Notes from the Republic

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Inspired!

Erin from Sunshine and Carousels posted this little photo and I was like "must.... do...". I've never tried to use felt applique on any embroidery project, but now that I'll be finishing my owl today, it's a good time to try!

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What a perfect little housewarming gift!

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Happy Tuesday!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Passion Pit show in Austin, Tx!

This weekend was fantastico! Friday after work Ryan and I hopped in the car and headed to Austin! We got in town around 9 and met Katy, Keenan and my brother for a few beers. Katy and Keenan were so nice to let us stay with them in their beautiful house, we were so comfortable. We slept in on Saturday morning and went down to my brother's sandwich shop on the UT campus for some late lunch. Ryan and I headed downtown for the show and Wow- they were so good live. The first time I heard Passion Pit was a little over a year ago while I was visiting my friend Amy in NYC and it was insta-love. I'm so happy I finally got to see them this weekend.

Sunday we drove straight to Mom and Dad's for a little Father's day celebration. Mom made twice baked potatoes, Dad grilled up corn, ribs, sausage and steak...so many wonderful things to eat! We all missed Michelle and Dylan of course (They're in Rome!)

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Hey, today is the longest day of the year! What will you do today? I plan on taking full advantage!

Friday, June 18, 2010

New Mades!

I guess I was busy this week? Finished a few projects and am ready for more! This is Dad's little fish- I'm going to swing by Gander Mountain this afternoon and snag a gift card for him too, let him pick out something he needs.

For my friend's Tati's birthday (Happy birthday Tat! Hope you have the best weekend!) I made her this little (and my first ever) tote bag. It turned out pretty good and I think it will hold up as long as it's not filled with... like.. textbooks. I can't wait to make more!

Also found these cute little fabric button brads in the scrapbooking section of Hobby Lobby this week. I clipped off the metal brad part and stuck some jewelry blanks on them to make a little set!

The lighting in my bathroom is horrible. Sorry for the crap-photos.

So yeah! I guess it was a crafty and busy week. Heading to Austin tonight for Ryan's Birthday Extravaganza Part Deux. So excited to visit with an old friend and see a great show...maybe thrift a bit, go swimming, eat some BBQ. Heading to the parents on Sunday for some Dad-celebrating. Should be a fantastic weekend- hope yours is the same!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Artist Crush

Her name is Yiying Lu and how cute is she?!

She's the artist responsible for the Twitter "fail whale"... something I learned about just this morning. I heard the term while listening to the radio, googled it and discovered "When Twitter experiences an outage, users see the "fail whale" error message image created by Yiying Lu,an illustration of red birds using a net to hoist a whale from the ocean along with the text "Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again."

But what an adorable way to deliver bad news!
I instantly fell in love with her origami animals.

Below are a few more images from her site. You can even buy them in greeting card form! I want to get a few and frame them. I love the bright colors and especially the teal/orange combo.

Inspired! I want to stitch her little owl!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Fishy...

Father's Day is Sunday!

I started working on my gifts... today...and they have to be finished by tomorrow night as I'm heading to Austin Friday and won't be back until Sunday afternoon! Better get crackin'...

This year's theme is fishing, and I feel safe posting this here (I don't think this is one of his regular interweb stops). I found a great fish-head photo clip for his desk at the contemporary arts museum, snagged some perfect fish fabric for a bulletin board and am working on this little guy: