Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!

Party safe.

What do most little princesses like?

Shoes (glass, of course)...


Her purse (jeweled)...


and her crown.

A Few Favorites...

It came out in '09, but we just saw it this year, Planet 51. I just adore this movie. I love all things 1950. I love the music. I love the whole concept of this film. When Rover squishes the insect, that cracks me up every time - 'planet full of aliens and you send back pictures of rocks'.


Going the Distance is another favorite movie of mine. Hubs and I had A Lot Like Love as our go to romantic comedy...but after watching Going the Distance - I don't know, it's a close call.



Star Trek, Iron man 2, Sherlock Holmes, How to Train Your Dragon and Eclipse (can't leave that out).
*we love a good movie.

Went camping, with great friends, in the Palisades which was a nice stay-cation for us. It's amazing how the geography changes just a couple hours from here.



Finally, was able to go to Alcatraz, Winchester House, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco and Petaluma, Ca - Beautiful - I absolutely love it there!




Lake Tahoe

Virgina City

Reno

These are just a few of my favorites of 2010.

What were some of yours?

It's a Southern Thang

Every January 1 we have the same meal: ham, greens, black eye peas and cornbread.

As a child growing up down south, I had the same meal, as did my folks and theirs and theirs. It's a tradition.

There is a reason we eat this to bring in a New Year.

The black-eyed peas represent coins. Collards (or other greens like turnip greens or cabbage), represents paper money. Cornbread represents gold. Together it all means - good luck and good health in the coming year.

*Jus' so ya know, canned collards or frozen are just as good.

If you have time this New Years Day, try this out!

It's Simple.

It's Cheap.

It's Freaking Awesome!

If it sucked we wouldn't make it a tradition.

*I've been told that I have a mean cornbread recipe that has turned non believers.

Also, add a pinch of pepper flake to the greens and also dash of pepper sauce will make all the difference!


For New Years Eve, growing up, we would ALWAYS have a can of re fried beans with pepper jack cheese melted in (lots!) and eaten as a dip with chips. When I got married, hubs wasn't buying it and asked if I would make him Rotel and Velveeta - which I have done every years since, along side my re friend beans and cheese, of course.

I'm so old school...

that-

I prefer vintage vehicles to modern (don't get me wrong, I love the technology in modern cars, but I prefer the look, the style of vintage).
*One day, I will own a 1953 Chevy pickup (and this has nothing to do with Twilight) I have always wanted one. Of course, I could deal with a late '40s to early 50's model (it has to be 'round enough').



I'm so old school that I prefer vintage furniture to modern crap. We own 'modern crap' a.k.a the couch and loathe it. When we go to buy again, you better believe it will be VINTAGE.



I'm so old school that I prefer vintage kitchenware to modern, cheap, thin crap. Again, I have owned modern, but prefer the durability, the style, the look to vintage a.k.a Pyrex. Love It!



I'm so old school that I prefer Blankets to the modern day Snuggie.

Anyone Know? GE Radio Phonograph AM/FM

(I found this 1st image online)

This is our Christmas present to ourselves via Craigslist. I have looked online, but can't seem to find anything on it. It says GE Radio Phonograph (record player) AM/FM - 329 (model?).

This is the first radio I have had in my home in many of years - oh, and IT WORKS!










Does anyone know anything about it? Year?

Please and Thank You. :)

Merry Christmas

I want to wish EVERYONE a wonderful Christmas, I hope you get everything you asked Santa for. :) I did, NO SNOW! Wahoo!

Done with Stressing Myself Out

I was seriously stressing myself out trying to come up with the *perfect* picture for our Christmas cards.

We took pictures of our feet in socks with Christmas lights thinking this would be a cute nontraditional Christmas card, saying something like 'sending warm thoughts or trying to stay warm'. I went to several online sites to create a card, but when the image uploaded it cropped out half the picture = FAIL.

Then I thought family pictures, again = FAIL, then I was thinking a picture of just Hoss and Sprout or the cats in Christmas hats or cats playing with ornaments or the dog with something 'Christmas' or or or - Do you see why I was getting stressed?

I finally said 'screw it, let's buy generic Christmas cards and send those out' (talk about Christmas Spirit).

We (as a whole) typically stress over the 'Perfect card' and hope not to upset someone by them not getting a card or the card not getting there in time or...

Then a light bulb went off - we spend money on cards + postage to send to family, friends, co-workers, etc - Said person enjoys them for 3-6 weeks and then takes them down to (hopefully) put in recycling or *gasp* the trash = throwing away hard earned cash. I don't know about you, but I don't like throwing money away.

*LIGHT BULB*

Take the money for the cards + postage and give to charity! As soon as I came to that realization...*waves to the stress going bye bye*.




I posted on FaceBook that we were doing this in lieu of cards this year (so family/friends would know not to expect a card) and my lil step-sis also took the money + postage and donated to a charity.

