abby try again

the art hop...

So I've been blogging since May 2005-can you believe it? Please do not go back through the archives, it is boring and was basically set up to show my begining knitting projects to my mom. Anyway, this made me realize that Ive been in Portland well over a year, and stupid me-I've never participated in the Alberta Art Walk.
   Okay, yeah-I've been there. Every last Thursday art galleries are open and people from all kinds of random places set up shop along Alberta and sell their stuff. Now I llive two blocks away-so I'm gonna do it tomorrow!
Yeah-no fees, I can bring as little or as much as I want-and leave whenever I feel like it. YAY! So I've been busy stamping cards and making new block printed ones-see all these bright colors? I'll add a finished photo later.
   Anyway-if you are in PDX tomorrow, come find my table and say hi!

mail+friends+sun

     Well, the sun is out and it is actually hot in Portland-can you believe it?
We are trying to get the house in order and everything ready because James starts school tomorrowt but  I wanted to catch up with you all for a minute.
   I've got some great mail lately; trim swap from MaryBeth, amzing stickers from Vegas and Venice, a totally awesome swap from Aunty Cookie, great cards from simply photo and my card society cards from mav! Phew!
Thanks ladies. I love all of my goodies and you are all so sweet and talented.

   On Thursday I was able to meet Shash of Mecozy blog. It was a lot of fun, she is so sweet and kind! In fact, I only took one photo the whole time we hung out and I will spare you the horribleness of it, but I really had a great time.  It is somewhat strange but totally awesome to meet a blogger in "real life" and share funny stories...anyway...

    Yesterday morning we trudged downtown to the farmer's market and bought a huge brick of local beeswax.  After some trial and error, I ended up making the candles above in some of my little tins. I'm stamping the lids and hope to sell them/give them in sets of three. The scent is amazing, I made some fat little votives for myself.

    I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. I've had a great couple of nights eating and hanging out with friends-I really do love summer!
  Oh yeah, my airplane card is featured on the homepage of etsy today, how exciting!!!

thank you

So my Mom has come and gone and things seem to be getting back to normal somewhat. I was a moody stress case near the end of my vacation-and mom-if you are reading, I am sorry!  Thanks Mom, for all that you did for me during your stay-I love you!
   These are some flowers we fell in love with one day when we went for a walk. Portland's rain does have a good purpos-these are so stunning. My favorite of the plants:

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So, the computer business is finally being stabilized-James took our new one back today and turns out it had a faulty videocard-what?
Anyway-newsletter is a coming.....onward....
Tommorrow is summer-officially-I am so happy-what about you?

Shop Update

Hey there-must apologize. I am updating the shop before sending the newsletter! But I will make it up to you-promise. After yesterday's computer meltdown I tried to salvage some files to no avail. Gone is the cheat sheet of html code James' made for me so the newletter will have to wait until he's home. Oh well-my vacation is practically done-what a sad day. But now you can see what I've accomplished!
After much junking and thrifting-my Mom and I created (what I think anyway) are some awesome shelves! Look at my two favorites:

"Bessie" available here, is made of old molding and an antique drawer pull and

"Diana Kay" available here, has an old doorstop for her peg!
We did make some for ourselves, too. I love using nails and screws-too fun.

There are of course some new stamped goodies-here is my favorite of those:

available as a set here.
Oh yeah, I introduced some photo cards, too! Each card features one of my photos printed on cardstock with a stamped greeting below. They will be seasonal, here is the summer set:

available here.
Of course, I added some hairpins. These are slightly smaller buttons and are slightly cheaper! My favorite:

available here-is also counting as my red for this friday!
Click here to browse the whole shop.
Thanks

Why today?

Thanks for all the comments!!! I love hearing your feedback!

Today's color is blue. My computer got a virus-worm to be more exact-well I think it did anyway. Went to the store and got a new one (thanks, mom!). Stamped these save the date cards for sis, helped pick out wedding dress for her, writing newsletter, laundry, photos...............Happy Thursday!
Look for the newsletter soon!
By the way, my screen is messed up and I am not seeing colors correctly-do these look blue to you?

