finally, a quote.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. -- Anais Nin



Very busy day today.
Helped a friend get her garden spot ready for her garden this year, and helped watch her 4 year old, plus my little 2 year old.
Then Ellie and I went to the city with my sister to shop for baby shower presents. Of course we went to Target and Ellie got all kinds of new Sesame Street stuff from the Dollar Spot. Aunties are cool like that :)

As promised, here is my favorite quote of the day.
And tomorrow, I think we are finally going FOSSIL HUNTING!
I'll be sure to take pics to post :)

Happy Thursday lovelies!
xo
Rachel

busy doing nothin

So I haven't posted in a while.
I'm sorry :(

The last 2 Treasure Hunting Fridays were kinda a total bust for me. The first one it rained, so no pictures, and on both there weren't any great treasures at all. And we didn't get to go fossil hunting either time :(

I'm hoping in a week or two I'll be able to get back out there and find some more neat rocks!

So I've basically been stuck at home this week. Which is fine, but not exactly exciting stuff.
Here's what I've been working on this week:
hand stitched cards and boxes!

 These are the little kraft boxes I send my jewelry orders out in. I took some embroidery thread and stitched the words "soar" and "fly" into them.
This project has taught me some things. 1, My handwriting is kind of ugly. and 2, on some words, my handwriting is really ugly. So right now I'm looking for words that I can write in a pretty sort of way. And then I kind of go from there :)
I'm thinking about adding some stars, hearts, maybe flowers?

I don't have a picture of the cards. I'll try to get one up in the morning.
I even did a card for Aaron from a drawing he made of 2 stick figure people flying a kite. Cute <3

And I've come up with a really cool idea for his 1 year anniversary gift (which is quickly approaching!). It involves embroidering/handstitching, Game of Thrones, and paper, of course.

I'll pop back tomorrow with some pictures of my cute little cards and more boxes.
And I'm promising now, I WILL put up a new quote tomorrow.
It's been too long, I'm in trouble with myself now.

xoxo
Rachel

side-tracked.

Okay, I know I was going to show you guys this fabric wrapped frame, but I've gotten kind of side-tracked.
That happens a lot with me. You'll get used to it ;)

I thought I had enough fabric to do my frame, but I was wrong. So, so wrong. So I'm on the hunt for a couple of vintage sheets this week.
So I decided I'd try to make some fabric wrapped hangers. Like fancy padded hangers for your skinny strap tops and dresses, but shabby looking. And cheap.

Here's what I came up with:

Pretty cute :)
And that dress that is hanging on it is my new favorite Goodwill find, a Steppin' Out little black party dress from the 90s that is toooooo adorable. And I even found shoes to go with it! (The photo does not do the hanger justice :( sorry for the horrible picture. I'm doing this while Ellie is napping and I'm kind of trapped upstairs with her for a bit.)

So all week long I've been telling my friends at {Etsy} about these awesome things I find on Fridays.
On Fridays, my aunt and I go thrifting at local thrift shops, and sometimes if the weather is nice and Ellie is at her grandma's then we go fossil hunting.
My family has some land with a large quarry on it, and it is completely full of fossils. We love to go out there and see what we can find.

You can purchase an instant collection of these fossilzed shells and coral {here} and {here}
I think they would be so cool in a terrarium! Or made into jewelry....I may even try wire-wrapping some myself.

My aunt and uncle sent some pictures off to a professional and he believes these are all from the Ordovician period, over 400 million years ago and before dinosaurs, when everything was basically an ocean (at least that's what I think. I'm no expert at this stuff. I just like to go find these little treasure.) These fossils came from the same area where we have also found tentacles from a nautilus type giant squid from that period (those photos were also looked at), and we have found several trilobites as well.
Right now we are trying to figure out a way to get the trilobites out of the rock they are in, because it probably weighs 2 tons.

So my aunt and I have started calling these adventures Treasure Hunting Friday.
And of course I'm going this week.
My friend Brittany (creator of the Little Green Guy, the most adorable little monster dolls and artwork {LittleGreenGuy}) asked me if I was going to blog about it.

