Exhaling.

I'm ending this bloggy week with a rambly post.  I think it's what I need right now.  My mind is circling and spinning with all of the things happening in my world right now, and I think exhaling is important (well, obviously in the literal sense).  So, let's chat.


The first thing I want to cover:  the shop update.  Geez, Louise... thank you guys SO MUCH for the warm response!  I know I don't do shop updates very often these days, but even now I get nervous about them!  I don't know if that will ever go away.  All of the items have sold and it blows my mind.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

Now, can we just talk about how good Mad Men is?  I'm so glad it's back.

I mentioned last week (in an outfit post, no less) a bad/stressful week, and though I feel like I pretty much fought through it like a champ, I wanted to revisit parts of it.  We've been having a terrible month for grandparents around these parts.  My great-grandmother passed away, one of Johnny's grandpas has been in the hospital and had to have his leg amputated, and his other grandpa is now said to have less than one month to live.  I know we're getting to the age where the grandparents start letting go (as sad as that is to say), but it doesn't make it any easier... and that's okay.

On a lighter note, I think everyone should have a bike.  I've been spending my evenings (and some afternoons) just going for a ride and clearing my mind, and it's one of my very favorite things.  As you can see from the picture above, we live (kind of) in the country right now, and the little roads are perfect for bike riding. 

Thanks for letting me ramble a bit.  I hope you all have an amazing weekend-- I really mean it.  Go outside or do something you don't normally get to do.  Or, just go hug your grandma.  Whatever you do, enjoy it.  xoxo Katie

Shop Update Peeks

The shop update will go live at 4pm CST today (Thursday)!  Here are a few peeks at some friends you may find in there:

In total there will be 3 bunnies, 3 bears, and 3 mounted deer.  Boy, when you type it out it doesn't sound like much, but trust me, I've been sewing up a storm.  I hope to see you at 4!  xoxo Katie

We Heart Tumbleweeds

Is there anything better than babies in sunglasses?  Well, I guess babies in big shoes and babies in hats could give 'em a run for their money.  ;)

Mama's sunglasses:  Emerging Thoughts

Baby's sunglasses:  Tumbleweeds

In this house, we heart Tumbleweeds.  Seriously.  These are next on my list.

Happy Wednesday!  xoxo Katie

Shop Update: Postponed Til Thursday

Welp, as much as I don't want to say it, I am postponing the shop update until Thursday.  I'm out of town today working on a special project and I just couldn't fit everything in to have the update live today.  The shop update will go live on Thursday at 4pm CST. 

(this is a little Instagram peek)

I hope to see you in the shop on Thursday!  xoxo Katie

Triple Giveaway

I'm so happy to introduce you to my three large sponsors this month and offer up three different prizes from them to one lucky person! 

First up, we have Emily from Life, Etc.  Emily is a work-at-home mama with a blog full of clever DIYs and yummy recipes.  She is offering a $50 credit to her Etsy shop.

Next, we have Elizabeth from Yellow Elm.  Elizabeth is offering up a "Peaceful Garden" headband in yellow, pink, or orange (winner's choice).  It is handcrafted from soft wool using an ancient wet-felting process, with a little twirl of embroidery and a green leaf behind the felt.  It is set on a comfortable band.

Last, but certainly not least we have Aunie from Aunie Sauce.  Aunie has an adorable blog where she documents her style and what's been going on in her life.  She is giving away a medium sponsor ad for the month of April.

To enter, simply leave a comment (including your email address) stating what you are looking forward to in April.  The winner will be announced on Friday, March 30th.  Please don't forget to stop by and say hello to these lovely sponsors!  Good luck!  xoxo Katie

Music Monday: Coconut Records and A Winner

Coconut Records

***The winner of the Emerging Thoughts giveaway is Amanda!!  Remember, you all can still receive a 15% discount at Emerging Thoughts if you spend $100 or more.  Just enter the code "skunkboy" at checkout!

Have a wonderful day!!  xoxo Katie

Weekly Wears: Sailboats and Smiles

I'm going to be honest here, this week has been nuts.  You know those days where it seems your luck has run out and the most ridiculous things happen?  My whole week has been like that.  I'd be lying if I said it didn't get me down more than a few times, but there always comes that point where you either surrender to whatever's getting you down, or you pick yourself up, go about your day(s) and power through.  That's what I've been doing.  I won't let these bad circumstances rule me or dictate my mood.  I'm tougher than that.  (Grrrrrrrr) 

Dress: c/o ModCloth;  Sash: c/o Three Bird Nest;  Tights: Target;  

Shoes: Vintage;  Ring: ModCloth

Cures for the down-in-the-dumps:  wear bright colors, treat yourself to an Ebay score, pop a bag of popcorn and watch 3 straight hours of Parks and Rec, take a little road trip to nowhere with someone you love,  put on your tennis shoes and ride a bike through muddy puddles, or if all else fails: just smile.  I don't know about you, but when I've had all I think I can take, sometimes I have to just smile and remember all of the awesome parts of my life.  They far outweigh the bad stuff.  Always.

