Toy Army Tuesday - Latest Editions

Hi all! Another Toy Army Tuesday here. Instead of bombarding you with information this week I thought it would be nice to show off how my toys are currently displayed throughout my room. I hope to have a room or at the very least entire wall to devote to them one day, but in the mean time they will sit on an ikea bookshelf and thrifted record cabinet.



A smidge bit chaotic, but it makes me happy each and every day. Most of the pieces in my collection are by Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters. I will go more in-depth the upcoming weeks about each piece but I could use your help.

What would you like to learn/get out of Toy Army Tuesdays?

I have been trying to briefly cover the artists and background about each and every piece. Is there anything you feel like I am missing or going on too much about? I would love the feedback.

Thanks!

Also, these photos were all taken with my new 50mm 1.8 lens - I am in love! Have a good day everyone!!

Pie in the sky

Hi all! Hope you had a lovely weekend. Mine was spent relaxing and practicing with my new 50mm lens and gear for the wedding next weekend - pretty excited. I also attended the opening of Expo Chicago and returned again on Saturday, if only I had thousands of dollars to spend...

Anywho... I need to keep this post fairly short today because I have some work to catch up on tonight - wah, wahhh. I took these photos a month or so back when the weather was warmer. I can't believe it is already officially fall, but I am so ready for sweater weather and apple picking. In order to say goodbye to summer and hello to apple and pumpkin pie season I thought I would share my pie dress with you all.



Outfit Details: Dress - My Kind of Pie Dress by ModCloth, Headband - Modcloth, Shoes - Jeffrey Campbell.

Haha, pea was not amused to be in the last shot. I feel a bit like Betty Crocker in this dress. When I saw that this dress was back on sale at ModCloth I knew I had to add it to my wardrobe. I have seen a lot of fellow bloggers with this dress - don't you just love it? I have been drawn to crazy patterns this year.

There is a Toy Army Tuesday post headed your way tomorrow debuting my new lens! Have a good day everyone :]

Cheesin'

Life has been great lately. Seriously, I have had a huge smile plastered on my face for the past few months. Moving to the city was the best decision I made this year, hands down. It has been a slightly bumpy road at times, but I have met so many new and wonderful people. I have also gone outside my comfort zone and experienced new things, ventured to new places, and feel, well...alive. I am falling in love all over again with old interests and hobbies that I had let slide for far too long and it is very exciting. Anywho... expect to see these positive changes reflected in my blogging. I have so many ideas swirling around in my head to improve Shyscout and to get back in to the blogosphere.

Sorry, I am just slightly excited about everything. Speaking of excitement - I am helping shoot a friends wedding in two weeks! I can't wait to help out on her big day. This will be my first time helping shoot a wedding and will be an awesome experience. I just bought a fancy new lens for the big day and can't wait to use it. With all the cheesin' lately and upcoming wedding shoot I thought a camera dress would only be suitable for this post ;]



Outfit Details: Dress - Poise and Click Dress by ModCloth, Shoes - DSW, Camera - thrifted.

I mayyyy have to wear this dress to the wedding - just incase anyone gets confused as to who is taking their photos. Ha. On top of everything else this fall weather has me excited for apple picking, pumpkin patches, and hay rides.

Have a good day everyone!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my favorite woman in the world's birthday - my mom's. She is the strongest, silliest, and most caring lady I know. I would be so lost without her. I look forward to more years of crazy adventures with her by my side - whether it is jumping on Orlando Bloom's car, attending all night flea markets, or laughing until we nearly drown at a man in a speedo while snorkeling - there is a never a dull moment. For today's post I hi-jacked some cute photos of her from our family albums (sorry in advance mom).



Mom - I hope you have a beautiful day and I can't wait to celebrate with you tomorrow. I love you as big as the sky :]

End mushy-gushy post. Have a beautiful weekend everyone!!

Your hip bone's connected to your...

Hi guys. How's your week going? Mine is dragging on a bit with work. I am looking forward to the weekend and heading home to see my pup. My mom's birthday is tomorrow so we will be celebrating together Friday night. Can't wait to see the fam.

Anywho... I have an interesting dress to share with you all. It is covered in bones and glows in the dark! Anatomy was one of my favorite classes in school so I couldn't pass up this dress when I saw it on ModCloth.



Outfit details: Dress - Rad to the bone dress by ModCloth, Shoes - DSW, Bag - Thrifted.

Unfortunately, I have only worn this dress out and about once in New Orleans. Not as many occasions call for glow in the dark bones as I had hoped. I am, however, excited that Halloween is right around the corner so that this dress can be worn more often. Speaking of Halloween (my favorite holiday) - have any of you decided on what you are going to be? I am thinking Poison Ivy from Batman...

