all mapped out has MOVED!

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Hope to see you around!

Happy mapping!

-Candice

Come to me my pretties!!!

Biggest thrift store map score ever!!! I just had a feeling I should go today. The maps were calling me..... After working on end-of-semester grading chaos all day, I splurged. 1. Starbucks frappuccino happy hour, how I love you!!! You can look at the calories and feel guilty about your choice OR consider the amazing calories per dollar deal you are getting!! 2. I decided to 'just look' at the thrift store since I hadn't gone in months. Always curious to see what students toss out in their eagerness to leave town for the summer. I was thrilled to find a basket of maps at 25 cents apiece. Astonished when they were really only 10 cents apiece. This is likely the best haul of maps I've ever found in terms of cost. All in all, a ton of fun for less than $10!!

Craft Fair Debut in 9...8...7....

My first craft market begins in a little over 9 hours.  I have easily put more time into prepping for it then I could possibly be compensated for monetarily tomorrow.  Surprisingly, I don't care.  I had so much fun today doing a mock setup of my booth in the living room of my apartment (thank you husband for your patience)!  I was the 30-year-old female equivalent of a kid taking over an entire room with a new train set/lego kit/dollhouse/insert appropriate toy reference you most relate to here.  Pretty sure I got more satisfaction and excitement from arranging coaster sets on a table than from getting a research article accepted for publication.  Hmm....ain't that some career food for thought.  ;)  Here's to a successful public launch of all mapped out tomorrow!  I'm sure it'll be an event to blog about regardless of how it goes.  And yes, I'll include pictures.  A post ain't a post unless there is something purdy/interesting to look at.  My apologies for the absence of visuals with this paragraph.

60 to 30

So sometime over this holiday season I reached the 60 to 30 mark.  60 days until I turn 30.  What, you didn’t know that was a thing?  60 to 30?  Yeah, it isn’t.  But I do like easily divisible numbers so the mathematical convenience captured my attention.   And yes, I’m not saying exactly what day I reached this because although I post my life to the world via Facebook, Twitter, <insert all possible social media outlets>, and this blog, I still occasionally like to pretend that not everyone can find out some details of my life.  A delusion, I know. 

I’m not particularly worried about 30, but I wasn’t particularly worried about 25 and yet I can admit that I totally freaked out.  At least internally that is.  Apparently the sudden responsibility of being able to rent my own car was just too much to handle all at once?  Being 25 suddenly translated to my life as already 25% over!  That ¼ gone perspective was troublesome, not to mention that it was an extremely optimistic estimation.  I mean, should I really assume I’ll live to be 100? 

So now, approaching 30 (the new 20, right?), I’m curious as to how I’ll freak out.  Because rest assured folks, I will freak out.  Now don’t count on finding clues to my mental state through random purchases or activities I undertake.  I’m already known to do things out of the blue, unrelated to any age milestones – like buy a 30 year old motorcycle without even knowing how to ride one, spending the entire day in pajamas perusing Etsy/declaring war on unsolved crossword puzzles/watching YouTube videos of The Muppets, attempting to learn to long board like the kids around campus, or exiting for a break on a road trip only to end up buying a puppy from a lady on the side of the road.  No, my best guess is that my temporary emotional implosion won’t be externalized (or so I hope!).  

So come on 30.  We’re all waiting to see what you do to me.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll embrace the dickens out of you and you’ll never see it coming.......
 

If all else fails, a good ol' cuddle with little Ala-Mo will solve it all!

Braced for Impact

Today marks the first official move-in day for the undergrads at VT living in the dorms.  Needing to get my new faculty ID, I ended up walking across campus this morning amidst the move-in mayhem.  If only I had my camera with me!  Cars backed up as far as the eye can see.  New students sitting in the back behind their parents, a bit wide-eyed but trying to play it cool.  Moms (only saw 1 dad in this role) standing guard over their child’s small mountain of possessions, swiftly unloaded curbside , waiting until the rest of the clan manages to find parking and can come help.  It put quite a cheeky smile on my face.  A mixture of confidence, ‘been there done that’, and nostalgia.  11 years ago that was my stuff on the curb (different curb mind you, a good 800 miles away, but same scenario).  

Making it past the dorms I witnessed the rest of campus bracing for impact.  Library staff smiling and on the ready, furniture all neatly arranged – we’ll see how long that lasts.  Extra food court staff on hand, making sure items are stocked and protocol is clear.  Cleaning staff have the student union building practically shining, completely litter free.  It’s basically a grand opening of a business.  In this case, the business is education and the grand opening happens annually.  

