Happy Halloween!

via Bohemea on Tumblr.

Have a spooky Halloween, everyone!

Interesting… Guide to Marketing on Pinterest

While surfing Pinterest, I saw this infographic that was posted on a Mashable article earlier this year; it has some interesting stats on it. I thought you all might dig it as much as I did. Kind of cool to learn the numbers behind one of our favorite pastimes, no?

Thrift Store Score!

So, my sister calls me up and says that she was looking for free boxes on Craigslist and that she ran across a listing for a thrift store that was going out of business and was GIVING everything away. Yeah, you read that right. Well, I was still putzing around the house and she gave me exactly 20 minutes to get ready… Do I need to tell you that I was showered, dressed, and ready when she got here?

Anyway, we drive to the Renton Highlands and it’s two store fronts away from a St. Vincent De Paul (which are my favorite thrift stores on earth) and one away from a smallish JoAnn Fabrics (my favorite fabric and craft store in earth) but I digress…

When we got there half the store had been cleared out but my sis was able to get two carts full of clothes for her and her three youngest kids, including enough name brand and designer jeans for my eleven year old niece to be able to render her recent mall purchase obsolete.

I was not doing as well… I scored a few pairs of shoes and two handfuls of CDs (including HS fave Bros., Recoil, Cesaria Evora, Underworld, 808state, Erasure, Tom Petty & The Heart breakers, The Verve, and Handel’s Messiah) but I wasn’t finding something that said TAKE ME HOME! Until…

This retails for $205 on Artaissance… and I got it for FREE!

I was wandering in the very back of the store and saw a print pinned up to the wall. It was from Artaissance. It said that it was Breakfast Treats II by Carolyn Biggio. It was absolutely gorgeous, vibrant, large (at least 2’x3′), and… FREE! So, I snagged it.

Then, I found this silver or pewter bowl-y thing with a hole in the center. It has Hotel Sorrento engraved into the outside surface. Maybe it was a dome to go over a plate and it’s missing a piece or something? I don’t know. I just think it’ll look good on my desk.

Pretty sure I’d found all that I was going to at the going out of business place, I stepped over to St. Vincent De Paul while my sister shopped for more stuff at the first place and found this:

Found at St. Vincent de Paul: a $5 lamp. You can’t beat that!

Isn’t it sweet? I couldn’t pass up the texture and color. I’m not sure where it will go yet as I kind of love the brown lamp (that still hasn’t been projected) on my desk but I’m thinking that it may end up on the desk at some point. We’ll see!

So, overall today ended up being kind of a good day for me on the thrifting front. I mean I spent five bucks! It doesn’t get much better than that… unless you count the time that I got a vintage Henredon sofa for $35. But that’s another story!

Until next time…

PolarDroid

Ok, that’s not really what it’s called. It’s actually called the Polaroid SC1630 and it’s powered by Android. I like my version better but what I like best of all is that something that I was just sort of randomly wishing for under my breath is actually going to be on the market in a short while.

What is it that I was wishing for (you may well ask)? Wouldn’t it be cool if I could get the benefits of all my picture taking apps in a dedicated camera instead of the piecemeal whatsajiggit that they slap on to phones these days. (8MP? Whatevs! Ok, sometimes it’s not 8MP, it’s less)… This smart camera boasts 16MP and can instantly send your pictures to your favorite social applications, including Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. You could use it with a Polaroid PoGo or use the Walgreens app to send your snaps to your local store for printing! So cool, right?

Anywho, I’m excited beyond all comprehension that in the near future I will be able to have everything digital I own – phone, tablet, laptop, and digital camera that are all running on Google genius.

Yes, I bought the Kool-Aid and I’m drinking it too. You should try it, it’s quite tasty!

Instagram

Finally! The Instagram app is available for Android! After what seems like eons of waiting, while all my iPhone toting friends tweeted arty, perfectly altered photos of everything from their pets to what they ate for lunch last Saturday, I am able to join the fray. Yes, I have posted a picture of a pet. No, I haven’t posted pictures of food… but it’s early days yet for me in Instagram land.

Here is a sampling of what I’ve got up so far (minus my hideous early attempts) and in the spirit of full disclosure: a few of these photos were sent through Vignette (the full version) and Pixlr-O-Matic and then refiltered through Instagram, then I hitched them up together using Photoshake! Pro. I’ll let you decide which ones!

Clockwise from top left: boxes at my old job, my new thrift store camera, my niece and nephew, the view through the trees walking from IKEA Seattle.

