this precious life.

on my last evening with them, i took my cousins andrew & alexandra to crocker park-- a local outdoor mall. we picked up my favorite road trip snack at trader joe's, stopped in at the apple store and had so much fun doing cartwheels {them, not me:)}, playing chess & riding turtles on the green. as you'll see, they are both so full of personality and i love every bit of it! goobers. haha life size chess!! i'm still thiiiiis much taller than him:) not for long though! i think i might like Mona Lexi even better than Mona Lisa:) 

 I know project tutorials have been rather sparse on the blog throughout this summer but I'm excited to share more in the coming weeks! Let's start with a simple driftwood necklace I created with inspiration from THIS . Materials: as many pieces of driftwood or sticks as you like | chain or ribbon | round links | drill + small drill bit | paint + paintbrush/toothpicks 1} Use your small drill bit to create holes where you'd like them placed in the stick 2}If needed, sand off any rough edges 3} Get creative & paint any pattern you like! {Here are some ideas ----> 1 , 2 , 3 } 4} Once paint is dry, thread the chain or ribbon through the holes you drilled. How you do this & how the sticks lay is up to you. I used two small circles just below the upper stick to keep it from laying right next to the lower stick. Since my necklace was long enough to fit over my head, I didn't need a clasp but you can find those {as well as the chain & circl...

one sunshiny weekend towards the middle of august, anna & i set off to do some exploring, experience a little italian culture & soak up some beautiful art. little italy was celebrating the feast of assumption  so the streets were lined with italian food vendors from all over the city! what better way to experience a culture, right?! after walking around a bit, we discovered a 3-story-church-turned-antique-store which was jam-packed with anything & everything. we poured through rooms of treasures, amazed at all they had under one roof! after we finally pulled ourselves away from all of the interesting things in that shop & toured a few small galleries, our focus was on finding something to eat.  it took some time to decide what we wanted due to so many options but in the end, we each got to try yummy new foods:) ravioli & a cannoli for anna, eggplant rollatini & tiramisu for me. the cleveland museum of art was next on our list and we managed to ...