Etsy Shop of the Week:

Here is my choice for the week: ellembee! Totally cute t-shirts going on here...




These designs are definitely cute... I think I need that hoodie. Oh Etsy, will your amazingness ever end? I sure hope not. :)

More Gocco:

It has been a while since I've shared any Gocco projects, but I have in fact been working on a few things. Here are three of the other card designs that I have Gocco-ed recently:

These will be my personal cards, and they definitely turned out to be my favorite! The color combo is really cute and I totally love the graphic...


Here is the leaf punch in the flap of the envelope...



(More cards after the jump... again with the wonky internet thing...)

French Bench, Please:

I would love this eBay find to serve as my next project:


Can you imagine what a fresh coat of paint and some Amy Butler fabric could do for this?! Luckily I haven't finished my last eBay project, otherwise I'd be entirely too tempted to purchase this immediately...

Card Catalog Transformation (Phase One):

Like I promised, here is the story of my wondrous vintage library card catalog! Brace yourself...

So Sunday morning, Chris and I hopped in his SUV and trekked on up to Simpsonville, South Carolina... that is, after we ended up in Iva, South Carolina, which is lord-knows-where. The quote of the trip: we stopped at a Subway in the middle-of-nowhere-Iva so I could ask a local for directions back to the highway. I went in and pathetically said to the older gentleman in line, "I was wondering if you could help, I think I am lost..." He promptly and matter-of-fact-ly proclaimed, "You're not lost, honey, you're at Subway!" Oh lord.

Regardless of the ridiculous extent to which we got lost, I can home with this lovely piece of furniture:


This cabinet came from a Christian school's library in Simpsonville. It even had all of the cards still inside! Dewey-decimal system? Oh yeah...


So there was a metal rod going through the bottom of all of the cards, holding them in place. It was really easy to pull it out by the knob that came out the front of the drawer...


See the holes in the bottom of the cards...


There was also a backing inside, but it came out extremely easily. Here is all of the inner hardware taken out...


The knob screwed off of the metal rod and snapped back into the drawer...


And voilá! Ready to be filled with matches, Wallflower refills, Gocco inks, and polaroid film!



I know I said that I was going to refinish it, but frankly I just don't have the time or space right now. I will do it after I move this summer, or, if I find out that I'll be in another small apartment, I'll take it over to my friend V's garage and do it this summer right before I move... this is why the title of the post states "Phase One"... I promise that when I paint it and make it beautiful I will share the picture right here! For now, I am absolutely loving all the extra storage that these twelve drawers have given me! :)

Will You Take a Rain Check?:

So after a mysterious ailment that left me feeling closer to death than I'd ever care to feel again for two solid days, I'm still scrambling to get my life back in order. I have a French midterm tomorrow morning, a lot to catch up on at work after being out for two days due to the aforementioned sickness, and my final draft for my senior thesis is quickly creeping up (along with all of the other day to day things that need not be mentioned).

Basically I'm asking for a couple of days to catch up on life before I pick back up on blogging... In return, I have some awesome things lined up, including some awesome pictures of some new Gocco projects I've finished and that wonderful card catalog (which is now safely in my possession! Woot!).

So bear with me while I regain control... I'll be back soon! (Maybe even by the middle of the week.)

(Photo from here.)

I am a Winner:

Great news! I won that old library card catalog auction on eBay just now! Wahoo!

So, without further adieu, here is my new card catalog cabinet!



I'll be traveling to South Carolina in the coming days to go and pick it up... with a big, buff bodyguard, of course. Then it'll be time to repaint it... Which is another issue in and of itself! I'm thinking about painting it the same blue that I did a small table that lives on my porch... but I'm also thinking that white would be nice... I guess we'll wait and see!

Ahhh, I'm so excited! :)

Etsy Shop of the Week:

Wow. Etsy's Pounce feature strikes again with another glorious find! Shop Enfin, La Voila makes beautiful notecards... and here are a few of my favorites from this Belgian seller:











Absolutely amazing. There are also some gorgeous custom wedding invitations too! I love all of it.

Etsy Shop of the Week:

Oh my goodness I wish I could make cards like Etsy shop Paper Parasol! These letterpressed cards are just too cute...













Wow, I can't get over the cuteness! I totally love every single one of the cards in this shop. Maybe letterpress should be my next crafting endeavor... hmmm...

Adding To My "To-Craft" File:

I'm just dying to do one of these adorable felt banners... I've seen them quite a few places and I just absolutely love them! Now if only I had an actual reason to make one of these babies... Hmm...

From here.


From here.


From here.


From here.


From here.

Oh so cute.

New Projects:

Luckily I have a jam-packed weekend planned, because I just found some awesome crafts that I would love to do. Unfortunately crafting turns me into a recluse and I've been doing quite a bit of that lately (including reading, another reclusive activity) so I'm in need of some non-stop human interaction! Here are three of the things that I want to do oh-so-badly:

From good 'ole Martha.

And this from Design*Sponge. (Except I'd do it in white!)

Also from Design*Sponge.

Oh yeah, and I just got some cute finds on my lunch break from Agora, which is a vintage/thrift/antique shop downtown! I'll take pictures when I do something useful with them!

I Might Have A New Obsession:

Speaking of hedgehogs, these are just too adorable...

From Etsy seller The Gnomes' Joy Club.

From Etsy seller Bean Pickle Sprout.

Stamp Lovin:

If I had a reason to use stamps, I would have boxes and boxes of these cuties! Come to think of it... I use stamps at work to mark when studies have been scanned, entered, coded in the database, etc. Maybe instead of the boring things we have around the office, I should invest in one of these cuties! Nothing says "professional" like robots or hedgehogs who are in love, right?



Both from Etsy shop Norajane.

From Etsy shop Love Sprouts.

From Etsy shop CraftPudding.

From Etsy shop Cupcake Tree.

From Etsy shop Doodlebug Design.

Okay, this post could go on for days with all of the cute stamps on Etsy... so I'll just stop there.

High School Style:

Like I said, I was accompanying my friend to compete in a beauty pageant this weekend. Every time I go to one of these competitions, I always make a sign to visually assist in my audio onslaught. I know, classy, right? Here is the old-school style sign (ya know, the kind you used to make for high school football games and such?) that I made for this past weekend:


Unfortunately this crowd was lame and engaged in little more than a golf clap. Since I was completely alone in the audience, I kept things a little more toned down that I normally do.

I used some old scrapbooking paper (this hobby consumed four years of my life... never again will I partake in it again, and thus I am left with boxes of leftover materials and supplies) and freehand cut all of the letters. When my old glue wasn't holding up on the "V" in the middle of the pageant, I had to resort to my lip gloss as adhesive. Worked like a charm. ;)

Etsy Shop of the Week:

While looking for this fall's greatest accessory, the feather headband, I came across A Farmer's Daughter's shop. Oh my goodness this stuff is great! Here are a few of my favorites:







She also makes some pretty cute jewelry, but I'm just drawn to these feathered headbands! I love the ones with buttons... How cute are they?!

As Promised:

I said that Etsy seller oktak would be coming out with some new items for fall... and boy did she deliver! These fabrics are so cute. Here are my favorites of the new designs:







The second one is definitely my favorite of the three, but I love them all!

Etsy Shop of the Week:

Although I absolutely adore Miss Lily's current collar, these make me rethink said adoration. Etsy seller Pecan Pie Puppies has the most splendid collars to go along with the cutest little tagline: "Handmade Collars with Southern Flair." Oh me, oh my.





And no true Southern pup can go without some college football! Even though this is intended for South Carolina... I'm left wondering if that red couldn't be conveyed as some Bulldawg pride... I just love it!