my neapolitan treat

I got this dress as a little reward to myself for making 5,000 sales in my etsy shop. I think it's nice to have things that celebrate your milestones or happy moments. That way whenever you wear them or look at them, you're reminded of something that brought you joy, or an achievement that made you proud! :)

Dress - modcloth | Belt - Forever 21 | Shoes - from my grandmom

Stamped scalloped dress DIY

I have a DIY guest post over on Mermaidens! Take a peek here! :)





You'll need: a white cotton dress (or shirt, or skirt), two bottles of fabric paint (your main color and white), a wooden block (I stole one from my little brother's old block set), scissors, a compass, a piece of craft foam, a paintbrush and some free time.

1. With the compass, draw a half-circle onto your foam. You want it to be about the same width as the wooden block. 2. Using the half-circle as your guide, sketch in the rest of your scallop with pencil, and then cut it out. 3. Glue the piece of foam to the wooden block, making sure that the ends of the scallop are even with the top. (It's okay if the bottom of the scallop doesn't quite reach the bottom of the block :)



4. Make sure you have cardboard or something under your dress so the paint won't seep through to the back side! Then put a thin layer of fabric paint on your stamp using a paintbrush. 5. Starting at the top of the dress, stamp your first scallop. Then repeat the pattern underneath, with the next two scallops meeting in the middle of the one above. 6. For each new row, mix a little bit of white fabric paint with your other color to achieve the gradient look. This was an important part of my project because I knew that I didn't want to stamp the skirt (the gathering at the waist would have just been way too tricky to maneuver!) so I wanted it to fade to white before it hit the skirt. 7. Let your dress dry for a few hours (I let mine dry for 24 hours before I wore it, although it felt dry much sooner) and voila! You now have a brand new dress that would make any mermaid proud! :)

wishlist wednesday

1. Thoroughly Mod scooter dress from Modcloth
2. Bow tassel brooch from Topshop
3. Metal keeper skinny waist belt from ASOS
4. Candy store purse from ASOS
5. Fancy Fine dress from Modcloth
6. Half frame metal sunglasses from ASOS
7. Emma shoes in white from BAIT footwear
8. Metal handle orange clutch from ASOS

BBQ chickpea burgers

It is so hard to take a flattering photo of a burger, isn't it? I mean, they aren't the prettiest food to begin with, but if, like me, you aren't too skilled in the art of food photography, it's especially tricky to make a burger look appetizing. Anyway... suffice it to say, these were absolutely scrumptious no matter what they look like in my photo ;)

I adapted the recipe from this one for coconut-curry chickpea quinoa pineapple burgers. The only thing I kept the same was the chickpeas, panko flakes and the basic process, but I needed some sort of guide for making burgers from scratch since I've never done it before! I usually go for Morningstar Grillers Originals (which, by the way, are SO tasty!) but I was in the mood for something more home made :)

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup skim milk (or soy milk)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon parsley (I used dried, but fresh would be great!)
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash no-salt onion seasoning
1/2 cup brown rice, cooked
2/3 cup panko flakes
Sweet BBQ sauce
Pineapple slices

Combine chick peas, milk, garlic, parsley and onion seasoning in a food processor until it's all mashed together. Stir in rice and panko, and then form into 6 patties (the original recipe called for 4 but they were too ginormous to fit onto my burger rolls so next time I'm going with 6.)

Oil your pan and then grill until they're nice and brown on both sides. If you've ever had a homemade veggie burger, you probably know that unless they're well-done it can be hard to tell the difference between the burger and the roll, since they're so mushy. So I let mine get nice and crispy before taking them off the grill. I topped it with a slice of grilled pineapple and about a teaspoon of sweet BBQ sauce! Deee-lish!

look away

We went down the shore again last weekend. It was such a lovely day, but incredibly gusty! I couldn't look at Kyle when he was taking these photos because the wind was blowing so forcefully in my face.

While I'm on the subject of wind and beaches, I should probably mention that I wasn't in any danger of flashing other beach-goers if a large gust came along. Underneath the dress I have on bike shorts :) Fool proof.

dress - charlotte russe | shoes - target | sunglasses - h&m

Giveaway: Rainbow cake necklace [closed]

Rose from Silhouetted is offering one lucky lady a rainbow cake necklace! Is it not the sweetest (I mean that in every sense of the word) little piece of confectionery jewelry goodness?!



