.the good things.

so life's been nuts. do i allude to that a lot on this blog?

well, it's still true.

tonight's bout was AWESOME!! such a close game! the old money honeys beat the mob by a HAIR. so close! wow!

after the bout, we had a meet and greet/info session for girls interested in joining Providence Roller Derby for the 2011 season - SO CRAZY to think that i wont be one of the newest girls on the league soon! wow!

if you live in the area, consider trying out! it's amazing. check out our website.

----------

in other news, a friend of ours is taking us out to a the beach tomorrow to do a vintage themed photoshoot! yeah!!!


i am sooooo excited about this! it's going to be the first real photo session we've had since we got married (almost 6 years ago!). i've been collecting little ideas for different things to bring with us for the shoot - vintage suitcases, an umbrella (loaned to me by the lovely brooke from rehab just for the shoot!), a vintage camera, my boots and cowgirl hat, a lovely dress i got in our clothing exchange friday . . . so excited to share the photos when they are ready and i'll def post a link to my friend's photography website when it is up! she's actually asked us to do the shoot so that she can build up her portfolio for her website. SQUEEEE!!!

speaking of the clothing exchange, last friday my friend, miss C and i hosted a clothing exchange (though she did most of the work since i spent the afternoon locked out of my apartment!!!). also called a Naked Lady Party. Everyone brings a bag of pre-loved items (in good condition) such as clothes, books, cds, bags, hats, scarves, jewelry, etc and we dump them in piles around the house, try them on, take what we want and donate the rest. some people add structure to these parties, rules about how many you can take based on what you bring, make it a game, wait in line, etc. we just throw things around and share! we also make it a potluck so everyone can snack and drink - miss C made KILLER SANGRIA!! it really helped beat the heat (have any of you read about the crazy heat wave that's been taking over new england? it is also taking over my brain!). sometimes we make the parties themed (we did one near halloween and made it trick or treat themed, and one we did was a tea party/alice in wonderland theme).

i feel GREAT about the swap! i brought 3 huge grocery bags of clothes and left with only 1 1/2 bags full of "new" items. then i went through and got rid of MORE items as i put the new ones away! i LOVE it!!! plus we had BAGS and BAGS of things to donate at the end!! fantastic.

try it~ let me know what you think!

---------

k, it's off to bed! crazy weekend might be over, but tomorrow is a big day and it starts with a 5:45am wakeup time! goodnight my lovlies!

---------
p.s. enter my giveaway!! the winner will be announced monday of NEXT week!!

.giveaway v2: rehab.

hello my lovelies! sorry it has taken me so long to get around to posting this giveaway! the only reason i am able to do it now is because our roller derby bout got rained out and i found myself with a free 4 hours this afternoon (well and i finally found my camera!) . . . so before i head off to the afterparty (which is now a pre-party since the game will be tomorrow instead), here's the goods:







this necklace was lovingly made from rehabilitated parts. i found it at a new vintage shop called rehab that has opened up in the street where i work (wickenden st). the one thing that kept going through my head the first time i visit this shop was, "wow, this place is really well curated." i know that "curated" is an odd word, but it's true. every piece was carefully picked out by some amazing shoppers . . . there are TONS of owl goodies (love!!), vinyl (more love!), jewelry (brooches!) and jewelry parts, clothes, books, knick knacks (unicorns!!), etc. i've scored some vintage roller skates, a johnny cash vinyl, a few pieces of jewelry and some awesome books (they've got a really really old copy of the jungle book in 2 parts!). if you live in town, check them out! they are only open TH-SUN.

so . . . for the giveaway! this SWEET necklace can be yours! all you have to do, is leave a comment below about a recent thrift/vintage score of yours! i'll do a post soon with images of all my recent finds.

the winner will be announced MONDAY July 19th. that's one week, folks.

and again friends, thanks for your patience. . . these last few weeks have been cuh-ray-zee with derby, work, and life. i need a vacation.

----------
fyi: rehab is NOT affiliated with this blog or involved in this giveaway. i just found this necklace there and knew one of YOU would love it!!!

.30 day journal challenge: day 1.

today is day one of run with scissors' 30 day journal challenge . . . and i was going to use this pretty journal that i already have, but after looking at everyone's personalized journal's . . . i sort of want to buy a new journal and decorate the cover myself. so i might not start the challenge until tomorrow when i can get to the craft store.

not a very good start to a 30 day challenge, huh? whoops :)


in other news, i've been a vinyl fiend lately. i've had a few awesome vintage and thrift finds (esp in the vinyl dept) that i'd love to blog about. BUUUUUT right now the man-friend and i are off to pick up our first ever FARM SHARE!!!! whooo-hooo!!!!

{photo credit: chris cappy}

i'll be back with a real post and lots of photos soon! have a lovely day.

.concrete jungle.

