Spring has Sprung...

Is it true?  Spring might really be here? 

 I'm not packing away my winter clothes yet, my heat came on this morning and you never know if good ol' Michigan is going to snow just 1 more time! But... We're close!  This is day #3 of dress wearing by my darling!  This is a girl who says EVERY morning "i don't care what you pick out as long as it's jeans!"  I love jeans too, but... this is my ONLY child, obviously- a girl, and I want to dress her cute before she's 13 and wants to wear who knows what by 2017 (when she turns into a teen!).  She made some deal with me Sunday that if I let her pick out what she wore to Church on Sunday she'd wear dresses for 3 days in a row- you know i was IN!!
  I can't believe Easter is this Sunday!!  Now, I don't believe Easter is  about candy and bunnies but I do love the decorations and I've eaten almost all of the
Cadbury Mini Eggs
that are for DD's Easter basket...

Speaking of decorations... I just ran downstairs to see if I could find mine... NOPE!

While I was looking I found some paper mache eggs I bought at Michaels a few weeks ago.  I'm going to do something with those today and post a DIY tomorrow!!  Yep, I'm feeling inspired!
So grab some fake eggs, and some mod podge, then tune in tomorrow!!
Here are a couple mixed media pieces I have
FOR SALE

These little Easter Bucket Babies are available in my etsy store
(see link above).
Do you decorate for Easter?  Any special decorations or traditions?
Have a great day & we'll chat Thursday!!

Free Bird...

My Mom is terrified of birds.  

I often remind her how many thousands of people all over the United States are killed every year by birds...

I like bird images, I don't want one as a pet and I'm not a big fan of being pooped on by an overhead bomber (or anything else for that matter), but how cute are these (and a NO poop on your head guarantee!)

All are found on etsy and the store name is below each image- check them out and buy handmade!!

1st up is the newest FEATURED SELLER on etsy.  I've looked longingly at her art for a long time and when I saw she was featured yesterday, I took it as a sign that I MUST have a print for our home!

timssally

Her colors... her style... be still my ❤!

I love her!!

Dilkabear

girlbyAileen

goodydevi

gwenwalls

helendardik

(do you know her art?? another artist that i just LOVE LOVE LOVE! Such fun, whimsical, colorful style!)

humblebea

a fellow Michiganer who is just a Queen of Cute!!

Lana0Crystal

LilPixieBoutique

LemonTreeStudio

SparklePeach

thebrickkiln

pamandkasper

chinamommy

chinamommy

Oh my... can you stand it?  Each of these sellers has SUCH CUTE art in their shops- go see all their other goodies!!

I'm working on a crochet bird for my Grandma..

I made this one 1st and darling daughter snagged it right away...

I still need to add its little legs...

the pattern is on the blog: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/

Her pictures are so much better than mine...

Happy Tuesday!

The Sun is out here and that is always a good thing!

DIY Projects and 401K's

I had a dream last week that i started a weekly DIY tutorial here on the blog... 

It was a cork board that was all decorated up with that sparkly glittery scalloped edge stuff teachers put on bulletin boards in the hall at school... you know what I mean?  Then over the cork I put this HORRIBLE ugly vintage baby gift wrap that was just butt ugly and wrinkly and torn - I'm glad I woke up!  I felt bad for a few seconds after I woke up thinking I really had made that and scared you with it...

But, it did get me thinking.... now that i'm done (for a while?!) making my fake millions maybe I will do some DIY projects... but since I'm on "vacation" i'm not making any promises so don't plug in your glue guns just yet!

This was my "maybe I should do it" idea yesterday... this is as far as I got!

I was thinking a while back I'd love to have a little record of all the cute outfits Darling daughter wears.

I got the idea from another blogger who was taking a picture of her daughter everyday to record all her outfits from her Senior year of HS!  Oh would I love to have a picture of everything I wore back in 1987... then again, maybe not!  I thought it would be fun, but you know me... I kinda of forget to do it every day, but I'm trying. 

