Favorite Places: Haddonfield

Every summer my friend Maggie and I go into Haddonfield for an afternoon to have some tea and go window shopping. This summer we almost thought we'd have to skip out, but managed to fit the excursion in just a week before Maggie goes back to UD early for band camp!

When we got to Haddonfield, which is right next to Cherry Hill--just a ten minute drive from Maggie's house, we headed for the Picket Fence on Kings Highway for some afternoon tea!

We picked a great day to walk around Haddonfield. It was sunny outside, with just the right amount of clouds.  Not too hot, not too cold, and a nice breeze blowing around!

The Picket Fence's tea room is separated from the store by a white picket fence, and it's painted to look like a garden scene. Some people say it's a bit much...but I think it's just right!

One of the things I love about the Picket Fence is their collection of teacups and saucers. I've been there too many times to count, but I've never used the same cup twice!  

Maggie is very excited about tea!

I ordered my favorite tea--ginger pear!

This tea room doesn't use tea bags!  Fun fact: when you use a tea bag, the tea leaves don't get to expand so their flavor doesn't get fully steeped. Here they pour the water over loose tea leaves in the teapot, and then when you pour the tea over a strainer placed on top of the cup! So fancy, and so much more flavorful. I only needed one cube of sugar for my tea!

I also ordered a scone because YUM.

Pinkies out!

Maggie told me that the signal for "I'm done with my tea" is to turn the cup upside down and place the spoon on top. I don't know if that's true...but I went with it! 

After tea time, we spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping down Kings Highway, and looking around some of Haddonfield's specialty shops.

Halloween stuff already?? Maybe Halloween comes early in Britain.

It looks like Hickory!!

I'm thinking of replacing my bedroom window with this stained glass vineyard themed one.

Roosters for Melissa.

I don't know if you can tell, but this bottle is GIANT.

This shop had a lot of bunnies.

We finished up window shopping, and stopped by the dinosaur statue (they found dinosaur fossils in Haddonfield and named the dinosaur after the town!) to pay our respects. And also to get to the cupcakery next door!

Indulgence Cupcakery specializes in these delicious miniature cupcakes. 

You would think that less cupcake means less excitement, but that is not so! Somehow they manage to make their cupcakes super moist, and their frosting light and flavorful. And there's always a little bit of filling in each cupcake to keep things interesting. SO GOOD.

I decided to get a mango cheesecake cupcake and a salted caramel chocolate cupcake. I think picking a favorite cupcake would have to be like picking a favorite child...only harder because I don't have children.

After nomming on our cupcakes we headed back to Cherry Hill and called it a day! I'm glad we waited until August to go into Haddonfield, because the weather was nice and mild. Such a lovely summer afernoon!

Vlog Tuesday: Room tour!

Okay okay yes, this is a little late, but the video took forever to load on Youtube!  Besides, I changed the timestamp to make it look like I posted this on a Tuesday.  So I didn't really miss my deadline.


As promised, I did a room tour as my vlog for today!



It's a little on the long side (16 minutes...yikes!!), but if you don't feel like sitting through the whole thing you can definitely feel free to skip around.  I got a little carried away talking about EACH AND EVERY PART OF THE ROOM in detail.  So maybe you'll appreciate it...or maybe you will hate it.  WHATEVER I DIDN'T DO IT FOR YOU.

Sorry.

Also try not to get motion sickness from my shaky-hand-Cloverfield-style camerawork.  I think that's why I had so much trouble getting the picture to focus.  Laaame.

For those of you who don't have time to watch the video, here is a panoramic photo of the finished room!

I finally mastered the panoramic feature on my phone's camera.

The reason why I decided to redo this room was because I am planning (*crosses fingers*) to move back home and find a job in the South Jersey area after graduation.  I feel like I'm taking a big risk by putting so many eggs in one basket (I mean...not ALL of the eggs), but this is where I feel at home...so this is the plan for now.  Who knows how I'll feel in a year, though.  Maybe I'll feel compelled to move far from home...or maybe my job search will just take me there whether I want it to or not.  I know that I can't really guarantee that I'll end up working/living in this area, but this room (along with the other benefits of living at home) are definitely incentive to try and stay.  I have a feeling that this upcoming year of blogging will be documenting some big life changes and some tough decisions.  With the completion of my room, I feel like summer is ending...and winter is coming*.  Yeah, I went there.


