a little vintage favorite friday

firstgrade.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

circa 1980something. i'm not sure what grade this is, it could be kindergarten, first or second. the boy on the left in the first row was my bff. evern though forever ended around college...i'm the cheesy grinned girl with the pigtails. even back then i had bad hair. and posture. we used to torture the girl directly behind me. we called her toenail. her name was taneel {or at least that's how it was pronounced}. but i got the cheri cheri bo berries all the time. so it evened out.

announcing my etsy shop!

etsy shop, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

i've joined the bandwagon. not only will i be buying lots of sweet handmade items from etsy, but in order to fund it all, i'm selling some of my own items. i only have two prints for sale right now but i'll be adding much more in the coming weeks...i'm hoping this will be a good experience for me. i don't know. sometimes it just ends up costing you 80 cents to try....

the spring bird prints are really swell, i'm happy with the way they turned out and i'm even planning on hanging one in the chocolate brown bathroom. i think the green and brown will look awesome and le chic. that is of course if the husband doesn't object, which happens every now and 30 seconds.

etsy virgin no more

etsy_bands.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

i made my first etsy purchase yesterday. i feel like i'm part of the cool club now. i'm obsessed with headbands lately and spending the money on these suckers is a sign i'm committing to growing out my hair. plus, they're cute bright colors that i'll be able to pull off this summer with tank tops and kackis. i'm excited. yeah baby.

also exciting today, it's kareesta's b-day. {you may know her as morninglory kitsch--->} she's the big three-oh today so everyone wish her a you-look-23-dahling birthday!

iNeed

fabricsrme.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

a new sewing machine. i really do. just something cheap and basic that doesn't require a lot of know-how to run and won't break down. ever. any suggestions? my current hand-me-down machine is sitting in parts on my floor, yellowed with time and rusting from lack of use due to some weird bobbin issue that i just cannot figure out no matter how many hours i waste on it. i also need to stop buying cute fabric until i own said new sewing device. because it too is now sitting on my floor, abandoned and lonely and wishing it could be something useful and cute stashed in my handbag.

but i am le tired.

it's the end of the world. warning: funny crap that includes some random bad words. shame on them.

i heart kelly green. who?

super_greenday.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

i've been gone haven't i? it's been a busy work week. in fact, i'm sitting here working, on a saturday. but to ease the pain i picked up those super cute shoes you see above.

me: i'm working this weekend, so what should i buy with all that extra money?"
jen: "shoes, really expensive shoes."

but they weren't expensive jen, just super awesome.

anyway, i'm growing my hair out. again. but this time it's got a style thanks to a much needed cut last week {jackie O meets clair daines, no?}, so it may be easier to make it through the summer months. we'll see. and check the chocolate brown bathroom walls. a mucho gusto self-portrait background. mmm. delicious.

knee-deep in desperation

feeling a little under the weather and i'm totally blaming the fact that it's snowing on the first day of spring. i'm looking forward to summer more than i can express in pointless blog posts. this weekend was too cold to paint so i organized the crap out of three of the rooms in my house. the good news is i already have enough to throw a killer tag sale. and i still have the other half of the house to go through. i worked on the cards this weekend as well. i was so into it, i'm sending each person a set of handmade and a digitally designed set. because i just want everyone to like me.

p.s. i thought we could use a little internet humiliation in the form of a banner for a couple of weeks. happy almost easter.

if you're irish and you know it clap your hands.

i grew up my entire life thinking i was practically full-blooded french. i'm not really sure where it came from, but i'm guessing it was my mon cheri {love those chocolates} name. several years ago it dawned on me that my grandmother was a houlihan. duh. my mother confirmed my suspicion, i'm mostly irish. which is cool. because nobody hates the irish and my favorite color is green. score. so happy st patty's day no matter what you think your heritage is.

staring at the ceiling

ok i'm freaking out right now. it just hit me that we're actually looking at buying a house {did i forget to mention that?}. which means we would actually have to put ours on the market within the next couple of months. we would actually have to pick a lot to put the house on, we would actually have to narrow down the list of upgrades. closing costs. lawyers. realtors. buyer's remorse? it's a scary thing buying something that's so honking expensive.

i could buy 5 dollar sweaters all day long, but stare me in the face with a six figure number and i freeze. is it the right move? is it smart? will we sell our house? will we like our new neighbors? can we afford it all on one salary should we ever need to? so much to think about. so much to stress about. so just in case we do actually make this change, i plan to paint the remaining unfinished rooms in the house this weekend, clean out closets and donate stuff, lots of collected over three years of living in our house stuff.

