KITTIES!!!!

As some of you may know, I LOVE cats... I first moved to college in 2005, and had to leave my cat behind. I've never really lived anywhere that I could have pets, so I went cat-less for quite some time, minus the one terror of a cat that my roommate had. And when I moved into my current place, I was told "no pets". Well, one day not too long ago I noticed that my neighbors had a cat and a dog... wtf? So I asked the landlord about it, got approved for kitties. Step 2, get the roommates approval. I was afraid to ask (I have a rejection issue...), so my wonderful boyfriend talked to all of them for me, seeing as they are his friends anyway. Well, the result was a yes, which led to me immediately driving to the pet store to adopt the kitties that I had been looking at for 2 weeks. Filled out the paperwork, and got approved that same night (boy am I glad the humane society works at 7 on a Saturday night!).

And here they are... My 2 adorable little boys -- little gray bookends :)











They don't know it yet, but they will be headed to the vet sometime soon for a check-up and a declaw (none of my roommates are fond of kitties clawing the furniture, or us for that matter!). But I've bought them LOTS of fun toys and some tasty treats -- probably spent more money on them lately than on myself!!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month...

Here is an article that I wrote for Associated Content about ways to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Here are some of the things that I will be doing to observe this month, as well as ideas on how you can do the same things.

Hand out pink ribbons:

It's cheap and easy to make pink ribbons for yourself, and extras that you can hand out to family members, coworkers, classmates, etc. All you need is a roll of pink ribbon (¼” or ½” works best), and a package of safety pins. Cut a 3” piece of the ribbon. Fold the ribbon so it makes a loop on the top, and the two tails cross each other in the middle of the ribbon. You can find detailed instructions here.

Hold a pink themed bake sale:

Bakes sales are a great fundraiser – everyone loves fresh baked cookies and brownies! Get together a group of friends or coworkers to make a few tasty baked treats, then offer them for sale at your office, on your campus, or outside a local store (many stores are willing to let you set up a table outside of the entrance if the proceeds are benefiting an organization. Try to make some of the baked goods pink themed – you can use pink frosting, pink sprinkles, or make ribbon shaped cookies. After the bake sale, donate the proceeds to breast cancer research.

Purchase items that benefit breast cancer awareness:

There are a few groups on my local college campus that design and sell shirts each year that benefit cancer awareness. I like to purchase and wear all of these shirts, and try to encourage friends and coworkers to do the same. There are also many products that you can purchase from grocery stores, etc that donate a portion of the proceeds to breast cancer research.

Donate online:

I am also planning on making a direct donation online to support cancer research. The Susan G. Komen Foundation supports breast cancer research. The American Cancer Society supports cancer research of all types. I donate to the American Cancer Society, as well as participate in the Relay for Life, but which organization you donate to is entirely up to you. Visit each organizations website to read more.

The end of neglect...

I know that I have said this more than once, but this time is REAL! I'm going to quit neglecting my blog and start writing again :) I would say that I'm going to write every day, but that's a lofty goal. I will say, though, that I would like to write at least 3 times a week. I have lots of things that I would like to write about, I just never seem to have the motivation to actually do it.....

I can't promise much. Half of my blog posts might contain useful information, the others will probably be pointless ramblings about my life or cute stuff that I found while out thrifting. I also might bore you with current projects that I am working on.

There also will be a severe lack of "theme", unless you count the random ramblings of a craft-addicted, nerdy, eclectic recent college graduate to be a type of theme.

Some things you may be lucky the hear about....

• video games that I like
• movies/tv shows that I watc
• craft supplies that I buy
• things that I buy at thrift stores and garage sales
• stuff that I make
• new hobbies that I try to learn
• activities that I do
• depression
• finding a job
• cool websites

So there you go.... Go ahead and bookmark my blog, and come back to read all the amazing-ness that will be here!

Awesome Shirts Galore...

So if you are into cool shirts with offensive, amusing, or witty sayings, I can think of lots of places for you to go... I recently bought an adorable shirt from shirt.woot (I will try to post a picture when I get it), and that got me thinking about all the cool shirts that you can find online. So without further ado, here's a few sites for you to visit and spend you money at.

Like the regular site woot.com, shirt.woot has one new shirt each day. Shirts are $10, and come with free shipping. The styles vary quite a bit, and a new shirt shows up each day at midnight, so be sure to check often!

Another great site, if you're looking for extra offensive, is T-shirt Hell. The site is full of shirts like the one below.


If you are more of the 'nerdy' type, Nerdy Shirts might have what you're looking for...


For super cheap shirts... 6 Dollar Shirts. Here you can find tons of shirts for... you guessed it... $6! Like this one...

Or another great site, Threadless. Here you can find lots of amazing t-shirts with user-submitted designs, or perhaps design some yourself?

