Fall Fashion and Decor Round-Up

With the start of school delayed yet another day, I had the chance this morning to take in part of my fall fashion magazine issues. Last night was a beautiful, fall-like night which is rare for August in Baltimore. Fall is my favorite season because the temperatures are always just right and the colors just gorgeous. If we're lucky, we'll have another beautifully long fall season ahead. Here are some things that make me think fall.

Long sleeve shirts and sweatshirt weather. This seems perfect to throw on when the night air gets cool.

via Anthropologie

A coral take on the nautical stripes.

via Ruche

A rich colored, crocodile-embossed handbag.

via Michael Kors

Fall-like colors for the bedroom.

via West Elm

Rich walnut tones and dark teal. I seriously want this for my imaginary entry way that doesn't exist since I live in a row house.

via Jonathan Adler

A good pair of boots is always a fall must.

via Frye

And don't forget to prepare your dinner table for fall as well.

via Pottery Barn

What lovely fall items have you been looking at these days?

What's Better Than a Hurricane?

Power outages that cause the first day of school to be cancelled. And why was I excited about that? We had planned to drive down to Wolf Trap to see Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers. I knew it'd be an hour and fifteen minute drive back up to Baltimore after the show so I was relieved that I wouldn't have to wake up early this morning for school.

Bruce Hornsby has been one of my favorites since I was a small child. He is an incredibly talented pianist, songwriter, and singer. He's played for and toured with the best of them including the Grateful Dead and Ricky Skaggs. He's one of those musicians that could play just about anything without even thinking about what he is doing-- a complete natural. And as if Bruce isn't an amazing musician as is, we were lucky enough to see the Punch Brothers open the show resulting in Chris Thile playing with Bruce for the majority of the set. What's better than a hurricane? School cancellations, Bruce Hornsby on piano, and Chris Thile on mandolin.

Excuse the craptastic sound quality, but I wanted to share anyway in the event you could hear just the slightest bit.

Unscathed by Irene, the evening turned out to be one of the best in terms of weather that we've had all summer long. We were lucky to have power the whole time. A bit of water leaked in under our front door, but was soaked by the towel we had put in place. Several trees were downed in Patterson Park, but that was about it. Of and our Black Eyed Susan trellis was a few inches askew. Needless to say, we were impacted nearly as badly as they had predicted. However, the majority of the west side of the city struggled with power outages as well as my school's neighborhood a mere five minutes away. Let's just say as an extreme weather enthusiast I was a little disappointed. Now I'll just have to hope for a blizzard this winter!

But back to the subject of Bruuuuuuuuuuce. Here's a better video of one of his most recent songs that seemed appropriate for this past weekend.

Kraft and Chevron

With autumn slowly making its way closer, I've designed a few things that remind me a bit of fall. For whatever reason, kraft seems to be appropriate. I think it's because of its raw and natural appearance. I'm still not quite over chevrons so I included both in a few recent designs.

I think it's safe to say I have a few new favorites.

A Magnet for Natural Disasters

I've been missing the last week. I've been in my classroom getting things ready for school on Monday. After finally finishing up Friday afternoon, we are now faced with the possibility that school may not open on Monday after all. You see, lately, I've been a magnet for natural disasters and I seem to have brought not one, but two of them our way this week.

Some of you may remember the lovely North Carolina tornado, coming right at us as we headed south on I-95 to Florida.

Then there was also the time that we got stuck in this blizzard on Christmas Day in Nebraska as we were driving to have a family Christmas at my sister's house in Colorado.

Yes, that's the view out the windshield on I-80.

Then there was the blizzard in Baltimore.

And there was the time last summer when we were driving back from my parents' house in Indiana on I-80/90 that we got stuck driving in the worst thunderstorm I have experienced in my life. There was a tornado warning at the time and we were sure we were going to run into one.

Oh, also, I almost got struck by lightning this summer after opening my front door during a thunderstorm. The bolt hit a tv dish across the street, a mere 20 feet away, with a blue glow wrapping around the house. You could hear it buzz and the thunder that accompanied it scared me out of my socks.