Wednesday: black+grey

     Today's color is black-or I guess the colors are black+grey. I took this photo awhile back when James, Milikhen and I went on a little photo outing. It is in an old abandoned building-this place was amazing. I must upload my others photos from this day-but oh I must make the time for it. This reminds me of this card. Funny, huh? actually-I have several photos that remind me of my cards. Art imitating art I guess.
    So yesterday Mom and I made some headbands! You can see crappy photos here and here. I will post better ones someday, maybe. I love this pattern-so easy and quick! What great gifts these would make.
   Today we searched through salvage shops; collecting old boards and hooks. We've been hammering and cutting and creating this afternoon and soon some funky peg boards and shelves will be in my shop. Which reminds me-the June newsletter will be out this weekend! If you signed up late I will send you both the may and june one, okay? If you'd like to sign up-email me at abbytrysgain@yahoo.com. Must go eat now...

colorweek catchup

Well, in case you are hiding under a rock or just read this because you know me personally, Stephanie and mav have suggested another week of color. Read this post for the rules. This was a lot of fun last time-check out my posts during the first week in April to see more. OK_

Here is my Tuesday shot for the color brown:

    These are enormous matches given to me by my mother. They are from her recent trip to the mission in Carmel, Ca. Yes, my mom made it here which is why it's been pretty quiet on the online front lately. She came bearing some great gifts; my favorite is here-which abigail informed me is for stamping letters on jewelery! She also brought a lap harp for James!
    We spent Saturday morning shopping at estate sales, had a nice siesta than went out to St. Johns. You can see some of our finds in my new junk set on flickr. I won't bore you right now with anymore St. John's photos-but I will say that with every visit to that neighborhood I convince myself a little more that we could afford a much better place there. Someday I will live very close to a body of water....
Oh yeah! Monday's color was white:

Wow! I wonder if this will be a whole Catholic themed colorweek what with the matches ans the mary...no.

I spent Sunday and Monday with some of my mom's side of the family. We had a great time and will be posting about it soon. I need time to write and think about it and also to pick out the best photos.  Today I hope to make some of these-what an awesome pattern, huh? Thanks to Sally for the great link! Hope you are all well! I need to do some mail bragging soon, ah the list continues...

so behind

I am so far behind on it all. I only touched upon it a bit in the last post, but I am sure you know the drill. I need to write 50 emails, catch up on blogs, do some housework, CHANGE MY NETFLIX QUEUE (this is very important, who told James he could put 7 "rocumentaries" in a row?!) work on the June newsletter, get ready for my Mom's visit bla-de-freak-ing bla! You understand this, right? Of course I do not yet have kids-so I better be thankful  for that right now. How do you mothers do it all?
    Anyway,  the above is one more thing-but a very awesome thing. I am designing and creating my sis's save the date cards! She and her beau fly back and forth between here and San Francisco-he lives here she lives there-and so they are kind of loosely basing theme/colors on Southwest Airlines. Okay, that may sound strange-but they are very classy and I said "loosely". So these cards are kinda like luggage tags. On the back (not shown) is all the info printed in a luggage tag way-and the front which you see here is a stamp I carved based on the SWA logo. The little vellum envelope say "it's about time" because it is give you the time, day, etc and -geez they've been together long enough! So, I need to get stamping on them....
   Sorry if I owe you an email, note, phone call, etc.-I am not dead and I am not trying to flake-I just need to finish some stuff and hopefully next week during my vacation, I can work on it! Hoe you are all well.

Everthing and Nothing to say

    Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like you should be saying/writing/cleaning/doing/watching/feeling so many things that you just end up with nothing? Yup-that is today. Before I get into  anything-all of your responses to the anthropolgie post were awesome! Many of you cracked me up, I will have to do more non-photos posts!  I think Lisa's was the best-go read her comment-and Tiff+alison-I feel ya!
     This week's been a killer. I am excited to have sent off my first real-or should I say largeish wholesale order to Toronto, i'll talk more about when the shop is open. Anyway, that was a huge learning process and a bunch of tiny failures that ended in what I hope to be success.  And I want to give you all a huge hug for all the orders you placed yesterday! You are awesome! I am working on new stuff and I wanted to phase out some of the older things and bring in some new stuff-your goodies are all ready to go and will be mailed out monday!
   Speaking of new stuff, here's what I've been working on today...

and

   Poppies are everywhere up here-so different than the California ones. I love the way the pods lookes-they are kind of like succulents-the same dreary green color that is so hard to duplicate! Anyway-go to go be social and such-hope all is good with you.....

Secret Blog Reader Sale!

psst...
Something is brewing in my shop.
I am having a secret sale, TODAY, 6-2-06, only and it is for you! Recieve free shipping on all orders placed today! This is the only place I am posting it-so if you order please write in the message to the buyer "secret sale". "buy" all the items you'd like, but do not pay for them until I send you an adjusted invoice. It is that easy-happy friday! Click these words to shop!