What you'll win: One rainbow cake necklace!

How to enter: Follow Rose's blog (this is mandatory!) and leave some way to contact you (email, twitter, blog, whatever floats your boat!) Also, you must be a follower of this blog to enter! This is mandatory, too! (And, please, none of this follow-and-leave as soon as the giveaway is over jazz.. that's super rude!)

For an additional entry: (leave a separate comment for this entry)
Tweet this "I just entered to win a pretty sweet necklace on @kategabrielle's blog http://www.scathingly-brilliant.blogspot.com" (Only counts if you use that exact tweet.)

This giveaway ends on July 2nd at 12:01AM EST. Giveaway is over.

Winner: Comment #22

drum roll..

Today is the grand opening of Kitschy Digitals! It's a brand new marketplace where you can buy all kinds of digital wares like embroidery patterns, scrapbooking materials, fonts, blog embellishments and more. I am so incredibly excited to have my designs available for sale in this new digital wonderland, and just to be a part of something so cool! The best part is that the items are available for immediate download -- just pay and you're all set! Or don't pay... there are LOTS of freebies on the site too!! I have two freebies in my shopfront, right here! :)

Oh, and as if the freebies, immediate downloads and general digital awesomeness aren't already enough, there's also a sitewide 15% off sale going on to celebrate the grand opening! Use code "GrandOpening15" at checkout!

And if you have a minute, please hop over to Danielle Thompson's blog! This website was her brainchild, and she deserves heaps and heaps of congratulations, compliments, and virtual confetti (and cake!) for all of her hard work!

oopsie daisy!

shirt and dress - asos
belt - forever21
shoes - karmaloop (similar)

I took a mini computer break starting Thursday afternoon, and came back online last night to see that none of my scheduled blog posts had published :( phooey! So I decided to post this outfit today instead (it was intended to go up yesterday morning.)

My mini computer break was *incredibly* productive! I did another painting (I'll share it soon) and then yesterday me and my brother spent the day in Princeton just walking around, eating and shopping. It was a nice little diversion, especially since I've been spending a lot of time doing computer work for the last couple of weeks and somehow, despite its sedentary nature, nothing seems to wear me out as much as sitting in front of a monitor for hours on end.

a little teaser..

Just a tiny little teaser for some pretty exciting news I get to share this coming Monday! ;D
*the graphic was designed by Danielle Thompson!

wishlist wednesday

1. Buttercup of sugar dress from Modcloth
2. Green straw floppy hat from Amazon
3. Pave the way flat from Modcloth
4. Yellow flower earrings from asos
5. Dill original watercolor from The Joy of Color
6. Mustard headphones from Modcloth
7. Green crochet flats from Urban Outfitters

playing dress up

dress - asos
belt - vintage
shoes - c/o bait

I've been trying out some longer hems recently, but being considerably short (5') I can't help but feel like I'm 10 years old, playing dress up with grown-up clothes. With this dress, though, it doesn't even matter because I just love it SO much. I should have taken some close-up shots (next time I wear it I will!) because it has the most beautiful scalloped embroidery details on the bodice and hem. And it's so perfect for cooler summer days that call for a light cotton shirt dress.

lace and pleats

dress - modcloth
cardigan - old navy
shoes - asos

It's pretty late (I'm scheduling this post before I go to sleep) .. and as much as I'd love to stay here at my computer and write something interesting to go with this photo, I have an impatient cat sitting behind me, meowing like crazy. Somebody wants a drink of water from the bathroom sink! Duty calls...

ps. Hypatia said "meow!"

Style Idol - Claudia Cardinale

//image links back to where I originally found it
+ I fiddled with it in photoshop

slumber party sunday

It's time for another slumber party! This coming week is the start of summer, so pretty soon I'm sure all of my yummy goodies will involve some form of popsicle or icy treat!




