more kitchen goodies!

Oops! I forgot to include these recipe cards and fancy himalayan PINK salt Colin also gifted me! From Rifle paper and Sholiveoil... what can I say, Colin has good taste!

Next project, to get my dad to help me make a wooden recipe card box like those to-die-for Rifle boxes!!

Kitchen themed birthday loot!

If you know me, you know I love cooking and kitchenware. With that said, all of the following reflect that love.

For birthday presents this weekend, friends and my super neat anthro birthday discount gave me some pretty neat kitchen stuff... Excuse my funny faces, I got really excited to show you all this stuff!

My besties Jessica and Luke gave me these matryoshka measuring cups. I LOVE fred kitchen stuff! I used to work at a kitchen supply store, and we carried a lot of fred merchandise because it is so unique and fun.

 The faces are really washed out in this picture, so I added the merchandising shot from the fred site for better detail...

My boyfriend Colin gave me this amazing oilily tea cup set. He brought it back all the way from Delft in the Netherlands! I love the colors, and it's rimmed in gold. This is my new ritzy tea cup for fancy mornings!

My anthro birthday discount gave me these neat little measuring spoons for a song. They're ceramic, shaped like little clam shells. Again, the photobooth picture is washed out, so the anthro product photo follows...

(mary kate olson lip impression...)

And lastly, I was in Michaels today, killing some time while my mom got a haircut, and I found LOTS of great, colorful cupcake liners. I bought three, since the packs of 75, were only $1.99! 

These dot liners came in color matched sets. I got a pack of blue polkadot with a lime polkadot set nestled inside, red dots with orange dot liners inside and a funky pink, red, blue and green paisley patterned set. 

Preppy-Nautical-Masculine Interiors

I'm trying to adjust to life in my parents house again. I should be moving out within the next few weeks. It's a long story, but my dad is a landlord, and I'm moving into one of his apartments rent-free, but only after the apartment has some updates done. Having very little space that is my own has underlined for me how important my apartment had become to me in Baltimore, and how much I miss that freedom of space.

I've been thinking about decor a lot lately, especially after visiting my friend Jessica this weekend, and seeing her cute apartment, and her zest for interior design. 

These are some inspiration rooms I've been looking at lately...

via more home love

grant k. gibson's apartment via Unabasedly Prep

the J.Crew Liquor Store boutique via Prepidemic, The Bedlam of Beefy & Baxter Finley

via Beaumontro

via Decorate Your Space from a 2008 Domino

via Material Girls

via blackwatch

I hope I can pull off the worn in, kinda masculine preppy nautical style I'm really enjoying right now...

new metallic striped bow tote!

I made a new handbag last night. My friday nights are chalk full of exciting things, I know!

I can never find purses I like, it seems, so I often end up making my own. This one is an homage to a designer bag I spotted online. I do NOT have $500 for a purse right now, so I made my own version!

The pictures make the stripes look flat gray, but they're really more like a metallic silvery gunmetal color. 

I painted the stripes on to black twill canvas, then sewed up the whole thing. It's a pretty simple bucket shaped tote. The fabric has a nice weight though, so I think it will hold up well. The bag is big enough to hold all my purse items, plus a cardigan (I never leave home without one in summer, AC gets so cold sometimes!), but it's not so large that it gets too heavy on my shoulder.

The lining is a light lime color printed cotton with a black and white abstract floral print. The last picture shows the lining fabric detail best.

I really like it, and it only took me about 3.5 hours and cost $9.50 in materials, including paint and buckram for the bow lining. 

My chevron dresser is on Design Sponge Today!

I have a furniture Before and After on Design*Sponge today!

I repainted a little side dresser I've had for a few years. It was pretty beat up, and a little water damaged, but nothing a little sanding and some high gloss paint wouldn't fix!

before:

I sanded off the cherry stain on the dresser, base coated everything with plain white Benjamin Moore high gloss exterior paint.

Then I taped out the chevron stripe with plain 2" painters tape. I'm not going to lie, this was tedious, but totally worth it.

in progress:

after:

The minty green is Martha Stewart Living Hi-Gloss in Sea Glass. It's a really pretty blue-y mint, which you can find here. It looks much more green in that image though, that it appears in person. The color is closer to a light Tiffany blue.

Feeling extra glamourous today.
Surprises to come later this week, I'm being featured somewhere special on the interwebs!