Hope you all have a beautiful day!

Toy Army Tuesday - Skelves

Hi all! Another installment of Toy Army Tuesday here - and today we are going to briefly cover skelves. Skelves are the slightly creepy pj-clad resin monsters dreamt up by Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters. There are a wide variety of skelves - ranging from 4.5 inches tall (mini) to the 24 inch mega and come in an assortment of shapes and colors to choose from. The original 9 inch "OG Skelve" debuted in 2010 at LIVING BETWEEN WORLDS (KO/BP exhibition at Gallery 1988) and was an edition size of 66. Since then numerous skelves have been produced and quite the cult following has sprung up.

Below is my slowly growing skelve collection:



Left to right - Midnight Masao Set: 4 legged Masao (ed. of 66) - mini masao skelve (ed. of 100), and Candy Coated Kuma (ed. of 40).



Left to right - Candy Coated Kuma, Red Death Vamp Greeter (ed. of 15), and Midnight Masao Set.

I was instantly drawn to these figures. The cute and creepy combo gets me every time. I was a bit late to start collecting so searching for past designs is a bit challenging, but it is what makes finding and collecting each piece more rewarding. A Silver Boo Skelve (ed. of 66) is headed home to my collection as we speak.

Image source: Circus Posterus.

Do any of you collect skelves? If so I would love to hear about it. Have a good day everyone :]

Life Lately - The big easy & the Windy City

Hi all! It's been awhile - tsk, tsk. I hope you all have been doing well. I have been busy traveling and exploring the city the past few weeks. Over Labor Day weekend a group of my friends piled in to a car and headed south to Louisiana. The car ride was 15 hours with out stops - yikes. We were determined to get there though and had about a day and a half to explore the city.



We stopped in Memphis, Tennessee for breakfast on the way and made sure to swing by Graceland. That was our last stop before Louisiana. Before we checked in to the hotel we stopped by Abita, LA to check out the Abita Mystery House and UCM Museum. I highly recommend checking this place out if you are ever in the area. The museum is full of bizarre artifacts such as the dogigator and beautiful folk art - definitely one of the highlights of the trip.



After the museum we crossed the lake pontchartrain causeway bridge (the longest continuous over water bridge in the world) to get to down town New Orleans. That night we hit up Bourbon Street and drank a hurricane or two. The following morning we ate at Cafe Du Monde, visited a Voodoo museum, watched the Southern Decadence parade, and took a swamp tour.



It was a whirlwind trip, but completely worth the drive.

After having recovered a few days from the trip I took a ride up the 103 stories to the Sears (Willis) Tower Skydeck. For those of you unfamiliar with the Skydeck it is a glass box that you walk out on over the city. I think terrifying best describes the experience.



Thankfully, I had this handsome guy (Matt) help coax me out on to the ledge. I am glad I can finally check that off my city to-do list. I am sort of a sucker for over the top touristy things.

Hope you all have been up to some fun adventures. I look forward to catching up on everything over the next few days. Stay tuned tomorrow for a new Toy Army post!

Love you to brunches

Hi all! Wednesday already - phew! I am pretty darn excited for this weekend. A group of twelve of us are headed up to Starved Rock to camp. I haven't been camping since prom weekend 6ish years ago. I have been trying to round a group of people up to camp for the past few years and finally it has come together. I look forward to forcing my room mate to listen to 90's music and show tunes on the way up and then making smore's and telling ghost stories at night. Yep. Like I said, pretty excited. I am trying to take advantage of the last bits of summer we have left. It sure flew by.

It's been awhile since i've posted a Wardrobe Wednesday post, so here goes nothing. I recently went on a bit of shopping spree - ever have one of those days where you hate everything you own? Well, put away your credit card when that happens! I love this dress though. A girl needs a little pick me up every now and then.



I wore this dress to work the day I got it and everyones response was, "you look like a 50's house wife... and an elementary school teacher." I'll take it!

Outfit Details: Love you to brunches dress - ModCloth | Shoes - Blowfish.

Sweetpea wanted to play dress up as well so she hopped in a few shots. Haha. That poor dog will let me do anything to her. She did make it up on ModCloth though for National Hotdog day!

Have a good day everyone!

The White Mountains

Hey all! It's been awhile, I know, but what else is new? Life on my end has been pretty darn busy aaaand exciting. I am holding on to the last bit of summer we have with all that i've got. I have had a hard time coming back to blogging with so many things changing in my life. I started this blog to document all life's changes, but I am finding out that sometimes you just need to put the computer, camera, etc. down and live a little. I will figure out a balance soon enough.

