so while matt was running around with towels, i happened to read my twitter on my iphone and found this:

um…. not gonna lie. i had to do a double take. MIKE. MIKE FROM AMERICAN PICKER. THAT SHOW ON TV. THE ONE I WATCH ON MONDAY NIGHTS. MIKE. THAT GUY WHO HAS MY DREAM JOB. MIKE. WHO I SORT OF CRUSH ON. BUT IN A REALLY INNOCENT WAY. CAUSE I’M MARRIED AND STUFF. MIKE. WROTE ME BACK. ON TWITTER. gonna pull an RZ and say I DIE.

suddenly the leaking roof didn’t seem all that panic attack inducing.

are you on twitter? even dotty is on twitter! join the party.

(please don’t hate me if you’re singing this for the rest of the day!)

and since there’s already been such an excited response i thought i’d do a FABRIC GIVEAWAY to kick things off. yes! so spread the word.

leave a comment on this post to have your name entered into the giveaway. and the more comments, the more winners i’ll choose. how’s one winner for every 25 comments sound?

so to enter your name into the drawing, tell me two things:

1. your favorite color. (that’s how i’ll pick the fabric that i’ll be sending you)
2. let me know what you are listening to right now- i need some new music. (and, btw it doesn’t have to be *new* music, i just need something new to me!)

be sure you leave me your name + email address so that i can contact you privately to get your shipping information. and this is open to fabric freaks all across the globe, so international readers please comment! i am happy to send this stuff anywhere.

here’s a quick peek at *a fraction* of the vintage prints i have stashed away.

i will pick a winner winners!!! next monday, july 12.

*comments are now closed on this post!*

thanks so much to everyone who commented! thanks for your interest + thanks for sharing your music love with us all!

winners will be chosen today, monday july 12, so stay tuned to the blog for that announcement this afternoon!

XOXOXO!

dear fellow fabric junkies,

i’m thinking a serious de-stashing is in order. a recent cleaning + organizing session in my work room reminded me that i have just way, way, way too much fabric for a person who just doesn’t have the chance to sew all that much anymore. it’s criminal.

these are not the most fabulous pictures, but you can see 4 out of 10 bins- all of which are chock full of vintage prints: florals, dots, novelties, you name it. i have a real weakness for vintage fabric, i’ve been collecting it for about a dozen years. but really, i need to reclaim some space on my metro shelves and it’s just silly to have all this good stuff sitting around. probably a quilter’s dream. and i’m not really a quilter…. so…

i guess i’m wondering is: is anyone interested? would you like to see some fabric/sewing + craft supplies end up in the shop? it might take me a little bit of time to get a batch prepared (i don’t have any photo’d or measured) but i’d love to find some happy homes for some of it!

let me know.

signed,
up to my ears in fabric

aye carumba, i woke up with the absolute worst stiff neck/shoulder this morning- not quite sure how i managed to get such a kink overnight, but there ya have it. i am moving slow, slow this morning, which i guess is ok- it’s so grey and drizzly outside. i think i’ll snuggle on the couch with dotty and watch one of her favorite new shows, mustard pancakes. we just discovered it this week, after we got our netflix for wii disk in the mail- which is like, one of the greatest things in the entire universe, by the way.

yes, please.
only 4 episodes left. i’m back on the edge of my seat.
THIS is for my fellow bird nerds.
oh, i went and did it. a twitter for frecklewonder.
all images above taken with the hipstamatic app for iphone, which is probably my favorite photo app yet.

happy wednesday, y’all.

hey guys! happy tuesday.

so yesterday morning was my big, dreaded trip to the oral surgeon to get all 4 wisdom teeth extracted. you might remember me talking about it last summer, and somehow i managed to put it off for all this time. i really, really, really did not want to get it done, but somehow i gathered up enough courage to get in the car and follow through with the appointment. i will say that yesterday was absolutely miserable. the pain medicine made me so nauseous, and i ended up getting super sick last night. but almost immediately after that was over, i felt so much better and now i’m just sticking with motrin- which is actually keeping my pain level pretty low and totally manageable.

i’ve already gotten a bit tired/bored with laying around, watching bad tv, so i thought i would pop on and catch up on a bit of work + blogging, before i take a little afternoon nap-er-oo. so basically, other than a super swollen square jaw, i’m doing ok! overall, much better than i had anticipated.

::::

i also wanted to remind you guys to vote for mister wolfie- the contest ends really soon and he is in the top 50! last time i checked, he was actually at #12. NUMBER TWELVE, ya’ll! you don’t need a facebook account, and it really and truly takes one click!! please feel free to spread the word

:::

here’s a peek at some of the things i’m adding to the shop this afternoon- i still have a bunch to get added from that major haul i picked up last week… photos are done, i just have to chip away at the listing process. and hey, i’m not going anywhere, so as long as i feel up for it, i will work for a while this afternoon

so the question is:

go short with a cute bob? definitely a more polished look- probably more maintenance than i think? my hair isn't naturally straight, after all. but short is good- i've done it before and it's actually a very liberating, cleansing experience to cut off so much hair at one time.

find the middle ground? either of these could be a sort of happy in between- again, the straight look is higher maintenance- and also, i have never parted my hair in the middle, so i'm unsure about that one. super pretty though.

or keep the length, and just lighten it up with some long layers? my boys definitely vote for keeping some length. i also think that going this route first means i can always go back and take more off. but once it's gone, it's gone for a while. half an inch a month is the average, so they say. of course this kind of contradicts what i said about having that freeing chop!