 

I hope you all have an extra lucky, extra happy weekend.  ;)

xoxo Katie

P.S.  I am officially announcing the Easter shop update for Tuesday, March 27th.  I'll post a reminder on Tuesday, but I just wanted to give a little heads up in advance.  It will go live around 4pm CST.

Sponsor in April

It's that time again!  If you are interested in sponsoring in the month of April, I'd absolutely love to have you!  You can see my sponsor page here or send an email to sponsorskunkboy@gmail.com.  It's going to be another great month here on the Skunkboy blog!   xoxo Katie

A Day in the Life

Things happening in my world lately:  My bike is fixed!  I've been sewing up a storm for the update, but have embarrassingly run out of stuffing and am at a stand-still.  We are playing music at a wedding this weekend, but have yet to practice the songs and I'm getting a little nervous about it.  I wore my clogs out in the rain today.  It was a big mistake.  Johnny kept offering to carry me everywhere.  I love him. 

These are snapshots from our Tuesday.  It was both amazing and exhausting.  How was yours?  xoxo Katie

P.S.  "A Day in the Life" is definitely in my top 5 favorite Beatles songs.

Giveaway: Emerging Thoughts

I'm so excited about this giveaway today!  Emerging Thoughts is a great online boutique that I like to browse daily.  Lauren, the founder of Emerging Thoughts, is offering one reader a $100 gift certificate to her amazing shop! 

1.  To enter, simply check out Emerging Thoughts and pick a favorite item.  Then just leave a comment here sharing which item is your favorite!

2.  You can gain additional entries by following Emerging Thoughts on Twitter or liking Emerging Thoughts on Facebook.

3.  Gain one more entry by tweeting this:  "Enter to win $100 to @emergingthought over on the @skunkboy blog! http://tinyurl.com/79m7o94"

The winner will be drawn on Monday, March 26th.  Don't forget to leave a separate comment for each entry and make sure your email address is included in your comment.  Good luck, friends!

xoxo Katie

***Lauren is also offering Skunkboy readers a 15% discount on all $100 orders.  You can use the code "skunkboy"... ya know, just in case you can't wait.  ;)

A Little Bit of Here and There.

I just wanted to share a bit of where you can find me lately.  First of all, the new Red Velvet Collection is being released tonight (Monday) at 6pm CST.  I got to style this lovely dress, which has been so perfectly named the "bike ride dress" for a fun 3 ways to wear it post!

I have a new tutorial up on A Beautiful Mess.  A lot of you commented and emailed asking how I did the twist braids in one of my more recent outfit posts, so I did a little tutorial on it.  It's SO super easy!

I also have a little feature in Mollie Makes this month!  I can't wait to see it in person.  :)

The first round of dresses are up in the Reloved (or "shop my closet") shop!  Some of them will be hard to let go, but they should go to homes where they will be worn!

And finally, I wanted to announce that I'm doing an Easter shop update this year!  It will be small-- just some bunnies and some mounted deer, but it will be up by the end of the week (most likely).  I needed to break away from the customs for a little bit and just create.  I will let you know for sure when it goes live!

Happy Monday, friends!  I have an awesome giveaway coming tomorrow that I can't wait to share!  

xoxo Katie

Friday Favorites: St. Patricks Day

Hooray, it's Friday!  St. Patrick's Day is this Saturday, so I thought it would be fun to share an all-green Friday Favorites!

1.  This green dress from ModCloth would keep any gal from getting pinched!

2.  This Key Lime Cake from Life, Etc. would be so yummy any day!

3.  I'm smitten with this Mellie Bianco bag from Lulu's... St. Paddy's day or not. 

4.  This coaster DIY from Sincerely, Kinsey is so great!

Okay, truth time:  the only reason I celebrate St. Patrick's Day is because of Hope.  If it weren't for her I'd wear a smidge of green so strangers at the grocery store don't pinch me (yes, I have been pinched by multiple strangers on SPD) and probably forget it was even a holiday.  Hope makes it fun, though.  We eat green foods all day, she dresses head-to-toe in green, and she makes up fun little games and decorations.  That's the beauty of innocence... everything feels magical and fun.  I love it.  It's contagious.  :)