If that isn't enough, this Tuesday we had an earthquake. While I had been in two before, they were only just a quick bump. This one, however, was a good 30 seconds of intense shaking and rumbling-- enough that you could actually hear it.

And now, here I sit in my house sipping my coffee waiting for Irene. No one really knows how bad it'll be in Baltimore, but they've predicted power outage for days. I certainly can't be the judge of that because we didn't live here when Hurricane Isabel came through.  Most of the teachers at my school think we won't have school Monday due to flooding and power outages. As for me, I just made sure I had a good stock of coffee. We ran out Friday morning and I certainly wasn't going to go without in the case that the worst happens. Clearly, I have my priorities straight.

Hot August Blues

We spent yesterday at the Hot August Blues and Roots Festival at Oregon Ridge Park. And to say that it was hot August blues would be an understatement. A roasty toasty day in the sun sweating it out with some steamy blues and funk would sum it up quite nicely.

We got to the festival nice and early a little after 11 in the morning and scored a nice spot to put our blanket for the day. The day started with the Tom Larson band, a bluesy slide guitarist from the Eastern Shore. We stuck around for a bit, but then headed to the falaffal stand for some lunch so we wouldn't miss the next act. J. Roddy Walston and the Business, a Baltimore based band, cranked up the heat one more notch with their raucous rock and roll. Following was Kings Go Forth, a relatively new dirty soul group that we were really looking forward to. However, their live act was not incredibly spectacular and, we both agreed, a bit of a letdown. Looking back, they should have had J. Roddy follow Kings Go Forth.



Robert Randolph and the Family Band continued the show in the early evening, stepping up with the flavor of funk and grooves that Kings Go Forth lacked. This was our fourth time seeing Robert Randolph, and he and his band are absolutely amazing. We were lucky to most recently have seen them at Eric Clapton's Crossroad Guitar Festival last summer in Chicago. Robert plays amped up pedal steel and his family literally backs him up-- his sister is on backing vocals, his cousins on drums, bass, and guitar. There is no denying that they're family either-- they're all the spitting image of each other. The whole group is amazingly talented not only with their instruments, but with their vocals as well as each took on a lead at some point in the show. One thing that I love about watching them is that there is not a single moment that they aren't enjoying themselves on stage. Robert is smiling nearly the entire time and the rest are dancing and getting down just as much as the crowd.

The closers of the festival were the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Another group that we'd seen at Crossroads last summer, I highly anticipated seeing them again. It was complete luck to have seen them then. The Allman Brothers Band was to have played until Gregg Allman just happened to get a liver donor for his transplant the weekend of Crossroads. So instead, Eric Clapton brought the Tedeschi Trucks Band aboard. Personally, I couldn't have been happier. I was much more glad to see them than a washed up group that I wasn't entirely into.

Susan Tedeschi is by far one of my favorite musicians-- she has an amazing voice comparable to Bonnie Raitt and is an incredibly talented blues guitarist. She recently has paired up with her husband Derek Trucks, another amazing blue guitarist, and his band to round out the Tedeschi Trucks Band. They are probably the most humble musicians I have ever seen perform. They're extremely gracious and appreciative of the talented members of their band and give huge credit to each and every member. There's no gloating or crazy showmanship from either of them, especially Derek, as he has little to say, but flawlessly and effortlessly lets his guitar to do the talking. They closed out the night wonderfully and yet again blew me away with their musicianship. All in all a great day and a wonderful way to end my summer break.

The Classroom

Where have I been? In my classroom. I spent the last two days getting relatively nothing done, or so I thought. However, these photos seem to make me think otherwise. This is how things looked on Thursday morning after spending a little bit of time on the room on Wednesday afternoon.

And this is how it looked when I left on Friday afternoon.

Sorry about the crappy phone photos. So I've gotten a lot more done than I had imagined, but still have a lot of decorating to do. Not to mention, I need to set up those desks. I'm sure there will be more photos to come.

