Monday, October 18, 2010

Fashion Inspiration

Just a mix of things!

1. all tied up., 2. 09.16.10, 3. 269/365, 4. Wardrobe - 001 - 8.30.2010, 5. the secret garden, 6. [September 29, 2009], 7. anthropologie, 8. 100510_1, 9. F&R

So, I got boots last Friday! Something I wanted to have for Fall/Winter even though I am in Florida. I am not sure if I have owned boots before. I can't remember if I had any form of boot when I was a kid. Last year I had admired some boots at Target for awhile but trying them on was such a hassle that I gave up.

This year they have similar boots again. I am not sure if they made them a little different this because I got some onto my feet! I did have to go up one size, which means giant foot size 11. I wear size 10, or so I thought. At Target and Old Navy I always have to get an 11. Like I said, big feet! ugh. It makes finding cute shoes that fit a real job.

My parents were here and we all went to Target together and they bought these for me as part of an early birthday present. (B-day not until Oct 26, I'll be 30!! ah!)

Now I just need it to not be in the 80's outside so I can wear them without sweating. But that might be asking too much of Florida. But I will wear these out, sometime soon.


Oh, I forgot to say...I assume some might notice the blog looking different! I hope it looks good to you all. I wanted to make it less flowery but still have a vintage lover's look.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Good & The Bad

Today was the craft fair! I have good and bad to share.

The Good:
It was my first experience doing one! I am now more prepared for future fairs.
Having a nice time with my mom and friend Nancy.
The weather was good!
I did sell some things!
I bought a wooden jelly cabinet sold by another vendor.

The Bad:
It was 90%(or more??) retirees. Florida retirees. A demographic not very interested in my kind of items.
I only sold a few things.
The amount of $ I made did not really make up the hours spent preparing.

But now if I do another craft fair, a lot of my ideas will already exist and it will take a lot less time getting ready. So I learned a lot in that way! So it was good and bad at the same time. :)

Setting up the table and also a bench with my pillows was fun.

So here is the general idea for set up while at home the past couple days:
And this is how it all looked today:



Our friend Nancy, who was there selling next to me, let me borrow this pretty bench from her house to display my pillows on. :) My mom helped me a lot. She made the little flag banners for me last night with paper, stencils, and a marker. She let me use something for displaying earrings too.

It was a good day overall, despite not many customers. Next time, I'd like to find a fair with younger attendees. :P

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Hi!

I have so much I have wanted to write about, but when I get ready to start a post, my motivation would disappear. I am still getting over being sick, but tonight I feel a big improvement thank God! Thanks for the well wishes. :)

I wanted to share about decor things and plans for my son's room again. Then I wanted to do the usual Vintage Thursday that I love doing. But the idea of copy/pasting pictures or uploading them and putting links on them made my already fuzzy head feel even more fuzzy.

So it's just writing today, no pictures!

I have been doing so much to prepare for the craft fair that's on Saturday. I still need to finish seams on a couple more pillows. My parents are here which is a big help. My mom has been helping me figure out the display ideas. I will definitely take pictures! Now I am just hoping I sell things! The big fear of not selling one single item has crossed my mind from time to time! (haha) I guess it's the first craft show jitters, right? But I can't wait!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Giveaway Winner!


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It's time to announce the winner of the improv, surprise giveaway!

To pick a winner, I wrote down the names of who entered on small pieces of paper and double folded them. I put them in a little bowl and then turned my head while mixing them up.
After mixing a few times I quickly picked one randomly.

Congratulations to Melissa of Oh, My Darling!

You are the winner! :)

I have your email address so I will send you an email as well.

I have the sniffles. Runny nose, sore throat, tired. I wanted to talk about more today but I think I will keep it on hold until tomorrow. Hopefully I will feel more energetic by then! I have a lot of craft fair prep to do too. I am probably over thinking it since it's my first one, but I want it to be good!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Anthropologie inspiration (again)

Anthropologie catalogs are always so beautifully shot! They are always good for fashion and home decor inspiration.

The clothing is priced much higher than I am willing to spend, but they definitely sell some awesome pieces to admire.

