orla kiely for target pt 2

Things have felt slow as molasses here and over at the shop, but that also has to do with the fact that I've been moving for the past week. Remember that time I thought it was a good idea to "just take the big stuff" in the uhaul we rented? Oh yeah, not such a great idea ten car trips later. Either way, I did make time in my schedule to take new pictures of flask books, which will be up tomorrow, and also to check out the much anticipated Orla Kiely for Target collection.

Meh...... In general, yeah, it was super cute but way to over priced. I mean $20 for a freakin plastic bowl with some vintage styled pears on it? The fault is not within the design. Sometimes it's better to get that new "vintage-style" houseware and not have to deal with the glass being thin or the couch being smelly. Not so with this collection.




Not to mention the cutest item that I was awaiting was crap-tastically made! Seriously I couldn't even get the lids on straight on these jars. Although, they were ceramic, not plastic as I thought.






I did think the bowls were cute, as well as some of the plastic cups, but not worth the price tag.

Some woman got pretty excited over the plastic pear-printed cake stand, gushing to her non-plussed boyfriend/husband that "ohmygod my mom had one just like this!!!". I can only imagine her head would explode if she went into one of the vintage stores off North Loop.

moving on up!

Let me just say that I'm totally in love with the ugly house. It's finally the first time in my life that I have enough space. (see more about my "shit" later). It's a two-bedroom so one of the bedrooms is the "work room" which is really just a nice way of saying "kristen's messy craft room." The cats are happy, running around like maniacs and stretching their legs. I mean, the living room + kitchen alone are about the size of my old studio.

but for the past week I've been moving. Most people choose to move in one fell swoop, but me, I like to stretch it out as long as possible. Instead of neatly packing everything up, renting a uhaul, and driving out where ever, I like to pack in suitcases and duffels, creating the necessity of "many trips". Even when I moved from NY to Austin, it wasn't easy. I mean, my parents had to bring a duffel of my shoes and cats (note: cats in separate carrying cases) a month after I moved.

Also, I have a lot of shit. I don't have things, I don't have stuff, I have shit. I have a lot. of shit. I have at least two giant tupperwares full of plaid fabric (just plaid!) underbed storage boxes of fabric and yarn, at least three "junk drawers", an endless supply of books and dvd's, no matter how many times I try to shrink it down each time I move. I also have clothes, and shoes. Lots. Plenty of clothes and shoes I haven't worn in over a year for one reason or another ("I don't fit into this right now, but I love it and am keeping it until I do fit into it again!" or "this is sort of ugly, but maybe striped satin shirts will make a comeback!" "these shoes almost fit even though they cause me to limp when I wear them") And then there's all the random shit that doesn't make it in the first four trips back and forth and gets shoved into a random box never to be looked at again. I think I'll label this box "random shit".

So this move, I decided to pare down. and I really mean it. I separated out any shoes or clothes I haven't worn in over a year and I'm selling them on ebay, soon.

However, I am keeping the beadazzled New Kids on the Block t-shirt I've had since I was five, so don't get your hopes up.

In other news, Tom and I are getting a dog tonight! Sorry, kitties. It's not a new dog, it's Tom's old dog that hasn't been living with him for a bit. Max is an italian greyhound and weighs less than my cats. haha. I'm not sure who that's a bigger reflection on. Pictures soon, as well as pictures of our awesome new house!

FOUND: scraper bike in austin!

Man, have you guys seen that video for "Scraper Bike"? I first became aware of it about a year ago, before I moved to TX, and I thought (jokingly) about getting a scraper bike (I guess making one) when I was in need of two wheels. In case you haven't seen it (and seriously, have you been living under a rock? Even my parents have seen it!), here it is:


(btw my favorite part is: "What is this? What do we have here? Handlebars! I don't even gotta steer!")

The other day while cruising up to get some FreeBirds, Tom and I saw our first real live scraper bike.







hahahahaha!

