another great goodies post

Because I have been slacking at the posting, people! Life sure has a funny way of keeping things busy, even when one is unemployed…Eh, but I’m heading back to Chicago tonight (!), even if Monkey is staying for work and I have a dentist’s appointment tomorrow, I get to spend some quality sister time in Chicago!!

Check out the goodies of late:

The darlingest Hannah I know sent me these sweet housewarming greetings. I am over the moon in love with the gnome keychain, and that handmade housewarming card is genius-adorable (see the closeup, behind the gnome). And. My bottle of Dawn is feeling so modest and fashionable in her new apron (she was running around nude before!). Thank you so much, Hannah!!

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The most extraordinary Sunni I know sent me housewarming and Easter greetings of the most wonderful sort. Gorgeous stitched cards, stamped envelopes, the most felicitous handmade stuffed bunny (I love her color…robin’s egg bluey), a fantastical fan which will go onto my craft room wall, and a glorious stash of Easter goodies!! Thanks so much, Sunni!

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The stupendous Pinky sent me these awesome luggage tags just because quite a few weeks back (I only picked them up from our place in Chicago when we were back for the last packup and loads of built-up mail a few weekends back). I am dreadfully late at posting these gorgeous goodies. They kick bootay.

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A little while ago, the most adorable Frecklegirl thrilled me to bits by commissioning me to create an illustration that she and her betrothed could use for a Save the Date card. She was so kind to send me a great copy of their final Save the Date for my portfolio. I just lurve weddings. I still get weepy every time I watch A Wedding Story.

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Last weekend, Monkey and I made our first batch ever of eggrolls. They were really de-lish! We were so proud of ourselves, we had to snap lots of pics to show Mom. Mom, I know these were very different from your incomparable eggrolls, but look, we made them!!

Finally, what good thing does Martha not serve up? It’s becoming dangerous having a Big K nearby. I should probably be embarrassed with myself, but I’m not? This little chest of drawers cost me $7. Yep. $7. Alright, it’s cardboard, but isn’t it pretty for cardboard? Monkey and I are upgrading some of our storage furniture (dressers and such) since most of the stuff we’d had were of the post-college variety (and fell apart when we actually went to move them, not kidding). In the meantime, a gnome needs a place to store her smalls (Monkey’s phrase for undies and such). Seven bucks!!

Ok, I’ve loved you and now I’m leaving you. Hopefully, stuff will be simmered enough to check in over the next few days…also, I feel compelled to set the record straight about Brutus. He was not dressed up as a bunny. Some other unfortunate pug at that meetup was the bunny. Brutus was au naturel, save the blue harness and leash. He was, however, caught giving kisses to some random boy in one of those pics. That kissing pug, that is Brutus.

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Happy Easter!

Liz & Mike took Brutus on a Poochie Easter Egg Hunt last weekend. If you love poochies and poochie events, this is a fun photobook to flip through. Brutus was the only all-black pug at the Egg Hunt, so when you see a cutie little black puggie, that is the ever-sweet Brutus.

All together now: Awwwwwwwww!

Happy Easter!

illustration friday : the rules have changed!

So I got all anal about posting my illo a day early last week, but it turns out that that was just in the nick of time, because all new topics are posted on Fridays now! So, here’s my very late entry for this week’s topic: Bloom.

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spring collaborative coloring book project

Jessica Poundstone came up with the most stupendous of ideas for this spring: a collaborative coloring book project with the theme of “The Return of Spring.” We were to color one of the pages from the book and post it within the month of March. I so wanted to color so many of the pages, but I’ve still to get the printer/scanner hooked up here in the apartment, so I had to default and digitally color my own picture (the book is a PDF…no idea how to edit the pages in there to color the others. Eh. Anyhoo, I wanted to get this in here before March up and left on me.

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operation haremail

I finally shipped off my Haremail package to my buddy yesterday, but my Bunny Buddy’s package arrived sometime over the weekend whilst we were cajoling our furniture to run away to SC with us. I picked this up at the post office as I shipped my Bunny Box off. Serendipity or somesuch.

Check out the bunnylicious goodness dear Ani sent me! Thanks so much, Ani, for the fab swap, and thanks mucho to Tammy for organizing such a fun event!

lordy-loooo

I like kids. I really do. But when there are 3 of them with very strong personalities wrestling and wrangling themselves into a prolonged tizzy (a tizzy of the loudest, most whingiest proportions), I begin to retreat into my own little Gnome cocoon in my head. I had to opt out of their siteseeing (I think they’re taking a trolley through town, or something of the sort) today because I’ve got a few errands to run (and a need for some quiet me-time), and oy.

