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!!

Most wanted Mondays - Fly me to the moon

Hi all. It is another busy week for me. I apologize. I will get to all your comments and blogs as soon as I can!!

In the mean time here is another Most wanted Monday. Today's theme - outer space. For all you areospace engineers and star gazers out there, ejoy :]

1.) ModCloth - Jovian Planet Top.

2.) ModCloth - According to Planet Tights.

3.) ModCloth - Pugs in Space Necklace.

5.) Brookstone - Laserpod Base Station Star Projector.

6.) Amazon - Astronaut Icecream.

7.) ASOS - 6ixty 8ight Galaxy Print Lace Trim Hipster Shor.

8.) Black Milk - The Moonwalker swimsuit.

9.) Black Milk - The Galaxy green dress.

9.) Black Milk - Galaxy purple catsuit.

I want a galaxy dress from Black Milk Clothing so badly!!

Holy guacamole & grilled cheese

Last night I was checking up on blogs I follow and stumbled upon a yummy looking bacon guacamole grilled cheese on OhSoLovelyVintage's blog. You can find the post HERE. And the original post with recipe on ClosetCooking HERE. I changed up the recipe a bit - got rid of the bacon. I have been working on eating an only pescatarian diet. So I swapped the bacon for tomatoes. Yum.



I live on a budget so none of my ingredients were too fancy.

2 slices of wheat bread
2 slices of cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons guacamole
1 sliced grape tomato
A bit of butter to put on the bread



Take each slice of bread and butter one side. Place one of the slices of bread along with a slice of cheese in a medium heat pan - cook until cheese starts to melt and outerside turns golden brown. Repeat with the other slice of bread and cheese. Once each side is ready to roll, pile up all other ingredients and enjoy!



It was so yummy. I made two - I was hungry. Nom, nom, nom :]



I am sure that it is delicious with the bacon. I will have to try the original recipe with fake bacon next time I pick some up at the store. Have a lovely weekend, for real this time!

A little about me

Hi all! I feel like lately all I have been posting are outfits, thrift finds, and links to fun stuff. While that is all good and dandy I feel like I have given up my voice slightly in the process. When I started this blog I had no clue what direction I wanted to take it in, the possibilities are endless, but I think I am starting to get in to the groove of things. However, I feel like I should interject some of my life into the mix from time to time. So today I thought I would tell you a little bit about me to get you caught up or acquainted. You may not care, who knows...I just feel like rambling honestly. So here are three random facts about me...



1.) I was born in Rhode Island - the smallest state in the U.S.A. My entire extended family still live out there and we visit every few years. I miss the ocean so much. Chicagoland is great and all but it lacks the hills, trees, and WAVES. I miss the small things like eating clamcakes (google them - YUM!) and walking on the beach.



2.) I have been fortunate enough to travel to - England, Greece, Italy, France, Germany, China, Japan, Canada, Hawaii, St.Thomas, and across parts of the U.S. . I hope to one day make it to Egypt - that would be my dream destination. I want to see the pyramids more than anything.



3.) My mom and I are very into meeting celebrities. I have met Ellen Degeneres - and have been to her show twice. The first time she flew a group of us out of Chicago to L.A. to film a Chicago show. It was incredible. She paid for the plane tickets, our hotel The Roosevelt, her crew took us out bowling, and she gave us Ellen Undies! On top of that I got to shake her hand and take a picture with her during a commercial break. It was awesome! The second time was last spring. My mom had won tickets so we flew out and made a trip of it. I got to dance with Ellen for a second too :] Needless to say we LOVE Ellen.

I jumped on Orlando Bloom's car in England. Alright that is complete over dramatization of what happened but it sounds more fun. My mom and I saw his play, In Celebration, and met a wild lady from the Netherlands who had been to the play 5 times because she was obsessed with him - yikes! Anywho, she knew where he came out after the show and told us - not creepy at all. So we checked it out after the show and there he was about to get in his car/signing autographs. So I aggressively leaned over the trunk to get an autograph. He was really nice.

And then there was Johnny. Johnny Depp of course! That is a blurry pic of him above. He was filming Public Enemies in a theater nearby my hometown so my mother and I decided to go and check it out. Three hours in the rain later I got to shake his hand!! I told him I loved his work, he looked into my eyes and said "thanks love". We totally had a moment.

Now that you all think I am a crazed celeb stalker...



4.) I LOVE Halloween. I go all out for it. I am excited for this October to roll around so that I can share with you guys some fun DIY Halloween costumes. In the mean time, here is pea as a banana split :] She was so ashamed.

I planned on posting more facts but I feel like this is TMI for one afternoon. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Thrifted Thursdays - Birds of a feather continued

To continue with my Most wanted Mondays - birds of a feather post I thought it would be only fitting to highlight a few of my owl/bird thrifted finds. These are only a few pieces of the collection - I need to keep some surprises for other Thrifted Thursday posts ;)



Ceramic owls - I bought each on separate occasions, but was lucky enough to find my owl lanterns small twin. The groovy owl with big eyes is my favorite. It looks to pretty with a candle inside of it, it casts little rays of light all across the room. Urban Outfitters had something pretty similar to this awhile back but it was only one color. I bought each for less than $1 :]



Floral Shelving - The shelving unit holding my owls is from a garage sale. My mom picked it up years ago and has sat in our garage ever since. Last year I decided to salvage it. I really love the coloring of it and the pretty floral details on each side. It is pretty old and worn but I think that adds to its charm.



Metal peacock pair - Freshman year of college a friend of mine had a beautiful golden pair of these peacocks on her wall. I had always loved them and as luck would have it I found them a year later in a Florida thrift shop. Side note - Florida has the best thrift shops by far! Anywho, so I scooped them up as soon as I saw them. I love the blue, green, and gold combo.

Have any of you thrifted anything neat this week? Please share! Hope you all have a lovely Thursday.

Toy Army Tuesday - Introduction

Hi lovelies! Today I thought I would announce a new feature to my blog - Toy Tuesday. I thought it would be fun to share my love of toys and toy collection! Each Tuesday I hope to share with you information about various toys and ones from my collection. You may be thinking - toys? really? But there is a lot more to them than you might think. I am really hoping some of you may be as interested in them as I am. *Crosses fingers.

I thought I would start small today, simply photographing some of my collection. In the upcoming weeks I will give you more information about the type of toy, it's artist, etc. I also thought it might be awesome to have guests on here share about their collection. But for now here is a sneak peak of what is to come!



I didn't start collecting until last spring but my collection has come a long way since then :]

Photographed above: Dunnies, Labbit, Scavengers, Domo, Ugly Dolls, Blythe - more about them coming next week! Have a great Tuesday everyone.