How rad is this?!

Last Saturday, Rob and I went to the Punk Rock Flea Market in Philadelphia in hopes of snagging some last minute gifts. And we found the perfect one. We ended up giving this punk doll head tissue box holder to Rob's younger brother. I don't think he knew quite how to react to it. Personally, I think it's the most awesomest thing ever! I wouldn't want it in my house, but I love it!


According to the r5 Productions website, the artist's name is Lance Pawling. That guy rocks.

Very Merry

It was a marvelous holiday this year! On Christmas Eve we went to Rob's grandmother's house, where his family got together and scarfed down as much seafood as possible. Fried shrimp, scallops, calamari, salmon, crab legs....mmmmmm. I ate so much I couldn't have dessert. There was some Wii. We watched Santa go by on the fire truck. All in all, a great night. I was pooped by the time we got home, but I had to be up early the next morning to prepare for the arrival of my parents and grandfather.

But before that, Santa came! Rob and I had a scaled-down holiday since we just treated ourselves to a new tv. We had a limit that I know he blew. But I deserve it! Here's a little holiday montage.


1.) New Coat #1 - from Rob; 2.) Spiderman card - Rob had some snazzy SpiderMel artwork on the inside; 3.) Rob modeling his new Puma jacket; 4.) Rob's favorite gift of the year - from my parents; 5.) My favorite present; 6.) "Thanks for the coat, darling!"; 7.) Gifts are exciting; 8.) New Coat #2 - from my parents

I snagged some great loot. Besides my awesome two coats, I received some great gift cards, a whole "nap" set including blanket, pillow, and socks, and a car stereo. After a big meal (thanks to Boston Market), a ginormous chocolate cream pie (thanks to Wegmans) and loads of presents, we all gathered round the fire to relax. Mindy (my mom's puppy) looked especially comfy. After my family left, I put my "nap" set to good use on the couch in front of the fire. The perfect end to the perfect holiday.

And to all a good night!

I have so much to blog about but not enough time to blog. C'mon, it's Christmas Eve! (And I'm at work!) So let me just say that my upcoming blog posts will be about the following:

• Punk Rock Flea Market


• My Awesome Thift Store Find


• Rockport books


• Christmas Happenings

And lots of pictures will accompany those. But in the meantime:

Custom Work: Party Invitations

Because the holiday invitations that I made (see previous post) were such a hit, I had two folks (coworkers) ask me to work on projects for them! Not to mention one of the recipients may possibly be interested in wedding invitations. I would love to get that job.

Anyway, one of the projects I mentioned was to make birthday party invitations for a 2 year old girl. The parents are renting out a room at this art facility, laying down paper on the floor, and letting kids go to town with crayons and such. Awesome idea! So she wanted something bright and fun. I found the patterned paper from American Crafts at Michaels, and I thought it was perfect.

This was a great project because I only had to make 25! I normally get myself into these things and have to force myself to get through hundreds, but this was a piece of cake! Anyway, here it is. The photos are terrible, taken on my kitchen counter. I'll get some better ones soon.

Custom Work: Holiday Card & Invitation

Every year over the last five years I've done Christmas Eve Open House invitations for the same couple. It's a big project, only because they usually need around 100. And I'm a glutton for punishment, so I always find ways to incorporate bows or glitter or some other torturous hand work that has me doubled over in wrist pain by invitation #47. But it's still one of my favorite annual projects!

This year they wanted to incorporate a photo of their daughter. And they wanted to do a blue/brown color scheme with "snowflakes" suggested. Perfect. Coincidentally it was the same time I designed my January month calendar page with, you guessed it, snowflakes.

I've received some compliments from recipients of the card, so that makes me really happy. I'll be looking forward to designing the next one!

Let them eat jarred cake!

I read on one of my favorite blogs, How About Orange, about baking cake in jars. Apparently it's great for preservation purposes, but I thought it was perfect for gift-giving purposes! So I made a stop at The Container Store on the way home from work and snagged a bunch of pint-sized jars. Then I stopped at Target for cake mix and icing. You didn't think I was going to bake a cake from scratch, did you? C'mon! I'm a busy lady! I barely had time to whip up the mix!