Monday 3-28-10 
My plan is to print them kind of small and make a little book every year of all her cute outfits.  I've also let myself take a break from my elaborate scrapbooks- getting them IN and ON paper is the goal now, embellishments can come later... or not!
who loves her new found freedom of not HAVING to do anything... well, I AM making myself walk everyday on that treadmill, but that's because I WANT to start doing some 5K road races, which are NOT to be confused with 401K's... and Lord knows I've done that before!  I think I've told that story before...
Yep, here it is from a much earlier post in case you missed it:
...After i had worked there (a horrible job where I sold carpet because they sucked me in with a sign that said "Designer WANTED") a couple years a note came down from the main office- there was going to be a 401K, well i can't tell you how excited i was, i'd been meaning to get into shape for quite a while. You see, i was a runner in HS & also in college, i ran after college, and ran for several years on a very regular basis until i bought my 1st house... there was always something to do & i was so excited (it was a REALLY cute house) to decorate that i gave up running for painting & landscaping. But now... there is this company 401K race & i'm IN!! So i start thinking of how i should start training & how i should find out who all is going to participate. A couple days later a memo comes out to let us know that there will be a staff meeting to discuss this 401K- WOW, i'm excited, i didn't know this was such a big deal at the ol' carpet store! I said to C "so are you going to run in that 401K?". If i remember right, i just got a weird look & maybe a laugh that i took as "yeah...right". About that time my boss came out of his office & came over by our desks, because, let's face it- he had to think the job was boring too & we were the FUN girls at the shop! I start asking Mr. Mgr if a lot of people participated in the 401K "yeah, i guess", he says. Then i ask "have they done this before?", again "yeah". Well, then i start down the slippery slope, because by now YOU have probably seen the error of my ways... I start saying how i better start training & i'm pretty out of shape & i hope i can find some good shoes in a size 5 (NOT easy to do). Now, Mr. Mgr & C are starting to chuckle & i, seriously, have NO idea why. I keep up the questions & am going on & on about racing & college cross country & all the things that are making me look like a complete BOOB! Mr. Mgr & C think i'm just being funny so they're really yucking it up until... they realize... i have NO IDEA what i am saying & that i truly believe i am preparing for the road race of my life, not a savings plan...
yeah, a proud moment for me! Oh well, what do i care? i would much rather be funny than brilliant & apparently....i'm in luck!!
Have a good Monday!!

Sunday... day of Rest and Art

Thanks to everyone for all the encouraging words about taking a vacation from my obsession!

I'm headed down to my art room to make something for darling daughter's room...

man, does it feel good to not even wonder if it will sell, because it's NOT for sale!

Ahhhhhhh.....

Hope you're having a relaxing Sunday, i'm going to!  Darling Daughter on the other hand is getting ready to do cardio workout on the wii.... 

and she's wearing:

• giraffe slippers
• black and white striped leggings
• a jean skirt
• black long sleeve top
• short sleeve hello kitty shirt over that
• a hot pink poka-dot hoodie 

This girl is the definition of 6 year old fashion.... love it!

See ya Monday!!

I need a break...

Ok, kinda dumb because if anyone's had a break the last couple of years it's me!  BUT... I am the one that puts all these pressure's on myself.  The pressure of becoming famous, the pressure of taking Theblackapple's #1 spot on etsy as the top seller, the pressure of trying to make everyone hang on my every word...  I guess it's harder to be narcissistic than i thought!!  

I couldn't even enjoy these anymore,  I was too busy looking for "IDEAS".

Don't worry, I won't be taking a break from my blog, just a break from working on my millions!  I've noticed lately that I'm just not enjoying my time at home anymore.  I've wanted for YEARS AND YEARS to be able to stay home and now I can and so many times I find that i'm down.... WHY???  OCD runs in my family (great!) and I've become so OCD about forcing myself to make "stuff" to sell to make millions that I no longer am enjoying even GOING to my studio!  All I ever think is "what can I make next" and "will this sell?" instead of just creating to create and that, my friends, is a recipe for disaster!  The more I made that I didn't sell, the more down I was getting on myself!  I want to make stuff for ME, I want to make stuff for friends, I want to make stuff for my darling daughter... I even want to make stuff to give away here on my blog!!

