i'm OPEN

after months of preparation, i am FINALLY OPEN! i've listed a few items and will be listing more over the weekend. hopefully weather will cooperate so i can get more pics of every individual item. i forgot how long and tedious it is to list every single item. (taking and cropping photos, listing all the tags, etc.) luckily most items are similar so it wasn't too bad. being creative with descriptions....quite difficult and ending up on the cheesy side. enjoy. comments, criticisms, questions welcome. thanks for everyones support!!

here to inspire

i was clicking through craftster and found my poly creations on the inspiration page of a diy kit. *blushes*

by the end of the week, the shop will be up and running. how sweet is that!?! if you've seen something you like that i've created let me know. i'm happy to do custom orders. i probably should have announced that a long time ago.

arudegirl production

shop production has begun.

holden beach, nc

and we're back. had a little fun, got some sun and definitely wished we had a few more days to enjoy the surf. surprisingly, it's still about a 7 hour drive to get to the southern coast of north carolina. i really can't complain. to drive half a day and be able to bask in the ocean breeze is worth every minute of driving.

i am glad to be home. i missed aaron and the pups. we've already hit the hiking trails today. so i went from one extreme to the other in a matter of hours. insane how that works.

beach bound

i've got to be ready to leave by 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. other than the early morning wake up call, it should be a fun weekend. it'll be my first time hitting the beaches of nc. not sure if i'll have internet access, so this might be my last post til next week. have a great holiday weekend everyone!

orange you glad...

...this is over! ;)





what you see: my favorite thrift store find this year, what's stocked in our fridge weekly, my orange sweater collection, tulips at the cherry blossom festival and fire on our back deck. and so ends the exploration into the color wheel.

it's been fun and enlightening. we'll have to do it again soon. it's always fun to look at things from a different perspective and then try to capture it in a photo. thanks to everyone that played along. if you're ambitious, i'm thinking multi-color tomorrow. photos that are bombarded with hues!

moshi moshi

if you're a fan, you'll love this snl short.

seeing red

what your see: asian mask in my craft room, bookshelf in craft room, star lantern and my red pumas. it's pretty easy when you have a "red" room.

the color purple

what you see: another macro flower taken in canada and the mardi gras mask katie got me from new orleans this year. this color has been the most difficult to shoot. i was quite surprised on how little we have in the house. the only purple item of clothing i own is a tank top which i am currently sporting. it's not really photo-worthy.

pretty in pink

what you see: us embarking on a disney ride, my vans that i haven't worn in forever, poppies in canada, wildflowers from our walk today, and a fraction of my thread collection.

why so blue

what your see: vancouver, bc, coffee table decor, public transportation, hickory baseball.

the grass is always...

what you see: old navy scarf, paint chips that have been on the master bedroom wall since we moved in (i think i'm gonna go blue instead), aaron's pear stash, our half finished master bathroom (it's all coming down in a few days, i hate wallpapering!), and today's green-inspired outfit. the weather is a bit crummy, so i photographed indoors today.

misfit child

i did a little more t-shirt surgery this week. this time an xl misfits tee and an xl southern illinois tee. one converted to child size and one to semi-adult sized. i only took a before shot of the misfits tee. as you can see it was extremely large. the southern tee was quite similar but with short sleeves.

before:

after:

the sharpies in there for scale. i used a pattern i purchased at walmart for the hoodie with a few modifications. it called for pockets on the front but i opted out and made it more simple. i've got one more skull left from the original sleeve that i'll put on the front as a patch. i was quite proud of the zipper installation, i think i'm getting the hang of the zipper foot. but i screwed up and ironed over it causing a little meltage on the shirt. not sure if there's a remedy for that or not. other than that, i'm quite satisfied with the end result.

this one i finally used one of the tuts from the generation t book i got last year. quick and simple and no sewing involved. just a lot of cutting and stabbing holes. i didn't realize how simple it was gonna be, otherwise i would have been doing this a long time ago. i found the southern tee here in boone at the local goodwill. thought it was a sign that it had to be bought. and what's really funny after starting the misfits hoodie i headed up to the thrift store for more shirts. low and behold, i now have a misfits tee to replace the one i just chopped up. this one is short sleeve but i'll find something to do with it.

off to find something green.

alles gelb

and so it begins. all things yellow.





what you see: marley and burger, today's color-inspired outfit, fabric stash, soon-to-be-planted columbine and shop merchandise. taken with my camera phone today. tomorrow i'll bust out the big guns.

the color wheel

i've been inspired to do a color week of my own. basically you take photos of your pigmented-saturated surroundings. it's a great way to get out and inspired. you can even use photos you already have on file. let's do wednesday: yellow, thursday: green, friday: blue, saturday: pink, sunday: purple, monday: red, tuesday: orange. join in if you'd like!

in honor of moms

thought i'd give a quick shout out to our moms today. i randomly pulled out two photos from our albums. it's crazy how similar they are. both beach/water scenes and both mom's with humongous sunglasses! love you, mom! miss you, donna!

and he ran...

