made by hank...

i just adore these little Made By Hank clutches! i'm currently on the hunt for a small purse with just enough room for my iphone, lipgloss, i.d. and cash (if ever i have any that is), and i think one of these just may be the winner...

but how to decide on a color?

my little babooshka!

this fall i just can't seem to get enough of oversized drapey goodness! so when i stumbled upon babooshka boutique the other day a bit of me just melted inside...

how do you even begin to pick a favorite!

creatures of the night...

last night was the first in a line up of halloween outings. as promised, here are a couple pics from the evening...

we have pebbles, betty rubble, pocahontas (that's me), and yolandi (of die antwoord fame)

nothing quite beats a silly night out with these ladies!

just bitten...

a while back you may recall that i had a brief love affair with red lips, and was determined to pull the look off myself. i finally found the perfect shade, wore it a couple times, and that was the end of it. i found that such a bold lipstick felt like more of a hassle to me then a fun accessory. so i gave up my dream of being the gal who could rock a red lip every day with even just some jeans and a t-shirt. that is, until yesterday!

it's not often that i fall victim to a commercial trying to sell me some new and improved beauty item, but for some reason i fell head first for this one. it's the new "just bitten" line of lip stains from revlon. what got me was that on one end of the stick is the stain, but on the other is a lip balm. not a gloss, a balm! i'm one of those folks that's absolutely hooked on chapstick and lip balm, so that was the kicker for me. i'm so glad that i got suckered in too, because it's fan-flippin'-tastic! i put it on as soon as i got in the car, and it literally stayed for hours. you can even keep reapplying the balm and the color still stays. ahhh, my lip life has been changed forever. it's these little things that keep me happy :)

feeling festive...

this weekend was all about getting into the halloween spirit!

saturday night steph and i had a little "gals only" sleepover. we've both been kinda stressed lately, so this was a much needed night of kicking back middle school style. we stocked up on snacks, beverages and ample scary movies! (ps, did you know that you can get a set of the first 4 nightmare on elm st movies at walmart for just 13 bucks!) laughs were shared, nails were painted, and a good night sleep on the comfiest couch ever was had. i woke the next morning feeling quite refreshed indeed!

sunday afternoon steph, evan and i all went halloween costume shopping, (i won't share just yet what the costumes are, you'll just have to wait for the pics) and then regrouped at adam and stephs later that night. we decided to let the boys in on some halloween fun and we all did a little pumpkin carving.

steph and i hadn't carved pumpkins since we were wee little ones, so we both decided to keep it pretty simple and not get too far ahead of ourselves. stephs is the above scary one on the left, i'm the goofy one on the right :)

the boys of course decided to get a bit more intricate. adams is the friday the 13th style pumpkin... and evans is the scary fanged monster.

and naturally the best part about pumpkin carving, is pumpkin seed roasting! i highly recommend this made up buffalo pumpkin seed recipe...

*wash and clean seeds of all pumpkin stringies and fibers

*spread seeds in a single layer on oiled baking sheet

*add salt, pepper, garlic powder and minced onion to taste

*splash on as much franks hot sauce as you like (i like a good bit!)

*mix it up so that all the seeds are coated, and spread back into a single layer

*bake at 325, checking and turning every 10 mins, for about half and hour

i totally made this recipe up, but they came out AMAZING! just enough heat to keep you coming back for more.

i'm super excited for more halloween antics this week! anyone else do any fun festive goodies over the weekend? do share :)

new goodies for me!

while shooting product photos for my etsy goodies, i almost always take a couple artsy ones with my phone. you never know when you'll meet someone who wants to see right then and there what kind of items you make. being able to show a photo, is so much quicker then trying to explain it, and then you have the option of emailing it to them as well!

anywho... while shooting a new item yesterday, i decided to also take a couple shots of my two new favorite jewelry scores. i've been wearing these two necklaces interchangeably for the past week and i just LOVE 'em!

i did a little post about this arrow lariat from chainchainchained not too long ago, and am now so very happy to say that i am the proud owner of it! it's so amazingly unique and i heart it big time! thank you so much again regina :)

my other find is from gwendelicious, whom i've purchased from before, and i can't say enough good things about this necklace. the chain is incredible, the knife is badass, and it makes me feel uber tough when i wear it!

i'm just realizing, now that i have these pictured together, that these are both tiny weapons. hmmm... perhaps i won't look too much into that :)

puppy nose!

i full well realize that i may be biased here, but isn't barkley just the most handsome pup in the world :)

we were about to head out on a walk, my camera was sitting right on the table, and i just had to snap a shot of that little face. dogs... aren't they just the greatest!

R.I.P Ari Up...

it's a sad day in the music world, at least in my music world. i just found out that Ari Up, frontwoman for one of my top 5 favorite ever bands The Slits, just passed away. though there was one fellow in the band, the three leads were all female, and it was always presented as a female punk band. this might not sound like anything huge, but this band started in 1976... so it was pretty much unheard of then. they weren't afraid to be crazy, unattractive, and sing about not being your standard gal! if you've never heard of them, here's a good place to start. get ready to have your mind blown...

so tough...

typical girls

and possibly the best cover of all time, i heard it through the grapevine...