Anyway, I think they came out super cute. I packaged them up with a label and a spoon, and now the recipients are set to snack. Since I didn't have a chance to try one out, I'm awaiting feedback on the taste. Hopefully they turned out chocolatey-delicious.

It is better to receive...

...which is why I keep buying myself stuff. I haven't purchased a single Christmas gift, but I've bought myself a crapload of things.

I saw a photo of these Christmas cards on Flickr, and I knew I had to have them!


from fivetwofive

I came upon these tags in the blogosphere and they reminded me of my old childhood spirograph. Although my designs never looked this gorgeous.


from elfrida

Rob and I have been watching a lot of Mythbusters lately. That show cracks me up. In one episode, Kari was wearing this shirt, so of course, I bought one for myself.


I really need to cut it out. Between these gifts to myself and all the things I've bought for the party (I swear, I NEEDED a cake plate!), I'm going to be broke before I even start Christmas shopping.

And the winner is...

...anam! Anam said, "It was always October when I lived in MA. but now that I'm in AZ it has to be December. Nice cool days and nights. Such a relief after so many months of over 100 degree days." Congratulations! I drew your name off of my kitchen counter! I didn't go through the whole fishbowl production this time. :)

You didn't leave any contact info, so send an email to mel829 at mac dot com with your address and I'll be sure to get your prize out right away.

Thanks for participating everyone! I really need to do contests more often because it's so much fun! And for folks who might be interested still, [insert shameless plug] I have calendars available in my etsy shop.

Last chance to enter!

Just wanted to mention that the drawing for the new 2008 melissahead desk calendar is tonight! If you haven't left a comment, do so now! Enter here!


I'm really surprised at the great feedback I've had. I actually sold four calendars, can you believe it??? I may sound surprised because I don't really sell much of anything. I was so excited wrapping them up in brown paper with white bows and packaging them up for the post office. And I'll do the same tonight for the winner of the contest!

Woah, whaddup wit blogger?

I thought it was strange that I had only two responses to my contest post. In fact, I was a little sad. Then I head over to the comment moderation page this morning and there were 14 in there! Sheesh. Okay, now I feel a little less pathetic.

By the way, I got my hair cut and colored yesterday. Just a trim and a touch up. The blonde streak has been toned down, so it's less drastic. For now. And it's all short and choppy, which I love. Still trying to get a hang of the new wax I bought. I have to say, I LOVE my hairdresser. She is the bestest! So if you're in the Philly area, go to Sandi at American Mortals. She's an artist!

Here I am:

How about a contest?

RJ of Stationery Hustle reminded me that I wanted to hold one more contest by the end of the year. And since I just finished up my calendar, let's go with that as the prize!

Just leave me a comment telling me your favorite month of the year and why. I'd have to go with June. Great weather. It's a non-hectic time at work. That's when I got married. And Flag Day! (Just kidding about that last part.) I'll pick a random winner on Monday, December 10th in the evening. Good luck!

Problem solved?

Sure, it was a cop out. I used June's design for August.

Am I done? Did I really complete a project?

So close!

One more month to go! And it happens to be my birthday month, so I need to make it extra-special. Someone had recommended beach balls. That might be cute. Little bouncing beach balls. (And thanks for the suggestion of mosquitos, Jeope, but I'm not sure I could do such a magnificent creature justice.)

I actually had someone contact me about buying a calendar, which totally stuns me! But it also makes me really happy to know that someone else out there likes what I've done. So that's pressure to make sure it turns out well.

Here are the 11 months I have. I'm so close to done!

Blue Christmas

What kid doesn't love Christmas? I have so many wonderful memories of the holiday growing up. The only person that enjoyed it as much as I did was my grandmother. She had more decorations than any normal person could comprehend. She even put up two trees. One was big and full, decorated with red, traditional ornaments. The other was tall and thin, decorated Victorian style, with pink ribbons and angels. It looked like it came straight out of a Martha Stewart magazine.

