Wednesday, August 21, 2013

I'm Wearing Puppies

You don't see too many photos of my mug show up on my blog, and theres a reason for that.

1. I work full time on top of having Yellow Heart Art so its hard to squeeze in some selfies after hustlin' the 9-5 gig. All I wanna do when I come home from work is open my fridge and eat the first slightly appetizing thing that makes eye contact with me. Sometimes its a sandwich, sometimes its a bottle of ketchup.

2. I am not exactly totally ok with myself, but I am working on that

3. I haven't bought a new outfit since, like, 2011.

But look at this uh-dor-able dress that Kintage hooked me up with!


As you can see it past my "twirly" test. The best part? From a distance the dress looks like its just another run-of-the-mill polka dotted dress... but then you get close to me and you're all like "whoa what? is this some kind of magic eye dress you got going on here girl?" (ok, did I just date myself by referencing those magic eye books. Raise your hand if you stayed crossed eyed longer than you wanted to at age 10)

Dress: c/o Kintage, Reign of Terrier Dog Print Dress
Necklace: c/o Flawed Perfect Jewelry (use "LEONORAROCKS" for 10% off weeee)
Cardi: Kohls
Shoes: Target 

YES THOSE ARE FREKKIN DOGS ON MY DRESS! (or, if you're from Long Island we like to call them "dawgs" sometimes we walk them while on our way to get some "cawfee" and "chawclet" at the shopping "mawl") (it's ok guys, I cringe when I talk too)

It's like I get to channel my inner Lady Gaga by wearing a bunch of puppies.

Ok, it's nothing like that at all.

I paired this dress with my favorite flawed perfection jewelry necklace. The confetti colors gave it that extra "pop" I wanted. Also this necklace kinda plays a trick on you too, you can actual purchase different bead strands and change out your necklace to fit your mood or outfit! (For me I think I'll have them match my outfit, I tend to change my mood way too much)

Do you have any outfits that play tricks on you?

Monday, August 19, 2013

I Wanna Live Here






This past weekend the Bubs and I went biking to fire island (it's an island off of Long Island). You can take a ferry there but we were all like "oh hey, let's just bike it!" 

.never.
.again.

according to google maps it's a 3.5 mile bike ride, which in theory wouldn't be so bad if a good 1 of those 3.5 miles wasn't a long stretch of soft sand that you had to walk your bike through.

But it was worth it, we had a great day. The town was really cute and I managed to ONLY get sunburn on the tops of my hands.

There was also this little girl in town wheeling around a wagon full of hand painted sea shells yelling "BUY THREE GET ONE FREEEEEE!" So I handed her one of my Yellow Heart Art business cards and told her to call me in 15 years. I can really use her marketing skills on my team then. I like to start 'em young.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Its Hip To be Square - NEW PRODUCT

Geez its been a long time since I introduced new shiz into the shop. I haven't been publicizing this because at the time we didn't know if it was going to happen or not but since May Bub and I were in the process of packing our stuff, moving/buying a new house, unpacking our stuff and now remodeling it. Actually it was kind of nice keeping it under wraps because when we told people we bought a house the response wasn't "Oh right I read it on Facebook!" or "oh yeah I saw on Instagram!" (sometimes the internet can suck) (I also plan on doing this for my engagement too) (no I'm not engaged) (or am I?) (ha, no I'm not)

We have had no life for about 4 months. An even bigger tragedy is that we haven't sat down and watched TV in months. I miss the days where we would come home from work, eat dinner, and just collapse on the couch while watching mindless reality TV garbage. (Followed by a battle for the remote control that could be publicized on UFC or something) (we go hardcore when it comes to remote control custody)

In March of 2013 I started to design items for my summer 2013 collection. Well, since I had to pack up my studio in May I wasn't able to work on my new products until recently. I've had the designs all worked out and completed, had them all ready placed onto fabric but they were just waiting to be cut up and stitched together to make this:


 Introducing New Yellow Heart Art Decorative Pillow Covers!

The inspiration behind this collection was sparked by our recent move. We had lived in an apartment for about 2 years. I knew that place would not be our permanent home so I was always hesitant to buy cutesy and awesome home decor items for our apartment. I wanted to wait till we had a "forever home" where I can invest in items that would be in our living space for a while.







As I was shopping around for pillows I noticed that a lot of them were, well, lame. I like my decor to have a bit of sass to them. My new pillow covers have funny sayings and modern patterns to help add "umph" to your couches, beds and shelves.

All the handwritten pillows are my own hand writing. The patterns are patterns that I would put in my own home.  I tried to stick with color palettes that would be versatile with most home decor.

For now there are available as a pre-order. Since I have a few designs and they are so time intensive to make and sew I wanted to see which would be popular and go from there. What I love most about these is that you can easily switch them out and change them up since they are pillow covers and not actual pillows.

What do you guys think? View the ENTIRE collection here!

Also we are now accepting applications for Yellow Heart Art Affiliates! Earn free Yellow Heart Art loot, email YHAAffiliate@gmail.com for more info <3 

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Affordable Home Decor Makes Me Feel All Special and Junk

It's no surprise now that Bubs and I bought a new home. Do you know how easy it is to go all "WEEEEE BUY ALLLLL THE THIIIIIINGS!" while running rampant in home goods and tossing everything into my cart?