Here are some shots/outfits from the last few catalogs that I think are so pretty.





I don't live up to my own expectations for fashion for myself, and I'd like to more often! I know what I wear is not of extreme importance in daily life, especially since I don't have an office job I go to where I have to dress a certain way. And being a mom is a job where I can wear jeans every day, but I still like fashion.

I know newer mothers may evoke various images. Spit up stains on shoulders, crazy hair, yoga/stretchy pants out everywhere. Well in the very beginning, those things are hard to avoid at times as a new mom! But I generally like to wear something that I feel better in when I go out and about. Since I don't have reasons at home to wear cute things all the time, I like being able to not feel too "shlumpy" when I go out even to the store. And that's why I like looking at these kinds of things for inspiration. It's fun!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Craft Fair Prep

I had hardly done any preparations or new items for my first craft fair which is coming this Sat (Oct 16). Until today...finally!

My table was beginning to look a lot like Christmas as I laid out fabrics and Christmas pillow ideas.After a little while, I had four new pillows laid out. I need to iron and then sew up. I then moved on to putting together a couple more fall-ish pillows too.

I laid out all the pillows I already had to see what they all looked like together, and how to set them up for the craft fair. (These don't include any of the new pillows I started today, of course.)


I also started working on more earrings, like these, in all different colors:

I still have to figure out how I am going to display certain things. My parents will be here during that weekend so I know my mom will help me figure out last minute display ideas. She's creative!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Cruise Part 2

So we reached Cozumel last Saturday October 2nd after a really nice time at sea. The weather was perfect. Hot enough to want to swim, but in the shade the breezes were so nice you didn't feel hot at all. It's hard to capture the water's color with a camera.

As I expected, this port area is completely catered to tourists. I didn't feel like I was in a really different place. We got a taxi down near the road below after passing the shop areas in the picture above.
It was easy to get a taxi. If you happen to go there and need a taxi, just ask the price before you get into the taxi. There is no running meter, there are set amounts depending on where you are going. For up to 4 people it was $10, for us it was $13 since my son made five, though sat on a lap.
After a ten minute drive we were at Chankanaab National Park.
We walked around some trails before going to the beach. We saw their pretty lagoon area.
We saw two iguanas while walking around. The trails were pretty well shaded and very tropical looking. We saw replicas of Mayan ruins too. The beach area was beautiful and relaxing. The water in shades from light aqua to dark turquoise. And not crowded there!
First I snorkeled with my sister Jenny and friend Rachel. My husband took a distant picture of us girls getting into the water.
While we took the first turn snorkeling, my husband relaxed on a wooden beach chair under a (free) grass covered cabana while my son played in the sand. And they loved every minute of it!
You use steps to get into the water for snorkeling since it gets a few feet deep right away. There was a small sloped beach area for people to swim in as well. Below is me and my hubby snorkeling. The water was very choppy, you can't tell in the pictures. That really made it hard! Us gals had snorkeled in the past on trips in high school.
It was my husband's first time, which is why he let us gals go first to see how we do it before trying himself. Had the water been more calm, I would have liked to stay out there for a long time. My friend snapped the shot below with an underwater disposable camera.
These fish were swimming near us at different times!

I wrote a long review about our time at the park, click the link above if you want to read it! And there are a few different pictures there too.

We left the park in the late afternoon so that we would have time to shop back at the port area before getting on our ship again. The ship was in Cozumel from 8am to 7pm, and we needed to be back on the ship by 6:30pm.

I had to take a picture of the Starbucks there!

Our ship at Cozumel.

What we saw as we were walking on the long dock back to our ship:
A beautiful things to see at the end of a beautiful day! We only wish we had more time there.
We were back on the ship around 6pm. The next day we were at sea again. I took pictures of the ship from the top, near the front.

I took soooo many pictures! I'd love to share even more but don't want to clog up the blog too much. If I can get them on a website with an easy link to share, I can post that here.

Oh- about the giveaway! I didn't say when I would pick the winner. I think I will do that by Tuesday. :)