Fully Stocked

Travels

I have spent more money on gas than food lately. Easter week is finally here and even though I'm slightly dreading spending more hours on the road tomorrow, I couldn't be more excited to head home to the Gulf Coast for a long, relaxing weekend! My itenerary has been pretty intense,

Beaufort, SC>>>>Birmingham, AL>>>>Eufaula, AL>>>>Alabama Gulf Coast

But, I've had some great adventures. Over the past month I've slept in a hammock by the Atlantic Ocean, taken a boat cruise, danced like crazy under the stars, watched my cousin get married, laughed so hard I cried, gotten lost, explored antebellum houses in my dad's hometown, caught up with old friends, found an amazing vintage desk to makeover, and realized just how much I really miss my family. 

Before I hit the road tomorrow I wanted to share a few recent photos. I've got a post in the works about my trip to Eufaula that I can't wait to share. Until then, safe travels and Happy Easter! xoxo

 

Lowcountry Weekend

At 4:30 today, Andy and I will be heading east on I-26 towards one of my very favorite places. This is the beginning of a marathon of weekend trips for me continuing all the way until Easter. By now, I could probably make the drive to Beaufort with my eyes closed. With my family and boyfriend far away, I spend A LOT of time on the road. Sometimes I really hate those drives. But, after an especially draining week like the one I've just had, I'm looking forward to a few hours of peace, listening to music and clearing my head. I'm in need of some serious relaxation this weekend and Beaufort for me is one of the best places to find just that. There's something about the lowcountry that makes me feel like I'm home- the food, the breathtaking views across the marsh, the water and sea breeze, the beautiful historic homes, the local art and culture, and of course Kyle- I just love it. Have a great weekend!

52 Things I Love About You

So this post is a month late (hey, better late than never!) but even though it was my Valentine's Gift to Kyle, I think it makes a great anniversary or "just because" gift for your significant other. I got the idea for this while browsing Pinterest (which, by the way, I'm obsessed with). When you've been dating someone almost 5 years, you start to look for more creative gifts and this seemed so perfect (not to mention inexpensive and easy/fun to do). Here's a quick how-to:

Supplies (p.s. the possibilities for personalizing this are endless, this is just what I came up with):

-1 deck of playing cards (I found mine for $1 at Walgreens. "Stud" brand seemed somehow very appropriate for this project.

-Variety of papers. I used some sheets of yellow legal notepaper, patterned cardstock, and colorful magazine scraps but you can use anything you love.

-Colored embroidery floss or ribbon or metal rings or anything else you might want to use to bind you book.

-Hole punch and/or drill

-roller adhesive or glue stick

-pens and/or markers

-scissors and/or x-acto blade

Follow these steps:

Step 1: Think of 52 things you love about your significant other. This is the fun part! Mine were mostly silly and cute but I threw a few sweet ones in for good measure. It only took me about 10 minutes once I got started (guess that's a good sign!)

 

Step 2: I wrote each of my 52 things on yellow legal paper for a consistent design and layered some colorful paper behind, then glued on each card. This is where the sky's the limit when it comes to design. You could type or handwrite them and be as intricate as you like when it comes to the decor of each card. Just keep in mind, you have to create 52 cards so you may not want to get too complicated. 

Step 3: Decide if you want your cards in any certain order. I had a specific last card but the rest were completely random. It's up to you. I used the card box to create my front and back covers. I loved the horse graphic on the joker card so I let that be my title page. 

Step 4: Punch holes. Again, you can do this however you choose. I used my small power drill to drill 2 small holes to bind my cards like a book. You could choose to just bind one corner or you could do 3 holes. It's best to work in sections instead of trying to drill through the entire stack (I messed up my first deck that way). A regular .99 hole punch will work great for this project too. Again, be sure to punch holes in smaller sections.  

Step 5: Bind your cards into a book. I used embroidery floss and a needle to create a very simple binding but you could use a much more complex book-binding stitch if desired. Ribbon or metal rings would work great too. 

 

Again, this mini book can be anything you want it to be. Kyle loved it. It's a very introspective project. It made me reflect on our relationship and remember what I love about him and us which sometimes in the craziness of daily life I forget to do. It also renewed my interest in book arts. I took a class years ago during my semester abroad in Italy and loved it. I just ordered a book on book binding to refresh my memory. Already working on a few new projects. Yippee!

