There Are Many Things For Which to Be Thankful

Even on a gray, cloudy day, it's not looking so bad. I'm spending the two nights my husband is away at my parents' lovely house at the vineyard, and this morning my wonderful mother got up extra early to make me biscuit doughnuts, a childhood favorite. It was always what I requested for breakfast on birthdays and other very special days, and I had them, for the first time in years, again this morning. Quite lovely. I also have some delicious brie soup to look forward to for lunch, and things seem more cheery this morning.

These humorous original typography drawings by British artist Matt Lyon added to the general feeling of contentedness by making me giggle a little.

This one makes me think of Mr. Krook's fancy spontaneous combustion act in Dickens' Bleak House.

These illustrations are Matt Lyon's original work, pulled from his flickr Typography set.

Etsy Treasure Tuesday: Letterpress Delicacies

I stumbled upon Letterpress just today, as I was thinking about how much I'm going to miss my husband this week. He's going to a conference to present a paper (yes, he's quite brilliant), and I can't go with him. This is only the second time since we've been married (for almost three years!) that we've been apart from each other for more than 15 hours. He left this morning, and will be back on Thursday, but this morning, when we had to say goodbye, it felt like three months rather than three days. Anyway, enough of my sappiness and on to the loveliness. This was the card that caught my eye and attracted my attention to the fabulous Letterpress.

Their designs and colors are incredible. So detailed, and I love the small pattern repeats.

Even better, Letterpress is a Texas artist! Check out the cheeky Howdy card:

More beautiful vintage-inspired motifs:

(All images by Letterpress and pulled from the Etsy shop.)

V-Day Giveaway

To thank you all for being such devoted and lovely readers, I've planned a terrific giveaway just in time for Valentine's Day. This time, you get to choose which item you win, from six {edited: five} lovely options in my Etsy shop. All you have to do is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment by this Saturday, February 13th telling me if you plan to do anything special on V-Day. I'll collect and draw names on Saturday night, and will announce the winner on the 14th. Tell all your friends!

Here are the items you have the chance to win:

The Softhearted necklace.

The Coquette necklace. {Edited: I'm so sorry, friends, but the Coquette necklace sold on 2.12.10. But if you win, you still get to choose from the other five items!} The Trinket earrings. The Radiant necklace. The Write Me Up necklace.The Center of Attention earrings.

Good luck! I can't wait to hear from you all.

Big News!

Giveaway coming tomorrow! Just in time for V-Day, friends! Get ready, it's the biggest one yet.

Headband Reveal

So Art Trail was fantastic last night. Floods of people poured into Alderson (I'm convinced it was the incredible cupcakes by Cassie of Smitten Cakes), and we had so much fun.

As promised, I did manage to take a few somewhat substandard photos of my headbands for you. Three of the seven sold: the far left one (teal with yo-yos) in the first photo, and the two on the left in the second photo (black and white and raspberry and chocolate ... mmm, raspberry and chocolate ... I'm hungry for cupcakes again). So let me know what you think! And if you would like to purchase one of the four that are left, leave a comment and I can send more detailed information.

Thanks so much to those of you who came out!

First Friday Art Trail Tonight

Please come show some love tonight at the First Friday Art Trail if you're in Lubbock! Lots of exciting things will be happening, and you won't be sorry you came! For starters, I have dozens of beautiful new things to show off, including velvet embellished headbands, which I'm debuting and selling exclusively at Art Trail; I actually did complete one of my own DIY projects, posted about here, and created seven of my own lovely offerings featuring vintage rhinestones and repurposed brooches, vintage millinery ribbon, and vintage velvet leaves. I wasn't able to photograph them to give you a sneak peek today, unfortunately, but I plan to take some photos this afternoon when I get them set up at Art Trail.

But headbands aren't all there will be to see: my lovely friend Evan has been making some gorgeous Valentines and handmade cards, and the wonderful Cassie of smitten cakes will be there too, with 300 cupcakes exclusively for Art Trail patrons. (Or 298 cupcakes for Art Trail patrons, more correctly, after I show up.) In addition, there will be 16 total artists at Alderson Mercedes tonight, plus all of the others at various locations on the Trail. It's going to be a good night.

I can't wait to see you there, and since it's looking like it's going to be a mild and beautiful evening, I really hope you'll come by and say hello from 6:00-9:00pm at Alderson Mercedes, 17th & Texas Avenue.

DIY Thursday: Jewelry Display Bust

I got so, so, so excited when I found this splendid DIY project on design*sponge this week. This is something I definitely NEED. It's not something I can do on my own, however, for the following 2 inconvenient reasons: 1, I don't have a jigsaw, which is a direct result of 2, that I like having 10 fingers. So, I'll have to get my dad's help on this one. He doesn't share my overwhelming fear of mechanized teeth. Anyway, on to the real attraction!

