Summer Adventure

I'm not talking about the July cruise to Mexico, God willing and swine flu epidemic all over. No, I have another possible summer adventure to look forward to. My good pal, Leslie and I are planning a trip to the world's longest yard sale this August that starts in Alabama and goes through Tennessee and follows the 127 corridor. Not only do I have Leslie to thank for meeting Mike but she also introduced me to the love of junk. I leave you to decide which is more important to my life.

She bought a camper recently and we immediately started scheming for the perfect road trip, and what could be better than 3 days of yard sales I ask. Leslie is one of the few people in the world that I can truly let see the real Paige. She once gave one of the nicest compliments when she said that she felt like she was more herself when she was with me than any other time. She has an amazing eye when junking and can spot a jewel that I would have walked right by.

The biggest problem is that we are both absolutely directionally challenged. My biggest concern is that we will get hopelessly lost on the way home Sunday and I will absolutely have to be at work on Monday since it is a week before the Fall semester begins. We have gotten lost together going someplace that we have both been to 10 times before and we always factor at least an hour into our adventures for detours. Her sister is thinking about coming with us and she could be the designated navigator. I've gone Goodwilling with her a few times recently and she too has a great love of junking.

I was messing around this morning and found the most amazing site with ideas on turning all kinds of junk into treasures called RoboJunker. She has some really creative ways to use the kinds of things that are easily found at any flea market. I have a favorite quote that I overheard once between one junker to another at a flea market. In a great old drawl he said, "People will buy any old junk these days." This website will help you use this junk to create one of kind pieces for your home.

Has anyone ever been to the 127 Yard sale and do you have any suggestions for us?

Weekend Wrapup

The items above are the miscellaneous, and weird assortment of items that I accumulated this weekend. First I went to Hobby Lobby Friday night to get a new white display board to use for pictures and they had a whole assortment of colors so I also got a great red and black. I once again didn't have the time or energy for a photo shoot of my new items but I hopefully will get a chance to put them to use next weekend.

Last night Mike and I went down to the Delmar Loop, ate a nice dinner and walked around. The Loop is an interesting part of St. Louis, at the epicenter of the colleges and universities, with lots of funky shops that sell tie die and tobacco. When I was in high school and craving to get out of my little town I told myself that someday I would be able to hang out at the loop whenever I wanted. Well, since living here for well over a decade, I've probably been there no more than 3 dozen times, but such is life. Mike isn't crazy about it since parking is a nightmare, it's no more than a stone's throw from a really bad part of town, and he says it's full of pretentious wanna-bes. From the Vintage Vinyl store I got the Margaret Cho used DVD. From a graphic novel and comic book store I got a couple of cool goth graphic novels.

Today my sister and the girls came to St. Charles and we spent the afternoon shopping and walking around down on Main Street. Jess was so cute as we were walking down the old cobble stone, she said, "Is this their mall?" Not exactly but it is full of fun independently owned shops and restaurants. To the right are a couple of street performers that thoroughly entertained the girls, and me too. We went to my favorite local yarn store, Knit and Caboodle, and I was able to support the girls burgeoning yarn habit. There was a whole wall of buy 3 get one free and I let them pick out whatever they wanted, within reason. My sister couldn't believe how much yarn cost, and I told her that you get what you pay for. I got myself 4 skeins of Antuco's cotton variegated yarn. I just bought a bunch of Chilean yarn on-line on sale in some single shades but I couldn't pass up these gorgeous colorways, and they were on the BOGO wall. I also got the huge size 35 Bamboo needles. The girls asked me if I knew how to use them. I told them that they are just like normal needles just a lot bigger. I will use them to make some wild scarves with four or five yarns held together. Talk about fast knitting.

The belt/scarf of many colors is a finger knitting masterpiece that Jess gave me. My sister said that she's been working on it for weeks. She used up all of her scraps and sewed them all together by herself. She said she knew I was the only one who would appreciate it. I couldn't have been more pleased. Oh, and the troll doll is something the girls got me at a garage sale. They are always giving me trolls because they say they remind them of me. I can't argue with that. This last shot is one Kate and I took of ourselves while we tried to stay entertained during Jess's soccer game. I am going to seriously miss those girls when they move...

Twitter doesn't suck

I have been up in the air about Twitter ever since joining several months ago. In the beginning it was purely a promotional tool for me as I blogged about here. I used twitterfeed to have my blog update automatically and my Etsy listings. Occasionally I would chirp in with a random comment or two. I had around 400 followers at the beginning of the week just by following people back who followed me and occasionally following people whose blog I read. But this week I decided to give it the old college try to see if I could discover what everyone else loved about it. I also set a goal of having 1000 followers by the end of the week so that I would stop feeling like I was talking to the air. Well, I breezed by that goal yesterday and am now rapidly approaching 1,500.