My grandmother passed away a few years ago, and it seems our holiday traditions died along with her. My family didn't seem to care as much about the holidays, and now everyone has (pretty much) moved away. So I felt it was my job to keep some tradition alive. I inherited my grandmother's Victorian tree and ornaments, and for the last three Christmas's, I decorated it exactly as I remember. The same each year. But this year I wanted to try something different. I thought it might be nice to modernize it. Add my own flair. So I bought a crap-load of ornaments from IKEA and Target and went to town.

After I finished, I was so upset. It wasn't the same. These ornaments were meaningless! The tree looked like any other tree, not my grandmother's tree. Then I started thinking about how Christmas hasn't been the same since I lost my grandmother. Gone are the days of buying a fancy new dress for Christmas dinner, licking the whipped cream off of the egg beaters, playing games while waiting to open gifts, and sitting, talking, and laughing around the big old table like a Norman Rockwell painting. No one cares like she did.

Well, I do! I care! And even though things might be different, I have to remain filled with the holiday spirit, hoping it's as contagious as my grandmother's was! Like Rob said to me yesterday while comforting me, "Just because it's different doesn't mean it can't be great!" He's right. I don't have to have everything the same exact way to honor her and her traditions. I can add my own style to it.

So, after all that blubbering, here's my tree.

Ahh yes.

That does look better.


click for a larger view

Halfway done.

I can't believe it, but I'm actually halfway done with my calendar. If all else fails, I can hand them out with half a year and it won't be that weird. Okay, it would be.

Check it out! I'd be proud to display this on my desk! Although, I don't know how I feel about April. Since it's the only one so far with one large graphic instead of a bunch of scattered small ones, I feel it stands out. I may toy with changing it to a few smaller umbrellas. Not sure yet.


click for a larger view

2 More Months

I was able to get two new months of my calendar done. I vow to finish these by Christmas! I'm happy so far, but I have a fear that I'm going to run out of ideas around June. Or it's going to start looking boring or stupid. Guess there's only one way to find out.

Mission: Failed

Well, as you may or may not have noticed, I gave up on my "post every day" goal. I missed on Thanksgiving, and then I realized throughout the weekend, if I post, it's going to be a generic, "post 'cause I have to" kind of thing. So I figured I'd wait until I actually had something to say.

I don't right now.

But I felt guilty, so I figured I'd better say something. I sent out some invitations to our holiday party. Here's how they looked.


I printed them on Stardream Quartz and mounted them on this awesome red corrugated cardboard that I found. I'm still paranoid that no one is going to show up and there's going to be four of us sitting in my living room, scarfing down a tray of wraps and a platter of pigs in a blanket, washing it down with pitchers of appletinis.

I also have hopes of finishing a calendar to pass out to family for the holidays. I snagged 20 of those calendar jewel cases that are ever-so-popular nowadays. I'm keeping the designs as simple as possible. Easier for me to design, and generic enough that everyone should enjoy it. So far, I have one month done. How lame is that?


I know I'm going to be scrambling on Christmas Eve to get the other 11 months finished. It's just how I do things!

A tag? Really?

I didn't really think anybody read my blog. But I have been tagged by Bianca (thanks for thinking of me!) and will follow the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

In high school, I was really into crazy manicures. I had all sorts of brushes and rhinestones. I even used to do my friends' nails before dances l for money. The best, though, was when I painted a different Looney Tunes character on each nail with the WB logo on my thumbs. They were so accurate that everyone thought they were decals.

When I was 7, I took a year of dance. But one day I couldn't master a particular jump, and I hated feeling like a failure, so I quit.

I am so athletically challenged that I can't do a pull up, a push up, or even a cartwheel.

A few months ago I entered a contest held by my favorite band, Belle & Sebastian. They were looking for singers for a film, so I submitted an entry. If you're curious, here's one of my submission songs. I didn't win, of course.

And though this isn't very interesting for you to read, my last fact is that I get to leave work early today! Woot woot!!!

Let's see, now who do I tag? How about these folks:
Mary #1, Mary #2, Maria, Jenn, and Tomoko.

Gift Card Boxes

I had mentioned in an earlier post how I planned on decorating gift card boxes this year. I went a little overboard at Michael's. Well, I really want to jump into this, but it'll probably be a while before my gift boxes arrive. So I did a test run on one of my card boxes. (Forgive the awful camera phone picture.)


