recipe cards

These are two recipe cards I created for my sister for a Christmas present. She was the first out of all of us to attempt to boil water and go on to master basic breakfast foods. Since, she will probably be married soon and have her own kitchen, she can now start saving recipes. I was forever looking for a cute recipe binder to hold these cards and the only one's I could find were "country kitchen" style with chickens and things on the cover. As I was browsing through Target being disgusted that they too only had "country kitchen" recipe binders I noticed across the aisle were the photo albums which has the exact same function as a recipe binder except aesthetically more pleasing to look at..... and there were cheaper! It worked perfectly holding the 4"x6" recipe cards they only difference is there were no dividers, but I could live with that.

I was so pumped this week when I saw that Nicole, a guest blogger on Design*Sponge was wanting to use photos from my kitchen on Wood Street in a blog post about how people utilize space in small kitchens. Design*Sponge is my favorite design blog out there, I feel so special to have been featured, even for a small thing like this. You can locate the article here.

Last week I completed another one of my holiday ambitions. I made two soft trees based on a project featured on the purl bee. It was surprisingly easy, and with the help of my friend Melanie and her sewing machine I was able to get these sewed and stuffed.

christmas papergoods by mint&honey

Here's a look at some of the Christmas paper goods that came from mint&honey this year. I will show more later. These were all so fun to make; like always. And each one personalized to each person's interests.

Yarn Wreath Complete

My second holiday ambition is complete. Over the Thanksgiving holidays I made a yarn wreath. All of the materials can be found at Michael's, even the reindeer! Now.... where am I going to hang it?

2009 Christmas Card

Finish our Christmas card during Thanksgiving Break... check!

Photo by: Micah Dorsey

Hand drawn by: Me!

Holiday Ambitions, Part 2

This is inspiring me to make a wreath for the inside of my front door. How cute is this! Katie Runnels makes so many of these wreaths for every time of year. Check out her shop!

Holiday Ambitions

Soft Trees, from The Purl Bee
Originally uploaded by the purl bee

I am intent on making some of these for my home this holiday season, sewing 101 here I come.

Pumpkin Spice and everything nice!

I started a new tradition this year. Starting the first week of fall, I set out to make something pumpkin every week until the week of Thanksgiving where I might possibly make something with pumpkin in it everyday that week. I plan to do a better job documenting all of my recipes next year.

This week I made Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Caramel Corn. I found some pumpkin spice Hershey's Kisses at Target for 75% off and this seemed like the perfect way to use them up!

1 3.3oz bag Kettle Corn popcorn, popped and all un-popped kernels removed
1 Cup dry roasted peanuts
1 Cup unwrapped pumpkin spice Hershey’s Kisses

1 Cup dark chocolate chips
6 Tablespoons butter
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1/3 Cup corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place popped popcorn and peanuts onto a large rimmed baking sheet that has been sprayed lightly with non stick cooking spray.

Place kisses, chocolate chips, butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a light boil. Remove from heat and pour evenly over popcorn and nuts. Gently stir to coat mixture over popcorn. Bake in oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and pour onto parchment paper to cool. Break into pieces and serve.

(Recipe adapted from Beantown Baker)

birth announcement

Being poor when you're an artist is not always a bad thing when it comes to gift giving. You can always create things for friends and family. In this case, my good friend Mindy was having her first baby and I thought it would be special if I created a custom birth announcement for her to hang in her nursery. I wanted all the words to be hand lettered in different styles. I used a bird and twig on the announcement because it will compliment her bedding. It was so fun, hand lettering is one of my favorite things to do! Here is the finished product!

we got our picture taken

Kelly's best friend Micah came over last weekend and took some pictures for our Christmas card this year. I plan on drawing a border around one of the photographs to give it a Christmas feel.
Mint&honey is going to be busy this holiday season; I already have requests for custom illustrated Christmas cards, business cards, birthday and Christmas parties, and a couple of wedding showers. I better get to work! The deadline for accepting requests for custom illustrated Christmas cards is November 16th. The cost is $40 and that is without the cost for printing.

Have a good weekend!

pumpkin carving party

I love creating invitations for special parties. As much as I love pumpkins, you know I highly enjoyed creating this one. I was inspired by all the mums and pumpkins the grocery store have out this time of year. The purple mums were the perfect color combo for the bright orange pumpkins piled high in the bins!

Redecorating

I am refusing to put any pictures up of the interior of my house until everything is fully or almost fully decorated, I won't try to estimate when that will be either. Because it has been proven already that getting everything the way you want it is going to be a longer process than you imagine. But, I will share some of the things I've been purchasing with our lovely tax rebate we received from becoming first time homeowners. All going in different rooms, just having purchased these things make me feel productive and that things are coming along.

