girl crush.

I have a serious girl crush on Emerson of "Emersonmade". Mostly due to how much I admire her style and talent. Also, on a side note, how rad is her name? She specializes in hand dyed and hand stitched blooms and accessories, and will be launching a clothing line August 10th! Everything she makes is so fresh, pretty & feminine, it makes me swoon. On top of all that, she takes amazing photos of her products.  

Oh, and did I mention that the company is a husband-wife team effort? So adorable..

photos from here:

what i thrifted.

Once in a while I come across an item while I'm thrifting that makes my heart beat a little faster. I know, i know...lame.. maybe kind of weird, but it's true! I would have to put these three items in that category this summer. I had to keep them for myself instead of putting them in the shop.

They will be perfect to pack along for the vacation we are planning for September- a week long cruise to Canada/New England..more on that to come!

garden to table.

I always look forward to having fresh vegetables out of our garden every summer, and now that I love to cook I appreciate it even more! Our basil patch is quite large this year and it's so much fun to go pick a big bag of basil, a few tomatoes, and voila, fresh pesto for dinner!

vintage accessories

Lately I have been realizing that more than half of my wardrobe has been purchased at a thrift store. However, I am still somewhat surprised when I put together an outfit and afterwards realize that every piece is second hand.. Thus is the case with this outfit that I modeled for this awesome silk blazer which is for sale in my etsy shop. I think one of my favorite things about styling outfits are the accessories and especially when they are vintage..

CAMP!

Last week Andrew and I served at Tuscarora for Teen Week, a 7 day long Christian camp that I grew up attending. I was a head counselor this year and Andrew was the MC for all of the sessions. (Aka Andrew = funny guy who everyone loves...Gwen = bad guy who makes sure you go to bed & don't sneak out after lights out) But it was a really fun week and I spent the rest of the weekend sleeping to recover from it! 

wine & cheese party

Last week we had a little wine & cheese party in Hillary's backyard. It was the perfect summer evening with good friends. I made baked brie with philo dough and raspberry jam. It turned out ok, but I think I have yet to master my baked brie. If anyone has any tips or a good recipe, please share! I think next time I will try it with honey instead of jam, and butter instead of olive oil.

studs

Though I have yet to purchase anything like it, I have been enjoying the "studded" everything trend. I'm sure it won't last long, but I may have to get a few studded leather bracelets before it passes.. What do you guys think, do you like it? 

jcrew

modcloth

polyvore

what i wore.

Yesterday I went shopping in stores that sell new clothes (aka not thrift stores) with mom for the first time in long time haha. It was a nice day and I got coffee with some girlfriends, took a walk, and had dinner with my Dad. Andrew is away for the week so my evenings are mostly spent watching netflix or catching up on the blogs I follow. 

I did this post mostly so I could talk about how much I love my Madewell jeans.. If you haven't checked out Jcrew's sister store yet, get on that, fast. These jeans were an incredible steal at their Soho store in Manhattan. $19.99 peeps.

Outfit details:

Tank top: Target

Jeans: Madewell

Vintage Aigner bag: Salvation Army

Sandals: Kmart

Vintage necklace: Thrift store

Vintage Quartz watch: Thrift store

river rats

Yesterday was another suffocatingly hot day here, and I have been doing a lot of hiding indoors this week. So we decided to do a little lazy river tubing down the Deleware. Hillary's man Calvin is visiting from Minnesota so it was nice to spend some time with him and get a little sun. I think Andrew & I will have to invest in a few of those tubes for the future because they're so much fun! (Sorry for the grainy photos, I forgot to switch the file size after shooting etsy photos!)

wedding cake toppers

Etsy's featured seller this week is "Concarta". Her beautiful wedding cake toppers are sculpted entirely out of paper! They are truly unique with wonderful details. While reading her article and admiring her shop I found it pretty funny that her name is Gwen and her brother's name is Evan! Read her interview here and check out more on her blog!

photos from here:

endless summer..

"Record breaking" heat here in PA! After recovering from the stomach bug this week I have mostly hidden indoors, updating the shop, doing laundry, cleaning, etc! It's been fun playing around with Evan's new camera..maybe I will start to post more outfits now that he is my official photographer! 

Outfit details:

Vintage slip blouse: thrift store

Skirt: target & borrowed from Hillary

Necklace: thifted & altered

Vintage Sunglasses: thrift store

Flats: target

Bracelet: thrift store

dinner last night

Here are a few shots that Evan took of last night's alfresco dinner with his new Cannon 7d. It's the nicest camera I have ever touched! We made grilled eggplant sandwiches and strawberry shortcake and ate out on the deck. More of Evan's stuff on his flicker.