Saturday, July 31, 2010

Thrifted Gifts

Brian and Jason went out of town for a few days last weekend. They stopped at a lot of ridiculous thrift stores and flea markets along the way. Being a good boyfriend, Brian brought me back all kinds of goodies!



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Puffy, quilted wall-hanging? Yes, please.





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Tin Pac-Man lunchbox from the 80's.




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Amazing lion coin bank from Japan.




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Awesome cat - stuffed body, porcelain face and paws.


He obviously knows me very well.

Friday, July 30, 2010

More Journal Madness

 This is my favorite page from my journal so far.

Third Canvas Journal Page
I made a rough drawing during a break at work. I came home, filled it in with watercolor pencil, blended it, cut it out, and detached my head balloon. The drawing is sealed to a piece of scrapbook paper with Mod Podge, along with an embroidery floss balloon string.

I'm seriously not going to overload this blog with every page from my journal, but this is another of my favorites from this week:

Sixth Canvas Journal Page
Please, no ogling. This is my first experimentation with image transfer using Mod Podge. Needs some fine-tuning, but it basically did what it was supposed to. Did I mention how much I love Mod Podge? It's magic.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Journal Crazy

My new journal has lit a proverbial fire under my creativity's backside.

My first entry was created with my also newly purchased watercolor pencils. It was inspired by the new teal-ish nail polish I'm sporting.

First New Journal Page

I immediately felt like trees would start growing out of my hands the second my nails were covered.

I made a second page on Monday. I won't beat around the bush; I've got a head full of anxiety a good deal of the time. Sometimes it feels like my face looks like this:

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I have a feeling that all kinds of crazy things from my brain will be springing forth onto these journal pages from now on. I already have four other pages in various stages of completion. I'm a journaling machine!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

New journal

I bought a new canvas-covered journal yesterday. I obviously had to run home and paint it.




1. The cover.
2. The back cover.


Now to fill it up!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

RVA Summer Camp Bracelets

Last night, we continued playing catch-up with Red Velvet Art Summer Camp projects. I made two bracelets, and then came home and made a third with leftover yarn. I see another one in my future...

Summer Camp Tie Cuff Bracelet
This bracelet was made with an old tie from Erin's grandfather. We also made use of the snap machine she bought on clearance.

Summer Camp Friendship Bracelet
An old-fashioned friendship bracelet made with yarn instead of embroidery floss. I hadn't made one of these bad boys in 15 years, but it's apparently like riding a bicycle. I'm basically a professional now.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Funny Thoughts

Sometimes I have really random and funny thoughts. I just finished eating a nectarine and wondered, "So many animals eat fruit...does it get stuck in their teeth, too?"

And, at least according to this monkey, they do.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Being a girl

Sometimes it's really great to be a girl (well, most of the time)...


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...like when you're really tired, and you can get away with going to work wearing what basically amounts to an oversized t-shirt and glorified house slippers.

Although, I must add, my lazy day comfy clothes speak nothing of my motivation level. I finally fixed my sewing machine that has sat jammed for months.


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Now to sort through the growing pile of clothes to alter...

Friday, July 16, 2010

30 Day Journal Challenge + RVA Summer Camp Catch-Up

Clearly, I've not been doing a great job in sharing the last half of my 30 Day Journal Challenge or crafts from Summer Camp. I finished all but the last few journal challenge pages on time. We're well behind schedule on Summer Camp, but that just means it will last us through the long, hot, FL summer.
I forgot to take pictures of my friend's finished project, but here is my second project from Summer Camp:

Summer Camp Project Two


I won't make you all look at 18 or so pages of the journal challenge all at once. I've put a few of my favorites below. The rest can be found on my Flickr page.



30 Day Journal Challenge - 11

30 Day Journal Challenge - 15

30 Day Journal Challenge - 17

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Shh! Don't tell the cats!

Ummm, my friend Lindsay just turned me onto the most amazing thing, ever.



The cats in this footage do not respond to this like any cat I've ever known. I don't think Oops and Romp would ever speak to me if I put a wig on them (unless it was gorgeous, of course).

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcdfw.com/video.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Clothes

I rarely ever venture into the what-I'm-wearing-today world, but I really like my outfit today.



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A certain other someone who shall remain nameless said brown and navy don't go together. I beg to differ.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Plug?

This weekend, I helped Brian make one of his ideas come to life. He's been toying with ideas for how to share their bizarre collection of musical instruments with the world. They finally decided to make an online museum of sorts. So with their musical skills, Jason's video skills, and my blogging skills, we unleashed upon the world....Yip-Yip's Audible Archive!



