Etsy Lovin' | Guest Post

Hi there i'm Myrna from My Beat Boutique, a personal style blog. The wonderful Jess asked me to share with you my top fave Etsy shops along with my wish list. One of the many things I love about Etsy are all the unique and one of a kind pieces you can find. Now lets go Etsy shopping.

I really like my accessories to be unique and some what original pieces and that's what  i always find at Beau and Stella :   Here are some things I have currently on my wish list:

My husband was deployed last year and before he left he wanted to give me some sort of keepsake. My little gem got creative and went through Lorelei Rose : to create a wonderful cuff that I wear everyday. What's great about her pieces are how you can personalize your piece. My husband choose a favorite lyric from my favorite band and on the inside of the cuff was his favorite lyric from his favorite band. Side note : we are huge music lovers.

I am always on the hunt  for great pieces for my home especially great art work. I am obsessed with
 Carolina Cottage : from the vintage art blocks to sheet music tea light holders . These coasters are possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen, they would make a great house warming gift.

Fine Pottery and Collectables by Catherine Reece : I came across Fine Pottery and Collectables when I was looking for a wedding gift for a friend. This shop has everything from ceramic bowls, coffee cups, ceramic trays and art work. One thing  I love is COLOR and these pieces are are full of color. These vases are super cute and these bowls would make perfect center pieces.

It was great shopping with you come by and visit me over at My Beat Boutique.

Thanks again Myrna. She has great style (which you will see on her blog) and obviously great taste (as you can see from her picks above).

Etsy' Lovin | Yellow Heart Art

Back again with another Etsy store I love. Yellow Heart Art has great graphics and necklaces too. I also love that all of their images are consistent and unique with the tape they use either in the packaging or to display the product online. Leonora also has a great blog: Yellow Heart Art., and if I had photoshop (which clearly my blog is not that sophiscated) I would buy this How-To e-book.

Here are some things I love from the shop:

All images via the shop. Check them out and maybe you will end up with some new graphics to display in your home.

Etsy Lovin' | Dawn Correspondence

I'm a big fan of Etsy (who isn't?) and love discovering great items on the site. It's a lovely way to support artists, small or large.

One of my recent favorite stores is Dawn Correspondence. She has a variety of great graphics that you can find on note cards, invitations, gift tags, and much more. Here are some of my favorite items. Check them out.

{All Images via Dawn Correspondence}

Etsy Lovin' | Linda Dearie

I'm a big fan of Etsy (who doesn't?) and love discovering great items on the site. It's a lovely way to support artists, small or large.

Today's Etsy store: Linda Dearie is owned by one of my favorite bloggers, Linda, over at Little Tin Soldier.

I always adore when she wears her bib necklaces in outfit posts. Find one of my favorite ones here.

Go check out her store and do yourself a favor and buy one of the bib necklaces.

The Foundrie

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I am obsessed with the store The Foundrie at Chesterfield Mall here in MO. The foundrie is a store supporting local artists and independent designers. It started as a seasonal store, and will be a year-round store as of April 2011. It's essentially a real life collaborative Etsy shop. :)

The last time I was in there I made many purchases but my favorite was a necklace similar to the one below from Just Liv.

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Most of the vendors have their own Etsy store as well and can be found on The Foundrie's website. If you live in the area you should certainly stop in and check out the store, or if you are an artist/crafter you should look into consigning there.

I will be featuring some of my favorite Etsy stores all week.

Friday Five

{1} Keeping It Together. I really loved this post by Keira over at A Pretty Penny. I truly connected to everything she was saying about how she balances her work load and how she keeps it all together. It's okay if we aren't always perfect, and that yes sometimes do eat a cupcake after a workout or spend an entire Sunday on the couch after a long week. At the same time, some days I am super productive and get in great work outs. So on and so forth. It all balances out.

{2} Celebrating Birthdays. My cousin turned 21. Oh the excitement.

{Birthday Girl}

{Her and the BF}

{3} Timeflies. Heard of this band? It is quite easy to develop a crush on Cal (see for yourself). Not only can he sing, but he's crazy good at rapping too. They release videos on Tuesdays and call them "Timeflies Tuesday", they have an album too. Learn more here.
They are coming to a small venue in St. Louis in a couple weeks and me and my roomie are going to see them, can't wait!

(Check them out, you won't regret it)

{4} Baseball. I saw this picture in a restaurant the other day, and CANNOT wait for Opening Day here in St. Louis. :)

{5} National Day of Unplugging. A Day to turn off the computer and cell phone and really take note of everything around you. I plan to partake in this. I'll be at my parent's house so it will be the perfect opportunity to be present, enjoy the outdoors and their adorable sheep (newest addition pictured below), and catch up on reading.

