Ukulele Wednesday

Totally. Makes. My. Day.

Weekend

My lovely sister-in-law came to town for a long weekend vacation. We packed in so much that my head's still spinning. Somewhere between soaking up some good old fashioned tourist activities, eating ridiculously tasty food, and roaming the beach at low tide, we went to the mountains and hiked our hearts out. This is what we saw:

Schmancy Munny decorating party

I admittedly have a major weakness for cute things. So when I found out that the local cute depot, Schmancy, was having a Mini Munny Mobile decorating party (courtesy of kidrobot), I needed to go. I roped some friends into coming along, and we really had a wonderful time.

We were given (free!) naked Munnies to paint, sequin, glue, button, and glitter as we pleased. I was in button heaven.


Joanna was all about red paint and bird song phonetics. (note the precise location of paintbrush on stranger's behind.)

And Sam went on a red and purple shimmer spree.

Yay!

More pics at schmancytoy’s flickr photostream.

P.S. I love being a grown-up.

Monday interview: Fun Junk, Olympia, Washington

Shop: Fun Junk
Location: Olympia, Washington
Owners: Nancy Heinrich and George Tart


I first discovered Fun Junk at their awesome booth at the Sunday Fremont Market. I’d pass my hands over tables lined with disembodied baby doll parts, letterpress blocks of all sizes, piles of faded photographs, stacks of quirky vintage flashcards, brass cow tags, and glass vials. It's a treasure hunter’s paradise, all arranged neatly on long tables for shoppers' enjoyment.

But guess what? They have a whole shop filled with goodies. And co-owner Nancy was kind enough to invite me over so I could interview her and see the spoils laid out for myself. This is absolutely the place to go to find interesting vintage odds and ends for jewelry making, craft projects, and home decor. Honestly, I could write a book about Nancy and the shop, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Nancy and George like to buy in bulk. Have hundreds of knitting needles lying around? They’ll take ‘em. 400 typewriters? They’re all over it. Thousands of teeny tiny watch parts? Oh my goodness yes. According to Nancy, people have stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. Their job is to find it.


Nancy says that “It’s like you’re a pirate finding treasure.” Once a month she and George drive down to the Alameda Flea Market near Oakland, California, to sell their wares. They stop at just about every town along the way, visiting garage sales and every source imaginable. Exhausting? Yes. But that’s the pirate’s life, I suppose. And the rush of a good find is totally worth it.

Nancy’s favorite finds include vintage Tupperware in easter egg colors, and a clown suit apparently worn by the famous midget clown, Frankie Saluto.

She says she doesn’t really decorate her own home (which surprised me, because her market booth is my main source for my own home décor), but her designer’s eye is evident in how the shop is arranged.

Somehow, she manages to take piles and piles of "junk" and make it all look beautiful. This is her favorite part of running the shop, and it shows.

And as for tomorrow’s treasures? Nancy thinks that anything is possible. Standing in the shop, I had a hard time imagining how my own possessions would ever have the same vintage quality as the items in Nancy and George’s store. Will my grandkids fight over my old high school t-shirts someday? Will they flip over my Kitchen-Aid food chopper the way that I flip for an old hand-cranked egg beater? I can’t imagine it, but I suppose my ancestors never thought I’d spend hours looking through their old photographs, coin collections, and button tins.

Thank you, Nancy, for letting me stop by and explore with my camera! There are tons more photos from my visit -- check them out on flickr -- and be sure to check out the events where you can find Fun Junk. Happy hunting!

acorn awesomeness

I've got some acorn love happening right now. They remind me of being small and sitting with dirty knees under a big oak tree, trying to crack the little nuts open so I could see the worms burrowing inside. The items below bring me back. And they're much less wormy.

Click pic to enlarge

From l to r: Mint Chocolate Acorns by redheart13, acorn pebble necklace with pebble toggle by birdahoy, little things photograph by slgdesigns, and double acorn love necklace by nanopod.


From l to r: golden acorns by madebymoe, gocco note cards by ignafruit, antique bird lady by RobinsEggBlue, and margarita needle felted wool acorns by truLuxe.

Zombies.

