Too Little Too Late:

Usually I feel relieved to have a Christmas present out of the way... but seeing these over in High Street Market's shop just made me totally kick myself for what I already bought Chris for the holidays...









He is such a war plane buff, these would be awesome for his office one day! (Seriously, he has this big book of planes that my aunt got him for Christmas last year, and I can open it up to any page and 90% of the time he knows what it is and what country it is from. Often times he can also name specific battles that it was used in... It is truly ridiculous.)

If the present that I have sitting in my closet wasn't so expensive, I would just get one or two of these as well. Damn. Maybe I'll get them for his birthday (which is in February)...

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...)

A Call for Help:

I am sick of this. Can someone please tell me why my pictures aren't resizing and centering automatically anymore?! Someone!? Please!? I am getting really frustrated...

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...

Friday Foolishness:

Alright, it's been a couple of weeks since I've done one of these, but after the week I've had, I could use some funny, right? Right.

This time I've chosen to relive a video of a hometown hero: Rack 'em Willie. I've quickly mentioned this infamous Athenian before, but I feel like I did not give this video it's due... So here it is:



Oh Athens... I can't wait to be rid of you! :)

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! :)

Cheap Shopping:

Even though I have lots of hope for the future of this country, the economy still ain't that great at this point. I put together these two cute outfits from somewhere totally unexpected... Forever 21! I saw some cute things of theirs on another blog and after some exploring, found a couple of surprisingly cute items! I thought it was just for teens and tweens... maybe I was wrong or maybe my sense of style is just completely sub-par lately.

I'm sure the quality isn't so grand, but it's probably a good idea to buy things on the cheap if they're super trendy seeing as they will probably be kicked out of your wardrobe rotation by the time they start to fall apart, right? I'm a firm believer that classic items are totally worth a splurge though... like a pair of really great jeans or a peacoat. :)

What I'm Trying To Forget:

There are a few things to note before I can move on to all of the great things that are happening in my life and around the country right now...

One. The North Face jacket I just talked about... it was stolen right out of my office over the weekend. Someone with a key came in and just thought it'd be okay to take it for themselves. It really requires a low-life to do something like that...

I was extremely angry at first and was ready to give a severe tongue-lashing to the person I believe was the perpetrator, but now I am just disappointed in people. What a sucky thing to do to someone, really.

Two. My childhood dog had to be put to sleep over the weekend.

I've mentioned how my sister, Amanda, and I were complete animal freaks growing up... well we had cried ourselves to sleep many a night begging our parents for a pet (a real pet, not like the hamsters and fish that always served to shortly placate us). One afternoon, we climbed into the car after an ice skating lesson (yes, I'm pretty good at ice skating... no, I can't do any jumps) to find a dog in the backseat. Our mother was full of practical jokes and scare tactics so we were sure that this was another one of her cruel pranks. It wasn't. I was 11, Amanda was 12, and we got our first dog... our very own dog.

My dad was none too pleased with the surprise addition to the family, but he warmed up quickly and fell in love with the fur-ball... so a fence was built and Rusty stayed.

I hadn't seen Rusty in over a year given the state of my relationship with my parents, so I definitely feel very disconnected from the situation... but it brings a tear to my eye thinking about the pure and utter joy we felt on that day, and now he is gone.

Dogs really are the most wonderful thing in the world... a forever companion through thick and thin.

November in Georgia:

Today is beautiful here in Georgia! I am wearing a no-sleeved shirt and jeans... and it's perfect. This is what weather.com is showing:


The best part though: it is that perfect time when half of the leaves have fallen to the ground to crunch under my feet, yet the other half remains on their branches, bright red/yellow/orange for my continued viewing pleasure. It is wonderful.

Hilariously Clever:

I can't NOT repost this artwork:


This is currently my Facebook profile picture. Genius. Absolutely Genius.

(Stolen from The Lucky Nest.)

Hope:

Let's kick off my return to blogging by quickly saying a little something about the historical events of last night, shall we?

In a matter of one night, my faith in this nation has been restored. A wonderful co-worker and friend of mine said it best, "I feel like I can have kids now!" It brings tears to my eyes because that statement embodies the fears that many of us have had for so long, and the hope that we now feel.

I cannot express how happy I am for the black community... this is huge. There are still people alive today who experienced the injustice of Jim Crow Laws here in the South, and in their lifetime they were able to see a man of their same race come into the most powerful position in the free world. If that doesn't personify "inspirational", I don't know what would.

And I could not be more excited to see what kind of puppy Malia and Sasha get! Every president has brought a dog to the White House, which is by far the coolest tradition of the presidency as far as I'm concerned.


(I wish I could have been in Chicago last night. Wow.)

Thank you Barack Obama, for making me proud to be an American once again.

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.)