I’m not really a t-shirt gal. I love my Everlane plain tees, but other than that, you won’t find me in a graphic tee that often. I do have a nice stash of vintage tees that I used to wear, and some I just wear to sleep now because they’re so worn through, but my stash is mostly being saved for the girls. In fact, they wear some of them already (it’s way loose on them and was pretty form fitting on me). Lately though, I’ve been wearing a couple of my vintage tees. I like the way this vintage David Robinson shirt feels paired with this skirt.

This summer has been more fun adventures and relaxing (and wovenfolk shop stuff) than craft projects. I had a list of crafts I wanted to do with the girls, but we haven’t gotten around to it. This space has always been about things I love and have fun doing, and you’ve been getting more fashion-y post of late because I love fashion-y things too. I’m not a trend setter or a super fashion-y person, but I do enjoy dressing up. It’s a fun way to express myself, I love putting together looks, and hunting for gems at the thrift store.

A friend came early one morning to drop something off and she was surprised to find that I was already dressed up for the day. She said, “Do you always get dressed up like you’re leaving the house, even though you aren’t?!” My reply, “I do!” I think I get it from my mom; she is a get dressed up everyday type of person. She was definitely never one to leave in her workout clothes. In fact, I don’t think she owns workout clothes. My mom has always been pretty stylish and hip, so I think she loves expressing herself through clothes too.

on me: tee, vintage. skirt, vintage (vintage here, new there). shoes, loq. turquoise striped basket, wovenfolk.

I’ve expanded some WOVENFOLK goods into etsy. Besides woven baskets, I have a strong love for vintage and modern classics, so I wanted to be able to share some of those on another platform. The main WOVENFOLK shop will hold woven baskets (home goods coming soon), and the etsy will carry some other things I love. To start, I added in some non-woven goods, which will pop in from time to time, so up first are some modern minimalist earrings. Check out the shop here.

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We are so thankful that Ben’s cousin’s have a pool and it’s pretty much at our disposal anytime we want (and they spoil them with big fun floaties and water toys). Thus, we’ve been taking full advantage of it! The girls are all great swimmers, so it’s nice that I don’t have to worry so much about them. I’m not much of  in the pool person (and I’m not a very good swimmer), so I would much rather lounge by the pool. While the girls swim, I read books, catch up on emails, and when it gets to hot, I’ll sit on the edge and soak my legs and feet. If the girls had it their way, we’d be at their house every single day, but I have to remind them that I have other responsibilities to tend to, so we can’t be there all day every day. Oh to be a kid again!

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Let’s chat a teensy bit about makeup. I don’t wear much (well, it isn’t much to me, but if you’re used to nothing on your face, then it’s a lot), mostly because I don’t know how to put things on. For one of my winter formals in high school, I got in a big fight with my mom, who is pro at makeup (she once did MaryKay), so she didn’t do my makeup. I ended up doing it myself, and it looked bad. Blending, contouring, where to put things on the eyelid, I had no clue about those things then, nor do I now. So… my makeup routine consists of argan oil on face, sunscreen, fill in the brows (because I have very light caterpillars), brush blush on both cheeks, curl the lashes and brush on mascara, and then some color on the lip (not every day). Everything in that order. Well, sometimes the lip gets done in the car. At a red light.

I’ve slowly started incorporating makeup with much more natural ingredients, and doing away with others filled with things I can’t even pronounce. I still have to phase out my current brow filler and mascara to something with natural ingredients (anyone have suggestions?), but I’ll get there soon (just want to finish what I have first). For blush, I use HAN Skin Care in coral candy. It gives a nice hint of pink with a bit of bronze; it smells good too. You just need a light dusting to get some color, and I’ve been using it for 7 months now, and still have not run out. I really like it and am happy with this product. I would definitely order this again, but I am curious about how a cheek gel might work (never tried it before), so once I’m done with this one, I might try one of those out.

For lipstick, I switched over from MAC to Kosas Cosmetics and was immediately impressed with it. I need something creme based, so this has worked really well for my lips. My skin and lips tend to be on the dry side (and very sensitive), so creme based lipsticks are must for me. I use “thrillest” for when I want a red lip, and “rosewater” for a natural pink. I’ve used “electra” for a red lip in the past, but I like the hint of orange in “thrillest” better.

That’s pretty much my makeup routine! If I have something fancy to dress up for, I’ll do cat eyes with eyeliner. Then, for my hair, I do this. And actually, if you watched the video, I no longer heat curl my hair. I wash my hair at night, let it dry completely, put it in foam rollers, and take them off the next morning… voila! My face and hair probably takes about 10 minutes, 15 max. Clothes is a different story, sometimes that takes me awhile.

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Thsee photos are from a couple weeks ago because my hair is still really long here (I chopped about 6 inches off, and I miss this length, but I don’t miss all the fried ends). This dress is one of my most favorite vintage finds of late. The dress is quite large, but that makes it even more perfect. I don’t let size stop be because if it’s too big, I can always sew it to make it fit. In this case, I love the loose, flowy vibe of it, and of course, I love the golden hue. No sewing necessary on this one. It’s not a color I wear often, but I’m trying to branch out past my creams, blues, and browns. This dress will take me into fall nicely and I can’t wait to pair it with some ankle boots.

I still have my love for sewing rope baskets (see past ones I made here and here) and this particular one is inspired by the Birkin basket I love so much. It has a similar shape and I’m debating making a lid for it too. I love making these so much that a few of these might make its way to WOVENFOLK from time to time.

on me: dress, vintage (similar here and here). shoes, loq. earrings, annie costello brown. basket, made by me.

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Hi all! It’s Ben again, here to share about some gardening… I needed to start some seeds I’d received for a Mexican garcinia (Luc’s mangosteen) tree. Our seed starting tray has 72 slots and I only needed 10 of them for these seeds. So, I grabbed a stack of really old seed packs and decided to roll the dice.

A few years back, I’d ordered some gardening supplies from an online vendor and I received some free seeds as a promotion; one of them was for a “Big Max Pumpkin.” Tomato plants have always consumed any available summer real estate for gardening, so pumpkins (and any other summer vegetable for that matter) weren’t a priority and continued to age in the hot garage.

When I looked at the “plant by” date, it said in big bold letters, “2013.” Oh well, I needed to plant the Mexican garcinias anyways, so Soul, Glow and I used 6 of the slots to plant 12 seeds (we did 2 seeds per slot).

After about a week, 3 of the slots had germinated (in one of them, both seeds took)! So, 2 weeks later, Soul and Glow transplanted them into the ground and they’re loving the heat. I gave Soul and Glow full responsibility of these little plants and they’ve been watering them every other day and made some super cute signs for their “Pumpins!” Pumpins. Too cute!