FINALLY, here are some photos from our spring break trip to new york city!!!


this photo of the statue of liberty was taken on our last day in NYC. we took the subway all the way down to the southern end of manhatten because the man-friend wanted to see the park down there - he'd remembered being there on his last visit and it was a really nice day so we thought we'd check it out. we had all of our bags and had a bus to catch back to RI so we couldn't stay long. but we both got a nice bit of a sunburn. :) we ended up missing our bus because we were told it was leaving from the wrong terminal by 3 different employees . . . silly inept bus workers and silly HUGE port authority station with no reader board telling where it's hundreds of busses are leaving from. they have reader boards. just none of them are turned on. they have information stands. but they are all closed. hmmmm.... we ended up getting on a later bus back home, so we weren't stranded in NYC. just stuck in the bus terminal on a gorgeous sunny day. it would have been nice to have been able to stay outdoors.

anyway . . . enough complaining. our trip really was fantastic! and i really am a much more positive person than the above paragraph. boooo on me. sorry!

anyway, we spent one afternoon walking across the brooklyn bridge with the hundreds of other tourists. besides that and the day we spent going to museums, we really didn't do much else that was super "touristy" (like going to staten island or up to the top of the empire state building, etc). mainly we hung out with our friend, miss C and her roommates and galvanted about the city from cafe to restaurant to thrift shop to park to bar to STUMPTOWN COFFEE in the lobby of the Ace Hotel (we went there 3-4 days in a row).

here's a photo we took on the brooklyn bridge:
this is the view of manahatten coming across the bridge from the brooklyn side.


i really loved the subway system in the city. public transportation is a passion of mine and having a system that really works and it widely used by all demographics is so exciting to see in action! it's really affordable too. the man-friend and i got a weekly pass for unlimited rides for somewhere around $20 each. this was great since each time you ride it costs about $2 and we had to ride it from williamsburg to downtown almost every day. it paid for itself in the first day and a half that we were there!

here are miss C and i posing while waiting for the train ABOVE ground (and even ABOVE the street) in williamsburg after we picked up some awesome new green sunglasses for her at buffalo exchange! love that place! so sad we don't have on in providence. happy that there is a new one that just opened up in boston though! yay!

we ate and ate and ate while we were there - it's one of my favorite things about traveling. we went to a place on curry row (a row of indian food restaurants stacked on top of each other with men standing outside trying to pull you in to their tiny tiny hallways full of tables and poeple). miss C took us to her favorite place on curry row and we stuffed ourselves with vegetarian curries and rice and naan. it was BYOB . . . huzzah! we picked up some anchor steam on our way over. yummmmm.
miss C and i at curry row:
the place was covered in chili pepper strings of lights and all kinds of other crazy things (i think saw a plastic dinosaur) hanging from the ceiling so that you had to duck while walking through!

we spent an afternoon strolling through central park. next time i TOTALY want to rent a tandem bike and ride it around. the prices weren't too bad . . . maybe $10 for an hour? so cool!!

here i am doing one of my favorite things - taking a "jumping picture" in central park with the buildings of uptown behind me (this was taken near the ice skating rink in central park where there were all kinds of people filming some sort of movie . . . not sure what it was but it involves people on the ice skating rink in central park. look for it in 2012 :) )
here i am STOCKED to be drinking a rice milk latte at stumptown (note the NYC cab behind me). no one has rice milk as an option around here. and since i can't really eat dairy and i am allergic to soy milk, i could have cried with happiness to find that stumptown had rice milk. of course they did. they are from portland, oregon!
the other thing we did a ton of while in town was VINTAGE AND THRIFT STORE SHOPPING!!! the man-friend was in heaven to be surrounded by all the plaid, wool, flannel, cowboy cut shirts, and pearl snaps! it was like a kid in a candy store :) i picked up a few great dresses for summertime and some crazy tights for roller derby.

there you have it, a very random assortment of photos from our time in NYC. for more photos click here.

----------

in other news:
i cut my hair
i've got a really good start on the garden this year
i made a fresh batch of granola this morning
i am still working on finishing all my crafts in time for the craft swap
i am all caught up on last night's LOST episode and can't WAIT to watch the new gLee
teaming is finished for this year's home season for the roller derby. we had our first team practice last night! i cannot be more EXCITED about which team i was put on!
the masquerade ball was amazing. we finished our masks and were very happy about them. i got some AWESOME photos!

all of these things should be getting posts of their own in the near future. stay tuned!

.return.

so . . . we had a GREAT time in new york! what a blast!!! 5 days of delicious food, good friends, being completely car-free, sunshine, rain, stumptown coffee, and vintage/thrift store shopping!

uploading photos to my computer now. :)

being away set me pretty far behind in my real life . . . that's what vacation does, i guess. so i have a lot of things to work on right now. catching up on emails, snail mails, blogs, crafts, bills, work, and then getting ready to fly to tulsa in a few weeks to meet my sister's new baby . . . phew.

i'll make it.

what have you been up to while we were away?