see why i'm stuck?!

weigh in on this, if you care to- and i will make a decision this week and post pics of the winning 'do!

as far as new year's resolutions go, i only made one. i like the idea of making a bunch, which is what i've always done in the past. a whole list of changes, big ideas, things to get excited about. but, it often seems like the big list is just a big, awful thing that ends up mocking me at some point later on in the year when most of those big ideas i got so excited about never really managed to make their way off the paper. is this just me?

so, this year i kept it to just one. which is just to simplify.

i think i've grown pretty tired of being tired, pretty tired of that feeling of running around like a chicken with my head cut off, of spinning my wheels, of making things way more complicated than they ever need be.
2008 was a really tough year in some ways.

in 2009, i'm opting for the path of least resistance. and i'm thinking, everything else should follow.

the last two or so weeks have been kooky as all get out. henry got the stomach flu (holymoly, poor little guy, so much vomiting, so much laundry for mama) and within the same day, matt got knocked out with something else (body aches, fever) and i got a head cold. the bright, shining, lucky light in it all was that dorothy managed to escape the icky, sicky, funks. hallelujah. but then, that same week, she had her 6 month appointment and we walked outta there with a sad baby who'd just had her legs poked 4 times. so she had her own funk to deal with for the next 48 hours. we were a sad bunch, i'm tellin ya.

then, my computer did a weird thing. some fuses blew in our house and i fired up the ol' mac to find that i was locked out of every imaginable online account possible. online bill pay, typepad, flickr, bloglines, you name it. i spent an infuriating weekend trying to regroup, cause i'm one of those people who (apparently) has too many (bad, according to matt) passwords. and i don't remember any of them. i have relied on that trusty password remember feature that firefox has going on. so. i guess i have learned me a lesson.

in other news- i want to thank all of you for all your input + suggestions re: the skunks. i have spoken to our wildlife center and have been given some no kill tips, one of which we are in the process of trying out right now. cross your fingers and i will keep you updated on how this whole thing progresses. the bottom line is, we really do not want to kill them, we are just hoping that they will get our gentle message that we'd like them to set up camp somewhere else, far away from our front door.

now, onto more happy things. here's some peeks from the next shop update: COATS.
enjoy.

1. i'm a strict toilet paper over the roll kinda person. you know what
i mean, right? when you pull the tp, it should unravel over the top,
rather than coming from underneath. never underneath.
on the rare occasion that someone else changes the tp in my house
(grin), i will reset it if it's not unrolling from the top. this
probably sounds crazy, and that is perfectly ok.

2. i've had around 20 cats as pets throughout my life. in no particular
order, some of their names were: rosie, nesca, seymour, tabasco, chloe, kitty
grey, jake, ruby, simon, chica, pokey, blue, and lucy + lola, our current furballs. i've only had three dogs: ginger, a red pomeranian who i just adored
and whose hair was the exact same color as mine, juniper, who is
still with us today but has gone for her retirement at my mom's house,
which is a bit more of a country setting with another dog companion.
she's happy there, but we miss having her around on the daily. and oliver, a wild and crazy little guy who had too much energy for his own good. rip, ollie. we miss you, bud.

3. i'm a serious late bloomer with stuff. movies, music, stuff. like,
matt's boss loaned us the freaks + geeks box set and it hung around our
house for months- i didn't know anything about it, and in not knowing
how amazingly cute/funny it is, it just sat there with the rest of the
dvds. had i known, i would have watched it about 20 times over my now.
another example? i only just created a facebook page (let's be friends!). i confess, i knew about facebook, i just didn't really think i
needed another place on the web to waste my time hang out and stuff. i've had a myspace
page a couple times, but i'm notorious for deleting it. let's get real:
myspace is creepers. it never really felt right. and now, between
running the shop +blog, and having a love affair with flickr, and
reading a daily blogroll (that honestly, could use some serious
tidying), my internet dance card is pretty full. but WOW. after some
coaxing from my bff from hs, i jumped in the waters. and it's kinda
funny how many blasts from the past i've already encountered. actually,
now that i think about it- being on facebook is making me feel old. oh
no!

4. i enjoy doing laundry. i really do. my favorite to wash is the
whites. i love to fold everything all perfect, like they do at the drop
off laundry mat. i LOVE the smell of clean white tshirts and sheets.

5. and while i'm on the subject of laundry, i've been married 8 years
this week and i still have not managed to successfully train my husband
to not turn his socks inside out when he takes them off. and to not
leave them on the floor on his side of the bed. at this point, it's a
random fact about him that i've grown to love. i expect to be 60 and
still picking up his little balled up socks from the floor. what'cha
gonna do. smile and love, that's what.

6. i'm pretty impatient when it comes to making things. like, when
measuring and preparing is involved, i don't really take to that too
well. i'm all about jumping in. which usually means that i kind of
screw up the project. this same thing happens with cooking, but
fortunately, i'm a much better cook. i prefer to just go with the flow,
rather than keep my nose in the book, you know? a little pinch here, a
taste there, more of this less of that kinda thing.

7. i can't stand cords. some of you might already know this about me,
strangely enough- i've probably written about it before. i dream of the
day when toaster ovens and tvs and lamps are wireless.
i just cringe at the look of a mess of cords behind and entertainment center. makes. me. crazy.

bonus!
i kind of refuse to learn basic html. i know that i should just go ahead and learn it already, but why should i when i always have matt around to ask and when he's not here, i've figured out how to quickly grab some old tags from some other post and just cut and paste the crazy stuff. nuts, right?