Weekend Adventures

Near our apartment is a large nondescript warehouse-type building. After passing by it countless times, we finally figured out it's an archery bow range (whaaat?). Andrew and I decided to be adventurous and signed up for a group couples' lesson last Friday night. One of the small highlights was the lol-worthy confirmation email which referred to Andrew as my archer of significance!


Yes, Andrew has a mullet; he's very proud of it.
For only $40 we were given an introductory lesson, equipment rental and use of the space for almost two hours. We totally want to go back again. Have you ever been? I suggest everyone try it if there's a range accessible to you! It's so much fun. Promise.

Next up: Intergem! While Andrew was out racing Sunday, I ventured up north and checked it out again. I actually have a bunch of beads left over from the last time I went. Surprise, surprise, right? Every year it's held at the same time and location as Comic-Con. I always feel real cool passing all of the young people and heading up the escalators with all of the hip, older crafty ladies.


Crappy phone photos as proof!


I'm quite pleased with my haul, though I always forget to pick up findings! We'll see what comes of all these beads...

Nails & Friendship Bracelets

Lately I've been in a little bit of a funk. It's become this weird cycle of wanting to do one million things at once, overwhelming myself with planning, and nothing really getting done. Painting my nails is one of the few things I managed to do outside of work last week. No super cute designs either because I've dropped not one but two of my nail art brushes AND a dotting tool in my gallon container of acetone! Pitiful. Solid colors, tape, and half brushed nails are where it's at until I find replacements.


Itching to see something through to its completion quickly (other than food/nails), I decided to hop on a trend a bit late and start making friendship bracelets again. For the first time since I got this Klutz book in '96!

Having tons of embroidery floss and stacks of books laying around definitely helped. They're such simple, low commitment projects and you finish in no time. I finished this one before Andrew even uploaded the photo to flickr.


There are tons of super awesome and involved free patterns online but right now I'm obsessed with hearts. I've made a few for my BFF (not just for myself, I promise), too.

¡Aguacates!

Last year I finally started playing around with my Bamboo Fun again. Randomly, I doodled these posh avocados hanging out on lush pillows because, clearly, avocados are fancy and deserve to be treated as such:


Andrew and I joked about getting them as ~relationship tattoos~ and he actually took the first step last March with Wendell Frazier of Insight Studios. It was his first tattoo, too! Bold move, Santos, bold move.


Eventually the stars aligned for me last April when when Esther Garcia of Butterfat Studios sat me down in her chair and began stabbing me with tiny needles! Before we got to that point, I bought a small heart-shaped pillow during a post-valentine's day sale at Jo-Ann's and hand sewed lace (with butterflies!) onto it as reference.

I can't even explain how ecstatic I was and still am. She's extremely talented and enjoyable to be around. The entire sitting was a pleasure, though, obviously painful (obviously).

Esther's line work was so fluid and she used so many wonderful colors to bring this baby to life. The subtle powder blue and hints of white are my absolute favorite.

There is no good reason why I've been holding out on this post, I just had to wait to get the perfect photo of the healed piece. Evie will be touching up my croissant from my last Butterfat Studios visit next weekend. I can't wait, I love those ladies!