(Meet Minnie)

Guest Post: The Daily Dani

Happy Monday Chick-a-dees. I have my first guest post ever today! Head over to The Daily Dani and see some style questions I answered for Dani. Ta-Da!

Sneak Peek:
What would you consider the 5 essential items to a fashionable wardrobe?

Skinny pants, cardigans, scarves, silk tops, bold accessories.

Thanks again Dani!

Friday Five

{1} Caffeine Crawl. I won two tickets via twitter to attend this event tomorrow. Quite excited.

{loving this graphic}

{2} Schlafly Oyster and Stout Festival. I went to this festival at a local brewery last night and had oysters for the first time ever. The event included: a great beer selection (I had a everything from a pale ale to an oatmeal stout. Read about their beers here.), fresh oysters, live shucking, and even an oyster shucking contest. It opens this weekend, so if you are in the St. Louis area you should check it out.

Fresh oysters from different regions

 

Live shucking

 

Later in the night I took a tour down to the beer cellar where they store the beers and tasted some beers sgtraight out of the tanks.

{3} Beauty Balm. After seeing Jenna's post about it I have been obsessing and think I am going to Sephora on lunch.

 

{4} Cowl Scarf. It finally got chilly enough for me to wear the cowl scarf my mom made me. Love casual Fridays.

{5} Bake. Ashley posted a recipe for Cranberry Oat and Honey Bread the other day. I have all the ingredients in the cupboard, so I plan to bake it this weekend.



Happy Friday. I hope you have exciting (or relaxing) weekends ahead of you.

Last Thing Thursdays

Jenna over at The Life of a Wife started this link up and it looks fun so I am joining in. Here goes nothing...

The Last Thing I:

Bought:

Well besides groceries..These boots from Aldo in black. (Before my Lenten No Shopping rule) They were too small and I had to return. Sad face.

Won:

A pizza from Pi.

Was Confused about:

This Lululemon Vinyasa Scarf. I got it for Christmas, and have watched the YouTube video, but I have still yet to wear it.



Watched:

Phillip Phillips on American Idol last night. He is beyond amazing. I fast forwarded the entire show just to watch him (over and over). Obsessed!

Lusted Over:

Anything Tory Burch really..but lately these sandals. Since I gave up shopping for Lent, I created a Lust List board on Pintrest. We shall see what items I purchase after Lent.

Friday Five

{1} Quotes that intrigued me this week.

•  "What advice do you have to entrepreneurs-to-be? You must be tenacious & you must run your business with integrity." -given by Laura Nelli via Classically Eclectic.
• "The best merchants in the world aren’t trying to predict what’s cool. The best merchants in the world  are dictating what’s cool." Under Armour’s founder and CEO, Kevin Plank.
• "She took the leap and built her wings on the way down." Via Running On Happiness. (I just discovered this blog and I am infatuated).

{2} Eli Young Band. I saw them in concert last night. Love them. I consider them The Fray of country music. :)

(Guinevere)

(When it Rains)

{3} Bangs. I never have bangs because I don't like hair in my face. I have the urge to cut bangs though. I am getting a cut tomorrow, we'll see what I decide to do.

{via}

{via}

{4} Boots. Winter is almost over and I am still here obsessing over boots. Someone tell me to get sandals on the brain. I am obsessing over these funky combat boots I found on Rachel's blog. Thanks to the fact that I gave up shopping for Lent, I won't be able to purchase before Spring is here.

The Boot.

Rachel sporting the boot.

{5} Photography. Obviously my pictures are not high quality on this blog. I really want to get a decent camera and take some amateur photography classes soon.

WINNER of this giveaway celebrating my 50 followers is:

ErinFeb 27, 2012 06:05 AM

Too cute! I wish I'd thought to giveaway something at 50! ;) I'm working on a 100 follower giveaway when I get there!!

Congrats Erin! I'll be contacting you shortly.

Google Doodles

Little known fact about me= I am OBSESSED with Google Doodles..
For those that don't know..Google Doodles are the illustrations you see on the google homepage for the search engine. They only do the doodles (that sounds odd) occasionally to celebrate certain events/birthdays/holidays/etc.

Click here to see a gallery of 2012 doodles. You can choose go to different years too.
One of my favorites was for Thanksgiving in 2011. Click here for the interactive version.

Now here is a video on the employees at Google that are the official "Google Doodlers"

sidenote: What a neat job title! Click here if you know any artistic young students so they can submit their doodle or the chance to be on Google's homepage.

Enjoy!