weekend update

while i didn't accomplish everything that i wanted to this weekend (i should be used to this by now ... i hardly ever get everything done. i set out to accomplish so much & always fall short, oh well) ... i did get some stuff done! i made some layouts & a mini book for the polaroids from the photo shoot. i used the tutorial from rachel's steady hand, faulty heart class ... contact paper instead of colored duct tape (still on my to-buy list) but it looks great! i'll take pics/ scan it, asap.

i didn't get to work on the pillows because i didn't go to my mom's (no sewing machine) though my friend carrie was nice enough to let me borrow her mom's --- BUT i forgot the pedal, so no sewing for me. bummer.

PAPER SOURCE WAS AMAZING. i mean, i knew it would be, because i used to gush over everything in the cambridge store, but this carlsbad store is BIG and i just seriously wanted to move right in. we spent a lot of time there and i got some things that i'd been wanting for a while. a stamp, mini envelopes, three sheets of paper, rabbit business cards, labels, etc.

i also bought a few things at Z Gallerie ... two candles (green in a glass jar with white & copper designs) and a WOOD GRAIN candle. plus an awesome mirrored candle holder.

browed at anthro ... and wanted everything. oh man, i am so in love with that place. mmmmm it's so delicious.

sunday greg & i cleaned (For real!) and then we went and got a dresser at pat's for cheap! they are going to refinish it (light blue is the color we decided) - shabby chic it up, and then we'll pick it up. i asked them to drilly holes for knobs but not to bother putting any in, since i'll splurge and get mis-matched ones at anthro (i've been waiting forever) ... can't wait!

pictures/scans to come. and some more crafty goodness.

a crafty weekend awaits me ....

the plan for this weekend is:

to work on some art journal pages for steady hand, faulty heart [i am seriously excited about the newest prompts, they are JUST what i need currently] ...

to find [cheap] plain fabric to use for the backings of some pillows. i bought scraps of heather bailey's fabric from the fat quarter shop, and am going to make some awesome pillows. so, buy fabric & sew them up area major part of this weekend's plans.

to go to papersource's grand opening - i am beyond excited. i will try very hard not to spend a lot of money. but, papersource & anthro & zgallerie & freepeople in one shopping center = minor freak out.

to enjoy a lovely saturday night with my amazing friends. i have realized lately how blessed i am to have such a unique group of friends. a group of friends who are drastically different, absolutely crazy [more pics of the photo shoot will be up soon for proof], funny, loving, accepting, and honest. i spend some time feeling sad that i don't have any "crafty" friends here in san diego [sadly they live in boston] - but, at the end of the day, i am so happy with who we have become, how we have grown, how our friendships have shaped, how we continue to bring laughter & joy & support to each other's lives. ok, sappyness officially over.

in other news, i've been obsessively blog stalking my little sister marta's blog about her adventures in africa. i check is CONSTANTLY, waiting for new updates, new pictures, new tidbits about her life in a new land. i'm obsessed.

and now ... back to work. hopefully more pictures soon! gotta find a place to develop the film from my diana+ (this is the experimental roll, i have no clue if they'll turn out).

xox, d.

my new friend diana+

i got a diana+ camera from urban outfitters (so excited) ... but i totally have no clue if the film is loaded correctly. i've done some googling and youtube video watching on loading the film - but i still don't see a number through the red window on the back - so whatever. we'll see. it's an experiment. (well kind of, the film was expensive!! ... and the only carried black and white. which is a bummer because i wanted color. but i'll have to find a place that sells color 120 film). anyway, tomorrow i have a "photo shoot" with my friends from high school ... luckily they have digi cameras and i'll bring the diana+ and the polaroid. FUN!

if any of you have a diana+ or similar toy camera - any tips will be appreciated. i'm super excited about the pinhole setting. gotta play around with it! i'll scan the results for sure!

xox, dain

this is turning out to be the best weekend ever.

i spent some time yesterday over at paper tales (my fave!) ... had to pick up a few more things for my sister's mini book ... and of course, picked up a few things for myself ... and signed up for this awesome charm necklace class that they are having on july 26.  so excited! love the girls over at paper tales (thank you michelle & helle) ... they told me about this awesome place in north park called Pat's Corner ... so my sister and i drove over there straight from paper tales and OF COURSE, i found this AWESOME black shabby chic hutch that they had literally JUST FINISHED refinishing, and it is now mine for a sweet $125 - plus i paid 20 bucks more for them to deliver it ... SAME DAY, so now i have the awesome hutch sitting in my condo, and it looks so perfect.  i'm in love with it.  the other REALLY COOL THING about pat's is that you can bring in furniture for them to refinish (repair, paint, shabby-chic it out) ... sooo going to bring them two chairs i have that needed repairing and painting! the house is really coming along! we even bought a 32 inch flat screen tv on friday (i think i have lost my mind?) .... i am going to borrow my sister's camera again SOON hopefully so i can post new pictures of the house & of a bunch of mini books i have going! 

