My watercolor class in live!

Come Watercolor with Me! from Courtney Khail on Vimeo.

Hey everyone! Today is such a super exciting day- my watercolor class is finally live! So if you've ever wanted to learn watercolors, just need a refresher, or maybe you just skipped the gym this morning and feel like you should do something- come on over!  It's only $10, it's all online so you could be in your pjs if you wanted to be, and you have the videos for 6 MONTHS so you are in absolutely no rush.

Sound good? Awesome. Let's go get painting.

(Sign up at www.jeanneoliver.ning.com)

The Most Amazing (Not Too Sweet) Strawberry Scone Recipe

The Best Scone Recipe Ever.

The beginning of this past weekend was jam packed. Between a slightly last minute yard sale (which wonderfully also turned into a "meet the neighbors" party) lunches and dinners with friends, and just the normal stuff we needed to get done, every day felt extremely full. But the good kind of full. The kind where you realize you've been laughing/smiling all day, you've been constantly surrounded by amazing people, and despite being incredibly tired and kind of sunburned you still decide to forgo going straight home after dinner in order to savor some late night ice cream. By the time Sunday rolled around, we were too worn out to make it to a friends bbq and instead decided to take a "lazy day." We lounged/napped outside on the deck, took a bike ride down to the lake/through the neighborhood, chatted with our moms/told them how proud we were of them for raising such amazingly awesome children, ate dinner outside underneath our backyard cafe lights and finally finished the day off with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and some Game of Thrones (yep. Game of Thrones. Seriously, it's awesome and now I kind of want a pet dragon. Then again, who wouldn't want a pet dragon? Weirdos that's who.) It was one of those days where you feel so grateful for everything that you can't even put it into words. You try, but in the end you realize that the one person you're thanking can probably already read your heart.

So now to the scones. I made these a few days ago and have been waking up to them ever since. (Well kind of. I don't have a butler or someone bring them to me so I guess technically I've been waking up and making these ever since. If you do have a butler though, have him whip these up and bring them to you in bed. I promise your day will be that much better- which is saying a lot since your life already comes with a butler.)

strawberry scones 1 via courtney khail

Okay. Back to the scones. I was in the grocery store last Wednesday when I happily stumbled across the strawberries. And as if I really needed an excuse to buy them, they were on sale. 4 pints for $5.  Sold!Of course, then I came home and remembered we already had strawberries so I need to get to work using them. Like yesterday.

Hence the scones.

strawberry scones2 via courtney khail

I make scones a lot because they are amazing and freeze really well (and breakfast is my favorite meal ever. Well that and pasta. Feed me those two things and I will never leave. Want me to leave quickly? Bring out the seafood. Not a big fan.)

strawberry scones3 via courtney khail

Wow. Sidetracked much? So back to these scones, again. They rock. They aren't very sweet (you can amp up the sugar if that's what you're looking for) but they're perfectly crunchy on the outside and biscuit like on the inside and go wonderfully with fresh whipped cream, or butter, or if you really want to play up the strawberry flavor- strawberry jam. (Since they are best straight from the oven, I like to freeze any we aren't going to eat immediately (you just need to add a few minutes to the baking time.)

strawberry scones 4 via courtney khail

You don't have to add the lime zest, but it adds a summery freshness to it (as opposed to a wintery freshness?) Also, feel free to use lemon zest if unlike me you aren't painting a dozen limes and therefore don't have a ton a round to zest.

strawberry scones 5 via courtney khail

So there you have it. Amazing scones to make your mornings (or afternoons) that much sweeter. (pun intended.)

All photos taken by me and are copyright of courtney khail stationery and design

lemons, limes, and oranges (oh my.)

So apparently you all really like the citrus- all of my citrus paintings sold out in less than two weeks! (Which is still incredibly surreal and I can't put into words just how grateful and moved I am by all of your support. I always said I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, and it's just amazing that I've gotten there! Of course that also makes the assumption that I've "grown up" and well, I'm not 100% sure that will ever happen. Let's just say I've grown a little older.)

Anyhow, I was wandering around the grocery store and stumbled across key limes. Cute, little bursts of beautiful lime gradients that I promptly tossed into my cart. And because I rarely can think of just one thing at a time, I of course started thinking of what I could make with the key limes after they were painted. I'm so not a fan of key lime pies (too tart, too fake tasting-reminds me of that episode of Dexter where he searched and searched for the "perfect key lime pie.") so I asked around and my good friend Mel sent me what looks like the most amazing cheesecake recipe ever. I'll keep you posted on how it goes! Hopefully I do it justice.

After doing a little dance in my head about the key limes (or maybe I actually did that in public. Who knows. I've sometimes caught myself singing along in my head to whatever music is playing overhead and then having a moment of panic that I was actually singing out loud.) the beautiful display of yellow lemons and bright orange tangerines, naval oranges, etc. caught my eye. Amazing how inspiration can come that quickly! As soon as I saw those together, I knew I wanted to incorporate that into a painting (which is how the orange and lemon painting arose.)

How do you like these? Anything in particular you'd like to see me create in the future?I kind of want to try artichokes. Wouldn't they look cool?!

