You Know You Are an Adult When Napkin Holders Make You Excited About Life

I have recently discovered something about myself: I am an interior design junkie. I get such a high out of nabbing a really cool design-y piece for my home. The Bubs is used to it by now, I promised him he could have an "airplane room" and a beer tap installed in our kitchen back splash. (Bub is in the airforce and loves airplanes, he has a huge collection of airplane shiz and well he needs to get it out of his system. Man cave to the rescue)

Since I am taking over about 90% of the house I am trying to find an aesthetic that works for both him and I. I mean, he is living in the house too why should it be covered in doilies and flowers, right?(disclaimer: I'm not a "doily" and "flower" lover, but a lot of people are and that's cool too!)

The solution I came up with is industrial vintage. He has old airplane parts that look pretty bad ass with my rotting camera collection. Here are some of my "swoonies" (Swoonies: see also, Swoon or something that makes me go all HOLY CRAP I NEED THAT.)

1. Payphone from Urban Outfitters. So this thing not only looks cool but my guests also have to give us money in order to use it? Win-win.

2. Wired Lamp. This sucker needs to be in my dining room. I'm going to eventually have an exposed brick accent wall to go with it as well.

3. Wired Napkin Holder. You know you're getting old when things like napkin holders make your "swoon" list.

4. Giant Clip Thing. I am unsure what I would do with said giant clip thing, but I feel like i need it.

5. Moroccan Backsplash. I want this design to be my kitchen backsplash. I wanted something clean and timeless that doesn't need to be updated in 5 years.

6. Half Moon Basket. I don't really know what I would put in this basket, but who cares. I'll find something even if its just toilet paper.

7. Utensil holder. Dear Utensil Holder: Let's start a beautiful friendship where you hold all the things that no longer fit in my drawers. These things are currently scattered across the counter like some kind of utensil crime scene.

8. DANG IT I DID IT AGAIN. My "product collages" are notorious for skipping numbers. *face palm*

9. Flower Bowl. Obviously my apples and peaches need a cute home to live in, they can't just stay on the shelf in my fridge with no purpose.

**these are not my photos, for where to purchase please click on the links above. These are my own opinions and not a paid post**

What are your favorite places to shop for home decor items?

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
we're holding our own interior design contest on instagram! Show us how you style your Yellow Heart Art pieces in your home, take a picture of it on instagram and tag @YellowHeartArt as well as the hashtag #YellowHeartArtHome. We will pick our faves to be displayed on our facebook page for our fans to pick their favorite! Winner gets their choice of Yellow Heart Art loot*! Ends July 18th, 2013-goodluck!

Giveaway opened to all US Residents who follow Yellow Heart Art on instagram. Winners choice of item limited to what is currently in stock and picked by yellow heart art.

That One Time...At Craft Camp... (Alt Summit Recap)

Wow.

Just Wow.

I have returned from a crazy inspiring weekend. I had the amazing opportunity to attend Altitude Summit NYC this past thursday and the only word I have to describe it is "Wow".

Let's start with an awesome "slide show" from the conference, feel free to hum to yourself Greenday's "Time of Your Life" while flipping through these photos. (Psst all photos where sponsored by Atly!)

if there is a photo booth, and no bloggers take photos in it, does it still make a sound? (Answer: this is a trick question, bloggers will always take pictures in a photobooth)

carrie and me! To say she's the sweetest thing ever is an understatement

Ang and I woke up at 3:45am just to make it to Alt on time, pretty sure I am not even waking up that early on my own frekkin wedding day. (Sorry Bub...)

heeeeey sexy laaaaadddyyy (Oh, just Martha stopping by to say "waddup" to us Alt folks) (the conference was held at her head headquarters)

ha-uge girl crush on design sponge

 swag on top of swag on top of SWAG. My elbows almost broke from carrying around all these things with me. Ya know what? Dislocated elbows are totally worth it.

uh-may-zing hayneedle display

Martha's team did a REDIC job preparing everything and making everything look like it came right out of one of her Magazines. 

