21 Days Til Halloween!

...silver shamrock! Finally, the 90 degree weather has moved on! Today was great-- 60 degrees and rainy. Ahhhhhhh! It's supposed to clear up for the weekend but maintain a wonderful high of 58-60 degrees. Now THAT'S cider mill weather.

Dave loaned me this cool book! I cannot believe all the nifty stuff inside. I want it all to decorate my house, well, sans the hefty price tags. Yikes! I love all the paper lanterns with silhouettes. Aren't they great? This little lovey on the right is-- can you see?-- $900! Wow. Seems like all the German diecuts are the big ticket items. Dave said lots of this stuff is even crazy expensive at flea markets too.

Waiting on some retro repro Halloween decals to come in the mail so I can finish up my treat pails. Cutting it kinda close, I know. But I did make another Boo Garland (finally) which is in my shop! Also, my weirdo Halloween diorama dude is there as well.

Oh Fall! I thought you'd never get here!

The Paper Doll

The sweet and lovely Schultzie outright purchased some Girl Land goods about a month or two ago. She has a lovely shop in Washington state called The Paper Doll-- Bellingham, to be exact (home of Death Cab for Cutie!). I was so honored to have some of my things in her shop!

Anywho, I clicked on their "What's New" section a week or so ago, and look! One of my kitty carry-me cases right there staring me in the face! Hello, little little! I'm such a dork, but it made me very happy. Thanks, Schultzie! Say hi to Soupy Sails for me!

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