art for the cash poor 13.

Wayyyyy back in June, I was a vendor at the thirteenth annual InLiquid Art for the Cash Poor held at the Crane Arts Building in Fishtown, Philadelphia, PA. I’m not sure why it took me this long to blog about the event, but alas, it did. I met some awesome people and came home with some great items so I couldn’t just skip a post about it! Reviewing these photos got me excited for the upcoming fall show season

one of my neighbors was burning sphere, hand crafted glass jewelry by Philly native Sara Schuenemann. small world- i actually made my sweet tooth print for her tooth-themed auction fundraiser back in 2009!

my other neighbor was Diane Koss, of cutesy but not cutesy fame. i’m a fan of her plush, but i fell hard for these mugs!

across from me was the print-dominant display of artists represented Paradigm Gallery.

i can’t find a website for her, but printmaker Megan Amendt’s studio called Ryeworks was one of my favorite booths by far. her ethereal etchings are so detailed and unique that i fell in love. i stood there for SO long deciding what to get- here’s what i ended up with:

how cute are these cacti by the maple ridge?

love these illustrated porcelain earrings by Cara Long of Sweet Mud Clay Works.

early on, i ventured outside to check out the other vendors when i happened upon THESE CUTIES from Street Tails Animal Rescue in Northern Liberties. the black and white pup is named Bongo! ahhh! i wanted to bring him home.

while we’re on cute pups, check out Duke reppin his brand! look at that mug!

simple and well-crafted barnyard inspired pillows by Eric Fausnacht.

innovative upcycled bike tube earrings by stitch prism.

ornate ceramic bud vases by Stefani Threet.

my friend Aaron Weber of Fine Arts Dept. crafted these magnets from found paper.

gorgeous ceramic coasters by Mikal Brutzman of Micari Arts. so happy to own these!

local glass artist Penelope Rakov had an array of her jewelry on display, as well as boxes of glass ends/extras to sift through. i picked up these four seaside colored glass bits to frame them in a small shadow box.

amazing rustic looking upcycled candle sticks from Recycled Rowhouse! it’s hard to tell in the photo, but the stems are a cream color and the bases are a vintage mint green. i am a HUGE fan of their work.

thank you to InLiquid for another great year!

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30th birthday celebration.

hey all! july is generally a pretty quiet month on the studio/show front as much of my time is consumed with vacation and birthday celebrations. two weeks ago, i enjoyed some time in ocean city, maryland with my best friend and her family. this is us celebrating her birthday at seacrets during the day in the bay:

i left them early in the week to go home and prep for another birthday party- my boyfriend’s surprise 30th birthday celebration! his mom and i had literally been planning it for months. i can’t believe the day finally arrived- i feel like i’ve spent so much time building a party planning pinboard, making lists, making more lists, sending out emails, etc. here’s some photos from the party, complete with links to my recipes & inspiration.

the party was held at the family’s beach house in LBI- it’s affectionately titled the happy clam. you may remember me mentioning it in a previous post when i helped his mother work on some interior redecorating, with much inspiration coming from pinterest. the outdoor deck space was a little bit tight for everyone that showed up, so we expanded to the driveway, as seen above. i crafted a homemade “happy birthday” strand by using sea colored cardstock, printing each letter out, then using the martha stewart circle cutter to cut out each letter and numeral.

my present to Nick was a specially crafted home brew. my friend and brewer Nate Panek crafted a double IPA with hints of summer fruit flavors, like pineapple, mango, lemon, and passion fruit. as promised, it was dangerously easy to drink, even at 8.4% abv. i designed custom labels for the bottles with labels from onlinelabels.com. it was an economical way to make them on my home printer and they were waterproof with inkjet ink. however, with the particular product i ordered, i wasn’t very happy with the quality. i also ordered matching customs from Grant at Product 80- he was such an easy vendor to work with. his coasters are also very economical for both large and small amounts as he uses a vinyl sticker process rather than a press. some other things on the menu included:

these were refreshing and delicious- inspired by this rainbow creation from pinterest.

one of Nick’s favorite summer eats is the blackberry, so i used it as an ingredient in a couple of items at the party. i modified this recipe for fruit infused vodka to make a blackberry vodka lemonade punch.

in keeping with the flavor themes, i enlisted my friend and (nearly) pro baker Karina to use blackberry in a cupcake- she came up with a delicious blackberry & champagne concoction. it’s the pink cupcake featured in the middle. she also crafted the vanilla/vanilla mini cupcakes that match the blue/green color scheme that are on the back cake stand. another flavor theme was whiskey, Nick’s liquor of choice. not pictured here are the decadent chocolate whiskey bonbons she created. many yums and thanks to her!

whiskey also made an appearance in these individual cakes i baked in Ball jars. i found this buttery recipe on Heather Baird’s sprinklebakes blog (where i also discovered that she has a book out! i may have to pick it up). i doubled the recipe to make enough jars for each guest to take home as a thank you. it got some positive reviews which made pouring the batter into each individual jar worth it i decorated each jar with cupcake liners.

using the same cupcake liners, i made these mini chocolate cookie cheesecakes. the recipe was modified from one that a friend gave me- check it out on my rarely updated food blog.

for decor, i used an abundance of tealights, handmade sea colored garland, balloons, and more handmade paper flowers. check out this tutorial to make your own paper flowers.

 . . . after all of the baking, gluing, coordinating, taping, and collecting, Nick was truly surprised- here’s the birthday boy upon his arrival:

happy 30th birthday, Nick!

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(etsy) treasury tuesday: summer color- yellow like the shining sun.

part of the summer color treasury series.

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

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(etsy) treasury tuesday: summer color- white before labor day.

the second of the summer color series of treasuries.

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

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(etsy) treasury tuesday: summer color- shades of the sea.

the first of a summer color series of treasuries: shades of the sea.

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

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(etsy) treasury tuesday: patio sitting in the city.

This treasury was inspired by a recent evening sitting on a patio, eating a delicious meal, drinking some sweet, summery wine, enjoying the breeze and watching the city scenes in the distance.

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

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photos from the summer.

time to play blog catch up! this summer has been so crazy busy for me . . . here are some updates on photography things i did this summer:

in may, i photographed the wedding of Peggy and Angelo. we drove all over philadelphia for this shoot- you can see the whole event here: peggy & angelo’s philadelphia wedding.

in june, i got to see my friends creepoid play at johnny brenda’s in philadelphia. here are some pics from it

in july, i spent some time at the jersey shore and visited my family in west virginia. i spent time shooting polaroid- here are some of my favorites from my trips:

at the end of july, my friends in the orange apples held a record release show at their home in bucks county. check out the pics.

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