Anywho... Two weeks ago I flew out to Rhode Island to visit family and then drove up to New Hamphire see my brother in Les Mis. It was such a great trip. I saw as much family as I could as soon as I got off of the plane. My grandmother and my mom's entire side of the family were waiting for me when I arrived and then we were off to New Hampshire. The production of Les Mis was fantastic. I wish I had been able to tape a bit of it to share with you all. Henry played Marius and had all the ladies in the audience swooning, haha, he has grown so much since he first played Jean Valjean in high school.



If you follow me on instagram then the photos above should look familiar. They are little snippets from my adventure in the White Mountains. During the few days we were there we packed in as much sightseeing in as we could. We saw a live bear show at Clark's trading post, hiked, and ate a bunch of lobster rolls. All in all it was the perfect summer getaway. I just wish I had more time to spend there. If you haven't been to New Hampshire....or the east coast in general - get up and move that bum of yours!

National Hot Dog Day

Hey guys! How's it going? I know I have been MIA yet again. I had a wicked cold last week and have also been commuting to dog sit this week - sorta crazy. I am also headed to Rhode Island and New Hampshire this Friday for a whirlwind trip - I am going to see my brother in Les Mis (he is playing Marius) and as much family as I can cram in before I head back to Chicago Sunday night. It is going to be wild. I will catch you all up on everything next week.

Today I am here to let you know that it is National Hotdog Day!! ModCloth is celebrating by offering 15% off your order today only! Get your shop on ladies. Or upload a pic with your pup in their Style Gallery or on instagram #hautedog.

Have a wonderful day everyone :]

Outfit details: Dress - ModCloth & Shoes - Blowfish.

Ok, so I was slightly (BEYOND) excited to be on ModCloth's main page and IG today :]

Oh, hey!

Hi guys. This summer is flying by. I can't believe that it is already July! Ay, yi, yi. Where has the time gone? I keep trying to get myself back on blogging track and have been failing miserably. Summertime in Chicago is just too fun. There is always a festival of some sort going on each weekend. I will attempt to share snippets from here on out. Anywho... hope all of you here in the States enjoyed the 4th of July weekend. I had Thursday and Friday off from work so I was able to head up to a family friend's lake house for the holiday. It was nice to take a break from the city and to enjoy a bit of nature.



The photos above are from the past weekend with the exception of the Sox game that I attended the weekend before. I hadn't been to a Sox game since before they renamed the stadium. Although the Sox lost it was still a fun afternoon. As for the past weekend - I walked in the annual 4th of July parade with pea in her hotdog costume. Everyone loves a weenie. The next day I hit up some flea markets and barn sales in Galena. They had some pretty neat stuff but everything was too pricey. I spotted the shark on the ride home and had to take a photo with it - I love sharks and quirky roadside attractions. Saturday night I met up with some friends from school and wandered around Wrigleyville. All in all it was a great four day weekend, I am not ready to head back to work though. I will share some more photos from the trip later on in the week - I can't seem to find my camera chord at the moment.

I also plan to catch up on all of your lives as soon as I get home tonight. It is nice to be back. Have a beautiful Monday everyone.

Americana

Hi all! How goes your week? Mine has been slightly uneventful and ordinary but there are still a couple of days to turn things around. I finished the latest season of Arrested Development last night. The season didn't get good until the last few episodes in my opinion. What did you all think? I am just rambling. Like I said...it just one of those weeks.

I took these photos a couple of weeks back and was feeling slightly patriotic at the time. Let's be real though - I feel patriotic practically any time I wear blue with my red hair and deathly pale skin. I need some sunshine - stat!



I could not get the wrinkles out of this dress. I tried! I need one of those fancy steam machines, pronto.

Outfit Details: Dress (worn previously here), ice cream pin, & bag - thrifted, shoes - DSW.

I wish I could raid June Cleaver's closet and that all my dresses were cut like this. Cute and modest with enough twirl potential.

Friday - please come quickly!! Have a good day everyone.

Toy Army - Calliope Jackalope #1

Hi all! How are you doing today? Hope your weeks are off to a good start. The beginning of the month is always hectic for me at work so I am counting down to the weekend. This weekend I am going to see my brother in A Chorus Line - pretty darn excited. A bunch of his friends from school/work are in this production so it will be nice to see them all together again. Anywho...

Toy Army Tuesday is back again. I have added quite a bit to my collection recently and am pretty excited to show everything off. Instead of overwhelming you all with it all at once I thought I should break it down. Today is all about - Calliope Jackalope #1, by Kathie Olivas - my favorite artist in the world of toys.

