Bicycle Adventure

I went on a bicycle adventure ♪

I saw some pretty yellow flowers looking at me 

The sky was bright blue and full of cotton balls

I took advantage of my temporarily wavy hair

 And walked around a pond through a field

Where I found deer tracks

 And spotted a cute flower 

And stole a sprig of Mountain Laurels on my way home ♫

P.S. Do you know of any Mountain Laurel scented soaps or perfumes?  It's my favorite floral scent ♥

Fawny for Life

I wanted to update with two new fawn fur projects. The first is a little pouch I made, getting back into the hang of using a sewing machine (we got a new one at my school I can use now, it's lovely) ♥

The second is a work in progress. I'm trying to be very careful about adding on the bottom elastic component. I'm using a Gothic & Lolita Bible pattern for the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright's fawn beret. I plan on making a similar bow & pearl chain accessory also.

I'm guessing that the fabric used in the original is of higher quality and thus is heavier and drapes nicely. I'm worried about mine looking like a shower cap. I think I've found a solution with the elastic and satin ribbon so hopefully I'll have it finished soon.

My little sad-looking beret

That's all for now, thanks for reading c:

Lavender Short bread Cookies

Here's a quick, yummy and very buttery recipe for lavender shortbread cookies ♥

These were a hit at my school!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 or 1 1/2 tbsp. dried culinary lavender

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment paper (un-greased).

2. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for 5-10 minutes, until the mixture becomes light in color and fluffy.

3. Fold in the flour by hand. The dough will be soft and a bit crumbly. You can pack the dough together when you cut out your cookies.

4. Place a handful of the dough at a time on a lightly floured work surface. Use a floured rolling pin to press out the dough to about 3/8 inch thick. Do not use a lot of flour or your cookies will be tough and very crumbly. Short breads are known for being light and fluffy ♥

5. Cut out the short bread using any shape cookie cutter you like. With a spatula, transfer them to the prepared pans, spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart (they will not spread, but they do puff a little).

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until they are just a very pale golden color. Slide the papers from the pans onto wire racks. Store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in an air-tight container.

7. Brew up a mug of tea and enjoy your treats! The flavor may not be very intense, but provides a floral aftertaste. You may want to consider grinding up the florets next time if you want to experiment with the intensity of the lavender.  

Status Update!

Hello everyone, I offer a mandatory apology for my lack of posting. In hopes that you will forgive me, I'd like to share a few things that have been going on in my life.

Firstly, I got accepted to a few colleges and universities! Five to be precise. I applied to:

• The Cleveland Institute of Art (my top choice for Biomedical art)
• Maryland Institute College of Art
• St. Edward's University
• The University of Texas at Austin 
• Texas State University at San Marcos
• Kansas City Art Institute
• Rhode Island School of Design (my reach)

Phew! I've heard back from the first five and currently maintain a spotless acceptance record :) I should hear back from KCAI and RISD sometime in March. Oh, and I'm also pretty ecstatic that I got a big juicy scholarship from Cleveland T___T Thank you Cleveland, college is within my reach!

While I sent all of my applications before Thanksgiving, I've been busy with follow up activities, financial aid stuff and sitting back waiting for letter c:

Speaking of all these art schools, I keep my Flickr pretty current, mostly with pieces for my AP Drawing portfolio for this year. Please check it out! I'm pretty excited that my painting is going to state UIL competition this year ♪ Wohoo!

In other news, in case you missed the earlier post, my label/online shop Milk Thistle is now in business! I plan to add more items soon ♥

Also, look forward very shortly for a yummy lavender shortbread cookie recipe and some crafting and shopping updates ♫

 Also, would anyone be interested in any new types of posts, such as photo inspiration or brand spotlights? Are there any post series that I've neglected? I would really appreciate your input!

Stay tunes for more ♪

Monthly Challenge Theme: Roses

Theme: Roses

 

In honor of February and St. Valentine's Day, this month's challenge theme is roses ♥ This can mean rose motifs, scents, flavors, gardening, cute rose crowns, rosy cheeks and just about anything else!

I recently made some rose water brownies and got many complements on them :) This blog also has a recipe for rose jelly - yum!

(I didn't use this recipe, though, I just replaced ~1 tsp of the amount of water it called for on the box with rose water)

Remember to post your stuff ♪

February Lifestyle Ideas

Image via here

• Start an indoor collection of seedlings to plant in the spring - try strawberry plants, sweet peas, pansies or herbs ♥
• Winter isn't over yet! Don't forget to treat your skin right and drink plenty of water and tea 
• Pearls are great accessories, why not add them to your beret, cardigan or scarf? Sew-on pearl beads and inexpensive and easy to use.
• Add some fung shui to your life~ Open windows, de-clutter and opt for natural materials like wicker baskets and light cotton.
• Take a nice warm bubble bath with fragrant salts, candle light and nice music. It's your time to relax after the hustle and bustle of the last few months.
• (Shameless self-plug ahead) stay on the lookout for my new shop! I will be adding items soon ♥
• Check out Pixie_late's new cute mori and otome coords!
• Sit down and draw your meal. Watercolors and pens work beautifully.
• Visit a cute bakery or cafe and take photos of the food and decor. Film and Instax-style cameras work especially nice. 
• Dress your significant other up in mori for a quick photo shoot. I think it would be particularly interesting to see mori-styled men ♥

Cute as a Button

This is just a quick update, I promise the monthly posts are coming soon ♫

First off is a button hair tie I made based off a Wonder Rocket design

Secondly, today I received my order from Cotton Candy Friends

I decided to quickly snatch up a few items from the $1.99 sale. My total came to about $10 shipped! 

She also included some cute sticky notes ♥

This is my second order from here and she provides marvelous customer service (and items and prices...)

I highly recommend her shop! \(^o^)/

More soon!