Most Wanted Mondays - Lovey dovey

Hi All. I thought I would jump on the Valentines day badwagon for at least a few posts. I am not one of those girls to go overboard for the holiday. I love chocolate - don't get me wrong, but standing in the aisle full of hearts and what not kind of gets my head spinning. But for those of you who like all the mushy gushy love stuff, here is some cute Valentines day stuff :]

1. ASOS - Moschino Cheap & Chic Heart Scarf.

2. ASOS - twenty-seven names Heartbreaker Silk Midi Dress.

3. ASOS - ASOS Big Hearts Sheer Tights.

4. Fred Flare - Betsey Johnson Pink Patch Love Cropped Cardigan.

5. Fred Flare - Heart Shaped Sunglasses.

6. ModCloth - Find It in Your Heart Handbag.

7. ModCloth - Keep 'Em Perforated Heel.

8. ModCloth - How Could You Nantes? Dress.

9. Vpauld - Vintage Valentine Reproduction Trick Dog Dachshund.

10. Nasty Gal - Heartbreaker Dress.

11. Nasty Gal - Ikat Heart Blouse - Black.

For Valentines day I plan on telling you a little about the man in my life :] Until then, have a great day!

Headshots pt. 2

Hi all. Lazy day around the ranch. Just met with the client and they loved the website I designed for them :] It goes live on Wednesday so I will have to show it off once it is up. I am so excited to have my first website design for a business up an running. Other than that I am just looking for jobs. Woohoo.

I thought I would try a cutesy DIY tutorial today for Valentines day, but once I got to the store I was overwhelmed and over the holiday haha. I will be posting a cute post about me and my man on Valentines day however. In the mean time here are some of the headshots I took of my brothers girlfriend. I had posted my brothers headshot awhile back so I thought it might be fun to show the ones his lady picked. I think they turned out pretty well. Let me know which one you like best. Thanks!



Isn't she pretty? She is going to be a Broadway star as well so look out for her in a few years.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Award & a tad more about me

So I was lucky enough to be passed along the versatile blogger award by the sweet Camille at Garden Gnome Arts. While her blog is still new to me I have liked what i've seen. Great DIY tutorials etc. Check her blog out today!

Once you receive this award you are to list 7 random facts about yourself and then pass it along to 15 people. While I am honored to have been given this award I feel like these awards can be a hassle some times for fellow busy bee's so I opted not to tag anyone - but if you want to do the 7 random facts you definitely should :] Here are mine. * WARNING you may think I am an odd ball after this one...

1.) I am one of those people who dressed up to the Harry Potter movies. I love me some Ron Weasley. While we are at it - I LOVE GINGERS :]

2. I am the most accident prone, clumsiest, and easily bruised person on the planet. That beaut ^ my friends is from falling over a chicken wire fence (in the dark), after running frantically to find my friend (running ex interference). I still have a bruise/scar? and that was last spring - awesome. The student health services employee's became my besties that summer.

3. I had my septum pierced for a week (I am the one in the middle). Of course I got it done right before my Mom and I were supposed to go to Florida for her birthday and it got seriously infected. The morning of our flight I had to go to the walk in clinic and the doctor got a metal cutter to cut it out of my nose while 6 nurses all watched. YIKES. While I was crying and having the thing literally cut out of my head I pointed out that it just twists off - phew. Thankfully I made it out of there fast and we got on the plane just in time. I had an interesting story for the flight there...

Random high school shot - has nothing to do with this next fact, only that it is about the age that it happened
4. Alrighty, this may creep all of my readers out - I have dissected a cadaver. Yes you heard me right. In highschool I took a very in-depth year long Anatomy course. Students with the highest grades had the opportunity to go to a local college and take part of a cadaver dissection. I wanted to go to school for pharmacy or possibly CSI (I was really into that stuff then) so I thought this would be a great learning opportunity. While it was a unique learning experience, looking back on it I wish that they wouldn't have offered that for high school kids. While some high school students are mature, others are not even close. A lot of students who went on that trip I felt were unprepared for the experience (although the teacher took all the steps you possibly could to prepare us). Anywho. I will leave it at that. And as for pharmacy school - I went to Loyola for pre-pharmacy my Freshman semester in college but I decided graphic design was really my passion and calling.

5. I love me some show tunes! I sat front row for Wicked :] My mom - being the luckiest woman I know won us the tickets in a raffle right before show time. It was incredible. My mom instilled in us (my brother and I) a love for music and theater. This rubbed off on my brother because he is going to school for musical theater and will be on Broadway in a few short years. We have been lucky enough to have had season tickets the past few years and we have seen some incredible shows - Wicked, Westside Story, In the Heights, Hair, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, La Cage Aux Folles...

Just for fun here is my brother singing some John Denver for my mom (who was unfortunately at home) on the Great Wall of China...and me and him on the way down from the wall, aaand some cute pandas - I'll post more of my travels another day :]

6.) I used to paint and do other fun artsy things. However, since studying graphic design I have gotten side tracked. I would like to take up painting and drawing again. This painting is from my painting I class in college of a fennec fox, it is not much compared to my extremely talented friends who go to school professionally for it but I miss making art for fun.

7. I love to play dress up. I am sure this stems from when I was younger - I never left the house without a dress on. I used to have twirling contests with my friends. Anywho, nowadays I love any excuse to get dressed up. Themed parties are my favorite along with Halloween.

???????????????????Got Questions???????????????????
I apologize, this post is all over the place. Another fact about me - I apologize for EVERYTHING. It is an awful habit. Yikes. I thought it might be fun for next week to answer some questions you may have for me. So if you have any - ASK AWAY!