What a doozy! However, we both agreed this scraper bike is wrong from the frame up. The point of a scraper bike is to take an ugly bike (because that's all you can find/afford) and "class" it up with tape/paper in the spokes, bad paint jobs, and making giant trikes. You don't want to take a road bike frame and make it ugly! Road bikes have potential!

heart shaped things

Happy post valentine's day! Are you sick of things that are heart shaped yet? Me neither! Go check out the diy project I did over at Paper Dolls - glittery, heart shaped hand soap!






How is your chocolate and champagne hangover? Tom and I had a great day. First he surprised me with a copy of Grease as a Valentines present, then we ate heart-shaped pizza and brownies and drank champagne while watching Grease! It was totally awesome. Also, I still know all the words to every song in Grease. haha.



I made Tom this valentine from the squirrel, Tobey, that lives in our wall:


And today is the day our lease officially starts at the ugly house, and also happens to be our anniversary. and yet I'm at work, watching stragglers from the Austin Marathon go by...

ISO: good looking messenger bag that fits a bike pump and my lipgloss

Tom has been on me lately about carrying around a bike pump. My excuse is always "but I usually bike with you and you have a bike pump!" But really, a bike pump would not fit in my bag. And by bag I mean purse. and by purse I mean I am addicted to vintage purses and I refuse to give them up, even if it means (gasp!) taking the bus because I got a flat tire and don't have a pump.

However, he does have a point. The one trip I always make without him is to work, and I'm about to add 4 miles (round trip) to my journey when we move up North.

Usually when I have to take my laptop or something larger to work, I just use Tom's messenger bag, which is a black-leather-thrift-store sort of situation. But the strap on that is breaking, and hey, sometimes he'll need it too. Tom's getting a chrome bag, and while that's fine and dandy for him, I'm not about to make the step from "girl wearing hoodie and jeans riding a bike" to "bike messenger girl." See, I need a bag that does the purpose

So what's a vintage-purse loving girl to do? Here are some etsy finds... I'm especially leaning towards the black and tan number.



from etsy shop BajueBoutique


from etsy shop LizsLuxuries


from etsy shop SimpleThrift



Any other tips from ladies on bikes would be greatly appreciated.

Pommes Frites in a gift guide!

I was trolling around my shop today when I noticed the number of views for my Pistol carving of "Bride in the Kitchen" had tripled. I figured out it's because I'm featured in the "Knock his socks off" gift guide on Etsy! See below...

woohoo!

the ugly house

Here is the ugly house Tom and I are moving into, which is living proof that poladroid makes anything look better.

the SNUGGIE!!!!!!!

so if you've watched TV at all for the past three months, you've seen the Snuggie informercial. We all know in these hard economic times commercial bidding time is going to the sharks - that is, the cheapest they can get just to get it sold. That explains why the Snuggie, the Ped-egg, the Sham-wow! are taking over air waves. That does not explain, however, why the hell people want this strange backwards blanket robe. It seem so obvious to me: why wear a blanket with arms which is basically a backwards robe when you could just wear a robe??!!

Serious.

It's not like the Snuggie is a better fashion statement. I mean, you could be real classy if you got a warm robe a la Hugh Hefner.

However, at our local supermarket the other night, they had a Snuggie out on display. And you know what that means....


Wow, only $20??


excuse my crazed late-night shopping look here


omg, I can use my hands!


I'm a WIZARD!


Here's my product review: the snuggie is unnecessarily long, even for two 6' tall people, and maybe it keeps you warm, but really, it doesn't get cold enough for long enough in Texas to warrant spending $20 on this wizard cape. But damn if they don't let me into Hogwarts on style alone.

post on east austinite

many thanks to Sarah of East Austinite who did a write up on my shop recently on their blog! I love community!