I came to this campus 6 years ago as a new graduate student, excited and terrified just as I was as an undergrad.  The lady helping me with my new ID asked, “Do you want a new picture or do you just want to use the old one?”  I was caught off guard because you know I had specifically picked out what shirt to wear (the right neckline is everything!), I hadn’t biked to campus so I wouldn’t have helmet head,and I made sure my glasses were nice and clean….all preparations for a new ID photo.  

Me:  “I can just use the old one unless you think I’ve changed dramatically and should replace it.”  

ID Staff:  “Well that’s why I asked.  You look exactly the same!”

Huh.  In a lot of the ways I feel exactly the same too.  Excited and nervous, braced for impact. 

Mourning the Loss of the Free Table

Perhaps you may recall the chair I used for my Front Door Makeover (Blog post)?  Well, I found that chair from my super secret weapon for vintage acquisitions – the “Free Table” at my nearby thrift store.  That’s right, a table, set outside, all of whose contents are free to the taker.  A table that was refreshed with different wares every day the shop was open (4 days a week).  A table that I could walk to from my apartment in a matter of minutes.  A table that was well lit 24 hours a day so I could peruse the goods at midnight if I felt like it.  A table that could lift my spirits and add some adventure to any bad day.  Alas, that table is no more…

Vintage books, great titles, colorful covers - from the Free Table

Free to flip some more

 

 Although I’m currently on hiatus from vintage shopping (a self-assigned status due to lack of room in our apartment), I allowed myself to drop by the thrift store today since I was in the mood.  I noticed upon entering that the free table out front had been halved (one of the foldout tables it consisted of was gone).   I immediately suspected that the glory days were over.  Just now, as my husband and I returned from some important errands (buying more tiles for my map coasters and new dog toys for our Boston Terrier), I gasped as we cruised by what is essentially the shop for my Etsy shop.  Out front?  No.More.Free.Table.  Gone.  *sniffle*

Classic clutch

 

But I completely understand and in fact agree with the move.  I mean, do you really want people coming right on up to the store in the middle of the night to snoop around?  While I have the best of intentions I must admit I feel completely shady every time I do it regardless of the time of day.  Then of course there is the issue of dumping.  The table became an easy destination to “donate” items without having to work within the regular hours of any donation center.  There were frequently entire trash bags stuffed with who knows what, swiftly chucked on or under the table from a car trunk.  Now I’m guilty of this too (the donating – not the trash bag from the car scenario), but I saw the free table as an anonymous way to improve someone's day just as it often brought a little joy to mine.  

An assortment of rough wood frames....free.

 

One day, left next to the dumpster at our complex, were a number of plastic rider toys that had been discarded by a family upon moving out.  We’re talking 3-wheelers, little sit-on-top scooters, etc. that are a blast for kids under 5 or so.  I looked them over and only found one that had an issue (a large hole in a tire).  The others were still completely usable with hours of fun left in them.  If I had a kid, I would attack them with cleaner and maybe (of course!) some spray paint and give them a new life and a new owner before being retired to the landfill.  Well, I don’t have kids.  But there was that free table….  I enlisted my husband to help me salvage the rider toys and take them over to the free table.  We moved as fast as we could in front of the "No Dumping" sign, but were excited about the possibility of someone finding a toy and taking it home as a surprise to their kid.  Sure enough, we frequently scoped out the situation and within a matter of hours all the toys were gone!!!  Sure, they may have been taken home and become trash in another person’s yard, but we could only hope they were taken home and given another day to ride by an enthusiastic young driver.  Sure, we had ignored the store's rules about the table (No Dumping), but we had kept something from the trash that could maybe add a bit more fun to the world before being tossed away. 

American Tourister Escort Suitcase....'you are now free to move about the cabin'

Free Faux

So the free table is gone.  I can no longer try to play Secret Santa, nor can I occasionally save vintage items from their final destination.  It was good while it lasted, but let’s face it; a lot of the stuff on that table was just garbage (including some things I brought home – sorry hubs!).  

Front Door Makeover

So my husband and I hate where we live. Not the town (which we love) – the apartment. We’ve hit the renter’s wall. We’re tired of having no creative (or maintenance) control over our home. We REALLY want our OWN. But. I just finished up graduate school and he’s on the brink of doing the same and - surprise, surprise!! – that time in school didn’t really allow for us to save up the big bucks (or any bucks really). So immediately upon renewing our lease we both went from loving our apartment to hating it. Renter’s wall. The apartment is cozy, we have it nicely decorated, but none of that matters. It’s still an apartment in a 12 unit building complete with the sounds of neighboring lives (a highly skilled snorer, ping pong balls bouncing on floors….., and a suspicious frequency of moving furniture).