Thrifted Thursdays - Ceramic Menagerie

Another Thrfited Thursdays here. This week I wanted to show off some of my cute ceramic animal pieces I have collected over the past few years. I keep these guys rolling in but soon I won't have space.



Cat bank - This cute guy keeps watch over my loose change. I am in love with his little bow tie. His green skin is a bit weird but also a part of his charm. This guy was one of my first thrifted treasures.

Lion plant holder - This guys goofy face sold me on him. I picked him up on a half off day at a local thrift store - thrift & dollar. I haven't grown a plant in him yet. As of right now he hangs out on a shelf looking calm, cool, and collected. This spring I hope to give him a fern to look after.

Toad soap/toothbrush holder - I wish I had a larger sink to use this guy properly. As of right now he holds arts and crafts supplies. I picked this guy up two years ago. 60 cents!

Elephant plant holder - This guy still hasn't held a plant either. He just hangs out by the back door and sometimes holds my acrylic paints. I picked this guy up Sophomore year of college as one of my first thrifted finds.

Cat small plant holder or card holder? - Not entirely sure what these three cats are supposed to hold but they typically contain yarn or pens. I was gifted these lovely felines plus the dog at a white elephant party. They were acquired at a thrift store however.

Dog - He just looks cute and came with the cats.

Eeep! Where do you all upload your pictures to? My Flickr account is nearly full and I am debating whether or not I want to pay to upgrade or look elsewhere. Any great free sites? I have a photobucket but I like Flickr's quality.

Wardrobe Wednesdays - dusty rose

Hi all, another Wardrobe Wednesday here. Today I felt like showing off my favorite dress. It is super comfy to wear and I love its detailing :]



Outfit Details: Dress - Urban Outfitters | Tights - Target | Boots - Mom's hand me downs :] | Bag - UO.

I had Brian take these pics (we took 3 outfit posts on the same day), it is so hard to get indoor photos to turn out well unless the sun is shining and it wasn't. Yadda, yadda. I am currently in the process of reworking my resume and updating my portfolio so I can get my first "big girl" job. I am still debating whether I should just work retail until May though because I am not too sure I want to live here much longer. I need something to pay the bills though and freelance is not cutting it (mainly because I am too chicken to ask for what I should really be being paid). Anywho, happy Wednesday everyone!

Toy Army Tuesday - Kathie Olivas

This is my first Kathie Olivas "piece" from 2008, a Mac computer decal of her work.
Hi all. This is the first actual posting for Toy Army Tuesday - Wahoo! For todays toy talk I chose Kathie Olivas. She is an incredible multi media artist whose work I have been admiring for a few years now. The following is an excerpt of her bio from her website MiseryChildren.com explaining her current work,

"My current body of work, entitled the "Misery Children" series focuses on the constant social desire to assign 'cuteness.' This often serves as a means to make something innocent and more appealing, therefore, non-threatening. Perhaps this allows us to comfort ourselves. My questions are based on the discomfort of "what if"-- what if these sweet creatures had other ideas? What if they knew something we were afraid to open our eyes to? Would they protect themselves; would they be able to adapt to a war torn environment and develop their own defense mechanisms? The characters are meant to evoke a nostalgic reaction that reflects isolation, fear, and an uncertainty; yet, at the same time they serve as empowered alter egos. This series is presented as a satirical look at how fear affects our sense of reality. The characters perform as narrators in lonely worlds that each explores individually, creating his or her own perspective, and thus, own reality. As our hosts, the ensemble provides a sense of comfort, the reminiscent style is soothing, yet the mood is dark. As children, they evoke a sense of temporality; childhood serves as a starting ground, a place where things begin.

Inspired by early American portraiture that often depicted children as small adults in an idealized new land, the characters parallel this vision within their own sense of post-apocalyptic conformity, uniquely documenting their own stories in a mysterious brave new world." - Kathie Olivas, MiseryChildren.com.

This brings me to a couple of her toys I want to talk about. The two toys I currently own by her (I wish there were more to show *sigh) are MINDstyle's Two-Faced Hazel (9") sold on January, 6, 2009 and Daisy (3") from The Scavengers Mini Series 2.



I adore my Hazel. I received her as a christmas present from my mom this year and she is a new favorite of mine. She is based off of the chase figure from Olivas's The Scavengers series 1. Only 500 were made. She is different than the original chase pictured below

As you can see the 9" sports a crown and is eating her lollipop instead of holding it and wearing a dunce cap. Hazel also comes in a beautiful magnetic box which highlights more of Hazel and Olivas's work.

For more info about the variations click HERE. This is also where the image came from.

There are also 5 variations of her. For example the grey scale Hazel came out at the San Diego Comic Con in 2009 and only 200 were made.



Let's move on to Daisey. She is my most special piece. Daisey comes from Olivas's last series of scavengers, The Scavengers series 2. All of Olivas's scavengers are blind boxed meaning that you never know what you are going to get. Also, some are more rare than others. If you look at the box above it lists their rarity. Daisey is a common one but I love her all the same and because of how she was acquired. My mom being the awesome mom that she is was looking at Olivas's work because she knew I wanted the 9" Hazel for christmas. Being the chatty kathy that she is she emailed Olivas to tell her that I was a fan. Guess what came in the mail a week before christmas? A package from Olivas herself!! WOW. I about had a heart attack and I hadn't opened it yet. I waited anxiously for christmas morning to open it. Inside was Daisey, signed!!



I was just excited that Olivas responded to my mom, and this was over the top. It was by far the coolest/sweetest present I received. Now I have to complete my collection - eventually. Since both series have been out for a few years the prices have jumped making it harder to collect, but more fun.

I could ramble about how awesome her toys are all day. I haven't even covered her paintings, prints, and sculptures! Please check out her website MiseryChildren.com today. You won't be disappointed. Have a great Tuesday everyone!!