Shop Girl

mojitos, pina coladas, and charms oh my!

Warm weather makes me want to wear girly skirts, paint my toes sparkly red, sit in the sun with a cocktail in one hand and a big chunky charm bracelet on the other. 

Since I have a charm bracelet void in my life I asked some of my friends (16 to be exact) to help me solve that problem and we came up with a charm swap. Of course our inspiration for the charm swap was summer time!

My personal inspiration -  mojitos, pina coladas and Carmen Miranda.  

        

I asked my friends what their inspiration was and was blown away with the results! I love this quote from shiny little things "Do you make charms? I love to. Tiny little do-dads that I can add to a chain or ribbon, bits and pieces that might just join forces together and make something tremendous."  This project is my friends and I joining forces and creating something fabulous and happy!

We had some yummy food - everyone brought something delicious to share and of course we had some lovely beverages. 

 

 

  

 

For the swap part of the party we had a "charm buffet" where we displayed our charms for the exchange on something special that complimented the charms - dishes, gazing trays, etc.  I made my charms out of one of my most very favorite things in the world and a summer time essential - paper umbrellas! 

 

 

 

 

It was a grand time! And now I have my bracelet with a charm made by each person to remember them by. Thanks everyone!

 

 

gifts for the girl who has everything

in case you were needing birthday gift ideas for me tomorrow...

a little basket to put on the front of my bike so i can ride to the Beaverton Farmers Market saturday mornings and fill it with fabulousness

a time warp back...say...4 years? yep. that was a good one.

a genie in a bottle  - i'll take 3 wishes please

some inspiration - i've been lacking in that department 

a set of these really cool glasses, assorted styles please, preferably the Rolling Rock, Corona and Red Stripe. yep. i want them all.

a lifetime subscription to... something really good. or whatever.

delivery for one year of peanut butter banana toasted sandwiches upon request.

a chocolate mocha cake from Haggens. it is all things good in this world. minus candles and singing. lets just get forks out. 

a winning lottery ticket - only buy the winning ones please. all others will be returned.

a "get out of discussing what to have for dinner card" and instead just go to the movies - Terminator 2 to be exact where my dinner there consists of hot dogs, popcorn and raisinets and a big diet coke

and a "get out of doing something really not fun at work tomorrow card" because one shouldn't have to take care of ugly tasks on their birthday. don't you agree?

i don't ask for much do I?

well, i do have everything else so my list is only the essentials. please and thank you.

since it is my special day and it's been awhile i'm taking a Lloyd Dobler moment to celebrate:

"I wrote 63 songs this year. They're all about Joe. And I'm going to sing each and every one of them tonight."

But really let's just sing Happy Birthday to me, shall we...?

Happy Birthday to me... Happy Birthday to me...cha cha cha... as I fade away into the distance...

 

cuteness overload

Must. Have. These.

from Bake It Pretty and I rarely bake. And when I do - sshhhh, dont tell - but it's out of a box - eek!  But they would be so damn cute lining my glass cake pedistal thingy from Crate & Barrel. I'm all about the cute accessories.

Speaking of which - I want to make something to use these on -

Oh My. The Cuteness continues over and over and over again at Bake It Pretty! Go there like NOW.

status updates i would have put on facebook if i didnt have so many "friends"

and since no one reads my blog I can put them here:

Andrea says "wow" to the guy who ordered a Quad 20oz Mocha Breve this morning.

Andrea doesn't think adding an A onto the end of the name will make it any better.

Andrea has trust issues and would like to believe but doesn't know for sure. 

Andrea is sorry she didn't ask you first but that doesn't mean you didn't need them.

Andrea wants you to know the 72 minimum really isn't that many when you break it down by 5 sizes and 4 color ways.

Andrea wants to tell you that if you had told me I would have set it up that way but since you didn't....

Andrea wants to tell you that it's not necessary to forward me and email that I was cc'd on and say "you were cc'd".

And if I could of text-ed in my car while driving home tonight you would have read this:

Andrea wonders if it's smart to drive home all the way with the gas light on and 10 miles to empty.

Andrea thinks you better answer your phone if you are hungry for dinner otherwise it's every man for himself.