A Romantic Dinner

This post is a little belated, as this romantic dinner happened a few weeks back, but I still would like to share with everyone :)

A few weeks ago Dave and I planned a romantic little dinner. Mojito lime chicken over spicy pasta, served with asparagus (which both of us love!). We had a bottle of wine to go with it -- New Age, something we picked up after a wine tasting we went to last month. I even made a delicious dessert -- "easy chocolate mousse", which is actually just pudding and cool whip mixed together, but it was still delicious. I served it in martini glasses and layered it with crushed Oreos.

Dave lit a candle for us, and set up a "Barry White" station on pandora... All in all it was a lovely evening, and something that may not happen as easily with our upcoming move (more about that later)

Inspiration

With the recent graduation, impending future as a 'real adult', and the really poor economy putting a damper on my job hunt, many days I find myself needing a little bit of inspiration. Random quotes usually work quite well to remind that things will ultimately work out, and that just because I don't find a job right away, or find one that does not directly relate to my degree, does not make me unsuccessful. I chose an academic path that I was interested in, not just something that I knew would get me a job. And I still enjoy my life - I'm not making much, but I'm able to hang out with friends, spend time with the boyfriend, go to movies, go rollerblading, read a book in my front yard at 2 in the afternoon, and spend time doing other things that I enjoy. While I could be better off financially, I still consider the fact that I'm happy, (fairly) healthy, and doing things that I want, to be 'success'.


Here are some good quotes to think about, if you are in a similar situation, or just want to feel inspired in some way:

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.
St. Clement of Alexandra

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear;
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
John G. Whittier

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
Albert Einstein

We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do.
Samuel Smiles

Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow.
Doug Firebaugh

You will never "find" time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.
Charles Bruxton

Success does not consist in never making blunders, but in never making the same one a second time.
Josh Billings

Crafted Together - Saturday!

This Saturday I will be at the 'Crafted Together' show in White Bear Lake, MN. The show is at the Avalon Mall, located at 2179 4th st. Stop by between 9 and 3 for a some awesome shopping!

I will have plenty of new stuff at the show that hasn't been added to my shop yet!

Broken Promises

I feel like I neglect this blog more than almost everything else I say that I will do. I usually use the excuse that school/work/other social activities keep me too busy and occupied to write, but I think it's more a combination of me being too lazy, and me sort of forgetting about it. Also, I often struggle to think of something interesting and worthwhile to write about.
Here we are though, mid-way through the month of May. I no longer have school to use as an excuse, and I'm not working ALL that much, so... maybe? Some posts? More than one ever few months?

We'll see.... I don't want to make any promises, but I think I *might* be able to handle it!

Update

Life has been keeping me busy lately, and combined with a computer that is crapping out more and more quickly each day, updating my blog hasn't been a top priority.

BUT...

My new computer is in transit from California to here in Minnesota -- once it arrives, I believe that my blog, Etsy, and general internet presence will go up. Online tracking (which I simultaneously love and hate) says it will arrive at my house on Tuesday!

Finally, a sewing machine!

I've wanted a sewing machine for quite some time now, and I FINALLY managed to get my hands on one. I found it at the local Salvation Army for $30. I set myself up a little sewing area in my living room (my bedroom/craft room/office is already full, so it was the only spot left in the house --- in between the TV and the bookshelf). So far it has been working quite well for me, minus the fact that I'm a little... 'rusty' in the sewing department. However, I've been making tons of zipper pouches for myself and friends, and I'm finally getting myself back into the swing of things. I've spent quite a bit of money on some awesome fabrics, mostly stuff imported from
Japan, and lots of colorful zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. Once I start going, I will hopefully be making a lot, so be sure to start looking for zipper pouches in my shop! I also have a pile of clothes that have been waiting for me to get a sewing machine so they could be fixed but... well, fixing pants is just not nearly as fun as sewing zipper pouches!

I posted a picture of one of my pouches on my Flickr, feel free to judge my awesome skills! I'm making Dave a padded case for his Nintendo DS for Valentine's Day, so I will post pictures of that as soon as I get it done. I'm also going to start trying to come up with a pattern for some of those mini business card wallets that everyone seems to have, and of course I will be making some buttons with some of my scrap pieces of fabric.

I also have ambitious thoughts of making myself and awesome skirt, and a messenger-style sort of purse, but I think I need to stick with the slightly more simple stuff for now...

It's only just begun...

It's only the start of the third week of the semester, and I am already starting to feel overwhelmed... My original plan was to graduate in December with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Spanish. Well, plans changed, I was short 3 credits to have 'enough' to graduate, so I came back for spring semester. Since I needed to come back anyway, my adviser for Spanish told me that I might as well just take the Spanish major - I was only 3 classes (12 credits) short.



So here I am, 12 credits deep in Spanish, and one 3 credit anthro elective to keep some English in my final semester here. I'm a bit overwhelmed -- I haven't taken much Spanish over the past year and a half, and suddenly being in 300 and 400 level classes... well, lets just say that I feel a little bit behind. 10-15 page reading assignments take me two hours because I have to look up TONS of words. Ugh. I imagine it will get better as the semester goes on and I get back in 'Spanish mode', but right now it's just kicking my butt...