*I've been watching Game of Thrones a lot.  I'm halfway through the second season and it's only been a week. DON'T JUDGE ME.

Transformation Tuesday: DIY Projects

From now on, Transformation Tuesdays don't have to happen on Tuesdays.  Transformation Sunday just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.  Get over it.


I am OFFICIALLY FINISHED with all of my DIY projects!  It only took me like...the entire summer.

If you need to refresh your memory, I wrote a post back in July about all of the projects I took on.  You can read that here.

I finished a few simple projects to incorporate more of the coral color into my room.  I bought these metal desk organizers that were originally white, and decided to spray paint them coral since my lamp was turquoise.  I also bought this awesome rotating earring stand from amazon that was originally copper, but I primed and then spray painted coral as well.  In the process I managed to also paint the back porch coral, but such is life.  I also went to Home Depot and bought a sample size of coral wall paint, and used that to make those three stenciled canvases.  They're on display above my bed, and it filled the empty space above my bed that was desperate for some wall art.

These are the finished bedside tables!  I'm really pleased with the way they turned out.  I bought a sample size of turquoise/aqua paint from Home Depot and used that for the turquoise drawer and the stenciling on the white drawer.  I didn't want either drawer to be too overwhelmed with their new colors, so I figured stenciling would diffuse the colors a bit.  I also got to use the stencil from the canvas.  To make the stencil fit the drawer, I just taped off a couple of sections.  Overall I think they balance out the white and the turquoise, and have a nice touch of symmetry.

Also, I think there is a lot to be said about what the simple change of a knob can do to the overall effect of a piece of furniture.  Seriously.  I can't stop changing the knobs on things.  I THINK I HAVE A PROBLEM.

The biggest pain-in-my-ass project that I took on was this chair that I got from Goodwill for $3.99.  I saw a lot of potential in this chair, and was really into the fact that it was a coat of paint away from vintage.  I just forgot about the fact that chairs don't magically go from crappy-thrift-store to vintage-makeover in one day.  This was a long and tedious process.

The first thing I did was remove the cushion, tighten up some of the screws to make the frame sturdier, and then sand it down.  I didn't get any of this process, but trust me...you're not missing anything glamorous.  I spent a couple of days priming, painting, and clear-coating the chair to get it to look like an intentional piece of furniture instead of just a makeshift desk chair.  I really love how the white turned out.  I think it suits the frame!

Counter-clocwise from the top right: Ew, ew, ew, FINALLY.

The next step was to prep the seat for some new upholstery.  This part was even less glamorous than the lest, yet somehow I managed to remember to take pictures.  As you can see, the yellow faux-crushed-velvet was quickly disposed of only to reveal...EVEN UGLIER FABRIC.  After I removed the final layer of dirty old upholstery (accompanied by a sad, flat, paper-thin layer of cushioning), I used the base of the seat to trace a new cushion out of this RANDOM FOAM LYING AROUND IN OUR ATTIC.  My dad somehow snagged this from some kind of furniture supply warehouse or something.  I don't know.  But it is super dense and supports my lil' tush and is much much MUCH better than the old cushion.

I'm sure my mom appreciated me using her very nice serrated knife to slice an inedible cushion for upholstery.

Since the block of foam was a little too thick and needed to be cut to size, I hacked away at it using a serrated bread knife.  I hear that carving knives work well, too.  

I probably could have skipped the step where I thinned out the cushion if I had bought a block of high-density foam that was the right size from Joann Fabrics, since it was only like $6.99  But $6.99 is still more expensive than free, so I went ahead and put in the extra effort.

Not pictured: my sweat and tears and anxiety.

