Saturday Swap Meet

It was time for another scavenging trip to find more steampunk playthings.  Above is a photo of what I found today.  Stay tuned to (hopefully) see these items featured in some new art soon!

Scavengering for Art Supplies

Yesterday, I spent the morning at the swap meet and then checked out some of the local thrift stores... all in my search for cool stuff to use in my art.  I'm trying to come up with something for a Valentine Steampunk Assemblage swap we're doing on Paper Traders.  I found this store called Architectural Salvage that is awesome!  Most of their stuff is too pricey for my pocketbook but it sure was fun to browse  =)

Out with the old... In with the new...

On the day before leaving town to visit my family for Thanksgiving, I managed to total my car.  The accident was my fault and an embarrassingly stupid move on my part.  Thankfully, no one was seriously injured - it could have been so much worse - but my subcompact 2004 Hyundai Accent didn't fare too well against a Dodge Ram pickup!  I finally got out of my rental and into a new (at least new to me) car - a 2010 Hyundai Elantra with power, cruise, and lots of nice little amenities I had been doing without.  Alas, they came with a car payment attached but at least I have something nice, newer, and reliable to get around in.

On a lighter note, I had a wonderful time visiting my family in Wyoming over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I arrived just in time for the traditional dinner, sacrificed sleep for some Black Friday shopping deals, had a Harry Potter movie marathon with my nieces, went to kindergarten with my youngest niece, watched another niece perform admirably at her swim meet, helped my mom rearrange her art studio, and managed to read a novel and complete an art piece in the process.  Not a very restful vacation but definitely a fun and special one!

This is the art piece I completed on my vacation.  It was my birdhouse-themed contribution for the Fifth Anniversary swap on Paper Traders.  The couples featured are my grandparents and great aunt & uncle  =)

Simple Pleasures' Bag Sale!

Suggested Retail Price = $488
Actual amount I spent = $20

This weekend, my favorite local craft store Simple Pleasures had a fantabulous promotion - as much stuff from their clearance section as you could fit in your bag for $20. The ladies who checked me out said I may have had the biggest before-discount total... I am a good shopper and a VERY good packer to have gotten all of this into my bag =) Most of what you can see in this photo is about half of what it actually there - I tried to buy at least two of everything so I could share the bounty with my Mom <3

Scrapped Out

I just got home from an arts/crafts-filled morning. My friend Stephanie and I stood in line for an hour to get in to the Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Expo today... I had heard they were giving away tote bags to the first 50 people and my mom said that the last time she went to one of these shows, the bags were filled with goodies... Well, these bags weren't - they were just the cheapo bags that you get everywhere as an eco-friendly alternative to grocery bags, and the free gift was a teeny tiny acrylic stamp worth about 25-cents.

Despite that, we did enjoy the show. There were lots of booths to browse through... many were having free make-&-takes. Several tables had clearance items for super cheap so we did pick a few cute things here and there. But my favorite find was this stuff called "Flower Soft" - oh my heck, it is so cool! It's a kind of fluffy product that you can glue on to give dimension like tiny little leaves or flowers and such. They had tons of colors and varieties to choose from but I only bought one (Heather) to start with. I've never seen this anywhere before. Most of the other booths had products similar to what you can find in other art/craft stores but it was still nice to have so many all in one place.

After that, I took my coupons to some other scrapbooking stores in town and spent more money... yeah, I'm officially broke again until next payday; but at least I have plenty of stuff to play with for now. After all that standing and walking, my feet sure do hurt... I'm looking forward to an afternoon recuperating at my art table =)