I managed to reach my goal by following lots and lots of people. That can be time consuming but I just found someone like minded and creative and followed all of their followers. I'll admit I mostly followed other women since I obviously feel like that is my target but if a dude follows me I will follow him back. After a few days I went through all of the people and unfollowed the ones that had not returned the favor and followed me back. Some people think that it is rude to unfollow someone for not following you back, but I personally think it is rude to not return the follow, if you follow my reasoning. If you are trying to build up numbers you will have to eventually thin the herd since once you get to 2000 people that you follow Twitter will not let you follow anymore until you have an equal number of followers. This paragraph may have broken a record for the most uses of the word follow ever recorded!

So did I waste my time? I don't think so. I have actually decided that twitter doesn't suck. It is one more way to waste some time and unwind on-line. It is a pretty valuable marketing tool to have in your arsenal I believe, although the verdict is still out on whether any sales will result from it. It can also nice to be able to connect with people albeit in a superficial and small way. For example, I had a scary incident at work yesterday. I had a student verbally assault me and slam my door so hard that it knocked the pictures off my wall. I, of course, reported it to my supervisor but since I didn't even get his name there wasn't much to be done. I recanted the story to several of my colleagues but I was still worked up about it. Since we were busy I obviously had to get on with my day but I took a minute and went on Twitter and tweeted about it. Somehow putting it out there into the world in 140 characters or less made me feel better. I had a number of people reply to me which also gave me some of that release that I needed.

Do I think that Twitter is for everyone, no. But I'm glad that I'm building up those connections and becoming part of the community, how about you?

Handmade Prom

It's many many moons since I went shopping for my prom dress. For my senior prom I wore a black lace skin tight dress with a slit practically up to my navel. I still can't believe my Mom bought it for me but she said I looked great in it, which I totally did. I went with around 10 girls and we had a blast. After the dance we went out partying at a frat house and I won't go into any more details from there.

I know you probably aren't shopping for prom but isn't it fun to imagine. There are so many amazing handmade dresses on-line and honestly many of them aren't any more expensive than if you bought them at the mall, when chances are 3 other girls had the same idea. How cool would it be to show up to the party in one of these handmade originals? If you want to really make an entrance how about this Custom Tutu Dress by Gingercream. I'm generally opposed to all forms of tulle but how can you not love the whimsy of this dress?


The one above is for the glamour girl with her own sense of style. They are each one of a kind and are made completely from recycled men's ties by Glamarita.

For the Free Spirit hippie chick there is this Spanish Moss dress by The Wind & Rain Creations.

For the punk/emo girl this Rodarte inspired multi-colored knit dress would make a great statement. I love how Miss Samantha has accessorized the look with the hat and belt. I can totally see Anh wearing this outfit if she were 10 years older.
For the classic/retro girl there is this Red Silk Scarlet Swing Cocktail Dress. Classic Tailors makes it in sizes XXSmall to 2XL so just about any girl could look gorgeous in it.

To accessorize I think this UPCYCLED Gold VINTAGE Bumblebee Clutch would work with just about any look. Get Ready Set Clutch has some other great clutches to carry the essentials for the big night out and they would make a great bar purse in the future.

And I wouldn't be a good etsy blogger if i didn't pimp my own jewelry. I made wedding party jewelry recently and I think my knitted wire bracelets would make unique and fun prom wear as well. I can make them with any color beads and trust me I have lots of cool beads to work with if you wanted something custom. I can also make simple earrings to match. I hope you had fun reminiscing about your prom and imagining how fun it would be to shop for a handmade prom if we were young again.

My new Favorite bags

I am a bit of a bag whore. I was recently talking to the woman that I bought this amazing 1940's hand tooled leather bag from at a consignment shop near my work. She asked me if I collected bags and I told her that my husband probably would say I do. It isn't intentional but I just love purses of all kinds. I have several hiding places where I stash my out of circulation bags. Some friends were over to play games with Mike when I was out of town once and one of them was looking for a board game and had an avalanche of purses come down on her.

I took the picture in my craft room with my Nana's handmade knitting bag that I have displayed on the wall. It was actually made by my great grandmother around 100 years ago.



A blog I frequent, Audrey's Country Crafts, recently had a fun bag swap. I sent a bag that I had bought on Etsy that I really loved but I thought would be perfect for my recipient along with a headband and wristcuff to match. I'm pretty sure that Dragon's Den reads my blog so if you see this I promise it will be there soon!

