fun in the sun

necklace. outfit. bags.

having fun over on pinterest. follow me!

what it's all about

One more photo from our lake house adventures last weekend. I think this pretty much sums up what summer is all about. (Not drinks- but beautiful scenery, good friends, and plenty of time to create memories.)

Also today, check out my interview with local artist and awesome lady, Kat Lamp, over on prettysouthern!!

i love lucy

I am so inspired by this girls style. So perfectly accessorized and effortless at the same time. And what I love about looking through her blog is that there are really only a handful (or small NY closet full) of pieces she is rotating between, not a million gifted designer pieces like some fashion bloggers whose style may be great but is undeniably out of reach. Well done, Lucy, well done.

dollar store

thank you for my latest crafting inspiration.

lakes and picnics

We had a great time at the lake house with friends this weekend. Swimming, napping, playing, and enjoying plenty of summertime cocktails. We came back feeling refreshed, if not a little over-indulgent. I loved taking some photos with my Fuji Instax and I'm surprised how well they scan. Hope you are having some relaxing summertime adventures!
Also jump on over to PrettySouthern.com today to see my picks for a Pretty Summer Pastel Picnic.

bowtie skirt

Ok before we head out for the weekend I just had to share this adorable diy bowtie skirt by the lovely Sarah of Welcome to the Good life. She has the cutest family, clothes, and tutorials. Such an easy project with a really sophisticated end result. And I love the idea of it paired with huge turquoise necklace by oliphant. So, so pretty!

giveaways and getaways

Remember this little guy that I ordered? (Starting my summer online shopping spree which is still going strong.) Well he arrived late last week, found a happy home with us and was even a great model in my latest shop photo shoot. I think he did a great job.

This weekend we are going to enjoy a little time away with some friends at a lakehouse. We will celebrate birthdays, swim, rest, eat, and hopefully my hard-working husband will come back rejuvenated! I can't wait! I am going to take my last roll of instamax film and hopefully get some fun shots.

Oh and remember this giveaway I was doing over on Southern As Biscuits? Well tomorrow is the last day for you to enter to win one free item from my etsy shop! What are you waiting for? get over there and comment!

heart & craft d.i.y. tutorial!

Excited to be sharing my first craft tutorial over on PrettySouthern. It is a d.i.y. confetti card and includes 3 free printable card templates that I designed especially for this project. Hope you can get your craft on!
**click above links to print your own hooray cards!

summer fun, summer nails

After seeing so many great nail polish colors and blogger manicures this spring/summer, I thought it was time to have some fun with my own. I am in love with anything coral or peach right now so it was a no brainer to pick up this Sally Hansen, Coral Fever. Not normally my favorite brand but this shade from their summer line was too perfect to pass up and the price point is a few dollars less than Essie or OPI.I have been wearing a coat of this shade for a few days and I am a pretty lazy nail painter so I usually just go over the old layers as they begin to chip. This polish actually covers pretty well and looks fresh after a touch up.
I found a cute mint color today at the store and had to try that out on my pinky so I ended up with a multicolored hand. Then I wanted to switch things up a bit I went back to a trick I used back in the winter when I wanted a more festive look for holiday parties and what not. So I added a layer of gold glitter polish over the coral, keeping it more saturated towards the end. I like this look but it did not come out as well as I had remembered in the winter, maybe my cheap gold polish has just gotten old.On the other hand I didn't want to do full glitter so I decided to highlight just my ring finger with a little extra bling.

I have to be honest, it was fun to play around but I wasn't thrilled with the results and it didn't exactly seem practical for the rest of my afternoon of crafting and cooking and not attending any festive parties, so I ended up taking off the green and glitter and going back to all coral. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

first day of summer!

The summer season has officially started and as the first day drifts towards dusk I thought it was a good time to share some of my summer plans with you. I am off of teaching for two months in the summer, you see, and this is when the "real" work begins for me. I choose not to take on another job during the summer, even though money can get tight as we are living off of savings for two months, because I really want to devote myself to my shop, blog, and other projects that bring me so much joy.