Rug: West Elm

Sofa: Pier 1

Rocker: Overstock.com

Wallpaper: Cole & Son

Open House // Etsy

mint&honey has been asked to participate in an Open House. An interior designer in town is opening up her house to give her clients an update on what services she has available to them. Since I was already designing the invitation for the event, she thought it would be a great idea if I could sell some of my papergoods there as well. Since I was in the process of opening my Etsy shop I thought it would be a good opportunity to put myself out there a little more. I am going to have thank you cards, note cards and hopefully some Christmas cards available there. I'm really excited about it and will post pictures soon after.

In other news, mint&honey's etsy shop is finally open but only has the bare basics right now. I'm in the process of adding more items to it. But you should add me to your favorites and check back later this month!

I hope you have been enjoying the Fall! I've been making almost every dessert under the sun that could possibly have pumpkin in it! Scones, cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, pancakes, bread and for my sister's birthday a pumpkin cheesecake.

Have a great week!

Prints

I've been searching high and low for art to hang in my new home. Here are a few I'm in love with. Lately, I've been drawn to art that uses type, so forgive if a lot of these have a common theme.

1. Heart Print by Ork Posters

2. Home Sweet Home Print from Keep Calm Gallery

3. Take a Hike Print from Katie Daisy

4. Where There is Love Laser-cut from MadebyJulene

The days are not long enough!

safari bday
Originally uploaded by mint&honey

Do things ever slow down? And if they did, would I like it? Maybe just for a day or two. I don't have too much to share or blog about for right now. Even though I feel like I have a ton of stuff going on. I don't want to show too much of what I'm working on, because a lot of it will be for my Etsy shop that I plan I having up and running by the end of October. ::crossing my fingers::

Here is a birthday invitation commission, safari themed. Children's invitations and announcement are always more fun to work on for me. It reminds me of doodling in math class on the back of my notebook or bookcover.

engagements

These are two of my most recent invitations both designed for engagement parties/showers. The first one is for an engagement party turned campout and cookout. I tried to make it look like a postcard from camp. Should be a lot of fun!

The last one is for a big engagement party at a great outdoor venue with music, friends and food!

Lots of exciting things going on with mint&honey! (at least for me anyway) I'm getting started on holiday cards and several different designs for thank you cards. My goal before the year is out is to have my Etsy shop up and running with a variety of papergoods and perhaps some vintage goods.

Wallpaper!

Here is a picture of the wallpaper I ordered and received today from selectwallpaper.co.uk. I am wallpapering 3 walls in my dining room that is connected to my formal living room, which is painted a light gray (seattle mist from benjamin moore.) I'm excited about putting it up even though I've never wallpapered anything before. I've heard it's easy from some and hard from others. I don't expect it to be a piece of cake, but I'm still crossing my fingers I don't completely screw it up. Good thing I have this book below to help me and give me ideas on what to do with the left over scraps! Image of living space from Feb. 2007 Blueprint Magazine.

I ordered this cute return address stamp from paperwink. They have the cutest papergoods!

projects and purchases

I'm finally positing my before and after pictures of the dresser I got from my Nana that no one was using and knobs were missing. I still need to give it a final coat of polyurethane. But I really love the way it turned out. I kept the original knobs and added two red ones from Anthropologie. I still need to find the perfect pull for the top though. I used Behr paint; Indian Ocean for the drawers and Scotch Lassie for the frame.

While in Austin for teacher training we hit a couple of great vintage stores! The owl string holder came from Uncommon Objects along with the white letters. The deer planter came from Room Service; we had an identical one that was black and bit smaller that broke during the move so I'm lucky to have found another. The paint by number came from eBay and the other vintage print came from Room Service. I can't wait to start decorating my house, but I need to paint first and rip up carpet (that's my next project!)

Close up of the dresser!

my nana

Sunday night my Nana passed away from Alzheimer's disease, her funeral was yesterday. She was an amazing lady who kept me during the day until I started kindergarten, so I have a lot of memories of her. Here are some great pictures of her. Below is the story she would tell our family most. I shared it yesterday at her funeral in a eulogy that my sister wrote.

