Saying Goodbye to 2010 and Inspired by the Possibilities of 2011!

I simply can't believe that when I wake up tomorrow, I will be living in the year 2011. It seems like such a short time ago that we were amazed that that first two numbers of the year changed from 19 to 20. So so much has happened this year and I thought it would be fun to recap some big events in my life and some of my favorite blog posts from the past 365 days. Here goes...



After closing the Brick and Mortar Fidget Finds shop in Newport, RI at the end of December 2009 and moving out of my spectacular apartment in downtown Newport, I spent the months of January and February traveling in Southeast Asia. I hopped on a plane and flew to Bangkok which started my adventure in Thailand and Laos. It was an amazing and challenging experience and something that has forever changed my life.






In March, as I acclimated back to American Culture (which was a challenge in itself), I started thrift shopping and listing items on etsy again, experimenting with outfit photoshoots (here and here), eating healthy, and exploring my own backyard.




April was more of the same as the weather warmed up a bit. I spent lots of time with friends and family, took a stroll on the cold early spring beach, and welcomed the first blossoms of spring. I also found a new studio space for Fidget Finds, began setting it up, and read a crafty book from the 70's.




May was the month when the ball really started rolling. I started selling my vintage wares at summer markets, including SOWA in Boston and Craft O Rama in New Bedford. Even though they're so much work I really do enjoy markets. I get to meet so many great people and find homes for my favorite vintage items. I also took a quick trip to NYC, drooled over the amazing antiques at Brimfield, spoke at my old high school's Environmental Day, took a bike ride through the country, and even got dressed a couple of times.





June was the beginning of an unbelievably awesome summer. I went boating in a vintage tender around Newport, experienced that wonder that is Bonnaroo firsthand, attended one of my best friend's lovely bridal shower, started off the summer of many weddings, and took some adorable pics of my parent's adopted pit bull, Zeus.






July is just about my favorite month of the year! Brian and I both celebrate our birthdays, mine on the first and his twenty days later (where I wrote a post about how much he means to me). I also got a little wild at a friend's bachelorette party, attended her wedding, had my first trunk show at Rummage, and spent some time at Sakonnet Point in Little Compton.






Well, I'm getting a little snow blind from looking at the computer for so long so stay tuned for Part Two of the 2010 recap in the next few days and have fun clicking the links (the light gray lettered words) to explore this past year for Fidget Finds!

New Warm Boots!

Yesterday I worked at Rummage in Tiverton Four Corners and snapped these pics of my weather appropriate outfit in front of Cara's amazing collection of vintage clothing and antique artifacts for your home. I wore a black cardigan from Target, a vintage thrifted top, long tank from Express, Theory leggings, vintage jewelry, and my new absolutleypostitivlywarmestbootsintheworld! My mom bought me these amazing Emu shearling boots for Christmas and they have already changed my life forever. As soon as the weather starts to turn cool my feet become little ice cubes attached to the bottom of my legs. I have frozen numb feet for most of the winter and spend most of my time being very uncomfortable because of this. It prevents me from leaving the house a lot because I know when I go out my feet will freeze and it will ruin my night. Well, not any longer! These boots are so unbelievably soft on the inside and keep my feet toasty warm for the entire day. I am soso happy to not be cursed with cold feet anymore and can't wait for all the amazing things I'm going to be able to do this winter without worrying about cold feet!




When I was shooting the above photos, my camera took this weird ghost image of me as I was walking to pose for the camera. Spooky...

Handmade Gift: Personal Photo Journal

One of the gifts that I gave Brian this year for Christmas was a photo scrapbook of us. It pretty much chronicles our adventures and the places we've visited together in the past 2 1/2 years since we've been together. I wanted to make something personal with photographs but not just photos in an album.

I filled my flash drive with 100+ photos and got them printed at a locally owned photo shop downtown. I opted for a matte finish and added white borders around each photo. I think that printed photos look best that way. I hate the way super glossy digital printed photos look; no depth and sometimes even blurry.

When I went to find a book to display them in, I couldn't find the album/journal that looked so nice in my mind. I went to three small local boutiques but they only had really small journals and as a last resort I went to Target who only had albums and scrapbook journals with plastic coverings for the pages and that was something that I really wanted to avoid. A light went on in my head and I went to a big name craft store and purchased this hard covered Canson spiral bound field drawing book with really heavy pages and it was perfect! Double points as it was made in the USA.

I had originally intended to attach the photos to the page with black photo corners but these have to be placed absolutely perfectly in order to not look messy, which isn't exactly my style. I like things in a more hap hazard, lay as they fall way. After some experimentation with with this awesome 1/4" black masking tape that I used with almost every fashion school project, I found a happy medium. The pages turned out minimalist and symmetrical within themselves but I placed every page differently so the viewers eye would bounce around a bit.

Only about a quarter of the photos that I printed were attached before Christmas, so I still have a lot more work to complete this section of the book. I plan on adding more photos every year to chronicle our times together. Below are the pages that I've finished so far, showing the first 8 or so months of our relationship from July 2008 to March 2009 including a road trip to Savannah, Georgia and a visit to my sister in Fort Lauderdale. Oh, and Brian absolutely loved it!

A White (Day After) Christmas

Wow, what an amazing weekend I had! I got to spend so much time with my and Brian's family, gave and received so many absolutely perfect gifts (more on that later this week), and ate so much food! I think I've been on a constant sugar high for the past three days. Yesterday it started snowing really hard in the afternoon and stormed pretty well into the night. The electricity even went out for a bit so I lit the house up with candles and we played games by candle light. We were actually kinda bummed when the lights came back on so we shut them all off and pretended that the blackout lasted longer than it actually did. Everything is so much more romantic in the flicker of candle flames. We woke up this morning with with a couple of feet of snow on the ground and much shoveling and digging out cars to attend to. I just love the snow. As much as I hate being cold, the snow really makes New England winters worth it. I think we might even go sledding this afternoon!







Brian's new lego set helping me eat my feta omelette this morning!

Holdiay Cheer

I can't believe Christmas is just two short days away! I'm a last minute holiday spirit kind of girl (I change all the radio presets in my car when my usual stations start playing only Christmas music) and I usually only start getting excited a week or two before the 25th. Well, needless to say, it happened again this year. I wasn't super psyched until I started piling up all of Brian's presents and getting really excited for him to open them! Of course I love receiving gifts but I almost love giving them more. I wrapped them all in brown paper (which I plan on reusing to ship packages as I hate wasting paper) and tied them with vintage lace trims in all different colors. To the black tied packages Brian responded "Did Tim Burton wrap those for you?" He's so fresh. But speaking of Tim Burton we've been watching mucho movies since it's started getting so darn cold out, Nightmare Before Christmas being one of them. I love that movie, it's just so weird and already old looking compared with all the CGI animation that's out now. What else have we been watching? Shutter Island, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Exit Through the Gift Shop (a really awesome Banksy documentary), and Arrested Development because I just can't get enough of that show! We did a little research to watch a specific episode last night because I just really needed some Gene Parmesan in my life. Maybe tonight we'll watch some Bob Loblaw episodes.

We have the smallest most precious Christmas tree this year! I wasn't even planning on getting one, by Brian convinced me that we should and I'm so glad he did. It's a live tree so I'll either plant it outside in the spring or if it's doing well in the house, just keep it indoors and use it again next year! We purchased some lights and borrowed some old ornaments from Brian's mom. The ones that she didn't want were the handmade kitchy ones from the 60's, so it worked out perfectly. We even snagged Brian's favorite one from childhood; this weird stuffed animal with a stocking stitched right to his nose!