Curiously Familiar

Here's the new One Good Bumblebee email I received today which is on their main website as well:


And here is what Girl Land's website has looked like since April-ish:


I hope this a coincidence because I really would have appreciated a courtesy e-mail. Am I being petty? I put a lot into the thought of my website layout (even though I didn't produce it, I came up with the whole concept). I guess I'm just kinda bummed. Sigh.

**UPDATE: Received a cordial email from Katey today of OGB who swore up and down she hadn't seen my site. I guess I always expect the worse from people, so that's my fault. So chalk it up to coincidence! Changed my "Raging" tag to "whining" instead. You guys are always so supportive though-- thanks for the words of encouragement. XO! Over and out!**

First Attempt

A friend and work colleague is due with her second boy on Q's bday (Nov 12!). Two of my other friends and I are taking her out to lunch this Friday. They asked me to go in on a gift for her, but I said I was going to maybe make something instead. I'm actually going to give her a hooded towel that my friend, Karen, makes (I use them for Quinn every day!), and then I read Sarah's blog yesterday and though what the hey. Here's the outcome:




Not GREAT, but acceptable for a first venture. I need to snip off some threads I noticed after I took this pic. I'm also going to give her a Wise Owl bib and I'll try to package it up nicely. It was nice to be crafty again yesterday. I have today off work (gotta love that Columbus), so I need to get crackin' on Catherine's order!


No flea market yesterday. I was feeling morning sicky, and I figured that coupled with 88 degree heat and humidity with no shade in sight and an hour's drive made a bad combo. Phooey.

Creepin' Me Out

So Q says yesterday, "Kid crying, kid crying" and is looking all sad. I say, "Where is there a kid crying?", thinking she is hearing a neighbor kid having a tantrum or something outside. She pulls me into our guest room and points to this statue guy we use as a door stop. Frigging SCARY!!! Our black and white cat knocked him over when we first bought him and his head broke off, so Ryan glued it back on. Ryan said, "Eesh, maybe that's why he's crying!". That's the room we're going to have to move into soon to make room for Baby #2, and now we're freaked out about it. I can't wait to tell my mom because she already think the thing comes alive at night. I think she puts something over it when she sleeps over.

We took Q to get her first haircut yesterday. We went to this only moderately awful kid's haircut chain, and she did alright. She wouldn't wear the cape though. It's a little less Gene Wilder-ish now. Then we went to a cider mill and sweated our arses off.

Also made Ryan go back to the estate sale from yesterday so I could buy Missy Mouse!!!! That's the one I thought I had bought but I didn't. Isn't she cute? I'm very content now.


I am heading off to a flea market in a bit, so I will show you my finds in the next day or so.

Pom-licious

I have had this lamp for my craft room for months now. I finally bought the lamp shade, tea-stained it, then bought the vintage poms off Ebay and attached them this morning. Bout dang time.

Today is the hubby's and my 6th anniversary! We are celebrating in a few weeks with a trip to Traverse City. We go there every year, and it's wonderful. We're taking Q too.

Trying to figure out what to do today. Q desperately needs a haircut. I don't want to do it myself. She has pretty tight curls, and when we pick her up from daycare she looks like a wild woman. It's her "Gene Wilder Look". But I also wanted to go to a cider mill even though Ryan is not thrilled with going to a cider mill when it's supposed to get up to 86 degrees today.

Hope everyone is having fun!

Garbage Sale

This is a term that my friend, Sue, affectionately uses—she LOVES garage and estate sales both. Funny what people are drawn to at such sales. Her obsession is table linens. I gravitate towards salt & pepper shakers, planters, aprons, embroidery, anything with animals or kids on them, children’s books, framed prints, etc. Speaking of, I just adore this “cow” picture recently scored by Nicole. Her picture looks like it’s from a catalog.

Anywho, Sue is only one of two of my real-life junking friends (the other being Dave), both co-workers. Sue and have now twice gone to sales at lunch. Today was quite the adventure! She hit this particular sale yesterday on her day off and loved it so much that she wanted to go back. So we drove about 20 minutes to the town, and um, drove around trying to find it for about another ½ hour. She was giving up and feeling sheepish (t’was no biggie for me—my lunch date had canceled) when her friend called and gave us some better directions. She still wasn’t sure, so we tracked down a postal worker she had talked to yesterday near the sale, and Miss P.O.’s mind was a steel trap—of course she remembered…114 West!

Anywho, lovely little sale. Much more estate than garage. TONS of aprons, vintage baby clothing, children’s books, Christmas kitsch, linens, furniture, etc. Most of the cloth items were torn or stained (I don’t do badly stained or ripped unless it’s basically free), and we didn’t have much time to dig, but I did get a few darling aprons (don't you love the windmill one?), a huge BAG of wooden figurine ornaments and a few more kitschy one, and one kid’s book with beautiful silhouettes on the front and back covers. I had in my hand the CUTEST mouse toothpick holder that could have been turned into a tiny pincushion, and I must have set it down because I don’t have it. Boo hoo! I had a sense of panic when I thought I may have put it in the ornament bag or under the aprons and walked off with it, but I didn’t. Although the Sarah Devil sitting on my left shoulder wishes that I had inadvertently stolen it. Mwaaaahaahaaahaaa.

