Brimfield!

Update!

Somewhat settled in the new place - especially with our new find.. our vintage coffee table/trunk! Thank you Brimfield Antique Show! (please pardon the background mess.. like I said we're somewhat settled, not completely though!) We're thinking about staining the top to be darker and putting a fresh coat of polyurethane, other than that though.. love the character of this piece.. so happy with this find!

Forever.

So I haven't posted in quite literally forever so if you're still reading this, thank you for putting up with my life.

What has happened in the past week or so? Well most of August was spent playing enormous amount of cornhole at every cookout known to man as well as a serious amount of apartment searching. I'm not somewhat settled in the out skirts of Boston with the bf. Sometimes I feel like I moved to the suburbs when I don't hear the squeaky breaks of a bus every 10 minutes. But I'm really starting to love it here. For me, it always takes a few days before I get comfortable enough in a place I'm not familiar with.. not sure why that is. But I'm finally getting comfortable here.

Now that's I'm somewhat settled, my creative urges are popping up again. I painted my bed black, and soon want to paint my bureau and possibly change out the hardware.

The one thing I can probably say I hate about my new apartment is that there are acoustic ceiling tiles in the living room and kitchen. I'm not sure who ever would think that is a good idea, but it's not. I've been scouring the internet to find a creative way to jazz them up, but there's not much out there. Replacing them may be our only option considering they've been painted into their grid... :-/ If anyone has anyyy suggestions, I'm all ears.. I would love to change it in a really cool way.

I've also been addicted to a few blogs lately:

apartment therapy : they show you really cool apartments and really unique ideas on how to make spaces work, especially for ones you don't own. I love it.(I can almost guarantee that I will be stealing this color coordination idea)

re-nest : similar to apartment therapy, but are more focused on the smaller projects.. and of course they show you how to do all of these things being green!

new dress a day : this young woman buys a dress a day for a dollar at a thrift store, flea market, etc. and then transforms it into something awesome. basically i now want a sewing machine. it's close to the top of list of things to buy.. after that 42" TV of course... my ancient little 19" isn't cutting it next to our brand new leather couch..

So now that I'm hooked into all these creative sites, I'm just dying to set up a craft space here! Another project I have planned is dinner wear. I have been looking to upgrade from my lovely plastic plates and cups, but I haven't seen anything I love in my price range. And then I found out, you can paint on plates. So basically, I'm going to be searching for white plates that I like and are cheap.. real soon!

My other soon to be project/on going project is the reuse of glass jars. Also I will probably be buying some as well. When I was moving, I realized, things like cornstarch, flour, etc. don't travel well in their store bought bags. And thus, I need a jar for them. I also possibly will be having an urge to etch them. We'll see how far I get. Then after that, spice jars are next!


Oh, and PS! Brimfield Antique Show (the fall version) is next week!! I'm all over it! Now I can actually look for furniture!!

My new favorite thing.

I move into a new apartment this week.. and all I can think about are cool diy decorations.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/boston

that sight has been my new go to source of cool things.

Any other suggestions?

Oh, and we bought a brand new leather couch. And I cannot wait to sit on it!!

Typo

Thank you Derrick for pointing out my typo. I am NOW fully employed.. not "not fully employed." Way to be Becky - way to be...

Slacking..

So I've been a slacker - I know. A lot has happened in the past week or so and I can't say much of that has been very creative. Which is totally a bummer.

In other news, I'm not fully employed! Which is good, but it will be stressing me out as my lease is up at the end of the month! So I've been searching for a place to live and in between all this there has been a start to planning a high school reunion.. Oh boy! So I'm a busy body lately.

More interestingly, Derrick Henry has been away making his puppets, but they have not yet been revealed to me. My friend and I found him a puppet making book at a used book store on Cape Cod. Needless to say - pretty awesome gift.

Oh and I think the most coolest thing I have found in the past week has been this Crafty Book Club. You read books, get inspired, then make a piece of art and share with the online world! I love the idea and I'm totally in!

Apparently I'm not the only one..

....who loves to head out to the Brimfield Antique show... check Leah's (of cricicis design) photos from the show! [ from Boston Handmade's blog ]

Weekend Finds

First find of the weekend: my boyfriend spotted Banksy's work in Cambridge. If you haven't seen his film Exit Through the Gift Shop, yet you totally should. And if you don't know who Banksy is (I didn't before either) you should do a little bit of Googling!


Next onto the Brimfield Antique show! A first time experience for me - and it was super cool! I could walk around there all day (if it wasn't 90 degrees out.)


