{charmed earth}

The Lifestyle blog of Katie Storms.: something simple, something sweet, something styled.

31 July 2011

{something smile and wave} giveaway on rachel's blog

This month {and next month} I decided to sponsor a blog. I wanted to advertise to draw in more readers for my blog and to attract more attention to my shop. I also got quite a thrill out of seeing my shop button in the sidebar of smile and wave's blog and clicking on it.
 I chose smile and wave because it's one of my daily reads, and I really admire Rachel's eye   for simple and inexpensive interior design {one of my summer goals}.

So head over to her blog to not only win three items from me, but a handful of other great gifts.

xoxo
katie scarlett

30 July 2011

{something chalk} back-to-school chalkboard clipboards



 Yay! Check out these sweet clipboards I've been painting and designing all week. I hope you love them as much as I do! You can even get them personalized. Just head over to my etsy shop to scope things out. More designs will be coming soon. And, if there's a design you are looking for, let me know. I will see if I can make it happen. Like magic.

xoxo
katie scarlett

28 July 2011

{something radiant} sunnies display diy






My second {exciting} etsy sale was my clothespin clips. I adore them, and I am so excited that they shipped off for Greece--one of my favorite places. Since I love my clothespin clips so much, I've been designing and planning more ways for customers to use them. That's when I thought up the {sunnies display} idea.

This summer I bought two super cute pairs of shades, both from anthropologie. I'm itching for a few more pairs now that I can stare at their beautiful loveliness in our hallway between the two bedrooms. Jv also has a quite impressive collection of aviators that are super hip.

Here's the DIY.


<< supplies for the sunnies display DIY >>: 3M strips, charmed earth clothes pins, scissors.

<< 1 >> cut your 3M strips in half with a pair of sharp scissors.
<< 2 >> stick the 3M strip to the clothespin.
<< 3 >> trim the 3M strip {if necessary}.
<< 4 >> peel off 3M strip and stick on your walls.


xo
<<< katie scarlett >>>

26 July 2011

{something travel} new orleans road trip bag


I decided something new: a new feature // travel with j&k. My first entry is what's in my bag for the car ride to New Orleans.

Teddy Bear headphones {LateToTheRevolution}. iPod with new songs. Holga {and my DSLR}. Hand sanitizer (for those gas station stops). Hand lotion in a soothing scent. Hair ties {ManeMessage}. Lip gloss. Kleenex. Bubblemint Gum. Zipper bag with lots of pens. Sketch book. Novels. Change purse. Mirror. Sunnies. Waterbottle. Planner. Handmade Marketplace.

This time, we were in the car for a total of 11 hours, with a few stops overnight along the way with family and for weddings. Chunking up the time was great, so the longest stretch was only 8 hours. I do love a road trip. Jv is a great driver, and it gives me the best excuse to use time to design, write, and organize. I love it.

Where are you headed this summer?

xo,
katie

P.S. Don't forget about the giveaway!

24 July 2011

{something instagram}: iPhone photo apps


I'm on instagram! Check me out to follow me on my travels:) You can find me at katie_scarlett.

I also just discovered one of the coolest photo apps (besides Hipstamatic, which I am heavily addicted to using everywhere I visit). The new app is ColorSplash. You can grayscale any photo on your iPhone. Then you can simply reveal the colors you want to reveal with your fingers. Genius! So much easier than those Photoshop layers!

You can see the after and before to the left. So cute:) These shots are of a trailer I discovered before a hike in Wyoming.

xo.
katie

16 July 2011

{something to read and giveaway}: bookplates in the shop


I am so excited to announce that the shop has listed its newest item: beautiful bookplate labels. They are perfect for back-to-school:) Or they are just perfect for your favorite inspiration journals, collection of poetry, or even cookbooks. They make me smile every time I look at them.

Which is why they are this week's //giveaway!// Just visit my shop online at etsy, and leave a comment below with your name, email {being sure to use the online format: katiescarlett{at}gmail{dot} com: to avoid spam}, and your favorite item in the shop.

//For an extra chance to win//, add yourself to my list of followers. Just let me know you're following me in the comments:) xo.


 You will receive these six designs if you win this awesome giveaway!




I hope you like them as much as I do! A winner will be selected at random using an online random selector. Winners will be chosen on July 30th. So you have until 11:59 pm that day to enter! Yay!

xo, katie

12 July 2011

{something wild and free}: thoreau quote


Henry David Thoreau is probably my favorite writer to quote. He's just perfect for a one-liner on a t-shirt, a tote bag, a notebook, a classroom wall, a living room wall, or a facebook wall. This one is one of my favorites: "all good things are wild and free."

Do you have a favorite Thoreau quote? Or just a favorite quote? Share in the comments below, and I will design and post my favorite Friday:)

xo.

