Happy Independence Day, America!

It's that time of year again, here in the USA... where the red, white and blue starts popping up everywhere. Like so many American families, I used to go down to the waterfront with my parents and two brothers to watch the fireworks. This year, I am in Eastern Washington visiting Jacob's family, so I guess it will be something new (for me). Happy Independence Day, America - and here's a little tribute to you!

Red, white, and blue bundt cake with sprinkles? Yes, please!

Yeah, more cake. You can never have too much, right? This delicious flag cake looks almost too good to eat! Almost. =)

Metallic Independence Day nails. So cool and a little superhero-like.

Fun Independence Day Strawberries!

Trust Katy Perry to take the flag and wear it as a latex dress! Hehe.

Fun craft - starry paper lanterns.

And... a little preview of a jewelry collection I will be launching later this year! Modeled by Bree Vargas. Isn't her Jessica Louise sailor dress so perfect for July 4?

Visit my Pinterest board for more fun Independence Day inspiration! For my U.S. readers... do you have any fun July 4 plans?

June 2012 Recap and Favorites

June was a crazy month. At the beginning of the month, Pink Wonderland launched!

My favorite posts in June:
There are a lot, I know! It was hard to cut down.

I dressed up in a crazy Betsey Johnson dress and Zoe took photos of me around Portland for my launch post.

I posted my goodbye tribute to Betsey Johnson and shared my red, black, and bubbles outfit.

Jacob, Olivia, and I hiked Little Si. I shared pictures of my cactus windowsill garden, which is still (amazingly) alive, by the way!

We discovered some incredible booths and new (to us) artists at the Unique LA Spring 2012 Show and visited Tokidoki and Tarina Tarantino while we were in LA. I shared my 10 for $10 or Less gift guide and my birthday wish list... both full of products from awesome indie artists.

I made grilled cheese bites and tomato soup fondue for the first time, shared my mom's shrimp orzo recipe, and tried some delicious restaurants in Portland.

I also interviewed one of my favorite artists, Hannah Lynn, for the June 2012 Artist of the Month feature.

Blogs I enjoyed reading this month:

There are too many blogs I love to list them all here, so I'll just share a few at a time! Don't worry, more next month!

Everyday is a Holiday by Jenny Holiday - Jenny is so positive; I love reading her posts. Plus, she has the best style and somehow always manages to find the coolest things. Her Pinterest boards are among my favorites to browse, and I love her artwork. Pink, aqua, desserts, and amazing. Yes, please!

Icing and Write, by Aizzing - Pretty, funny, inspiring, and down-to-earth posts. Also, she has the cutest name ever (it's pronounced "Icing")! Aizzing is awesome and her blog makes me smile.

The Dainty Squid by Kaylah - I am amused by Kaylah's mushroom hunting posts and the cool things she comes across. Seriously, I bought shark potholders after seeing them on her blog. Oops! Hehe. Plus, she has the coolest hair!

Twinkie Chan - I love Twinkie's colorful crochet goodies and her blog is also super cool! After her recent redesign, it is full of sprinkles and pink. I'm on board with that! I love her style and her posts amuse me to no end.

Sprinkle Bakes by Heather Baird - Okay, I will be the first to admit that there is about a 1% chance that I will ever have the time and patience to make any of the delicious recipes on her blog... and an even smaller chance that they would turn out as pretty. But I love reading her blog and seeing some of the amazing things she comes up with. Her book would be a great gift for someone who enjoys baking!

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I haven't had a chance to post about it yet, but the launch photo shoot for my upcoming jewelry website launch was at the end of June. I also got rainbow hair. I promise you will hear plenty more about those soon! July is going to be so much fun. =)

Love and Sequins

Gala Darling's blog is one of my favorites to read. She is positive and all about believing in yourself... and she always posts fun, gorgeous, colorful pictures from the almost-ethereal photo shoots that seem to be a regular part of her life. Her bright tattoos have made me reconsider getting my own future tattoo(s) in color... but that's another conversation for another day. The point is, Gala wrote an eBook (which she also recorded as an audio book) called "Love and Sequins," available here. It's all about self-affirmation, finding out who you are, and your place in the world. I have to say - I have never been the type to go for "self-help" books or anything of that nature, but I love Gala's attitude and writing... which led me to this project.

A very good friend of mine is going through some rough times, and I felt that Love and Sequins would be perfect for her. I also enjoy projects and making things for people I love. So Jacob and I purchased Love and Sequins for our friend and then I printed it out and made it into a book.

I had a chance to put some of my numerous craft supplies to use, including delicious glittery sorbet print  cardstock, a string of Christmas Sequins (fitting, I thought), some pop-up alphabet stickers, pink glitter glue, maraschino twine from The Twinery, colorful rhinestones, washi tape, and other fun embellishments. I made a mini flag banner as well - something I have been seeing on lots of handmade cards recently.

Love and Sequins is a hefty twelve chapters. I personalized it by writing a thirteenth chapter, specifically for the recipient. I didn't quite make it to the 10,000 minimum word count promised by Gala in each chapter... but hey, four pages is not too bad, right?

I added colorful chapter separators and compiled the book. Then hole punched everything and bound it with more maraschino baker's twine. Here is the resulting book.

My chapter. =)

For the audio portion of the eBook, I burned twelve CD's - one for each chapter. They average around an hour each, so trust me - only one chapter fits on each CD!

The final product! I hope my friend enjoys reading/listening to Love and Sequins as much as I enjoyed working on this project. I was very rushed on time, so I did not have a chance to photograph the steps in greater detail, but maybe I will do a book project tutorial sometime.

Also, a Kelsea Echo ice cream shoppe jewelry set is part of a giveaway on Miss Indie's blog today, so be sure to head over there if you are interested!

XOXO,

Kelsea