The first post went up on Sunday, about one of my favorites from the collection, the Muson Synthesizer. You can tell just by the little screenshot how cute this thing is. 

There are so many amazing vintage musical toys in our house. I'll be sure to share with all of you when my favorites get posted. 


Saturday, July 10, 2010

Etsy is Go!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Last Friday

Forgive me that my time line is all over the place, but here are pictures of our last Friday, post-proposal.


After the aquarium, Brian surprised me and took me to lunch at a raw vegan restaurant in St. Petersburg, Leafy Greens Cafe. It was super tasty. The picture is of my lunch, Thai Curry Soup and the Real Deal sandwich. 

After that, we went to this amazing miniature golf place that we saw on the way in - Polynesian Putter. It was pretty run down, and the cashier was combined with the "office" of a cheap motel...so it was the best.






I really liked this headless pelican.



Brian really liked this tiki.



This giant snake is what originally got my attention.



After that we hung out on the pier of the inn. That place is so pretty. I can't wait to go back!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

It's already started!

My stomach decided that I needed to come home from work, so my couch-confinement deems it time for blogging.

We haven't officially set a date yet, but we're thinking of getting married on our anniversary next year: July 2, 2011. Being that I'm a brainstorm-and-plan-o-holic (and that these things take time), I'm already trying to come up with ideas for the wedding.

The only problem being I can count the weddings I've been to on one hand...and the most recent one was something like 15 years ago. And all I remember from that one are the hour d'oeuvres. I'm sure this could end up being a good thing and make for a unique wedding, but right now, I'm like, "wedding? what's that?"

To make up for this lack of real-life experience, I've been filling in the gaps by scouring the interwebs. And boy is there a lot to scour.

So far, I've come up with something like seven places where we have to have the wedding, and this number is still growing. The real problem with this is that a couple of the really great places are on the gulf coast...and we have no idea whether that could mean getting married in a tar pit by next July. Thanks for that, BP!

Here are some images of inspiration that have my brain wheels turning...









Dear family, please acquire a piece of land less than 700 miles away that I can use as a blank canvas. Love, Rachel

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Surprise Trip

When I got home from work on Thursday, I went right to work on Brian's surprise present. As soon as I was finished, he whisked me away to the car to take me to dinner. Only, when we were in the car, he told me the dinner was in St. Petersburg (which is two hours away for those of you not in Florida). Mind you, we didn't leave until 7pm and Brian had to work the next day. I was perplexed, but he said he got coupons from his mom for some really nice restaurant there.

So, around 9:45, we ate dinner in St. Petersburg. Then, he drove me to get "dessert". And by that, I mean he surprised me by driving to an amazing bed & breakfast I found a few months ago, Pasa Tiempo.



Brian managed to make the reservations, pack everything, and take Friday off work without me having a clue. We spent the first night hanging out in the room. We'd been going back and forth until then about whether our anniversary was the first or the second and determined it was the second. It worked out nicely because that meant we had a full day to spend together on our actual five year anniversary.








Friday was also full of surprises, with me completely in the dark about what we were doing. We ate breakfast (and I drank coffee) in our room. Then we got in the car to go to our first mystery location...the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. We walked around like normal for a bit, and then Brian made me sit on a bench while he did something. He'd signed us up to hang out with penguins!






We walked around like normal people a bit more, and then...the ultimate suprise: Brian proposed to me when we were alone in the room with the beautiful jellyfish aquarium!!!!


According to Brian, I was glowing. I believe it. While it was a surprise, we'd been talking about it for a little while. I gave him ideas about rings, and he went with my absolute favorite!


Pardon my gnarly, wrinkled hand. I've never seen anything like this ring. I'm so excited!!!!!

The rest of our mini vacation was amazing as well. I'll post more pictures soon!!!









Thursday, July 1, 2010

Busy Week

Pardon the lack of posting, but I've been so super-busy this week. Work is crazy, and I've been working on a top secret project for Brian when I'm at home. (Today is our five year anniversary! Woo!)

I at least have one thing I can share quickly. At work yesterday afternoon, I came up with a great idea for my next anthropomorphic food painting. Of course, I couldn't whip out a canvas and paints, so I relied on my good, old friend Odosketch to jot it down.



I love that website! You can look at all of the ridiculous things I've made here.

Road trip and journal pictures to come soon!