Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thanks Netflix...

We got suckered into trying a "free month" of netflix so, after a work friend gave me a copy of a swedish vampire film called lat den ratte komme in (Let the Right one In), I filled my netflix queue with foreign films that I've always wanted to see but never got around to renting. You can also watch certain netflix movies "instantly" with XBox 360 so I had Matthew show me how to do it.
So, for you foreign film fans, if you haven't seen these two films yet I highly recommend them (unless you don't like subtitles)...


Amelie (a french film, all subtitles) arrived in the mail on Tuesday, Shelby and I watched in on Wednesday while Tom was at school. Both of us give it two thumbs up, it was so adorable and colorful and cheerful...I could go on and on...this will definitely make my 10 favorite films of all time.

La Vie en Rose (also a French film, all subtitles) was an "instant" watch on Matt's XBox, we watched it tonight and thought it was fantastic, not as amazing as Amelie but definitley worthwhile. I would recommend Let the Right One In as well but that won't come out on dvd in the US until later this year. Rumor is they're making an American version but I'll bet it won't be as good as the Swedish version! Certainly not your Twilight sort of vampire movie but it's just as bittersweet.



Sunday, January 25, 2009


I didn't get much crafting done this week...I was too busy taking pictures and documenting everything I did for my "Week in the Life of ME" mini album. Now I just have to put it together and that'll be one more thing to cross off my "to do" list. Here's what the cover looks like...


Yesterday Shelby and I took a quick trip to Hudson, Wisconsin (about 20 minutes from Woodbury, Minnesota). There are three shops we absolutely love there and, of course, we visited all three. St. Croix County Dry Goods...they have antiques, tons and tons of ribbon, all sorts of fabric and lots of other little treasures. La Rue Marche is a little boutique full of cute uniques clothes and shoes, purses and jewelry. Abigail Page Antiques is always a good place for treasure hunting, I don't think I've ever left that store empty handed and they were having a storewide 20% off sale, you can't beat that. Here are some of the goodies we picked up...
Ribbon and Fabric from St. Croix County Dry Goods, colorful forget-me-nots and pretty pink purse loaded with old embellishments from La Rue Marche, plate, German Christmas book, bird prints, toothpick holders and Mary and Jesus from Abibail Page. The Madonna was the find of the day...she is so pretty in person and it was only $3.00...my sister is going to be envious! Here is a close up of her pretty face...

I think this is the only new thing that's been listed in my etsy store all week...I just put it out there today. One of my "Birds of a Feather" book decked out in a valentine color theme...




I keep promising my sister a picture of the cute softies shelby made so here they are...she was thinking about opening her own Etsy store to sell these types of critters but when she was finished she didn't want to part with them...I guess I can't blame her, they're so cute!




Like I said, this week has been so busy for me but last Sunday my "studio" was really neat and tidy, how in the world does it get SO MESSY so quickly? I'll be digging myself out again so I can get to work on my next project.

I'm off to to my project 365 blog then I'll be spending the evening cleaning this mess. I have tomorrow off so I'm hoping I can do something creative.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Weekend Projects

I had an amazingly productive weekend. We had subzero temps all week but finally on Friday we made it to 6 above; however, I still wanted to stay indoors snuggled in my slippers and 7 sweaters (I have a medical condition that makes me cold...all the time). So, with that said, I was busy working in my "studio" all weekend long. As if the cold weren't enough, we've gotten more snow this winter than I ever remember us getting...I work at the local ABC affiliated TV Station so I'll have to ask one of the meteorologists tomorrow how much snow we've gotten so far, especially since our heaviest snowfall seems to come in March.

Anyway, here is a quote book I'm working on, there aren't many quotes in there yet but I've got a bunch written in my journal so I'll be transferring those this week. I've got a great quote by Martin Luther King Jr. so tomorrow would be a fitting day to transfer that to the book.




I can't decide if I'm going to put this birdhouse in my Etsy shop or not...Shelby wants me to keep it but if I kept everything I made we'd be buried in goodies. I took pics of all the steps from beginning to end so if you want to make your own you have a little guide to follow. Incidentally, Tom and I went "Goodwill hunting" again and this was one of the treasures I found. Who would have ever thought that your local thrift store would be a treasure hunters haven?

Naked birdhouse

I painted the entire thing with ivory colored acrylic paint

Then I covered it with patterned scrapbook paper. This was the fun part, it was very challenging getting the paper to fit all the odd nooks and crannys.

After all the surfaces I wanted to cover were covered I sanded it to give it a somewhat distressed look.

After the sanding was done, I inked it with Tim Holtz's distressing ink in Walnut.

Get ready to decorate...

I used blue vintage seam binding for the bow, adorable vintage red velvet millinery here and there, aged vintage lace around the rooftops and a cute little vintage yellow bird perched on the post.


Here are pics of the other Goodwill treasures I picked up and pics of how I used them around the house. The book is for Sebastian, I can never resist a cute book...my house is busting at the seams with books. I want to mention (for my sister's sake) that I had to disinfect it due to his severe germ phobia...wonder where he gets that?
I filled the cute cherub planter with a yellow flower I got at the grocery store yesterday...I, for the life of me, can't remember the name...help Lisa, is it a persimmon? or a mmmmmmm, I can't think of anything.


And here it is nestled in among my other plants.

And this little junk holder, I almost didn't get this but Tom called me a cheapskate and sort of coerced me into buying it...and I'm SO glad that I did.
I have a very extensive collection of vintage valentines, I'm very very proud of my collection but never have enough room to display them all, this little treasure helps out with that problem.
Arn't they pretty...I love Valentines!

And finally...I've had these vintage bottles lying around for years along with the vintage victorian scrap...so I put the two together and this is what I got.


Some these bottles will definitley end up in my etsy store...aliceandelsie.etsy.com.
I started my "Week in the life of Me" mini album today in addition to all the other stuff I've been doing. I sold a few of these in the store but kept one for myself. I thought this would be the perfect week to record events since our new president gets sworn in on Tuesday. I haven't been this excited about a president ever, this is really big for our country and for history and I'm so hopeful for what Obama can do for our struggling country. God bless the USA!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

COLD, COLD, COLD!

OMG! It's so cold today, this morning when the kids left for school it was -16 with wind chills making it -31, yes, that's not a typo, I really said MINUS THIRTY ONE DEGREES! The high was only -2 and it's quickly dropping so tonight's temp will hover around -18.

Yesterday we got dumped on with about 6 inches of snow...Me, Matt, Buster and Tom went sledding up the street by a little pond...here are some pictures from our little sledding adventure...












We had so much fun despite needing to run to Mead Optometry to get Buster's glasses repaired after a nasty spill and the fact that I complained about getting a concusion after an even nastier spill. We're supposed to get another 1-3 inches overnight...I didn't think it snowed when it was this cold but we'll see if I'm wrong in the morning.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Urban Prairie Album and Kit

If you were looking at the Urban Priarie Album Kit or the completed album I have for sale in my shop and wanted additional pictures...here they are!