(ps their site totally rocks, I feel like such a nerd because I don't know about 1/3 of the things going on that they do. To be fair I live in the much less cool Travis Heights, or as many refer to it "down south" or "we don't go there." Awesome resource to have bookmarked if you are an Austinite.)

my bicycle treasury!

I have been trying for about two straight weeks to get a treasury on Etsy. I mean, obsessively calculating times when the treasury opens up and allows more to be made. I wanted to do a collection with all my favorite bicycle themed items and accessories. Go check it out - there are some seriously cute things! I totally love the messenger bag made from an old jacket. Tom is a fan of the bike card (I have a crush on your bike) that you stick in people's spokes. I personally don't know how I feel about Tom hitting on other people's bikes. Haha!

here's a mini screen shot...



check out more here!

spice rack

I am totally in love with this image today, from Apartment Therapy's tour of Mariah Gardner's house




gah! I see a Classico Jar in there, recognizable by the top. And over to the right is an old pickle jar. One of Tom's friends has a whole bunch of spices in old Mason jars, and I was thinking how I'd like to do that in my future kitchen (this one is wayyy too small). My only problem is the Classico jars still smell like... um, Classico pasta sauce. It was a smell I used to associate with catching fireflies, but now I realize it's a cleaned out pasta sauce jar that has been left sitting in the sun with a lid on.

The good news is, I will be able to make this DIY spice rack (notice how the little bottles in the tray have broken bits of wine bottle cork!) very, very soon. As in February 15 soon. Because Tom and I got a house!! We like to call it the "ugly house", because it is ugly as sin on the outside, but oh-so-cute on the inside.

new pictures in the shop

sometimes things just need a little facelift, and I figured it did no good taking my pictures in lovely light outside if my books didn't live outside. So I propped up my record player stand and snapped a few new shots. I think they look great... my favorite is the flask one with the martini! Here's a few of the best revamped pics...

kristen vs. the squirrel in the wall

So you may or may not know I have a massive squirrel living in my wall. We first became aware of his presence sometime around Thanksgiving. Seymour had been staring at this spot in the wall for a few months, but I always just thought it was his shadow. Oh, no. He could hear a squirrel burrowing in there.

So finally Tom and I started hearing him, too. A light scratching. Hmm. A called my landlord, who is notoriously bad about returning phone calls or just doing any landlord-y things, and she says "oh ok, I'll get the exterminator to look at it." The exterminator comes and says, in his big Texan drawl, "yep, you got a pregnant squirrel goin' in that wall. We gotta get an expert to come in here and git it out."

Oh, great!. Just fabulous. I'm gonna have chittering squirrel babies up in my wall. (later he turned out just to be enormously fat)

Then, the squirrel got through the wall. He was scratching and scratching and scratching and then finally that oh-so-classy drywall just tumbled away. Awesome. I called my landlord "Dude, what are you doing about this???" and after a few weeks some "expert" finally came and put a metal piece on the outside of the wall (where it's ROTTING) and the squirrel was gone. Or so I thought.

It turns out this mammoth squirrel was gonna put up a fight. That was around Christmas he put up the metal piece, and about a week ago I heard him in there again. I checked on the back of the apartment, and sure enough, the metal piece was bent down. When it had been screwed in. Now, as you can tell I don't live in the classiest of apartments, and I think what happened is the wood was continuing to rot above his little entrance, so he just picked at it some more and got his burrow back.

So I call my landlord. And call my landlord. And call her saying "you gotta do something about this. This squirrel is going to get through the wall, it's already scratched through in two places, and the wall is super thin right there. He's going to get in."

No reply.

I come home last night and there's a softball sized hole in my wall. seriously???? Well I didn't get a picture of it because it freaks me out to no end, and no the squirrel wasn't in my apartment, because Tom and I had taped the gashes up "just in case" and it didn't go any further than that.

Now my apartment is so classy, here's what it looks like:



Bad part is I can still hear him on the other side of the wall, so I've decided to play a little game. Every time he scratches, I hammer a nail into my board.