             

It's The Simple Things

I love when an idea for something great comes to you by accident. As you can imagine with my love of junk stores I've accumulated a pretty hefty inventory of cool stuff but no where to put it and/or little time to pay it the attention it deserves. During last weekend's Antique Crawl, I stumbled upon these gorgeous, rusted metal letters

Something you should know about me is that I have a thing for finding beauty in decay. I'm a sucker for anything with peeling paint, worn edges, rust, etc. And the letters were only $3 a piece at the Antique Tobacco Barn (a steal for that place!). So I bought large and small G's and a large K for Kyle. Now, this was one of those "I have to have it but I don't have an idea for it yet" items. I tend to find those fairly often. I figured they would just take up space on my shelf until a mounted them on wood one day or found metal "&" to put between the G and K.  

In my studio, I've got 2 large magnetic boards where I pin images for inspiration, quotes, and anything that I love. They are ever-changing art projects that I am constantly adding to and re-designing. Yesterday afternoon, I discovered I was in need of more magnets. Conveniently, I happened to have a package of magnets from some past craft in my stash so I hot glued a few vintage buttons to them just to add pizazz. Well, I happened to set the magnets next to my letters and low and behold they stuck to them. Then I had the best, albeit simple, idea and look how amazing they are on my board!

 

The best part is you can take the magnets off any time. These would be great on the fridge too. Just a simple idea that came together by such a perfect accident. I love it. 

Asheville Antique Crawl

Last weekend, we made the short drive up to Asheville, NC for a day of exploring antique stores and searching for junk. I love Asheville. It's just about an hour away but the atmosphere is so different, it's like going on a mini-vacation. 

Knowing where to go to find good vintage items in a new town can be a challenge, many of the best places don't have websites or even exist online. Asheville's downtown is loaded with amazing vintage clothing stores and record shops, Lexington Ave. is full of them. But we were really on the hunt for things- antiques, furniture, kitschy knick-knacks, etc. So I googled a few places as starting points and off we went on our un-official Antique Crawl. Here is what we found-

Stop #1: The Antique Tobacco Barn

Ok, this place has been named the #1 Antique mart in Western North Carolina. It actually is an old tobacco barn (well, it's actually an old tobacco warehouse as my bf, a native Kentuckyian, pointed out) that houses 77,000 square feet of stuff! To me, this sounded like HEAVEN. Well, it was and it wasn't...

Definitly found some cool things- old spools, an antique fish trap that will make an amazing chandelier, a life magazine from 1954 in perfect condition with Grace Kelly on the cover, great rusted tin letters, and some really cool vintage aluminum ash trays. The place is set up with booths, sellers rent out the space and can charge whatever they want. There were tons of great items and big pieces of furniture but, more often than not, when I found something I loved it was WAY overpriced. Final Verdict: This place really is an endless maze of junk (allow at least 2 hours to explore), but if you don't want to spend much, be prepared to leave some amazing items behind. 

                

 

Stop #2, 3, 4, 5: Oddfellows Antiques, Reunions, Nostalgic, etc (basically a strip mall of junk stores)

Just about a mile down the road from the Antique Tobacco barn is a pretty great stretch of stores. What I loved about them is they all had great inventories of mid-century furniture and lamps. Most of them were much more organized than the Tobacco Barn but also fairly pricey, although negotiation was easier without so many individual sellers to deal with. Oddfellows is a great stop for furniture. One or two of the stores were just cluttered with not-so-great and not-so-old stuff, definitely would skip them next time. Final Verdict: Really cool furniture and interesting design vignettes, some stores better than others, pricey but bring your bargaining skills and you might just get a steal. 

              
               

              

After a fantastic late lunch at The Laughing Seed and a stroll around downtown, we headed back down the mountain with some items I'm really excited about. One day is absolutely not enough time for such an adventure and I definitely recommend setting time limits at each stop. A few other places on my list for next time:

Sweeten Creek Antiques, French Broad Antique Mall, ScreenDoor, and Biltmore Station Antiques. 

This was such a perfect way to spend a Saturday with friends. Searching for junk is like a high for me. I savor that moment when you see a piece that you can't live without, that you have to have. I love pulling something out of a pile that others would walk right by and turning it into something incredible.

Look out for some of my finds to make an appearance here. I'm working on a few how-to posts coming up soon! 

Shine a Little Light

I love vintage lamps. They are my most recent obsession. Much to my mom's concern (she's been so worried that I might electrocute myself), I made it my goal last fall to learn how to re-wire them. I think I have been pretty successful at it. It is amazingly easy and cheap, thanks to DIY lamp kits sold at any hardware store for about $10 (look out for a how-to post soon). Take a look at two of my finished projects. I'm pretty proud of these babies.

