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!