break time

time for a blog break...i should actually take a full blown internet break, but i don't see that happening. so i am banning myself from all blogs over the next week so i can attempt to get a few things done.

here is a sneak peak at a test print i did. the screen was a tad bit under exposed, but i just couldn't wait to try. this was my first pull ever so that's why the ink is kinda shotty. and i did it on a piece of scrap paper, so that's what the yellow is from. but once i re-burn this image for the correct amount of time, things will be good to go.

okay, time to go work on that. talk to you all later :)

it's been a month already???

i can't believe that it's been a month since my last post! i wish i could say it's because i have been super busy making things for my shop. but actually, i think the month flew by because we had a couple weddings and 2 camping trips.

every year we go to devil's lake state park in baraboo, wisconsin. it is our favorite thing to do, we look forward to it all year long.














this year, joe's birthday was during the trip. so i decided to decorate. i told joe that he had to leave for 40 minutes. during that time i strung the "party flags" that i cut last minute before we left. i also set up his gifts and 24 jello shots on the picnic table. i decided to make jello shots because they would be tasty and easier to transport than cupcakes.













after the "party" we went to a brewery. i had some honey beer and he had something else. i don't remember. i remember the food being better last time, but that could be because i am getting pickier with what i eat. i like my food to be fresh and REAL, not artificial. when i first met joe, i ate about 2 or 3 cosmic brownies a day. you know, the little debbie kind. but now? ew, no thanks. they taste disgusting. anyway, back on topic...












the next night we had sweet potatoes and burgers for dinner. i love sweet potatoes. they are one of my new favorite foods, along with asparagus and jalepenos. and tomatoes. i love cooking when we go camping, it's always a good time.










on wednesday we went hiking. about 2 weeks before the trip, i heard about this really neat thing called letterboxing. so i told joe that i wanted to do it. these are our stamps. i used one of my older ones (the lantern- you might remember it from last summer) and i got joe to carve his own. i am so happy with the way his turned out! it's his first block print. next weekend we might go out and hide our own letterbox, we'll see.













we did a lot of other things during our trip, but these were some of the highlights. we didn't get to go canoeing or kayaking as we had hoped, but next year we will for sure. or maybe we will during our surprise anniversary trip.

anyway, in other news- printing hasn't happened yet. i'm not pushing for any dates at the moment. there are a few changes that i have made to the whole idea, and any time i have a new idea i always hem and haw over things. i hate being so indecisive and timid about new things. oh well, at least i have a few designs ready for whenever it DOES happen. i decided that i want this whole thing to be more organized than what operation paper cut has been. so, i am working on releasing a bunch of new things at one time rather than one thing after another. you know- kind of like when your favorite store releases a new catalogue with a ton of new things at once. lately i've been painting freshly sawed pieces of wood for some of the pieces i'm working on. i will let you know when it's ready, of course. i start work in 2 hours so i am going to go paint some more until then. i might be going out of town one more time in august so we'll see what happens- i don't want to open the new shop (did i say new shop? yeah, i did) until i know that i am going to be here and able to answer emails and see what's going on...so going out of town again kind of cuts in to that plan.

anyway, i'm rambling. last night i visited a few blogs- oooh they all look so good. i found about 7 more that i've never seen before. that's one of my biggest set backs- finding new blogs to read. now i have over 100 that i read at least once every 2 weeks and i don't have bloglines or anything like that. i think i should set something like that up, hey?

until next time...

it's thursday. again.

the weeks are flying by, aren't they?

it has been too humid to coat the screens with emulsion. today would have been a good day to do it, and i started to but then i realized that my makeshift darkroom isn't dark enough. it's pretty dark, but not completely. so i'm waiting till it's dark out tonight.

a corner...




















we went to my aunt's birthday party last weekend. i felt like wearing my garden blouse.



















hey, check out etsy seller majicjelly's latest print-
i really love it.
what a great price, too- only $12!!!
visit her shop over here!
























okay, off to finish laundry!

rummage sales and rearranging

proof that i really have been working on screen printing stuff...



















although, i didn't do what i wanted to do with it today. it's too humid and i don't have a dehumidifier, so i have to wait till tonight to coat the screens with emulsion.

i went rummaging with my mom and bought a couple of little things:

2 of these red patterned linens. i'm going to put them in the bedroom, i think.














a roll of old german wallpaper. i'm going to make envelopes and perhaps a journal cover with it.
i also got the yellow duvet that's under the roll of paper. it's a little faded, but it will do.















when i got home, i felt like rearranging my housewares. i don't have very many things, so it's not that easy to just switch them around. i decided that the coffee table needed some reading material, so i put some readymade magazines and a craft book in a serving tray.
















i've been working on designs for my prints, as you know. photoshop would really help right about now. but i don't have it, so i have to make do without.

i wish i could tell you guys what my first print is going to be! well, i suppose i could tell you, but then it wouldn't be as fun to show you when it's done. i can say that it will be partially moroccan inspired and there might be some yellow in it...but that's about it!

well, time to go clean the house.

take care, friends!

dang, some of my photos are missing from older posts. i have to redo that part.

and the other dang- i think i'm going to have to pick up a shift at work tonight, so i wont have time to do any printing stuff. uuugh.

father's day + small to do list

i refuse to shop at hallmark or buy any type of card unless it's handmade. (although when it's somebody's wedding, i sometimes forget about the card till last minute, so i'm forced to shop hallmark. i need to get a nice collection of occasion cards going.

anyway, this is what i came up with for father's day. it's a beer bottle shape. the label comes off by sliding it down and it opens like a regular card. for my father-in-law. i haven't made my dad's, yet.