We did have a nice time at the Riverbanks Zoo yesterday, though. We all got sloshed with buckets of rain midway through the afternoon, but it was great! I haven’t been to a zoo for a couple of years now and I always forget how enjoyable it is to watch the bears play and the sea lions swim and the elephants galumph about.

Off for errands. Respite from children is errands. A very valuable lesson learned…

Partly moved!

Monkey and I are back in SC as of yesterday afternoon, with a few more bits and bobs and some furniture of the essential sort. Monkey’s sis/bro-in-law/nephews and niece arrived yesterday afternoon to help us unload. We are mostly unpacked and settling in a bit more…but the house in Chicago is still filled to the gills with things to pack. The big pack-up using the pro movers is coming up soon (this weekend was all DIY…I was very, very bad at driving the 10′ box truck…wavery on mountain roads = bad), but for now, things are really in process.

No other news, just have been packing for 2.5 days and driving over 1.5 (we broke up the drive and stayed overnight in Knoxville). But, I did have a nice flight tip: Independence Air was great! Roomy enough, on time, and fun little extras like hot towel service and mints before you deplane. Worth looking into next time you fly. =)

More news to follow, I hope! For now, I hope you’ve all had a great start to this week!

 

P.S., Happy OFFICIAL Spring!!

Happy St. Pat’s Day!

Hope you don’t get pinched (unless you want to be) and that you have lots of lucky charms and green beer to keep you happy and jovial today! (pssst, swing by Kenenske for a great leprechaun photo!! It made me laugh out loud truly.)

* Illustration Friday *

I will be traveling and packing like all get-out over the next few days, so I’m posting my Illustration Friday pics up a day early (I know, I know, the anal-retentive side of me keeps telling me it’s not Friday yet, but I don’t know what kind of time I’ll have to post later….). This week’s topic was “Fragile.” My first thought turned to spring and gossamer wings, and I came up with a fairy (with delicate wings) holding in her palms even more delicate robin’s eggs. I’m not 100% pleased with it (the concept was way better in my head than in full execution, but I was getting carpal tunnel going back and reworking so much…):

Then yesterday afternoon, it occurred to me that one of my most favorite film quotes (and a favorite film) of all time is the one concerning the word, “fragile:”

And totally off-topic, but related to Christmas, my cup of chai smells just like Christmas. Delicious!!

Have a great weekend all!

i think i’ve figured out why i am such a packrat…

It’s because you never know what you are going to need. However, you do find out quite effectively once you don’t have it. Monkey and I are still here in the mostly empty apartment. We were due to be back in Chicago this week, but that had to change because of Monkey’s schedule at work (total side note, but our next door neighbor back in Chicago is a true gem; we are so lucky he’s ours). So…we’re heading back to do a preliminary pack-up of some essentials (like a couch, guest bed, some extra towels, etc….) in the next few days. But until then, we’re trying not to buy too much, because that would exascerbate the packrat issues (plus, all those duplicates, how extravagant! I don’t like to waste anything…and then I’d be stuck with 2 or 3 of something I only kind of needed 1 of). Having said that, it’s also hard to live without some creature comforts…

• We bought a new bed from the Mattress Source. Super nice salesguy, super squishy pillow-top bed. Feels like total luxury. It was crafted right here in the Carolinas. We dressed it on the quick in Martha bedding (which is also made in the USA, mipmup!) from the big K (that store is a novelty to us since they’d shut down most of the ones in our area of Chicago), and it was such a treat to go to sleep in a squishy comfy new bed.

• We bought a 20″ TV and a cheapie DVD player. This will prolly live in the guest room later, but as we have no couch/comfy seating (outside a few floor cushions that aren’t that comfy) in the living room, it currently lives in our bedroom (but I generally don’t like having a TV in the bedroom).

• $28 microwave from Target. It gives us a duplicate, but we tried living for a few days without a microwave, and then $28 oven waved itself in our faces in the most tempting way, so could resist no more and took it home with us last night. We’ve been daily Target shoppers for the last week or so. I’m not even kidding you. That is quite sad.
  