Clockwise from top left: my nephew at the beach, historic building at the same beach, the Duwamish River through Fort Dent Park, my nephews throwing rocks at ducks!

Clockwise from top left: the Zoo Lights at Point Defiance Xmas 2010, Charlotte NC clouds, SW 43rd St passing under the train tracks, and my new stash of thrift store books… I got Murakami (x2) AND The Somnambulist for $2 each!

Are you on Instagram too? You can find me under the handle asishome (so original, I know!) trying sharpen my photo taking and editing skills. Follow me and I’ll follow you back. Happy picture taking!

Lazy Days of Summer?

So, my plan was to write an awesome post about some cool things I’ve seen lately but life, in the form of six loads of laundry, intervened. I decided that I should stop procrastinating and get it done… Which I did.

I also finished the last book of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy (more on that in another post)…

… downloaded a new eBook called The Black God’s War…

… signed up for the email list for my friend Robin Burks upcoming debut novel Zeus, INC…

… played around with a photo editing app called Pixlr…

edited and added to some of my boards on Pinterest

… checked out the girly glam blog, This Is Glamorous…

… made two playlists on Spotify and listened to Nero’s Welcome Reality…

Um, but not necessarily in that order! Anyway, that’s what I did with my day off. I didn’t really do anything but I feel like that was a lot for one day! Until next time…

Awake

Jason Isaacs as Detective Michael Britten in NBC's Awake.

I don’t watch much TV. I think I may have shared that before. I do watch some and usually when I like a TV show, I really like it. There are two shows on TV that I’m really digging right now and one of them is Awake on NBC. The show stars Jason Isaacs as LAPD detective Michael Britten, who was recently in a car accident with his wife and son. As the show opens we see him in two separate realities: one in which his wife is alive, in the other his son is alive. The accident may have been an attempt to kill him and his family before he closed in on a shadowy group of criminals that may include his Captain.

The show revolves around Detective Britten’s cases, the attempts of the people who caused his situation to keep him from rediscovering them, and his ongoing therapy with two different therapists that are trying to help him sort out which reality is real and which is not. The latter is hard to figure out: there is crossover between these realities that bend Detective Britten’s ability to be able to make a sure determination. The viewer is unsure as well: the fun comes from trying to figure it out along with him.

Jason Isaacs, who is probably better known for his role as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, is excellent as Detective Britten. His struggle to ascertain his own sanity while dealing with the completely different emotional landscapes of his two worlds is compelling. I find myself rushing home every week on Thursdays to find out what is going to happen next. I totally recommend this show! If you like police procedurals mixed with family drama and a bit of the unexplained then you’ll like this show. Check it out if you get a chance! Until next time…

The One That Got Away…

Dining room from Rue magazine (l) and chair currently for sale on Etsy (r).

I bought a desk not long after I returned to the Seattle area. It is a lovely CL find that I fell in love with as soon as I laid eyes on it. It needs some TLC and a nice desk chair to make feel less lonely.

So I searched and searched and somewhere along the way I had the brilliant idea that it needed to be a more modern chair, preferably with a brass finish… And I found this:

"Modern Glam Chair" from Gallivanting Girls on Etsy.

It’s brass. It’s modern. It’s beautiful. It’s also out of my part time job price range at $180. I resign myself to the fact that I’m probably going to be a wish monster galore on this one…

A couple of weeks later, I head over to Rue Magazine and lo, and behold! There is this swank little room with not one but two of those very perfect chairs. They are chrome (and not brass) but still the lovely modernist shape and with better fabric to boot.

Dining space from the February 2012 issue of Rue Magazine.

Someone out there is like me and wants this chair badly. They saw that spread in Rue too… And they can’t get their mind off of the beauty and perfection of those chairs. They want them and they’ve been searching but they can’t find them. Well, at last here it is. Solo, yes… but one is better than none. Grab it while you can. 🙂

Brooklyn Tweed's photo journal.

Knit designer Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed just posted a link to photos from his trip to the Shetlands.

These images are so gorgeous And totally inspiring. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

The photo above is Brooklyn Tweed’s.

Do all yarnthings get down in the summer?

So… I have two knitting projects going right now but I haven’t picked them up because the thought of touching yarn when it’s this hot out seems kinda of icky.

Do you all find it hard to knit and crochet when the weather is warm? Or do you do just fine with your yarn projects in any kind of weather?

If you’ve got any tips, I’d love to hear them!