Believe it or not, I bought this lamp when I was 12 at the church yard sale (I've been collecting old stuff for pretty much my entire life). I absolutely love the mid-century design of it, it's made by Heyco. But, you don't think much about design asthetics when you are 12 so I spray painted it dark green. This made it look like a big hand grenade, not the look I was going for. Into the basement it went until I discovered it at the end of last summer and decided to rescue it. 

I wish I had some photos of this in progress but, in a nutshell, I stripped, sanded and painted it with basic acrylic craft paint. I found a polyurethane coating in a spray that worked great.The base has a little rust on it but I kind of love that. It was an easy, cheap project (have you seen the price of lamps lately?!) and it looks great on a side table in my living room. I found the shade for about $7 at Old Time Pottery, one of my favorite go-to stores for cheap home decor. It gives off a wonderful warm glow.

I ran accross this little beauty at an antique/junk store in Pendleton, SC for $8 and I just loved the look of it. This lamp re-do was not quite as involved, I just re-wired it and added a new shade. It's the perfect size for the table in my foyer. The paint is a bit chipped in places but I am crazy about the original color scheme and didn't want to touch it. 

That's a little intro to my love vintage lamps and lighting. I've got several projects sitting in pieces in my studio that I will be doing DIY posts for soon. I don't think I will ever buy a new lamp again after seeing how easy and inexpensive it is to re-wire and re-paint them. I also have plans to build my own lamps. Mason jar chandliers, lamp bases made from old china and much more are in the works.

So stay tuned and leave a light on...

First Things First

I've got almost an entire notebook sheet of blog post topics already, I am definitely in the honeymoon phase of blogging! As much as I wish this blog could just be about my work it is also about me so before I jump into sharing projects, ideas, etc. I want to share a little about the "journey" I've been on to finally arrive at creating this hopefully successful blog. If you want to know even more, check out my About page. 

First let me say, choosing a blog name is hard. Not just a little tough, but REALLY hard. I've been building this blog with the help of an amazing online workshop hosted by Elise Blaha Cripe and it has really pushed me to think about what this site will say about me and my work. This is actually my second attempt creating a blog. Anyone remember Skeleton Leaves? Sadly, it has been abandoned to the blogspot graveyard. I created this blog to showcase my line of handmade notecards that I still absolutely love and will definitely be making an appearance in future Fully Stocked posts. But, the name was chosen quickly and without much thought to the various ways it could be read. See below:

Skeleton Leaves. In my mind, I thought of the fragile "skeletons" left behind by leaves at the end of the season which represented beauty in decay, something that is a theme in my work. But, my always insightful boyfriend quickly pointed out that it could also be read as a "skeleton leaves," like "a skeleton leaves the building." Yea, it was pretty much over after that. I just didn't like my name and didn't feel inspired. So, so long Skeleton Leaves. 

It's been a little over a year since that failed attempt and I've continued creating and accumulating stuff like always. The truth is, I work a very high stress, low creativity kind of job and it's a requirement that I have an outlet to reconnect with myself when the work day is over. I finally just got sick of talking about it and decided to do something about it. Thanks to encouragement from close friends and family and Elise's fantastic blog workshop, Fully Stocked is finally getting off the ground!

So back to naming my blog. I tried about a million combinations and WAY over-thought it about it for about 3 days. I came close to settling a few times. Initially I loved "What's the Kitsch?" but after reading the actual wiki definition of kitsch it was pretty clear this wasn't exactly what I wanted to convey. Finally, in desperation I took a step back and somehow "Fully Stocked" just popped into my head. What a perfect way to combine what I love and what I do. 

So it fits. And here I am. Second time's a charm. 

 

 

 

Here it is, the first post! I am so excited about this blog and everything that it represents. This is something I've talked about forever, and needed to do for even longer. My house is bursting with furniture, knick knacks, old windows, vintage lamps, and much more that I have collected, made-over, and created over the past few years. I am full of ideas and inspiration and tired of having a disorganized approach to what I make and collect. Hence, the debut of Fully Stocked (a nod to my large quantity of ideas and stuff and also to my day job at a stock brokerage). I am so excited about everything that is to come and to finally have a little corner of the Internet to share my work and ideas. My plan is to fill this space with my projects, how-to's, things that I love, places I visit, and what inspires me. So here's to the beginning of a new adventure! Hooray!