carrie girl

prom night

i'm going to the prom tonight!  the writers' workshop at the university is having their annual "workshop prom," so ted and i will be dancing the night away at a bar called, "candy land."  sounds super classy, right?

in the spirit of the decade in which we attended prom, the 90's, i have been working on a little mix.  a little goo goo dolls, blind mellon, 4 non blondes, the cranberries...the list goes on and on. i can only listen to a couple of the songs, chumbawamba's tubthumping and hanson's mmmbop to name a couple, once maybe twice at the most.

in keeping with the 90's theme---here is my freshman homecoming picture for your viewing pleasure.

i remember i had on fake red glue-on nails, and i loved that dress.

i feel confident in saying that my fashion sense has improved since 1996, and i will not be donning fake nails or black tights to the prom tonight.

have a great weekend!

stocked

the shop is officially stocked with vintage goodies. i actually feel like i'm getting things done around here. i'm still in the planning stages of some of my projects, but i feel like i'm making progress.  getting the shop updated and the craft studio organized were definitely on the top of my list.  next up...heat set my gocco prints and dust off the old sewing machine. 

it's almost friday!

chuck todd is the man

ok. so. i did a mini shop update tonight, soon to be followed by another one tomorrow night.  i've been a bit pre-occupied with the primary returns, and i didn't quite get all of the vintage goodness into the shop all in one evening. how can a girl turn off the tv when chuck todd is speaking??

have a great wednesday!

tuesday!

i received this lovely package in the mail from jen as a thank you for the giveaway and a little swap--how sweet! i have a feeling a lot of this stuff will end up on my inspiration board inside my armoire.  speaking of that giant piece of furniture, thanks for all your comments--it was a fun project, although, i'll be happy not to see sandpaper, primer and paint for a while.  last night i actually had a dream that all the paint was just peeling off the top of it in huge pieces...anxiety dream?? i think so. 

finished!

here are the before pictures of my new favorite piece of furniture.  it had been spray painted pink, so i just did a little sanding and then primed it with some kilz.  if there is one thing i learned while living in new york it was that kilz will cover anything.  you name it--water stained ceilings, dark red paint, nasty unidentifiable "stuff" on your bathroom walls...kilz will cover it. 
this is the after! i glued cork board to the inside of the door, so i can use it as sort of an inspiration board. the little closet is cedar lined, so it should keep my fabric non-musty.  all in all i'm really happy with how this turned out.  now that i'm organized, maybe i can actually finish a project!

may...finally

this is where i'd like to be right at this very moment.  i took this photo from the wrap-around deck of our rental house in vieques, puerto rico.  we spent a week there last april, and spent the whole time reading, relaxing and drinking cuba libres.  i think i'd give anything to walk out of work tomorrow afternoon and onto a plane bound for this little island.

*due to an ultra crap-tastic week, i don't think i'll have the shop updated tomorrow, but i'm pretty sure i will have myself together by sunday...hopefully!

cocoon

i literally stood in front of the martha stewart paint samples for 20 minutes on the verge of tears because i couldn't decide on a color.  i'm an indecisive libra who had a horrible day at work, so doing a simple thing like picking a paint color became pretty overwhelming.  silly, i know.  anyway i teetered on the verge of a super dark navy called "umbrella" but ended up on the safe side with "cocoon." 
martha's colors are pretty amazing, but the names of some of them are kinda weird, like, "scented notepaper." what does that even look like?  she did have a ton with crafty names like, "sewing basket" "spool" "vintage rickrack"  and my favorite, "tag sale yellow."
hopefully i'll tackle this paint job friday after work and be finished by sunday.  or at least, move the thing out of the middle of the living room...

here's hoping tomorrow is better day!

paint colors?

i busted out the bike for the first time last night to meet some friends downtown for a little happy hour.  after a whole iowa winter spent on the porch i was a little concerned about her condition, but after a quick stop to the free air pump in the dairy queen parking lot, she was ready to go.  i started off last summer with a really amazing turquoise vintage bike that had a matching bag, but the chain kept falling off.
after one afternoon of standing on the corner downtown and calling ted for a ride back to the house because my bike couldn't cut it...she had to go.  enter, my green hiawatha from goodwill (i can always count on you, goodwill.) i can't wait to ride more--especially now that gas is virtually the price of gold.
oh! and i got the most amazing dresser/armoire/storage unit from goodwill yesterday.  it's huge.  luckily my landlord was nice enough to help me get it home in his car because the little yaris would have been crushed under all the weight.  i didn't take any pictures yet due to poor lighting last night, but i'm stopping by lowe's on the way home from work today for paint samples.  any suggestions for colors to paint a rather large dresser/armoire/storage unit??

sunny

it snowed yesterday---actual flakes fell from the sky, but mother nature seems to be back on track today with sunny skies and a high of 52.  let's hope she can keep it together.

i realized my last post about actual sewing was back on april 5th.  has it been that long? i've been pretty focused on my gocco and the computer, so i guess something had to give.  i think my creative interests go in waves...right now it's screen printing, next month it will be something else (hopefully back to sewing!)

these beautiful beads are from a great etsy store called atomic veggie. 

tv overload

this weekend i vegged out big time. today alone, i watched four episodes of pushing daisies, two episodes of miss guided, and two episodes of lipstick jungle.  i was cleaning up the craft studio, folding laundry and taking inventory of the vintage store at the same time, but it felt so good to be, well, a little lazy.
i got this book in the mail on saturday, and dug right in.  i knew of most of these printing techniques, but it's nice to have them all together in one beautiful book.  i've got my sights set on lino-block printing next.

thrifting went well this weekend, and with the aid of coffee, an abbreviated route, and a long nap afterward, we both remained happy campers (and walked away with tons of good stuff!!) i'm hoping to have the shop updated by the end of the week.

here's hoping for a sunny, stress-less week!