So my inner voice always kicks in at this point and she's usually a buzz kill. She tells me things like "Don't stick your finger in that cake and lick the icing" "Don't jump in that puddle you'll make funky noises with your socks every time you walk" and "Don't buy all that shit in your cart homegirl now has a mortgage" 

Screw you inner voice. Don't you ever take vacation days or something? Who works 24-7.

Get outta here.

So while stalking one of my favorite blogs, Apartment Therapy, I came across some information that is completely and totally life changing.

H&M now has a home decor line.

**angels sing**

And not only do they have a home decor collection--the collection can now BE BOUGHT ONLINE.

I give you permission to stand out of your computer chair and do the slow clap to H&M right now.



Granted I don't know what direction I want to go with my house quite yet, but as of right now these items are really high contenders.  By the way I am no way affiliated with H&M, I just wanted to share with you guys some fun conversation pieces that you can add to your home that's affordable but not farty looking.

What style trends are you using in your home this year?

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in case you missed it: I am getting some surgery done that insurance will not cover (you can read more about that here) so right now all purchases from my shop on etsy are going towards any medical bills I have, here is one of my new prints that I designed that was inspired by my latest news

Thursday, August 1, 2013

New Artwork That Will Hopefully Help Me Out: I'm Kinda Mad at 14 Year Old Me

Your Smile Makes Me Giddy and Stuff-New Art! Find me HERE!

I really didn't want to make my "blogging come back" with a post like this. I really wanted to make a cute collage of fun etsy picks or perhaps some awesome DIYS that I have found on other blogs that I wanted to share with you all.

I went to the dentist last week for an emergency visit. I had taken a bite out of a peach and noticed little pieces of my front tooth left behind on it. I panicked and called the dentist. When I got there I was given the news that I knew was coming but hope I could avoid.

I need another dental implant.


Back track: When I was 14 years old I had fainted face first down a flight of stairs. My poor mom witnessed the entire thing. She screamed my name and I wanted to say back to her  "I'M OK MA!" but I was completely knocked unconscious (side note: I am a firm believer that people in a coma can hear you since I was able to hear everything my mom was saying to me even thought I was knocked out) she thought I was no longer "with her" (if you catch my drift) because she had found me unresponsive and in a pool of blood. I came to, put my hand to my mouth and in my hand was my front tooth. Now, I don't mean that little nub that you see when you smile, I mean the ENTIRE tooth that is rooted into your jaw (its about and 1-1/2 long) there was a giant hole in my gums and my teeth were really loose. Till this day doctors have no clue how I didn't snap my neck right there and die, so I would like to think I am here for a reason.

She rushed me to the dentist where I had gotten 72 stitches placed into my mouth. They attempted to root canal my tooth back into my head but my jaw rejected it. I had to get 2 dental implants on my front tooth and the little one next to it (if you are not sure what a dental implant is basically they rip your teeth out of your jaw and literally screw a  long screw into your jaw that then gets a little fake tooth glued to it) the process is painful, scary and expensive. Insurance companies do not cover dental implants because their reasoning is that this process is "cosmetic". I do not know who in their right mind would willingly put themselves through this torture. I literally had no teeth in my head and they were claiming I was doing this to "improve my looks" (HA!)

Since then I have had so many issues with my jaw/mouth. My jaw is constantly popping since it was knocked out of place (if you look closely at my face my jaw is actually tilted towards one side). Last year my jaw locked up on me and I couldn't open my mouth more than an inch big, I had a hard difficult time eating. My gums are receding upwards and food is constantly getting stuck in there causing it to be a breeding ground for bacteria. Sometimes my face goes numb which doctors believe is caused from nerve damage when I took that spill down the stairs.

Flash forward to today, my other front tooth that was perfectly fine has started to fail on me 15 years later. It is super brittle with a giant hole in the back. Soon it will snap in half completely and I will be left with no front tooth there.

I had a hard time accepting this news, I know it might sound silly or vain to you but I had a hard time dealing with having fake teeth at age 14. I was happy that at least ONE of the front teeth were still real, was still "a part of me". Now I have to have a piece of me ripped out and replaced with a fake. My smile will change and I will always know deep down inside that i was not given these teeth.

Maybe you think I'm being overly dramatic, maybe you understand where I am coming from, but I am having a really hard time with coming to terms that I will soon look different. I never understood people that willingly get plastic surgery to dramatically change their features, why would you ever mess with that?

Long story short this is coming at a really bad time. Bub and I just purchased a home and we had to fork over a lot of money at closing up front (I won't tell you how much because that is tacky and neither here nor there but let's just say we could've bought ourselves a reaaaally nice car with the money we handed over in one lump sum)

As I said before insurance will not cover this process for me and will end up costing me around 6,000-7,000 dollars. I would never ever ask anyone to "donate" money to help me pay for this because I am no more deserving that anyone else out there. I am no better that anyone and am not entitled to anything like that.

Instead I am releasing a new print into my shop where 100% of the profits will go to my "Leonora Needs A Decent Smile And Not A Hole In Her Mouth" Fund. Please, do not feel obligated to purchase this artwork. Even if you just share it on your facebook, twitter or blog that would help me tremendously. I am going to be selling 2 versions: 1 as an 8x10 for $20 and 1 as a more affordable 5x7 for $9. Also I personally love the colors I picked for this print, but I am also selling one in black and white to go with any home decor. Any little bit will help me and I thank you in advance for any and all support you can give me.