• A handy dandy bistro set that has been serving as our dining table/chairs. It also got to spend some time on the balcony this weekend, as the temps hit 75 and the sun shone like it was summer. {} It will live permanently on our balcony once our regular dining room stuff comes to join us down south. During the days, I’ve been using it as my desk for the laptop too.

• I went to the local Cost Plus today. I love Cost Plus. I got the sweetest salt and pepper shaker by Stoha on clearance ($3.48! It’s definitely not necessary, but it was too cute not to). I also got a cutie doormat that I later spied in Kathleen’s Flickr Photostream. Like minds!!

• Other observations that necessitated for creation of duplication:
  
  
  
  • You cannot make a perfect fried egg with a wooden spoon serving as a turner. No way.
    
  • New shower liner curtains smell forever of that stanky vinyl stink. Ick.
    
  • Even when you think you’ll save money and duplication by not buying more soap dishes for your soap, you wind up having to buy some nice liquid soaps to prevent that slimy soap squidge from developing all over your counter tops.
    
  • Big roomy kitchen = building desire to actually cook within it (we feel so grown-up and responsible now…and we’re in an apartment!?) =  need to buy the basic foodstuffs and spices and cookware and utensils and china and glasses. We did come to learn that the Kroger nearby is super swanky and will fill in just fine for the Trader Joe’s we’ll be missing.
    
  • Having showers and such call for the shower liner of stinky sub-bullet2 and for new bath towels. It might be a sickness, but I love buying new bath towels. We have far too many towels for the space we have in Chicago, but I do hope that will not be the case with the mother huge closets here…Close to my joy in buying new towels is the joy of new toiletries. Shampoos and bath concoctions and such. I love loading up on those. And the guilt factor is low, since you use up toiletries eventually, right?

Yeah, bloggy news has been low since I basically am just moving little bits and bobs in and around this apartment for now. And I’ve spent most of this week working on updates for The Walrus. Oh! How could I forget? I went to the A.C. Moore here (my first time ever to an AC Moore) and I was so thoroughly enthralled. Columbia is good because it’s got AC + Michaels + Hobby Lobby. Just need a Paper Source and a Blick now and I’d be set…

Hope your week has started off in a good way!!

friday…no illustration

This week’s topic of “ancient” stirred nothing in the ideas part of my head, so I didn’t partake this week. However, I will be meandering my way over to have a gander at what magic other folks created and I hope you will too. The participation over there is staggering and stunning!

other Columbia stuff…

We ventured to the Golden Chopstix (thanks for the pointer, The Small Object!) last night and were quite delighted. The bun (rice noodles bowl) was delicious, if a bit different from the bun we’ve had in Chicago or at my folks’. And the owner (?) was such a sweetie pie. So, we’re most certainly heading back again. It’s the only Vietnamese resto in town (travesty).

Other spots we’ve eaten in:

Lizard’s Thicket. The name is offputting to me. Who wants to eat in a Thicket of Lizards? It’s downhome country cooking. Cheap eats. Greasy as hell. I was really enjoying my smoked sausage sandwich (ooh, and the cornbread is delicious, salty and crusty on the outside and sweet and tender within) until I hit my grease tolerance saturation point and then I just wanted to get the heck out of there.

Texas Roadhouse. It’s a chain and it’s right next to our hotel, but damn, was the steak delicious.

Devine Foods. A Mediterranean food cafe. I guess the spanekopita is phenomenal, but I got grilled chicken. It was ok. Fun, neighborhoody atmosphere. Nice waitstaff (I scoped a few out for you, Tammy B).

We also got our apartment for move-in a couple days back. We have no furniture so have been kind of staying out of the hotel until today (checking out in a few hours)…this may leave us without internet access for a while, despite the complex office saying everything would be ready upon move-in…It’s a brand new complex, and it’s only currently 2.5% occupied. 2 of the other residents to-be include Monkey’s immediate boss (who also has to relocate from Chicago) and one of Monkey’s client people, who is relocating from NJ. Monkey and I are continuing the trend of moving into brand new huge spaces upon first entry into a new city (he had a huge loft in Chicago and I had one of these new corpororate-clone types of apartments), then moving onto places that have a lot of soul and charm (my little cottage; Monkey’s turret apartment on Lincoln Park) and little space…I think we will most certainly look for charm when we buy, but perhaps will pay better mind to the space. Because we are stuff-fiends and clutterbugs.