*I am not trying to pat myself on the back, just saying it feels good to GIVE.

They're HERE!

The shirts and sticker are ready (3 days early)!

I will say it now, I am *HAPPY* with the items.

*Drum Roll*

This is the sticker. Yes, it's a Rust-eze sticker *laughs*(CARS movie). We had looked online for them at one time, but had no luck in finding them. So---



I am *HAPPY* with the shirts, but...

When he originally sketched out the image, the idea, onto paper - it looked like it would be a smallish image (6"-8" round, center of chest). It was also suppose to be on a dark gray shirt...

Most of hubs shirts are black, so this isn't so much of a big deal.

The image being most of the front of the shirt - this is a learning experience for me. Next time (like I said I am *HAPPY* with them, but next time I will be more specific on all the details).



I am so happy with the results that I ordered 2 more vinyl stickers, for me (vinyl vs regular sticker are 2 completely different things, which I am learning).

***I could not wait for Christmas, I gave him the shirt a few days ago and he said 'I love it'. Last night I gave him the sticker, again 'I love it' (which isn't something he says lightly).***

A lil More Time on the Castle Mural

Like the title says - I was able to put in a lil more time (still not enough) on the castle mural.




Those are the before and after (for now).

There are a few changes: rounded out the entire mural to make the border look better (that will be the last thing to be added). the castle has more pink (just what my clients daughter wanted).
the road is now water. the sky is a lighter blue with white, fluffy clouds. a few windows added (need more work).

There is a request for a bridge (I don't know) and not 1, but horses (that's plural), painted horses (my favorite kind). The flagpoles need to be added as well as the flags.

Details. Details. Details.

Shirts and Stickers

I am working on, what I think, are some pretty awesome Christmas gifts for my husband. He will not see these coming!

Hubs has great ideas, but when we look for them online, we can't find it (which is good and also bad. Good because there will be few if any others out there and bad because they are not readily available).



There is a print shop here in town, Alston Ink (http://www.alstonink.com) - they do custom work (Sa-weet!). I went to them today with hubs ideas and they are bringing these ideas to life!

If this works out, I can see many trips to A.I. to get other things made.

Now, the title is Shirts and Stickers (most of yall wont think those as great ideas for Christmas), but hubs loves bumper stickers and he also loves unique shirts.

The shirts will be One of a Kind and the stickers...well, we looked online for _____ stickers and could not find any, anywhere! So, I told the shop my idea and they are making it!

I put my orders in today and they should be ready by the 21st. Awesome! I will post after Christmas with pictures. He's going to love it.

*if you are wondering, he doesn't blog nor does he read mine - so, it's ok. :)

'Snow'man Ornament

I have a girlfriend that loves her some Jack In the Box (it's a burger joint). So, I made her a Christmas ornament (out of polymer and then hand-painted).

Truth Be Told

A few weeks back Hoss asked about Santa, today it was about the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.

On one hand it is sad, but on the other...I am glad for him to know the truth.

What other *stories* do we tell our kids?

Tuesday Finds

I took Sprout junking with me this morning before taking him to school - these are our finds.



I have always wanted to find a butter dish like this (didn't matter on the pattern) - I plan on listing it in my etsy shop (AmysVintageStuff.etsy.com) - I already have a clear one that I rather like.

The chip balloon bowl was the first I saw and didn't think twice about putting it in my cart. Then I saw the fridge dishes - DBD (death by dishwasher), but I like that. They were used and loved. I plan on keeping those. And finally the lil butter dish.



Looking at the balloon bowl - it shows well. But then there is a minor chip on the smaller handle. Smaller chip...I can deal with.



Didn't see this til I was at the register. I bought it still (obviously) and plan to gift it. I have a couple girlfriends that are starting to collect.

Ouch!

This was Hoss this morning going to school. 2 steps out of the house and he slipped on the nice layer of ice we had (nice surprise to wake to this morning), smacked his head on the sidewalk = BIG KNOT - Ouch! He ended up staying home today because hubs said the roads were awful; said he slid into the lot of a car dealership on his way to work.

Hoss wanted to go to school, he said their ice packs were better than my bag of frozen peas. :(

Let's hope your Monday was better than ours.

Castle Mural - other pictures

Castle Mural

I started a new mural today. Put in about 7 1/2 hours and I. Am. Spent! Ow.



Using a projector again (having sketched out the image a few days ago). This was very different from the Spider man cityscape.



I traced out the castle and then using brown paint started painting in the shadows.
Dark blue framing the castle (to make it POP).








My client picked out purple for the castle. Using an eggplant for shadows (painting over the brown) and a lighter shade for the main body. It looks good.

It's only about 80-90% finished. I still need to add trees, the road, a horse and details...lots and lots of detail.