the buzz: a new business venture

i've got some things in the works right now to launch a custom baby announcements and stationary business...once i have the website i'll be e-mailing every single solitary person i know in order to get the word out. i'm leaning towards the name "little star custom stationary": it's cute and not taken, and it doesn't limit me as much to what i can expand into. if anyone knows an expecting mother please keep me in mind since i'm currently designing some really sweet stuff. i'm working on announcements, matching thank you cards and shower invitations and as soon as i have something you guys'll be the first to see it!

peanut butter and jelly

hung out with these lovely ladies this weekend. we had a great time and some more than interesting conversation. got to meet manda for the first time {that's her little buggernut in the second photo} and scored yet another awesome pair of hand-knit wrist warmers. which i don't need today in this 40 degree weather!



on our way to connecticut we missed our mass turnpike exit, so we ended up driving downstate backroads completely lost {stupid mapquest atlas} and out of gas. all turned out well, but it was a little nerve-wracking at the time.



and now it's back to it all, all that stuff one does on a monday or during the week for that matter. you know, work, laundry, work, laundry. not in any particular order.

ode to 10,000

this past week my car hit the 10,000 mile mark. i'm not sure what's so special about this number, but it feels like i've broken it in. i've committed. and i can't bring it back since it probably dropped about 4k in value. {except it's a subaru so it probably hasn't dropped at all} at 10,000 miles you know if you've got a good thing or a bad thing. i got a good thing. there's nothing about my car that i dislike. the designers thought of everything that makes everyday life easier {along with incredible awd handling, which lets face it, i so need in the winterwonderland that is here}. there's even a space inbetween the cupholders for your mug handle. who thinks of that? there's a pop-down holder for my sunglasses {actually two, his and hers}. two hooks to prevent shopping bags from sliding around. heated seats. heated windshield wipers and mirrors. need i say more. so at 10,000 miles i'm happy. i'm committed. and i'm in love. 100,000 miles, here i come. {maybe the title should be ode to subaru...i love you people!}

fabulous freebies!

i've designed a few desktops in my spare time using the incredible japanese brushes from designfruit. check the links baby--->.

who wants to look at a boring desktop all day?!?

update: i uploaded them to my flickr photos, so go here and download whichever ones you want!

oh so kitschy

morningshop.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

here's the banner i created for kareesta's shop at etsy. there's also a button. which i urge everyone to steal and place on their site. she's basically a stay at home mom who's trying to raise money for a really good cause. even though that cause is a secret. so help her out and link it up.

war and peace

thus is the on-going relationship with my eyebrows.

tweezers are not your friend, especially ocd people who pluck every stray hair that's not in line with the others {get in line sucka} until they realize half their eyebrow is now missing. i was that girl. i have the pictures to prove it. i'm not sure when it happened but i became addicted to tweezing. it was a very zen ritual for me, it hardly even hurt anymore. i was starting to do it every day. it was hurting those i loved. i never even took time to play with my dog. is someone you love suffering from depression? {i digress}

recently however i've developed a loving nurturing relationship with my eyebrows and we're currently at peace with one another. they still show traces of abuse along the oh so thin ends but all in all they're making huge progress. i've restrained myself to plucking only the very, very out of line hairs. every morning i brush them into place {ocd} and i think, eyebrows, keep up the good work {or i'll pluck you into line suckas}.

american baby

this is america baby. we have consumerism addiction. i figured i would showcase mine in the blog redesign. i plan on keeping this one for a while. {yeah sure} also, i have a new button so steal away people or update your old ones or just ignore me completely. it's your world. mine is filled with lipgloss.

oh, and join me in welcoming kareesta to the blogging world. she'll have a spiffy new blog design as soon as she tells me what she wants. happy monday people. keep it rockin' all week long.

card swap preview

cards_preview.jpg, originally uploaded by tinkerellen.

so i sent out all the info today but a lot of you are asking for ideas, so i thought i would just post a preview of a couple of cards i've designed. granted, none of you own design programs such as the one used to create these BUT just have fun with it! and as far as music goes, think of your favorite tunes and load them into a playlist. wa la. done. this is meant to be fun people, don't stress!

redesign me

i want to redesign the blog {again}. all the colors. all the fonts. all the pictures. i'm thinking no more pink. yes, i said it. i'm done. i'm over pink. i'm leaning towards orange and blue but i don't know. any thoughts? what do you guys want to see? what were your favorite headers?