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend!  xoxo Katie

Weekly Wears: Spring Fling

We've had a short run of 80-something degree days this week and it's making me feel so cheery!  I've been enjoying walks outside with my family and we've had our stops at Dairy Queen for ice cream... we're kind of soaking it up.  ;)

Shirt: Urban Outfitters (a loooong time ago);  Skirt: (Dainty June) c/o Emerging Thoughts;

Hair Scarf: c/o Three Bird Nest;  Shoes: c/o Le Bunny Bleu;  Sunglasses: borrowed from Elsie

 In case you were wondering, the Dr. Dog show last night was GREAT!  We had a blast with some dear friends and grabbed some late night Mexican food after.  It was definitely a fun night!

I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far!!  xoxo Katie

Pin Curls

I forgot to mention last week that I have another hair tutorial up over on A Beautiful Mess.  This time:  Pin Curls!

If you have tried it out, leave me a link!  I'd love to see.  :)

xoxo Katie

Baby Mobile

I've been working on this custom mobile for what seems like forever now, and I FINALLY completed it last week!  The animals were no problem for me (well, except for the zebra who turned out crazy the first time around and needed a redo), but the construction of the mobile was a challenge.  I've never done a mobile before and I had just planned on hanging the animals from an embroidery hoop covered with yarn.  What looked good in my head didn't translate as well in real life, so I sat.  And I thought.  And I obsessed.  And this is what I came up with:

It makes the babies go wild.

xoxo Katie

Music Monday: Dr. Dog

I'm especially excited about this Music Monday because we are actually going to see Dr. Dog play live tomorrow!  I CAN'T WAIT!  We saw them open for Wilco some years back, and I'm looking forward to seeing them again.  It's gonna be a good show!



Dr. Dog

Happy Monday, friends!  xoxo Katie

Mini Skandinavian Jelly Pies

Today I'm so happy to share my first reader submitted guest post!  The lovely Sarah from A Girl In Transit is here to share her recipe for mini pies!

________________________________________________________

Hi there! I'm Sarah and I'm a wife, mother, dog owner, and the writer of my blog
A Girl In Transit. First off I want to say how awesome Katie is. So creative and inspiring and I'm SO thankful that I'm sharing a recipe with you on her blog today. Thank you Katie! Below you'll find my own rendition of a family recipe. Mini Skandinavian Jelly Pies. The perfect snack to bake when you are craving a berry treat. Especially when berries aren't in season. Enjoy!

I've been wanting pie lately, but none of the fresh fruit in season has me inspired, so I did my own spin on a recipe my mom taught me. My mother's recipe is two sugar cookies sandwiched together with jam in the middle. Mine is two pie crust dough with preserves in the middle. The great part about jam and preserves is you can buy it (or make it when the fruit is in season) and you can use it throughout the year. We chose raspberry preserves. Samantha definitely enjoyed them and was the perfect little companion and helper.

- Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup shortening (recommended: Crisco. I would also recommend the measured sticks of Crisco. Much easier to work with)
• Ice water
• Optional, sanding sugar

- Filling: 1 jar of preserves.  (I used a 13 oz jar and had some left over. )
- Serves about a dozen

- Directions:

In a medium-mixing bowl cut the shortening and salt into the flour by hand or with a pastry blender until it's the texture of cornmeal. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice water over the mixture and mix just until the dough is moistened. Repeat by adding 6 to 8 tablespoons water (one at a time) until all the dough is just moist. Take care not to over mix.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough in half and roll into a ball. Roll 1 of the balls out with a rolling pin. (Tip: sandwich the dough between two pieces of wax paper. You handle the dough less and you don't need extra flour which would dry out the crust.)

 Cut out 12 small circles with a cookie cutter (My cutter was about 3 inches across). Place on a greased cookie sheet. Dollop about a tablespoon of preserves in the center of each circle. Then proceed to roll out the 2nd ball of dough and cut out 12 more circles with the cookie cutter.

With water or egg wash use a brush or your finger to outline the bottom dough circle's outer edge. This acts as a glue to seal the top dough circle to the bottom. Once all the pies have the tops on them push the edges around to seal and either prick with a fork or cute an x with a knife in the middle of each pie to let them vent. Brush more egg wash over the top of each pie and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are light brown.

*Click HERE to see the original pie crust recipe

***Thank you so much, Sarah, for sharing this amazing recipe!  I can't wait to try it out!!

Have a great weekend, friends!  xoxo Katie