Friday Find: Inspired by Tea

I have tea on the brain as you can see from my last post, so I decided to pull together some super cute, teapot themed items from Etsy sellers. A great way to spend black Friday, cruising around online (sipping tea of course) instead of in the stores bumping elbows with the crowds.

Check out these seller's shops because all three have really great stuff and offer plenty of potential gifts for the upcoming holidays!

Mini Wall Hanging Clock - Tea Pot by decoylab


Teapot by sollinero

Silver Tiny Whimsical Teapot Studs by ANORIGINALJEWELRY
(free shipping through 11/30!)

Afternoon Tea

Today we had some friends over for afternoon tea. I have been dying to make it since I enjoyed the full spread with a friend at our nearby tea house. And of course, who could forget the Four Seasons back in March?

I would like to say I made everything from scratch, but I am no Martha Stewart. I made the sandwiches and bought the baked goods. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, snacking, sipping tea and talking. I highly recommend it. It is such a fun excuse for gathering and trying new things. I'm hooked.

The Nest: Before and After

I have finally gotten to a point where I can start to show some before and after photos of our place. I figure I have been using the house as an excuse for not blogging and printing, so I better show that I haven't been sitting on my duff this whole time.

The bathroom is officially done. We had a professional (well, more like semi-professional as we found out) do the tile floor. But the rest was done by me and the team (my husband and I have gotten help from all of our parental figures - thank you!).

The kitchen is the next big project and there are all sorts of finishing touches in the other rooms, I will keep you posted!

Fall Pinhole Photos

A while back, when we were at Carter Hill Orchard, I took a lot of pinhole photos. It has been rainy and cloudy for a few days and seeing the blue skies and bright sun makes me wish we weren't just starting to get into the cold, winter weather, and that spring was just around the corner.

Yikes, it's going to be a long winter. At least we have a cozy place and a cozy kitty to help us survive the long winter days. Anyway, here are a few pinhole photos from the orchard, you can see the rest on flickr.

Season of Donuts

In my absence I have been very busy. Eating donuts. We went to Wilson Farms for fresh cider donuts, not once, not twice, but weekly for about 6 weeks. Lucky for me, the craving has largely passed (or at least I can occasionally say no when we are there for produce). Here are a few photos of the glorious donuts and other fall ephemera there. Mmmm, donuts...

Wedding Suite

Over the summer I made a set of invitations, response cards and thank you cards for a friend. I showed you the save the date a long time ago. The invitations were the last thing I printed before moving and I have not printed anything since.

I am in the process of setting up my printing space in the basement and have been thinking about some designs. But honestly, all my creative energy has been going into the house. We are nearly done with the bathroom. Just one more coat of paint on the trim, and some last finishing touches. I can't wait to share some before and after shots!

So, since I haven't done anything new lately, I can at least share my last big project with you.

Apple Picking Heaven

Saturday was the most gorgeous day for our annual trip to the orchard. There were so many apples! I have never seen such an amazing crop. It even looked like some trees/branches broke under the weight of the apples. We also came across two beautiful plum trees.

My husband and I roamed around the grounds and I took a lot of pinhole photos. I ended up taking 6 rolls this weekend and you will see some of them in the next week or so.

Anyway, here are some regular photos from the day. I wish every day could be like Saturday - sunny, breezy, and rounded out with giant homemade peanut butter cookies...

Brimfield Antiques

Last weekend I went to the Brimfield Antique Show. It is so massive it is a little overwhelming, but if you relax and realize you can't possibly see everything, it's fun to just explore.

This is the second time I have gone and both times I have gone on the last day of the week-long event. If you are not scoping out a specific rare and hard to find piece, I don't think it is necessary to wait in line on the opening morning. On the last day the vendors really want to get rid of what they have left rather than lugging it back with them, so you can find some good deals.

I did buy a large white pitcher and washing bowl, which I love. Other than that I just took some photos, had some fried dough, and enjoyed hanging out with my mom and a friend.

Seattle: Art

My final installment of my Seattle trip round up is about some of the great art I saw while in Seattle.

One of my absolute favorites was at Suyama Space. It was Andreas Bee's work - Raumgreifend


When I first walked in and saw the light, moon jelly like pieces floating in air with the sun streaming into the gorgeous space - it was almost magical.

