I saw this somewhere while I was doing one of my fruitless searches on the web. It stuck with me because sad as it may seem it sums up my existence. It's right cheeky I say and spot on. I wish I could give you the name of the person who spewed this pearl of wisdom and if you know please let me know so I can give them credit where credit is due...
Well, I know it's Friday somewhere in the world! I figured I would add this to the blahg sooner than later. The other day on my bi-weekly jaunt to the library I checked out a book that had the sweetest little, lady-like bookplate that I ever did see! I knew immediately that I wanted to make some for the download. I have made them in a summer lime and sunset yellow. They look a little bright on screen but they print pretty mellow (at least on my printer!) If you still feel they are too bright you can play with your printers contrast settings you should be able to get a color that you are happy with. Enjoy!
P.S. I added the lines around the plates because I think it's easier to cut with lines (I cut like a drunk person without them)
We have already established I cheat (when it comes to home cooking that is). I have little time and patience, unless it's the weekend or the very unusual dilemma of no deadline then I don't mind getting all gourmet and what not. I do a lot of weird things, one is ordering things and never using them, which would be the subscription I've had for over a year for 'Everyday Food'. Why I ignored these little sprites I have no idea. I casually opened one last week and they have thus far changed my life. I have gotten more compliments on my cooking then I can count and have added other continents to my repertoire, as I was stuck in two countries Mexico and Italy for quite some time, an occasional French jaunt but only when I was feeling really adventuress. I made this little ditty over the weekend, Brie wrapped in chicken:
In the mag they give you shopping lists, which is super convenient as I never remember to bring mine to the grocery any way and am convinced once I get there that all we need is Nestle Toll House cookie dough...So the convenience of tossing one of their mini mags in my bag isn't too off-putting. You know what the best part of this all is? You don't have to subscribe, they pretty much put all the recipes on line for those whom unlike moi don't want to add another expense to their lives. The recipes are really easy and so far goof proof (trust me if I can do it a monkey could). If you too want to seem like you have graduated with honors from culinary school than head on over to this mecca of domestica
This little blog has stolen my heart. It comes at a time when my heart is heavy with the demise of Polaroid. My sadness is so real and much worse than when I heard about the demise of Gocco. You see for years I have been documenting my travels and life via Polaroid. It started (and this is so wacky), with a Gestalt photography workshop in Big Sur. It's a looooooooong story, but it ended not with revelations about my psyche but a supreme passion for my instant camera. Adie's mum is the genius behind the photography studio Fiery Eyed a real talent she is and with the looks of it Adie is going to be too.
Here's images from four year old Adie Fey's blog 'Adie Loves Polly', (Polly being the name of her Polaroid):
Save Polaroid.
I have been really into the Through the Viewfinder photography technique that I have been sporting on my Etsy site. I have a Holga toy camera, all plastic, all goodness but I was getting bored of the same old shots so I was on the hunt for another vintage camera. On a lark I put 'camera' in my search in Etsy and I ended the new owner of this pretty baby:
It's from very cool Etsy seller Domestikate. I was hesitant to write about her because I have a bunch of things marked favorite and I didn't want them to be gone before I could snatch them up, but I can not keep a secret and when I find something great I have to blab about it (it's the publicist in me). Here's another treasure I have my eyeball on:
You can find Domestikate here.
In my delight that I found a camera on Etsy, I got to thinking about some other random things I have wanted for my studio. One thing I have been really interested in is a Phrenology head, they have always fascinated me in a cool medical chic way not in I am so cool because I like really creepy things way. I did find one, not exactly what I was looking for but at least I know there's hope that I may one day have my very own:
If you'd like the one above, or to see what other items CliptheWings has stop by here. I didn't find any trophies, I mean do a search for 'trophy' and you get a bunch of wacky stuff and you'll know what I mean by wacky...So then I thought the next useless item on my less is a magnifying glass. I didn't find anything that whet my whistle but I found this photo that made me smile:
Happy Etsy shopping!!!
I mentioned my Amazon selling frenzy a couple weeks back, I am starting to get books in and want to take this time to review my bounty. I did get A LOT of craft books and I promise to let you know which ones I thought were genius and which ones I put back on the auction block. The book Slim by designer Cynthia Rowley caught my eye awhile ago. I am a sucker for effortless watercolor, love the Daily Candy watercolor artwork:
You can pick up your copy here.
