Bespoke

is a word that is incredibly overused all of a sudden. I find it extremely irritating and I wish people would stop. It seems very nouveau riche.

PS: I am done with teaching FOREVER, thus giving me the time to think about these things without feeling guilty for neglecting my duty to the children.

How beautiful is this chandelier from The Well Appointed House? I think it would be especially gorgeous in a big, serene bathroom but since my bathroom is tiny and has no overhead lighting I might put one in the upstairs hall... The 12" round is $380.

Heat Wave

As of 8:54am it was already 89 degrees with a heat index of 95 here in Philadelphia. We let out school early (at noon) yesterday and are dismissing early again today because of the excessive heat and lack of air conditioning (or really lack of air in general) inside our schools. Even though it is disgusting out (and in), I am pretty excited about these two short days thrown into the end of the year!

Since the high today is around 100 with a heat index of 110 I will be hiding out in air conditioned places, preferably those with drinks like the one you see above for the rest of the day.

Concerning etiquette...

My fiance and I have decided to have a non-traditional wedding with just the two of us. I guess it is not actually eloping since it is planned and we aren't going anywhere, but there will be nobody else present. I am trying to put together announcement cards to send out to family and friends but want to word them in such a way that people won't think they are the only ones who weren't invited - in fact, nobody is invited!

This is deceptively tricky.

Creating

I put my first product up on my Etsy shop. This may be a little premature because I don't have a business license yet (they are expensive in Philly!) so I am not sure it is really legal, but I do plan on getting a license soon and I wanted to get going to really push myself to do this design thing again.

The first product is a set of pretty, simple recipe cards. I came up with the design because this is something I've been wanting to have myself - I love cookbooks and cooking magazines but I need to streamline my recipe collecting a little so I decided recipe cards are the way to go. I also love the idea of eating more seasonally, which is reflected in the design. Coming up are my menu planner, and some different pieces related to pets. Part of the delay is going to be getting myself set up with all the supplies I need, like a good paper cutter and the right glues, etc. I'm excited about the possibilities and getting back to that design side of myself!

Busy bee

Things have been busy lately. Three more weeks in the school year (thank God), more drywall going up, preparing myself for my new job, finding a house/dogsitter for our trip to the beach, etc, etc.

Anyway. I found this amazing shop on Etsy called Elephannie that sells very inexpensive decorative vinyl wall decals (including the cute one up top). I guess this is the big trend right now. I particularly love those at this shop because you can pick the color, the designs are lovely and they are inexpensive. I am thinking I might get that birdy to put up in my kitchen. And maybe something for the downstairs bathroom...

Bummer

Got an email today saying that since I'm overseas, they would need to add a £25 courier fee to my order for the window film (see below) and that I could either email my card info or call. I am kind of irritated since it says on the website that overseas shipping will be calculated during checkout and I am not comfortable emailing my card info and don't know if I can call internationally on my cell phone so I am just cancelling the order all together. Bummer. I guess I'll just have to keep looking...