We documented the apartment in its unsullied empty glory. Because it will all change once we head back and do the big pack-up!

Happy weekend all! More fun updates once we get the apartment all cabled up for internet and such!

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P.S., you bloggers who are using Blogger, I haven’t been able to leave comments there all week. I think Blogger is upgrading/updating their native comments functionality, and the Haloscan (I think) pop-up comments some of you have are also not working for me, even when I enable pop-up windows….so I’ve been visiting and have tried to leave comments for most of you, but I can’t seem to this week. So…Musings of an Island Girl, I hope you are having a great blogging hiatus and productive writing period. And Pipstar, I am loving the goodies you posted and that drinking game looks hilarious (looks like you all had a blast!) and Hannah, those crafty trades were AWESOME. And Infected Papercut, I totally wore the wrong shoes of varying sole heights too. Very disconcerting…And My Petite Porch, I loved your post on Mary and girl powere and your mom and you. Really wonderful!….I could go on and on. If I’d had more time, I’d email each of you, but my goodness, have my time management skills gotten all bunged up this week?! It’s the pace of the south, I suspect….

marooned in the hotel today

So no new fun Columbia news to share. (Monkey did offer to bring the car back after his lunch meeting, but I didn’t feel like schlepping myself around town today). I did get awakened by the hotel housekeeper. I was still groggy asleep, and Monkey had forgotten to put the “do not disturb” sign on the door. That was fun.

In other places, however…

Join up to trade March hares! The very funny and talented Tammy at Polka Dot Mittens is hosting some chocobunny fun.

I’ve already bought some fun goodies for my buddy (still TBD)….

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Happily Handmade is going again! One of the winners from the Fall Giveaway was drawn from the entries received at The Walrus. Head there now to sign up for the Spring Giveaway (there are 42 vendor-crafters participating this round, which is sweet).

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I forgot that moving is an adventure!

Good golly, time has been fleeting in the most rapid of manners the last few days! Monkey and I have been shopping for apartments and exploring~exploring the various nooks and crannies of this city. It has been a big adventure! It has been busy but really a lot of fun!  Despite our love of real estate (we love the house hunting, the visualizing of the possibility for charming old buildings, the redecking, the idea of making a place all our own), we also love to explore our options (you regular readers know this is the reason it took us forever to even finally get this move going!). So. We are planning on renting for about 6 months while we figure out where we’d like to own a house and settled on a brand new complex yesterday (yep, those kinds of apartments with neutral decor throughout and every amenity those kinds of complexes offer up, like ‘resident mixers’ and ‘sparkling pools’ and the like…does it help if the walls aren’t all magnolia but are all mocha?). We’re slated to move in midweek…but we didn’t bring anything but a few weeks’ worth of clothes (still heading back home to Chicagoland soon to do the monumental packing-up bit), so we’ve been trying to get creative about what we can do to make the space livable and comfy until all our other home bits come down south too. It’s all great fun!

Other places we’ve hit this week:

• Tombo Grille. Pasta was eh, but the gorgonzola-candied-walnut-apple salad was really yum. Monkey’s boss took us there the other night and made us guffaw with his tales of managing to get someone here in SC roadrage at him.
  
• Yo Burrito. Nice salsa bar, great atmosphere, great neighborhood.
  
• Cafe Strudel. Such a cute little cafe (atmosphere galore, plus local artists’ work is up for sale on the walls) with one of the best veggie sandwiches I’ve ever had. And divine pastries. Plus, live local music!
  
• Italian Pie. Really nice grilled wrap sandwiches.
  
• Zorba’s. Eh. Definitely not Greektown.
  
• D’s. One of the best steamed veggie platters & smothered chicken ever. Though, I am easily pleased when you slap a piece of ham and melted cheese on anything…
  
• Mellow Mushroom. We like the location and the atmosphere (and Monkey likes their eclectic beer list).
  
• Now, we’ve heard there’s a Vietnamese resto here, but we’ve not had any luck in finding it.

I came across this Vietnamese artist’s work this weekend from Skirt (there are so many fun, woman-centric magazines around here!). I think his work is supremely lovely.

Also lovely, to be able to walk around in light shirts and pants because it’s near 70 degrees out. At the beginning of March! So many flowering trees are blossoming and blooming. It is so lovely!

Hmm, scatter-brained…hoping you’ve all had a great start to the week!