Bon Voyage, madame!

I made an amazing find yesterday at one of my regular thrift stores! I've been on the hunt for a vintage suitcase ever since my first craft fair last December. (Ok, I might have been wanting one before then, but after the show I had a 'real' reason to want one) I borrowed my friend's suitcase for that show.

I needed one to be used at my table display at the shows. Now, there's quite a number of old suitcases out there and they are relatively easy to find, however, finding a good one is hard. I needed a very specific kind. Not too big, but big enough to display items in. It had to be a hardcover one, the soft ones are not sturdy enough. Even when you find one that meets these qualifications, there's this the color (both outside and in) and condition to think about. I'm not buying one to be ket close, so the insides need to be in good shape too.

After all this time, here it is:

I'm so excited! (Unlike Chris who did not seem quite so impressed when I showed it to him. Oh well, he knew who he married) Ok, I need to properly clean and sanitize it first, then I'll be excited!

So, what do you think? Yay or nay for my new, old suitcase?

P.S. The manager of the store wished me "Bon Voyage, madame" after I purchased the suitcase. "Madame". In French it sounds kinda old, doesn't it?

Unfinished business

I've been working on some new ideas recently. I feel like my head is filled with all of these fantastic ideas just waiting to get out. But I just can't seem to produce anything completely finished. I feel like the ideas are almost complete.

I feel similar as to when I went to art school. I started when I was pretty young, around 8, and went there until I was about 16. I learned so many things, tried all these different techniques from oil paints to sculptures and, yes, I did a year dedicated to the art of comic books. But, I often ran into the same problem, I could visualize exactly what the end result is, but I don't know how to get it out. I know all these techniques on how to use all these wonderful tools and materials. I'm pretty good at the technical details, like I can easily visualize how the light hits different objects and how the shadows would appear or how to prepare clay to make sure you'll get the optimal results with your sculptures. I can execute it all technically without a problem, but I'm missing a step somewhere between the preparation, the technical details and the end result.

*cough*perfectionistmuch*cough*

This seems to be happening again. I have a clear idea in my head of several new products, but am having trouble translating it to reality. I think this is once again point 3 on my new years resolutions list. (Ha! I didn't forget I made one!)

I'm trying to figure out how to apply my techniques from work (the 9 to 5 type work) to my creative life as well. I used to have a similar issue earlier in my career. (All potential new employers, please note the words used to, then I became awesome once I figured out how to handle it all) I have always been a bit of a perfectionist at heart, the type to do things perfectly and not accept anything less. In my line of work there's no 'down time', you have to think on your feet and get everything done. The fact that I deal with customers who expect near perfection every time, doesn't exactly ease the stress.

So, what did I do? Came to a very simple realization; you can only do one thing at a time. You can of course think about 15 million things while you do that one thing, but you can only do. one. thing. at. a. time. Simple. Take every massive project at hand and start breaking it into smaller, more manageable pieces. Then start working on those pieces one at a time.

That is the very simple rule that I live by, so I can handle working with such complex projects efficiently and tend to finish on time, all the time.

Now, all I need to do is to apply this to my creative work as well... How do you prioritize things that are just as important and you want to work on all of them at the same time?

Do you have similar problems? How do you handle them?

P.S. the photos are of stationery sets made out of vintage maps. Click HERE to see more

A cup of tea and some mail

I haven't had seasonal allergies in a long time. I assume I went through enough when I was a kid. However, for some reason I'm feeling pretty stuffy right now. It's either allergies or I'm getting a cold. Neither option sounds too appealing. I've been trying to drink a lot of tea, enough to make my friend Anna proud of me.

I generally live on coffee, but tea has it's place. I've recently discovered a brand called Stash Tea and I've possibly found my new favourite flavor. Licorice Spice! It's even caffeine free, which is a shock to me, but it's amazing. If you get a chance, try it out!

Do you have a favourite tea?

On to some mail...

Incoming:

I had quite a surprie waiting for me in the mail... My friend Nina sent me a surprise from the UK. I forgot to take a photo of what she sent me, sorry about that. She sent me a Cath Kidson Sticker booklet with labels (if you're getting mail from me, just wait and see) and a cute dish towel. She even wrapped them in paper with the London underground map. Thanks Nina!

Outgoing:

I sent a letter to Massachusetts in a handmade envelope made of a page from a French cookbook

And I sent out a package to NYC decorated with a handmade hot air balloon stamp.

So how was your weekend?

Oatmeal raisin cookies

I don't bake very often. It's kind of a shame, since I used to all the time. Anyhow, I decided to bake yesterday (mainly because I was craving sugar) and chose oatmeal raisin cookies (mainly because we had all the ingredients at home.

They turned out great. I used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen and made the half batter. I got 12 large cookies out of it. I recommend trying this.

Do you have a super simple cookie recipe to recommend? I'd love to hear about it!

Friday Inspiration

Guys, I don't know how to break it to you... This Friday inspiration post has always been the place where I honestly share the things that are inspiring me at that time or what I've been looking at that week... So, I feel like I need to be honest this time too...

Photo from Flickr

I'm sorry to say, and this might puzzle and even scare some of you, I I have been looking at... dare I say it... Christmas photos. I tried to even find the least scary photo... This is the time for me to really get down to business when it comes to the holiday season. For us crafters, the time is just around the corner. I need to get my designs done and prototypes figured out.

So, I this is really what's been on my mind... You can even see that with the stamps I've been making...

So, how early is too early?