32 before 33 thursdays

I'm jumping on the bandwagon.

I love these birthday goal lists. Actually I like lists in general, and I really like crossing things off of lists. But I really love these lists. I'm intrigued by other people's dreams, and I like seeing people accomplish their goals.

My birthday was a few weeks ago (July 5th) and I've decided to do my own. So, I'm getting all those random goals that have been running around in my head down onto paper and I'm actually going to work on them.

So, to make sure I do (instead of letting the list sit on the table until someone stuffs it into a drawer until next year when my birthday is approaching and I start tearing the place apart looking for it) every week I'm going to keep you updated on my progress in "32 Before 33 Thursdays."

I'm excited for the coming year and to get started on the list. Have you wrote a birthday goal list? What are some of your goals for the year?

What I'm Digging Wednesdays - Journals

I've been thinking a lot lately about starting a journal. It's something I used to do when I was younger, and is always on my mind as one of those "I should do that" things, but I just never seem to get around to it.

But, I'm going to change that. No really, I am. So, instead of actually doing something productive, I've spent a couple hours on Etsy looking through hundreds of journals and getting more and more inspired. The following are some of my favorites I've found so far:

1. Embossed Black Leather Journal with Heart Key Charm by Boundbyhand.  I love everything about this one; the leather, the key, the ribbon, it's just perfect.

2. The Madeleine - Hand Dyed and Coptic Stitched Journal  by FeedingTheLake. I'm not usually a huge fan of yellow, but it's starting to grow on me and this one kinda reminds of waffle-cut fries.

3. Vintage Brass Pocket Journal by Paperclayjunkie. There's something about chunky adornments that just gets me.

4. Vintage BINGO journal by Thepapergardenuk. I've discovered that you can make a journal out of pretty much anything, and I'm a little obsessed with Bingo, so yeah.

5. Dreamland. Fuschia Mini Diary, Painted Journal, Decorated Cover by CelioDesigns. I love the colors and textures of this painted one.

6. Sketchbook Journal - And Now The Living Spaces by Somavenus. I think collages are cool.

7. Repurposed Vintage Blank Journal-Little Women by Chimelle. Little Women - yay!!

8. Amethyst - vegan suede journal by Moxy. Purple makes me happy.

The only problem now is these are so cool, I'd feel kinda intimidated to write in them. I'd keep waiting for the perfect thing to write, and in the process not write anything at all. I seriously need to get over that. Does anyone else do that?

I Totally Made That Tuesday -- Jewelry Display Frame

I came across this tutorial a couple of weeks ago and really liked the idea of framing your jewelry. I also wanted another frame to use in photos for my new Etsy shop (although I haven't actually used the photos yet). So, I went to the thrift store and started digging. I came across this and decided it would work perfectly:

I painted it, because it was kinda ugly. In the tutorial, Amy screwed in cup hooks along the top, which looks really cool. However, I wanted to be able to use the frame anytime I had a new item for the shop, but I didn't want to have to keep taking the hooks in and out, so I changed it a little. I just took the piece of carboard that was in the mirror and covered it with fabric.

Then I stuck in a few pushpins, and it was done.

So easy, and I think it came out pretty good. And I love that I have somewhere pretty to keep my jewelry, and that I can easily pop the whole thing out when I need to use the frame.

Do you have any cool ways of displaying your jewelry?

What I'm Digging Wednesdays -- I Gotta Have My Daily Grace

So, the other day I was on twitter and clicked on a link to a youtube video... I haven't gotten a whole lot accomplished since.

The video was an episode of Daily Grace, and it was hilarious. And she has over 200 other videos that are just as hilarious. I was up until 3am that first night watching her videos, and I've been watching them every night since then and I don't think I'm even halfway through them.

She's just funny, and cool, and I bet she's awesome to hang out with. Here's a few of my favorites so far: (Note - You might not want to watch these with the kiddos around.)

200 Things The Internet Taught Me

Macachos

Reviews The Casey Anthony Trial

My Body Is Not A Wonderland

Funny right? You can watch the rest at Daily Grace.

I Totally Made That Tuesday -- New Shop Announcement!

I am so excited to announce my new Etsy shop Averly Papercuts!

I discovered papercutting awhile ago and instantly fell in love. I spent a few months practicing on any scrap piece of paper I could get my hands on and then I bought some proper materials and really started cutting.

Finally, I felt ready to open the shop and so I did, exactly two weeks ago today. And to my amazement I sold my first silhouette within a week of opening the shop. It was a custom silhouette of Gone With the Wind. I had so much fun making this piece and my first customer was the sweetest, most perfect first customer I could have wished for.

Here it is:

For those of you not familiar with Papercut Art, it is an art form that involves hand-cutting an entire image from a single sheet of paper. All of my pieces are made of one continuous piece of paper, which means that all parts of the image are connected to each other (there are no “floating” pieces added later).

Each piece is made using an Xacto knife and acid-free archival black silhouette paper, and then mounted onto white mat board.

Here's a few from the shop:

I hope you'll come check out the rest of the shop and let me know what you think!

Miscellaneous Mondays - It's Hot Out!

It was really, really hot today. Way too hot to go outside, so we stayed inside and enjoyed our central air conditioning. However, it's easy to get bored staying inside so we had to entertain ourselves.

To avoid watching tv all day...



Riley entertained us with a finger puppet show...

We read some books...

We did a little dancing...

Ava grabbed her purse to do some shopping...

Riley turned into a transformer?

Ava took the toy puppy for a walk, because the real puppy was lazy and slept all day...

Until Riley woke her up...

And then somebody got tired, so we decided it was a good time to take a nap.



What do you do on inside days?

Sick of Sarah Gets Me All Sweaty

Photo Credit 400bar.blogspot.com

Last Friday we actually went to a bar (it seems like we never get to do that anymore) because one of my absolute favorite bands was playing! Sick of Sarah was at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. It was incredibly hot, there was no air conditioning, and the place was packed full a whole lot of sweaty people... and it was totally worth it.

Photo Credit: Amber McDonald

I am crazy about this band. I first saw them about 5 years ago in Mankato and immediately fell in love with them. I went to a few more shows in Kato, and thought I would be able to see them a lot more once we moved up here to the Twin Cities, but now they're all like big and stuff, and it seems like they're constantly on tour (they're on the Vans Warped Tour right now) so I was so excited to be able to see them again.

Here's a couple of my favorite songs: "Bittersweet"

And the oh so lovely "Paint Like That"

I think they're going to be back here in September and I can't wait to see them again!

What I did last weekend...almost two weeks ago

So, apparently I'm really bad at updating my blog. Trying to do better, I swear. Since I haven't put up any of my "What I did this weekend" posts in awhile I figured I should probably do that.

Almost two weeks ago was the 4th of July. We took Ava to her first parade, spent the afternoon grilling out and eating way too much food, then we went to a carnival before we watched the fireworks. The kids didn't get to sleep until after 11, but then they slept in until 11 the next morning!