Lovely Cruise

Happy Friday!

Yesterday my friend Jen gave me a bread baking lesson, specifically how to make challah.  I've been itching to make homemade bread for several months and was excited to learn.  After a great lesson, I went out on my own and made a beautiful challah myself.  I have to say, that for my first try I'm pretty proud of myself.  I was just sure it wouldn't rise, or something else disastrous would happen.  But it did rise and it tastes pretty good too.  The boys made challah every Friday at their preschool in Berkeley.  I miss it.  Maybe this will become a new tradition for us.  You can see the recipe here.  Thanks Jen!!! 

I hope you have a great holiday weekend.  Our weekend is going to be full of family, football, a trip to the lake and hopefully lots of fun.  Can summer really be almost over? 

week twelve {garden}

8th day

Today I drove the boys to school because it was raining.  Sam was in his seat with his head down, looking a little disgusted.  I asked him what was wrong and he said, "It's the eighth day of school and I still don't know how to read."  I told him we could work on it at home and that seemed to make him feel better.  He is absolutely loving school and it is so much fun to watch. 

green tomatoes

This is my photo for this month's Photo Trade.  The theme was "live well, eat well."  I had a hard time with this one.  I just didn't know what to photograph.  I made homemade blueberry muffins this weekend and took some photos of them, but the photos were kind of blah.  So this morning I ran out to the garden and snapped this one.  I can't wait until these babies turn red! 

We had a great weekend.  It was possibly the first weekend all summer where we didn't have tons of plans, which was so nice.  We went to the pool and played outside almost all weekend.  David and I even escaped Saturday night, thanks to Besta, and met some friends for dinner.  Sunday during nap time I finished a custom order.  I designed menu cards for a wedding.  It's a vintage circus/carnival themed wedding, and I'm guessing by the way their invitations look it's going to be amazing.  Anyway, here's a peek at one of the cards.

After one week of school under our belts, I'm excited for another week of getting even more into our new routines.  I've got a long list of house projects I'm dying to start and have been cleaning and purging like a mad woman.  It feels so good to get rid of stuff, and get the piles of junk put away.  And my baby sister is visiting from NYC!  Yeah!  Always good to have her in town.      

Sam's week one work

I couldn't agree more.

Happy Friday! 

going in between

If you're not a regular decor8 reader, head on over there and read this post by the amazing artist Marisa Haedike.  Normally I skim long blog posts, but not this one.  I've read it twice, and I think I'll be reading it at least one more time and taking some quotes out of it and posting them in my work space. 

august etsy favs

Everywhere you turn in blogland someone is sharing their recent etsy favorites.  But I just can't help myself, so here are some of my most recent finds. 

E.  by Frippelous

leather headband.  by Hende

bead ring.  by Catherinette Rings

puffy felt letters.  by michima

italian ribbons.  by
Carta, Inc. by Angela Liguori

raspberries on blue table.  by photobird

And two of my new favorite blogs:

How About Orange

Bakerella

p.s.  Digital element by Sande Krieger for www.twopeasinabucket.com (available here).

new stuff in my shop!

No tears for Miss Ella either!

it kit studio september projects