happy 4th of july ... guess i should go eat a burger & drink some beer?

my head is going to BURST with ideas. i need someone to help me narrow it all down.  i'm on overdrive.

walked on over to Vintage Religion, which i've been meaning to visit since i moved in to the neighborhood.  such goodies in that place! got some awesome PaPaYa! cards and came home to spend the next hour and a half getting all googely eyed at Anahata Katkin's work.  OMG, can you say, NEW OBSESSION.  also go an awesome " MAKE ART NOT WAR" poster that i want to frame for the craft room.  i'm thinking a cool decorative black frame ... something like the frame above on the right but in black and rectangular ... links anyone?? (thank you amy rice from flickr) 

still on an intense wallpaper hunt.  i'm thinking something green - lime / chartreuse ish ... damask maybe?  some type of cool print.  or maybe i should seriously just use me some brocade hambly overlays .... so much love.  

adventures in babysitting ...

well, sunday marked the beginning of caring for 3 children for the next 16 days. the parents are off to a land far far away (israel) and have left me in charge. a just graduated high school 18 year old girl, a 16 year old girl, and a 12 year old boy. i have my hands full. within the first, yes, FIRST, five hours of them being in my care the oldest two each had a new hole in their bodies. the 18 year old with one in her tongue, the 16 year old with one in her nose. i was not pleased. i don't think their parents will be either. i handled the situation well, as always.

hopefully the rest of the days will go more smoothly now that they know they can't get away with the kind of behavior. seriously, i mean, i remember being a teenager - but seriously?!?

anyway, today i want to cool scrapbook stuff in poway and got a few things - hambly of course (bamboo overlay, some more woodgrain (duhhhh), mod circles) ... some thickers, and some felt letters. i brought over my "travel" scrapbook kit - meaning a shoe box and a 12 x 12 box ... filled with random stuff to work on. haven't yet, but i intend to - gotta work on the book for my sister and just gotta CREATE, since it's been a few days.

alright, gotta take the kiddos to souplantation. wish me luck, i might need it!

bright and early saturday morning ...

ok so my internet is all wonky ... which has thrown off my plans to be super on top of things and post pictures! it only successfully uploaded one picture, so that's all you get.  sorry blogworld. 

i think i should take a class on photo editing / photography in general, and maybe one about web design or graphic design or something.  i think i would get ridiculously frustrated, and i'd probably be terrible at it ... but i see people's awesome things and i'm like grrrr why can't i do that. haha.  i just don't think i have the patience.  i'm all about instant gratification.  

random stuff:  a while ago i remember hearing about ifoundyourcamera and thought it was cool.  today i got linked to it from postsecret and was curious ... what a great site.  i think it'd be so cool to be reunited with old pictures. i'm sure i've lost a disposable or two at some point in my life that i don't even remember and it'd be awesome to stumble across it years later, so i can only imagine how people feel if they've found photos from trips or of loved ones, etc. 

oh, and, i'm currently really loving mandi's stuff ... check out her blog.  amazing things over there!

went over to papertales yesterday after work (seriously, can i hang out there everyday without being considered a stalker?) got some new hambly woodgrain (yey, i was almost out .. i literally use every little scrap of that paper ... mmmmmm ... i hoard it.  i want it in every color.) & a sheet of out on a limb, got some cute little journaling pages (making memories note worthy ... can't find the actual one i bought but i know there's a pic on the papertales blog), some jenni bowlin vintage inspired journaling pages, and some jenni bowlin punctuation raffle tickets, and an awesome sassafrass 12x12 ... (all my heart) 

so now i'll leave you with the one picture that uploaded .... 

a self timer pic of alana & i before the sex and the city pre screening.  sorry it's such a bad pic. 

destiny.

does anyone else get excited when people comment on their blogs?  it seriously makes my day, so thanks! 

