hello all! ive been pretty busy lately but decided to take the past couple of days off from blogging, crafting, and all those things to do a few other things that had to be done. i will be back soon though! here are a few things i havent showed off yet...

all is for sale on etsy but im still working out a few kinks in my shop...i'll list the shop link when its a little more complete!

the four things meme:

ive been putting this off mainly because ive had such a boring life compared to ALL the other people who have responded to this and posted about it in their blog.

Four jobs I've had:
-cashier at a chain grocery store
-supervisor at a theme park
-worked in a machine shop *for 4 days till i cut myself pretty good and they didnt have any bandadges to give me*
-waitress

Four movies I could watch over and over
-pulp fiction
-die hard...any of them
-fargo
-reservoir dogs

Four places I've lived:
-in a house in illinois
-in an apt in wisconsin

Four TV shows I love:
dont like tv much anymore, so here WERE my favorite shows as a kid-
-fragil rock
-lassie
-zoobilee zoo
-eureka's castle

Four favourite places I've vacationed:
-baraboo, wi
-poconos, pa
-clearwater, fl
-hayward, wi

Four of my favourite dishes:
-chicken parmegian with egg noodles
-steak and a baked potatoe
-tamale casserole
-pepper steak and rice
(i told you i was pretty boring!)

Four sites I visit daily:
-google
-abbytriesagain
-frecklewonder
-etsy

Four places I'd rather be right now:
-camping
-in a bubble bath
-in europe maybe?
-in bed....my heating blanket is waiting for me!!! good night everyone!

apple cards...im having the hardest time coming up with a price for these!!! i want to sell them in quantities of 3, 4, or possibly 5. white envelopes included. any suggestions? everytime i think of a price i second guess myself and say "thats too high" but then again i bought the cards and envelopes from a distributer, carved the stamp myself and used speedball ink which isnt as cheap as i wish it was. but THEN i tell myself, "well, people in the craft 'world' know why things are pricey. like i said, im open for suggestions!

this is what i've been doing...only a few (BLURY!) pictures for now, i have to get back to crafting asap!...sit tight, apple cards, tags, and a few other pictures are on the way!


booklets made from recycled paper... i carved and stamped the prints on front. hopefully somebody will pick one up at the craft fair on saturday! they can be used for to do lists, notes to your lover (hehe), purse booklet, mini journal, etc. the bird one is 52 pages and the heart one is 28 pages.

a peak into the bird booklet...

and into the heart one...

heart valentine cards! i cut, folded and printed these this a.m. on 2 different shades of red cardstock. blank inside. im secretly really happy about my heart stamp! although i did mess up one part. hmph. im going to take these to the show too.

self portrait tuesday...just got home from work.

a few things

wow how time goes by quickly. its been a tad busy around here (although i should be doing more than i actually am) so ive been trying to break my internet addiction. i decided that i would have to cut blog time out for a bit along with some message boards. talk about lack of inspiration! no, not really though...the internet seems to suck my time away from me so i figured that i needed a break to focus more on what i had to get accomplished. i have a craft fair on the 11th, i'm nowhere near prepared for it.

OH YEAH, how could i forget, the other reason i havent been much of an updater lately is because we just recently got engaged on january 1, so i dove head first into planning. wow that takes up a lot of time! things are going okay with it so far, im finding that its more difficult than i thought to plan a DIY wedding. so much to think about, so little time- our date is set for september 24 of this year. we wanted it in the fall so thats why we picked the date, and its the first day of fall too, so thats pretty neat.

i turned 21 a few days ago, the bar was fun. i was so scared all day long that i was going to be hugging the toilet but im proud to say that i made it! somehow. i don't know how i managed 14 drinks (no joke. shots and cocktails.) and i didnt have a hangover in the a.m. we had a blast.

cards and postcards... i used pantone markers that i had to buy for design school, they were $60 so i figured i better keep using them since they didnt get much use during school! oh yeah, i am trying to less of a perfectionist lately. it takes too much time and energy making everything perfect! im hoping that making these cards will help.

somehow these got deleted...so im reposting them. we made our christmas cards this year. carved and block printed by me. the envelopes are made from brown "kraft" paper. i actually got the boy to join & help me out on this one!

....and they are done! we had a peep show photo shoot too. arranged in order from blue to blue green to green. yes!

so i made some bird stamps today. half of them turned out crappy, my brayer doesnt roll right for some reason, it keeps getting stuck and then the ink gets all smudged. but thats okay. i will keep the good ones. im turning them into gift tags i think...

so ive never had a fake tree before...or artificial or whatever you want to call it. and i didnt think i would have a fake one this year. we actually had plans on cutting our own. but then we got a newsletter from our landlord "reminding" everyone about the "no real trees" rule. yeah. so plans changed. i wasnt about to buy a plastic tree, either. but i needed SOMETHING to put the presents under, esp. since its our first christmas living together in the apt. so, i made one...
it cost about 10 bucks to make. i found garland buy one get one free. my dad had a ton of wire hangers and didnt mind if i took them off his hands. and they also had the rod for the trunk. i had acrylic paint already too, to paint the trunk. you cant really tell- the brown things are pinecones. i bought a big package of cinnamon scented ones and we strung them up and hung them- it smells great too :). i drilled holes at an angle on 4 sides and 4 corners about every 7 inches up the rod. and my favorite part is that it all comes apart pretty easy for storage.

updated on february 8th... dammit im getting really pissed! they look sharp and just fine on my computer and then when i put them on here they are really blury. why does it do that!!!??? uuugh. anyway, if you click on one it will bring it up in a new window and be sharper. except for the birdhouse one and the stove top one- those two are still pretty blury.

they are coptic bound and i am getting a table at a handmade market on feb 11 in chicago. the girl who is running it wants to turn it into a monthly event if all goes well. that would be great for the future of smock, paper, scissors!