Monthly Challenge Theme: Ducks

Wouldn't this look nice with a cute white cardigan and boater hat?

 Theme: Ducks 

March is the time of year where I live for rainstorms and green shoots of grass popping up between cement cracks, and of course, ducks! ♥ If you read my last few posts, you may have noticed that the retention pond by my house is full and filled with little duckies (that were too far away for me to photograph). Anyways, if you haven't guessed it, this month's theme is ducks! And how exactly are you going to incorporate ducks into your mori-life? Well let me suggest a few ideas: feed some ducks (of course - but try to use food specifically for ducks), where an outfit with a duck motif, in duck colors, wear feather accessories, make duck-shaped cookies, draw pictures with ducks, learn a duck call (haha!) or raid the Easter section of your local grocery or department store for duck-themed goodies ♥

Etsy Listing 

Etsy Listing

 ♥ Remember to link to your responses in the comments section below ♥

March Lifestyle Ideas

Eek! It's already a week in to March! Please forgive me and enjoy these tips ♥

• Tie a vintage silk scarf around your shoulders like a loose collar
• Make a mood board of things you're looking forward to this spring or summer. Include photos, soft ribbons, dried flowers and anything else that reminds you of the season. Hang the board somewhere you will see it often
• Bloomers are a pretty easy sewing project - try making your own with lots of soft cotton lace. Loose bloomers keep a coordinate looking simply and very mori ♥
• Alternatively, try making a cute scrunchie - earth tones with thin lace look very nice
• You know that alpacas are adorable, but have you ever worn something made from alpaca yarn? Or what about Angora rabbit? Check Etsy for these handmade items.
• Brown leather school satchels add a very cute "prep school" feel to an outfit and are very practical bags!
• Design a coordinate around your favorite musical instrument - extra points for originality 
• Love berets? Check Ebay for inexpensive plain berets and decorate them with velvet ribbon, pearls, lace and polka dots!
• Did you know that over-the-door shoe organizers are a great way to organize your tights, socks and other small accessories as well? Give it a try? 
• Award style (aka "blue ribbon" style) ribbons are currently trending as very popular brooches. Pick a ribbon with muted earth tones and hints of gold for a subtly frilly addition to an outfit. 

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 ♪