Dave and I celebrated Easter yesterday by searching for thrift store picture frames and hanging this sweet letterpress poster from Yee-Haw Industries on our living room wall. It is nothing short of awesome. Get yer own zombie poster here.

five senses friday

Touch:
- warm kitty belly
- my soft soft black Target sweatshirt. love.

Hear:
- sneezing, sprouting from the cubicles around me. allergy season has started.
- meow (feed me) meow (food now)
- 6 ukuleles and one banjo uke, all in perfect tune, striking G chords in unison.
- this song, which I remember my mom singing all the time:


Taste:
- hot pockets. somehow, they taste right today. haven't had them in years.
- apple cider from the u-district market. sweet heaven.
- last night's supper, a conglomeration of collard greens, mushrooms, leeks, garlic, and asparagus sauteed in wine and olive oil with farfalle pasta. funny how when you list out the ingredients, a meal sounds much fancier than it actually is.

Smell:
- see "hot pockets" above.
- delicious lotion from bliss soaps. (thanks jamie!)

See:
- fluffy flowering trees that appear to be from outer space.
- one tiny flower on my jasmine plant, almost ready to bloom.

Sprouts

Our sprouts have sprung! These little instant greenhouse trays are pretty awesome. Hint: Way cheaper in stores than online.

I used to have heavy red curtains hanging in this little nook, but it seemed too dark for a corner filled with so much pretty light. Inspired by a post on window films I saw on Design*Sponge, I made some frosted circles out of contact paper and stuck them on.

I tracked down a white paint pen for drawing designs (Lowe's paint department lady: "What's a paint pen?" Yeesh), and bam. There seems to be some weird milky thing happening toward the edge, but I don't care. It's a happy little light-filled cozy plant nook.

My sewing machine table is making a fine little plant stand for now.

Blog love from Apartment Therapy!

Man, it's been a good week for The Window Ledge! Apartment Therapy featured my fancy wall yesterday, which is super duper cool. Thanks a million!

newness

It's a good Sunday. It's warm and fresh and gorgeous outside, and to celebrate I have a new improved website design. Check it out at www.jeskelsen.com.

Muchas gracias to web genius Zack for making it happen. You rock.



And perhaps even more exciting (depending on your personal taste) is the new little furry man in my life.


Yesterday we adopted Curio from an adopt-a-kitty event near my house. He's such a good fit for us -- I feel so lucky! Apparently he was rescued from a woman who kept large numbers of cats in outdoor enclosures and insisted that cats are not pets and belonged outside. Um. In pens? Really weird. But he's the sweetest little thing and starts up his purr motor the moment you touch him. I'm thinking we'll end up calling him "Rio," which rolls off the tongue a little nicer than Curio. Dog and cat are getting along quite nicely, which makes me proud. Good fur kids.

Hanger love

Mary T. over at Shelterrific has a nice post about how I used vintage clothes hangers to hang artwork. Hooray for blog love! I hope my old landlord doesn't want those hangers back...he can't have them.

Techy stuff, and a poll

Done updating -- no major changes. Hopefully the banner at the top of the page is still here, because I had some trouble with it disappearing randomly. If not, a few reloads should make it work again. I added a couple extra buttons to the sidebar (find window ledge arts on facebook and become a fan!), and I set up www.windowledgearts.com to direct here to my blog. You can still access it the old way through blogger, but I like the nice tidy non-blogger URL option as well. Just ignore me if that made no sense to you.

So a question, dear readers. What do you think about Twitter? I tested it out a couple weeks ago and could honestly not find any real value in it, so I deleted my account after a few half-hearted tweets. (And "tweets?" WTF.) Honestly...what can I do on Twitter that I can't do on Facebook? Or on this blog? Does the world really need to know everything that crosses my mind, multiple times a day? Me thinks not, but apparently I'm wrong because the world's all abuzz with twitter this, twitter that.

BUT I'm willing to give it another try, should the masses demand it. So kindly take this quick little poll and let me know your thoughts. Choose one option from the drop-down menu below, and cast your vote. And leave me some comments -- I'm really interested in how other people use Twitter.

What do you think about Twitter?

Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread. Get on the boat already.It's a great tool, but not for me.Hell no. I wouldn't be caught dead "tweeting."Huh? Birds?

pollcode.com free polls

Maintenance!

I'm doing some updates to the blog, so if things look a little wonky, bear with me.