Surprised in Ames

I don't go over to Ames (Iowa) very often. And I rarely go out and about when I am there. I went this past weekend however and was surprised by the little things of art I came across. I went to Wheatsfield, a health store, and found a lot of great product design. If you are in love with graphic design as well as being crafty then check out my other blog, The Gallery, to see the great packaging I found.

In addition to great packaging, I came across this handmade cards by Lonna.

I only got a chance to get a picture of two of the cards, but you can look through the options and buy your own Lonna's Cards her site here.

One more surprise I came across in the store was an art vending machine. You read right. It was a vending machine where you could get little pieces of handmade art. It was so cool.

It had jewelry, a little bowl (which didn't seem like the best idea to me considering it could break when you let it fall), little drawings, bookmarks, bags, buttons. Just a ton of stuff. It was very cool, unique, and definitely a surprise.

Adventures in Thrifting

One of my New Year's goals* was to work on thrifting. I know people in real life and on the blogisphere that are awesome at it and had the most fantastic and unique things, from clothing to furniture, because they were great at thrift shopping. I love the idea of having unique stuff AND it is (usually) cheaper.

So I've dabbled here and there, not finding much worth sharing honestly. But this weekend I went to visit a friend in Cedar Rapids (Iowa) and we went to a store I had found online called 1st Class Finds and wanted to check out. It is by far the absolute best second-hand/thrift/vintage store I have found yet. The owner had everything it seemed like! Really great stuff. I wanted like fifty different things, but tried to stay financially concious and just bought one item. One amazing item!

This Italian made, unique, triangular table that doubles as a music box when opened for just $25 (hopefully I'll add more pictures later or on the Hello Lovely Facebook page)

 

Some other great finds at 1st Class Finds (sorry for no prices**):

Vintage radio. Would look great on a bookshelf or table!

Traveling bar briefcase!

Couldn't decide if this was a blanket or a rug but it was gorgeous

 

My friend and I also went to another thrift shop in the Czech Village that had some interesting stuff but was a tad overpriced. These awesome blocks were $3 per block.

But they also had some fantastic military wear that is worth keeping an eye on. Including jackets from Vietnam for just $10 and tons of authentic patches and medals.

*I don't make resolutions but call them goals. "Resolution" makes me feel like a failed if I don't do it, since it means I resolved to do something.
**I'll try do do better at pictures and pricing next time I go on a thrift adventure.

Craft Day (part 3)

Finally, my project. I went a little bit of a different route. I had been looking around the web for cool yoga mats, and decided I didn't really want to spend the money on a designed one, but still wanted one. So, I decided to paint my own. I first tried to do some research to see if anyone had done this, and a few have, but it took a bit to find any real material besides a few pictures. I did finally find this short tutorial on livestrong. That at least let me know that I could paint my yoga mat and it wouldn't immediately die once I practiced on it. So I used some acrylic paints, a few paint brushes, chalk and, of course, my yoga mat. Here's my attempt at a tutorial:

Step 1: Outline
Use chalk to outline your design. Chalk is great for this because all it takes is a damp washcloth to start with a clean slate again, or to fix some errors.

 

  

Step 2: Paint! 

There isn't a lot to say about this step. Use acrylic paints and go to town creative style!

 Step 3: Let it dry

Step 4: Do some Yoga
No I don't have a picture of me doing yoga on my new mat, but I should have gotten one.

And that's all there is to it! If you paint your own mat PLEASE send me pictures; I would love to see what you do!

Stay Lovely,
Katelin