...he ran so far away.
right before we left on our trip last week, aaron decided, on a whim, to run the spring fever 5k. he's been an avid runner, usually running a few miles at the most. so the saturday before we left, we got up early...him to run, me to offer moral support. i was about the only person there who wasn't participating in one shape or form. he did well, considering he'd only run it twice the week before. he placed 12th out of 133 and first in his age group. i was quite surprised at how fast he was. i was debating whether or not to go get the dogs, when he comes striding around the corner. 22:17. not too shabby. the 12 year-old kid that won, ran it in 18:18 and, i should point out, was puking his guts out when he finished. not a pretty picture, but i guess it's the price you pay to win.

here he is about to enter "the chute." i still need to learn all the racing jargon. a little inspired to run? not really. but i have found myself trotting a little faster when walking the dogs. next i'll be speed walking. and then perhaps i'll actually start running.

everyone's a critic

funny story i need to tell before i forget. we got to vancouver last wednesday evening and decided to try out a local restaurant. we really didn't have any place in mind so we decided to walk down to the harbor area to see what we could find. we found a nice restaurant with a heated patio but unfortunately the view was obstructed by an awning. after we placed our orders, aaron decided to walk over to snap a photo of the distant mountains. unfortunately all he had was his camera phone and it didn't do the view any justice. after he returned, i decided to see if my phone could get a better snapshot. so i grabbed my phone and headed over.

as i was walking over, a man approached me. "do you speak english?" he looked pretty normal so i told him "yes."

"you have a fabulous haircut."

"thanks." i replied.

then he starts telling me this huge sob story about living in door ways and being stuck in vancouver for a week without any cash. i was a little taken aback. i told him i didn't have any cash, which i didn't, and proceeded to turn my pockets inside out to illustrate the fact.

"you can give me the change from parking."

"huh? i'm not parked, i'm just going to take a picture."

"oh, thanks anyways."

i just thought it was funny he commented on my haircut. i probably would have given him change if i had it, feed me compliments and i'll feed you cash!

throwing the peace

we're home, phew! it always feels like you need a vacation after taking a vacation. especially one jam-packed with a lot of walking and site-seeing. jamie and i hit up chinatown friday. (although pretty much all of vancouver can be considered asiatown. apparently it's a mecca for migrating asians.) we planned on getting bikes but the weather dictated otherwise. we ended up doing a little shopping and looking for a few more caches. i think urban caching is an acquired taste, both aaron and jamie didn't like it too much. but we managed to find a few.

you went all the way to canada and all you bought was japanese candy? yes. i'm a sucker for pocky sticks. i ended up getting strawberry, milk and blueberry flavors. i also got japanese gum, taffy and chocolate. and yes, that's all i bought while on vacation. i did introduce aaron to the kinder egg this trip too. i managed to score a few while waiting at the airport. so we ventured over to the asian and european side of confectionary delight this trip. i can't believe i wrote a whole paragraph about candy! and boy is it making me hungry. :)

saturday aaron and i hit up the capilano suspension bridge. we were a little worried about the weather, but in the end it turned out to be the nicest day of our trip. we were able the navigate using only public transportation and didn't have a single hiccup with our trip. we also hiked through stanley park, and of course, looked for a few more caches. i combined photos from washington and vancouver for your viewing pleasure.

my mom is notorious for throwing the peace sign when taking photos. we ended up doing a homage to her. hence the photos and the title. apparently it's not only a mom thing but an asian thing. we noticed quite a few taking photos and throwing the peace sign. i guess it's no different than me throwing the devil horns and sticking out my tongue. but i had to post, it's just too funny. while i'm at it i'll go ahead and post the cherry blossom photos i took while in d.c. a few weeks ago.

meet george jetson

i don't know why but vancouver reminds me of the jetsons. probably all the glass skyscrapers crammed in such a small area. you can actually see how compact the city is when you come over the bridge. it's a bit overwhelming. don't get me wrong, there's urban sprawl and the city goes on for miles. but the actual island is pretty much back to back high rises. the complete opposite to what i'm used to.

jamie and i did a lot of walking yesterday. we looked for some urban caches and checked out some of the sites. i think today, if the weather is agreeable, we'll rent bikes. our feet will be happy about that decision. better get ready for the day.

west coast action

a quick update. we're in canada now. spent the last two days in bellingham with the langei clan. i can see why they wanted to return to the coast. it's beautiful out here and the weather has been perfect. somewhat different from the mountains but fantastic all the same.

we've been doing some sightseeing, hiking and caching. jamie is officially addicted, i knew it wouldn't take long. they're on their way up here today and i have a feeling we'll be doing a little canadian caching.

hopefully i'll have more time to update while we're here. if not, next week for sure. i'm uploading photos now of our trip so far.