{something delicious!}: trader joe's pizza party

 Jv and I had a Monday night pizza party last night. It was super fun. We ate our pizza, then we caught up on the Home Run derby and some HGTV Design Star.

The pizza truly surprised me. I always prefer to make my dough from scratch because it 1. tastes better, and 2. is less expensive. It does take more time  and planning. I've started to become a big fan of the bread cookbook I have: Artesian Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Their website has a lot of sweet eats, too. If you check it out, let us know if you find any good recipes in the comments section.

I decided to try something very new while I was grocery shopping that morning: olive tapenade as the sauce. So I made two halfsie pizzas. JV's homemade pie had BBQ sauce, BBQ chicken, fresh mozzarella cheese on one side; the other side had marinara sauce, pepperoni, mushrooms, meatless meatballs, and fresh mozzarella cheese. My homemade pie had olive tapenade, a few sprinkles of olive oil, and fresh mozzarella cheese on one side; the other side had marinara sauce, mushrooms, meatless meatballs, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese.

All of my ingredients, except the BBQ sauce that was a gift, came from Trader Joe's. Their meatless meatballs are healthy and great to keep in the freezer. Even JV will eat them, which means they taste close enough to the real deal.

The show stopper for this homemade pizza date party, for me, was the simple olive tapenade and fresh mozzarella cheese. Talk about amazing and delicious. I hope you can try it. Or, if you want, leave your favorite homemade pizza toppings in the comments.

enjoy!

xo,
katie

10 July 2011

{something layered}: photoshop success



Photoshop has always been a magical mystery to me. I've always wanted to discover how to create layers and overlays of my own to add to my photos. One of my favorite artists, Jessica of vol25, has a lot of tutorials, too. I'm hoping to check them out throughout this week. This lazy Sunday afternoon finally gave me the opportunity to play around. I started with this video tutorial on YouTube.



YouTube is the best place to learn how to do almost any project. Time and time again, it shows me step-by-step how to accomplish almost any project. For this project, I didn't quite master overlays, but I finally got a handle on layers. The best part was that I could pause and play they video as I tried the steps out:)

I'm simply wild about the result. And I think Vito {our bulldog} and JV are impressed too.

Now I just have to master the overlay process. The hard part is saving the layer as a PNG file. I need to research that, but if you have any overlay tips, tricks, or links, please share them in the comments.

xo,
katie

09 July 2011

{something etsy}: shop revival

The shop is filling quickly with all sorts of pretties! Check it out. And be sure to check back next week for a giveaway!

xoxx.


08 July 2011

{something's cooking}: kitchen wishlist

Yesterday I stumbled into Anthropologie to find a dress to wear to a few weddings. Then I saw their newest kitchen sweetness: owl cookie jars. I am in love.

Since I was searching online for price stats, I decided to create a kitchen wishlist:)








{something delicious}: indian inspired dinner from trader joe's

I apologize in advance if you don't have a Trader Joe's grocery store where you live. I couldn't live without one. In fact, if we ever move, JV has sworn to me that he will drive to a Trader Joe's a least once a month. He's so thoughtful.

This summer, I've been doing most of the grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, with the exception of a few items that we can't get there. And I usually only spend $50-$60 a week on groceries, including a small bouquet of flowers. I think that's pretty good if you ask me. Plus, the major perk about Trader Joe's is that it is smaller--there are fewer choices, but they are all great choices. It's like shopping at Anthropologie.
Last night I put on quite a display of an Indian inspired dinner. While I was searching for chicken breast tenders in the meat section at Trader Joe's, I stumbled across pre-marinated chicken tenders. The selections included curry, pesto, sun dried tomato, and more. Plus the bonus: they weren't any more expensive than the unseasoned chicken tenders. Plus, turns out that the entire package had 8 huge chicken tenders inside.
The rest of the menu was impromptu, and it goes as as follows: baby zucchini (they are so cute), split and sauteed in olive oil split side down; naan, warmed in the oven; quinuoa, once cooked, I added 1/2 a red onion diced, 6 or 7 baby zucchini sliced, 1T cumin, 3 T Eggplant Garlic spread, I can of chickpeas, and salt and pepper to taste. Then I sauteed the chicken tenders for about 3-4 minutes on each side in some olive oil. It was a delightful menu. We have tons of leftovers (I'm thinking this would be great during the school year). The Eggplant Garlic spread is AMAZING. It tastes wonderful on it's own as a dip for raw zucchini, Naan, or any veggie of your choosing. Yum. It's always in my cabinet.
Oh. And next time I think I am going to try my own "Cheater's Naan," as inspired by Dinner, a Love Story. She simply fried pre-made pizza dough in oil, which reminds me that I need to make pizza dough, stat. Now that sounds delicious!