And on a completely unrelated note, I successfully patched our bathroom ceiling yesterday! We had a roof leak soon after moving in and because we'd only notice it was leaking when it snowed (and thus it was too wet to fix) it took a really long time to get everything back in working order. Even after it was though, I kept a Tupperware bin under it anytime we left "just in case." Yep, I'm a little neurotic. (I prefer to call it prepared though.) So now that it's (finally) sealed up and dry, I thought it was about time to make it pretty again. So far so good! Now I just need to prime and paint. (Which may happen in 5 minutes, it may happen in 5 days. We'll see.) Y'all get anything accomplished from your to do lists this week?

Both pieces copyrighted by courtney khail stationery and design. You can find all of my work right here!

How to Write the Perfect Thank You Note

via Rue Mag

Hey everybody! With Easter, Mother's Day, and wedding season right around the corner we're all about to have a ton of thank you notes to write. And if you're like most everyone the idea of sitting down with a stack of blank cards puts you into a panic. Hopefully this will help! Rue Magazine's Miss Manners invited me back today to help you write the perfect thank you note. Pop on over to Rue Daily to read my tips!

And speaking of thank you notes, I'd love to hear the wackiest/strangest/best gift you've written one for! I'm a firm believer in the saying "it's the thought that counts," but sometimes we all can't help but wonder just what that someone was thinking...

How to Address an Envelope on Rue Daily

via ruemag.com

Ever wonder the correct way to address an envelope? Well wonder no more. Pop on over to Rue Daily today and see exactly what to do (as well as see some of my handwritten handiwork!)

DIY glitter tree tutorial

Yep, I'm obsessed with decorating for Christmas. And thanks to last week's project, I had some extra gold glitter paper just sitting around so I figured I'd make something with it! You can make this with any thick paper you have (you know, in case you're not in love with glitter) and they literally take like 5 minutes. Maybe 10 if you cut really slowly.

1. Grab your paper and your scissors

2. Draw out a Christmas tree (excuse the wonkiness. This is what happens when you try to draw while looking through a camera.)

3-4. Cut out the first tree, trace it onto the second piece of paper, and then cut that out so you have two identical Christmas tree shapes (or if you're feeling fancy, you could do this whole tutorial with present shapes)

5. On one tree, cut from the top down about an inch. On the second tree, cut from the bottom up- stopping just a little more than an inch from the top.

6. Slide them together and adjust so they stand upright

7. Go have a cookie, pat yourself on the back for being so incredibly talented, and begin planning your future crafting empire. Or just eat the cookie.

DIY Glitter Fringe Christmas Tree

Have I mentioned how much I love Christmas? I'm kind of a fanatic. (J and I even got married 5 days before Christmas because I love the season so much!) The air feels more crisp, people are in cheery good moods, smells of evergreen, cinnamon, and sugar cookies linger in the air, everything is all lit up and pretty- it's just magical. So of course, when it comes to decorating I go all out. I cannot wait for the year we get to decorate a front yard!

All that said, a few weeks back a friend and I went to a crafting event at Anthropologie and made these all white fringe trees for their window displays. While they were pretty, I thought they'd be even more textural and interesting with some glitter and newsprint. (I mean, what isn't better with glitter? Wait, scratch that. I've seen a lot of things where glitter just makes it tacky. This is not one of those times. Or maybe it is, but I still like it haha)

gather materials (tape, scissors, glitter star, white paper, newspaper strips, glitter paper strips, strips of paper towels)

tape two pieces of paper together to make a square  (or use a large piece of paper)

roll paper into a cone shape and cut the bottom straight across so it can stand upright

using your scissors, fringe the strips of paper (fringe scissors make this go faster but I don't own them.)

starting at the bottom, tape the fringe around the cone. you'll want to alternate between the different fringes for textural interest.

keep taping all the way to the top

and to finish, top with a glittery star! (I just made one from some leftover gold glitter paper I had)

from the studio: DIY bat place cards

Why yes, we did dress as Double Dare contestants for Halloween.

Normally I don't do "from the studio's" on Wednesday, but given it's Halloween and that's what these are for, I figured I'd break that rule just once. These can be whipped up in just a few minutes and while I labeled them as place cards, they'd be perfect to tie around a bag of candy for trick-or-treaters (just write "from the so and so's) or a gift tag. Personally, I think they would be amazing on a "Dark Shadows" inspired table with black tables, silver candle sticks, and lush low lying burgundy colored flower arrangements. And for all of you that get a little scared of watercolor, these will give you amazing confidence because you really can't mess them up.

Happy Halloween!

from the studio: diy watercolor halloween cards

I'm kind of obsessed with sending mail (I'm guessing that doesn't come as a huge shock.) but seriously, nothing is better than receiving real mail that isn't a bill or an election flyer. That in mind, I wanted to share a super simple diy watercolor halloween card with you all today. Seriously, it's so easy that you could whip a few of these out today and have them in the mail for your friends to get by Wednesday. Or maybe even just whip up a few and put them in your neighbors mailboxes Wednesday morning to let them know you're excited to see them during trick-or-treating/at the party/etc. It's all about the little things!