It's plain and very traditional, but a fun start. I love wrapping gifts, which is probably why I'm looking forward to this project. I stocked up at Giftwrap Wonderland at The Container Store, and I'm ready and raring to go! C'mon US Box! Send me my stuff!

That's MY Dirt

For the first time in months, I drove by the plot of our future home on Saturday. They were supposed to have started by now, but it seems like there's been no breaking of ground just yet.

It was still exciting to see though. There were some people working on the building next to ours. This was the building we initially wanted, but we were a day too late, and the spot had sold. So we had to take the next building, which happened to be $5000 more expensive for the same EXACT home. But I'm not bitter.


Here's our dirt! They had a sign out front with our new address. I can't wait to see what it's going to be like! I wonder how our neighbors will be. I wonder how long it'll be before they build the clubhouse and river promenade. I wonder how the commute into work will be. I wonder how big the master closet is going to feel.

A Year of Holiday Cards

I made these a while ago, but I never photographed the finished result. This is my Holiday Set of cards. I'm trying to think of a catchy name, but I've been unsuccessful so far. Basically, it's ten 3.5"x5" flat cards with matching 4Bar envelopes, and each card represents a different holiday of the year.





I had them for sale at the last craft show I attended, but I didn't even sell one set. Then again, I didn't really sell much of anything, so that probably doesn't mean much. But I listed them at my etsy shop here, so we'll see what happens.

I really want to work on my gift card boxes. I hope they arrive soon.

Woah!

I'm sitting here at 11:27 PM, realizing that I never posted today! So here I am.

I picked up this great, red corrugated cardboard to use as the backing of my holiday invitation. I think it'll be neat. I ended up going with design #1. You guys convinced me!

I also drove by our "land". They haven't broken ground yet. But they are putting up the building next to ours, so that was fun to see. Also, there's a sign in front of our property with our future address and the word "SOLD." Hurry up and build it already!

Anyway, got home from the Flyers game a little while ago, so I'm going to head up to bed, catch an episode of Extras or Flight of the Conchords and get some sleep. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

It's all in the presentation.

I know I said a few days ago that I was giving melissahead a little rest, but I thought of a fun new item that I want to make. I don't know if anyone else would be interested, but I'll toss a few in my etsy shop when they are done.

For holiday gifts, I'm very anti-gift card. Don't get me wrong, they are probably my favorite thing to receive! But I hate giving them. I pride myself on my thoughtfulness and attention to detail. Rob, on the other hand, is all for finishing up his holiday shopping at the gift card rack of local grocery store. But instead of tossing the card in an envelope with the recipient's Christmas card this year, I thought it would be nice to make beautiful, decorative gift card boxes. And the more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea! After all, it's all in the presentation.

So I picked these up from usbox.com. The left one I ordered in white, and the right one I ordered in black.


I can't wait until they arrive! And then last night I stopped at Michael's to pick up some pieces to use for embellishing the boxes. Here's a sneak peek at some it.


I could throw on some flowers, berries, ribbons, fibers, sparkly shit, bells, mini ornaments. You name it! And I was thinking about printing out custom monograms or holiday sayings. Stuff like that. It'll be a fun project. So I'll keep you all updated as I go through it. At least having a beautiful box will make me feel better about giving a generic gift.

Invitation Color Palette Help

I need help. We need to get these invitations out soon, if we really want to have this get-together. But I'm having a tough time deciding on colors. And do I really need to coordinate my holiday decorations with my invitations? Because that would make things more difficult for me.

Anyway, I'd love to hear/read your thoughts about these color options below. THANKS!

Oh happy day!

I think a Polyphonic Spree show is natural Prozac. They are so positive and hopeful. Kind of the opposite of Bright Eyes, if you think about it. But I was sitting there last night, enjoying the show, not thinking about work, and I felt truly happy!

Some blurry photos of the show:

I was able to get a few pieces of video, just to show people who have never heard of the Spree.


Here's a little snippet of them performing Nirvana's Lithium.


