god bless the u.s.a!

Haunted Housewares and our plaid state shaped pillows may be long gone, but that doesn't mean I love America any less! In fact, I have become a (self professed) state-shape aficionado. Which explains why I'm absolutely in love with this project, called the United Plates, which represents each state how it would look on a dinner plate (think spaghetti, pizza, dead fish).


texas made up of a pile of peas.


oregon, spaghetti and meatballs. I like this one so much I kind of wish I was from here, or lived there.


kentucky fried chicken!.


oklahoma. is. a. butcher knife.


virginia is (heck yes!) mashed potatoes and gravy.

Every state is available and they are all this awesome! Go check them out at shorthanded.etsy.com.

I totally love this concept - I like to think of each state as having it's own unique personality and voice. While Suzanne and I would be writing our descriptions up for the pillows, I'd supply vocal renditions of each state's dialogue. All those years of acting school really payed off, huh Mom?

best f*ckin friends necklace

Gahh I wish I had $220 for this awesome necklace!!!






from in god we trust via refinery 29.

One half would go to my bestie Heather. We love stuff like this. I mean, that's really only a $110 necklace. And there IS a smaller version for $180. What a bargain! Let's see... pay the rent, or get some glorious bling?

I'm on twitter!

I've been finding myself embarrassingly mid-project as of late. Although I finished Gone with the Wind, finally, I still have yet to finish the lovely giant granny-square afghan I started when I moved here almost a year ago. It does not help that I ran out of a specific light blue color when I only had about 9 more chain stitches to go. I don't have any comparable colors, and my attempts to find one at the craft store were unrewarding. It's quite possibly they stopped making it - this is probably a skein I picked up from the "free bin" when I used to work at Vogue Knitting/Adorn.

So that project will stay officially on hiatus until I come up with a plan. Although I'd love to finish it before Tom and I move into our new house, that has yet to be found.

I'm also trying to work on expense reports, which is hard when you don't have access to Excel or something, and the power cord you order for your old iBook (which came from Korea) doesn't work and your baby is dead.

In fact, the only thing I've finished as of late is meals in the slowcooker, and that's embarrassing, because the slow cooker cooks for you. And also, I got a twitter account.

Follow me! I need friends. Go here!

orla kiely for target

I was in the process of writing about my new little white piggy bank I got from Target today (pictures later) when I came across a new designer line for the store. I wasn't before familiar with Orla Kiely but from the looks of this Target collection, I am in love!





I am so getting those tins.

image from sfgirlbybay

The whole line is supposed to hit stores the first week of February. It's times like these I'm happy I live in Austin, rather than NY, where competition for these prized designer items isn't quite as fierce.

Click over to apartment therapy or sfgirlbybay for more images.

enchilada flowers

A while ago I posted about how I love using Classico pasta jars to hold flowers. I also use them to hold wax, thread, pens, scissors - whatever. Recently, however, I found a new favorite re-purposed vase... an enchilada sauce can!

Now, the enchilada sauce cans here in TX are great - obviously - and I haven't seen ones like em anywhere else. Although, to be honest, I wasn't exactly looking for enchilada sauce. Tom makes awesome enchiladas and we tried a few different brands until we found this awesome brand that also happens to be my favorite, aesthetically speaking.

balloons!

lately it seems the online design world has gone crazy for dreamy images of pretty ladies holding pink balloons.


photo by joanna goddard


photo from meeri


photo from vida-bonita


Not to be a wet blanket or anything (because truly, few things are lovelier) but am I the only person that feels sorry for the birds who are going to nom up those little latex beauties?

(ps- I especially love the first images from a cup of jo - it's from her engagement pictures!)

owl love you forver!!!

What is it about owls? They made that huge comeback (can I call it a comeback? Whatever...) a couple years back and were everywhere. I know I hopped on the owl bandwagon with some lovely owl-shaped soy candles (my mold broke, very tragic!). And I have also noticed a trend with owls... they often come in pairs.

Last year I found a super sweet, handmade valentine's card from Sprout Home in Brooklyn, but I had no one to give it to! It had two little owls (they were wood cuttings) and it said "owl love you forever." aw. I have searched for this card endlessly (meaning I browsed etsy for a half hour) but did not find that particular one. I did, however, find these cute valentines which I'm listing for you here, because in case you forgot Valentines is almost a month away and you wanna make sure you get the perfect valentine for your sweetie!!



from be my vintage valentine


from space oddities


from seller JillKinLA


this one is from my buddy Kimberly of chez sucre chez, and even better than a card it's a cross stitch kit. (fyi, I just wrote cross stitch cute and had to correct it.)


and you can except more valentine-y things from me coming up and no it's not just cause I'm in lurrve... I happen to adore Valentines Day and all of the heart shaped goodness that goes along with it.

<3 <3

granny squared

I should have taken it as an ominous sign when I noticed all the cute granny square afghans peppering an older Urban Outfitters catalog. Now, while I'm all for granny squares, these China made* versions from UO kinda made my inner crocheter die a little.