Here are some brief tidbits I learned while attending Alt:

• Branch out, but stay on the same tree

• Adapt to change

• Keep the baby daddy mama drama to a minimum, your readers don't care if someone else is copying you

• Don't be too "market-y" on twitter, its hard to gain back your followers trust once you sound like a robot or don't stay true to your self 

• Create stuff "for fun" as well as for your business

• Sketch, try things, fail

• "No" is not a bad word, the people who you say "No" to is just as important as the people who you say "Yes" to.

Top 10 Guilty Pleasures

find me here

We all have them, and I am actually laughing at myself that I am only limiting my guilty pleasure list to "10" but hey I still need to somewhat look cool to you guys still, right? (Who am I kidding, my cool factor went out the window when I posted photos on my instagram of me cross-eyed while showing off my awesome bed head)

1. Cursing. (Sorry Mom)

2. Any reality show on MTV. Teen Mom? Snookie and JWoww? 16 and Pregnant? Real World? I dont discriminate.

3. Wearing bub's PJ Bottoms out in public.

4. Busting out into my best rendition of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston while cleaning the house.

5. Eating ice cream straight from the carton. Sometimes when I'm feeling really classy I'll hack away at it with a butter knife when all my spoon and forks are too dirty to use. No shame. (ok, little shame)

6. Leaving my make up on when I go to sleep. I wake up in the morning looking all kinds of awesome.

7. Throwing out anything that hasn't been used in 6 months to a year. I hate clutter, I find it pointless. My mom loves that I do this, every 6 months she has a yard sale and banks some serious cash money. I then use it to buy more useless clutter, its a vicious cycle.

8. Calling my mom for any cooking question. "Ok, I've been baking the chicken for, like, 5 hours now. Are you SURE its safe to eat? Hello? Mom? Why are you laughing?"

9. Scrapping off the charcoal on a burnt piece of toast. Hey, its still good. Charred bread will put some hair on your chest and some fiber in your diet. (Disclaimer: I have no proof that burnt bread will produce more fiber. It's just a lie to tell myself so I don't feel like a complete failure for burning toast)

10. Touching buttons. Except elevator buttons, those things skeav me out.

what are some of your guilty pleasures?

When I Was Your Age...

While cleaning up my apartment recently I came across a bunch of items that to me didn't really see that old, but after really looking at them I realized that technology is moving at such rapid speed that you start to have those "when I was your age..." moments.

When I was Your Age:

• Cell phones didn't have a camera, apps or even color. Do you know what our form of entertainment was? A game called snake that was basically a bunch of pixellated squares lined up in a row, you had to get more and more squares with out your "snake" ramming into itself.

• You only got charged for text messages you sent, not received.

• The only form of "blue tooth" we had was when you had too many blue berry blow pops.

• The internet used to make funny noises (reeeeaaaarawww eeehhhhhhh boop boop boop bopp scaaareeeech) 

• Cameras had film.

• So did Video Cameras.

• We had to get our music from Napster.

• Facebook used to be just for people in college. There were no photo albums, games, home page or chat options. It was one profile picture of you and your class schedule. People left you comments in a giant text box and with out fail one idiot friend would accidentally delete your entire "wall" because apparently you could edit everyone's comments.

• MySpace was the shiz.

• MySpace was also super creepy.

• Reality Shows didn't always exist.

• Dawson's Creek and Laguna Beach were our Downton Abby and Jersey Shore.

• All your nails were the same colored nail polish.

• Pluto was a planet

ha, did I forget anything guys??

Life Lately

I am so past due for a little round-up post! <3

• HAPPY that we surprised the bride-to-be for her bridal shower! (Congrats courtney!) (She's the cutie in the middle, and I'm rockin' yellow) (shocker)

• WISHING that I can tell you why I've been so MIA lately, promise I'll tell ya soon ;)

• STOKED to finally try this self tanner out so home girl can stop walking around like a giant glow stick.

• PREPPING for Altitude Summit that is happening next week. If you're unfamiliar with Alt its a conference for entrepreneurs and designers to geek out over things like typography and color and other awesome shiz.

• MAKING new loot for Yellow Heart Art. More stamps and *new* square pillow covers will make a debut by mid-summer. I know I know I've been talking about square pillows since the winter, It's comin' guys.

