The Late Afternoon

There is a reason that I have Rifle Paper Company bookmarked on my computer. From the swirly font, colors that remind me of candy, and modern designs with a vintage twist, Rifle Paper Company is one of my favorites. As I’m stuck in a hotel room for another work week away from home, I’ll let Rifle Paper Company’s images do most of the talking….

The tinge of yellowing in the colors and folk-art style gives the cards the effect that they’ve been transported from the past.

I probably would end up not using these recipe cards because they are just too pretty to be written on.

Seriously wish I had handwriting that looked like this…

To see more of Rifle Paper Company, visit www.rifledesign.com

I posted about Rae Dunn’s extremely cute “pinch” and “dash” bowls here, but thought her work deserved an “encore.” These clay pieces have a very handmade, crafty look, which is why I was drawn to them at Renegade. Its the imperfection and raw feeling of these ceramics that I love. They are each unique and have their own character.

Many of Dunn’s pieces are of simple design – white backdrops with stamped text and glazed to a glossy perfection. My favorites are the little ceramic rocks and hearts with inspiring words stamped onto them.

These “pinch pot” looking espresso cups have a sophisticated feel with their little french words. The sides are also cute with the zipper detail. It looks like the clay has been folded and zipped up to form a cup.

The faint outline of the rectangle stamp used to press the letters into the ceramics is a great touch. This rock basically sums up the style of Dunn’s ceramics – simple, clean, and raw.

For more of Dunn’s ceramics, visit raedunn.com

All photographs from Rae Dunn’s Etsy Shop.

I’ve lived on the outskirts of the city for most of my life, but have never seen the Painted Ladies, the six old Victorians lined up along Steiner Street by San Francisco’s Alamo Square, until today. The Victorians remind me of dollhouses with their little cut-out windows, scalloped edges, and pastel, washed-out colors. Its too bad today’s homes are built with such detail in mind.

A few friends and I ended up at Alamo Square this afternoon after a delicious brunch (eggs benedict…yum!) at Eats, a failed attempted at the De Young Museum (the special Impressionism exhibit was completely booked), and a few hours playing tourist at Fisherman’s Wharf. Sundays spent wandering aimlessly and spontaneous adventures are the best, especially in SF. Days like these are a good reminder of how much character the city has and how much there is to explore right in our own backyard.

I’m not quite at this stage yet…but one day I’ll figure out what this is…

Happy Weekend!

Via The Love Shop

August is technically still summer, but usually around this time I’m already getting into the autumn mindset…except when the Bay Area decides to heat up to the triple digits like it did this week. With that said, I’m back into summer mode, eating otter pops like no other, and dreaming about picnics and days spent outdoors. Unfortunately, I’m stuck in Reno for work until tomorrow night and so I’ve been living my dreamy summer nights through images. 

I came across Ashley Meaders design, event, and craft website and found tons of summery, inspirational images of all her handmade props and crafty paper goods. Basically, according to her website, Ashley Meaders makes stuff. Her stuff is not just stuff though, its perfectly styled, bright, and fun stuff! I love how the light looks in all of these pictures and the way the handmade decorations look so freely and easily thrown together. I picked out some of my favorite summer photos from Ashley Meaders’ site above. Seriously, I would love to have that swing with all of the dangling, interwoven ribbons in my backyard (if I had one) and how cute are those popsicle invitations? See more here.

All images from AshleyMeaders.com

Quiche – funny name, but so delicious! I made these cupcake-sized quiche on Sunday night, just to try out something new. I’ve always loved the mushy, cheesy texture of quiche filling and the buttery crust, but I only rarely indulge in this typical brunch treat.

I found an easy quiche recipe online that uses pre-made frozen pie crust and a simple egg/milk mixture for the “custard” filling and thought it was the perfect opportunity to give this dish a try. All that you really need to do is chop up a few vegetables, line a cupcake tin with the frozen pie crust dough (defrost it for a bit), add some mozzarella cheese, and pour in the egg/milk mixture. I created a little diagram illustrating my quiche layering technique:

I added ham, onions, and broccoli into my mini quiche, but there are plenty of different vegetables that you can experiment with. After baking the quiche for about 25 minutes to allow the cheese to melt and the custard to get toasty, we were ready to devour our quiche as a late night dinner. It was cheesy, buttery, flaky, and most importantly, delicious – everything a quiche should be!