Other witty status updates from today:

Andrea thinks it's crap that she woke up to rain on her day off yesterday and this morning's alarm clock brought her streaming sunshine.

Andrea wants to know why she came home to 2 grumpy pants.

My life is could be one status update after another! Instead of facebook I love how choose to post them here because no one reads my blog anymore. That's probably why I stopped blogging - because people were actually reading it! Now that I have so many "friends" I don't want to facebook anymore and have passive aggressively posted my status updates here. I'm so messed up. I think I've been watching In Treatment too much.  It's a tangled web I weave.

A few more I just came up with:

Andrea thinks it's crazy our portion of the insurance was $147.75 per tooth. FOUR teeth. It's a racket I tell you. 

Andrea wants Tom to know he makes a wicked chopped salad and I love him for it.

Andrea is so proud she posted today after 3 months of nothing.

And I leave you with that. 

things that make me happy at this very moment

Cupcakes. I want to bake lots of them and buy things from LayerCakeShop. And I just ate one for lunch with a big glass of milk. It was delicious and I dont feel guilty. Nope. Not one little bit.

Lavender sachets. I've make bunches this weekend. Finally finding something to do with all those yoyos I was making. I like the patterns, especially the Amy Butler ones I got at Boersma's down in McMinnville about a year ago.

 

These will probably make it on my etsy shop because one girl can only use so many sachets.  Then I can buy stuff from the LayerCakeShop and my life will be complete. 

an ode to orange

 

It's shiny and pretty and you know I like shiny pretty things.

So it makes me want to take pictures.

And sometimes it comes with cute stickers.

hello lovelies

Holy moly it's been awhile ~ I really must get out more and blog! I've been having such a good time in facebook and all... what can I say?

Just finished up a round of circle journals that Celeste has been hosting and have hardly posted any of my pages! Let's see if I can dig up some pics to share...

Kristie's journal~

 

I made a little window. I like to think of it as happy little window into spring - it SNOWED here today and I'm so over it.

 

For Dianne's - I hand painted some paper and then just slapped them onto the page. Feel kind of lazy about it but it is what it is. I think it's purty...

 

Dianne hand made her journal and it was so cool to work in, check it -

   

Look how she bound the pages together!

Look at those filled pages - that's some journal goodness!

Now that thats done...hmmmnnn....I'm thinking about hostessing one of my own again. My stats are at an all time low here on shopgirl since I'm a huge slacker but sheesh...anyone want to play with me??  ;) 

merry merry

christmas to all!

now you might think i have dropped off the face of the earth but i'm still around and kicking. just taking a break but wanted to drop in and wish you all happies so if i dont talk to ya before the end of the year - happy new year too~!

xoxo

i hate daylight savings time

and it depresses me.

Can you tell I'm a Cancer? I've been hiding in my shell feeling anti-social. I get like that every once in awhile but the blog got really hit by it this time and I haven't been on here forever. I think I was feeling overwhelmed with life and needed to let go of a few things. Things have settled down now so here I am. What have I been up to you ask? Whats my excuse? None. Just been reading allot, going to soccer games, not crafting one little bit, cooking just a little more than normal, and watching way too much TV (movies mostly) which is not a usual thing for me. Work has me really tired out but the couple of big pprojects we have been working on should come to fruition here shortly. 

I feel like I should back track and load a bunch of posts and pictures here but that tires me out just thinking about it. So I think I will start fresh here from TODAY. There are still things I want to talk about it but need to ease back in. Alex and I just got back from the library today and we checked out a bunch of book so I think I will settle in and do some reading. See you soon,

xoxo Andrea

EDITED - For some reason I currently have a yo yo addiction. Maybe it's because I can sit, watch a movie and whip up a bunch. Tell me - What should I do with them all now???

happiness

I ordered this book for the shop and have been waiting for it all summer... 

 

And it arrived today. Happiness!

Stumbled across these lovelies which was like finding buried treasure in my scrap area. Put them up in my etsy shop today. I love Halloween. Happiness!!

It's the little things in life. Ah - but I must remember... whats the quote? Happiness is not in things, it's in us. Something like that anyway. A hard one to remember when there are such shiny pretty things adorning the world.