I wish I had a house, so I could buy nice things to fill it, but I don't so I have to be a bit constrained! I ended up finding some beads (I can always find beads), a necklace that I plan on deconstructing to use the findings, some copper colored jewelry findings from the 1940's, and a sweet postcard from Berlin. I lived in Berlin for 3 months a little over a year ago. I love that city!


Above is the postcard from Berlin. It's a photo of the Reichstag, which looks absolutely nothing like that anymore. There is so much history in that city, if you ever get the chance to go you should!


Above are the copper jewelry findings I found - aren't they awesome?!

That's all for now! tschuss!

Spending wayyy too much time around Etsy!

I made a treasury, partly because I was bored - but it was fun! Probably will make many more, because I am good at using my time efficiently ;o)

Hope everyone has a great weekend! :o)

It's still quite warm here in Boston

So - I'm off to the Brimfield Antique Show this weekend! I've never been before, but I've got a family friend who is going to show me the ropes! I can't wait - hopefully I can find something awesome!

If I can find something like this: Vintage Laptop that would be cool. Sorry for the lack of photos.. my internet isn't liking me very much right now..

In other news - I am officially signed up to run 13.1 miles in October. Gulp. On that note - I think it's time to go running!

The puppet with no name

Firstly - I apologize for the lack of posting anything. My apartment has been reaching temperatures unknown to the human body, so I've been out and about! Trying to stay cool!

But the main point of this post I'd say is Derrick's puppet.

It looks awesome!

It gave it's debut performance singing happy birthday to one of my best friends. I wasn't allowed to film it, that's Derrick's job. And yes, a YouTube channel will be coming.

In Derrick's words "see Jim Henson exhibit on Sunday, have a puppet by Thursday." Now that's dedication.

Any names suggestions are welcome, please comment below!

In other news... our birthday gathering also had a special candle. Has anyone else seen one of these?
We were first exposed to the special candle at a Thai restaurant. It starts as a fire cracker that lights about 8 birthday candles which pop out from a lotus flower thing and start spinning around all while singing happy birthday. Intense, but soooo worth it :)

Catch a glimpse of the special candle in action on YouTube here. (Someone else's video not mine)

Crafty crafty everywhere

I am starting to realize more and more how many creative people I am surrounded by. My friend Steph (from the last post) who made me that incredible drawing - she also takes amazing photos.. and I wanted to help show here skills, so check out her flickr site here.

And now I'd like to tell you a very small story about another creative friend I have...

Sunday a few friends and I made a trip to Lexington to see the Jim Henson travelling exhibit at the National Heritage Museum. It was awesome to see all of his process work. I have to say that's the part about all art I appriciate - the stupid little sketches that hold the key to all the big ideas. I love it. But I think my friend Derrick got the most inspiration out of the exhibit.

This morning, while at work, I recieved this image in my inbox:

Needless to say - I was pretty excited about it. I'm pretty sure this could be one of Derrick's big callings in life. And I can not wait to see what happens next with this puppet. I know Derrick has built up a wide array of voices over the years, and I think we're all pretty excited to see which one comes out. So to Derrick, good luck! And for everyone else I will most definiately keep you posted on this unique and interesting process!

Check out Derrick's website to see some of his many other talents!

Party!

So it was my graduation party this weekend, and I decided most importantly that we would be playing cornhole. So my boyfriend got to work and did a fantastic job making the boards. I sewed the bags - although pretty poorly. Sewing was never my strong point. But anyways, many hours of tossing bags and drinking sangria occurred - all in all, a fantastic Saturday :)

Mike's awesome craftsmanship!

One of my friends from school and I decided to do a little crafty swap at the end of school. I was in charge of making her a necklace and she was going to make me a drawing. I received the drawing at my party yesterday and I was so excited that I had to post pictures of it! I love it - now I just need a house to hang it in!

Below is the artist on the left, wearing the necklace I made her! (another one of my favorites!)

And as you saw in the post below - I finally listed an item! This was all thanks to the mannequin head, named Lisa, who came in the mail last week! Woop!

First Listing!

I have a few things to update on, but most importantly - my first listing on etsy!! (it's just one, don't get too excited.. I know I know - I'm working on it!)

But I'll be back, just got to do a few things before I have some more time to write!

Busy busyy!

So I haven't been writing lately. We had a deadline at work and my days only consisted of work and then sleep. Sometimes I even forgot to eat. Yuck.

But anywho - I was all excited because I bought a bust display so I could finally start taking photos of my jewelry! But then I got it, and realized I had made a mistake and bought a half scale display. I was more bummed out because I really wanted to get stuff online asap. So I immediately bought another display - this time full scale mannequin head. She came in the mail the other day, but she's at my parent's house. (I don't have stuff delivered here because someone needs to open to the door when I get packages - and I'm not home!) I look forward to seeing her! And FINALLY listing things!