The biggest struggle is finding enough storage space. Our middle school team has moved from the main building to our modular building. The plus side-- much more operable windows that actually allow full sunlight to come through, walls that you can staple things to instead of concrete block walls, and our own thermostats so you can control the heat and cooling in your room. The down side-- no cabinets and a downgrade in the size of my room. I spent yesterday afternoon running to Target to buy two more book shelves and then putting them together. I'll probably have to buy another one yet when all is said and done.

I'm slowly getting into the school frame of mind. Our week of professional development starts on Monday, but I'll be enjoying these last two summer days. Today we head to the Hot August Blue & Roots Festival. A perfect way to end the summer!

Punch List

1. On Monday I baked a German chocolate cake for Andrew for his birthday. It's his favorite cake and so he requests it every year.

2. Yesterday, I spent the majority of the day running errands preparing for school. It was absolutely exhausting, but the good news is that I spent way less money this year than I have the last few years. It's always nice to know you're not spending too much money out of pocket for school supplies, but I'll have to reassess what I have once I actually make it to school today.

3. I haven't had as much time to work on design this past week which makes me rather sad. I suppose it's the reality of the school year. I think I'd like to set the goal of setting aside time each night to do something crafty once the school year is under way.

4. I spent quite some time in Australia during college. I get super excited about teaching anything about Australia and I'll get to do a unit on Australia again this year now that I'm teaching Social Studies again. So imagine my excitement when I found a resource book in the Social Studies section that was dedicated solely to Australia. Woohoo!!

5. I was at Marshalls and TJ Maxx yesterday and found huge stashes of designer paper for cards. Woohoo for $6 paper stacks! I found one that is perfect for fall-- I don't think there is one design that I don't like, which is rare!

6. One of my biggest complaints while shopping for classroom decorating decor yesterday was the nothing is stylish. Everything is really cheesy and perfect for little kids. However, you can't find anything that is age appropriate for 7th and 8th graders. I started to think that I could make a killing designing borders and letters and such for bulletin boards that were super contemporary and fashion forward.

7. I've taken the dive. I made a Facebook page for my editing services which you can find here. It is really bare bones right now, but it's something to start with. The friend I am currently editing for has pushed me to do this so she can post my page to her own book page. I may be crazy, but it is all part of my big plan for the coming years.

8. We've ordered pavers! Yup! Finally! They should be here in a few weeks so maybe we'll get to enjoy a finished backyard before the weather is too cold after all!

9. Speaking of things we ordered, we're still waiting on these fabulous dining room chairs to arrive.

10. Tonight we're having a little school get together at a friend's house. She is awesome and always hosts the school staff to her place before school starts so we can get to know the new teachers and meet up again before we actually have to be back. I'm taking the cornhole boards and bags... should be a good time.

Back to School... I Guess

Reality has hit me. Teachers have to be back this coming Monday in Baltimore City which basically means lots of professional development. With that in mind, as usual, I must find the self-discipline to get back to school early (without being paid at that... ugh) and start setting up my classroom. Today will be less of the set up, but more of the purchasing variety. I'll be making stops at my local teacher resource stores to pick up a few things before heading to school.

This year, our entire middle school wing is moving to a different location of the building so unpacking will also involve some serious box moving. In addition, my new classroom is a serious downgrade in size from the room I've had for the past three years. This makes me quite sad as I have one of those, get up and move around, hands on kind of teaching styles.

While these are big changes to deal with, I am excited about one change-- I'll be teaching Social Studies again! By far my favorite subject to teach and what I'm best at as well, I'm looking forward to all of the crazy simulation lessons I previously taught for U.S History and all of the cultural aspects of World Geography. When I found out I would get to teach Social Studies again, I literally "woohoo-ed" with my hands in the air and then did a little dance in the school hallway. In addition, I'll still be teaching Language Arts, making my classes a combined Humanities class which I think will be super interesting.

