Just wondering

But is EVERYONE in the blogosphere Mormon? I'm NOT saying there's anything wrong with being Mormon, but it seems like 9 out of every 10 blogs I stumble across are written by Mormon women. Again, NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, just sayin'. Of course, I quit reading Catholics' blogs after every other f-ing word was Jesus this and Jesus that, and all overly pious (I'm Catholic so I'm allowed to say that). I want to enjoy my blog-reading experience, thankyouverymuch, not feel like I'm sitting through a homily. Also, most of the Catholic-authored blogs I've read seem like they're trying to out-Catholic everybody else, talking about how everything they do is all about God, and how they went to this, that, and the other at church, and Fr. This says that....ugh. Gag me. I wouldn't mind if I thought it was authentic, but it seems like they're doing all this great stuff just so they can brag about it on their lame, boring blog.

ANYWAY, sorry to rant. I've been posting stuff on hawleywood, making jewelry, and gearing up for student teaching, instead of revamping furniture and cleaning the house like I should be. Oh well. I'm sure I will have a crazy rant after my first week of student teaching next week. I hope not, but I'm pretty sure it's inevitable.

I hope all two of my blog readers are having lovely weekends! I know I am! Our nephew Cooper had his 3rd birthday party today at Frankie's Fun Park, so we played Putt-Putt, some drove go-karts, and some went batting. I myself was a spectator in all except Putt-Putt. It was a lot of fun, and now we're hanging out at our friends' apartment, and Nick's playing Mario Tennis on the Wii.

I think I'm the only person my age who doesn't (and has never) gotten into video games. My sister and I had an Atari for literally two weeks, until my mom took it away because we fought over it. Oh, and I also had a Video Painter. I'll let that sink in. A Video Painter. You don't know what that is, you say? Well, allow me to enlighten you. The Video Painter is the retarded step-cousin of the video game. In fact, they are only related in that they both connect to your TV, and both have the word video in them. That's where the similarities end. You can use the Video Painter to color pictures that came with the Video Painter, do 5 puzzles over and over again, and spend countless hours wanting to stab yourself in the eye.

Fun, right? Here's a picture to make you all jealous of the totally awesome video painter I had while my cousins had every freaking Nintendo available, and my other cousin Mer at least had a Sega Genesis for crying out loud! What did I have? A VIDEO PAINTER.


Here's a little analogy for you: Video Painter : Video Game::Carob : Chocolate

Don't even try to tell me you like carob because CLEARLY it is no substitute for chocolate so don't even try it.

cooter out. tooter town.

Thank you

A huge thank you to Paula of www.kevinandpaula.com for featuring hawleywood - handcrafted jewelry fabulosity! Paula is a member of the South Carolina Etsy Street Team with me and has an awesome Etsy shop: www.playswithmud.etsy.com.

Thank you, Paula!

Silly Goose!

Now that Tin Oiseau is open, I am super excited to show you some of the goods! My current favorite is the Silly Goose print, because it is silly! Nick laughed out loud the first time he saw it (but he will totally deny it). I don't know why, but a goose with an orange afro (or clown wig) is hilarious (to me)! Anyway, this is it:

I begrudgingly listed one of my embroidered doo-lollies (a catchall term for any item where the actual name slipped my mind...deal with it) of a pear. It looks so nice in my dining room, see?

It's the little one...that looks like a pear.

I suppose I could part with it if someone else really loved it and would put it in their house.

Oh, duh, the whole point of this post (originally) was to show off some sweet goods I've picked up!!

Two mid-century mod chairs - $37.50 for the pair
Lamp that was silver & black (now spray-painted metallic bronze) - $5.00 + $3.00 for spray paint
Mid-century mod/Scandinavian style dresser - $25.00

So, I have the beginnings of my dream living room for under $100! Just as an aside, I saw the exact same lamp at Home Depot for $40.00! Thank you, Salvation Army Thrift Store, you're my hero!!

So my plan is to recover the chairs (obviously, since the cushions are dis-gusting), lightly sand and refinish the frames, and seriously sand and refinish the dresser. (Someone named Taylor carved his/her moniker into the top of the dresser. Clearly they had no appreciation for the beauty of this piece!!)

Now, here is where I need help. All two readers of my blog, listen up! I cannot for the life of me figure out what fabric to use for the chair cushions. I took some pictures of the chair with what I've got on hand, but I'm not really feeling anything in particular. Take a look and let me know if anything jumps out at you:

OR if you have any suggestions for some new hotness fabric, they would be MOST appreciated!!

Anyhoo, I suppose I should be going to bed now, seeing as it's 1:00 in the morning.

Good night!

Announcement

Tin Oiseau is up and running!! Tin Oiseau: art + home is my new shop where I will be listing art prints and things I have made for the home. Yay!

Here is the finalized banner:

I decided to go with aqua, white, & brown, because I've seen way too much black, white, & yellow lately. Yes, there is probably just as much of the other color combo out there, but WHATEVER it is my logo so I'll do what I want. I may change it to aqua, white, & grey, but I'm not sure yet. In any case, check it out here!