I tried so hard to get video of the confetti canons, but I was always a few seconds off. They seem like they have so much fun. I think I'd like to be one of those singing and dancing girls, but it seems long hair is a requirement.

Quick!

Just enough time to tell you that I don't have any time!

Things are brutal for me at work right now, so I can barely squeeze out a hello. But I made my promise to post every day in November, so as lame as this is, it's my entry for today.

Despite being swamped at work, I have to rush out of here, go home, change, head to a "wine and cheese" at a friend's home, and then go to the Polyphonic Spree show tonight. Egads!!!!!!

"A Song to Pass the Time"

Last night was the first of three shows this week, and what a great start. Bright Eyes is one of my favorite bands, by far. And not to sound like one of the 13 year old girls from the show last night, but "I love you, Conor!" And I'm grateful to him for delighting my ears and breaking my heart.


If you're unfamiliar with him, here's a song to pass your time.

Bright Eyes – A Song to Pass the Time

Oh, and if you're interested, I have a really crappy video from one of my favorite songs last night. The visual sucks, but the audio isn't so bad. click here

It was completely worth the little sleep I got. Now where's my Starbucks?

O Christmas tree!

Okay fine. I know I keep going back and forth with our holiday party, but I think we're sticking with the December 15th date. And it'll be less of a "family" type thing and more of a "friend" type thing. That's fine. So now we need to figure out our guest list and catering and all that other party stuff.

With the party in mind, I was browsing around Crate and Barrel's website yesterday (while sitting in front of the fire with a cozy blanket.) The outlet section had so many great bargains! I really had to stop myself from going all out. I promised Rob I wouldn't buy a bunch of new junk that we'd only have to pack and move in March. But hey, I don't have any entertaining pieces. And my holiday decorations are limited to a tree and a Santa figure.

One of my favorite buys was this set of eight porcelain tree dishes for only $10. What a deal! They'll be perfect for little snacks like cashews or hershey's kisses.


I also picked up these goodies.

Holiday Shapes Cake Pan
Snowflake Ice Cubes
Cinna Sparkle Pinecone Bag
Five Pillar Candle Holder

Thanks HOW!

I didn't mention this earlier because I wanted to wait until I showed my parents. I held off until the issue was released, just in case there were any delays (or anyone changed their minds.) But anyway, I was featured in the December issue of HOW! (On newsstands now.) It was way cool, and I'm grateful to HOW for this opportunity.


Despite that, I think I'm taking a little break from melissahead. I'll still have my shop, but I probably won't have any new items any time soon. And since I don't really receive any orders, it's not going to be much of a change. But I think I need to focus on the job that pays my bills, especially since it's been so high-stress lately. I'm still going to craft, of course. Although I think it's going to be for personal purposes. In a few months, or after we move into our new home, maybe I'll get back into it.

Tomorrow starts our "concert week". Bright Eyes tomorrow. Polyphonic Spree and Rooney on Wednesday. And Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on Friday. I'm going to be very tired next weekend.

2 hours to spare

I was afraid I wasn't going to make a post today, but I'm squeezing in a short one.

Atlantic City was a success! After many struggling hours, I was able to convince my mom to go. The only catch was that we'd have to take the bus. Easy peasy. And my mom was a big winner! She hit a $1100 jackpot! And somehow I stayed on the plus side, even after some bad roulette rounds. So all in all, a very profitable birthday trip. Yay! Although I have to say, casinos are some of the ugliest places I have ever seen. The carpets. The graphics. Icky.

On another front, our party might be moved or cancelled. Just found out that Rob's family is going to be busy that day. Hmm, so maybe a New Years Eve party instead?

Jackpot!

For my mom's birthday, I'm going to offer to take her to Atlantic City tomorrow. She loves that place, but now that her dog has taken over her life, she won't leave it at home for longer than an hour or two. So since Rob and my dad will be around to puppy-sit, I might actually get her out of the house.

My mom is a big gambler. Video poker mostly. And I can see how addictive it is, but I try my best to avoid casinos. One too many bad roulette incidents. Damn that "0" and "00"!! Maybe I'll bring a book and hang out at the bar.