I had to do something. But it couldn’t cost me much in the form of time or money. So, I decided to tackle the front door situation. There was nothing exciting or inviting about our front door area. In fact I had left it purposely devoid of personality. I never saw a reason to put effort into it because 1) I didn’t want anything stolen, 2) we don’t exactly have space to hang out there, and 3) I liked the anonymity of it. But I needed us to see our apartment as something nice to come home to and wanted a challenge. As you can see in the photo, here’s what I had to work with: 1 super tired doormat, 1 gold-colored wreath hanger from last Christmas (it holds coats on the interior side so we didn’t want to take it down), and 1 super dingy Samsonite chair (free from the vintage shop down the road). In addition to these items, I gathered up the following: 1 can of flat white spray paint ($4), 1 can of flat teal (lagoon) spray paint ($4), 1 can of flat reddish/orangish spray paint ($4), a new plain doormat ($10), 1 bike wheel (free - pulled off a bike someone left next to our dumpster), steel wool (free from a friend), and masking tape (taken from my husband’s lab supplies).

 

Step 1.  That awful chair.  In its present dirty mustard color it was perfectly awful, but I still love the shape of it and the plastic & metal combo.  If there’s one thing I learned from my parents it’s that spray paint can make a world of a difference for very little money!!  I decided to go white to freshen things up  (Photo).  Ran into the dilemma of what to paint the metal (legs) vs. the plastic (seat & chair back).  Now I’m a perfectionist and I usually have to have things exact (ask my husband – that is if he hasn’t lost his sanity yet), but I gave myself both a time and budget constraint on this so I could only implement fast, cheap ideas.  To jazz it up, I went teal on the chair legs (photo), but only the legs.  Normally I would disassemble the chair and make sure all of the metal supports were alike, but this makeover was as much a challenge to my annoying (and time-consuming) perfectionist ways as it was for my creativity. 

 

Step 2.  Door mat.  So I racked my brain for awhile trying to come up with something ridiculously cool and smart to put on the mat – a word or a phrase that reeked of contemporary sophistication and wit.  Too much pressure!  Soon I realized that with the uneven surface of the new mat, I wouldn’t easily be able to get the clean, sharp edges I would want for a word or image.  So…stripes!  I worked with the ridges using 2 pieces of cardboard to make spray paint canyons – getting the paint only on the raised mat edges and creating crisp lines using the two different colors.  As you can seen, I was quite thrilled with the result!  Although I clearly struggled with the self-portrait of my satisfaction…

 Step 3.  Bike wheel.  I salvaged the bike wheel months ago and convinced my husband that I would eventually make something cool out of it.  It’s been rattling around on the back of his truck this whole time!  We needed something to hang on the door but I’m not much of a wreath person – so why not a bike wheel instead?  After all, it has the same shape and we love to ride!  I roughed the surface up with steel wool, knocking off the rust patches and then set to painting it teal.  Kinda fell in love with the pattern left on the cardboard from the hub!

  

Step 4.  Wreath hook.  Couldn’t decide what color to paint it – so I worked with my indecision and painted one side teal and the other side red!  Used a pipe on the exterior of the building to let it dry from.

Steps 5 and 6.  Thus far, none of the items add much pizzazz, but I had plans for pizzazz…I just wanted you to wait and see the results…..

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I created a very imperfect “hello.” stencil from cardboard so that our door area would greet us when we came home.  The rough edge and flimsiness of the cardboard left the words with rather fuzzy edges that make me twitch a bit from their lack of precision, but remember, this is low budget and low time and I wouldn’t allow myself to touch it up or perfect it.  The material woven into the bike wheel is what inspired the color scheme from the start (1/2 yard, $6.50) and it is simply attached using double-sided tape (there is also peel and stick cork on the back of the wheel so it doesn’t make a loud metal banging sound when we close the door.

What do you think?  Cuz I kinda love it.  And all for under $30 and a half day of effort (drying time excluded).  Maybe this year is off to a good start!

UPDATE:  Less than 6 hours after finishing this our new neighbors shoved a large charcoal grill up next to our bikes by our front door.  We’ve gotta get our own place......