are we ready...

... for what will probs be the longest catch-up blog post evs? k, let's have at it then, shall we?

umm first of the national stationary show in the city with nat and k was pretty much an inspiration overload. here are some of my fave sightings, in no order at all;

* whigby = a teeny little company from canada who make the raddest graphics ever seen on wrapping paper. my faves? obvs "the birds of whig harbor" & "they came from planet whig."

* motormouthpress = the creators of the "letterpress birdies series," cute little cheeky conversating birds in cute little bird houses, cupcake shops and such. they also make a couple of really rad self-mailers!

* paper + cup = adorable married peeps who make totally drool-worthy items such as; these completely lovable photo insert journals with twitterpating line drawn silhouettes that slide over pretty picces. and also, the bon bon button cards because you know i can't say no to a good button badge, my fave is the kisses card with the "essence of kisses" button.

* dee & lala = some really adorable card series sets, my faves being "watch and learn" and then it's a toss up between "follow the leader" and "pet shop collection." you decide.

* elum = purely beautiful, timeless, breathtaking lovliness that totally knocked our socks off the second we entered their booth and then again when they gave us their entry to the calendar, so yum! the four seasons calendar must make its way into my little nest asap. also, feel free to lust after just about all of their newly released cards while i plot a way to be able to afford to send out all elum letterpressed holiday cards this year! also, imagine how psyched i was when i received the julie west letterpressed print i had ordered a week or so previous to the show and realized that it was printed by elum!

* egg press = one of my many dream jobs, letterpress company based in portland, i'm totally destined for that city, who make hilarious and also adorbs things like; the woodgrain collection, cutesies onesies, which seems to be a common thing for stationary companies to branch out too, and about 25+ other awesome cards that i can't find pictures of on the internets.

* whimsy press = such major love that we're figuring out a way to maybe bring them into the store, and to hold me over in the meantime, i already received my own little package of lovliness from them, including bunches of gift wrap, awesome sticker tags (two of which in each set don't have "to and from" and are perfect for journaling spots) & i've already been rocking my "it's good to be green" tote and i'm not going to lie, i'm still lusting after the "be green not mean" tote as well. and all that rad-ness doesn't even touch on their super amazing ocassion cards! if i really, really like you, you may be catching one of these in your mailbox at some point! : p

* night owl paper goods = falling further and further in love with the company kristina introduced us all too with the "hello" card in her SIS kit. my faves this time around were the blank wood cards, wood calendar and this hip looking owl.

i had a lot of fun hanging out with miss natalie for a few days before she left on her crazy awesome adventure in taiwan. so missing her already though! i keep pickig up the mobile to call her on my way home from work or text her about something exciting and, alas, no nat! so psyched for her though!

okay, on to other things... let's see... umm ooh! i went with rick, ryan & ian to see "the strangers" a couple of weeks ago, all terrefied out of my mind because i'm a total baby about scary movies, and then nothing! not that scary! mostly because they show you too much and so it's not creepy and also because the scariest part was paying full movie price for a movie that was only 1 hour and 10 minutes long! wtf? at least we got to check out the overnight shooting of transformers 2 that was going on over at bethlehem steel, or atleast tried, haha. they had such crazy lights that this is about the best shot i got. that's rick and ian walking towards the set.

i've been really making an effort to actually go out and do things lately, rather than stay home because it's easier or i feel self-concieus. i have always known that i have fun once i'm out there, but it's sometimes hard to make myself get out in the first place. so there have been houseparties, scrap nights, walks and laying in cool grass and other fun things that make me not feel quite so old!

speaking of old, i'm officially getting there! i turned 26 on the 5th and it was a pretty rad day. my mum was refusing to tell me what my big birthday surprise was, not even when we got in the car to go there. so, i don't know if i've blogged about this before, but i've been on this kick where i want to be a helicopter pilot really badly. so, sure enough we pull up to sky manor and i get surprised with my very first lesson! it was so completely amazing up there and i even had all the controls on my own for a little bit, while threatening the instructors life if he didn't put his hands back on, haha. we were taking tight turns, following the roads and the poor guy was trying to teach me how to hover too, haha. here's one where i look a bit more confident since i'm back on the ground;

marykate got some pretty awesome shots with our little point and shoots and i'm psyched she was there to send me positive vibes from the ground and snap some pics too.

we hit a crazy delicious mexican 'straunt for my birthday dinner after all in all, i'd say it was a sucessful birthday!

let's see... ooh! cha! dawn is sending me to chicago/rosemont next month to do cha and i'm so psyched to be going again, especially for such an awesome store with such a fun customer base! so, who else is going? where are you staying? who wants to get together? let's figure it out ladies!

here's a question for y'all... laptop or fancy camera? i'm torn between a macbook, which would be my first mac, or a nikon d60. i'm leaning towards the macbook at this point because as much as i love photos, i find that i'm barely pulling my easy to carry point and shoot out anymore so a d60 would be a heck of a toy to leave in it's bag. especially since i just snagged the diana + special edition from urban and ordered some rolls of expired film, a flash & a couple of lens' for it on the lomography website. that might be enough fun with film for the time being. who all has a macbook? do you love it? will i hate the switch from a pc? i know i won't hate the switch from a dell, that's for suresie!

so, since i'm breaking out phrases like, "for suresie" it's probs time for me to head off to sleep. know that i've gotten all of this done i can return to normal blogging! if you've stuck through this 'til now, then thanks! i promise i'll get back to the scrappies asap!