• OVERWHELMED by a lot lately.

• WANTING to cut my side bangs shorter, but New York humidity has other plans for my hair (spoiler alert: it involves afro puff frizz hair)

• GEEKING over Renegade Craft Fair that is happening next week too! Unfortunately I couldn't apply to be a vendor this year, but next year? Oh next year it.is.ON.

• ROCKIN' my new aviators like a boss. (or a motorcycle cop, whichever)

• HACKING away at my eyebrows. Seriously guys, why didn't anyone tell me that I could've been Jim Dad's understudy in American Pie?

Happy Tuesday Loves!

Hello Lovely, I Like Your Stripes

Stripes, to me, seem really timeless and elegant. Plus I also get wicked sea-sickness so when I rock stripes I feel as though I can still enjoy the "boating" experience by looking like I'm about to go on yacht versus actually going on a yacht. (the logic is there...)

Here are some of my favorite finds!

(from top) 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5

bonus points? The super cute black and white shoe by modcloth is dubbed "The Soft Serve Heel". Now who doesn't love to try to find 3 dollars in a state of panic as you hear the ice cream truck come down the street as you bust open the screen door, run onto the front lawn, flare your arms in the air and yell "WAAAAAAIT!!!!!"

True Story: That happened this past weekend. I'm not proud of it but who cares I got a glorious half melted vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles.

boom.

What are your timeless go-tos

Things I Learned that School Won't Teach Ya

Ok, as you can see I totally slacked in my blog posts. Confession alert? I have a hard time keeping up with my blog. Doing stuff for my business comes so 2nd nature to me, but when it comes to hit "open new post" on my blog and start to type stuff out I kinda sorta have brain farts.

Sorry, just had a mental image of brains passing gas for a second. It's gone now.

So I know today is the 30th, but last thursday Jenni's prompt in blog everyday in May was "Things you've learned that school won't teach you"

It's funny, I feel like teachers push so hard to teach you that f (x) dx = f(b) - f (a) x 2 and if you're anything like me I feel as though numbers and letters do NOT belong together. It's unnatural. Not only that I feel as though Mrs.Antretter lied to me, I have never ever EVER needed to know how to figure out what X means in an equation.

But I'll tell you what would have been nice to know:

• I wish someone had taught me what to expect when buying a house. Don't throw your bank jargon at me. Do you understand what a Bézier curve is? Oh, you don't? Thats cause its a graphic design term. Work with me bank people and I'll work with you.

• How exactly do you hard boil an egg so you don't get that mysterious dark green ring around the yolk? Huh? Did I need to know "x" to figure that one out Mrs. Antretter? Spoiler Alert: No.

• Boys will break your heart. You will struggle in life. You will think you have it bad when someone out there is wishing for exactly what you have right now - don't ever compare your beginnings to someone else's middle. Things do get better. (again, where is X in this equation Mrs.Antretter? That's what I thought)

• Did you know you can lightly blast your eye lash curler with the hair dryer and they use it on your lashes to make the curl last longer? You're welcome.

• Also? Put a little pen mark on your forehead where your hair parts naturally. Every time I go to the hair dresser I mess this up and end up with side bangs that don't belong in that spot. I currently have a 1" gap of hair that didn't make the cut, going to take a scissor to them in about 5...4...3..2..*chop*

• That 5 year plan that you jotted down on that post it note one day while sitting through the commercial breaks on your favorite reality show? (maybe it was Jersey Shore, maybe it was the Amazing Race, whatever I don't judge) that plan may or may not come true. Don't hold yourself to this strict path that you HAVE to go down in order to make you happy, life has its way of throwing you a curve ball and oddly its usually what you need at that moment in time. Say hi to the chick who was supposed to be married 3 years ago and owning 2 dogs. One named "mac" and the other named "cheese"

Date Night Ideas! (and how to win some?)

I am always trying to find new ways to show the Bubs that I have a crush on him (this crush has lasted 5 years ;) we've must be doing something right!) when you're with someone for so long it can be really easy to get in a rut. We try to go out and do something every weekend, even if its just a quickie trip to home depot to look at a bunch of ceiling fans that neither one of us will agree on to buy.