Needless to say, as I've started getting myself in the right frame of mind to set up my classroom, here are a few things I've stumbled upon that are perfect for the upcoming school year.

via 'i do' it yourself

via Clean & Scentsible

via Modern Parents Messy Kids

via ReForm School Rules

via Flickr

Any creative school year ideas? Let me know! I'm always up for something new to add to my room to make it fresh!

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

Remember how I told you that we were going to go to Philly for a day trip? Yeah, that didn't happen. Very sad. What did happen is that we went to hang out with friends on Friday night at their house just a few blocks down. The night was in good company of good people and we ended up hanging out on the stoop talking and eventually playing Catch Phrase (we're sort of dorks over here) until nearly 2:30 in the morning! What?! Don't know how it got that late, but on Saturday morning we were both exhausted. I can't even remember when the last time was that we were up that late.

Anyway, we didn't wake up at 7 like we had hoped in order to drive up to Philly. I woke up at 9:30, still tired because I didn't get my 8 hours (I'm a grumpy one in the morning if I get less than 8, seriously) and then it started to rain. We checked out the forecast and it was supposed to rain in Philly too. We had planned to do outdoor things so we decided to go on Sunday. But Sunday came with lots of rain in Baltimore and even more rain in Philly. We had to cancel again despite the fact that I was nearly in tears at the realization that I have yet to travel anywhere (even if it is just a dumb day trip) during this whole summer vacation when I am usually the queen of travel.

And with the rain continuing on today, I'm trying to be positive, even though that was super difficult to do yesterday.

1. Rain today means that yet again I don't need to water my plants.

2. Rain yesterday means we went to run errands which resulted in me buying a graphics tablet! Woohoo!

3. Today is Andrew's birthday which means it's obligatory that I bake German chocolate cake with the coconut frosting-- he even made me buy the ingredients two weeks ago. And cake makes anyone, especially me, happy.

4. If I had been traveling all summer I wouldn't have gotten so much accomplished in my little Etsy shop.

5. If I'd been traveling all summer I would have spent a lot less time with this guy:

So I may have missed the beach, be without my summer tan, stayed in Baltimore, and all of that, but at least I get to eat cake and have a contortionist cat.

Shop Til You Drop

Yup, I definitely did shop til I dropped. I'm so silly and didn't make one trip to my car with my purchases. When I woke up this morning, my arms were sore from carrying bags. No, I'm not some rich person that just bought a bunch of new clothes because I felt like it. In reality, I had stashed away a good chunk of money from my tax refund so that I'd have enough money for some fall clothes for work. I'm also big on getting a deal, so I usually make one shopping trip to last for quite some time and I go when there are sales.

After yesterday's fiasco, I came home with enough shirts and sweaters to last for most of the year, plus four new pairs of pants, and three new pairs of shoes. Maybe it's a teacher cliche, but I always find that I'm wearing cardigans, so I picked up two new ones and got lots of stuff to mix and match with. Case in point, this brown cardigan from Express mixed with three different tanks.

Sorry, I don't model. If I were guaranteed to have a photogenic picture in which my eyes were not shut, I'd be more than happy to. But that's not usually the case.

I'm all about fashion, so I love spotting things that are exactly what I was hoping I'd find while perusing my fashion mags or blogs. This fall you'll see a lot of bold and streaky prints, tribal like designs (score on the orange tank above), and stripes (especially of the nautical variety). You've probably seen a lot of this already this summer. In addition, the dolman sleeve is huge, as well as square cut shirts-- completely a sign of revitalization of the 80s. Here are a few fun finds I picked up.

A square top with chevrons and streaks, and a dolman sleeve navy and white striped top. The first one is a bit crazy, but I know just the way to pull it off! This is just a quick glimpse at some of my finds, but we must move on to shoes.

The best find I've had in a while-- Jeffrey Campbell buckle pumps in the most soft and supple leather you could possibly imagine. I am a Nordstrom Rack shoe shopper-- big time. Why? Because I find the most ridiculously awesome designer shoes for a fraction of the price. These were my latest snag. A $152 pair of shoes for $29.90. Not kidding. This is why the days on end I spend in the Nordstrom Rack shoe section scouring for shoes are totally worth it. (Well, I guess it was only an hour).