I showed off some of my first few pieces by Kathie last year in case you want to catch up. For a quick summary of her and her work: "Kathie Olivas is an internationally exhibited multi-media artist from New Mexico. Through her current body of work, the Misery Children, she explores society’s insatiable desire to assign ‘cuteness’ and our discomfort with the unknown. A dark blend of early American portraiture set in post apocalyptic times, Kathie’s paintings and custom toys are a satirical look at how fear affects our sense of reality." - kathieolivas.com



Now that you are caught up to speed you can meet Calliope Jackalope #1. Calliope is made of sofubi, aka - soft vinyl and was produced by Tomenosuke and Circus Posterus (a small collective of fine artists established in 2007 by Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters). This specific piece was created for the 2012 DesignerCon and was limited to 120 pieces. Each piece came signed and numbered in individual bags.



Isn't she adorable? This January they released Calliope #2 which is ivory colored. I don't own that particular piece - just yet. I love the robins egg coloring on this piece and the adjustable legs are fun allowing the piece to sit on the edge of just about anything. I also have an artist's proof print of Calliope which I will have to share some time soon. She is one of my favorite characters.

Next week I will have to introduce you all to the wonderful world of Skelves! Have a good day everyone.

Life Lately - Turning a new leaf

Hi all! June is here already. Where the heck has the time gone? I know I have been a ghost. I keep getting excited to return and then life happens and I am not complaining. I have been having a great time since I have moved to the city. Blogging shouldn't ever feel like a job - unless that is what you want it to be. I am so tired of feeling guilty. I am sure I am not alone in this. I figured starting over...again...at the beginning of the month would help get me back on track. I just wish there were more hours in the day.



This weekend one of my good friends came to the city for her birthday. We saw Ariel Pink at the Empty Bottle Saturday night and spent Sunday afternoon shopping. It was so good to see her. The city can be overwhelming some days and it is so nice to see a familiar face. I love that girl.

I didn't buy anything while out shopping - I have spent way too much lately, which I plan to tell you all about tomorrow for Toy Army Tuesday :]

Have a beautiful day everyone!

Crazy Miss Daisy

Hi all! How goes things? This week seems to be slowing down - I am probably just too excited for a three day weekend. Any fun plans for the holiday? I plan on sleeping. I am also working on possibly making a mini road trip happen. We will see. Anywho... instead of posting a Wardrobe Wednesday post yesterday, I thought I would combine it with today - partially thrifted, mainly wardrobe.



Do any of you remember this top? I picked it up at the designer charity sale last fall. The weather is finally nice enough to wear it. I love the crazy daisy design and cute cut out in back.

Outfit Details: Top - Thifted, Milly of New York, Bag thrifted, Jeans - TJ Maxx, Shoes - DSW.

Recently I have been spending a lot of time scheming up new tattoo ideas. I think it is about time I added another. This one will be quite visible - be on the look out ;]

What is new in your world? Have a great weekend everyone.

Oh... and for giggles - a cute candid shot. Stocked up on Benadryl - may allergy season commence!

Toy Army - Deadly Sins Labbit Mini Series

Hi all! Happy Tuesday. Hope your day is off to a good start. I am excited to say that Toy Army (Tuesdays) are back! I have added quite a bit to my collection and look forward to sharing bits and pieces with you all along with other toy tidbits - i'd also like for you to share bits of your collection too! Wahoo. Well here it goes...

8 Deadly Sins Labbit Mini Series By Kronk


Quick Background (please click on links within the text to learn more)
Who is Kronk?
Kronk is an illustrator/toy designer/graphic artist from Cape Town, South Africa. He is the talented artist behind this wild series.

What is a Labbit?
(I am answering this for the newbies) Labbits - Aka - Smorkin' Labbits were created by Frank Kozik - a self taught artist who produces awesome gig posters and vinyl toys. He also happens to be one of my favorite artists in the vinyl toy world (the large pink figure above is an example of one of Kozik's Smorkin' Labbits).



The series
The 8 Deadly Sins Series originally went on sale July 26th, 2012 in Kidrobot stores. Th 2.5 inch blindbox figures embody the following vices - sloth, pride, envy, dejection, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, and stupidity. Each figure comes with a unique design and card. The three I own are wrath, lust, and dejection (blue variant).



I don't own any other pieces by Kronk currently but I love this series. I really enjoy his illustration style and would like to complete this quirky set some day. The sloth design is my personal favorite.

note:I am still working out the kinks in this series. I could go on and on about all of the artists but I find it is best to keep blog posts short and to the point. Right? Or would you prefer more info? I hope that an overview of the artists and toys will peak your interest so that you can click through the links to learn more if you'd like and to help others from feeling overwhelmed - we will see how things progress in time.

Anywho... next week is all about Kathie Olivas, my favorite artist. I can't wait to share her work with you all :] I will have to break her posts up in to a series in itself. Also, if you would like to show off your toy collection on ShyScout feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email at shyscoutblog@gmail.com.