Technology Love/Hate

Just to preface, I realize that much of what I'm about to say makes me sound like I'm 70. But maybe that's not so bad. I hope to be just like this grouchy dame when I'm 70:

So I've succumbed. I held out for quite a while, but now my iphone 4 is in the mail and should be in my hands in 7-14 days. I said for a very long time that I would never get one and didn't want one at all. But recently the opportunity to have one without having a higher phone bill was placed in my lap. I don't think I would have succumbed if not for that opportunity. Don't get me wrong though, I have not been above wanting one lately. They are just BA- there's no way around it. I won't tell you all the features I am excited about, you can go to the apple website for that. It will be quite a change for me, considering I have never ever owned a phone that wasn't the free one that comes with signing up for a plan. Heck, I still don't even text very fast. (I know, reference above picture.)

However, here is the list of reasons I dread the beautiful device's arrival:

1. Paired with my dark-framed glasses, it will nearly complete the uniform of a hipster d-bag. Gross. (This is why I will never buy TOMS shoes no matter how much I like them. It would form a hipster trifecta that there is no recovering from.)
2. I will automatically look like I have that air of superiority. You know the one- it's the attitude of a mac person. Which I have technically been for years, but the iphone is just such a walking commercial.
3. I will probably start playing time-wasting word games. I hate that. But I will love it. 
4. I will become somewhat rude. This is what I am most afraid of. I have complained to my husband countless times about him having his nose in his iphone at the wrong times in social situations and with my family. He's really not that bad. I'm just a little sensitive about it, probably just to make a point about why I don't like iphones and the way they make you uber connected in a way that you can't shut-off. My how the worm has turned. 
5. I don't want to become all addicted and stuff. These iPhone people are like crack addicts. Every time a new one comes out and "changes everything," (really? are you really changing the world?  BS.) you hear about people waiting in line at the AT&T stores for hours and hours. Would it really be that bad to wait a week or two? But I can already feel the high-tech hunger growing in me in subtle ways. I have even wanted an iPad, of all ridiculous things, ever since I saw this video. (It just makes it seem crafty somehow!)

Anyway, I know some of these on the list are my weird way of worrying to much about what people think about me, and the others are completely in my control. There is nothing inherently wrong with the dumb thing, and I don't have to be that into it if I don't want to be. I guess I just feel like I'm giving up a little bit of the old lady in me who wants to abandon civilization and live on a farm, sipping home brewed beer and painting pictures. Maybe I will just have to do something else to balance her out, like plant a garden or stop shaving my underarms.

The vintage-flair photog studio.

So remember over a month ago when I told you I was going to show you more pictures of Fyrefly's new studio? Well, I planned on it. But then, this toddler I know and love pulled over my morning coffee onto my husband's beautiful, less than a year old, 17 inch Macbook Pro. Thank goodness he did not get it on himself, but it flowed directly into the side of the computer with the power jack and all the other plug-ins. The screen went black immediately. Not a good sign. (Speaking of s**t my kid ruined, have you seen this yet? Funny.) Of course, it was totally my fault for having the computer, the cup of coffee, and the toddler all even remotely near each other. $1400 dollars (gulp) into our savings later, it is fixed. At least we have some savings thanks to Davie R, but this is not a financial blog. :) Still a painful experience though.

Luckily, all the memory on the computer was recovered, thus I can show you these pictures now, if you still even remotely care at all.


All the styling was done by the talented Gina of Kiwi Street Studios, who (whom?) Fyrefly is sharing the studio with.

Isn't that the cutest little sitting area in the first picture? And I know everyone talks a big game about loving vintage typewriters, but I don't think I know someone else who actually has one. And I know you will ask, so that pennant light thingy is from Ikea.

I also thought this was a very clever way to display photos or art on the wall. I don't know if these are true vintage drawer pulls or anthropologie imitations. Either way, they look great.


A very cool space. Congrats (late) to Fyrefly and Kiwi Street- so proud of our friends!

corky-cork and the funky cork board

I made this for my friend's birthday last weekend. He is really into wine. (Sorry about the picture, someone is in a very tactile time in life.) So my first instinct was to buy him some nice wine, but I was a little intimidated by the prospect of picking out something he wouldn't poo-poo. Not that he is snobby enough to poo-poo, but he is someone who knows about tannins and can smell notes of nutty gooseberry and coconut sausage...