I desperately wanted some buckles in my life when it came to shoes, and I'm a push over when it comes to heels of any sort. Crazy as it may be, those are my shoes of choice to wear to school even though I spend the majority of the day of my feet. I try to find pairs that are as comfortable as possible (these definitely are!) and in the end fashion always wins over comfort. These are the perfect fall pair of shoes-- already can't wait to wear them with that brown cardigan, the orange tank, and a pair of jeans.

Last night while showing Andrew my new shoes, I was confronted with this: "That pair of shoes is like the other pair you already have." Me: "No it's not! They're not even close to being the same!"

Note to Andrew--- This:

is not the same as this:

The first is the new pair, regular blush/nude leather with a sort of bow. The second is the old pair, blush/nude patent leather, wood heel.

And when your old pair has taken a beating like this

even if they were the same pair, you'd still deserve a new one! Hmph. (Unfortunately, due to my tall, lanky figure I am also clumsy so most of my shoes take a beating like this.)

I also finally found a great pair of flats to replace a pair that is beyond repair, sadly.

Still haven't found that pair of houndstooth pumps that I've been lusting over, but I did remember I have a sort of similar pair-- just not as cool and obviously not the same shoe. Which would mean I have every right to buy a pair if I happen upon them. :)

And now, people, you know the entire contents of my closet.

What fall fashion item do you love this season? What have you recently added to your wardrobe?

Homemade Pesto & Grilled Salmon

Over the Fourth of July weekend, my aunt brought us her basil plants to plant-sit while she and my uncle took a family trip out west for several weeks. The basil plant, one sweet and one globe, started out fairly full, but by the end of July they were both huge. We used some of the basil here and there in our cooking, including grilled pizza with fresh tomatoes and basil leaves. But it seemed we could not keep up with the pace in which the plants were growing. Last night, I decided I would make some pesto with the ever growing sweet basil plant.

Since I decided to make pesto, Andrew fired up the grill for some pesto salmon-- one of my favorites ways to prepare the fish. It's a quick and simple recipe and you won't regret making the pesto from scratch.

Homemade Pesto

2 cups of packed basil leaves
1/3 cup pine nuts (walnuts work fairly well as a substitute if you can't get pine nuts)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
4 decently sized cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Pack the basil into a food processor along with the pine nuts.

Pulse the basil and pine nuts a few times until they're finely chopped. Add the garlic and pulse again. Slowly add the olive oil while food processing. Blend in the Parmesan and salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Easy as that!

For the salmon, I like to make a little tin foil boat. I place the salmon in the center, spread the pesto on top, and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the pesto and salmon. Pop it on a hot grill for 15-20 minutes, checking back frequently so that your salmon doesn't get too dry.

Finally, serve it with your choice of veggie, rice, or whatnot. We went with corn on the cob last night.

Yum, yum, yum! So tasty that even Lilah had to guard the grill last night in hopes that she would get a little morsel.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't as lucky as she had hoped. :)

Punch List

1. The week started off with a trip to vet for Finn's neuter surgery. I don't know what they do these days, but Monday night after I brought him home it was as if he was drunk-- so funny! And then Tuesday morning he was back to his rambunctious, mischievous self! Who knew it'd be that quick of a recovery?!

2. Monday night brought with it a huge feast. Andrew made a ridiculous dinner request-- homemade baked beans, grilled squash, grilled hot dogs, and coconut cream pie. I wasn't at all excited about the hot dogs (I hate them and will only eat them if they are charred black), but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest. We were totally stuffed and the meal was a perfect start to the week.

3. I spent Monday and Tuesday still updating my shop. I've designed so much stuff in the last few days and over the weekend that it will be almost scary as you see the number of items in my shop rise. It's up to 130 already and it's only Wednesday!

4. This morning, my friend Michelle dropped off a final rough draft of her first novel Wander Dust. So far, I've edited her website, checked out her trailer for any errors, and had a sneak peek at her first chapter. But now the real editing is under way! Super excited about the whole process!