I hope you can find a Trader Joe's close by--or at least a similar grocery list. This meal is worth it!

xo,
katie

07 July 2011

{something sweet}: july 4th photo shoot

My friends think I am worthy enough to snap photos of their children whenever I visit. I'm not nearly as talented as the wonderful Cheryl, but I love browsing her blog for tips and tricks. These shots are some of my favorites from out at the farm. I'll try to post more after I ask their Mama for possible permissions for faces.


xo,
katie

{something pretty}: best dressed

Senior superlatives rarely live out in life after high school. But they are a very delightful way to spend the last days with the friends you've known for near a lifetime--at that time.

The high school I teach at decided to celebrate teacher superlatives and senior superlative this year. I know it's not the cover of Vogue or People, but it still makes me smile. The yearbook was released in May, and though I knew my award, I was keeping it a bit of a secret: I'm best dressed teacher. I wore my fringe boots for the yearbook pic: they cropped them out. So I thought I'd share an outfit post I never posted---with my wonderful Frye Boots.

Dress, Forever21. Tights, Target. Cardigan, Calvin Klein 2007. Boots, Frye (gift from JV), Necklace, Polarity, designer The Nebulous Kingdom. Headband, Goody.

xoxo, katie

06 July 2011

Something Pretty: Original Street Art

I just love the satisfaction of a pretty project, a project worth all the time and mess it took to complete. This is one of those projects.

When JV and I were searching for bedding for the new bedroom makeover (we had to compromise, I didn't get my Anthropologie ruffles. I'd still wish for them as a backup:)) We started browsing through magazines. A few home decor layouts included one of my favorite trends: the large black background with places listed in bold white letters. They start at $300 for uncustomized art. I wanted custom: the places we'd visited, the places we'd lived, the places we wished to travel to. It didn't take long for me to convince myself that I could make this project.

Supplies: a can of flat spray paint, a straight edge (ruler, tape measure, flat cardboard), vinyl lettering in 4 sizes (I went with 1-inch, 2-inch, 3-inch, and 4-inch), and a large 24x48 canvas. My total supplies cost was around $50. I purchased everything at ArtMart.

At first I was going to paint the canvas all black and just add the vinyl lettering. Then I caught myself worrying that the lettering might fall off, get really gross, or just peel. So I tested a corner to see if I could spray over the letters and lift them off. Success!

Steps: Cut your vinyl letters out before sticking them onto the canvas. Cut them and stack them in piles. After the letters are cut, begin to space them out on the canvas, alternating sizes. Once you are ready, begin to peel and stick the letters, starting at the top. My attempts to keep everything perfectly straight were unsuccessful because I didn't want to grab a ruler and pencil. If you want straight letters, measure twice.

Hint: If you seem to need a letter in a certain size that is missing, just leave a gap for it. You can add it after you spray it and peel it off from another street, place, name, etc. After all of your white letters are on the white canvas, take it outside. While outside, spray paint carefully. Be sure to have a cereal box or other sheet of cardboard to cover areas you don't want to be black just yet (like those white gaps that need to borrow a letter). I sprayed areas slowly, two to three streets at a time, covering the rest with my cardboard.

When the paint dries (which takes hardly any time), peel off your letters. And viola! Instant, original, personalized street art.
What do you think? JV came home last night, and he loves the quirkyness of it. And I am very delighted with this {something pretty}.

xo,
katie

04 July 2011

Something Red, White, and Blue: Happy 4th of July

We spent the holiday in the country with our dear friends. It was a fireworks show to remember. I got lots of great pics, and I hope to post them soon.

I hope your holiday was safe and bright.

xo.

01 July 2011

Something Cotton: Lucky Year Two Wedding Anniversary




The Burger Bar is located at the Casinos in St. Louis. There, you can build your own burger--from asparagus to truffles to blue cheese, they have it all. It's one of JV's favorite spots to eat, so we spent our 2nd anniversary at the Casinos for dinner, a few slots machines, and a large, cozy, bed we didn't ever have to make:)

The traditional gift for year two is cotton;, the modern, also cotton.


JV surprised me with two cotton shirts: a Lacoste polo and my favorite Lucky Brand T. I wear it all the time. He says he had to buy it because it was on sale, and it was all me. He was right. I still wear it weekly during the summer. I adore it.

I surprised JV with a cotton shirt, too. His, also from Lucky. Nothing fancy--he's a very difficult husband to buy clothing for and get it right. But he loved the all black cotton so much he wore it that weekend.

Such sweetness. I know that cotton could be more creative, but I can't help but smile at the sweet similarity of our gifts that year.

xo,
katie