Crazy Busyness!

As you can see from the lack of posting, I've been extremely busy as of late. Stay tuned for the quick update:

Finals for school are next week! (and they changed over to Grand View University)

I had my senior show exhibit at school and a well attended reception

I turned 22 with lots of my favorite peeps around

One of my good friends got engaged (congrats!)

I picked up my very own letterpress!

I was selected as an Emerging Iowa Artist for the Des Moines Art Festival

My group and I won the marketing/design competition for the Iowa Crossroads Competition

Today is my brother's 17th birthday!

And its almost Christmas time!

So much stuff, so little time to post :(

Heading to the Beach

Today I came home to find an unassuming postal box sent from my favorite cousin. Earlier this month I had entered his blog contest, to send an artistic representation of Jacksonville, North Carolina. I've never been there, but was sad to see no one enter his contest. To remedy this situation, I sent him a little painting sketch I had done for a larger project. Since I "won" his contest with a painting of "Jacksonville," he sent me, as promised, a jar of sand from the coast. I must admit, I do enjoy going to the beach any time I want now. Especially since today it was only about 45 degrees outside and rainy. I also enjoyed the irony of the sand, all the way from North Carolina, was placed inside a strawberry jam jar from Minnesota.

Check out Phil's blog here to see my wonderful winning artwork :) You can also see his day to day experiences and his journalism skills in use at the Jacksonville Daily News. Thanks for the trip to the beach Phil!

Norwegian Goodness

Last Friday was Matt's birthday. He's not too much into birthday cake and I kept tempting him with how great my Great-Grandma's Norweigan blitz torte recipe is, so I decided to make it for his birthday. For the most part it was a success. I don't have the right pans for it, but it was still delicious and I even got the meriange to work out :) Too bad its all gone now...

Quick post of a great find!

I'm in love with this stamp. I may have to buy some just to make my letters (aka bills) prettier :) They are very Jim Flora inspired. He illustrated albums covers and children's books in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

Here is what the USPS website said about this stamp:

"On September 8, 2008, in Washington, DC, the Postal Service™ issued a 42–cent, Latin Jazz commemorative stamp.With the issuance of the Latin Jazz stamp, the United States Postal Service® celebrates the rich musical heritage of the United States of America. The stamp features a bold, graphic design by San Francisco–based artist and Latin jazz fan Michael Bartalos of San Francisco, California. The design conveys the multicultural aspects of the music, its percussive and improvisational nature, and its rhythmic complexity"

BEST bookbinding team featured on Etsy!

I was just checking my email and found out my Etsy team, the BEST bookbinding team has been featured on Etsy. Check out the article here. And check out our blog here. And my shop here!

Great Northern Midwest Printer's Fair

Today I took a little roadtrip over to Mt. Pleasant for the Great Northern Midwest Printer's Fair. I was on the lookout for a press, but alas I did not find one. I did meet some nice people and got to see the Printer's Hall which was pretty cool. They even have the press and paper folder from my home town newspaper. The giant Babcock Reliance. Maybe by next year's Printer's Fair I'll have my own press.

Busy Busy and New Design

So I've been awful about posting lately. School has been taking priority thus far and I've also been dealing with personal things as well. Just recently went home to help my family move to the new house. Kind of sad to pack up from the only home I've lived in, but somewhat exciting to move into a new place.

Even though I've been busy, I took some time tonight to go to my friend Lacee's Mary Kay party. I've been using Mary Kay since I started wearing make-up (I won a free make over). They recently changed the design of their compacts and I was blown away with the design. My old compact was obviously a few designs ago. The new design is sleek and modern and I love how they used the pink. I ended up spending probably more than I needed to, but it was a fun time.

I've Found It!

My new car that is! or perhaps my "someday when you're rich and famous you can buy this car" car. The Highland Parks Area Association had a car show this weekend and Matt and I went to check it out. There were some pretty sweet cars there and I wish we would have had some more time to check it out more throughly. Overall it was quite enjoyable and I could imagine myself driving off in one of these :)

I'm Published!

Well kind of.....how to you describe it when somebody uses your design? Anyway, one of my logos was used and I just got to see the pictures! Yeay exciting! Hope you enjoy :)

It's Yellow!

And totally great!!!! I found this awesome table at an estate sale for $30! With the chairs! I was pretty excited to get it and love it in my kitchen. It happens to go well with the way I redecorated as well.

Iowa State Fair

Oh the Iowa State Fair. I was in 4-H for nine years so I've very familiar with fair time. I didn't get a chance to head back to Winneshiek county for their fair, but Kari and Grant, and later Kindra as well joined Matt and I for a couple trips to the Iowa State Fair.Besides finding everything you can imagine on a stick (even salad on the stick this year!), we saw the sites of the fair. Everything is bigger there, including this giant pumpkin! It weighed over 1200 lbs! This is the biggest bull---no lie!

And the biggest boar---weighed almost the same amount as the giant pumpkin!
And a lovely view of the fair from the sky glider.
All in all, it was a fun time, enjoyed the sites, the company, and relived my years in 4-H. And now, the wait begins for next year's fair!

