Mid-Summer Etsy Dreams...

I haven't posted in a while because it seems the summer is whirling by. Quickly, like. I meant to post some pics of summer, evocative and nostalgia-inducing pics of my summer activites, but I just haven't gotten my shite together. Besides that I guess I don't need to be nostalgic about something that I'm right in the middle of...right? Right. So instead, I'll just post a little etsy-blurb.




First off- here's a gorgeous model from Girl Least Likely vintage shop. It's a great shop with lots of really cute and easy day dresses. But more to the point right now: I love this model's hair, and I'm bringing these pics to the hairdresser, with whom I really need to set up an appointment. I always wait until looking at my hair makes me think the words "horse's tail." Then I say to myself, yep, it's time to get a haircut. Thank you, gorgeous model-- you are so cute. And now my hair shall be, too.



And second, look at these pants from Stella McCartney. They're so great! So chic! So easy! So elegant yet practical for everyday! Would they not transform any outfit into a fabulous one? Yes, my friends, we all know they would. But, now-- look at the price. The pants are $289.49. God help me they left that one penny off from $289.50 because that's just too much. Well, they ARE on sale...from ..from -- from $965.00!! Holy ... Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Well, these pics are from the Saks Fifth Avenue website. Sale or no, it's not like I thought I could buy them anyway. But the thing is I don't see myself ever feeling like two and a half hundred would be a good price to pay for pants. With that chuck o change, I could buy at least three quarters of the first page of my favorites from etsy! And that's something I would much rather do. What would I buy? Well, i just happen to have a few ideas on the top of my head...

These beautiful seaglass earrings, from seaglassin... They're so very pretty, and the extra bonus is that they'd be so nice to the touch, too. They remind me of gumdrops. Honestly I'd probably stick them in my mouth at least once. Gumdrops, the sea, green, earrings-- so many of many favorite things. I need these earrings!



I also covet this fabulous cardigan (from Saks, nonetheless! funny.)



and perfect simple sundress, both from In The Hammock vintage...



I want this gorgeous sweater, hand-knit from RememberADay, which seems perfect for those gorgeous early fall days which I will dare say are on the way, in the distant horizon....



And this beautifully bright and fun necklace from the PolkaDotMagpie is another piece of jewelery that is a joy to the eye but also seems fun for fondling fingers....



Le sigh. Such fabulous items! And would they all added up even be as much as that one pair of Stella pants? I actually forgot about those trousers already...fade away, Stella-trousers. I 'm too obsessed with my etsy favorites!

In the shop lately...

...summer shop preparations....

Iced Coffee. A Reason To Live.

I live in Rhode Island, and here in the tiniest state in the Union, they suckle their babies on none other than iced coffee. Well, I missed out on the suckling because I was born, but not raised here, yet here I have resided for the past three years or so, and I must pat myself on the back for true Rhode Island-ness, true acclimation, because-- I've come up with a really good iced coffee recipe. The morning I inexplicably came up with this concoction, I surprised myself. It is just so good. It is surprisingly good. This iced coffee makes you instinctively close your eyes upon first taste, then open them really wide, and exclaim to yourself or someone around you something like this, WHICH IS AN ACTUAL QUOTE!- from someone who did just that:

"This is the best iced coffee I've ever had in my life."

Yes. So please, watch this tutorial, and try it at home. (I'm a big fan of the Pioneer Woman. She pioneered this awesome picture-heavy step-by-step recipe technique. I follow here in her cowgirl-boot footsteps.)



Step one. Get a mason jar. It makes the coffee a lot easier to make, and foamy, too. I didn't have any mason jars, due to the fact that I take salad dressing and ...iced coffee...to work in them, and then leave them in my car to get nasty in the sun. So, I'm just using a glass.



Ingredients needed: soy milk (I love Silk brand), instant coffee, (however in most things I am strictly store brand) and sugar. Also ice cubes, of course. On a sidenote, I was a little apprehensive to put the sugar horizontal, like pictured, lest it spill out somehow. But as you can see, the sugar, surprisingly, did not move from its place when tipped on its side. It's humid in Rhode Island! Anyway. That's just one more reason to drink iced coffee.

So, step two, and admiring nails en route: get a heaping tablespoon of sugar...





and put in in your jar or glass.



Take a tablespoon of instant coffee and add it to the glass.



Add a little soy milk



Stop to admire the sludge...



Stir it up...



Add a little more soymilk...



and stir, or screw on the jar lid and shake. If you are stirring this mixture in a glass, the next step is to wish you had gone to your car to get your jars and clean them to make this, because it's a lot easier to get so deliciously foamy when shaking, and here in this glass you have to delicately, yet in a frenzy, stir until most of the black dots of instant coffee are gone. However, with patience, it will happen. It's worth it. Those forty seconds. It is worth it.

Once that mixture has all become one add more soymilk, and ice.



Take a sip.

Pause.



Good God. That's some amazing iced coffee! UGH! It's so good. Really. Please try it.
It will add delight to your life. Or at least your summer morning.