Author: Elicia Wetstein

fika

food, thoughts, words

Kinfolk Magazine. A publication from creatives across the world. Like a small book. Published 4 times a year, and chock full of good reads, spread with dreamy and gorgeous photos, and dripping with inspiration.

Fika // going out for coffee, a Scandinavian term. This article in Kinfolk Vol. 1 resonated with me, perhaps because I’m Swedish, perhaps because I love friends, and perhaps because I love sharing food with friends. Perhaps a bit of all three. Fika is about coffee being more than just a quick caffeine fix; it’s about stopping and appreciating the moment of togetherness.

source: kinfolk magazine

walking on clouds

how-to, photos

The next color I wanted to paint my shoes was turquoise. Mint green is my favorite ever, even more that coral or rust red or mustard or that perfect dusty blue. MY FAVORITE EVER. I’ve gotta say, I think I like these shoes even more that the coral ombre ones.

[I make these shoes primarily because I love to – but also because I sell them in an online shop for handmade items. My sister and I are known on Etsy as The Moose and The Owl. www. themooseandtheowl.etsy.com ]

So I made it mint green over the toe of the shoes, to switch up the way I painted the lights and darks.

turquoise ombre keds

turquoise ombre keds

turquoise ombre keds

turquoise ombre keds

turquoise ombre keds

farmers market explorations

a day in the life, photos, stories

A group of friends and I  trekked downtown on our city’s public transportation, and we explored the farmers market! The last time I had been was years ago -and I remember it as wonderful and magical, so I was hoping it would live up to my expectations. It did! But I will begin at the start of our journey. We met at the DART rail station around 8am, bought the passes, and hopped on the train. My sister and I had made scones to share as we rode. Oops, we forgot about the no food and drinks rule. Riding the Green Line through the trees and neighborhoods, the view out our window transitioned to the downtown city. We passed a few corner coffee shops and cafes and rode through a few stations before departing at the St. Paul Station. We then walked down about a mile to the farmers market.
dallas farmers market


dallas farmers market produce

The color, the fragrance, the noise of all the shoppers…
dallas farmers market : berries


railway birds

I came home with a bag full of fresh local produce, yum.

my handpainted shoes

photos, stories, words

These shoes… I never imagined what they would do! I hand painted these coral ombre sneakers for a friend, because I wanted to give her a unique gift. Before I gave them away, I took some photos of them. I thought I might list them on my Etsy shop, just to see if anyone would be interested. They were fun to make, so why not? They sat in the shop for a few weeks, mostly unnoticed; a few views, favorites, and treasuries here and there.

Some time later, an ecstatic email from my sister popped up in my inbox. She forwarded an Etsy Finds newsletter to me and across the top she said “YOU ARE ON HERE!!!!!!!”

The result of my excitement? Jumping up, dancing around the house, telling everyone… never did I imagine one of my items would be in the Etsy newsletter!  I was so excited.

Now this little pair of shoes has thousands of views, hundreds of favorites, and is in dozens of treasuries. And I’ve had a few sales too :)

And then last week… I discovered that my shoes were in Etsy’s 4th of July newsletter too!

coral ombre canvas shoes

http://www.etsy.com/listing/98170151/coral-ombre-fade-sneakers

this year’s garden

a day in the life, food, photos

We have lots of things growing. Herbs, beans, swiss chard, radishes, red cabbage, cantaloupes, and TOMATOES. My word, do we have tomatoes. We probably pick almost a pint each day!

cherry tomatoes

one day's harvest

These homegrown tomatoes… they are the ones that I ate and enjoyed. That moment when I ate a tomato and enjoyed it… radical and life changing. (To properly understand this, you must realize that for all of my life I’ve despised eating raw tomatoes. No longer!)

morning glories

I always grow morning glories in my herb garden.

morning glory vines

Just a few days ago we cut up and ate this cantaloupe.

homegrown cantaloupe

The taste of homegrown food… there’s nothing better.

of chocolate cake

a day in the life, recipes, stories, words

So: this is mostly for my future reference. Or just to get this out of my head.

It’s ridiculous how many links I follow to find crazy things on the web… and I can never remember how I find things!

Like, I almost went through 16 pages of chocolate cake recipes on Bon Appetit because I thought that’s where I found the recipe for my chocolate birthday cake back in February…. and then I realized where the recipe actually was. On the recipe blog of this cool girl who lives in NYC and shoots all her food photos WITH FILM. So impressive. They’re beautiful photos. But, that’s where the chocolate cake recipe was from. The enormous, three layer, batter too big for the bowl cake. Right here. And the tinier vanilla three layer cake I made that for that party also was from that blog. My cake was small because I think I 2/3rds the recipe or something. (I am aware that the above sentence is not proper grammar.)

It was a great party, by the way. My 18th birthday, it had to be good. Go stalk my celebrations here.

And since I’m talking recipes: these are the best brownies ever, and this pie is amazing. And my Mom made a granola recipe from the Bon Appetit magazine today, and it made me so happy. Surfers Granola, accompanied by Surfin’ USA by the Beach Boys.

My goodness this post is quilted with links. Did you know that all of the fireworks in San Diego went off at once? HAH

Happy July, enjoy your summer, and don’t forget to wear your sunscreen! (Today was Safety Day at the pool… I’m a swim instructor. It’s great.)

handpainted canvas shoes :: coral ombre

a day in the life, how-to, photos, words

I love the ombre trend. And coral too! So I combined these two beautiful things in a pair of handpainted shoes that I made for a friend.

coral ombre canvas shoes

It was extraordinarily easy. I basically did a coral base coat, then while it was still wet (so the paint could mix a little) I layered the white paint. At the local craft store I got the brush-on permanent, washable fabric paint that I used(Tulip brand soft paint, in Velveteen Red and Matte White.) Then I just touched up the areas that needed it.

I didn’t even tape anything off, I just freehanded everything. For clean up, I used nail polish remover and a Q-tip to wipe off the paint that had migrated onto the rubber sole and the holes for the shoe laces.

Coral shoes! I need to make some for me now.