in my (sometimes) humble opinion

Yay, I'm all ready for Craft Saturday tomorrow! There were a few things I didn't get done, but what're you gonna do…

The image above is one of the 10 postcards I made for Tyn's Valentine's Postcard Swap. Eventually I want to start selling prints of the little collages I make (they take soo long, I don't know why I thought I had time to do 10!).

Matt and I saw The Queen last night, it was really good (plus I have a little crush on the gorgeous Helen Mirren). I remember hearing about Princess Diana's car accident and death, as well as watching her wedding (yep, I'm old), so it was really fascinating to relive some of that.

On a random note, is it me or has Oprah been amazing recently? The Secret, the declutter guy (you probably had to be there, it was great), the Man vs. Wild guy… Yeah, she's awesome. Speaking of great people, we're going to see Barack Obama speak at ISU on Sunday. We may be moving to Canada but we still care about who's running this country.

ps - if anyone has any suggestions for places to visit in Seattle and Vancouver next week it would be greatly appreciated!

In honor of Roeper's top 10 movies of 2006 show last night (I miss Ebert!) I decided to do my own movies of 2006 lists:

My favorites - Science of Sleep, Shut Up & Sing, V For Vendetta, Little Miss Sunshine, The Prestige, Stranger Than Fiction

Pretty good - Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Syriana, The Lakehouse, Persuit of Happyness, The Holiday, An Inconvenient Truth

I laughed a lot: Talladega Nights, Borat (yikes), The Ringer, Thank You for Smoking

These were good too, even though I had to use my niece as an excuse to see them: Cars, Over the Hedge, Nacho Libre, Eight Below, Charlotte's Web, Akeelah and the Bee

Movies I didn't love as much as everyone else but still liked: United 93, Children of Men, Casino Royale

Movies I need to see still but I live in Iowa so if you blink they're gone if they were even here at all: The Queen, The Departed, Half Nelson, Babel, Volver, Blood Diamond

Hmm, that was random. I'll finish even more randomly with a great quote from a great book I just re-read, Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver:

"Here's what I've decided: the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That's about it. Right now I'm living in that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides. I can't tell you how good that feels. I wish you knew. I wish you'd stop beating yourself up for being selfish, and really be selfish."

This morning when I checked the widgets on my computer it was -5 here (without windchill). I am so relieved that this will be one of my last Iowa winters for a while! Been busy being crafting and being unmotivated (not a good combination), but I did get some fun new stuff up in my shop.

I'm excited to announce my friend Kris has a business! Fern + Jane vintage reconstructed goods for self and home (named after her Grandmas - isn't that cute?). She makes gorgeous wallets, pillows, zipper pouches, sketch book covers, needle rolls, etc out of vintage and found fabrics. Her etsy shop will be up soon (I hope!).

ps - got our tickets to Vancouver in two weeks to hopefully find somewhere to live! 

Winter has finally arrived in Iowa (it's -3 degrees and sunny with 4" of snow on the ground) which is a great incentive to move somewhere warm(er) and tropical (ha)… like Vancouver! :)

Been busy thrifting for stuff I don't need (but love anyway). My new friends Anthony and Ben were kind enough to take me to their favorite little flea market in Des Moines where I found the most amazing treasure: a 35-page "Herbarium" from 1912 full of pressed flowers and plants. Ridiculously gorgeous, every page is an earthy vintage collage. You can see more of my thrifty finds here (like these beautiful teacups for $.25 each).

Enough shopping, time to get to work! Kris and I (aka Bedhead Bazaar) are sharing the stage at the next Craft Saturday (Feb 10th) with the brilliant jeweler Jade Scott, so we've got a lot of room to fill. Should be a great time though!

Just wanted to say thanks to Jessica for making my shop a Funky Find today! Also, Mike from Mudpuppy started a Best of Etsy blog, which he was kind enough to include me in. Thanks for all the etsy love guys!

Just added a bunch of stuff to the shop, including this card (one of my favorites), some hilarious album cover notebooks, and some cute fabric flags. Woohoo, I'm up to 2 pages of stuff for sale! :)

There's something about the sun being out that just inspires productivity (we'll see how that works when we move to the notoriously overcast Pacific Northwest) . Today I designed custom receipts to go with my shop orders, finally posted on Tag Sale Tales, whipped up that cool flickr thing on the right, discovered I've had 21 pictures on Explore (I had no idea! Why don't they tell you these things?!), took some pictures, and made those fun new sections on the right there (I have friends! you can find me places!), all without leaving the house. And now the sun's starting to set. Well, that was nice. Happy new year!

ps - some fun links: Fernworks nature-inspired fine art, Leigh Wells' retro collages, Johanna Wright's fun paintings (via Tina), An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.