This my dears is something that if you don't know about it you should. It's pretty simple stuff and the results are SPECTACULAR. I call it the 'bauble bubble bath' because that's what it looks like to me. It's how to get your gems sparkly like new. I have heard many, many bad tips on this subject, one of the worse is to use toothpaste. You might have been able to do this in your grandmother's time when toothpaste wasn't fused with chemicals to bleach your teeth and what have you, but it's just not a good idea. The best tip I got was from a gemologist, she said to soak in Dawn and warm water, I use a small apertif glass and a drop of Dawn. I do this every day, not because I am obsessive or anything but I don't like to sleep with any jewelry and I figured I can have a safe place for storage and clean it at the same time. The Dawn is very mild and cuts out the grease, which is really what dulls your gems. I just use a soft toothbrush (super light touch here) on it in the a.m. if I am feeling really ambitious, but usually I just use a paper towel or other lint free cloth.
The result always feels like the thrill of a goof magic trick, it just makes me smile:
I LOVE my ring and want it to last for many, many more generations to come, so I try to take good care of it. My Fancy rolls his eyes when he sees me break out the toothbrush, but sheesh I wanted this ring since I was six years old! I designed it myself it was inspired by the Le Tour Eiffel and I love that there are no others the exact same on earth. One word of caution here, if you are cleaning your ring over a sink do make sure the sink drain is not open and I wouldn't recommend doing this over the garbage disposal or anything. This works for most gem stones, I haven't tried them all but so far so good....
I did mention I went to the flea market yesterday and didn't find what I was looking for but I didn't mention what I did find. No, no, I wasn't holding back, I just wanted to show you because it inspired a small project and I wanted to document it for you before I blabbed about my find.
So, I was thinking about Wedding season which I am in the belly of the beast right now and with that comes showers and gifts and more gifts, no not for moi but for all the bride's. It seems that a small 'hello' can garner you an invite to one that for some reason you must go to or have to sneak out your bedroom window to avoid the neighbor for as long as you live next door to her, ahem. So, I like to be crafty, not in a macaroni mosiac way or anything like that, but to make something that the recipient would enjoy and preferably be able to use again and again, so this project is perfect, it will illicit oohs and ahhs and you can get away with spending under $20 or less!
Tea pot: $5
Flowers from the Farmer's Market: $10
Being able to use the front door instead of climbing through the window to avoid my neighbor: Priceless
For a more mod bride, look for Japanese ceramics and put in baby succalents (super cheap!) And this would work for Mom's day too (not that I am pushing the under $20 thing for your mom or anything..)
Hmm, you think the weekend could have lasted just a wee bit longer, eh? Alas, it's Monday and the show must go on. I hope everyone had a very nice weekend (while it lasted) . I had this idea to go to the flea market to pick up some things for 'props' for my new mission to make the shop look a little more exciting. I had been wanting to do this since a few million posts ago where I wrote about the Etsy Labs suggesting how to make your wares look a little more enticing. I was looking for a few specific items: a trophy, a tea cup and some vintage glass. I came up empty. Either there is a rush on these items and they got swooped up before I arrived or I just had some dumb luck. No problem, I came back and tried my hand with what I had. Here are some of the shots, I know the quality is not the best but I was hoping to go for a 'look', at the very least create some interest in the darn things...
After pawing through the internet for 2 days, I realized a few things One, there's a cool thing on Flick'r where you imput the name/model of your camera in the search box and it'll show you photo's taken by others with your same camera. They all sucked!! Yea!! It's not just me!!!!, I am not a horrible photographer, I just need a better camera! My camera is the equivalent of Fred Flintsones car (remember he had to use his feet to start it up?) My camera is old, but not in a cool vintage way, no in a functionally obsolete way. My Fancy was going to get me one for Christmas but we got a sever e case of the 'poors' so it put a kaboosh on that idea. I really would rather wait anyway, I want to be able afford something great and not something a little better than what I have now.
Oh and if you are wondering what the heck those thick black borders are, it is a technique where you put your digital camera over the lens of a vintage camera, I have a Holga, it's basically a very old toy type camera. There's all these tutorials on the internet for making contraptions but I didn't bother reading (most of them were for nice cameras and it pissed me off). I just tried a bunch of my own crap, and realized you can pretty much put anything in front of your lens and get an interesting effect. I read this one clever mom put her daughters' light pink tights over the lens, it gave the photo a very ethereal glow and grainy texture. I don't have any tights or daughters lying around the studio so I have to put that technique on hold for right now, but get creative shoot through vellum, glass, etc. Enjoy the rest of your Monday...
