conquest of cute, part 4

Cute Storage: Ceramics Edition!  Here are a couple of Christmas gifts, plus a couple of cheap scores!

Maybe you've been a long-time reader and you know I have a thing for teeth! If not, well. I like cute teeth. I don't want real teeth; it's more of an artistic representation of teeth that I like. Maybe I'll post more about that sometime. I have some collections that are nearly too small to be considered collections, so it feels silly to post about them, but this is a real thing I like, haha.

But for now, I got these two little ceramic teeth planters from my mom for Christmas!! (They're the only thing I asked for.) Right now one's holding nail tools, and the other is acting as a pencil cup. I love these so much. They're just so "me" and make my space feel good.

Here's a little candy dish I got in 2011 at Target when it was Easter. For a long time it was where I would put skeins of embroidery floss and my pincushion and he'd get shuffled around with my craft stuff, but now he's a little station on my desk where I can put my necklaces.

(The glittery fox necklace was another Christmas gift! My mom is awesome.)

This little dish is an "appetizer plate" from Target. It was from a clearance shelf and was $2. I am just really attracted to mustard, so I snagged just one to use as a catch-all for smaller items on my desk. Sometimes it's a coaster... right now it has a thumb drive, a spare button, lip balms, barettes, and bobby pins.

Two other jewelry/hair stuff catch-alls I use are these little pink ramekins from the dollar section at Michael's. Yes! Dollar storage? I am there! I need to see if I can get a few more of these.

One holds barettes of various types and Goody spin pins; the other holds earrings. I'd like to get another just for bobby pins. I have so many, but I go through them so fast!

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conquest of cute, part 3

I found these at Target at the beginning of the year! They're all the same size (8.5 inches x 6.5 inches, 4 deep), and I find the size ideal for some of the stuff that won't fit in smaller boxes.

The translucent pink chevron ones were with the kids' stuff, meant for little girls' rooms, and the floral with the "RE-style" stuff that I assume is meant for teens and/or dorm rooms. They had a whole mess of stuff with that same floral pattern and teal-ish color scheme. The lids are a pretty blue-green, only a bit bluer than the shade of my bedroom walls, so they go in my space very well. I love florals, so I actually got three of those! They were the last ones on the shelf, too.

Something I like about the floral boxes is that the print on them makes them opaque, so you can hide your gold doubloons (or whatever!) in them. I'm currently keeping various guitar accoutrements (my tuner, some picks, a wire cutter, boxes of strings, my ukulele pitch pipe, that kind of thing) in one of the chevron boxes, and you can definitely see what's inside it, so it does detract from the cute a little bit. Seeing through the boxes can be good or bad, depending on your storage needs!

They were $4 each, so in all, I got five of these beauts for $20. I'm really happy with them.

In all, my collection of plastic storage is growing ever-cuter. How satisfying!

There will be, yes, one more Cute Storage Post!

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conquest of cute, part 2

What is with all the cute plastic storage bins lately?? I was looking all over for an acceptable small (but not too small) plastic storage bin last summer while Target and JoAnn's had their dorm-ready storage options out. It took me forever to find just one. But this winter, I've found all kinds of cute boxes.

While yarn shopping at Michael's the other day, I cut purely coincidentally through a row with baskets and boxes because a lady with a big shopping cart was blocking my path. Thank goodness I did, because, SCORE! All the storage stuff was 40% off.

These giganto floral boxes (16.7 inches x 11 inches, and 6.6 deep) were $8 each, so I assume they had to be about $15 each originally. Yipes. They're so pretty!! I'm glad I scooped 'em! One of them is holding all my future ripple yarn, as pictured in this post.

These two cute little boxes on the bottom (7.1 inches x 6.3 inches, 4.1 deep) were about $2.50 each, rounding up. Polka dots and rainbow stripes? Thank you, whatever perfect trend is occurring right now. (The flowery one on top is from JoAnn's aduring the fall, and is one I settled on after lots of looking around; it's almost the exact same size. They almost look like a set, though!)

Another Cute Storage Post coming up.

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conquest of cute

Straight up, it's nearly impossible to find 17" laptop cases/sleeves/bags! Especially cute ones. Yeah, I know my laptop is huge and won't fit in any backpack or purse (unless I get a really huge one), but why should that prevent me from having a nice way to keep it from being damaged when I'm hauling its big butt around?

Googling, Vera Bradley was one of the only makers of 17" laptop sleeves that I could find -- most 17" laptop cases are just plain ugly, whereas it's easy to find terribly cute sleeves for little Macbooks. They're also super expensive, which is rich!

I'm not really into Vera Bradley stuff normally. The patterns can be pretty, but very bright and loud, so I think a little goes a long way and it's best for small items. I love florals, but I like more delicate florals that aren't so stylized. However, at the end of the year, these were on sale for like $22, so I went ahead and got one!

To be honest, I got this one because it was pink, yes, but also, the inside was totally 70s. It looks like the kind of laptop sleeve Marcia Brady would have if she'd had a laptop way back when. The retro Blythe aesthetic is similar, too, I think. I like the inside better than the outside, even.

Anyway, it fits like a glove and I feel a lot better transporting my laptop with some coverage.

Yo, I have a lot to say about cute storage options, so get ready for a slew of posts about that!

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new year, same ol' me

After Christmas I pretty much went into hibernation! I haven't even been writing much; it feels like that was all I did last year, so I miss it. I think I blew a fuse with doing holiday stuff plus a huge amount of writing in a two-week THROWDOWN SHOWDOWN.

But I'm ready to tackle 2014 now. I've been cleaning and purging. And I'm ready to brainstorm on the ripple throw I want to make this year! I went yarn shopping today! Scored some cute storage bins half off, too!

I definitely know that I am going to use the above shades (Vanna's Choice in "pink" and "goldfish" -- "goldfish" previously being under the Vanna's Choice Baby umbrella, to my knowledge) and lots of white (good ol' cheap Red Heart) to keep it airy. The name "goldfish" insinuates orange, but really it's a deep coral with a watermelony tone.

Actually, my purse (it's from Payless; I'm a cheap purse kind of girl) is a really similar color! It's sort of a vivid bubblegum pink. I'd call it a watermelon pink. On the website, it looks kind of light and pastel. In real life, it's darker and more saturated. I think I must be very attracted to this color right now.

My first ripple used a lot of that same Vanna's Choice pink, but also a lighter pastel baby pink. Look, I just like pink...

Anyway, I think I want at least one more color in this ripple. Ideally I'd love a peach or sherbet/creamsicle kind of color, but I haven't seen anything yet... so maybe I'll go off the reservation and throw a mint in there??

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