Ta da! Isn't she beautiful?!

The reason I need such a magnificent piece of functional genius is that I'm quickly running out of creative ways I can display my pieces at Art Trail. My mother-in-law generously made me two crepe-covered neck forms that look like this, which I use all the time, but the drawback is that I can only put one, or at the most two, necklaces on each of them. And I have a lot of necklaces. So this seems to be the most perfect solution, as I actually did go on an Etsy and craigslist search a while back for vintage busts, but if I can make my own, and if, like this one, it has the added advantage of resembling a sweet Victorian silhouette, who needs overpriced antiques?

Here's how she was made (full instructions with the photos here):

I'll keep you posted on her progress. My pop's a busy guy, so I may not be able to report on Mamie (I've just named her) for a while, but oh, I can promise you, she'll materialize at some point. Do you guys have any ideas on how I could spiff her up?

(photos by Kate, pulled from the design*sponge post.)

Wishes

I liked the idea of Rachel's February wishes post so much that I decided to jot down a few of my own hopes and wishes for this month. But first I shall echo a few of hers, which are wonderful:

(From Rachel's list)

1. A pretty new dress.

2. Two coffee/[crafting] dates with friends.

3. Warm weather trips to the park.

4. A cupcake. Or two.

(My own list)

5. An empty back room, which I can fill up with all of my beautiful new IKEA workspace helpers.

6. A weekend without rain or snow.

7. A busy and delightful Art Trail (this Friday night!)

8. A new bookshelf successfully assembled in our dining room.

9. More cups of hot tea in my pj's.

10. Maybe a pair of cute new shoes.

11. Definitely a pair of rainproof wellies.

12. A few movie nights and lots of kisses with my sweet husband.

(photo above by simpletess.)

Etsy Treasure Tuesday: Marchare

I stumbled upon the charming Marchare shop a couple of weeks ago when I was on one of my wild Etsy hunts for lace or doilies or something equally inessential but seemingly so very necessary at the moment. I didn't take much time to look around at all of the items in the shop until recently, and discovered a treasure trove of pretty things for sewing, packaging, and general creating. I think the shop is based in Japan, because quite a lot of the items are Japanese, which would explain the overflow of cuteness. Have a look for yourself:

I'm planning to make myself a large cross-shoulder bag for the England trip this summer (more on that in a later post), so perhaps a purchase of some of that lovely linen is in my future. And as long as the linen is required, the lace tape and doilies and vintage twine may as well come too.

You're My Hero, Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew mysteries were among my favorite books when I was in elementary and junior high, ranked among The Babysitters Club, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Roald Dahl. And I shall tell you a secret: I still love them, and still have just as much fun reading them as I did then, even though now they often provide a stolen day away from Oscar Wilde and Henry James and other books I'm reading for the Honors Book Club. I love how in the older ones, the ones written in the 30's and 40's, Bess and George are Nancy's "chums," and Ned her "special friend." They're so innocent and charming, and well, wholesome, I suppose you'd call it.

Anyway, today I have arranged a special tribute to Nancy Drew, in the form of a small collection of some of the wonderful illustrations from my personal copies.

I've always suspected that Carson Drew was modeled after Cary Grant. And I've always tried to figure out who would play the parts of Nancy, Bess, and George if I were to single out contemporary actresses, but have never come up with the perfect matches. Any ideas? Or suggestions for favorite stories I should pick up from the library?

DIY Thursday: Braided Headband

This is such a very adorable headband, and such a wonderfully easy DIY, that I think we're all especially lucky that today is Thursday. (Sidenote: I'm having to remind myself that there are, indeed, beautiful things in the world today, because all I see outside is sheets of rain pouring out of a very dark sky, on top of which the wind is blowing things so horribly about that by noon nothing's going to be the same shape it was at 8:00 this morning. To make matters worse, the campus where I work turns into the city's only lake anytime it rains for more than 15 consecutive minutes. End of sidenote.)

Moving on, our fabulous project today comes from one of the sweetest, loveliest, craftiest bloggers I've come across, the wonderful RubyEllen of cakies. I'll paste in most of her photos for the tutorial here, but you'll have to see her original post to get all of the details and complete instructions. I hope that you do hop over to her blog, because it's so full of kindness and pretty things that it will brighten your day right up, even if, like here, it looks like the middle of the night in a squall on the Atlantic.

(All images by RubyEllen of cakies, and pulled from her headband tutorial post here.)