When I grow up...

I want to be like this girl! This print is from Elizabeth House and I stumbled upon her blog and love her stuff! She's into printmaking and bookbinding and also is a new fabric designer! Maybe when I grow up I can be a fabric designer too (or just be printing and bookbinding in my "studio" aka the basement :)

Fall done by Etsy

I've been thinking more and more about fall lately, probably due to the mild August we've been having. As I've thinking about fall, I've been looking at some finds on Etsy that my fall spirit is pining for :)

First is the great shawl by TickedPinkKnits:

And this great combo, sold separately, but they look great together, from Elmstudios: plate, bowl

And these great fall earrings from ShopClementine:

I love the color combo in these kitchen towels from MichelleBruse:
And everybody needs a little vintage inspired art hanging around :) Great little print from monkeypoweredSo much stuff to look forward to fall with :)

Weekly Round-up

It's been a busy week (as seen by my lack of posting), so here's a weekly round-up of all things of this week :)
I made delicious banana bread early on in the week :) It's my grandma's recipe and it is so delicious :) Matt and I went through half a loaf right after I made it
On Thursday I got free tickets to the I-cubs game. I haven't gone to a game in 2 years at least, so it was fun to go. The game was really pretty good and the I-cubs ended up winning. Unfortunately we left at the bottom of the 8th because the wind really picked up and I could barely see because of my contacts. It started raining as we walked back to the car.
And to top off the weekend, Kindra and I went to the farmer's market on Saturday morning. I'd never gone before, but I throughly enjoyed it. I ended up making this beautiful bouquet for $3.50! I love fresh flowers!

After the flea market we stopped at West End Architectural Salvage. It was a really cool place, a little on the pricey side, but pretty cool. Have to remember it when I own my house someday. We also stopped out at the bridal store so Kindra could show me my bridesmaid dress. I'm so excited for her wedding :)

A very busy week, but a great one....and soon, a post about the one and only Iowa State Fair :) Gotta have some fun before school starts (in a week, eek!)

First Trip to a Real Zoo!

That's right, I've experienced my first trip to an actual zoo. And when I say actual zoo, I mean one that isn't a petting zoo or the Las Vegas Zoo (never go to the Las Vegas Zoo, unless you want to pay $8 to get chased by crazy birds). This last weekend Kari and Grant came down to the big D to visit and we went to the Blank Park Zoo. It was a good time and Kari got some great videos of our zoo experience. Here are some of the pics I captured.

Summer Time

Summer is nearing an end here in the land of Ioway. One of my favorite parts of summer is the abundant amount of fresh strawberries. During my last berry binge, I found a quite peculiar strawberry and just thought I'd share :)

Enjoy the rest of summer!

Ossian Fest!

Last weekend was the grand ole Ossian Fest. Matt and I took the trek back up home Thursday night in preparation for Ossian Fest on Friday. Woke up for the free breakfast (pancakes and Brockman's sausage is the best!) and then wandered around town, grabbed a couple of 19 cent ice cream cones and checked out the flea market. Later that evening we grabbed a piece of curb and watched the parade. Here are some pics of the fabulous Ossian Fest Parade.
This was crazy! This man had trained all of his ducks to march in line with him and every one of them had different little costumes.
And the classic shriners in their clown get-up.
And here's one of my great uncles driving his restored tractor.

All in all Ossian Fest was a great time. Good times with friends and classic Ossian Fest goodness :)

Another Treasury + Sale!

It's back to school time and everyone needs a new book or two! It's time for BESTbooks Team Back to School Sale! I will be offering free shipping beginning Aug 8 going through Aug 10. Check out the BESTbooks blog for the complete list of sales. Also check out our sweet treasury here :)

Fun Treasury

My lack of posting is starting to show...so I apologize. I have contracted a cold (from my brother, little poop) so I have been trying to recoop.

Today I did get a nice little convo today that I've been featured in a treasury! :) Thanks to RainbowMom for featuring one of my handmade books. She even gave me some props on her blog :)

Thanks RainbowMom!

Storque Article!

One of my books made it into the "related items" in a storque article! I was so excited (and still am). I've never been on the front page so this is the first time I've come close to the glory of the front page treasury. There my little book is on the bottom of the front page of Etsy (the little pink arrow is pointing to it)

And this is the article about creating memories with your kids and they mention creating photo brag books and that's how my little book came in :)And at the bottom of the article there is my little book :) Middle book in the top row.

And now I'll wait and see if this brings any more views (or better yet, sales).

Re-decorating

This past weekend I decided it was time to clean. And by clean, I mean everything, dust, wash, mop, vaccuum, everything. And by doing this I gave myself the opportunity to redecorate everything. I decided to go with some fun bright colors since it is summer after all (the 90+ degree weather with crazy humid sure shows me that). Anyway, here are some pics of my redecorating!
There's my great little estate find (see previous post).

Print and photos by wmah! And you can buy the print at my etsy shop :) http://dameling.etsy.com/
And hey its me and my fam :)To see more pictures of my redecorating, see my flickr :)