some a lotta burnt. There were birthday cakes made from watermelon, lots of time spent reading (I started and finished The Time Travelers Wife in two days haha) There was some sand sculpture work (which took over 4 hours to make–and minutes to be destroyed by some kids while their obliviously parents walked on) There were some bursts of rain + storms which passed quickly enough, we even spotted a little twister as we drove over the bridge! There was some very dangerous looking jumps taken off the second floor balcony into the pool (I advised against it of course) and now there is talk of doing it all again soon, which sounds like a grand plan to me!

just made a trip to cohasset for my first farmer's market of the year!

bought these beautiful tiny strawberries to make a yummy pie for saturday. i had tried to buy some at whole foods or stop and shop the other day, but all their berries were gigantic. while gigantic berries are ok some times, tiny ones are better for my pie.

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The wedding was beautiful, joyous, and full of very enthusiastic dancers. It was held at the Elizabeth Gardens in Outer Banks NC. The gardens there are just amazing, and huge! Such a perfect setting for a wedding. There was violins, and then bag pipes….then lots + lots of dancing….then a feast of food with not only many vegetarian goods but vegan too….then more + more dancing! As always more photos over on Flickr. Sorry for such a long absence, it is hard to think about the internet when the Great Atlantic Ocean is just outside your door, I’ll be back with more on Saturday morning.

the party on saturday went off AMAZINGLY well...thanks to everyone who came!!! it was sooooo crowded and everyone crafted and my cupcakes were yummy...couldn't have asked for more...

i figured out an quick easy way to make these trees and sold some at renegade two weeks ago.

strangely enough, i got featured on etsy today for them...