5. I've decided a shopping trip is in order. In fact, I think I'm going to go today. I'm the type of person that goes shopping at least once a month (it's really bad, but I LOVE fashion). I sadly haven't gone all summer long, which is probably a good thing because I've saved a lot of money. However, after browsing all sorts of new fall look books, I've decided it's time to go get some fall items. Plus, I can use the excuse that I need new clothes for the school year coming up. ;) I'll let you know what I find.

6. I've started using PayPal for my shipping after buying a scale this past weekend. I have to say, I don't know what I was thinking before having to run to the post office on an almost daily basis! I have a blue post office box literally right around the corner from our house, so it was liberating to be able to take a hop and a skip over, coffee in hand, on Monday morning and check if off my list!

7. This weekend's plan is to head up to Philly for a day. Looking forward to finally going somewhere! I'm not going to lie-- this has been one of the most disappointing summer breaks of all time with pretty much nothing exciting going on in the travel category. Oh boo. And it's ending so soon!

8. With summer soon over, I'm starting to think of what I'll be teaching this year. I'll be back to teaching both Language Arts and Social Studies in a mixed Humanities class. I am so excited about this-- Social Studies and I had much too long of a break which just made me super sad and depressed about teaching. I'm really looking forward to teaching Social Studies again as it is by far "my subject" so to speak. I'm also looking forward to the idea of a combined Humanities class, but struggling finding compelling novels for 8th graders that are based upon early U.S. History. If anyone has suggestions please, by all means, let me know! Think Revolutionary War, Civil War, slavery, Reconstruction, etc.

9. This may be totally cheesy, but I am completely obsessed with Troy Polamalu's tweets as of late. As you may or may not know, I'm a HUGE Steelers fan (that's an understatement). My dad's family is from the Pittsburgh area so I was basically a Steelers fan in the womb. I tend to follow a lot of the players on Twitter, but as we all know, a lot of the NFL players don't have a lot of substance in their tweets. Troy, however, completely negates that typical assumption. He is one smart dude, studying theology (wow, super intense subject!) in college and having an affinity for the finer things in life. As of recent, he has even shared some really impressive art projects that he'd happened to stumble upon. Steelers fan or not, I highly recommend following him!

10. Back to the school ideas. Check out this awesomely fantastic lesson plan book. I think I'm going to have to buy one ASAP!

Just in Time for Fall: Eco Friendly Stationery

As fall soon approaches, I wanted to come up with some designs that felt a bit fall-like. I decided to make a few sets of stationery using this wonderful 110lb light brown kraft card stock I recently ordered. The brown seemed to make sense for fall and the quality and weight of the paper is perfect for flat notes. Because the kraft stock is 100% recycled, I decided to pair it with these wonderfully smooth white envelopes I also carry that are also 100% recycled. The kraft and the envelopes are truly environmentally friendly because they are also produced using wind power. Some how autumn and eco friendly seemed to make sense-- I think it's the natural aspect of both. Here is what I came up with.

Hope these help you gear up for fall! In addition, don't forget to enter the giveaway for some of my awesome chevron note cards over on The Blue Eyed Owl blog. Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Fall Morning Music on a Summer Day

Today is one of those mornings where the sky is gray and it's deceivingly warm out. I woke up with the thought that it was a 60 degree fall day. Funny I might think that only to have the sun poke out from the clouds as I watch the thermometer outside climb closer to 90. I had even put on a fantastic fall album to enjoy with the my coffee this morning. Maybe it was the air conditioning inside that really tricked me-- I don't know.

I felt a need for fall music, which is funny because I usually don't want summer to end. I decided to put on Sarah Blasko, and Australian artist that just happens to share my fall birthday. I found her music while I was living in Australia for school. She is perfect morning music and fall music at that. Minor keys and slightly atonal melodies. A bit haunting and some even say depressing, but perfect for me when I'm trying to get those morning cobwebs out of my brain.