I am pretty obsessive with food. Obsessive is the second cousin to compulsive. Each one has its own foibles and both are equally annoying to the people closest to you.  By obsessive, I mean that I get stuck on a certain type of food and will want to eat it every.single.day.  For the last month it’s been a trifecta–chips, salsa and guacamole–homemade of course. I finally had to quit cold turkey after my husband gave me this “compliment”, words spilled from his mouth that no woman ever wants to hear–“Wow hon, your a@! looks great in that skirt, it’s so high (not bad) and wide.”  And wide?!  Is he crazy?  I badgered him for about 48 hours on exactly what did that mean? I shudder.  Needless to say I am off the chips and guac. I am still obsessed with salsa. My new food obsession happened on a whim.  I was at the grocery store picking up ice cream for my husband and saw a box of natural coconut pops, I threw them in my basket and thought nothing of them; in fact they sat in my freezer for a whole week (unfathomable now).  When I did take that first bite one blisteringly hot evening, my tastebuds danced then sang ‘hallejullah’, my brain quickly added ‘obsession no. 1, 346, 187’ to the long food list. I went through the box as quickly as I had bought them, at 120 calories I wasn’t doing too wrong by my ‘wide’ behind, but my miniscule budget was taking a hit.  That’s when I decided to see if I could make my own but better. I do afterall have about 40 pounds of frozen strawberries from our berry picking foray. I did a quick search and gasped with delight when I saw that Ez’s Creature Comforts blog just did a popsicle round-up, I love when the interwebs read my mind. 

You’ll need to get a mold and wooden sticks (some molds come with built-in sticks). You can also make these in papercups (if a mold is too much of an investment for a one or two time endeavor). Gather your ingredients and get to freezing! Have a great weekend! I am hoping to feed my obsession this weekend and try my hand with the frozen pop realm. I will leave you with some Popsicle recipes for inspiration:

176 homemade popsicle recipes

So here I have Set 03 of my relentless cutting + trimming of the unmounted stamp inventory.  I do believe this is the last of the unmounted sets, but I will have a few stamp designs that I actually have nice inventory on that are unmounted.  This set has 30 stamps and a lot of them are mounted on foam, not all but enough to warrant a fee increase, that foam is a lot of extra steps for little ol’ me. You will also get the little treat bags of extras. You will be able to buy them in the shop, just look under the drop down menu.  The designs that are available as unmounted singles include the Modern Scrawl Hello, Cheers!, Calligraphy notes, small Love, Thanks banner, Happy Everything. Once these are sold I highly doubt I will ever be bringing the unmounted back as I am having all my stamps pre-mounted at the rubberstamp factory and yes, if you are curious it is quite like Willy Wonka’s factory but better. If you haven’t already be sure to sign-up for the newsletter, I don’t send them out often but when I do it’s always filled with awesome discounts for you!

Are you slapping your head with your palm because this is too cute and you just can’t stand it? Me too!  This was another design that wasn’t on the roster that I felt inspired + compelled to create.  I had a t-shirt when I was in the 3rd grade that read ‘captain’ with the ubiquitous captain wheel image.  It was white with navy writing and I actually could fit into it for years, even with my Dolly Parton-esque chest (it was an extra large). It was threadbare the last time I picked it up so I donated it to Goodwill before I moved; I hear some hipster guy in the City of Angels is sporting it now.  The 3rd grade is when my love of all things nautical came into fruition and it is here to stay.  The sea is a huge inspiration for me and I am hoping it is for you as well. I have more sea faring imagery on the horizon, but for now this is my pinnacle of cute. It’s cute right? Miss Whitney + Nate are the winners of this beauty, but I have not one but several coupons for you, wha?  Exactly.  SS07 will get you 50% off this design and for all the stationery stamps that came prior I have extended the codes until August 1st.  I did this not because I am selfless, I mean I am, but I had a few hundred emails from my overseas friends (I am HUGE in Romania) that wanted an extension and who am I to say no way?   Congrats Whitney!

I love many things, on that long laundry list of loves is rain and the color navy blue, the inkier the blue the better. Whilst I was at the computer (as is my norm) I watched out my studio windows as the baby blue sky with the fluffy white clouds turned a dark, inky blue before my eyes. You can catch a fleeting glimpse of the once summer day on the lower left of the photograph.  The sky rumbled and the house shook and then the rain started to pour, a nice steady beat of raindrops on the deck below and the acres beyond.  As I was taking this all in–the majesty, the beauty, the awe inspiring scene before me I looked down and my 3lb dog George, scared as all get out, shaking like a lead singer in a Rhomba band started to pee.  I would have been more upset if I actually wasn’t so freaked out that I didn’t want to do the same. Indeed, country living is a completely different experience than urban dwelling.