We were also full on crafting at my parents house this weekend. Below are a few photos from our hard work!Some of our more finished pieces

Ray loving me taking photos
Me hard at work die cutting
Ray painting :)

Wicked

Thunder showers - big time right now. We've had quite a few in the past couple weeks here in the northeast. And today its a perfect fit for my day.

My day started by me losing my phone on the train. It sounds manageable, in theory, but my god did it make me mad. I had trouble focusing all day at work because I was constantly worried about where it could be and I was constantly hopeful that some really good person would have it and turn it in. Hope doesn't work well on the orange line I guess :( I'll call back in the morning, but I guess I should say goodbye to my Blackberry for now. I'll take someone's hand me down free phone for now until my plan needs to be renewed. Total bummer.

Has anyone read Wicked?I'm about 100 pages in and so far I'm into it. I honestly started reading it years ago and only got halfway, so I'm worried that I'll get bored again haha. But my theory is that I was younger and uninterested in these kind of books. Hopefully I'll enjoy it because I'm going to see the play (!!!) in the fall with my family.

Sorry nothing too interesting today, I'm still a bit down about my phone and lately I've been so tired after work that I've created practically nothing. Oh no! that's a lie! I almost forgot! My friend Ray and I are hard at work these days recovering scraps of everything and turning them into scrapbooking embellishments. We're going to do the craft fair at Auburn High School (MA) in the fall and so far we're having a blast. My mother is the owner of a die cut machine, and I (former architecture student) am owner of tons of chipboard. So Ray and I have been die cutting away. Then we've either been using scrap paper to decorate them or we've been using the paint that my mother used to used on her miniature crafts back in the day. So pictures must come soon of those! I'll be back at my parents' house this weekend most likely to work on some more!

Oh another cool note before I go! Actually two - there are two really cool things going on in Boston this weekend. The Coolidge Corner Arts Festival and the Boston Public Library is having a book sale!! So if you're looking for something to do on Saturday, those would be great suggestions!!

Running around

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

I spent the weekend at home with my family. I suggested that we do some cleaning at my grandparents house. My grandmother used to be a shopoholic, so there is a tonnnn of stuff in that house. Thank god she doesn't shop like that anymore! But while there was tons of crap in that house there was a lot of cool vintage things as well. I love to look through her old costume jewelry, she's given so much of it to me because she knows I like to take old findings and beads off old jewelry to make my own new stuff. So I acquired a few pieces this time as well. I also retrieved tons of old buttons - they're awesome. But I think my most exciting find has to be the 1968 encyclopedias. I have no clue what to do with them, but I had to have them. The graphics were just too cool to throw away! I can't wait to find a project to use them with!

On another note, I took much of her stuff to the flea market on Sunday to help make her some money. But there's just so much, so I decided to set her up with a vintage etsy shop. It's called GrandmasClosets. Literally, there's many many closets in that house, so remember the S at the end. Soon I'll be putting up some of her sweet old jewelry! Keep looking! I'll let you know on here when stuff is posted!

As for now, it's time for bacon chicken and potatoes - yum :)

Some more film

Here's a few more pictures from my Diana Mini.. This is from Mount Greylock. I used a different film this time, and I'm not sure I love it. But there were a few keepers still!

Finally a weekend not devoted to school.

So somewhere over 10 miles up and around Mount Greylock, I didn't die. But I think I came close at some points. My back hurts and I have a few scratches and bug bites, but other than that I'm just dandy! I guess this signifies the start of me getting back in shape.

But in other news, I got my photos back.. yea, kind of what I expected.. pretty ugly haha. There were a few good ones out of the bunch, some of which were pure accidents, but hey I'll take them. Hopefully the photos I took at Greylock came out better than these - that's for sure.

Here's a few for your enjoyment. (by the way, when I asked the girl to center the photos in the frame because they were square format.. this is what I got... probably go somewhere else next time. Will crop later...)

Mission Church - Boston, MA Accidental double exposure, but kind of neat
Outside the MFA, Boston MA On purpose double exposure - sky and pavement

Why hello real life.

That's right - real life is back to take me away. But it is kind enough to give me my weekends and evenings to myself :) I know many people say that they miss being in school, but really I can't see myself missing it haha.. I think I will miss the social creative atmosphere of studio, but the long long nights and the constant pulling my hair out? nah.

