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Recently I bought a whole heap of washi tape at Target so that I could use it as a final touch on my packaging for my outgoing orders. I tie up each of my orders with twine and use a button for the knot. Then I slip one of my business cards under the twine. However, I was always worried that the card would get lost in the mailer and that my customers wouldn't get to enjoy the little note I had left for them on the back of the card. So enter washi tape as a cute little way to attach my business card.


I had just finished packaging up an order with washi tape when a thought crossed my mind. Why not make stationery that looks like a little name card has been taped to the flat note? Enter this new set of stationery.


These are probably the most girly flat notes I've designed in my entire life. Easily. And as we all know, I'm not one to be super girly. However, this design just needed to be made. It is one of those designs where a vision of how it was supposed to look flashed through my mind.  And you know what? After the final product was finished, it looked EXACTLY like my quick two second vision. Awesome. It isn't every day that that occurs, but when it does, it is definitely something to be happy about.

It has been hot. And when I say hot, I mean the Baltimore kind of hot where there is so much humidity in the air that your skin pores can breath the instant you step out of the air-conditioned house. Combine the humidity with 95 degree, 99 degree heat index temps at 11:01am (yup, I'm writing this as we speak and have pulled up weather.com because I'm a weather nerd like that) and you are going to die when you walk out of that house. Well, you probably won't die, but it will at least feel like death until you are back in the A/C with an ice cold glass of water.

Yesterday, I did what any normal and sane person would do-- I played softball in this kind of weather. I was standing in the dugout, yes, just standing, and I felt the sweat drip from my forehead three minutes into the game. I did not die, thanks to chugging three bottles of water that were readily available, but once I got home and needed to make dinner, I didn't want to move a muscle.

These kinds of days happen more often than not in Baltimore. It is a shame because you know how much I love spending time outside. Luckily, believe it or not, our roof deck is the coolest place you could possibly find outdoors in this kind of weather. It has a nice breeze and the humidity is not nearly as bad. Plus there are usually no bugs. None of those awful mosquito bites!

So what to do for dinner on a night like this? Crock pot it up early on in the day, cook some corn really quickly, throw some greens on a plate, grab a good ol' IPA and you have a delicious dinner on a breezy roof deck.


This was the perfect summertime roof deck dinner. The baked bean casserole is a super easy recipe that my mom used to always make. It's a recipe that you usually bake, but in an attempt to avoid the heat of the oven I decided to try making it in the crock pot earlier in the day. Best idea ever. It turned out just as perfectly and left me with the chance to be lazy and enjoy summer break while it simmered in the crock pot.

Round-Up Bean Casserole

Fry together:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 onion, diced

In your crock pot, mix a can of kidney beans, butter beans, and pinto beans. Mix together with meat and onion and the following mixture:

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• salt to taste

Set your crock pot to high and cook for 2 hours. Stir the casserole and cook at low or warm until ready to serve. If you choose to go the baked route instead, mix everything in a casserole dish and bake at 350 for an hour.

This casserole can serve as the perfect main course along with some other veggies, or as a baked bean side at a barbeque.

And as with any roof deck dinner, you can't forget to enjoy the sunset as an after dinner treat.


What summer foods have you been cooking up lately?

Today's design was one that I'd thought about doing for quite some time after I had made these record cards. I finally decided to get my butt in gear and conjured up a birthday card that many of you will probably enjoy (as long as you're old enough). It has to do with cassette tapes. Yup. I was one of those kids that had a blank tape sitting in my tape recorder/radio and would run to press record when one of my favorite songs came on the radio. **True story and side note: Once I listened to said cassette tapes years later and one of them had basically this song, this song, and that song on repeat.** Anyway, it was only natural for me to make this fabulous card.

And for those of you that actually watched the videos and listened to the songs I mentioned in my side note-- I am sorry. That will probably be ten minutes of your life that you'll never get back. And no, I don't know what is going on in the SWV video either. I wish I knew.

I love simple design. While I browsed through my seemingly endless collection of card stock, I stumbled across a retro patterned mustard yellow card stock that instantly jumped out at me. I was immediately inspired to create something simple. I paired the patterned paper with a dark gray {happy birthday} and a sea blue envelope.

I knew that while I only had enough card stock to make four of these cards, that I had to make them anyway. Sometimes a design just needs to be created. And sometimes there is something really awesome about knowing there are only four of these cards out there in this big world.

This past weekend was full of jet engines. Actually, it was full of jet engines Thursday and Friday too. The Blue Angels were in town for the Sailabration and lucky for us we got to enjoy their show from the roof top deck. In order to get enough momentum for their tricks down by the water, they used the air space directly above us as their flight path. Something about the proximity of the planes and their maneuvers were completely mesmerizing.

On Saturday, we had a few friends over to catch them in action while avoiding the crowds of the harbor. Sunday, Andrew and I couldn't help but watch the whole performance again. All said and done, they performed tricks and flew about the city for nearly an hour before disappearing back into the horizon.


It was all very fun while it lasted, but yesterday I was finally able to enjoy a quiet, peaceful, jet engine free day again. And that, my friends, was pretty fabulous too. :)