How cool are these?

Came across these at the flea market recently. If I had the cash (and somewhere to put them), I would totally have bought these vintage bumper cars from the now defunct Santa's Village.

I Love (hate) Love Ikea...

I have a serious love/hate relationship with Ikea. I recently (finally) decided on their Leirvik bed frame for my bedroom, since I have up until last month had my bed sitting in the middle of the floor in an unfinished room. Well, that and my dad kept asking me why my room looked like a crack den every time he stopped by. (Just kidding.)

Now, I have been raised to be a do-it-yourself kind of person, which is a really good thing, because if you've never had the pleasure of assembling an Ikea product, these are their instructions:

Yep.

There are no words, only pictures. You get to figure out what everything is and how exactly it goes together.

So, I shoved everything over to the side of the room and put down a blanket (because God forbid I accidentally dent the new floor) and started putting it together.

(Yes, that is the oldest phone jack known to man on the wall--I'm not even sure it works anymore)

Now, I understand that the instructions with the little blob people are telling me to NOT do this by myself, but really, who actually pays attention to instructions? (Let's just say that it was a REALLY good thing that I put down that blanket!)

I got it to this stage when I discovered a slight problem...

This stupid piece wouldn't screw into the other. Seems that there's a small piece of metal crud clogging up the threads. Hooray.

It all worked out okay though, because Ikea has a bin of spare parts by their return desk, and while I couldn't find the exact piece I needed, I did find one that did the job, and was able to finish putting the bed frame together:
Now, if I could only sit on the edge and actually have my feet touch the floor, life would be perfect...(turns out it's a very high bed.)

What I'm working on...

I'm currently working on an order for some bridal party jewelry (9 bridesmaids!), this is one of the sample bracelets I've created for her. I really love this particular design, so it will probably be making an appearance in my shop soon.

New in the Shop...

Some new earrings will be making an appearance in my shop this evening:

Sabine earrings

Verity earrings

I'm baaack....

Well, I've finally got my computer put back together, and can finally get online. Hooray!

So, anyway, I've moved from my hobbit-hole apartment....

To my sister's house, which is on possibly the quietest street with kids that I've ever seen.

Don't get too excited for me yet, because my sister decided that she wanted to put the new floors in at the same time as I was moving, so this is still what all of my stuff looks like:

Yep. Still living out of storage three weeks into my new digs. But at least I have a bed, and now that the floors are finally done, I can start moving some of this upstairs.

I hope.

Countdown to Moving Day...

The photo above pretty much sums up what life has been like the past few weeks... endless boxes in preparation of my move this weekend. Can you believe it took *nine* of these boxes just to pack up my kitchen?

The sad part is, most of it is going into storage. My sister bought a house last year, a rather big house with many "projects" to complete. She's also never lived by herself before, so now she's a little lonely. I'm moving in with her to help her out in terms of company, and having a little extra cash to fix it up. Which means I have to go through twelve years of stuff that's accumulated in my apartment and decide what goes with me, what goes to storage until I have my own place again, and what just needs to go. Very tough choices...

Last week I tried to get rid of some furniture by calling Salvation Army to pick it up...turns out they don't do pick ups in my area anymore, even though there are three stores within a 30 minute drive of my apartment. After a couple of days thinking that I would have to figure out how to haul the stuff there myself, I remembered the wonderful thing that is Freecycle! It's truly amazing how many people will jump at the chance for free furniture, no matter what the condition(my couch, in my opinion, was a little worse for wear), and are happy to come and take it off your hands. I now have these big empty spaces in my apartment where my furniture once was... slowly being filled with more boxes.

iPhone photography

Who says you can't be artistic with a camera phone?

(Images created with TiltShiftGenerator and CameraFD apps for iPhone)

Expensive Tastes...

While I was out the other day thrifting, I decided to stop by one of my favorite antique malls. Even though it is definitely on the pricey side, I love walking around and exploring the different booths, as this mall carries only antique and truly vintage items. Nope, no booths full of Smurfs or Beanie Babies here.

Anyway, when I came across this gorgeous setee, I just about died. It's blue, it's French-inspired, it's tufted, it's perfect...except for one thing.

It's $2500.

I can only hope it sits there for ages and gets marked down......or I win the lottery......

I plan on stalking this booth for some time to come......

A brief Indie Wed recap...

This past weekend I participated in Indie Wed, a bridal show and market at the Ravenswood Event Center in Chicago. It was an unbelievably fantastic show, and I had a great time selling and meeting other independent designers and crafters.

So, I was going post all of my awesome Indie Wed photos of people, booths, and the fashion show.....

Unfortunately, my camera died. And did I bring extra batteries? Of course not, because the ones in my camera were new. I came to the decision that I really need a new camera.

Anyway, here are a couple of the meager pics I managed to take with my iPhone (not fantastic, but at least I have a couple):

My table at Indie Wed

A fabulous dress made from invitations at the Paper Stories booth

Runway show featuring designs from Dame Couture, Audey, and others.

New in the shop...

I've been pretty busy getting ready for Indie Wed lately (I can hardly believe it's this Saturday... time has really flown by!), and because of that I have been working on some new pieces:

Paisley necklace - I know I posted this one before, but I was ultimately not happy with it, and it has undergone a major transformation. I am soooo much happier with it now, it is much lighter and more fun.

Laura earrings

Luella earrings

Vivian necklace - This one is not in the shop, as it is a custom order. I really enjoyed making this one, and love the graduated vintage chandelier crystals. It may show up in the shop at a later date.

Doctor Who on Etsy

Feeling a little down about David Tennant's departure from Doctor Who, I've been perusing Etsy for something cheer me up. Here are some of my favorite Doctor Who items:

Absolutely fantastic prints from henNchicks (The 10th/4th Doctor one is totally coming to live with me!)

A TARDIS leather bound journal from BindMe.

And one of my favorite DW quotes immortalized on this shirt from PaganChick

New in the shop...

Moira earrings

Gabrielle earrings