I’ve blogged about my dearest friend Susan’s wedding invites & our vintage venture before. Well now this overachiever has opened up an etsy shop full of her stunning geometric moveable perfect cube necklaces. Last spring she made her first brass collection for her bridesmaids. And as if one necklace wasn’t enough for me, when she made a couple prototypes of silver versions I greedily and hastily took one for myself. For the last year I have literally gotten hundreds of compliments on the necklace. Every single time I’ve worn it (which is almost every day)- it catches at least one someones eye or they want to know where to get one. Well at last I have a place to send folks! Her shop has been open about a month and it’s doing grand so far. I think it’s because her necklaces are so totally unique and clever with a simple unfussy approachable beauty- just like the gal who makes them! Do go look at the handsomemissmock etsy shop which has necklaces in all price ranges, from $22 to $100. For the amount of labor I’ve seen that it takes to make these, I say these are quite a steal.

For our wedding present, my parents gave us a tiny half-acre of land in the Catskill Mountains. It neighbors the plot of land and rickety cabin my grandparents had that my dad & uncle now own. Since then we’ve been wistfully talking about building our own little cabin or “vintage shack haven” as I’ve been calling it. When I saw this article from the NYTimes I was instantly struck speechless with an eery feeling of kinship & admiration for Sandra Foster who has pulled off her similar dream. James is going to our land in sleepy Davenport, NY this weekend to scout and survey our prospects. I spent many of my young summer days wandering thru the tranquil woods, laying in fern patches, reading my brother’s Hardy Boys mysteries, picking wild blueberries, building rock forts, climbing trees- braiding stems of grasses and wheat. Below is a collection of treasures on Etsy that are filling my vintage cabin daydreams. Painted vintage plates, $20 each from thestorybookrabbit; fire bucket, $95 from polkadothome; bunny foo-foo wood bowl, $16 from hellovictory; vintage dutch art dust pan, $10 from makeyournest; vintage tin picnic basket, $58 from kelleystreetvintage; striped camp stool, $33 also from hellovictory; Grizzly High Five pin, $75 from touchthedutch; crewel toile pillow, $18.75 from stockintrade; Hardy Boys book $8 celebratevintage; Porcelain branch, $30 from Brooklynrehab
*Photos of Ms.Foster’s cabin are by Trevor Tondro for The New York Times

A few weeks ago I took a little trip to Philly- one of the best cities ever, in my opinion. We also took a side-trip to nearby Terrain (the garden/nursery off shoot of Anthro). They’ve stocked our cards since they opened, and I’ve heard such dear things about the place so it’d been on my list for awhile. It was pretty much magical- a plant, garden, kitchen and home version of the things that make Anthropologie so charming! We lunched at the cafe- which was breathtaking- like eating in a half forest greenhouse half memory. I was bombarded with my favorite flora friends- giant staghorns, echiveria, cut peony stems, and ferns. The shop itself is huge, it’s a bevy of really well thought out plants and garden accents- heaps of luxuirous soaps, the smartest collection of cards from many of my favorite cardmakers and more. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Philly yet because I would have severely damaged my bank account— as it is I was shocked I made it out of the place spending under $100. Definitely go if ever you have an accomodating opportunity!

…are the bestest ever. Particularly this cutest one- a professional sugar hound who always knows how to get Uncle Jimmy the enabler to cave and hand over a fix!

Yo Folks! Come see us at the 2010 Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair this weekend (June 5 + 6). I’ll be sharing a tent with The Great Lakes Goods- so we’ll be the booth filled with too much paper goodness, plethora of candy and 2 gals being too silly. Hey… it’s what we do- peddle paper, eat sugar and act the fool!! Go here for the details.