Monday, August 4, 2008

The Lady of the House


~>>The above artwork is the creation of etsy artist gypsyandtwink<<~


Yellow Housey. She's a beautiful old gal built in 1921, two-story, with a carpenter-gothic style roof and the home I'd love to live in for all of my days. She seems to have that effect on people. Margaret was the lady of the house before me. She lived in this house with her family for 62 years and even though she has recently passed on to be with her dearie Walter, her flowers still bloom in succession in the backyard like fireworks and her love of all decorative things scalloped will live on in this house for as long as I am here. Scalloped range hood, scallops on the front porch roof, the back porch panelling, the screen door and scallops on the edges of the little red end-table that I collected from the estate sale before I even knew this would ever be my house. Enough scallops to write a whole bluegrass song about. A girl can't ask for much more.

I think we have a love of all things fancy in common. I only knew Margaret a little bit from my walks through the neighborhood, just some faint memories of her in fancy little hats and gloves saying hello from the porch. She actually had an entire room for her hat and glove collection. She lent an uptown feeling to the place that can still be felt. I try to keep that in mind when making stylistic decisions around here. Kind of an interdimensional collaborative decorating and gardening effort. I managed to find the exact pistachio-sagey green that she had on the kitchen trim and painted pretty much the entire kitchen over in it, but I do have to admit I've made a total wreck of her entire life's history of wallpaper tastes. All 5 layers are scraped down to the bare plaster, with some bits left for romantic effect. The pink, orange and lime floral paper in the upstairs bathroom will be staying though, just like the singularly cheerful color of yellow on the exterior of the house that was hand-painted by Walter when he was in his 80's. It's the prettiest most delicate shade of egg salad ever. Good juju.

The neighbors on the block revered this lovely couple like grandparents and friends and they are very much missed. Lucky for me the neighbors are exceptionally nice people who didn't give me evil eyes for coming in and making it my own. This summer two of my neighbor ladies, Anne and Kiki, told me that they thought Margaret would approve of my rampant sun and moonflower garden on the driveway and that they thought I was the right person to have moved into her house. I hope she'd feel the same way because I certainly agree.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Genius. The theory of subjectivity.



~>>The item pictured above is from etsy seller buttonanza<<~


Well, clearly I haven't posted in a while. I have, however, been inspired by reading other blogs and have at least thought about it. That surely counts for something. Today I finally did a little housecleaning and redecorating in here and I'm enamoured enough with the results to take my relationship with my blog to the next level. Blog love. Not exactly unconditional.

One of my favorite Etsy sellers, sherrytruitt, has a little widget on her blog so, sherry that displays the reading level of her blog. Hers is post-grad. I read this a couple of weeks back and was so impressed I thought I'd check mine to see just how well-educated you should be before reading my blog. Well, the answer was "Genius". Not exactly an education level, but I'll take it and ...hey...wait a minute, maybe not such a positive thing either! Do you have to be a genius to decipher my blog, is it that much drivel? Well, the world will never know because after I reorganized it into 3 columns, swept out some widgets and a few things, I checked again today and it now says "College". As in, your mom goes to. So I have inadvertently either dumbed-down or clarified my blog. It all depends on how you look at it.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

That's One Sharp Booger!

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Boogerelli, fellow Etsy seller and compassionate member of HOST (Helping Others Street team) has so generously decided to donate the proceeds of the following item to the Kauffman Family, to help my sister Angie take care of my brother in law Andy after he was severely injured in a random and brutal beating (more detailed blog posts preceding this one). Spiker is a little booger with a big heart, and by purchasing all adorable 1.5 expertly polymer clay sculpted inches of him, you can help a family in need! Check out the listing below for more details, and thanks again, Boogerelli! Funny enough, my sister often gives her boys mohawks, so this one is perfect. kinda looks like my nephew Austin!

Please follow the link below to check out Boogerelli's shop, it is so very cute.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5453334

Thanks everybody!

Also I have information on direct donations to the family. You can make a donation at any TCF Bank, just say that you have a donation for the Kauffman Family.
Cards can be sent to:
Andy Kauffman c/o Angie Kauffman
P.O. Box 6134
Plymouth, MI
48170

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Andy Was Brutally Attacked By A Mob-Please Help the A-Team!


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My much beloved brother-in-law Andy was attacked and brutally beaten by a gang of 20 guys at random the other week. He has been suffering severe head trauma, a fractured skull and brain bleeding. My sister Angie, was fortunately unharmed in the attack, but is facing the devastation that this attack has wrought upon their lives. Andy and Angie have 3 boys, Alex, Austin and Aidan. This is why we call 'em the A-team. Some people like the first letter of the alphabet and some people REALLY like the first letter of the alphabet. :)

Andy has been a self employed carpenter and licensed builder for years, tracking down work everywhere he could find it in Michigan's crappy construction economy to keep himself fully employed, but he has no coverage for the rehabilitation he needs and my sister is not even able to return to work yet because he still needs care at home everyday. She is doing everything she can 24/7, to care for her husband, kids and on top of that, try to make whatever contacts and find whatever paperwork she can fill out to secure his desperately needed medical care. He was released from the hospital without even a further tests to see if his brain had stopped bleeding, presumably because of the lack of insurance. He is in pain, mentally in and out of it, and when she has tried to bring him into the ER during a heightened state of pain and disorientation, she has gotten turned away.

My nephews, 2 of which are school aged and had to be kept home for over a week so that the other students could stop talking about the brutal details of the beating, in class and on the playground, are handling it as well as they can, but this is going to be an ongoing process, adjusting to life with a dad who has been incapacitated. This has been a nightmare for all of them.

As family and friends, the family is doing everything possible to help them directly with the kids and various things in this state of crisis and are trying, now that the shock has settled a little bit, to put together local fundraisers to give people an opportunity to help.

In a little Stick Nymph facet of fundraising effort, I am offering a special 8x10 print titled "Helpin' Out the A Team". It is available at the link below to my Etsy shop. The entire purchase price of this print, $13, will be donated directly to the Kauffman family AND for being so wonderful, you get to pick out a free 5x7 greeting card when making this purchase.

I know you've all just been chomping at the bit to have a Stick Nymph drawing hanging on your wall to fill your home with stick goodness and juju, and now you can have one AND help a hard-working family weather an unbelievable rough patch.

Please stop by my shop or follow this link to check it out.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12580203

Thank You!

xoxoxoxoxo Jade Dominique Weber

Thursday, May 22, 2008

MER-morial Day Sale!


This Memorial Day weekend, I am having a MER-MORIAL DAY SALE! I'm ringing in the summer with the sweet siren sound of regular prices being dragged to their watery doom... All Mermaid related merchandise is over 20% off! Sale starts now and ends on Midnight after Memorial Day Monday Observance.

Also, I have added more 8x10 prints!

Come by and check out some seafaring stick broads or just say hi!

sticknymph.etsy.com

xoxoxoxo, Jade

Monday, May 5, 2008

Stick Nymph drawings on mugs, journals, shirts and more!

My cafepress store is all stocked up with interesting items featuring my drawings! The coffee mugs are gorgeously pressed, they are slick porcelain all the way around. They don't have a heat-pressed feel to them at all! The shirts printed up great! Again, no plastic yuckiness. The drawings are printed straight onto the fabric.

I also carry beautiful unlined journals, porcelain tiles to use as coasters or hang decoratively as well as baby items. If you are familiar with cafepress products and have any suggestions for items, like beer steins, which should be available someday soon, I would love to hear about it.


Thanks and go shopping!

www.cafepress.com/sticknymph

 

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