The next thing I did was attempt to upholster the chair.  Unfortunately, I am a wimp and did not have the strength to use the staple gun while stretching the fabric out enough to tightly cover the chair.

My dad is a bit of a perfectionist.

So my dad stepped in and did the job waaaay better than I could.

`

I forgot to take a picture of the finished cushion all by itself, but here is a picture of it in the frame of the chair.  I think it looks awesome!  I am super in love with this coral damask fabric, which my mom ordered on fabric.com.  We're also going to use it for window treatments, but I'm not worrying about that right now!  I tried to use a part of the pattern that was less obvious, mostly because I couldn't cut too far into the fabric because we need it for curtains.  But I can't believe how good it looks!

It took me kind of a while to get the ball rolling, but the transformation is pretty amazing.  And I'm sitting on it right now as I'm writing this entry, and LET ME TELL YOU HOW HAPPY MY BUTT IS.  That old cushion was pretty sad.

Expect a room tour soon!  I'm FINALLY FINISHED with my room.  FINALLY.

Paint by Numbers

It's technically still Thursday on the West Coast!  I DON'T OWE YOU PEOPLE ANY EXPLANATIONS.

All summer my friends and I have been dying to go paint pottery and drink sangria.  This summer has been kind of weird and disjointed for all of us because we all had real things going on--jobs, internships, study abroad trips, and all that other good stuff.  So find a date when we could all get together and do these two things that everyone wanted to participate in was tough.  We never really found the perfect date, but we managed to fit the two events into one pottery-painting-sangria extravaganza.

All Fired Up in Collingswood has these things called "Diva Night" which is basically like a wine and cheese hour with pottery painting.  Since none of us could go to the actual scheduled Diva Night this summer, we opted to go tonight and make our own Diva Night and bring a bottle of sangria and some cheese and crackers with us.

Ahhh yess.  Pre-made sangria, ritz crackers, and sliced colby.
A feast fit for true queens.

They set us up in the party room, since we had called ahead.

Party room, indeed,

We picked out our pieces and got to work!

My friends are pretty focused painters.

I opted to paint a mug, since the last mug I painted with my friends got knocked over while I was dying of strep throat.  I also picked this cute little bowl, because I like bowls.  I don't know why...I just...I just love bowls, OKAY??

Yummyyyy

My friend Brooke always uses really cool techniques when we go to paint pottery.  This time she did this technique where you blow into some watered down paint with a straw, and it creates bubbles.  You place your item on top of the bubbles to transfer, and after they pop this is what it looks like:

Isn't that so cool??

HOOT HOOT.  Cute cute!

Naomi was skeptical about her artistic abilities, but she managed to make this adorable owl plate using a stamp!

Meredith, Amanda, and Naomi were all pleased with their finished products.  Meredith went with stamps and sponges, and Amanda got creative and did some fun color blending.

Meredith clearly has no sympathies for Tori.

Tori agonized for a really long time over what to do with hers.  She worked down to the wire!  In the end she wound up with a really awesome bowl...

Definitely worth the stress!  I think this was one of my favorite pieces from the night.

For the mug, I made it pretty similar to the one that broke.  It's not my best work, but it definitely represents my usual level of artistic talents.

I tried to do something a little more ambitious with the bowl....

I mean, I wouldn't sell it at a craft fair or anything, but I'm pretty proud of it!

After we finished up at All Fired Up, we headed back to Amanda's house for sangria night.

I made this white peach and berry sangria that was so so so delicious.  I am a sucker for white wine.  And white sangria is basically just juice.  Delish!

Amanda and her mom made some red sangria.
Very strong, and very delicious!

Tori wanted to improve my picture.

Fun squiggly wine glasses!!

h0tt1eZ

Those apple slices were deadly!!

We asked Amanda's dad to take a picture of us, and he left us with this hilariously bad photo.  Before we could even ask him to retake it, he was out the door!

He even told us that "it looked great"

We asked Amanda's mom to take another picture for us later in the night.  This one turned out much better!

Except for Meredith.

