bag o' yarn

That's what I came home from the craft store with this weekend. I have many projects lined up including two gifts. The first one I'm working on is a granny square baby blanket for one of Charlie's coworkers who's having a little boy soon. I've been meaning to make a granny square throw for some time now so this is a perfect way to hone my skillz.

The color palette I'm going for with this one is this..

I like the grays and blues together. When I make a little more progress on it I'll show a photo of it.

When I make one for myself I want to try this one because I think the puff stitches look amazing and I love that color palette. I bought the pattern a while ago but haven't gotten around to making it yet. It's from the lovely blog Posie Gets Cozy.


Check it out sometime! Alicia Paulson, the woman behind the blog, and her husband are waiting to adopt a little girl. In the meantime, she is sewing up all these little dresses from vintage patterns and knitting up tiny sweaters. This lucky girl is going to have a closet full of beautiful handmade clothes by the time she gets to her new home. I can only wish I'd have the talent to do that someday. How awesome would that be?

This is another color palette that I love. It's so bright and warm. I mentioned it before here but it's definitely worthy of another mention. And I also think I know where it came from now. I can't find the exact photo anymore but I found a similar photo from Yvestown.

I also will be starting these Angry Birds soon. I saw them on Strumpet's Crumpets. (Patterns from The Itsy Bitsy Spider.) Charlie's mom is obsessed with that game and she always loves fun little things for her office. Perfect. Now when she's stressed she can throw birds at the little piggy! That's what I would be doing anyway.. build him a tower of books and then try to knock it all down.. I'd never get anything done. :)

Keeping it short and sweet today (well, sort of) because I have to go study for a midterm. Blech. I can't believe I'm halfway through my first semester of grad school already! It feels like just yesterday that my head was spinning and I finally decided that this is what I wanted to do. Nuts. Anyway, happy Monday!

february's end

At the beginning of the month I wrote this post. And I think it's safe to say that all that hard work paid off! Yes, my shop is still in the works but Indie Business 3.0 is only few days away so I'm headed in the right direction in that aspect. I've been sketching away to get product ideas out of my head and onto paper. I've been practicing techniques and making prototypes. All in all I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I wrote my February Ambitions post and I'm satisfied with that. :)

Also I've been making quite a few new bloggy friends! I've been meeting new people from Indie Biz everyday and I can't wait to have more conversations with you guys. I've also gained a nice group of friends on this here blog! As I type this I have 47 GFC friends and 13 people reading on Bloglovin. Which also lead me to this lovely surprise today..

Tenpenny Splendid was listed as an up and coming craft blog on bloglovin. :)

I've been working really hard to find my niche here in blogland and I think I'm finally finding my way thanks to a lot of feedback from new friends. You have all been so nice and supportive, I think this is a call for a giveaway to show my appreciation. :) When I figure out what it's going to be I'll let you all know.

Until then, have a great weekend! There's still time to sign up for Indie Biz if you're interested, just click the link above.

I hope this month treated you well, and here's to making next month even better!

pay it forward 2011 -CLOSED

*Edit - Thanks for participating everyone! If you missed out and want to join in check out the ladies blogs in the comments cause they'll be the next one's hosting!*


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Yesterday I was lucky enough to be one of the first five people to comment over at My Girl Thursday. Four others and myself will receive something handmade from her, and five of you can receive something handmade from me. If you don't know what Pay it Forward is, here's how it works..

* Be one of the first five people to comment on this post
* You will receive something handmade from me within the next few months
* Post about Pay it Foward on your blog/social media site of choice, and send something handmade to the first five people who comment on your post before 2011 is over. Keep the craftiness going!
* I know I've used this word like 100 times but you can send anything, big or small, it just must be handmade.
* If you want, do a follow up post and share what you get! Let's see all the crafty goodness. :)

That's it! It's a fun way to share our talents with one another. If you do want to participate and are one of the first five, please leave your email address so I can get in touch with you.

candy

Here's a small collection of vintage candy dishes and tins from around my house that I thought I'd share since they've got some pretty details. :)

This first one is an old Whitman's tin. Don't you wish things were still packaged this way? It's got a little wear to it but I think it just adds to it's vintage charm!


Here's a pretty little dish made of glass and silver. It is busy holding hershey kisses at the moment.


This is my favorite. The colors are amazing. I kind of wish it was a fabric print. The only thing I know about it is that it was made in England.


And this is another silver and glass guy. I love the little pear handle on top!


