Tales of a Thirty-Something

AMY TAN'S SIGNATURE SERIES WINNER'S!

Thanks to everyone who entered! So exciting! Without further adieu...drumroll...the winners are...

Christina Collins and Christine N! Please email me (sarahjchampion at gmail dot com) your addresses cause these books are yours! Enjoy!

Pursed

*Click image for larger view

I got a new purse at Target today (gasp!) and I went through the process of taking the stuff out of my old purse and transferring it to the new purse and thought, "Hey! I should do one of those 'What's in my purse' things!" I've never done one but I love seeing when other (cooler) people do!

So, minus all the junk that I threw out (too many reciepts...ahem) here are my purse essentials:

1. The purse! It's from Target and is polka dots and I love it.

2. I keep all my diabetic supplies in this handy (and cute and polka dotted) zippered pouch from Forever21. 

3. Mike & Ikes! This is my in-case-my-blood-sugar-gets-low treat. And sometimes my I-want-candy treat as well. It's multi-purposeful.

4. My Kate Spade mittens. They tell me which hand to put them on. It takes out the guesswork! 

5. Lip stuff. Right now it's Liplicious Passion Fruit Guava from Bath & Body Works and LipPerfection Jumbo Lip Gloss Balm by Cover Girl in Blush Twist. 

6. Sunglasses. I think from Old Navy...? I always ruin or lose sunglasses so I get 'em cheap.

7. Passport. I forgot to get my license renewed before I flew out to NYC so I had to bring my passport. So...it's still in there. Just in case...I need to fly somewhere really quickly.

8. Ma phone. If I leave this at home, I *might* have a panic attack. Case is by J.Crew--I love it because it's not a hard case (I tend to break those) and it's not a silicone case where it's super rubbery. 

9. Nail clippers. Enough said.

10. Another Target find--my wallet. I've had this bad boy for years now and it's still in awesome shape. I love the flat wallets but I particularly like this one because it has a little pocket on the outside. The newer models at Target don't. Which is too bad. 

Right Now 01.29.13

I'm totally copying Miss Amy Tan with her list of currents...we'll see how it goes.

DIGGING: Working from home. Especially with today's non-stop snow.

DRINKING: Diet Coke. Obviously.

EATING: Crackers and Honey Nut cream cheese spread. Um...yum.

LISTENING: Taylor Swift's Red album. I must admit that I don't really like her at all and have never owned any of her songs before...but this album is awesome. I love it.

WEARING: Today's outfit was brought to you (or me, rather) by Target. And my Gap slippers.

READING: West Elm catalog. That counts, right?

FEELING: Frustrated that Emma is always picking fights with Oliver. Not sure how to stop it.

WEATHER: Snow. Snow. And...oh wait, more snow.

WANTING: To move to a warmer climate. Yesterday.

NEEDING: A massage.

WISHING: I could predict the future.

THINKING: About my doctor's appointment tomorrow. And hoping my husband can get home ok in this weather.

ENJOYING: Documentaries.

LOVING: My hubs. He is lovely. And loveable.

Valentines!

As per my sneak peek, here are my new Valentines! They are in both my Etsy shop and my Big Cartel shop so head on over and take a look! I'm super excited about these and I hope you are, too. :)

Daily Rehash

A little while ago, I designed this logo for a new online show called...Daily Rehash (as obviously shown below):

And guess what? My brother is one of the writers for the show! It's kind of like a quick version of The Soup that is all about Twitter and you can watch daily episodes here. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter (which I think you should...they be clever). 

Plus, it's just kind cool to see something I designed out there in the real world. ;)

Freebie Friday - Printable Valentines!

I'm working on some Valentine's for my shops that I hope will be ready soon. So, in the meantime I'm sharing some printable Valentine's for free!

You can download the pdf right here! Enjoy!

New York, New York

Instead of giving a play-by-play of my trip, I'll just show some highlights in the form of pictures (which, let's be honest, is the best way anyways). I went out there to spend time with my bestie Kelly before she leaves the City That Never Sleeps for the Windy City. The very first time we met, we bonded over our love for NYC and hence became NYSM's (New York Soul Mates). So, I was more than happy to spend a few days with Kelly...as always.

