P.S.

I've been listening to a lot of Thelonious Monk lately. Can someone recommend a good album? I have a compilation album now and I'd like to check out others. Gracias.

Takeover

My office is literally being taken over by boxes.

I received my shipment from West Elm today (yay shelving!) and it arrived in way more boxes than I ever anticipated. Between this delivery, the leather loveseat and chairs (the chairs are in boxes too, while the loveseat is coccooned in plastic) and the paper products that are due to arrive any day now, I'm losing some serious office space. I sooo can't wait to get into the shop space and move everything out of my home. I guess this means nothing more than the fact that my time as a business owner is quickly moving in and I'm getting so excited and nervous and I just can't wait to see the finished product!

On a lighter note, this was the one and only picture I took on New Year's Eve (sorry, Randi).

Dave, Kate, Mike, Gary, Ben and I played a game called Pervartistry. For those of you who haven't played it before, imagine Pictionary with a perverted (and I mean REALLY pervy) twist. Mike rocked the house with this game (he beat us all by a long shot...I'm not surprised, really), and I couldn't resist taking a picture of his best drawing of the night. I won't say here what it is, but feel free to comment with your guess and I'll tell you if you're right. Ben was the only player to guess correctly.

Ask him sometime about the proper way to draw "Kegel exercises". This game is much harder than it seems.

Cash in

Ben and I headed out into the bitter cold night to cash in some of our Christmas gift cards.

Needless to say the JoAnn gift card not only went fast but it was the first to go. I picked up some much needed sew-in interfacing, a half yard of some really pretty blue and white quilter's fabric (reminded me of my grandmother's china) and I grabbed some gorgeous yarn at a steal. I have such a love/hate relationship with the JoAnn stores. Mostly I hate that I love them so much, but between JoAnn, Michael's and AC Moore I can get everything I need and usually more (especially now that Martha Stewart is selling her crap at Michael's and I get sucked in every time). I will say, however, that I'm really annoyed by the fact that all JoAnn's employees are required to ask you what you're making with the things you buy there. I can't remember the last time I wasn't asked on any given visit and it really irks me. Ah, well. Sometimes I'm so tempted to make up some outlandish lie when asked just to get them to leave me the hell alone, but I know that they don't actually WANT to ask, they just have to. Besides, harassing retail employees is bad karma for someone who is about to open their own retail shop.

After JoAnn's, we headed to a couple of game stores so Ben could get his fix. In a way I have the same attraction/revulsion to video game stores that I have to craft stores. I want to hate them in the worst way because I don't play video games (unless it's on the Wii), but I love to secretly spy on the people shopping there. Sure, you're guaranteed to stumble upon the young kids and game geeks struggling to decide on how to spend their own gift cards. But I love seeing the 40-something men in business suits arguing with the sales crew over which version of Halo is best. Or the women who are obviously exhausted from screaming at her kid to pick a game and get the hell out of the store. Makes me wonder where these people come from and what their day-to-day lives are like. Guess I'm just nosey.

Finally, after the game store extravaganza (we visited 2 game stores in all), we hit up Barnes and Noble. I love to support the little guy as often as possible, but gift cards are inevitable and this was the last place to spend our loot. I headed to the craft section, which, by the way, is incredibly large at B&N now. Impressive. I picked up two books:

The Crafter Culture Handbook by Amy Spencer


and

Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book by Ziggy Hanaor



Both look interesting for sure, and better yet they were absolutely free! Gotta love it. I'm gonna read 'em tomorrow...fo' sho.

Get it all in now

Well, it looks like the brown floral wallpaper won! Thanks to everyone for your votes. You really helped me make up my mind! I'm putting the order in today, that is, if the company is open on New Year's Eve. I think this was the paper I secretly wanted to win all along, just because I gave up on the metallic when I saw the paint sample next to it. Oh well. I do have a hallway in my house that would look lovely in metallic paper. Hmmmmmm.

In addition to wallpaper, I've also purchased shelving from West Elm. I normally stay far, far away from West Elm, not because I don't like it, but much like Pier 1 Imports, I'm addicted to it. They were having a post-Christmas sale and I got a ton of shelving for a steal. I've also just purchased my shopping bags, tissue, gift wrap and bows for the shop. I'm having a hard time deciding on little boxes, so I think I'll hold off and order them a bit later. My logo is in the works (finally), and I got in touch with someone who is doing my window graphics. When I meet with the landlord to sign the lease, I have to discuss signage with them. There are so many rules, you know.