Oh, here are some other small finds from Sue’s and my last estate sale together—some perfectly Girl Land fabric, for one! If this were wallpaper, I would use it to do up another room in Girl Land’s imaginary wee cottage in the woods. Also found were a retro 80s mirrored compact, some rabbit miniatures for dioramas, and some SUPER CUTE Swedish kids cocktail napkins. Oh, and I also got this milk glass pedestal bowl at a thrift store about a month ago. I'm thinking I will put some of this stuff in my shop. And here are some more pics on my Flickr page.

Another big flea on Sunday! Happy weekend all! xo

Pushing Daisies

I watched this show last night and was so very pleasantly surprised! Just what I needed-- another show in my repertoire. Like I don't watch enough of the boob tube already.

For those who don't know the (slightly silly) premise, Ned is a pie maker who has the bizarre gift of reviving dead folk with one touch and can send them back to death with a second touch. He is in business with a P.I. and together they solve murders by reviving the victims to ask who killed them. Slightly morbid but somehow very very cute!!! He then revives a childhood crush, a girl named Chuck or Charlotte Charles, and he decides to keep her alive. Their crush is rekindled, but he cannot touch her again or she will die all over again.

Ok, sounds really morbid? It's so not! It's one of the cutest things I've seen in awhile. The best parts about it: the tres Amelie-esque narrator who refers to Ned as "The Pie Maker"; the Tim Burton-like colors, backdrops, and the scenery are beautiful; the name of Ned's bakery is called The Pie Hole (ha); and Chuck's wonderfully weird ex-synchronized swimming aunts (The Darling Mermaid Darlings) played by Ellen Greene and Swoozie Kurtz. How can you go wrong? Anyway, it's on Wednesdays from 8pm-9pm eastern time.

You can watch the opening scene on Youtube! Let me know if anyone else watched it and/or liked it.

I'm BAAAAAACCCKKKK

We had a lovely stay in the Twin Cities! Check out what we did (brace yourself for the boringness and notice how the whole trip revolves around food).



Thursday: Checked into our hotel, Chambers. They couldn’t find our reservation even though I provided them with my confirmation email and confirmation number therefore we got an upgraded room (that cost $565/night!!!). God bless incompetent computerized reservation systems. In the lobby, they had an art vending machine. You put $$ in, and get a lil' piece of art! That night, we ate at Chambers Kitchen. I was drooling over the lovely drinks like ginger margaritas and cucumber mint cocktail, but alas, no could do.

Friday: Ate breakfast at Hell’s Kitchen. Oona told me they have great homemade peanut butter. YUM, did they (we bought 3 jars)! Ryan got a bloody mary made with beer instead of vodka and said it was the best bloody mary he’s ever had (I’m not a bloody mary fan myself). Went to Crafty Planet, and I met Rebecca. She’s so cute. We were at DUCF together, but I never got a chance to meet her. Didn’t buy much though because I was feeling uninspired, but it was so great to see all those lovely Japanese import fabrics in person! Then went to Patina and bought a few things for Q. Then went to the Walker Art Center and sculpture garden. At night, ate at Cosmos with some friends of my hubby’s sister. Great food! Although, my pregnancy upchuck reflex kicked in a bit with the palette cleanser (a shot of carrot ginger juice with a ball of “exploding coconut” which tasted like an eyeball). Everything else was tres magnifique though—our waiter was great and resembled Andy Dick. I’m sure he’d love to hear that.

Saturday: Ate at Town Talk Diner—Ryan got awesome steak and eggs. Went to I Like You, another indie shop, and saw many cutie pie wares from The Glitter Workshop. Drove to the burbs for my friend’s wedding and then to the reception near the Mall of America. At the reception, we sat with some random people who were from St. Paul but kept referring to Minneapolis as “Murderapolis”. Let me tell you that downtown Minneapolis looked like Pleasantville to us. Ryan said he would love to drive them down to Detroit and just leave them somewhere. They’d poop their pants. Now, we LOVE downtown Detroit—such great restaurants, museums, theaters-- but people from out of town freak out. They also were so kind to suggest going to a chain restaurant near the Mall of America as well as to a local Renaissance Festival for fun (we have one in the Detroit area too; I'm sure the MN one is equally as sucky). I just nodded and smiled politely.

Sunday: Ate at Hell’s Kitchen again! Had THE MOST amazing ham, pear, and fontina sandwich ever. Ryan got their Mahnomin Porridge which was also super tasty. I may try to recreate both things. Went back to the burbs to hubby’s sis’ friends’ house. Met their kids and played Pretty Pretty Princess and Life and ate fresh baked cookies. Fun, rainy afternoon stuff. For dinner, went to Ike’s for just a burger. We were sick of eating out by this point. Weird joint. Lots of drunk Vikings and Packers fans about too.

Monday: Back to Detroit! Thanks for listening to my synopsis. If you were my mother, you’d say, “Are you done yet? It’s like I’m listening to a story about a dream you had!” xo