THANK YOU GRACIE!!!

October 7, 2008 karly hand

Recently Sherrie over at the Claw organized a swap for her readers and fellow bloggers. The idea was simple: sign up, get assigned a person, send that person a couple of goodies and a mix CD, you in turn will get the same from someone else. I suppose it's a way to feel thanked for all this difficult blogging we do all day long. Right? Maybe. Well!!! Little did Erin and I know that Gracie from Woolgathering & Miscellany was going to ROCK OUR WORLDS with her amazing package... and packaging!!!!

Everyone needs a welcome message once the lid of the box is opened, right? Yes!

And not one, but two baby owls so Erin and I don't have to battle royal to give the cute bird a home

My favorite are these hand-stamped note cards that say "from the desk of Erin Williamson" and "from the desk of Karly Hand" I can't wait to have something important to write and pass along to someone

AND a decorated CD AND cute little goodies. Seriously, the girl is way outshining us!

Hina likes the giftwrap.

Thank you Gracie!!! The gifts were lovely, now, if only we can get our act together long enough to ship out the gift we have for LCP.

End of Weekend Bonus: Fix Up Look Sharpie

October 5, 2008 karly hand

I think we may be developing an affinity for decor developed with sharpies. Who knew? You all may harken back to the luxurious sharpie Lamborghini we posted a couple of months ago and are still very much drooling over. Now we have a second sharpie spotting that we just have to show you (if we get a third it will officially be a trend). My brother sent me this link last week and, despite the icky furniture, this room is pretty awesome:

Charlie Kratzer of Kentucky covered every square inch of wall space in his basement with his own sharpie art. For $10 worth of marker, Kratzer depicts

Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. There is Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, and the Cornell Law School, of which Kratzer is an alumnus. There is Kratzer's dad. There is the harlequin pattern — alluded to in culinary culture today by the Panera bread bag — and a fake fireplace facing a real one.

There are both The Walrus and the Carpenter (from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There), and William Shakespeare. The Marx Brothers peer around a corner. A flip-top garbage can is transformed via marker art into Star Wars'plucky little beeper R2D2.

For the full story, check out the Lexington Herald Leader

Oh, and, P.S. I'm sorry, but that's probably my very favorite post title eva

Round Top Round Up Round Two

October 3, 2008 karly hand

As Erin so gracefully documented yesterday it is currently the most wonderful time of the year here in Austin: Round Top is Here! I sleep like a babe the night before Christmas, but for the days leading up to the biggest flea market in the south I am giddy with anticipation and barely sleep a wink. I went 2 days this year (I usually do 2 or 3 days in a row and have never seen the whole thing, no kidding) once with Erin Bear and again on Wednesday with Jennifer, Hope and Fredda Perkins. I took my camera on day one but it turns out that Erin and I pretty much photographed the exact same stuff (shocking) here are the few things I had that were different than hers... and gosh, there was so much we BOTH managed to leave without capturing, I think we were just paralyzed with awe.

if there had been 6 of these colorful chairs they'd be flanking my dining room table as we speak

all the tweaker flea market vendors have ADORABLE wee little baby dogs. I think its so we get suckered into their booths. We thought this dog was fake at first (see Erin's insane faux animal round up) but he was real and innocently napping on this pile of lace tableclothes

Get a load of that wheel! If it had been a tenth of the price (our joke of the day) it would be hanging in the hole in Erin's wall right now

Because I forgot my camera on day 2, I'm relying on some of Jen's photos to fill in the gaps:

Jen likes things that are 1. colorful and 2. insane. That is why I like Jen.

If you would like to see more colorful insanity, read her roundtop roundup

But if you think you've seen the best of it, well buckle up little susie, I'm about to round-top-round-up my finds of the week, let's start with a bang, shall we:

I found a pair of these chairs in a dirt field next to a bunch of rotting lawn art. I pretended that my heart was not racing 100 miles per hour when the vendor offered them to me for FOURTY FIVE DOLLARS FOR THE PAIR thats: 2 chairs, $45 total, as in $22.50 EACH. I didn't even try to haggle, which I am famous for, I took those suckers and ran. According to the markings on the bottom they were created by the, now defunct, Contempo Metal Furniture company in Los Angeles. Anyone know anything else about 'em?

Do you think that was my best find of the week? Hmmmm, what if I showed you this:

This yellow formica table ($60!!!!!!!) looked absolutely stunning atop Erin's car while cruising down the freeway at 75mph. I think it looks better now, though. Note: this is not it's final resting place, it's going to be my new desk as soon as I clear out my office... oh that's an entirely different post.

But WAIT! There's more! Check out this....