  So, like Bob,

 I'm taking a vacation from my problems!  

I feel better already!  I'm kinda thinking if I quit trying so hard, I may actually find myself as an artist... whoa, how awesome would that be?!  The mister is getting his buddy, Sparks the electrician, over to hook up my kiln soon and then... I'm going to be elbow deep in clay as much as I possibly can!  I've already promised myself to make darling and I jewelry, to make stuff for MY home and to do what I want without the obsessive "maybe i can sell this" thought!

Ok, enough about my fake problems!

Picture overload coming right up:

Cute tanks from Old Navy

a Coral one from TJ Maxx (oh, how I love this place...)

do you know that Coral is the color that looks good on everyone?!

a skirt from TARGET (makes me want to say shimmy, shimmy coco pops)

speaking of coco:

I forgot I took these, my experimentation of "Can a 41 year old wear knee socks with a skirt and not look LOL Ridiculous?"

love that lavender squiggle up the back...

Recently a friend said "have you been on vacation? you're so tan!".... Ewww, that means my make-up is too dark!  I kept thinking I looked like an extra on Jersey Shores!

M-WOW!

So... I grabbed this... out of the tube white, on my skin, skin color!!  how does it do that?

Good bye mineral powder orange tan girl!

Eeeeek!! CUTE!?

I started this yesterday on day 1 of my "vacation":

and darling and I worked on this:

Now I'm all ZEN and going to go get on my treadmill...

OH and if you WANT to vote for my blog interview, look at yesterdays post and follow the link- but that's all I'm going to say about that, cause I'm all in the zen-zone!

Ooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm!

what is your STYLE?

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

 to those that have voted for my blog over at bloginterviewer.com!

You just click on the link below and then click on the thumbs up!  Easy-peasy, I swear!

http://bloginterviewer.com/page/11

How sick are you already of the vote begging?

Ok, moving on to where I just beg you to buy me this couch:

I realize it's not for everyone, but I would LOVE this couch!!

I found this through 

http://one-artsy-mama.blogspot.com/

It's from squint

http://www.squintlimited.com/

I think the closest store that carries their furniture is in NYC... probably not going to happen!

I was saying to the Mister on Saturday (when we were at Home Depot and I was begging for him to buy me the paint for the cabinets so I could get started the moment we got home that night...) that even though I could 

 make our home all pretty and put together, my style just isn't "grown up".  I can appreciate beautiful homes with cherry cabinets and gorgeous matching furniture, but If given my choice I'd rather live in Pee-Wee's Playhouse!  Sad, but true!

I can appreciate good design but I'm always drawn to WHIMSICAL and to me this can be good design if it's done right... Let's just hope I can do it right!!

more from SQUINT

I wouldn't want EVERY piece in my home from here, but a statement piece would be GREAT!

and if I could only have 1 piece it would absolutely be the chandelier!!

I could kick myself for throwing out the ugly brass chandelier I had at my last home... It was ugly and out dated and would have been PERFECT to do a remodel on... I know I should NEVER throw anything away, but it's a matter of space!  How many things have you gotten rid of and then years later known it would have been PERFECT for what you have going on now??...  Last night I was thinking of all the fabulous "vintage" pieces I never gave a 2nd look at that belonged to my 100 year old Great Aunt Mable (everyone should have an Aunt Mable!).  

 I'm going to crochet today and that's it... oh and watch the First 48 Hours and Cold Case Files and maybe the Harry Potter movies I dvr'd... that's it!  I'm not doing anything else and I'm not going to feel 1 bit guilty!  I'm tired today, I clean everyday and even though I do spend a lot of time in my art room, I don't ever just sit without thinking of what I need to be doing next.  I didn't sleep well, maybe I'll rest with my eyes closed too.. and dream of my blog getting a thousand votes and 5,001 followers!

Happy Thursday and again...

Welcome new Followers, so glad to have you aboard!