It rained and thunder stormed all day, and then we get the most wonderful sunset! Hope you all are having a wonderful start to the weekend. :)
Ann, Kim, and I had a wonderful lunch at Kim's place yesterday, and I am still thinking about the food we ate. Kim had DIY salads with every imaginable topping, some sparkling blueberry lemonade, and made a fabulous torte for dessert. I made some cheese and chive cornbread, and Ann brought an amazing swirly cheese wheel (she knows I'm a true Wisconsin girl, and have to partake in some amount of cheese with every meal I eat...).
Kim and her signature ravenous eating pose. haha.
Ann and her wonderful 'oh, you caught me sipping my lemonade' pose.
And the torte to put all other deserts to shame. Good thing our lunch until then was light. :)
She had fresh raspberries, and raspberry liqueur for the topping.
It was such a great afternoon! I'm a huge sucker for dinner and lunch parties, they are the best. great food, and great conversation, what more could you ask for?
I've been loving the combination of dark blue and gray together, and I was in dire need of some new pillows for my couch. I had bought 15" pillow inserts almost two years ago, and never got around to making some covers until now.
I used gray and blue cotton, and stamped the lace design on to the front of the cushions in acrylic paint (with textile medium added in) using the lace stamp I made here. I really love how they turned out -- you can even see the brush strokes from the paintbrush if you look closely at the lace pattern.
The pillow form itself is removable from the cases, the back is two separate overlapping pieces - just like a pillow sham. It will make them really easy to wash, just in case we are ever a little sloppy with our morning coffee... :)
We had a great time dancing the night away, but my camera died, so sadly I've got no pictures. :(
These are the yarns I'm using, the gray yarn is llama yarn that I've spun, and the pink is recycled yarn that I dyed with koolaid a long time ago. It is left over from some mittens. 
Nate had a couple of days off last week which was really great. He took me on a date for lunch and a movie the first day. On the second day, we met some friends in Schaumburg for trivia night at an irish pub. Seeing as there was an Ikea a couple miles away, we made a day out of it.
Luckily, I didn't come home with too much, just some essentials that I'd had my eye on for a while. And those bell jars -- I've got plans for those.....
Hope you all are having a wonderful Monday!
The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind around here. I've been all over the place in the last few days - so far my summer has been packed! On top of that Nate and I are planning a trip out to Colorado at the beginning of next month. I am so excited, we are going to camp and explore various national parks. Nate is going to be shooting some footage for his thesis project, and I'm going to bring my oil and watercolor paints along. Hopefully some good will come of it!
The second wheel came in pieces, and was missing a few, but with a little improvisation and elbow grease, I've got it up and running.
Today I met the girls for some coffee and then did a little thrifting on my way home. I found this wonderful 3/4 sleeve cardigan from banana republic that still had it's tags on it (originally $60!) for $1. It fits perfectly, and I am a cardigan-a-holic, so I'm sure it will get lots of use. You can't see it in the picture, but it has pretty golden sheen. I also picked up these sandals, they are leather, and they were marked as my size, but I think they are a little on the small side. :( Maybe I'll stick them up in my Etsy Shop. 
I also picked up these lovelies. The large ceramic ikat planter was $1 and the lotus bowls were 50 cents each. It was a good thrifting day. 
Now I'm off to do less fun things such as cleaning my room so I can actually see the floor.
The garden is coming along swimmingly. Here are the zucchini, I started the seeds early for these.
Tomatoes!! I started half of these from seed and I picked up a few small plants as well, so we'll see what grows better. There is a lot of mulch around them to keep the moisture in the soil. Last year some of my tomatoes cracked due to the soil drying out.
Yellow wax peppers. Yum. If I get a lot of these, I think I will try to can them. They are my favorite thing to put in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Radishes -- I planted these all over the garden in the spaces between the zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in effort to maximize space.
Chives -- I've been using these on eggs and everything else.
The beans are just starting to sprout up -- along with the weeds. It has been so rainy the last few weeks, I've only had to go out and water once. I'm going to contact our apartments to see if they would install a rain barrel to cut down on water use this summer.
