Etsy Project

I recently had my first custom order in my etsy shop!

A friend of mine's mom asked me to make a pillow for her daughter in the University of Akron's colors, where she is attending graduate school. I was very excited to make a unique gift for someone!

I really like these colors together!

What color combinations would you like on a pillow?





Race for the Cure

Well, life happened. And I got blindsided.

But I made it through two extremely long weeks and lived to tell the tale. Whew.

Yesterday, though, it was an honor to run with over 5,000 other runners in the South Carolina Mountains to Midlands Race for the Cure in memory of an extraordinary woman - Beth Newdome - my violin professor at Florida State.

(photo by Lea Gallardo)

To read more about Beth and my inspiration for running and training for a marathon, go here. She will always be an inspiration in my life, and I felt much stronger with her picture and name on my back as I ran.

I also ran in celebration of my Aunt Maria and Diana, who has cut my hair for almost my entire life, both of whom are survivors of breast cancer.

If you would like to make a donation to the Race for the Cure, you can click here to visit my personal page and support a very worthy cause.

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!



Indie Craft Parade: Take 2

Apparently the Indie Craft Parade was highly successful...because I wasn't successful in getting in last night. The line was well out the door!

So my family and I decided to go eat downtown, and we ended up at Trio, which serves some of the best Italian food in Greenville. And fortunately (unfortunately for my waistline?), my favorite restaurant in Greenville, Coffee Underground, is directly across the street from Trio. Underground, of course.

I had their chocolate chip pecan pie and a mocha for dessert. Be jealous.

Luckily, the Indie Craft Parade was going on today as well, and despite a half hour wait in the rain, I finally made it in! There were so many fun crafts to peruse!

There were also food vendors, and I bought cupcakes from FiggyWhigs Cupcakes.

Yes, please.

I also bought a necklace from Going Home to Roost and this bag because the elephant is so darn cute...

Since I've started writing more letters recently, I bought some stationery, too. And I can write whatever I want in that cute little elephant's banner!

Speaking of letter writing, I've been getting a start on some of my Spread the Love projects.

I cooked dinner for my parents Tuesday night (chicken, carrot, and snow pea pasta), got a letter in the mail to Bruce, the chaplain at Silver Bay, sent a note of thanks to the personel manager of the Hendersonville Symphony, and started work on a few necklaces for some friends. I'm eager to get started on the others!

And speaking of Spread the Love, doesn't the foam on my coffee last night look like a heart?

How fun is that?!?

Indie Craft Parade

I'm off to the Indie Craft Parade!

I'm so excited!

Michelle from blue moss will be there, and I'm looking forward to actually meeting another blogger in person!

Isn't their banner so cute!?

If you're in the Greenville, South Carolina area tonight or tomorrow, come check it out!

Spread the Love

First of all, I have a new header. What do you think?

I'm still deciding...

Now on to Spread the Love!

Melissa, over at Oh, My Darling, has inspired many bloggers to share some love and kindness with other people in their lives through her Spread the Love week. It has been a reminder for me to take some time to reach out to others, do a little something for them, and hopefully make the world a bit brighter and happier place. I have come up with a list of ten things, most of which I can accomplish in the next week, to help Spread the Love.

(Tangent: I have discovered that spread is a strange word if you think about it for too long.)

Anyhow...

1. Send cookies to a friend from Silver Bay. I had time to pop in World Market the other day to buy British cookies to send to a friend who shares my love of England.

2. Send necklaces to friends. I've been making some necklaces in cheery colors that I want to send to some friends as a fun surprise.

3. Send a note to the chaplain at Silver Bay. I just want to send Bruce a note telling him that I enjoyed my experience at Silver Bay, that I feel lucky to have met him, and what an inspiration he is.

4. Send a note to my ex-boyfriend. We haven't really talked since we broke up, but I still care about him as a friend and wish him all the best.

5. Send an email or text to the organist at my church just to let her know I'm thinking about her.

6. Get notes out to all my penpals. (I'm also participating in Melissa's Dear Darlings penpal project.)

7. Buy peanut M&Ms for a friend at school. She loves them.

8. Send a note to the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra personel manager thanking her for being so welcoming and for the opportunity to play with the orchestra.

9. Make the freshmen at Converse feel welcome. I know when I was a freshman at Florida State, I was terrified of the grad students. Hopefully I'm not terrifying...

10. Cook for my mom and dad. I'm hoping to do this one when I get home from school tomorrow night.

Hopefully Spreading the Love won't last only one week!

School. Ack.

My life has reached epic proportions of busyness.

This was quite possibly the most insane first week of school ever. Thus, my absence, once again, from the blogging world. However, despite the fact that I might not sleep until December, this semester should be a fun one. I'm looking forward to playing the Brahms Piano Quintet for my graduate chamber recital (If you don't know it, go listen - right now.), teaching my eleven (!) private violin students, and getting in lots of practice time.

This week has been extra busy because I'm playing with the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra. Although rehearsals have required a lot of driving, most of the trips have been through the Blue Ridge Mountains at sunset, which makes my heart happy. This concert has been a lot fun because we're playing all Rodgers and Hammerstein. It has brought back a lot of memories - mainly the fact that I wanted (still want?) Anna's dress from The King and I.

(source)

Um, yeah - still want.

One Rodgers and Hammerstein concert down, one to go.

To bring a bit more calm into my life, I'm going to remember a bit of Silver Bay and show you the last of my pictures. Here are some of my favorite places to sit around the bay.

Sigh...

As much as I miss Silver Bay, though, I was delighted to return home to this...

...the necklace I won from Mandy at Mandy's Yellow Corner! It made me smile!

I know I haven't been blogging about crafting much recently, but I hope my photos count as one of my artsy adventures. It is something I've been wanting to work on, and I'm glad I had such a beautiful place to practice.

In Etsy news - I've had two sales in my shop! (One was my mom. Shh, don't tell.)

I also have one new necklace in my Etsy shop:

I decided to add my tatting to a necklace.

What do you think?