 

1. SLC Airport.
2. Last time I'll get to see that view from Kelly's apartment on the UWS.
3. Eating the pork chops at Republic (a fav). 
4. Fishs Eddy! A must.
5 & 6. I like to know my letter stickers are still for sale at Paper Presentation!
7. Seeing dogs in stores (this was J.Crew) makes me happy. Especially big ones. 
8. Playing 1-2-3 in Bryant Park is one of our favorite pasttimes. Tried to get a shot of Kelly w/ her bf.
9. Kelly had never been to the top of the Empire State Building!
10. Besties on top of the world.
11. Downtown view.
12. It was sunset and gorgeous.
13. Shake Shack. We did not eat here enough.
14. We stopped at Magnolia before going to see Peter & the Starcatcher. I got a slice of lemon cake. Yum.
15. Kelly got us a brunch reservation at The Fat Radish on the LES. SO GOOD.
16. LES doing it's thing.
17. Cupcakes at Sugar Sweet Sunshine.
18. Neither of us had ever been on the Roosevelt Island Tram. It was lovely.
19. View of the East River from the Tram.

20. After dinner at The Mermaid Inn with Amanda, Sara, and Missy, we went to Big Gay Ice Cream Shop and had some Salty Pimp cones. Yuuuuum.
21. Hit up the Doughnut Plant in Chelsea.
22. PB&J is my fav. They weren't quite up to par the day we were there. But still pretty good.
23. Subway waitin'.
24. In the car on the way back to the airport. Short, but sweet, trip. 

 

**Most of these are from my Instagram feed so if you feel so inclined to follow along, you can find me here.

ENTER TO WIN - AMY TAN'S SIGNATURE SERIES

I'm back from NYC! And before I go into detail about that, I wanted to do a giveaway! It's for Amy Tan's lovely Signature Series book that I had the priveledge to design! She is amazing, folks.

I'm sure you are all familiar with the talents of Amy but she never ceases to amaze me and I can look at the details on her pages for hours. Now you get to! Also note her super cute shoes on the cover. Adorable.

So, I'm giving away TWO copies! Just write a comment to enter and I'll put you in the drawing. The contest closes on Wednesday, January 30th (one week from today) so make sure you enter! Good luck!

**CONTEST CLOSED** 

Valentine's Sneak Peek

I'm getting a few things ready for my shops with a Valentine's theme and thought I'd share a little sneak peek:

I'm really excited!! And I'm going to try to do a little freebie to go along with it so stay tuned! I'm also going to put a disclaimer up that I am leaving for NYC tomorrow night so it may not be a Freebie Friday per se but I'll let you know once it's ready!

Old Books

Both me and my husband love old books. If we ever go to an antique store we will most definitely come out with a book or two. Here are some of my favs that we've collected:

1. Mike found this little book of Byron's poems while we were at the Springville Antiques Mall on Saturday. It's tiny and quaint. And it has a red cover. Love.

2. I think I want to start collecting vintage cook books and it started with this find: it's the 1964 edition of Joy of Cooking and it's turquoise. Turquoise. It was $10 at Bookman in Orange, CA and there was no way I could not buy it. 



3. I looooove old Nancy Drew's but had never seen one with a cover like this! So, I had to get it! It was also found at the Springville Antiques Mall.

4. This book (also from the Springville Antiques Mall) was a keeper because it has cool retro illustrations in it. Plus that cover illustration is awesome. Love the 3 color cover.



5. I found this copy of Guys and Dolls (which I didn't know was a book...?) at one of my favorite book shops--Book Castle's Movie World in Burbank, CA. I could spend hours there. I loved the look of this book with it's type and redish-orange cover.

6. This book was also picked up this weekend at Springville Antiques Mall. I love Barbie and so this Barbie and Ken book was such a fun find! The illustrations inside are adorable. I love it.

What are your favorite old books stores/antique stores? I'd love to have a good list of places to go!