butterfly wings

Wow. That's really all I can say....I've never seen such a thing...and I can't stop looking at them.

These earrings are MADE FROM BUTTERFLY WINGS! I know...crazy beautiful right? They are handmade by artisans in Peru, from butterflies that have died naturally in butterfly farms...

"Not only does this provide needed income for the farmers and silversmiths, but also helps prevent deforestation by offering alternative income in the amazon, and education about delicate ecosystems, creating sustainability and helping preserve wild butterfly populations."

Go check out the delightful handmade lovelies at Seven Hopes United, a globally involved fair trade market.

trees without leaves

Birch trees - Single Stone Studios

In the one week that I have lived in the southern tier of upstate New York, the trees have become bare. It really looks like winter...and a lot like the Blair Witch Project. They are a tad more creepy than charming...but they are rather nice to look at from the coziness of my window, while I'm drinking a steaming cup of hot cocoa.

These Etsy finds look like the nature outside my door.

Winter trees - Popwall

The Wishing Tree - Salon D

Barren Tree - Uncommon Accents

Julie Webb

Winter Trees - reasdesigns

ferny affection

Ferns - by Groundwork (a delightful Etsy shop)

This beyond beautiful print has been saved in my FAVORITES section on Etsy for months. Literally, months. It's sold out now, which is the hugest bummer I can imagine (at the moment) and I'm kicking myself in the shins for missing the op to own it.

I really need to start jumping at these things. Or maybe I should really wait until I am employed to make fun purchases. Hummm...

I tell you what - even though this print is sold out, I will never delete it from my "favorites" tab. Ever.

emersonmade

Sometimes I just wish I could dress myself and look this amazing. (Hummm...being a size 0 probably helps). Regardless, these lil handmade flowers are just to die for...by Emersonmade.

what do you smell like?

I smell like fresh lavender-pink grapefruit-organic oils glycerin soap. And it rocks! Yup, got my second month of the Strawberry Hedgehog soap club. Love love love!

beauchamping

Heart images aren't my favorite...but this is rather special. By Beauchamping, on Etsy.
Happy 4th of July America.
I love this place.

tina tarnoff papercuts

I'm always on the lookout for lovely depictions that capture my imagination and allow me to get lost in the details. These images are full of incredible details...HAND CUT ARTWORK! My heart started racing a lil bit at their intricacy and at all the possibilities of their loveliness.

Best part? For the next two days (that's June 21 and 22) Tina Tarnoff is hosting a Summer Solstice sale where everything in her Etsy shop is buy one get one free! Can you believe that? I will buy something special and get two something specials...now the hard part is choosing which one???

for christine

A dear dear friend of mine, Christine, is in a Golden Girls Club. She LOVES the show! Like, LOVES it. I think I might get her one of these hilarious necklaces for her birthday this year, so she could be the "cool" one at all her parties. This etsy shop has all sorts of random jewelry...very amusing!

jhill animal alphabet prints

JHill makes these graphic animal alphabet masterpieces. I love love love the bold colors and outstanding patterns! This is what you call "quality visual stimulation."

my new button ring *bling*

I won a RADICAL contest at Earth Friendly Weddings a little while back and one of my prizes was a vintage button ring from Beyond The Rockz...a crazy cool lil Etsy shop. I received it in the mail last week and I've been rockin' it everyday since! It is a bold splash of color in a simple shape that I totally dig...and the fact that it's a vintage button makes it EVEN COOLER! Don't you just love it? Lemme tell you...it looks really good on me. ;-)

clutch crush

I actually use clutches. For some reason, I'm the only one I know who actually does. A couple of times, I swear, I have seen the eyes roll from my girlfriends when I meet up at the restaurant or bar and I'm carrying one. What?! I love them. I'm girly. What can I say!?