*studio time accompanied by raspberry lemonade with fresh herbs

It can be hard to balance my time when things like sporadic pool or beach trips pop up or crappy reality tv somehow finds itself playing in my living room (though I swear I would never turn on Bravo while trying to work....) In addition to adding new items to my shop, blogging, and finishing some around the house projects I do want to make sure that I find some time for all of that fun stuff too. And that is when the battle begins, I can literally guilt myself into doing nothing but work (which I of course enjoy) and doing nothing else all day. It is just that I so badly want make some changes in my life that mostly consist of working for myself and sharing the things I love with the rest of the creative world. So I take these months in the summer to dive into that and immerse myself into as many projects as possible. Luckily I have a creative husband, a supportive sister, and a bunch of artistic friends that are happy doing these same sorts of things- with some pool parties and cookouts thrown in for good measure.

custom projects for special orders

With that long-winded explanation, here are some of my plans/goals/routines for this summer:

• Blogging- on here and also now happily sharing some of my thoughts and ideas over on prettysouthern.com
• Creating- some projects for the site, lots of work for my shop, and some other personal fun projects as well
• Collaborating- with the mister on some fun design projects, with my sister during our "studio time" several times a week (quickly becoming my favorite activity), and with some dear friends on things like entertaining, hosting dinner parties, and creating a NC craft cohort
  
• Gardening- ok this is only with the help of my sister since I have come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no real talent here (remember the failed seed attempts from last year?)
• Vacationing- with the fam at the beach, tubing down the river, lakehouse trips, and maybe a big city adventure to NYC to visit some people who are truly missed
• Planning- putting some plans in place so that this "work" I love doing so much can hopefully become a more permanent part of my life
• Relaxing and having some good fun here in Greensboro- this is the one I will really have to work on- remembering how much good stuff goes on right here at home

new work up in the shop

I will most certainly be sharing all of these adventures with you here on the blog as the summer flies by, but right now I would love to know-- what are your big summer plans?

Summer, sisters, and surprises

A bit of a late start this Monday but I have lot's of love to share today! First of all, a happy fathers day to my dear, sweet, funny dad whom we had the pleasure of tubing down the Dan River with yesterday!
Today also happens to be my little sister's birthday! Happy Birthday Sarah, we love you!!! We had delicious key lime cheesecake yesterday to celebrate and will commence the birthday activities later today with her favorite past time- shopping! I hope your birthday is a blast and that this year brings you adventures, great memories, and lots of love!
I am also excited to share with you today a new project I am working on. I was honored to be asked to join the team over at the new site, PrettySouthern, where I will be sharing art, entertaining, craft, and decorating tips and inspiration each week. This is so exciting for me to be a part of and I hope it will become a part of your daily reads. Today I have a 4th of July inspiration board for throwing your own celebration in true southern style. I will keep you up to date as I share more posts. Enjoy!

oh dier

Since my camera has been hijacked by my dear husband (he is in a photo class this summer so I forgive him) and I cannot upload any work or project photos I will share some of my current etsy faves.
Loving the work of Minnesota based artist/architect: William Dohman and his shop oh dier. Read all about his work here.
I would love to have this ampersand sign hanging in our bedroom,
or this sweet blue "hello" in an entryway. All lovingly handmade by the artist, what a sweet way to welcome your guests!

ps, summer post coming soon.

heart and craft over there!

Pleased as pie to see my work featured today over on Southern as Biscuits. I am offering a free giveaway (just check out my shop and then comment on the post over there for a chance to win) and also a special coupon code to Southern as Biscuits readers. Thanks for the shout-out Kristi!

Check back later today for my post on summer plans, to work or not to work- that is the question.

something sparkly

Want, want, want this ban.do mini heart clip. It doubles as a brooch and hair clip so I totally think it's worth the $10 price tag.

**update: done and done.

the paper turtle: supporting haiti

Really excited to have one of these sweet paper mache birds on the way to me and even more excited to find out that the proceeds from this shop support artisans and their families still iving in the very real devastation of Haiti. The project is The Paper Turtles and is a collaboration between an artist in New Mexico, Laura Bruzzese, and Aly Abraham of Haiti. She was already working with him on creating her turtle designs before the 2010 earthquake and was amazed at his dedication and commitment to continue the work (and heart-breakingly even apologize for a delay) after the disaster. Now they have partnered up on this special etsy shop that donates all profits to Aly and his other artists and their families. I was really touched by their story and thought that it would be a great way to help support the ongoing efforts to rebuild the lives of artists and people living in Haiti after such a great tragedy.

