This is all I've got for now...

Long time no blog...

Since the last time I updated, our city suffered from two major snow storms and it's finally starting to feel a little bit like spring around here. I was so excited at the small rain shower that happened this evening as I am anxiously awaiting a few good thunderstorms. Recently Joe and I traveled to 29 Palms, California to visit his family. Normally our trips involve some kind of work around the house (fixing things up or moving things into storage), but this was the first time our visit was like an actual vacation. We even took a day to ourselves and drove to San Diego to visit a few shops and hit the beach. Three days after we arrived home we had to go pick up our house guest who will be staying with us until this Saturday. I can't wait until things around here can go back to normal and I can actually get back to work. Looking through all of the pictures from our trip has me so inspired. The desert sky has so many amazing shades of blues...

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve - Morongo Valley, CA Pacific Beach - San Diego, CA

Snuggled Up

Me and the Rileybean snuggled on the couch. I've donated some Monster Fashion items to the auctions raising money for Tigger the cat. You can find out more about Tigger here and you can see all of the auctions here. Tigger's owner, Rani, actually moved into my spot in my old apartment in Chicago when I left to move back to Iowa. So I have met Tigger and must say he is quite a sweet kitty. If you've got some spare dollars, go bid and help out a kitty while getting some awesome art/craft items in return!

Adventures in Dog Sitting

It's been all about the dogs around here this week. We have been dog sitting since Friday for our friend's Chihuahua mix. It's been rather gloomy for our boxer girl, Riley, as this new little dog has taken to running around all over the furniture and doing all the things that Riley is not allowed to do. When she's not glaring at the new dog in the house wondering why he's here and when he's leaving, she's been looking especially sad. I feel bad for her so she's going to snuggle up on the couch with me tonight for a special treat.

Riley

Enid Collins + Jonathan Adler

I recently discovered Enid Collins and quickly became obsessed with her purses. The funny thing is, I had seen her purses before, but I never really thought to figure out who she was. Due to the extensive designs available on her purses, I decided to limit myself to one box purse and one tote purse. It took a lot of Ebay searching as there are a large number of her bags available at any given time, and they also vary a lot in price depending on the condition and design. This is the box purse I finally settled on:

There's a little wear and a couple of the jewels are missing, but I love it anyway. Last week while looking through the sale items on Jonathan Adler's website (sale is until Feb. 24!) I noticed he had a couple pillows that were a homage to Enid Collins. One had a couple birds on it that were definitely reminiscent of Enid's work and the other one (that is still available) has fish. I love the way he added his signature in the way that Enid would write the names of her designs:

Dreaming in letterpress

This weekend we went to a going out of business sale for a print shop in downtown Des Moines. The ad had said they had lots of binding equipment and letterpress equipment. We got there about an hour after the sale had started and found that they had already sold most of the binding equipment, but discovered most of it was too large for what we would be interested in using it for anyway. Then we saw it, the most gorgeous (and rather large) letterpress that I have ever seen, a wonderful old Heidelberg that looked to be in perfect condition. Next to it were drawers and drawers full of lead type along with other equipment including another older model letterpress. In my dreams we would have been able to afford the whole setup, but there would also be the problem of storing it and moving it. Now I am obsessed with finding a smaller more affordable letterpress that we could use for another hobby. I'm sure I will always look but never buy, kind of like I do with Heywood Wakefield furniture.

Craft Saturday

Craft Saturday is a bimonthly indie craft fair held in Des Moines that was started by Joe and I a few months ago. We had our first event in December and our second one this past Saturday. There are more and more people who are approaching us about selling their awesome handmade items and I can't even describe how excited I am about it! One of the reasons why I knew I would miss Chicago when I moved back here was that they had so many craft fair options to choose from and in central Iowa there were none. So Joe and I took a chance and quickly organized our first event just before the holidays. It was an incredible success and showed us that people here were definitely in need of a modern craft fair event. I am hoping the success continues to grow as I am thankful to have met so many awesome local crafters and craft supporters. Two of my favorite items (that I received in trades) from the last event are from two crafty ladies who each have their own business but share a booth and call themselves Bedhead Bazaar. single wallet made from awesome vintage fabric by Kris of Fern + Jane:

vintage photo Valentine card by Cori of Original Tilly