Favorite Things Friday: Etsy Love

Love all of these!

Charming little printed airmail bags from hooray design shop.

Cheeky 'love' mug from mccheeksmayhem (Texas artist!)

Sweet mirrored shelf at SparrowsNest1.

Handy and beautiful apothecary jars from Little Byrd Vintage.

Really great chalkboard decal (which comes in a lot of great colors!) from Willow Creek Signs.

Adorable wool felted slippers by French Press Knits (which I think were so popular that they're now completely sold out or custom order only). I wear slippers for approximately five hours a day, and more on the weekends, so I wish I could splurge for these, which are entirely handmade, and even feature a sweet vintage button.

Happy weekend, everyone!

DIY Thursday: Velvet Ribbon Belt

I pulled today's DIY project from the Martha Stewart Crafts page. I love the idea of being able to make my own simple velvet belt in whatever color I want to match any outfit. I have quite a few cardigans, most of them in neutrals, and am really liking the layered, belted sweater trend for fall and winter. Here are the instructions:

Add a luxurious touch to any winter outfit with a belt of velvet ribbon. Cut 2 1/2 yards of natural-fiber velvet ribbon. Slip two D rings slightly wider than the ribbon onto one end, and fold both ends of the ribbon in toward the midpoint, fuzzy side out, keeping the D rings at one folded end. Remove backing from a 1 1/4-yard piece of iron-on fuse tape, and sandwich it between the layers; place scrap velvet facedown on top, and iron on the cotton setting to fuse the layers.

That's it! And cut to size if necessary. I found some very well-priced velvet ribbons in over 60 different colors in a lovely 2" width at M&J Trimming. They also have some nicer buckles to choose from. You may see me wearing some pretty new handmade belts this winter!

Etsy Discount

Hello, dear friends. Today, over at automatism, the blog I've been sponsoring since September, Lori will announce that I'm offering a 15% discount through the end of November on purchases made from my Etsy shop for her blog readers.

I thought about that, and realized that I can't offer it to her readers and not offer it to mine! So, I wanted to announce here that I'll extend the same discount to pink street readers through November too! All you have to do is mention the discount offer and that you read about it here in the "Message to Seller" upon checkout. Then I'll refund the amount of your discount through PayPal after payment is made. So easy!

The offer is good on newer items .....

..... on old favorites .....

..... and on Sale items as well!

I hope you're all having a beautiful day today.

Etsy Treasure Tuesday: Orange Poppy

I'm so thrilled to present to you today's post featuring such a lovely person, Rebekah of Orange Poppy. I've been an admirer of Rebekah's ever since her beautiful dining room makeover was featured on Design*Sponge, after which I featured it here, on my blog. I found, in the process of falling in love with her aqua sideboard and Orla wallpaper, that she was a jewelry-maker too, and fashioned beautiful, feminine, ruffly, and wonderfully wearable things.

She's been busy since then, and now, she has her own independent web shop as well as her Etsy shop. But I'm a bigger fan, because recently, when Rebekah stumbled across my birthday giveaway, left a comment and then, quite magically, actually won the giveaway on the very day that was her birthday, she sent me one of her beautiful necklaces (and a charming little free pair of earrings as well!) in return for my giveaway necklace! I'm now proudly wearing this beauty:

It features a charming gold-edged vintage embroidery embellishment, rich burgundy velvet ribbon, and a soft pink cotton linen ruffle with a charming little gold birdie accenting the chain.

Aside from making incredibly beautiful things, Rebekah authors an adorable blog; her kindness and gentleness and genuine caring about everyone around her are so evident there. But more importantly, take a look at more of the loveliness.

(All images pulled from OrangePoppyJewelry.com and the Orange Poppy Etsy shop.)

My Today

Was one of the busiest days ever. But my sweet husband took me out for a quick lunch, and then made some time in his busy homework schedule this evening to spend time with me after my crappy day.

Our weekend, though, was mostly lovely. I did lots of housework on Saturday, which wasn't in itself much fun, but then I always feel so much better about myself and life in general when the house is (relatively) clean and I've been extra-productive.

Then on Sunday, we went to see Bright Star, which I highly recommend for those of you, like me, who feel like you're living out of place in time, and that you really should be back in Georgian England wearing Empire-waisted gowns and using words like "drawing room" and "phaeton and ponies" in daily conversation. It was just so incredibly beautiful. That doesn't go very far, I realize, in describing to you what kind of effect it had on me (I'm particularly susceptible to beautiful things -- exhibit A, my handsome husband), but I don't have many other words. Poignant, maybe. And bittersweet. And true. And inspiring. But mostly, so beautiful. If that kind of thing is your kind of thing, you must go and see it.

Pretty Package

If you've ordered from my Etsy shop lately, you know that when your padded package arrived from pink street, there was a cute tag announcing your name and address, and that your items inside were wrapped up neatly (or at least I tried really hard) with brown paper, maybe an air mail envelope or some international stamps, and some fun baker's twine. I've been making an effort for the past couple of months, ever since revamping my Etsy shop, to make my packaging as pretty and one-of-a-kind as the jewelry it contains. I still have lots of ideas, and haven't perfected my style or technique, but one of my favorite things now is looking at wrapping, ribbons, twine, envelopes, bags, embellishments, etc, and mentally incorporating them into future pink street packaging.