So, I turned to my beloved one pretty thing search box. I always start there when searching for gift ideas. There I found this inspiration from Apartment Therapy. I just happened to have a bazillion wine corks because my husband is a bartender and has been bringing them home from the restaurant for quite some time. I always complained about this and said I had no idea what we would do with them. So yeah,  I'm pretty much always right about things like that.

I did mine a little differently though. First I found the frame we already had in a closet and spray painted it red. Then, the apartment therapy version suggests getting a wood board cut to the size of your frame at the hardwood store, but I didn't have time for that. So I just cut a piece of cardboard to fit from a Pampers box. That, with the cardboard backing the frame already had, seemed like it would be sturdy enough.

Then I just started hot-gluing. This picture shows my first round, then I just worked my way in from there. I had to cut corks to make them fit sometimes, but they cut very easy with an exacto knife.

When I finished, I stuck some tacks on it, along with a couple blank list sheets I printed out entitled, "Wines to try." I really liked the way it turned out. I hope he did too. I know a cork board isn't the most exciting gift for a man, but I think he thought the wine part was cool. Anyway, making stuff for guys that they will actually like is hard! I still have never sewed anything for a man. Nick always asks when I'm going to make him something. Then I remind him of that one time I made him an omelet. Oh, and that small person I made in my uterus.

So has anyone come across any good tutorials or ideas for guy gifts? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Wanting to Work with Wood lately...

Here are three DIY projects that I saw on Ohdeedoh just today that make me wish I didn't suck so bad with a drill. Oh, and also make me covet a garage and some manly tools to go with it.

This Merry Go Round book caddy might be the cutest book organization ever. We have serious book chaos in our house. You will step on a Sandra Boynton if you spend any time here.

One of the best and simplest night-stand-turned-play-kitchens I've seen. I've already decided HG is getting a play kitchen for Christmas, and hopefully it will be one we DIY instead of one we buy. Too early to make any commitments though, so don't hold me to that one.  :)

And this kid chair is made out of two thrifted picture frames! GENIUS!! This one actually looks pretty easy to do, maybe I'll be attempting soon. Just add it to the list of a gazillion projects I want to try.

A couple more wrist-thingys.

This one is a lot like the first one I made, using this tutorial. Really fast and easy, I could make these all day and be happy. This one was for my friend to take on a little trip to Boston. I hope it had fun in beantown.

For this one, I decided to do something different and make the "scrappy clutch." Hmmm. Not as easy to follow. It was fun to make, but for some reason I had to read thru the instructions about 37 times to understand a couple of the steps. I'm probably just dense though. And I did get to enjoy using some of my new Anna Maria Horner fabric. Love her. 

And yes, I realize that my topstitching looks like the path of a drunken squirrel. What's sad is, this is my second attempt. I had already picked the first one out and redone it- exactly the same result. I guess I will have to keep practicing with harder zipper projects. I think maybe practice makes perfect... That sounds good, I think I'm going to coin that phrase. Ok, consider it coined, I give you permission to spread it around the free world.

Tagging and Packaging

So when I opened my Etsy shop and made a couple sales, I was a little caught off guard. I realized I wasn't actually ready to ship the monsters I had made. Well, um... crap.

Luckily, I found a whole stack of old paint chips I had kept stashed from my days decorating children's church rooms. They are from this kid's line of Nickelodeon colors that Lowe's carried, although I don't think they do anymore.

At first, I tried painting over all of the Lowe's branding on the back sides, but that looked pretty awful, so I just glued two chips together back to back, in two colors that kind of match the monster they are on. Then I cover the cartoon characters with my shop name the monster name.

Here are 2 of my first sales ready to go.

They also get the little description attached on a laminated card. I hope to get these professionally printed down the road, but for now, they kind of add to the whole homemade look. 

Penelope was shipped out this morning. She was one of 4 new designs listed this week. You can read about the other 3 here.

Anyway, I love the bright paint chip tags, but I'm going to run out soon. I have some cute vintage owl playing cards I might use when that happens. I'd like to keep using repurposed/ recycled items. Does anyone else have any genius ways you tag your creations, or things you have seen other sellers use?

