Creating In Between

The tiny spaces in between my day have been filled scavenging other artists’ blogs for bits of inspiration. It is overwhelming some days to simply begin to consider all the amazing things I wish to create and all the time I lack to create them.

I have stuck to my guns and can honestly say that I create something new and interesting every day. All I have to do is look at my beautiful boy and be assured that creation of something great has taken place somewhere in the space of that day.

Tags: Create, inspiration

I Was Told There’d Be Cake.

The last few posts touched on Dime Store Pretty as a way of life.
Besides updates on what’s new in vintage at the DimeStorePretty.Etsy shop, I try to include great things to hear, see, eat, read,  you get the idea.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake is a collection of essays by Sloane Crosely. Hilarious, Sarcastic and full of life’s frustrations that wrougt the life of most any twenty-to-thirtysomething suburban girls life.

Dorm-mates, Room-mates, First jobs, First apartment, First attempt at a One-Night-Stand. It chronicles a time in life when your monthly budget includes rent, Top Ramen and a rush of wedding gifts and bridesmaids dresses as it seems all your girlfriends of past and present are getting married at once.

Sloane spares no-one in this hysterical series of short-ish essays. Smart and funny and certainly worth the read.

Tags: books, Boutique, DimeStorePretty, Fashion, I was told there'd be cake, inspiration, read, sloane crosley, trends, vintage

Inspiration in Anthro, Beets and Greens

If you have ever noticed, Anthropologie stores are set up to feel like an old country house with lots of charm. Next time take a look and you will noticed a definate living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc.

Standing in the Anthro “kitchen” I left with an urge to cook something beautiful and vegetable and rustic and “off the farm”.

As I drove home I recalled the beautiful and most delish roasted beet salad I had purchased from Trader Joe’s* the day before.
*(my fav neighborhood market).

Inspiration had planted beets on my palate.
On my weekly trip to the grocer I picked up a 2 hearty bunches of big red beets.

Back in my kitchen I prepared the beets.
Cutting off the top “greens” and setting aside I washed and quarted my beets. Creating a foil packet ontop a cookie sheet, I lay the beets inside, drizzled them with EVOO and sprinkled them lightly with a mix of salt, pepper, garlic. 400 degrees in the oven and 40 minutes later the most beautiful beets you have ever seen graced my plate.

The greens I washed and chopped adding a few bunches of mustard and collard greens. These I sauteed in BIG pot, with garlic, diced onion and EVOO in a about 2 cups of chicken broth. Sooo good and an amazing shade of green.

Tags: anthropologie, beets, cooking, farm, inspiration