I was also lucky to tour a space that is not usually open to the public and saw Dale Chihuly's boathouse where his crew blows the glass for his pieces. The workshop ran like a well oiled machine and was impeccably clean and organized. It was also a treat to see site specific work installed around the boathouse in addition to some of Chihuly's collection of Americana and other art.

Glass rods for coloring glass.

A site specific installation in the corner of the studio.

Molds for shaping the glass.

Instillation detail.

Another detail.

Lap pool with installations above and in the pool.

Gigantic 96 foot long table made from a solid piece of wood with tons of Chihuly chandeliers overhead.

I also very much enjoyed the Settle Art Museum, the Olympic Sculpture Park, and the Seattle Public Library.

Another highlight of my trip was learning to "crochet" with Mandy Greer and helping make a river. I say "crochet" because it was lucky for me that Mandy didn't mind, lumpy, holy bits in the piece. Her project Mater Matrix Mother and Medium sounded like such a great project that invited anyone to contribute and used art to draw attention to an environmental issue. I am bummed I did not get to see the actual installation myself.

All in all I really enjoyed Seattle and look forward to going back someday. There are more Seattle pics on Flickr.

Seattle: Food

Fair food, market food, street food - call it what you will, I love it all. I am a sucker for food from a stand or a stall. Which is part of the reason 90% of my meals were had near Pike Place Market, which had a nice mix of stalls and restaurants. But also, if like me you are short on time and short on cash it is a good place to be. Here is my "best of" food list at or near the market, in no particular order:

1. The "world's best" mac and cheese at Beecher's. While I don't know if it is the world's best, it was really, really good and had a little red pepper or something to give it a lift out of the ordinary.

2. One of the lightest, fluffiest, airiest croissants I have had in a long while from Le Panier.


3. A maple butter smothered crumpet and good Irish tea from The Crumpet Shop. A perfect way to start a cool, grey morning!

4. Piroshky Piroshky! This was probably my favorite. The potato, cheese and onion filled piroshky was completely divine. Potato filled bread. How can you go wrong?

5. Gelato from Bottega Italiana. I loved mixing Pannacotta with anything citrusy. It was like a rich, fancy creamsicle. I am pretty sure I had gelato every day, and twice on at least one day. It is a good thing I was walking a lot.

6. Veggie Combo at Pan Africa Market. A delicious arrangement of cabbage and potato stew, red lentil stew, curried split peas, greens, carrots & green beans served with injera. I really wanted to try the curried corm but knew I couldn't eat that and my combo. The food was good and the price was great. The same dish would have cost me almost twice as much at home.

As you can see, I ate very well in Seattle. If I go again I hope to spend more time in the neighborhoods surrounding the downtown. This time I had limited time and a limited ability to get around. That leaves me something to look forward to (aside from another piroshky!).

Seattle: Market

Pike Place Market was crowded and touristy, but like everyone else there I fell in love with the stalls filled with fresh produce and gorgeous flowers. The market also ended up being one of my go to places for lunch, but more on that later. I don't know if peonies always grow in the Northwest, or if it was their season, but there were millions at the market when I was there in June.

Here are some photos that I took. There are more on flickr.

Greetings From...

Aside from a week recently spent at the shore, my summer "vacation" wasn't actually a vacation at all. It was probably one of the busiest summers of my life with work, moving, remodeling, and everything else. One of the highlights though was going to Seattle for 5 days for a conference.

I had never been to Seattle and was very happy to have the chance to go. My intention was to post every night from the hotel, but if you have been to a conference you know how busy they keep you and how wiped out you can be at the end of the day.

Luckily I did have time to explore the downtown area at least and I took a bunch of photos. So the next three posts will be: Market, Food and Art. Below is my obligatory tourist shot of the space needle. When traveling, I embrace my inner tourist...

Long Lost Summer

After a hiatus of, oh 3 months, I have returned. I told myself that I would keep up with the blog during my move and everything else the summer threw at me, but alas, I did not. So picking up where I left off, I wanted to share some pinhole photos I took in the spring of the flowering trees before the fall completely takes over. You can see more on my flickr account.

Then, while kids everywhere go back to school, I will join them in their first essay assignment and over the next few days I will share with you what I did over my summer "vacation."