So I thought it appropriate to post about it today. I have some lovely inspiration for you. First, a lovely little shop selling charming packaging items on Etsy, hooray design shop, is offering a giveaway at oh, hello friend! You really must go over and enter! My favorite from the hooray design shop is the gift tag set.

Also, a wonderful pair of very talented ladies, Marichelle and Ez, have launched a beautiful shop called Nice Package stocked full of all kinds of creative goodies. I could live there.

And of course, some of my perennial favorites on Etsy, are low fidelity, caramelos, and The Whimsical Muse. I seriously can't get enough of all the wonderfulness.

Wish List Wednesday: Etsy Love

Today, I'm wishing for:

A cozy and beautiful kimono style robe to cuddle up in at home with a good book and a warm cup of tea. (By plumprettysugar.)

A charming felt and yarn fall or winter wreath to hang on our front door. (By KnockKnocking.)

Something pretty to wear on my finger. (By curlygirlglass.)

Something equally pretty to tape up my brown paper packages. (By boomingdales.)

A gorgeous Grecian goddess vintage dress. This one's got incredible twirl-ability. (By violetfolklore.)

And something classic and golden to wear with it. (By dinosaurtoes.)

Etsy Treasure Tuesday: Blue Serendipity

The beautiful Blue Serendipity Etsy shop is run by my lovely new friend Jill from Ireland. She does absolutely beautiful work and her designs are really wonderful. (I wish I'd thought of many of them myself.) Here are some of my favorites.

Jill's creativity is not only demonstrated by her jewelry, but also by her banner, which she designed herself after being inspired by a beautiful photo of a Blue Morpho butterfly in National Geographic. She told me something really interesting about the Blue Morpho which I didn't already know: "Blue Morpho wings were used quite a lot in Victorian jewelery back in the day. They used to snip out little pieces of the wings and set them in silver under glass to make brooches." Isn't that cool? If you convo Jill on Etsy, she probably has a lot of other fascinating jewelry history she can share with you. So everyone should go visit Jill's Etsy shop, see more of her gorgeous items, and ask her about Victorian mourning brooches.

(All images taken from Blue Serendipity; photos by Jill C.)

Weekend Top Ten

Sorry about the protracted absence last week. This week, things should return mostly to normal, and I should be able to be more regular in posting.

I hope all of you had a lovely weekend; I did. Restful and fun. Here's a list for you of the Top Ten Best Things I did this weekend (in no particular order).

1. Homemade (with the help of King Arthur) Blueberry and Sour Cream scones on Saturday morning, with a lovely cup of EB tea.

2. Alderson Homecoming Party Friday night: delicious chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks at Cadillac, and some very tasty little tiramisu desserts at BMW.

3. French lesson with husband on Saturday. (We're learning together -- how fun is that!)

4. Hanging out with my lovely friends the Hendrickses and their newest addition, Bob.

5. Rosa's tortillas and yummy homemade queso at the Irwins' on Saturday night, where I watched Tech play the Homecoming game (we won -- hooray!).

6. Starting a new book for the Honors Book Club.

7. Hearing my very talented husband play and lead worship at church on Sunday. He's so good, and he has no idea.

8. Preparation for a new wedding order I'll be starting soon. I'm making bridesmaids necklaces for a very cool bride whose colors are aqua (my favorite!), light grey, and chartreuse. And her bridesmaids' dresses are from Anthropologie!

9. Regina on SNL. I have a serious girl crush on Regina; she was so adorable on the show. Her voice was quivering just a little at the beginning of her first set; you could tell she was ever so slightly nervous, and I love how human and charming she is.

10. Bundling up last night on the couch in my jammies with a hot ham and swiss grilled sandwich and a wonderful movie.

Here's to a great week!

Etsy Treasure Tuesday: Oh So Good

The charming OhSoGood Etsy shop is full of cute notecards and notepads, and other things made with lovingly recycled and "rescued" papers, as the shop announcement states, made by graphic designer Sarah Roberto. I'm on something of a faux bois kick lately (still trying to figure out how to convince my husband to let me buy the remaining two rolls of this), so of course, my favorites include the following . . . .

. . . . as well as this very clever list pad and these cute little matchbook notepads.

I'm a fan.

Favorite Things Friday

I'm so excited about Art Trail tonight! I had to miss in September when we were out of town, so I've been looking forward to this for not one month, but two. Some of my students are coming by to say hi as well, so hopefully I'll see some smiling familiar faces as well as new admirers (I hope!) of pinkstreet. I plan to have a perfectly lovely weekend, beginning in a few hours with Art Trail, then with doing a little work around my pretty blue house, and maybe pulling my husband away from critical theory and papers long enough to have a date night with me on Saturday. I hope the weekend holds just as much happiness for you. Here's something pretty to put you in the right frame of mind.

DIY Thursday: Pretty Fabric Flowers

I love this idea, and I think it's so beautiful done with this simple natural linen. I've given you an abbreviated tutorial in photos, but the full DIY project is here, with more pictures and instructions in words. I'm seriously considering trying this on a smaller scale with some colored fabric, and using them in some new jewelry pieces! But you could also use them on a headband, on a belt, as a pin on your favorite cardigan, or to make a pretty garland for a party, kind of like this one.

(All photos by Alexis Albright Meschi, found on My Mama Made It, via blue moss. And check out Alexis' lovely Etsy shop, as well!)