Today I got in the mail the absolutely stunning bag at the top of the page from Hip Chic Designs along with a matching key fob. I had told her my favorite colors are purple and orange and she combined them in the most gorgeous way I've ever seen. The details on this bag are really what impresses me. She even embroidered my initials on it and chose the perfect button to compliment the patterns. If you are in the market for a new spring bag I totally recommend checking out her new Etsy shop. This Colorful Flowers bag would be perfect to brighten things up!

The prints in the picture are by one of my favorite Etsy artists Allison Strine, who I blogged about here. Her pictures smile down on me every day and give me encouragement.

Graduation Gift Guide

I have spent the last 18 years of my life on a college campus in one capacity or another. Just to be clear only 4 of those were as an undergraduate student. My current day job is all about helping students graduate. I'm an academic adviser and career-technical counselor. So graduation season is a very real part of the cycle of the year for me, whether I know someone personally who is graduating or not. I have always loved graduations, high school or college. So many kids don't want to go through with the ceremony and I tell them to do it for their parents. I know that it will be more meaningful to them than they can imagine at that moment. Even here at the community college, were for many it is just a stepping stone to the next degree, it gives the graduate that real sense of completion and recognition for their hard work. I think everyone deserves that. The print above, by theloveshop is perfect to be framed and given to your favorite grad, male or female.

I have put together a gift guide of handmade gifts for the graduate. If it is a special graduate that you want to recognize there are some very unique and creative ideas on Etsy. The Handmade t-shirt quilt is a personal way to honor where they have come from and is a useful item for the future. You send the shirts to WARM KEEPSAKES and she puts them together for the very reasonable price of $125. You can use shirts from the different sports and clubs they were a part of in high school and whatever else reflects who they are at that moment.


For the artist or wanderer this vintage train case by GetReadySetGO has been screen printed with the JRR Tolkein quote on the back "NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST", a black tree on the front, and a black skeleton key on the lid. It can be used as a carry on, to store artist supplies, makeup or whatever else they want to keep safe.


One of my favorite gifts to give a graduate is a journal. I will write something personal in the front to hopefully inspire them to record what they are thinking and feeling at this point in their life, because I know it will be gone before they can even imagine. The hand bound leather journal on the right is by Julie Boyles and can have personal monogramming added for no cost.



















This journal by Elvie Studio is probably more appropriate for a girl and it has plain white paper inside with some decorate paper added that would be great to put pictures on. The VanGogh quote says "The way to know life is to love many things" which couldn't be more appropriate for the graduate.







If you are a teacher who has lots of graduates you would like to recognize there are some smaller handmade gift ideas as well. There are all kinds of buttons and magnets on Etsy that would be a good little gift that can be personalized to the grad's interests. I like these Smart Girls Are Cool buttons by Pure Vintage Gold. She also makes these Tiny Origami Blank Notebooks, a Set of 5 is only $5 so you could combine a button with a book for a great little gift.




There are tons of personal jewelry ideas on Etsy that would make good gifts for graduates but if you want to get something inexpensive yet meaningful you can find Scrabble pendants with just about anything on them. I like this little Fly pendant by LaVieIllustree. It is simple and direct with a great message.


For a boy you could give these Paperclip Bookmarks in neutral colors by RowdEClips
either with a card or your favorite author's book to introduce them to someone that could open their minds.

There are lots of other great personal handmade gifts to be had on-line or to be made by you. These will hopefully be around a lot longer than the $20 you could slip in their card that will be gone before they walk across the stage.

Award's Day

So I got a few awards last week that I thought I should acknowledge and since I have no energy today for anything else here goes. First Mary from Mother Nos Best gave me the The Queen of Alll Things Awe-Summm award.


Here are the award rules:

* List 7 things that make you Awe-Summ and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers you love.

* Make sure to tag your recipients and let them know they have won!

* Also link back to the Queen that tagged you.

Here are the seven things that come to mind:
1. I am an awesome aunt
2. I am an awesome knitter
3. I am an awesome friend
4. I am an awesome blogger
5. I am an awesome listener
6. I am an awesome wife
7. I am an awesome kisser

That was the best I could do today my friends. And now for the amazingly awesome recipients of this awesome award:

1. The Queen Speaks
2. Stroll Through Storyland
3. Momma Miller
4. Magic Markings Art
5. ShimmerMeBlueDesigns
6. Namaste
7. Joy To the Blog

And Nancy over at Nfall2rt awarded me the Works of Heart Award. This means a lot coming from here since I have come to consider her a friend. She is one amazing knitter and crafter too. So that wraps up The Award's Day. Stay tuned tomorrow for some regularly scheduled blogging.