A Late Entry into the New Year

It's 2009, can you believe it?! Okay, so it's been 2009 for almost an entire month now, but whatever. I sort of fell off the face of the blogosphere, and i don't really have an excuse for it. I'm a woman of few words, anyway. I have way too much stuff, so I've been spending a lot time purging my closets for stuff i no longer need. When i think i'm all done, i go back again and find more stuff, and i've been doing this since early December.

Until recently, i haven't stepped foot in a thrift store since August or September and vowed not to do so until i got rid of all of my unwanted stuff. If you check out my favorites on Etsy, you can see that most of it is all vintagey/thrifty stuff, so i was sort of torturing myself until i couldn't take it anymore. I'm trying to be more selective, though, and am trying my hardest to stay away from useless, albeit cutesy knick knacks that really serve no purpose.

I've also been working on stuff for myself, which is a rare occurrence. Mainly making and altering clothing and hitting up pattern sales to save and make in the future.

As mentioned in my last post, i completed some new screenprinted keyboards and boomboxes and they're now available in the shop. I also finished up a new batch of Baby Grand Piano Pouches, which can also be found on Etsy. There's one Baby Grand that i've yet to list, and it's made from a gray and white floral blazer that my mom used to wear in the 80's. To keep, or not to keep?

These and other items will be available next Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday!) at the R5 Punk Rock Flea Market @ The Electric Factory in Philadelphia. If you're in the area, you should stop by!

Shopping Rules. Humidity Does Not.

It is hot like DEATH outside, which made running todays errands totally unpleasant. To make matters worse, my little car doesn't have air conditioning! Well, technically, it does, but it just doesnt like to work. I put gas in the car, ran to the post office to drop off some packages, then went to a nearby thrift store in hopes for some good finds.

There really wasn't anything too exciting. There was a cool looking wooden tray that i would've bought to refurbish, but as soon as i picked it up, it had a really weird, nasty smell coming from it. Unfortunately, the smell stayed on my hand as i continued looking around. Gross! So, todays thrift store haul included a black 80's clutch, a science book, and some sheet music books which i plan on turning into buttons. I don't own my own button maker yet...yet being the key word here...so i'm going to cut them out by hand and send them over to ChristineRenee at Etsy. I'll probably frame the "Fingerpower" cover.



SIDENOTE: Here are some other soon-to-be-buttons that i cut out late last night.



After thrifting, i went to one of my favorite dollar stores just to look around. I'm always on the lookout for bright plastic containers and bins, so much so that i think i actually have too many, so i held off on that. Nearly everything i purchased was pink- a neon pink brush and mini dust pan set for cleaning up my work surface, a bubblegum pink picture frame that i was going to use to frame my Menta print...it's actually a bit too small, but that's okay...and some silver stretch foil wrapping paper with pink stripes that is super tacky -aka- super awesome. The only thing that wasn't pink was this treble clef napkin holder, which also makes the most perfect ILIKEITTOOTOO postcard holder.



I have been actively promoting and blogging like crazy these days, and i almost feel incomplete when i don't update. Unfortunately, I've been neglecting my poor sewing machine, but that'll change since i have the Lancaster Punk Rock Flea Market coming up on October 6. It's nearly a two hour drive, but the first one went so well and everyone was super friendly, so of course i signed up to do it again. If all goes well, i will have new gocco-printed pouches and notecards, recycled journals, plus the usual.