There's so much character in vintage things. Can't wait to find more!

Happy almost Friday. :)

chicken pesto calzones

I mentioned before how much we like pesto around here, so when I found this recipe for chicken pesto calzones I knew it'd be a winner. They were melty and cheesy and oh so good!

Start by making up your favorite pizza dough. I like this one.


Mix up your filling. I decided to add ricotta to the original chicken, pesto, and mozzarella in the recipe because I thought it would be a nice addition. It was. :)


I then split the dough into five pieces. Pat them out into circles and place some filling on one side.


Fold the other side over and seal up the edges. Put 'em on the pan and slide it in the oven.


Eat it as is or serve up with some tomato sauce.


I made up some spaghetti with garlic and olive oil because I wasn't sure if they'd be too small and not filling but they were just the opposite. So now there's plenty of spaghetti leftover for lunch. :) But here it is anyway.

Yum.


Chicken Pesto Calzones
adapted from My Kitchen Addiction

prepared pizza dough
7 oz pesto
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
4 oz grated mozzarella
1 cup ricotta cheese

Preheat oven to 450F. In a bowl, combine cheeses, pesto, and chicken. Mix until well combined. Divide dough into however many calzones you need. On a floured surface, pat out dough into a circle. Scoop filling onto half of the circle. Top with a little more mozzarella and fold the other side of dough over to form a pocket. Pinch edges shut. Place calzones on a greased, or parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Enjoy!

hair dye fever

If you've known me for the past five years, you know I can't go very long with one hair color. Basically, I've been told I was born with red hair, it was brown by the time I left the hospital, and turned blonde a few months later. And blonde it remained for the next 18 years of my life. Judging by my hair's own indecisiveness when I was born, it's no surprise to me that as a young adult, this urge to change hair colors would reawaken in me and never settle down.

At 18, after being tired of paying upwards of $150 every month and half for highlights, I decided to do something drastic. I died my hair dark brown with a reddish tint. It was the most drastic thing I probably could do being in a private Catholic high school. But even this change from blonde to brown shocked just about everyone I knew. (Apologies in advance for the awful image quality.)

Taken 3 days before I dyed my hair.


This is me January of senior year before a formal.

After that, I was hooked. When I started college, I died my hair black.

I have zero good photos of myself with black hair so enjoy the side of my head :).

Shortly after, I added pink extensions.

Yea. I went through "this" phase. Sorry about the blur.

Tired of the black, I decided to go back to brown, but shorty after decided to start bleaching my hair. (My hair probably hated me at this point.) Oh and I chopped a bunch off.

This was actually a happy accident.

Eventually I got it all bleached and rocked the platinum thing for a while.

And a pomp.

Then it was time for more color. Blue this time.

This is actually way more blue than I intended on having but hey, go big or go home I guess!

I eventually bleached all the blue out, got tired of bleaching, and went back to the dark brownish red.

Crop from one of Charlie's photoshoots. :)

Then I wanted to go all red.

Desperately needing my bangs cut at my senior show.

And since red is such a royal pain to maintain, I went back to dark brown and have been that way for a while. (A while= less than a year.) :)

Present day.

And that is my array of hair colors from 2006-2011.

But I've got the urge for change again. That urge that can only be cured by a fresh color I've never tried before. This time, it's copper. Or natural red. Or whatever you would like to call it. :)

I've been compiling some inspiration because I really want to do it right. Here's some examples of the end result I would like to achieve. Some are a little darker than what I want but I like looking at the variation so I can find the *perfect* shade.

1 2 3 4

Just some of the many I've seen. I think when the weather gets warmer this will be on my agenda.

Anyone else out there who can't keep a hair color for more than a few months? What colors are you feeling right now?

where he works

Sometimes when I have nothing going on or when Charlie needs a hand in the studio, I tag along to work with him. Usually I go when he has to do an extra shoot on a Saturday but I went today just for poops and giggles. I don't think I've really gone into what he does, but he is an assistant to Trevor Dixon. Trevor's a pretty awesome Philly photographer who shoots for things like Anthropologie, Philadelphia Magazine, and Lilly Pulitzer to name a few. Check out his site and blog to see his work! Before we left today I took some photos around the studio because it's a really awesome old building. It used to be an elevator factory back in the days. It's just a really cool place in general. (image heavy)






















So that's some studio eye candy for ya there. Now I'm gonna go wear my pjs inside out because if it's going to snow tonight, it might as well be a snowday tomorrow. :)