Red Ruby Rose, another lil Etsy jewel, makes delicious clutch handbags. If I was made of a million bucks I would totally buy one for each of my best girlfriends. Maybe they just need a really really BEAUTIFUL clutch and they then will love and appreciate them too.

a lil pillow talk

SarahFerguson

SarahFerguson

SarahFerguson

thetinderbox

I am feeling all sorts of creative these days. Perhaps it's because I keep thinking of fun projects to do for our future wedding. See, A.Mountain.Bride for all the jazz on that fun stuff! But this is not the space for wedding talk...nope...this is everything else...like my bedroom design.

Here's the deal. I refuse to spend money on any sort of decor for our house. Nothing really needs replacing, I mean, all of our furniture has been with me through my college years and was all hand-me-down free furniture to begin with. There are some great 80's pieces, like our huge slightly wobbly dining room table....but it's not broken...so why get something new? You get the idea. I'm also like this for decorative items. I have plenty of beautiful treasures to fill our space. Except when it comes to our bedroom. It's kindof the hodge-podge of where stuff goes when it doesn't harmonize anywhere else.

I want to make some pillows for the bed. We have our sleeping pillows of course, and a couple navy corduroy shams...but we are missing the style mark. I'm thinking about making some of these great bold felt embroidered pillows for our bed. Maybe three would do the trick to bring some of the rad colors out of our comforter (it's navy with striped down the very center in awesome shades of greens, yellows, oranges, and blues....oh Nautica rules.

bonjour teaspoon

Modernality


Sew English

quirkybeauty

I love headbands - wear 'em all the time when my hair is pulled back into a sloppy bun. But never have I ever seen the likes of these before! Love 'em. This would clearly bring some style to my curly head. I love the one below with the leaves (soooooooooooooooooooo pretty! and quirky!). She also has a bridal line of crazy beautiful hippie headbands that are definetely worth a browse (and her prices for those are amazing). Check out this style maven's stuff over at her Etsy shop, quirkybeauty.

ooooooooooooooooooo! and fancy one's for the special occasions!

diy: bottles up

buy these AMAZING recycled wine bottle tumblers from etsy's bodhicitta

So I'm sort of obsessed with saving glass "stuff" these days. Old spaghetti jars, canning jars, pretty beer bottles and allllllll the wine bottles. I have a couple lil projects I'm saving up for. One is that I want to make drinking glasses from wine bottles. There are loads of DIY instructions plastered all over the web on how to accomplish this...but I think that I will stop with the collecting and cleaning stages of the process. Seems awfully involved to make these glorious lil glasses, and I think I'll leave it to the pros for now. It might be a project I get to someday.

But I've been saving wine bottles for a few months now - the top of my fridge is full of them in their jeweled Earth tones. They really are so pretty all cleaned up. Beautiful lil vases if you ask me.

Here's how I cleaned 'em (and my bottles had no excess glue residue which I've heard can be tricky):

soaked them in a big bucket of water with dishsoap...I soaked them overnight.

and they peel off crazy easy! I then washed them in the dishwasher.

ps: I saw colored glass bottles like these at a craft store for $7.99 a piece - seriously.

mother's day 12 hour sale

You know my obsession with Strawberry Hedgehog right? I felt slightly faint after reading about this sale. I have my mom's present already....but if you don't you should go buy her this. Pronto!

rock my world

Knitalatte makes these. Did you get that - makes these. By hand. Crocheted covered stones. Who would have thought to do this? I literally can't stop looking at them.

She has quite a lovely blog too...Resurrection Fern...full of pretty images and oodles of inspiration. Oooodles.

i dream of dish towels

No. I'm not kidding, I really do. I'm always creeped out by the yellow sponge at our sink. I throw them away soon after I open 'em - it's just kindof an expensive and wasteful system. But I never really knew an alternative, until I spent some time with my Seattle relatives. They use these, crocheted dish cloths...they have a drawer full, so they can use a different one everyday and wash the rest when they need to be (and, what's really cool, is my Aunt made them like 20 years ago). I'm dying to know how to made these...it would be such a perfect wedding/birthday/bridal/baby gift, wouldn't it? Ummm...maybe not to some...but I think it's cool. Until the day I learn to crochete, Etsy is there. These are a bargan at $10 for 3 from scullerymade.