I Believe

Don't you love great mail days?
I do. I really do. Today was one of the best mail days ever.

My friend Shana sent me this wonderful reminder today. She made it herself. She's made a lot of them over the past few weeks. You can read all about it right here!

This little gift is just what I needed for this year. Last year was rough and I believe that it can only get better. It's also a wonderful reminder to take time to be less selfish with my time when it comes to my friends and family...


Thank you Shana. You're an inspiration.

I know my calendar still says December. I'm waiting for my new calendar to get here ;)

Etsy Favorites

Some of my Etsy favorites today!

This wonderful vulture painting painted by Leigh Jackson of Noisy Dog Studio.

Beautiful, vintage, Herman Miller Eames Chair, of CoMod vintage.

This lovely wool, herringbone, bag from Infusion. My friend, Kim, gave me an Infusion bag for Christmas last year, and I must say, it is beautifully made!

Finally, this sweet dog coat from Bean Town Handmade! I got to see these sweet dog clothes up close at the Crafty Wonderland Spring Show, and they are just as cute in person :)

Valentines Day

Ok. I love Valentines day.

Well, I did until this year. I dunno. It seems like all the holidays since we moved here are just kinda blah. Not exciting. Christmas and New Years was fun, but that's because we were at my mom's house...

Michael and I always got to McMenimens and have a burger and a couple of beers. The Ruby is by far the best beer on the menu. Mmmm...Ruby....

Anyway, this year will be different. Michael is going to be working until late, and I will probably continue watching the L Word on Netflix. Oh well.

He did get me this really awesome book for Valentine's day. It's called Fingerprint, and it's a graphic design book. It's all about putting a hand made quality to the graphic arts. There is a lot of printmaking, letterpress, and book arts involved. Ultimately, as a graphic designer, that is the direction I want to go. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is also inspired by these things. It's pretty damn cool.

Merry Christmas!

Ok those of you who know me really well also know that I love Christmas.
I love the lights, the songs, the PRESENTS.

Well, I think I am done with all my shopping with the exception of a few things here and there...

I went to the mall this morning and it was so fun. I love to shop, especially for Michael, who I was shopping for today. I know I know you're probably thinking hey, "Michele, I thought you took the handmade pledge....dude, what's wrong with you?" Well, shopping handmade is a lot different for Michael. Trust me. The man is a complicated person to shop for. You see, he is one of those people where everything he owns has to be useful. It has to have like 30 different functions, and it should last about 50 years or more. So, you see I couldn't just get him a hat, or a scarf...he'd probably lose them anyway. (He's lost his wallet, that was handmade by Chikabird on Etsy twice in the last week...)

Anyway, the majority of my gifts this year were handmade and a majority of those gifts were made by me :)

So I'm at the mall. I have a gift card for Victoria's Secret that I have been saving for such an occasion. I'm by myself and I have some time. Trust me, you don't want to be with me when I have a gift card. I try to get as much use out of gift cards that I possibly can, even if that means spending two hours trying to figure out how I can get a pair of PJ's, some slippers, 5 pairs of underwear, and a bra out of $75.00. (I almost did it.)

As I am standing there in the big ass VS amid all the hot pink, blaring music, and highly obnoxious sales women I realize that I really hate shopping at VS. It's so hot. There is so much to look at. The music is so loud. I feel for those poor men trying to buy lingere for their wives, or girlfriends. Those poor guys really have no idea what hit them when they walked in and neither do I.
I almost have a panic attack whenever I go in there and at least I know what size underwear I wear...

Anyway, I did manage to find a nice comfy pair or lounge pants that didn't say PINK, or Angel all over them. I also managed to find a nice tank top that didn't have glitter, or stars all over them with the words I Love Pink all over it. It's nice and plain white, but there is a silver start in on the bottom corner. That's ok though. A little compromise never hurt anyone.

So I have about $15.00 left on my card. I really wanted to get some new underwear with the rest, but do you know how hard it is to find regular cotton underwear in your size in that god forsaken store?! All I'm asking for is some black, gray, white, or pink underwear in an underwear store. I don't like low rise hipster bikini thongs....

Ok, so that's my rant. I wish I never had to step foot in that store again, but I still have some monies on my card...and it must be used. If you're asking yourself why I didn't try shopping online, my answer is this; they charge you $15.00 to ship.

So ok, after my shopping adventure, I came home and did a lot of work.
I'll post the pictures even though I couldn't get a goog picture of any of them. There isn't any light that comes into this apartment when it's gray outside. But, I'll post the best of them.

If you've made it this far into my post, thanks.