Anyway, enough shop talk. I think we all gained at least 10 pounds over the course of this past weekend. The holidays will do that to you, I know, but this was bad. Not only did Mike and I head out at the butt-crack of dawn on Saturday morning to indulge in Panera's delicious asiago cheese bagels with cream cheese, but we also had frozen caramel coffee drinks with our breakfast. We came home and decided to cook, as we usually do, and proceeded to make extra spicy Chex mix, ice cream floats, homemade fudge, homemade chili, and the biggest, most sinful ice cream pie you've ever seen. And yes, the photo you see above is of Mike actually drinking store-bought cake frosting.

Okay, picture a pie crust made entirely out of Rice Krispie Treats. Interesting, right? Next add a layer of homemade double chocolate fudge. Then fill in the rest of the pan with vanilla ice cream and top it off with either chocolate peanut butter sauce or strawberries, depending on your taste. It was fantastic. There's a lot of work involved with this recipe and we drooled the entire time.

Overall it was a decent weekend, and I'm looking forward to Dave and Kate's New Year's bash this evening. None of us are big New Year's people. We don't usually go out, not even with each other, and we don't usually celebrate. My parents sometimes have us over for dinner (Indian food is tradition in our family), but they're both sick this year so that plan went right out the window. Once, our group of friends got together at Randi and Keith's house and we were all out the door and in bed by 11:00. Lame. None of us got together for Christmas this year, so Dave and Kate decided on a party tonight to hang out and exchange gifts. Should be fun, and oddly I'm actually looking forward to getting out of the house and socializing for once.

Now before I end this post and head outside to shovel the 10 inches of snow that dumped on us overnight, I'd like to add one more thing...

If you're considering spending money on "I Am Legend", save your pennies.

I need help!

Okay, folks, I need some help.

On the right side of this page I have a poll running to pick the best wallpaper for the back wall of the shop. I can't seem to choose between these three. Only one wall will be papered while the other three will be painted an olive green color. Below are the examples of the paper. Feel free to vote for your favorite. The metallic tile paper is my favorite but I'm not sure I like it with the green. What do you think? Vote for the one you like best and my order is going in!

Thanks!!!

Metallic Tile

Brown and Teal Herringbone

Brown Floral

Ca-ching!

My husband was the most wonderful shopper this holiday season. I made out like you wouldn't believe! You'd swear he took the handmade challenge too!

Here's what I got:

Three wonderful craft books:

1) Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp

2) The Crafter's Companion by Anna Torborg

3) Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair by Laurie Perry

The last book isn't a pattern or how-to book, but it's a quirky story of a woman who found out who she was after her husband left her and she learned how to knit. Looks neat and really funny.

I got a $100 gift certificate to Lark Tattoo for a sitting with my favorite tattoo artist, Kara. I'm calling her asap.

I got a beautiful pair of white topaz earrings that are so sparkly and shimmery that I can't stop staring at them in the mirror.

Ben hit up the Etsy sellers, too! I got a really cool business card holder for the shop from measessoms:

Three little bird plates from mordentipottery:

A beautiful necklace called "Swiftly" by gNeebo:

A pincusion that I've been wanting for ages now from one of my favorite sellers and bloggers PaperFox:

Three little tree jewelry displays for the shop from etcArts:

All in all I think he did incredibly well with the shopping, although I could spank him for spending so much money on me. I just hope he loves his gifts from me as much as I love what he gave me today.

A little pinch of mush

Not sure how many of you celebrate Christmas, but I wanted to take a brief second and wish all of you a very merry one. I've met so many new people this year, some of them through this blog, and I wanted to let everyone know how grateful I am to all of you for being such a wonderful, thoughtful, caring and helpful lot. Most of all, I want to thank my beautiful husband for being the greatest man in the world. I know that's a lot for him to carry on his shoulders sometimes, but he does a fantastic job and he never complains. He is my true love and my hero.

I hope this post finds all of you safe and happy, and I hope this holiday is the best one yet.