I discovered Datevitation a few weeks ago, and I am in love. It's a website where you can personalized date coupon books for your significant other. They have over 350 date ideas for you to choose from! 

I made a book for the Bubs and he absolutely loved it. The dates ranged from him picking what movie we would see at the theater to him having "remote custody" for the day (out of the 20 dates in the coupon book THAT one was his favorite) (also? it originally said "you get to control the remote for a week" but honestly I was not about to watch dirty jobs, Dr.Who, how it's made and star trek for an entire week, girl needs her real house wives of "whatever" to unwind to after a long day of work) 

 
With father's day coming up Datevitation has recently added date ideas for parents and kids, so they feel included too! It's a great way to do activities as a family that you might not have thought about doing before.

Datevitation has teamed up with me and you can get $10 off your first Datevitation order in May or June 2013 using code "YELLOW10". You can get your loved one a one-of-a-kind gift for Father’s day starting at just $10! Or you can do what I did and make a birthday or anniversary book for your boyfriend/husband now and save it for when the time comes! The order cut-off date for guaranteed delivery by Father’s Day is June 6 so make sure to get your order in before then :)

Also, Datevitation is giving one Yellow Heart Art reader a free date book! Follow the prompts below to be entered to win! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

also be sure to check out our newest yellow heart art product! but hurry, they're going fast and there is a limited quantity available :)

Be Gutsy - A New Yellow Heart Art Product!

So, for the past 2 years I have gotten so many e-mails asking me if my art came on T-Shirts. I would let them know that unfortunately it does not, and would offer a digital high 5 as a consolation prize.

In that time I was scheming of ways to make T-shirts that would not be an astronomical price to you guys (since I am a one woman show I wouldn't be able to mass produce these things on the cheap in some factory in a foreign land like big brand names do) (nor would I want to)

So after much research and designs and emails to my handmade friends asking them their opinions of which of my designs should grace a T-shirt I think I finally came up with something I am super proud of and would totally wear myself.

be gutsy T by Yellow Heart Art

be gutsy T by Yellow Heart Art

I love how it came out! It's screen printed on American Apparel T's (so you know its amazing quality!) I went with this design because I feel like a lot of us don't take enough risks. I wanted to create a T-shirt that when people wore it they felt as though they were wearing a super hero cape or something and that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to.

This shirt isn't for mountain climbers haha! The mountain is metaphor to tackle your fears and to reach up and go for your dreams. (but hey we love mountain climbers too!)

There are only a limited quantity available and you can snatch one here!

The Top 10

Today's prompt was an easy one, "10 things that make you happy"

1. hearing the "ca-ching" sound on my etsy app every time i make a sale

2. a really really good laugh (the kind where you can't breathe, your cheeks hurt and you let out a high pitch shrill that only dogs can hear)

3. a fabulous "outfit day" where everything is just working together and it's all like "dayum girl you fiiine".

4. the way my nephew says "I lav yew ant naw naw" (Naw Naw: See Also Leonora)

5. decorating a house

6. when I get together with old college friends and for a solid hour every sentence starts with "oh my god remember when…"

7. when a customer takes the time email me to let me know how much they love their new piece of Yellow Heart Art.

8. Bub tackles (NOT in THAT way. He has a tendency to tackle me onto the bed, the floor, the couch, a pile of snow, really any surface…then squishes on top of me and giggles)

9. when you finally find that perfect cuddle position with your boyfriend, ya know where your neck isn't at a 90* angle, he can see the TV, your hair isn't going up his nose, his hand isn't pressed into a rib and your arm isn't in an awkward spot. These moments are rare, and when they do happy you hold in your pee for as long as you can cause you are NEVER going to be able to recreate that position again ever.

10. brainstorming sessions with some of my favorite ladies, like this sassy gal, this cute lady, this inspiring chick and this awesome broad.

what makes you all happy?

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• oh hey, google friend connect is biting the dust, keep up to date with blog lovin' instead!

• last day to nab mine and erika's genuine leather clutch at the discounted pre-order sale price! after tomorrow these bad boys go to full retail.

• last day to nab some free invites!