Ari Up... you're a legend!

10 for the price of one...

i was reading one of my recent favorite blogs the other day, blue moss, and on a little outing she spotted these incredible jeffrey campbell ruffle boots. they are absolutely fabulous! a little tough, a little feminine... they're the perfect boot combo!

only problem for me though, aside from them being WAY out of my price range, is that they're also leather. being vegan i don't wear any leather at all and often have to pass on some amazing finds.

well as fate would have it, i stumbled across some darn good impostors this morning... and they're faux! at $24 a pair, these fit into my budget much better!

and, they come in a bunch of other colors!

so, while i totally understand people having ethical issues with knockoffs (an absolutely valid issue!), for me my bigger ethical issue is with the materials the originals are made with. not too many high end designers out there are making vegan footwear, and a girls gotta have boots!

so i ask you, lovely readers, what's your stance on knockoffs. do you partake or not?

treasury fun!

it's not often that i make up etsy treasuries, but this morning i was feeling in touch with my spooky side and decided to whip up a little day of the dead one. feel free to hop on over to etsy and check it out if you so desire...

it's so much fun making these little collections. they really satisfy the urge i have to always organize things into neat little bundles!

see it full size HERE

music monday continued...

this song... i've had it on repeat much of the morning. it's one of those songs that you want to listen to super loud on headphones while pressing them against your ears because you just can't get enough! or maybe that's just me?

anyone else have one of those songs that you just want to inject into your brain and have playing all day? me... i have quite a few!

music monday!

turn it up and do a little dance...

go ahead, just try and resist gettin' your boogie on!

hoodie love!

i was reading all my favorite blogs this morning and sipping on some coffee, when out of nowhere that feeling of warm fuzzy love came over me. mrs. french of bliss did a little post about comfy loungewear and this super sweet hoodie from anthropology was one of twelve on her list.

i'm not one to splurge on fancy dresses or expensive shoes... but treating myself to a super comf hoodie, well now that's something i can get into. it's even in my current favorite color!!!

sadly though my wallet situation won't allow for such treats. so santa, if you can hear me, please fill my stocking with this!

tegan & sara...

lots of packing of orders to do today, and the complete discology of tegan and sara is my soundtrack for this task!

love them!

sweet sugar... skull

a few months ago a found a couple of these amazing skull bottle openers on one of my cast iron hunts. i cleaned them up, gave them a coating of primer, and then they sat sadly on a shelf for quite some time...

i knew that i wanted to paint them like day of dead skulls, but somehow the time to sit down and actually do it never came about. until today that is! this morning, over a few episodes of glee, i finally got down to business! i'm pretty stoked about how he turned out and i'm already drawing up plans for my next one!

hooray for productivity!

(you can see more pics of this little bugger HERE)

super cute alert!

i'm kinda head over heals for this sweet little arrow lariat by chainchainchained...

and ps, how awesome is that shop name. i can't stop singing it!

get yer indie fixx!

the ever amazing jen over at indie fixx has whipped up a snazzy little fall lookbook and checkout whose sweet ruffle brooch is gracing the cover... yup, it's mine!

so i'm sending a big thanks out to jen, and y'all be sure to check out the entire lookbook HERE!

apartment therapy!

random exciting news... my etsy shop was featured on apartment therapy this weekend!

WOO-HOO!!!

NICHE market...

if you happen to follow me on either twitter or facebook, then you probably already know that two of my best buds recently purchased a streetwear boutique, and that for the past month evan and i have been helping them give the shop a complete 180! the grand re-opening of NICHE was this past saturday and it went fabulously. what was once a very modern, stark shop is now a warm vintage inspired boutique! here are just a few pics i shot of the finished decor...

the happy new owners...

(yup, those are Monkey & Squirrel brooches!)

they've got so many amazing pieces for guys & gals. i know where my spare dough will be going these days :)

baby madness...

it would appear as though i've hit that age when all of your friends start popping out tiny little bundles. currently 3 of my gal friends, as well as my sister-in-law, are all expecting. while evan and i are definitely holding off on the baby making a bit longer, i must admit i'm pretty stoked for the day that i get to dress up my own little nugget in some sweet bad ass duds!

come on... would you mess with this little girl?

*quirky collective*

song of the day...

i need to practice these sweet moves!

busy busy...

my goodness, what a terrible blogger i've been thus far this week. two days with no updates, so not like me! the reasons are plentiful, but basically, two of our best buds are opening up a streetwear boutique here in charlotte and their grand opening is this saturday. we've been super busy helping them out with anything they may need to be all set come the big day. in addition to that, two of our other friends just moved back to the states from france and are staying with us for awhile. so in other words, it's been lots of hang outs, late nights, and work work work in between. hopefully i'll be back on schedule soon, but if not here's a little goody that the france folks just introduced me to that i'm absolutely in love with. enjoy!

happy friday!

just thought i would share a little something so stinkin' adorable to kick off your weekend...

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.

hope you loved it as much as i do!

:)

indie love!

i'm so very honored to be part of the poppytalk handmade market this month. check out this amazingly adorable little lookbook of all the participating artists that they put together on their site. click "view in full screen" to make the most of your experience :)

so sweet!