100 Reasons

This is my 100th post here! I've been looking back over some of the things I've posted since November when I started, and it occurred to me that for my 100th post I wanted to honor some of my most faithful and encouraging blogland friends- the ones who have supported me from the beginning. I really didn't know when I started this thing that the most fun part of having my own crafty little nook on the internet would be making friends. In fact, I really didn't know what I was doing, or why.

But when you put just a little bit of yourself out there in cyberspace, it's the easiest way to connect with all of these people who have similar interests and who you would not be able to connect with otherwise. So I want to introduce you to just a few of my best cyber-buds. The funny thing is, I knew all these people just a little bit before, but not as great friends. Now, we look out for each other because we're blog friends, letting each other know about things we know the others would love, encouraging new endeavors, and just plain being interested in each other's creativity. I love it. (And by the way, if I heard someone talking about their "internet friends" like this a year ago, I would have totally made fun of them. Ha! I'm such a snob.)

This is Olivia (and her adorable family.)

She blogs at The Saturated Palette. I hate to over-use the word "lovely," but her blog is just lovely. It feels all warm and homey and happy when I read it. She is a fluid writer, a coffee/ book/ all-things-French snob, and a great wife and mommy. (and babe #2 is on the way-yay!)

I knew her only because she went to college with my husband and I think I met her once. But she was definitely the first person to start commenting regularly on this campy little site I started. I think as a seasoned blogger, she knew how much the creative encouragement meant. :) 

She is also a very talented artist, and she sells both originals and prints of her work in her Etsy shop, Palette Theory. She is pretty much the reason I started my shop. I thought, "Well, Olivia is a person I know, and she has a shop. And she's awesome. Maybe I can do it." I have sound reasoning like that for just about everything. 

This is Carmen.

She blogs at Life Blessons. Her writing is always inspiring and encouraging. She writes about everything in life, from cooking and decorating, to her marriage and her faith- I love the variety. And this girl is living on purpose- everything she does is striving to be a better wife and Jesus-follower. You should probably follow along on her journey. 

We used to go to church together but were never really friends- then we became blog friends and we both wondered why on earth not?  But she has always been an encouragement to me and my pursuits, which is the coolest. And she is adorable. And she has weaned her hair off of shampoo, which I TOTALLY want to try. 

This is Wendy.

She has started her own beautiful photography business, and of course an accompanying blog called Anwen Elizabeth Photography. It's so cool to follow along as this girl follows her dreams. You can almost taste her passion for photography as she writes about growing her business and talents. And her work is gorgeous eye candy. 

Pre-blogging, I had not talked to Wendy since my senior year of high school, when she was a freshman on my volleyball team. I have a horrible memory when it comes to high school, so I sure hope I was sweet to the younger girls back then :) Wendy always acts like everything I make is the most amazing thing she has ever seen, which is hilarious and totally sweet. I'm glad we are cyber-buddies.

This is Erin.

Erin blogs here about her life as mom of a four-year old girl and 18-month-old twin boys- crazy! I love this picture because I imagine it pretty much sums up her life trying to wrangle them. Oh yeah, and most of the time she is single-mom'in-it with her husband deployed overseas. Amazing! Whenever I feel frazzled as a mom, I just think of her and feel better :) I seriously can't imagine how she does it, but she is an awesome mom. And she even makes time to squeeze in a little sewing- like making approximately 139 sock monkey favors for her boys' first birthday. (Not really, but it was a lot.)

And that's just the beginning really. So many other "casual friends" have now become blog-buddies. 

-Courtney takes great pictures and has the most down-to-earth writing voice.

-Stacia is a seriously good cook. I want to eat everything she makes. One time she wrote about this recipe that took 2 days to make. What?!

-My good friend Jessica started blogging about her beekeeping adventures in her backyard- how cool is that?

-Kara is so cute and stylish and always has great tips. (and she just got engaged! Yay!)

-Katie is super crafty, has a sweet humble writing voice, and an amazing story.

-Sarah is an amazing homeschooling mom who just had her fifth kid. 

Anyway, I think I'm done gushing, but I just wanted to send back the love to all these ladies who have encouraged me in large and small ways. So, you should check them out. Also, if you don't already, start blogging and make new internet friends- accept your dorky fate.