I am off to the airport in a couple minutes to spend New Year's Eve in Rome with my boyfriend!! Waheeeyy, I'm so excited!! I indulged in some hand pampering for the occasion, as you do, and thought it would be a cute photo.
I will be back in 2012... GASP... and will share some photos and more recent crafts! I hope everyone has a super awesome New Year's! :)
***
I'm frantically searching youtube for this one version of Auld Lang Syne that I adore, but I can't find it and the clock is ticking! :(
I hope everyone had a Merry Lovely Christmas! Mine was so nice; lots of eggnog, drinking whiskey with my dad, fun handmade presents, music and food. LOVE IT.
Weeping willow = Cockney rhyming slang for pillow.
I made a pillow for my sister with super cool London fabric I found in Edinburgh. This stuff is amazing. Finding it was a total coincidence, wish i could find some for every cool city. [THIS IS TO BE MY NEW QUEST.]
One side is this awesome printed map fabric which has a 'popout' of Southwark which is her exact neighborhood!! The other side has random London icons and things. It has a flap with little snaps so it can be cleaned if she spills Earl Grey tea or some other such British beverage upon it. I have an irrational obsession with pillows, especially British style ones (Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C). But it's all pillows really. I don't discriminate. This one is huge and fluffy and delicious. I want it to be mine. Photos by The Schwess herself.
***
Being at home on the
family computer, I keep finding lots of scans of me and my sister
through the ages which I think are hilarious. Some cute, some capturing
the essence of the awkward adolescent stage. These, my dahlings, are my
Christmas present to you.
In a desperate attempt to find distractions from my current studying responsibilities keep my blog up to date, I realized I never showed photos from my booth at the Adam House Craft Show in November!
It might be because it was definitely
not the best fair I've ever done... last year this show was a much
bigger success than this time around... Oh well. LABATYD. ;) No,
seriously, I did make a small profit and I just received my check so
who's complaining?
Several of my items were unfortunately stolen. :( I have heard of this happening to others but never had it done to me until now. I know it's not the end of the world (in a strange way it's flattering I guess). But ... why? This is not Tiffany & Co. people. This jewelry is not that expensive. I'm no stranger to being short on cash but in those moments I just don't go shopping. Oh well...
I did very much enjoy setting up my display! I used the cake stand display I made here
as well as the heart display that I gave a makeover to. It was ugly and
brown but I covered it in fabric scraps and my pearlswirl stamp.
And thanks to everyone who voted in the poll about how I should make my price tags. As you can see I followed your advice.
And now I suppose I should get back to linguistics. (Consult Fig. 1 for data on how this makes me feel.)
Figure 1: How studying makes me feel.
xoxo
P.S. If you are my aunt, I hope you enjoyed grading those papers. MWAHAHAHA.
I recently got awarded the Liebster Blog Award from my friend Megan!
Here's what I found about this little award:
Liebster is an award given to blogs that have less than 200 followers
and deserve more recognition and encouragement. Here are some
guidelines in giving or receiving the Award:
1. Thank the person that passed on the award. [THANKS DOLLFACE!]
2. Link back to that blogger.
3. Copy & Paste the award to your blog.
4. Nominate 5 blogs to receive the award.
5. Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.
She writes regularly about her amazing adventures living and volunteering at a family shelter in Costa Rica. I'm so proud of her and everything she's done this semester. She's flying back in a couple short days, gets to spend a lovely and relaxing Christmas here at her home, and then she's off to Strasbourg for another amazing semester, this time at university there. I am confident that this will be the year of her life and I can't wait to meet up this Saturday (!!) for ice-skating, mulled wine and hearing her fantastic stories! Check out her blog for insightful posts about what it's like to backpack around Costa Rica, teach marketing workshops, and make a difference in people's lives! Oh and she is also an expert bookbinder who keeps saying she'll post photos of her finished books. (And you're not a liar, are you Megan?!?!)
The photo above is the view out her window. I know right. Incredible. Anyways, she wrote some really nice things about me on her blog, and I hope she enjoys reading these lovely truths about herself.
This is the blog of my friend Katelyn, also the manager of Patch Multi-Crafts, aka the most fabulous place to work on earth. (Although when I worked there she was just a lowly staff like me. She's moving up in the world!) Anyways, Katelyn churns out the most beautiful handmade quilts like I churn out post-its saying 'buy milk'. By the time I've written a follow-up 'Jenny, you still need to buy milk' reminder to myself, she has produced another quilt. It's unreal. She is the kind of person who can look at anything anyone ever made and immediately know how to make it herself. And then make it perfectly. She's a very intimidating person to make gifts for. ;)
Once upon a time we would take trips together (here, here and here, and here and kind of here). I miss those days. Hopefully this award is an incentive for her to keep featuring the amazing things she makes on her blog; I am convinced that what she actually shows publicly is only the tip of the iceberg.
I also know Jennifer of Parrish Platz from working with her at Patch Multi-Crafts. I met a lot of great people there and I miss it! She is the ideal combination of sweet, hilarious, and just a little mean. Don't screw with her. Jennifer I miss working with you! Her blog is full of great photography of her creations and her cute kids. She's also amazing at all crafts, but specifically sewing. She inspired me to start embroidery. And she is obsessed with mushrooms! Even though she doesn't eat vegetables. You have to know her to get it, I think. :)
Kara has great, unique taste and sews, makes jewelry, designs her own patterns and her own fabric, crochets, etc. She is a sweetheart and very nature and environment-minded, which I adore. She has a beautiful Etsy shop and I already posted about her owl hats!! I think the owl hats speak for themselves. I think they will take her far in life.
I don't know this blogger personally, but have recently fallen in love with her brand new blog. Everything she posts is adorable. She is a professional photographer with an interest in crafts and fashion, and posts easy and cute tutorials that are exactly my style, like the nest necklace above.
***
Lots
of people tell me they don't get the point of reading or writing a
blog, especially one that's mostly about traveling and crafts. But,
since my coworkers' bullying me into starting one three years ago, i
have grown to love it! Some people criticize that it's not 'real'
because you're only focusing on pretty pictures, nice trips and things
you deem 'successes'. But nobody says a blog has to encapsulate every
part of your life; it's not a personal diary. I have made some recipes
that turned out uuuggggllllyyyy that nobody wants to see photos of, and,
on a deeper level, I have had some experiences or some days that I just
don't want to share with all of cyberspace. Rather, I want to log onto
an inspiring space in a community of like-minded people who are talking
about things that interest me and who just get why I might be so excited
about buying some new beads. I have meaningful, personal relationships
in my life that i wouldn't trade for the world, and then I have my blog.
And I love both!!
xoxo
How have I not heard this Elvis Christmas song before now??? It's quality.
OK Back to the books... it's even harder to stay motivated right now cause I have to study from home since our entire university has been shut due to intense severe winds. Apparently there was a fear that the windows in the library might shatter? The howling at the window is getting scary... if I make it through the night I'll post again in the morning so people know I haven't blown away.
xoxo
(This is one of my fave Christmas songs thanks to the amazing Love Actually, which I feel might be an important part of my procrastination routine tonight...)
