just duckie: 2011

Sunday, December 04, 2011

house bits

oh faithful readers. i swear i miss this blog-but with everything going on with the house and the new job and trying to get some holiday duckies done for my various vendors and art fairs, i barely have time to read my emails and facebook let alone post on this blog! coupled with the fact that i don't have internet at the new place.....i'm sorry i've neglected this corner of the interwebs lo these two months. i'll make it up to you.....

here are shots of the living/dining room. both rooms are a study in 'found' furniture. the futon frame and cushions, dining room chairs, and coffee table were all FREE on the side of the road, with the exception of the cushions which I saved from the dumpster pile at work. kirk models the smaller of the two rugs from home goods, and he's staring at the refinished cabinet of curiosities which my mom and dad stripped for me. the lamp and shade came from goodwill, and there's oodles of frames on the walls from various thrifts and garage sales. i love the built-ins but they severely limit the floorspace. i wouldn't trade them for the world, though!

that's it for now, more to come i promise!

Saturday, October 01, 2011

gotta find my corner.......

12 days from today i will be the owner....of.....my very own corner of the sky......

my work time is blissful (except for the carpet-moth infestation that we've been battling in our warehouse).

my at-home time is like a an episode of HOARDERS; buried by crafts. sorting, tossing, organizing, and trying to work on my holiday orders while maintaining some minimum level of personal hygiene.

all my current web time is going towards banking business, pinterest dreaming, and online furniture shopping. my favorite blogs have gone unread for WEEKS!

i feel so....amish!

Monday, August 29, 2011

sorting it all out....

i think we need to just light a match and let it all burn
-Jason Schommer

my very good friend jason recently moved to vegas. he is a 'collector' of cd's, movies, books, and other media. his favorite person on the planet is madonna. by the time we got into his 'save forever' closet, he was in such a purging mood that he threw away a collection of about 20 madonna posters and countless magazines featuring the material girl. helping him sort through his years of accumulated stuff lit a fire under my own bum to get moving and get on with my life. thank you jason for being an inspiration!

instead of viking funeral, we had a full dumpster. i still wonder if he went back and fished them out after i left. but i digress....

i am trying to decide, what things do i need to let go? not only physically but emotionally and spiritually......what has been holding me down and strangling me all these years?

i have gotten a new (old) job again. i am returning to work in theater full-time, as the shopper/buyer for the props department at the Guthrie theater. i couldn't be more excited. i won't post much about my job except to say that it's going to be awesome and it will allow me to do things i've not been able to in my current position, but i will miss my job at the church very much.

i am also hoping to buy a house soon. once again, i don't want to say much, except that if it does happen you can count on a LOT of house/DIY posts in the future.

the goal is to make sure i don't end up on TLC's hoarders, buried alive. i could probably actually film an episode from my car. but i need to develop a new attitude....let it go....and watch it drift away...

Sunday, August 07, 2011

cuteness and naughtiness

Saturday, July 30, 2011

cabinet help.....

i need your help faithful readers. this chippy cabinet has been in the family longer than i have. and it needs some help. right now it's a not-s0-awesome blue, and i want to paint it. i hope it will be the centerpiece in my studio when i move out. and i'll have a wee tiny bit of downtime next week so i want to spiff it up. here's what it looks like now:

and these are the other things that will for SURE be in my studio:

here in no particular order are some ideas i have been kicking around.

Blue large-scale suzani

pink large scale suzani

shabby turquoise

grey otomi pattern (or any color)

blue/green ikat

small scale suzani (could be any color obvs.)

mint suzani (that sounds like it should also be a drink...hmmm...)

ok what do you think!?!?!?

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

crashy mc crasherton

computer crashed due to a malfunctioning power cord, about a month ago, but it was restored to two weeks prior to that by my friend who is my own personal geek squad. but then last week, it really got messed up with a virus.
so i'm thankful i put a lot of photos on my facebook and blog because they're all gone. :(
a single tear falls for the girl who didn't back her files up.

Monday, June 27, 2011

video update

Monday, June 20, 2011

12 hour daze....

after the weeks of hard work, vacation bible school started this morning. i'm bone tired. this job has spurts of 10-12 hour days like this and you'd think by now i'd be used to it.....

today's theme was God is the one responsible for the creation of our amazing world.

anyway this little short film was adapted from the GoFish script, edited on my crummy work PC, and stop-motion animated with paper that some high school aged kids helped me cut out and design. enjoy!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

florida!

we took a family trip to florida to celebrate my cousin jay's wedding.
i got to spend TONS of quality dorothy time, swam in the ocean and saw a shark (not as scared as i thought i'd be) and had a wonderful vacation.

dorothy performed her flower girl duties very well!

Saturday, June 04, 2011

studio shots

just a few snapshots of the studio. the cori dantini poster is from last year's creative connection event. the flowers are from our garden and include columbine, chives, and a bunch of other lovelies. no it's not my birthday, but for some reason this is quickly becoming the birthday board!

