here kitty kitty

My other last-purchase-for-2012 was a grab bag from Emerging Thoughts that includes two pieces selected at random. Mine wasn't *quite* random... Lauren knows I'm a little (okay, a lot) obsessed with cats so she included this adorable Dear Creatures kitty top as one of my two surprises! eep! Isn't it the cutest?! My collection of feline-themed apparel is getting quite impressive, so it's nearly impossible for me to wear just one cat item without accenting it with at least two others. In this case, a wooden cat brooch from my sweet and lovely shop and kitty shoes that I got for my birthday!

Also, yesterday me and my dad went to Yougurtland for the first time and it's absolutely amazing. Has anyone else been there? It reminded me of a modern dessert-only automat. I got the grapefruit guava sorbet and mixed in fresh kiwi, strawberries and shredded coconut. It was SO delicious! And I love that you get to control your portions... I can never eat the heaping servings of frozen treats that most ice cream places give you (although plop a pound of potatoes in front of me and I can tackle that with no problem lol) so it was nice to only pay for what I'd actually eat!

shirt - emerging thoughts grab bag | skirt - modcloth | cat brooch - sweet and lovely

cardigan - old navy | tights - h&m | cat shoes - birthday present

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sweet and lovely update: pocket mirrors

New in the shop! Pretty little pocket mirrors with my vintage bedding-inspired floral designs! They look so incredibly sweet (and lovely) in person! If these go over okay I'll make some with the other designs, too, but these are my personal favorites :) They're available here.



Also the carousel and hot air balloon necklaces are back in stock, and they're available here.

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spaghetti with chickpea meatballs and sweet tomato sauce

I've been trying to cook new recipes lately since I've been in a terrible rut for the last couple months. I eat the same thing every day and it just gets a little monotonous. My diet for most of 2012 consisted of baked sweet potatoes, chickpeas mixed with tomatoes (recipe here) and cucumbers with hummus. Not much variety at all. I guess this is technically still a variation on chickpeas and tomatoes, but it was super yummy and tasted different so I think it counts as a new dish for my cooking repertoire.

I adapted the recipe for the meatballs from this one from Cookin' Canuck. I used chickpeas instead of cannellini beans (partially because they're my go-to bean for everything and partially because I was hungry and didn't have cannellini beans in the cupboard.) and pre-packaged everything. I also made my meatballs 1tbsp instead of 2tbsp so they would cook through faster. The recipe below made about 20 meatballs so next time I'm going to halve it. I ended up putting most of them in the freezer. (I feel like Andy Bernard when he makes his New Years resolution to "learn how to cook for one.")

For the meatballs you need:
1.5 cans of chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
about 1/4 c. roasted red peppers
2 tbsp. onion powder*
1 egg
1/2 c. breadcrumbs (or panko)
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tbsp. dried oregano

Preheat the oven to 350. In a food processor, combine chickpeas and peppers until they're combined but not pureed. Then mix with all of the other ingredients, and form into 1 tbsp balls. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Mine needed some extra time and I ended up cooking them for 35 minutes.

For the sauce, I just combined canned tomato sauce with oregano, parsley, garlic and olive oil and then added honey to taste. Let it simmer for a while, and then add the meatballs. Let the meatballs cook in the sauce for a few more minutes, then add them to pasta and enjoy!

I think this recipe would also taste delicious with the chickpea mixture sauteed on the stove and then added to the sauce for a chunky meat sauce instead of meatballs!

*I love the taste of onions but hate the texture so I always use onion powder. You'll probably want to use real onions :)

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first outfit of 2013!

Well it's not actually my first outfit of the year, but it's the first one I photographed :) I got this dress in the mail yesterday and after I tried it on I just couldn't take it off. It fits like a glove, and it's absolutely gorgeous!! With the polka dots and giant bow I couldn't help but feel really fun and bouncy all day! :D My main resolution for 2013 is to save my money so this will probably be one of my last purchases for a while, if I'm able to stick to it. Talk about going out with a bang! It would have been so disappointing if my last buy for 2012 arrived and didn't fit or looked crummy in person. Instead it's something I completely adore that's bound to become a staple in my wardrobe. yay!

dress- le bomb shop | cardigan and shoes - f21 | tights - anthropologie

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slumber party kit!

My first project for 2013! yay! It's a digital slumber party kit! It includes everything you need to throw a nostalgic sleepover (minus pajamas and pizza, of course.) It has printable invitations, MASH cards (you know, Mansion Apartment Shack House) and a fortune teller printable (with assembly instructions in case you forgot) so you can find out for sure whether or not you'll ever marry JTT. Once the sleepover is finished you can scrapbook your photos of the fun event with the digital embellishments included in the kit! It's available in my kitschy digitals shop here.

I'm also working on a physical kit that I'll be selling in my Sweet & Lovely shop, which will also include a mix-tape (well, mix-CD) friendship bracelet materials, popcorn and more! Those will be available a little later this month :)

I originally came up with this idea because I'm always thinking about how much I'd love to have a slumber party with my online friends who live far away. I thought it would be a fun thing to send to someone who you can't *actually* have a sleepover with. I also thought it would be fun for young moms to share some of the slumber party traditions from the 80's and 90's with their kids! :) Every child should know how to fold a cootie catcher, right?

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january desktop calendar

I thought it would be fun to do monthly desktop calendars this year! This first one is a picture I took at my local park in 2010 that I fooled around with in photoshop (it may look familiar if you've been following me for a while, since this backdrop used to be in my blog header a long time ago) with an overlay of hand-illustrated snow and a teeny little calendar in the corner. It looks a lot better when you see it full size and can make out all the tiny snow flakes. If you'd like to download it, here are some desktop sizes:

1280 x 1024 // 1600 x 1200 // 1680 x 1050 // 1920 x 1080 // 1920 x 1200

I really love the idea of layering photographs with illustration.. I think I want to try fooling around with this a little more! :) Oh, ps. it's also available (sans-calendar) in my society6 shop as prints, iphone cases, etc. etc.

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good things

At the end of 2011 I saw an idea on pinterest to write down good things that happen throughout the year and keep them in a jar. On New Years Eve, open the jar and read all of the lovely things that happened to you during the year. I decided to try it out last January, and I actually stuck with it through December!

I wrote down big things (adopting Hubble, passing 6,000 sales on etsy, my first airplane trip), little things (playing board games with my brother, holding Chloe for the first time) and nice things that people said to me. It was so nice to relive all those wonderful moments, and I really couldn't have picked a better year to try this out. Overall 2012 was clouded with family heartbreak and professional disappointments for me. I honestly wouldn't have looked back on 2012 with even the least bit of fondness if I hadn't kept track of all of the nice little things along the way and reminded myself of them on New Years Eve. I am definitely doing it again this year!

If you're thinking of trying this for 2013, I do have one suggestion. If something awesome already happened, write it down. But if something awesome is potentially going to happen - no matter how exciting that something seems -- don't write it down right away. There were quite a few things in 2012 that I got SUPER thrilled about (particularly Flapper Doodle opportunities) and they ended up being huge let-downs. If I had written them down and forgotten to take the paper out, I would have been reminded of my failures on New Years Eve. That wouldn't have been fun. So if someone emails you about an exciting collaboration or project, or if you get an interview for the job of your dreams, just hold off for a little bit before writing it down.

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