I'm at the tail end of summer, and I feel pretty good about it.  I was really productive all summer, and I spent time with friends from home and family.  I still have a few more things to look forward to, but if I had to end my summer here I would have no regrets!

Vlog Tuesday: SISTER TAG

So Tuesdays are now vlog-days!!  Well..they are vlog-days when I post vlogs.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Today's vlog is a tag I did with my sister.  It's a two-parter and you can find the first part at her blog!

I'd like to point out that Melissa's hair is sleek and shiny and mine is in a frizzy fly-away bun because she went to a GLAMOROUS VIDEO-SHOOT WHILE I WAS SLAVING AWAY AT HOME, SANDING A CHAIR.  USIN' UP ALL MY ELBOW GREASE.  That's also why I'm wearing a tie-dye shirt and gym shorts.  Don't judge me.  I'M A HUMAN BEING.





It's a pretty long video, but IT'S TOTALLY WORTH IT BECAUSE WE ARE HILARIOUS.  LOVE US.  LOVE USSSSS.

I'm gonna give you same disclaimer that Melissa gave, which is that the volume is a little soft at times and then it gets REALLY LOUD.  So if you're using headphones, maybe have a finger on the volume controls.

Enjoy!



Melissa's blog: teambrinn.blogspot.com

About Me

I'm posting this as my Sunday blog post, but this will also be linked as my About Me page up on my navigation menu.  TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE.

I found this "About Me" tag by google-ing "about me blog tag".  I know, I know.  I'm basically an expert at research after three years of college.  Here we go:

This is me in my natural state of being.

1. Are you named after anyone? Yes!  My mom was really into Gone With the Wind, so she named me after the nice girl that gets cheated on then dies.  That is the legacy I have to live up to.

2. When was the last time you cried? Uhhh probably yesterday.  It doesn't take much to get me goin'.

3. Do you have kids? Uhhh no lol.

4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Yes?  This is a weird question.  Like...is the hidden question in here "do you like yourself"?  Yeah man, I'm awesome!  NEXT QUESTIONS.

5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Whaaaat?  Whyyy would anyone ever use sarcassmmmm?????

6. Will you ever bungee-jump? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.

7. What’s your favorite cereal? Defs cinnamon toast crunch.  That shit is the shit.

8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Height.  I hit 4'11 1/2 on a good day, so I've got a bit of a complex.

9. What is your eye colour? Someone told me that my eyes are poop brown.  That person is no longer someone I consider a friend.

10. Scary movie or happy endings? THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS HAPPY ENDINGS.  WE ALL DIE IN THE END.

That escalated quickly.

11. Favorite smells? That is a strange strange question.  Umm peaches, breakfast cooking, leaves dying in the fall, and trees blooming in the spring.  Obviously not all at once.

12. Summer or winter? Ughhh neither.  I pick fall.

13. Computer or television? This question is irrelevant.  I watch TV on the computer all the time, and now modern technology allows me to watch myself use tumblr on a big screen TV.  I don't need to choose anymore.

14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? I went to the Philippines once when I was six.  The farthest I've ever been without my family is Hungary.  So obviously I keep it pretty local.

15. Do you have any special talents? I'm really good at turning normal situations into awkward situations.  Also singing and cooking.

16. Where were you born? DIRTY JERZ.

17. What are your hobbies? Music, reading, cooking, watching TV.  Pretty standard.

18. Do you have any pets? 
YES.  His name is Hickory and he hates me...

But he's also a model.

19. Favorite movies? 10 Things I Hate About You, Now and Then, Josie and the Pussycats, Amelie, and Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging.  Hehehe.

20. Do you have any siblings? Yes!  Her name is Melissa and you should read her blog!

21. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Employed.

And still sassy.

VEDA? Uhhh no.

Yeah yeah yeah.  I know I said I wasn't going to post today because I'm taking a break, but I couldn't resist.

Anyways, exciting stuff!  Follow my sister's blog teambrinn.blogspot.com!  You won't regret itttttt.