I had been in the Women’s Auxiliary Air force (WAAF) for five years. I was stationed outside of North London. One of the most popular places to go in the service when we were off duty was the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. It had been transformed into a beautiful place to dance and to meet new friends from all over the world. One night, I was there with two friends. I didn’t go dancing every week and I never went alone. The one thing that was unusual about this certain night was that it was the first time in four years that I had not worn my uniform. The reason for this was my friend, Iris, who lived in South London, persuaded me to wear a borrowed blouse and a plain brown skirt. I had felt uncomfortable wearing someone else’s clothes, but Iris wanted me to, so I did. I decided to go to Covent Gardens just to hear the dance music. I loved the orchestra that was at the Gardens. I was a big fan of Glenn Miller and the music was as close as it could be. After I had been there a while, both of my friends had left me to dance with handsome American soldiers and I was left alone to enjoy the festivities. There was a tap on my shoulder, I had no idea it was coming and probably would have seen him if I wasn’t watching the dancing. I turned around and there stood a very tall American with a nice smile on his face, who asked me if I would like to dance and of course the answer was yes, I wasn’t one to turn down a tall dancer myself being 5’8”. It didn’t take long after we hit the dance floor that I discovered that he didn’t know how to dance after all. His name was Husley Reynaud and he suggested we go sit down and listen to the music and he apologized for not being able to dance. He began to tell me how his company had just returned from North Africa on account of his sunburn, which he definitely didn’t get in England; they had a secret bombing mission to destroy a dam in Yugoslavia. They didn’t attempt to get back on the dance floor and instead they sat and talked the rest of the evening. At the end of the night, he told me he wanted for us to exchange addresses. I liked him, he was tall, the quiet type, not flirty or clever acting; I could tell that he was trustworthy.

Husley and I were in agreement that we would make the effort to see each other once a month. This went on for a year and then in 1945, the invasion was a success and the war was almost over. On May 8, 1945 the war ended and we were together that day in London and had a great privilege of watching the victory precision from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We saw the King and Queen, Princess Elizabeth and Margaret, along with Winston Churchill and other great leaders of the war. A couple days after the big event, I returned to my base and Husley to his base. Within a week, I received an urgent message from him telling me that he was being returned to the United States and by July he was home safe in Louisiana. I wasn’t discharged the W.A.A.F. until November of 1945. We kept writing to each other and it was eighteen months later that I made the biggest decision of my life; to purchase a ticket to the ship Queen Mary II and make the voyage across the Atlantic to New York City and from there took a train down to Alexandria, Louisiana. It had been a long time since we had seen each other, but the very day I arrived they were married in his living room by one of his brothers who was a Baptist minister.

vacation is over...

So sad that summer is ending for me and I have to start the same school routine over. But, with my new position as art teacher I should be in store for a lot of exciting things and learning experiences. I was hoping to put some finished pictures of my kitchen, but we've had some set backs, maybe next time.

Here are some pictures from our vacation to Pismo Beach and Carmel, CA. And an additional business card I made along with a baby shower invitation for a friend!

anniversary

I'm spending my 2nd wedding anniversary in Carmel by the Sea, CA during our family vacation to Pismo Beach, CA. I did a little hand lettered message inspired by this antique wooden sign. I thought the message was simple and true to our lives.

Some photos of past trips to Pismo Beach when Kelly and I were still dating. Happy Anniversary to my loving husband! July 20, 2007!

m&h business cards!

Here are two business cards I made for mint&honey papergoods Friday night. I am wanting to get these printed on mini moo cards to send out with my orders and to just pass around. I'm also wanting to get a custom stamp made so I can stamp the back of my papergoods or stamp the envelopes I send them off in. If you know of a good place to get one made, please let me know!

engagement party

Funny picture of our dog, Sulu, during our move. I laugh so hard when at the look at his face in this picture!

Cute little engagement party invitation I cooked up this evening. I think this would work for a wedding invitation too!

moving announcement fun

A little moving announcement I was playing around with. The closer it got to the move I had to get the anxiousness of designing an announcement about of my system. So here's what I came up with. Kelly wanted me to incorporate Sulu in it, so I may dish out another one just to appease him.

We are finally all moved in and finished with the apartment on Wood Street. Now we're just surrounded by boxes staring us in the face. I hate to unpack when there is so much I want to do to the place first before I get everything situated. I plan on painting the living room and formal dining room this week, that is if I can ever convince my husband of a paint color, but once I do that I will be able to rip up the pink carpet to see what condition the wood floors are in. Wish me luck!

Baby Shower Invite

I was asked to do my first baby shower invite. She wanted brown and purple to be used, the bible verse Psalm 139:13, and birds. So this is what I came up with. I think it's cute, I hope it's not too coloring bookish. I think it gives the effect of a children's book illustration. Here is a before and after prismacolors were applied.

Inspiration for the Kitchen

After much time spent looking through the Domino Magazines I spotted this cute little kitchen in Blueprint Magazine and I fell in love. This is now my inspiration for our kitchen. We move in a week, I can't wait!