Friday, June 03, 2011

quicky on color

now that i am pretty much finished with the stage manager/wardrobe assistant/retail uniform needing part of my life, i'm trying to avoid buying black and bringing other colors into my wardrobe. i never thought i'd wear orange EVER (being very freckl-y) bit it turns out bright colors actually look better on me than dark ones.....along these lines.....today i got purple and red streaks put into my hair (!)
it looks sooooooo cool. i can't get a good photo of it. but in the mean time, here's some fabulous tiles i found at augsburg college last week-i went for an ELCA gathering for youth/children's workers and ended up winning a $100 gift certificate to their gathering in NEW ORLEANS in 2012! WOOT! Sure, I have to spend like $600 to save $100...but hey, i won something! i should use it!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

sneezy, goofy, and spock.

our entire family got walloped by a nasty cold this last week and my computer also battled a virus or infection of its own. i seem to have lost a lot of my hard drive. i'm bummed about the photos of early duckies, but what was i going to do with those photos anyhow?

i've been battling through it to finish a bibelot order. the kittens aren't making it easy on me. they love to 'inspect' my work and offer their assistance with the thread, scissors, etc. i'm surprised i haven't snipped off one of their tails let alone a whisker or two.....i hope they grow out of their kitten curiosity...but not too quickly. it's fun to see their crazy antics as i sew beaks onto birdies, talons on to owls, and yes, whiskers

onto kittens. can you see how long their whiskers are in these photos? it's absurd. i'm going to enter them in the twin cities beard and mustache competition next year. fer reals.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

workin' on the night moves....

having a dayjob in addition to helping folks with wedding flowers, doing the duckie thing, and teaching means that my day runs from about 7 AM to 11 PM or even midnight. my kittens are modeling good evening productivity followed by intense periods of sleep. their nighttime mania is even more entertaining than their daytime antics.
i am putting out the feelers on finally buying a house. 3 years ago (before i lost my awesome gig at the college) i had been pre-approved for a loan and started even touring homes...but i'm SO thankful that didn't work out because i'd have long defaulted on the mortgage. i feel like the timing is much better now.
but in order to make it happen i need to squeeze extra time to make extra $$ out of my days.
maybe i'll teach kirk and spock how to sew for me while i'm off earning their kitten chow......

Sunday, May 08, 2011

ask...and ye shall find it at a garage sale.....(or fleet farm)

it's a constant struggle to store and display my art supplies in a useful yet pleasing manner. during our road trip, i bought the latest 'where women create' magazine, which my mom calls 'where women store stuff'. it's true, they offer great storage solutions to artist's tendency to hoard. n-e-way....

my boss asked my co-worker if we wanted to hit a neighborhood garage sale to raise funds for some girls to join a traveling soccer team-and lo and behold, i found this spice rack for just a dollar! hollar!!!!

this project would have been impossible without the help of a dishwasher-these jars were NASTY greasy. i should have soaked the caps in something because the rubber gaskets on some still smell a bit 'spicy'. but overall i am quite happy with how this turned out.

i'm also excited about my new gardening boots, found at the 'man's mall' AKA fleet farm. they carry *almost* everything a person or farm animal could ever need, including things NO one needs like circus peanuts. if they carried craft materials, there'd be no reason to shop anywhere else.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

growing boys

holy week was amazing, exhausting, powerful, and wonderful. a marathon of ministry. my boss and 4 of the pastors told me to get out of town for a week. left the cleanup to my co-workers. HA!

went to missouri after easter to spend some time with my nephews. julie had ankle surgery 5 weeks ago and is SUPPOSED to be taking it easy. as a physical therapist she knows what she can and can't do, and i swear she can hop faster than i can walk. anyway....the boys are 5, almost 3, and almost 1 i can't believe the funny things they do and say. obsessed with 'STAR WARS', 'The Lion King', and Mickey Mouse, they love to hear my Yoda, Puumba, and Mickey voices.

the other boys in my life, spock and kirk, are growing fast too!

they no longer look kitten-y they are very much teenagers. i have been spending very little time with them due to work and i think they are taking it out on me by chewing where they shouldn't be chewing, getting into boxes and containers that are NOT for kittens, and just generally being silly.

here's spock demonstrating what he thinks is the proper place for scraps and kittens.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

where i've been....

where have i been the past month? i'm taking on more responsibilities in more departments of the church-and that's a good things-but it also means less time for outside activities like; doing interesting things, photographing those things, and writing about them.

i have been wracking my brain to come up with a suitable item for the japan auction, and i think i have settled on one, now just to find the time to make it. this week at church (which started today with Palm Sunday) i am going to work about 80 hours, give or take. maundy thursday and good friday we're expecting over 1800 people to come to the three services we hold...

here's a quick little video that i not only helped to edit, but that gives you an idea of what kind of stuff i'm working on. this is last year's Palm Sunday- we had about 250 kids participate today over the two services.

Monday, February 28, 2011

what's been keeping me busy....

brought these guys home last week. loving *almost* every minute ;)

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's for you!

hey sorry it's been quiet lately-i have been beset by a series of horrible colds. this probably means i won't get to spend valentine's day with the ultimate valentine, my grandma. it's her birthday today and she was delivered 92 years ago today by dr. valentine. fer reals!
it's a little late to the party but here are some absolutely amazing free valentines for you by some of my favorite artists.
amy rice
ann wood
and an oldie but goodie from me, a quick tute on winged hearts.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Summer wardrobe...

i hope this round with watchin' the weight is successful enough that i just haveta haveta HAVE TO buy a whole new summer wardrobe. been polyvore-ing some ideas.
n-joy!