So after a whopping two days of "vacation" where I cleaned, organized, and beaded, I'm now back to the office life. It's not bad - certainly a good crowd to be working with. And it looks like a fairly exciting project for now :)

I dropped off my first two rolls of film from my Diana Mini. I dropped them off at Walgreens... I'm pretty sure that's a risk in itself. But fortunately, I'm pretty positive most of the pictures came out horrible because I didn't know how to use the camera. It's a learning process and I'm most definitely going to blow through two rolls tomorrow.. I hope! My boyfriend and I are getting up early and heading to the tallest mountain in Massachusetts (Mount Greylock). He's got some ten mile route planned out.. we'll see how that works with my awesome out of shape body. But I'm looking forward to it, it'll be nice to get outside and it'll be nice to get some time to use the camera a little more!

By the way - I'm looking for an affordable bust to take photos of my jewelry on.. any suggestions besides ebay? There's a forum on etsy I started because I wasn't sure how to photograph my pieces.. so if you're an etsier do check it out!

Graduated and ready for life!

So I graduated on Sunday from Wentworth Institute of Technology.. it felt good, real good. I had to keep looking at the degree to make sure it was real haha! Anyone else think those robes for Masters students are a bit weird? I felt a little bit like I was graduating from Hogwarts.. But anyways, now after only two days off, I start "real life" tomorrow - I'm a little excited and a little bit wishing I had given myself more time off! But I know it will be good for me.

Funny little story about graduation - The class ahead of us walked with us. Wentworth was going through a big process to get a Masters degree and the class ahead of us was the test rat ultimately. Their work got judged by the accreditation board and then our school was deemed good enough for the program. So all in all, my class was the first official graduating masters class, but the class ahead of us was grandfathered in. So as they make you stand in alphabetical order for 40 minutes straight I got to meet Keith Lagreze, and funny thing - he also sells jewelry on Etsy with his girlfriend. You can find their shop here: Tactile Goods. They have sweet little laser cut earrings. It was nice to talk to someone who is actually doing what I want to be doing (but I'm super slow at starting!) Good luck with everything!

So many new toys..

So since I've been determined to get an Etsy shop up and running, I've decided to learn Flash or Dreamweaver and Microsoft access. Unfortunately I'm struggling on most of them - although Flash isn't too bad. I've been scouring the internet for video tutorials, most of them have not been helpful, so I think I'll make a trip to the Boston Public Library soon and see if I can find an help books. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

Also, I bought myself a Diana Mini camera as my self given graduation present.

Mind you, I know little to nothing about film or photography, but for some reason I had to have it. I figure after five years, I can have one impulse buy for myself. But seriously if anyone has any suggestions or tips, I would super appreciate it. So since it's a nice sunny day in Boston I think I'm going to go frolic and play with my new toy. I knew once architecture school ended I would end up finding other ways to let out my creative side :)

Databases?

Why does Microsoft Access not run on Macs? This makes me upset :(

Does anyone know of any good tutorials on using Microsoft Access? I need to get myself up and organized ASAP!

Almost there!

Thesis is pretty much finished up! I have to make a final book with all my documentation. Part of me enjoys making it and part of me never wants to look at my thesis again. Not to mention I can't wait to graduate! I know this doesn't get probably any views yet, but Wentworth is holding an exhibition of their first master's graduating class this coming Saturday. It's open to friends, family, and professionals! Here's a sneak peak at one of my perspectives.

I also finally managed to get a little bit of time to make some jewelry. This time it was for myself! The graduating class held an Arch Gala, which was basically a party for the teachers and the graduates. It was a classy night, so I needed a nice piece to top off the outfit! I'll post some pictures when I take some (my camera is acting up a bit!) Overall, I liked the piece I just wish I had a bit more time to make it bigger and bolder. I ended up using a piece of an old earring I found at my grandmothers house as the piece that ties everything together.

Back to this book... It'll be all over soon!

On my way...

So this is sort of my informal start to my online business. Most of you probably won't read this until at least May, but that's fine by me. As many of you know, I'm anticipating graduation in May with my Masters in Architecture. (woo!!) But once that happens and I catch up on some sleep, Open to Below will be full in swing!

I've been making jewelry since I got my hand on some plastic beads back in the day. I have always loved it and I love making things with my hands. At some point in my life I'm pretty sure I've touched base on most known crafts... hemp, gimp, sewing, cross stitching, plastic canvas, painting on wood, drawing, shrink plastic, wire, scrapbooking.. I just like making things myself! Lately I've been focusing on wire and bead jewelry and I'm looking to start Open to Below with this first line shortly after graduation.

I can't wait to get started, but until then I'm going to work my little butt off for a solid three weeks and then I'll be back to get into my other creative side! I'll post some of my thesis stuff once it's done to share what I do on the other side of my life!