i only made it because i didn't have any other crafty things to do, since i'm waiting for my screen printing stuff (should be here on tuesday!) AND because i've been dying to use this lovely green card stock for a long time now!

the week ahead:

+monday- going to my parent's to celebrate father's day.
+tuesday- off to the strawberry field since we never went last weekend.
+wednesday- hopefully burning some screens for printing by friday.
+thursday- setting up my printing space.
+friday- printing. (fingers crossed!)

stay tuned, lots of photos in the days to come!

casting shadows

i had to take a photo of this because the sun was shining into our home for about an hour the other day...which is something that only happens for a couple months out of the year, in the evening after about 7:15 or so. the sun only covers about 2 feet of the wall, so it's nothing spectacular, but it made me really happy to see it since it doesn't happen too often.














i'm really tired right now- i slept from about 1 a.m. till 4:15 a.m. and then went for a jog at 5:40. now it's 6:45 and i'm going to go back to sleep for a bit.

i have today off. lots of errands to do and then i'm going to work on a couple designs for the whole screen printing thing. ugh, will the day EVER come when i get to start printing? i feel like it just keeps getting pushed back by little things in life. i am ordering my emulsion TODAY though, for sure this time, and nothing is going to get in my way this time, as it has the past 4 or 5 times that i've said this. i'm feeling more inspired than ever and i am ready to see the day that i quit chili's- i've had more than enough of that place and it's drama. i really, really despise drama. ugh.

anyway, i might post again later today depending on errands, etc. if not, maybe sometime early next week!

have a good one.

peach tea and a wedding today.

today we are going to a wedding at 2.

i decided that we needed some peach tea beforehand, though.

does anybody else notice that blogger makes their images fuzzy? it doesn't even matter how big or small you make it...ugh.

tomorrow we might go pick strawberries or something. maybe the farmers market instead? i think this is the first weekend of it. we'll see.

short post today.

shop update, etc

the shop has been updated with new moleskines.

this weekend we went to our friends wedding in michigan. it was nice visit another state. wisconsin starts to get really boring after awhile! the farmer's market starts soon, though...can't wait for that!

so i'm always on the lookout for the perfect dining room table and chairs. i've seen a few in design catalogues, but they are always really expensive and there's no way i could ever convince joe that we should spend that much on a table. anyway, i stumbled across this set last night and i really love it:

i like the solid wood (mahogany) and steel construction. and i HATE rounded tables, so the square design is exactly what i'm looking for.

do you see the indent in the middle of the table? i like it, but the strange thing is that the "room view" of the table and chairs doesn't show that. so i don't really know what's up with that. anyway, the set is supposed to be over $2200 but i found it for less than $1000.

we'll see if i end up getting it. depends. i'm leaning towards no, because i have to save money for the surprise anniversary trip that i'm taking joe on and i also need to save money to fix my car. i hate cars. mine needs a lot of work...ew.

today it's raining so i'm going to clean out my closet, work on etsy stuff and visit some blogs.

i should get on that right now! thanks for stopping by!

new stuff

today i started a new series of moleskines:

i've had all this great paper laying around forever now, and i finally brought myself to cut some of it. i still need to glue everything down, but i figured i'd share them now anyway. the shop will be updated tonight (about dame time...i've been taking a really long break from it.) so all of these will be available.

+++

today is pretty hot outside, but that's okay because i love summer more than winter.......at least for now. heh.

it appears to be nice and breezy so i might go lay outside with my ipod and enjoy the weather. not an easy thing to do when you live in an apartment, as i'm sure some of you may know. i can't wait to move into a house! i just want a garden with tons of vegetables and another garden with flowers and plants...and a place to have bonfires. aaaaand a clothes line like this one. oh! and our own washer and dryer because it really blows having to share one washer and one dryer with 11 other tenants, especially when it's 4 floors down and broken quite often. can you tell that i'm sick of apartment living? the first year was okay, i didn't really mind it. it was just nice to be on my own (with joe). the next year was alright because we were busy planning the wedding so it wasn't something i really noticed. but now, year 3, is really getting on my nerves. oooh well. one day.

+++

okay, well like i mentioned before, it looks beautiful outside so i'm off to see if the horses are out. they haven't been out for awhile :(

i want a horse.

ha, joe says i want everything. that's almost true...

oh! west elm just sent me an email saying that their bedding has free shipping right now :) mmm. it's a good thing i'm not floored by this seasons designs. whew, otherwise i'd want that too. i better go check it out just in case.

+++++

this weekend we went camping with a friend of ours.
it was really nice, but the ticks were terrible! i've never seen a tick before, which is odd because i've been camping quite a few times. and then when i learned that ticks are actually arachnids, i disliked them even more. ugh.



















so what's new with you guys? nothing much here...at all. things are a lot different when i'm not making new items for my shop. i kind of like it, actually. i'm really not sure when i will ever get around to screen printing, right now i'm trying to focus on other things. i'm saving my money for our anniversary trip- joe has no idea where we're going, but i've been looking into this place for almost a year now. i can't wait!

i finally started a few drawings to be turned into prints, so that's a start. i also decided what the first print will be of...it's a secret, though! you'll find out eventually. hopefully soon. okay, hopefully soon-ish. we'll go with soon-ish because that gives me until mid summer.

there's never much to talk about when i'm not making new things, so that's all for now.

have a good one!

it's been awhile, hasn't it?

hello.

i haven't blogged a whole lot lately. i just finished transferring my typepad posts over to blogger. i had to do that before i made any new posts, so now that it's done i can blog again.















last week i went up north to visit my grandpa. i had intentions on taking photos, but i didn't. i only took a couple at the rest stop.


not much to talk about. funny how that works when you haven't been making anything. i still haven't been able to order my emulsion, so no prints yet.