Crafty craft craft

Yes, I do make crafts other than jewelry, just not as much. Right now, I've got one reupholstery project in the works (two if you count the coffee table I'm going to turn into an ottoman...but I haven't actually started that one yet, so maybe we shouldn't count it), two nurseries in mid-decor (for twins, so they're right across the hall from each other, not across town or anything crazy like that), and I just finished a new crafty mama apron (of my own design, hence the bobo-ness of it all).

Here are the color schemes I've been promising of the twins' rooms:

*All colors are Behr except where noted.

And here are some pics of my apron (I didn't use a pattern, and cut the pieces of fabric separately, without really measuring, so yeah...):

This is the front.

Please ignore the complete and total disarray of our closet, but Nick wasn't home to take a picture so I had to do a self-portrait. Here are some details of the gadget-holders:



















And here's the reverse! It's reversible!


That's all for now. I'll be back with an important announcement tomorrow!

Mmmmm

I don't usually post about food on this blog, not because I don't like it (because one look at my ever-expanding waist...and ass will tell you that I do), but because I really don't "cook," per se. I reheat, toast, and bake, but that's really about the extent of my talents in the kitchen. Nick, on the other hand, is a master in the kitchen (most of the time). Just this weekend, for example, he made corned beef (awesome), and smoked a brisket and some cheese (who smokes cheese? My husband and his friend, that's who). Anyway, I woke up this afternoon (yes I took a six-hour nap today. Bite me.) to a delicious, cinnamon scent wafting from the kitchen. Can you guess what was waiting there for me? Go ahead, guess. I'll wait....

Note: This picture was taken after half of it was already devoured.

Did you guess a LOAF of cinnamon roll-bread? You did? Wow, you must be psychic! Yes, Nick made a braided loaf of Paula Deen's cinnamon roll recipe into bread. YUMTASTIC! I already made myself sick by eating so much of it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop. I might have to go into a diabetic coma later, but for now I'm still stuffing my face full of braided cinnamon bread and milk. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmm

No amount of mmmm's can accurately describe the deliciousness, but maybe more pictures will help:Layers of cinnamon goodness and soft bread. I'm drooling.

Made-from-scratch sweet glaze. I think I know how Homer Simpson feels about doughnuts now.

Okay, that's enough crazy rambling about food. Clearly, I have a problem. Operation Get Skinny ASAP starts Monday. Someone hold me to it.

Finally!!!

My computer is working again! Thanks to the fabulous people at iPlace in downtown Greenville, our MacBook has a brand new DC power converter and keyboard/touchpad area! YAY!!!

On to bigger and even better news: hawleywood jewelry is now being sold at Hip Replacements in downtown Asheville!!! OMGTOTHEMAX! My friend Karen had previously suggested I check out the co-op galleries up there, and last week, my friend Tristen suggested I take some of my pieces with us on our daytrip, just on the off-chance that someone in a store might be interested. Well, they were! I sold three necklaces to the owner of Hip Replacements, an awesome vintage-and-new boutique, and another to a lady working in Terra Diva, an upscale lingerie store. She bought the necklace right off my neck! Needless to say, I was SO EXCITED, and I celebrated by buying a sweet purple (plum, really) dress from Minx, yet another hot boutique.

Amazing, all in all. So, things are looking up for hawleywood - handcrafted jewelry fabulosity. I ran out of business cards that day, so I've been working on a new design. Here are the two I've come up with so far:



Yes, they are blurry, but I can't do much about that since Blogger will only let me upload JPEG files instead of TIFFs, which are much clearer. I don't know how those blog geniuses get their images so crisp (without increasing the resolution and making the file too big to upload). I'll have to find that out.

Anyway, I'm leaning toward the second one, just because of the gorgeous flowery border. But it doesn't really have anything to do with jewelry. Of course, my old card didn't have anything to do with jewelry either. I don't know, but I've got to figure something out fast! I'm going up to Asheville with more necklaces on Saturday, and I've got to have some by then!!

That's all the news that's unfit to print.

I hate technology

But only when it turns on me. My Macbook pretty much had some sort of epileptic seizure and stopped wanting to boot up and act normally, so I had to take it to the iPlace today to get checked out. I'm sure whatever it is will cost me 8 bajillion dollars and probably my soul too. Dammit. To make myself feel better about the damn computer I've started an apron using all Amy Butler fabrics. Jellis much? If the tarded mac gets fixed soon I'll post pics of the finished product. I've also got some nursery before-and-after shenanigans to get posted, so my fingers are crossed that the death knell hasn't sounded yet for good ol' MacBook.

Did I mention that it died in the middle of finishing my final project for my last grad course for my master's? Oh, I didn't? Well, it DID, the bastard! The audacity! In other news, I have some lovely new beads coming in soon! I'm currently working on some bridal jewelry for a lovely lady in Etsy land, and there are two (yes, 2) jewelry parties in the works for this fall!! So at least some things are going well and working out as planned (so far).

I think that's all the news there is, and all the news there isn't, to quote Michael Feldman. (If you don't know who he is, look him up, because you're missing out.)

Say a silent prayer for my little MacBook, and pictures will hopefully be up soon of the myriad projects I've delved into.

Cheerio!