*=I don't really know if it's China-made.. I haven't set foot in Urban Outfitters in a long time to confirm. Not out of protest, cause they got some cute stuff there, but all my money goes to button makers and beans.




although the urban outfitters website coolly calls this a "concentric squares pillow", your grandma and I know it's true name. ps this sells for $46 and they also call it "vintage inspired". I guess anything will sell for $46 if it's vintage inspired.



Apparently they also have a few crocheted afghans for sale, these coming in at $88. Now, while I'd gladly plunk down even $100 for a hand-made afghan (because I know how much time that takes, it's almost been a year and I'm STILL not done with my first afghan)(incidentally, Urban Outfitters would call my first afghan a "concentric square afghan") I'd want it to be just that - handmade and with lovely yarn. If I wanted a homey, vintage inspired (read: so ugly it's cute) afghan I'd just go to the Thriftland on Stassney and S 1st.

Ps - since you know how much I delight in typos and the like, I'd like to point this out in the description for the blanket featured above:

Pixel Crocheted Afghan: Homey, vintage-inspired crochet net Afghan throw, knit in a colorful square pattern. Imported. Dry clean.

DUDE seriously? Knitting and crocheting are NOT the same thing, no matter how many people out there can't tell it apart. Obviously they don't know of the fiber wars going on...

So you could shell out a pretty penny for these OR you could buy this book, Grannys on the Go (from my old employer, natch!) and make a plethora of grannies yourself!

good reading

wanna know something I love as of late? this book, otherwise known as The Daring Book for Girls.



I've been eyeing it for a while now, but didn't feel like shelling out $20 for a (very pretty) hardcover book really intended for little girls. However, I have no problem receiving it as a Christmas gift (and Tom got himself the Dangerous Book for Boys, cute, huh?). And what a gift it is. It would have been awesome to have this book when I was little - and the book itself varies between sentimentality and ingenuity for me, meaning half of it are things I (as a crafty little girl) used to do or make, and the other half are things I want to do or make.

For instance, planting the "Three Sisters" or corn, beans, and squash. Or telling really great ghost stories, or writing the perfect letter. My favorite part about this book is that in the more complicated projects (making a scooter, for instance) there's no "now get your dad to drill holes for you!" This book is all about diy, even if you're 8.

I'm also planning on amassing a kit that "every girl needs", which includes but is not limited to a pocket knife (a million uses), a bandana (you know, for wrapping up treasures that you find) and a journal. Surprisingly, the list did not include a needle and thread, but the boy's list did.

Now I'm off to work on a New Years Resolution that I forgot to list, which is to finish Gone with the Wind. (I'm on page 555 out of 959)

salt shaker nesting dolls

if you're wondering why I have been a little scarce on the posts as of late, it's because in addition to my camera being broken, so is my powercord. and although I bought a shiny new battery for my three year old MacBook, the powercord has crapped out and therefore it ran out of juice. boo.

I can't figure out how to get Polaroid installed on Tom's computer, so for now you'll have to wait on personal pics. However, I'd like to direct your attention to this amazing tutorial over on Design Sponge... diy nesting doll salt shakers! heck yes!



I do have a pretty terrific collection of nesting dolls, but none I'm willing to sacrifice in the name of diy seeing as how my Dad got them for me from Russia when I was six or seven. And in three more years, they'll officially qualify as "vintage" ;)

happy new year!

So I hope everyone has eaten their black eye peas for good luck. My mom always made my sister and I eat a traditional meal of black eye peas, kielbasa with sauerkraut and macaroni and cheese. I had an extreme aversion to black eyed peas (and no not just the band) for about twenty years of my life, and my mom would often hide them in my Mac n Cheese just to make sure I got my store of luck in for the year. Blegh.

But for the past two years I have no only eaten these little beans willingly, but I actually liked them! This year T and I cooked them up with onions, jalapenos, butter and a can of hominy. Delicious.

Another New Years tradition I love, and I think this comes from the compulsive-list-making-Virgo side of me, is the tradition of making resolutions. These were my resolutions last year (and how I did):

1. No more blue pens (I think I did ok on this one)
2. Learn to play the guitar (depending on your definition of "play", I did this one)
3. Learn Polish (hahahahaha... yeah not gonna happen)
4. Make more art (not sure what kind of hippy trip I was on when I made this resolution, but if you count tons of carved books as art then yes, yes I did make more art)
5. Play with my cats more (how do I measure this one?)

All in all I did pretty well with those resolutions, but they definitely would have been helped if I set specific time perimeters or goals so I knew when I met my resolutions - for example - I feel have met #5 when my cats sleep more often due to exhaustion from playing. Hmm.

Anyway, here are my resolutions this year:

1. Take dance classes (we're talking ballet, jazz, modern here - not swing or two-step or what not. Dance!)
2. Learn to actually play the guitar (fingerpickin'!)
3. Paint my fingernails more often.
4. Ride my bike more.


happy new year
<3 kristen