So yes, yes I am.
I'll try to get some fun pictures and hopefully the weather will be perfect for fossil hunting. And also hopefully I can talk my mom into babysitting :)

Hopefully by Saturday I will have an awesome treasure-hunting post for you lovelies!
Now I'm off for some me-time before my little monster wakes up. Angel. I mean angel ;)
xo!
Rachel

coming soon : vintage fabric wrapped frames!

I'm so excited.
I have been planning to make this {fabulous frame} that I saw online from Fresh and Fun, and I have finally gathered all the components.

First, I found this big wooden frame at the thrift store. It wasn't even marked, so they gave it to me for a quarter. Yes. It was awesome.

 Then I got these lovely little vintage sheet scraps from {JaneSaysVintage} on Etsy. They got here yesterday and they are adorable. I got enough for 2 projects for about $4.00 plus shipping! Just look for "fat quarters." I didn't know what they were, but apparently they are adorable little folded squares of cloth.

My frame is quite a bit wider than the one in the original post, but I think it will still work the same basic way. I can't wait to try this!
As soon as I get more than about one nanosecond to myself without Ellie asking me to do something, I'm going to try this out.
And of course I'll probably make an ass of myself in the process. And share it with you through pics :)

I also got some awesome treasures yesterday on my weekly "outing" (ohmygod, I sound like an old woman! lol!) and I'll be blabbing some new favorites this week too.

Happy weekend, lurrrrverlies!
xo
R.

inspired by birds

I made a treasury today that I absolutely lurrrrrrve.

All inspired by my little 2 year old Ellie, who got so excited looking out the window onto our roof today. She was going, "A beard! A beard!" (which means bird in E-speak, obviously.)
My sister was upstairs while this was going on and she said, "Oh honey, you'll never be able to catch it. It'd just fly away."

That made me think.
That must be the really nice thing about being a bird; that you can just fly away.

Anyway, here's the treasury I made (you can also see it down below on your right, with another gorgeous collection) and I'm gonna follow that up with some of my favorite quotes about birds.

the {nice} thing about birds is they can {fly} away

a bird doesn't sing because it has an answer. it sings  because it has a song. -- maya angelou

a forest  bird never wants a cage. -- henrik ibsen

be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings. -- victor hugo

i know why the caged bird sings. -- maya angelou

the reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. -- j. m. barrie

faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark. -- rabindranath tagore
hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune--without the words, and never stops at all -- emily dickinson If you can find a quote about birds, flight, and freedom, I'd lurrrve to hear it! xoxo Rachel

weaving to the bone.....

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in, like, forever.

I've been weaving my fingers basically down to the bone.


One of my only tutorial posts so far was about how to make chevron patterned friendship bracelets. I love the look of them and chevrons are hot hot hot for summer this year :)
So of course, I've been spending waaaaay too much time making them, and weaving my fingers basically down to nubs in the process.

But, look how pretty:

If you just have to be part of this hot (and nostalgic!) summer trend but just don't have the time (they are time-consuming) you can pick up mine here:
{Coral Reef set of 3}

{BFF set of 2}

{Earthy Blues set of 3}

{Team Spirit Wide Band Black and Gold}









They are my new obsession. And they photograph pretty too :)
So here I sit, beer in hand (I'm almost wine-d out from my {wine cork bath mat} that I'm trying to save up corks for.
Yes, I did start the idea as wine cork coasters.
Then my sister said, no, make a bath mat!
Which is fine, except it's going to take about 400 times more corks.


Anyway, I'm rambling now so I'll just get back to my beer and weaving for now...
I promise to have a new quote soon, I'm looking for some good nature photos I can use for their backgrounds. (I just think they look super cool that way!)
xoxo
Rachel

collection of collections -- treasury blitz!

My most fabulous team for my vintage shop on Etsy is having a treasury blitz today.
Basically, we all go find the most awesome, beautiful, amazing things we can on Etsy and make collections to showcase them.
It's super fun, and super super gorgeous.

My friend Anji is keeping a collection of all these...um, collections.
Go. See. Be inspired to buy stuff.

{IYF Treasury Blitz!}

I just made one that I love, it might be my favorite treasury ever. Featuring this adorable print from {innovative mom}

inspire your little monsters
Mine ^^


Let me know if you find something in one of our collections that you just can't live without!
xoxo
Rachel