Is there anything better than chocolate covered fruit? I've always loved chocolate covered apples but isn't it annoying once you've eaten all the chocolate off and all you're left with is one big giant hunk of plain old apple? Well, this solves that problem. Cut them into slices first, then dip them, and the apple to chocolate ratio considerably improves! ;D More photos and recipe here!




Hitch Hike Lady is a great example of "don't judge a book by its cover." The artwork for the movie on netflix is dreadful... it looks like they just took a screencap from the film and added text over top in Microsoft Word. At first glance you'd think it's probably an incredibly cheap public domain b-movie that's better avoided, but you'd be wrong! It is so heartwarming, and it more than makes up for its budget shortfalls with a fantastic cast and super sweet script.

The film is about a British mother who decides to come to America to visit her son that she hasn't seen in years. All she knows is that he lives in a place in California called San Quentin. When her money runs out, she's forced to hitch hike her way there, with the help of a band of friends she picks up along the way. I really can't say much more or else I'd be giving it away, but let me just say that this was one of the most endearing films I've seen in a while. I highly recommend it, especially for the happy ending (and for Arthur Treacher, one of my favorite character actors) :)

You can watch it on netflix here!



Truth: What was your worst haircut catastrophe?
Dare: Act like your favorite tv show character all day.

hold on, I have to turn up the volume on my pillow...

Sometimes I get something new and I have a huge urge to blog about it, but then I think "nobody wants to hear about *insert weird gadget*" and resist said urge. But this, I had to blog about.

First, a little back-story: My brother and I share a thin wall between our bedrooms. His bed is right up against the wall where my television is, so if I have the volume on loud at night, he can't sleep. This has been an issue for years and years. For a while I had headphones with a super long cord so I could listen in bed, but they aren't comfortable, and when it would come time to go to sleep I'd have to take them off so I didn't strangle myself while I slept. Having a long cord laying in the middle of my room all the time wasn't too awesome either.

Enter: the pillow speaker. I traced a super long headphone extension cord around the perimeter of my room, and plugged it into my new pillow speaker. It is literally a pillow with a speaker tucked deep inside of it. You can sleep on it at night, put a pillowcase on it and everything. You'd never know it was a speaker if you didn't hear sound coming out of it. It's a miracle! I don't have to wear bulky headphones, and I can still listen to the television even when I'm drifting off into dreamland.

The only problem I ran into was that the sound was very, very soft if my head wasn't nestled directly on the center of the pillow. It could be that my cheap-o television's volume doesn't go very loud, but for whatever reason, it posed a problem.

Enter: the headphone amplifier. I didn't think this would work as well as it did, but by golly does it work well! You just plug the amp into the headphone cord, and it increases the volume tenfold! Now I can sit in bed with my pillow on, listen to some tv shows, then turn the volume down a bit when it's time to hit the hay. This little amp would probably also work wonders on those iphone/ipod speakers that don't seem to get very loud at all!

In conclusion, I know this was a super weird thing to blog about, but on the off chance that anyone else has a need for re-routing the sound that comes out of their television at night, I thought it might be useful! :)

Five thousand!!

shirt - modcloth
skirt - c/o francescas
shoes - asos

Yesterday I passed 5,000 sales in my etsy shop!! I never ever would have thought three years ago when I first started posting my little doodles on flickr that it would turn into my full time job, but I am so glad it did! I'm very grateful (and honestly, surprised) when I think that 5,000 flapper doodle items have made their way into people's homes all around the world. It's such a strange, yet incredibly exciting thought! If anyone reading this has ever purchased anything, or supported me and my shop in any way, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

eraser brooch DIY

Maybe this is just me, but I absolutely hate using really cute erasers to actually erase things. I never want to ruin them! But at the same time, I also seem to hoard cute erasers because they're so... cute. So I decided, in light of my new brooch obsession, to try turning some of them into pins!



It's pretty self explanatory -- get an eraser and a pin and glue them together! But I will say that this particular glue seems to work really well, and I'd definitely recommend it. When I first decided to try this I was worried that no glue would be strong enough to stick to the strange eraser material, but this is holding up fantastic! It's a gel consistency, so I think that might be it!

The pins that I got at the art supply store also came with little holes in them, so if your eraser is thick enough you could always use some kind of pin or screw to hold the back in place, too!