So anyway, I promised I wouldn't be diary-like, so let me share some shopping notes. I want to have a holiday party on Dec 15th. Despite my challenges regarding what time to hold the stupid thing, my other big question has to do with paper plates. Well they have to look nice! Here are some of the ones I was checking out.

Crate and Barrel - Samovaari Paper Plates
I love the pattern, and square plates are a nice change of pace. But it might feel like too much red.



Plum Party's Solid Scalloped Plates
These might be fun with a funky patterned cocktail napkin. Not crazy about the shape. Plus, I don't even know if I want to do red and green. I was thinking maybe a deep red and ice blue. Then again, I'm a sucker for a lime green.




Plates & Napkins Funky Diagonals
I think I'd like these with a solid color dinner plate and solid napkins.



Or, on a totally different level.

Bambu's Veneerware
They don't scream "Christmas", but they are very earth-friendly. Who knows? With the right napkins, these could be very cool! It's not glitzy, that's for sure. But I could decorate around these, I think.



What do you think????

Happy Birthday, Mom!

It's my mom's 50th birthday today! I'll be heading up there this weekend to "celebrate." By "celebrate" I mean lie around and do nothing, except maybe take a nap. I just have to say, I am so proud of her. I just found out that she quit smoking a month ago! I have been pestering her for my entire life. I really hope she sticks with it because I need her to stay around as long as possible.

In other news, I spent 4 hours of my life nearly crying over Leopard yesterday. The stupid thing screwed me all up. It ended up just being minor, and easily fixable issues, but it was high stress. Especially since I'm swamped at work. So my advice? Upgrade at your own risk!

Oh yeah, and we bought a new tv last night! It's a 26" LCD that was on clearance at Circuit City. Not that big, but way better than the 20" tube from the 90's that we had in our bedroom! It's so thin and light. Purty cool. So we said that's our Christmas present to each other. A little early.

This is gonna be hard!

Things are so busy for me right now, so even if I have to post something small, I have to make sure I post something.

So I have three things to mention for today. First, I just installed Leopard on my Mac. Operating systems are never a huge deal to me, and this one is no different. But there are some neat features that I'm sure to become dependent upon. "Spaces" being number one. And "Stacks" in the new finder is pretty sweet as well. What I really need, though, is a new desktop wallpaper. Anyone have any good resources for that?

Number two. Here's a photo I took out of my work window yesterday.



My old office had a view of the hubbub of center city. Now I have a calm view of the northeast, but it's still pretty cool. I can see much further without all the skyscrapers in the way. I liked how graphic the parking garage and buildings looked when I punched up the contrast and saturation. I wish that's what it looked like outside, instead of being so...brown.

And finally, it's date night! Rob quit his third job, so now he's down to two. Yay! That means we can still go for weekly sushi, but it won't feel like he's never home. So tonight we're going to see Lars and the Real Girl. Should be fun!

I hope you all are doing well this fine Wednesday!

I can't contain myself!

I am ecstatic about the opening of the new Container Store in Cherry Hill, NJ! The grand opening was Saturday, so of course I dragged Rob out there. The wuss couldn't take more than 20 minutes of crowds of people excited about organization. I have a feeling I'm going to make regular stops there. Thank goodness it's on my way home from work. You know, if I take a different route home.

I picked up a few things.

A little pocket record book from Buttoned Up. I always worry that I'm going to get into an accident and the cops won't know who to notify. I know, I'm weird.

But not as weird as Rob. His paranoia is intense. Even though we have an alarm on our home, he insists on barricading the bedroom door, since it doesn't lock. He wants a few extra seconds to prepare himself to fight the burgler, I guess. So for him, I bought this little travel door alarm. He loves it! I thought this would help him rest easy, without creating a fire hazard. But I woke up this morning to my vanity stool propped up against the door. *sigh*

I also picked up some new microfiber dusters, since I just read how great they are in the latest issue of Real Simple. New file folders, even though I don't need any. A greeting card organizer and ribbon container. Everything is so delightful! And I went back last night for a portfolio to hold magazine clippings (mainly of decorating ideas), and two canvas bins for towels.

In a few months, I'm going to be an organized fool! At least I have the fool part covered.