well, i had a phone interview today for paper source.  FIRST, let me tell you, my lovely fellow san diegans, that paper source will be opening in SEPTEMBER in carlsbad at the forum. yey for us, right?! the forum is also home to anthropologie, zgallerie, and a bunch of other places ... some "mainstream" stores and some boutiques ... for those of you who have never been there. i also hear that free people is opening ... which would be really exciting.  anthro + free people + z gal + paper source, what more could i want?!  by the way my interior decorator friend carrie is the visuals girl at zgal at the forum so if you go there, say hi, haha, she's fabulous! 

anyway, my interview ... so, i have BARELY any retail / management experience.  ya, i minored in small business mgmt in college, and had an internship.  that's about the extent of it.  so i'm clearly not qualified to be the assistant manager of paper source.  i knew that.  but i thought, what the heck, i have nothing to lose.  the lady who interviewed me was a doll, and we had a nice chat and she seemed optimistic about my lack of experience.  she said that other things make up for it, and, worse comes to worse, would i be interested in a shift supervisor position instead.  seriously, i just want to work at paper source.  at this point, i'd be willing to freaking scrub the floor with a tooth brush (oh god, not really). a sample of how the convo went:

paper source lady: so what about the craigslist ad made you decide you'd want to work at paper source? (or something like that)

me: well, actually, i've wanted to work at paper source for forever, and in fact, i often joked about moving to la just so i could work there, even though i hate la with a passion.  gosh, i mean, how could i not want to work in a place that was filled with so much paper and prettiness? it really just makes sense, i mean, i hoard paper.  all kinds of it.  (but it didn't end there, i rambled on for like 10 more minutes about how much i love paper and how the stars and moon and sun must be alined perfectly and it's fate that a paper source is opening and needs employees JUST as i'm job hunting for like the 100th time in the past 2 years.  clearly, destiny at work) ... yes, i was that long winded and dorky. 

paper source lady: oh good, so you're familiar with our store ...

me: yes, i'd say so.

pictures of our home!

so apparently i'm a terrible photographer / photo editor and have no patience for that kind of thing.  (see, i really do suck at technology) BUT i still wanted to post these pics of the house.

amazing bookshelf that i got at the rustic rooster in cardiff (i am so in love with that place) there's a decorative floral motif at the top of it that's hard to see.  above this on the wall is the cluster of frames.

cluster of frames above the book shelf. still a work in progress, as half the frames are empty (and ugh, i fixed the crooked black on in the top right corner, don't worry).  the empty space below the black one is for a decorative plate that i framed but need to get a hook for.   this is in the entry to our bedroom by the way.
another purchase from rustic rooster is this awesome planter's table that i'm using in my craft studio.  it's a delicious blue and perfectly warn in.  i think it's one of my favorite purchases.
a little vignette that sits on the top of the white bookshelf on the left side.  i've played around with these a lot and have a feeling that they will be forever changing, but for now this is it.  the glass case is home to my grandmother's thimble collection.
the other little vignette with an altered book that i made a while ago.  well, i just decorated the outside, i never got to the inside ... maybe someday. 


ok that's it for now, in a bit i'll post some projects!!! 

i could spend hours looking at scrapbooking products

i went to two scrapbook places this week that i had never been (one is BRAND new) ... the first place i went, "scrapbook your life" - was not such a great experience. it's HUGE which you'd think would mean a TON of GREAT inventory, but not so much. i was VERY disappointed in the selection and in the knowledge of the employee. she was clueless about their stock and just in general about scrapbooking product lines. they didn't have ANY of the hambly, KI pop culture, love elsie, or thickers that i wanted. i did get a few pieces of sassafrass paper. i was so sad when we left because i was hoping for some good new stuff to play with.

BUT, today was TOTALLY AMAZING. i went to Paper Tales, an awesome little paper boutique that JUST opened this month. IT IS AMAZING. first, it is decorated beautifully. it's cozy and welcoming and feels like a place you could spend time, not just a giant faceless warehouse. it has personality and feels like someone's studio. i think i loved it even more because it totally matches my decorating tastes. ANYWAY, the inventory was great. all the new lines that i had seen online - got some hambly, and HEATHER BAILEY! ah! also got a few other things ... can't remember off the top of my head and too lazy to go upstairs to the craft studio ... sorry! SO FREAKING AWESOME. anyway i felt like such a dork while i was there because i was totally just gushing over the place. the owner, michelle, was friendly and knowledgeable and we talked about blogworld, which obviously was exciting since the only other person i really talk to it about is the boy, greg, and he's clearly not that interested in my paper / blog obsession. SO, the bottom line is that if you are in san diego, you must must must go to this shop. i can see myself spending a LOT of time there in the future.

ok, time to go play with my new stuff!