But on the bright side, this is my last semester. When this semester is over, I will enter the 'real world', and not have to worry about doing homework anymore (or until I start grad school... but we won't think about that right now).

The best thing for the winter chill...

a sale in an online shop!

With the temperatures here and all over the US being so darn cold, who wants to leave the house to go shopping when you can do it online?

Right now I'm having a "Dead of Winter" sale in my shop -- all pendants are buy 2, get 1 free; and all order of $25 or more will receive free shipping!

You know you want to look ----> Tangerine Sunshine <--- click here!

A new love...

As part of my "expanding" into new hobbies, I decided to take a step back into my childhood and start playing with Perler beads again. You know, those colorful little tube-like beads that you put on the pegboard and melt with the iron?

Yep. Those.

Well, thanks to a fun little ebay shopping excursion, I have about 20,000 perler beads in a variety of colors to play with:



I picked up some peboards and ironing paper at Hobby Lobby, and I've been searching for fun patterns and ideas online for a few days. So far some of my favorites have been various video-game sprites, especially pacman and old-school mario. I don't have any finished products yet, as I'm still waiting to get my iron back from someone that I loaned it to, but as soon as I do you can bet that I will blog about it! I plan on making magnets, coasters, boxes, keychains, necklaces, earrings... Pretty much everything.

If you know of any good patterns or have some crazy ideas, feel free to share!

Quick Update

Well, I am back from Mexico! It was warm, beautiful, and fabulous :) Pictures will be posted soon, but right now they are on my dad's camera, so I'm waiting for him to get them posted! But until then...

I listed some new items in my Tangerine Sunshine and Bohemian Kitty shops. I'm also working on lots of new stuff that I hope I will get finished and listed over the next few days. School starts up for me again on Monday, so I will have a little less time to dedicate to Etsy, but I'm certainly going to try! I would also like to fix up my blog a bit -- new banner, background, layout, update all my links, all that sort of stuff. Look for that in the coming week or so :)

My first try...

Last night when I was at Hobby Lobby grabbing a few things I needed for some keychains that I am working on for my shop, I decided I might as well start on one of the things on my "To-Do" list of hobbies to pick up this year. So I wandered around the aisles until I found the felt -- they were 5 for $1, so I grabbed 10 different colors and added them to my cart.

When I got home I realized I had absolutely NO CLUE how to sew felt... I mean, I have hand-sewn miscellaneous other things before, but never felt. So after a little bit of searching, I came upon this futuregirl.com craft blog tutorial, which helped me out and got me started.

First things first. What did I want to make? Originally I wanted to make a pin out of a little stuffed critter, but since I couldn't find my stuffing, I settled on making myself a little pouch. I need something to keep business cards and coupons organized in my purse anyway. I debated on colors a bit, but finally decided on brown because it's one of my favorites. I sorted through my embroidery floss to find a color that coordinated, then sat down with my scissors and started cutting.

A few hours, google searches, random breaks, and spontaneous thoughts later, I had myself a finished project:

Ok, so it doesn't look at that great. My least favorite part is the button hole, as I feel it looks like I did it whilst blindfolded... the buttons and such are all sort of random, but I just wanted to play around with and make it colorful. The back is still kinda boring, but I might add something later to practice a few different things. All you felt people out there, try not to make fun of me too much!

Things I Want to Learn

One of my goals for the new year is to learn a new hobby. In reality, I'd like to learn a lot more than one new hobby.... And I'm hoping to expand my Tangerine Sunshine shop into something a little more eclectic - I think that would better suit my personality rather than just focusing on the jewelry as I am now.

Some things I'd like to do, or work with:

• sewing -- mini zippy pouches, fun bags and skirts... mostly for myself, really, but some stuff to hopefully go into the shop. All I am missing right now is the sewing machine...
  
• knitting/crochet -- one or the other, I'd really just like to learn. So far my experience with attempting to knit has been disastrous, but I am willing to give it anther shot!
• felt -- I see SOOO many cute things made with felt - little buttons and brooches, fun pouches, hair accessories... I just want to give it a try :)
• keychains -- I want to make my scrabble tile pendants into keychains as well. This one is going to be the first one of this list to actually happen, since I am pretty much in the process of working on them right now...
• perler beads -- I used to play with these all time time as a kid, and I totally want to go back to them! I've seen some really awesome stuff made with perler beads on Flickr, and I want to make awesome stuff too!
  
• cross-stitch -- I already do this a little bit, even though it's a "grandma thing." Whatever, I think it's cool! I am more in to fantasy stuff like dragons and faeries, and video game themed stuff.
• and some things I'd like to work with eventually but don't have the money to start up on... lampwork beads, polymer clay, soldered jewelry... maybe some day.
  

So... If anyone has any supplies for some of these things that they'd be willing to destash for cheap, comment or email me! Or if you know of any good resources for getting started on them, that would be appreciated as well!