Please check out their shop and read more about this special collaboration here.

sunburnt country

I would love to stock my summer wardrobe with some of these pieces from Megan Nielsen's S/S2011 collection Sunburnt Country. Midday top
Ragged Ranges dress
Jewel Sea skirt

Perfect for sun-drenched days, lazy afternoons, and impromptu picnics.

oh, hi there!

So you noticed some changes here on the blog? Or maybe you saw the new look of my shop? We've been doing some freshening up of the heart&craft logo and my sweetie created a shiny, new design for my logo, banner, and business cards. Isn't he the best? I have been anxious to update the look around here for a while and am so excited to finally be able to share the new heart&craft with you! Now to get thousands of those cards printed and sent out!
PS. Like the new look around here? Interested in getting us to put our handmade, modern design minds to work for you on some logo or branding designs? Email me at heartandcrafts@gmail.com for some info!

wedding post finale: favors!

I hope you are not completely sick of my long and drawn-out wedding posts! Today is the last one so of course it had to be our favors! For an inexpensive favor that we thought most people would actually use we created a cd with some of our favorite love songs, many of which were used throughout the wedding.
The mister designed our cd cover and back (not pictured but super cute) and we printed them out onto cardstock. I then sewed them all together and believe, some looked better than others!

We also included a note inside each cd letting guests know about a donation we made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of my dad who has been lymphoma-free for over 3 years now! We decided to make that donation the start of a tradition we will continue each year on our anniversary. This was a way to make our favor more personal but make sure our guests had something to take home as well.

Like I said, lots of the songs on our cd were used throughout our wedding but the full list is below:

1. Maps (Acoustic).... Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Sweet Disposition.... The Temper Trap {I walked down the aisle to this}
3. Hopipolla... Sigur Ros {perfect background music for guests entering}
4. Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse...Minus the Bear {first song on the first mix cd he ever made me}
5. Love and Some Verses.... Iron and Wine
6. My Girls.... Animal Collective
7. Hey Ya.... cover by Obadiah Parker
8. I Want to Know Your Plans.... Say Anything
9. Such Great Heights.... Postal Service
10. Marry Song.... Band of Horses
11. Not that Simple.... dredg
12. Lucky You.... The National {first dance}
13. Home.... Edward Sharpe and the Magentic Zeros {what we walked back down the aisle to}

Instead of linking to each of those I made a grooveshark playlist where you can listen to (or download) the whole thing! We've really enjoyed all of these songs and the moments they have helped us capture and we hope our guests did as well.
Thank you so much for letting me share so much our wedding journey and day with you, it truly was a labor of love. We had the absolute best time, learned a lot along the planning path, and couldn't be happier to now be husband&wife.

xo-k&j

{Click the link above to make a donation or find out how you can help out a cause very dear to us at lls.org}

favorite shots

Besides all of the photos I have posted here there are a few more moments from our wedding day I'd like to share. Our photographers were wonderful and really captured everything from the biggest celebrations to the small, quiet moments we got to enjoy throughout the day. Some of my favorites are from those unassuming times when we weren't posed or standing in front of the crowd, maybe we were just waiting, trying to hold our composure in those seconds before the big moments happened, or maybe we were just really, really enjoyinng ourselves.
getting readywaiting
right before the walk
brotherssweet grandparents
mom and dad
rooftop
lots of sky.

The entire day was filled with lovely moments but these photos are our proof that they all really happened and we will be able to carry them for years.

features

Really excited to share that today I am featured in the Meet An Artist column for goTriad, our local arts supplement to the newspaper. I was interviewed about my etsy shop and work a few weeks ago, photographed in my home studio, and today it went to print! This is really exciting for me and will hopefully get me in touch with some local event planners and stylists for future work. Since I am not a fan of the photo they chose for the online version, I will leave you with a peak at some new additions to the shop. Cheers!