shop my closet update, new flapper doodle item and new blog designs!

First of all, I finally updated my shop my closet store today! I have lots of dresses, as well as some accessories and coats. And if you're in the market for blog design or a sponsor spot you can snag those in my shop as well :)

I also added new wooden brooches to my etsy shop! I'm having one of those little "in love with my new product" moments. Would it be weird if I wore one myself? Because I really want to! They're $8 in my shop here!

I also updated my blog design store. It's much easier to navigate now and I have a whole page dedicated to examples of mine & Casey's work. You can check it out here! And I've done a bit of new design work recently so I thought I'd share some of it in this post!

Header design for The Cupcake Earthquake

Header design for HopPipOLLa

Blog overhaul design for Her Name Was Greta

Etsy banner design for Beatnik Gal Vintage (Keep an eye peeled for her shop opening! She posted some sneak peaks of the inventory on tumblr and I'm so smitten!)

Blog overhaul design for Just Add Glitter and Stir. I was so excited about this one that I sort of did the whole entire thing the same night that I got Maggi's order. I mean, a request for a bright kitschy glittery blog?! So so so so fun!!! :D My favorite part is the embroidered header text (you can see it better when you view it full-size on her blog!)

And finally, my little brother's blog! He hasn't written his first post yet, but it's going to be about food, trains, craftsmanship (like woodworking) and his personal style. When he gets the ball rolling we're going to start doing some brother/sister style posts! I'm so excited about it!! :)

exciting news!!

(image via LolasRoom on etsy)

It's official -- I'm moving to Toronto! ahh! I just found out yesterday that I was accepted to the University of Toronto to study art history in the fall. We're planning on making a trip to scout out apartments in late July, and then I'll make the move in early August! It's happening!!!

I am going to miss my family SO much though. I was so excited when I saw the acceptance message, and hurried down stairs to tell my parents, my brother and my grandmother. As soon as I said it, my brother gave me a hug and while I was hugging him I saw my mom crying, so I started crying and before I knew it, me and my mom were both having a sob-fest. My dad just sat in the kitchen with this look on his face like "I'm so happy for you but I'm going to miss you so much." He's really stoic and I know he was just as upset as my mom but couldn't show it.

As you can probably tell from what I've written in the past, I'm really, really close to my parents so this is going to be hard as heck. I'm teaching them skype so we can chat face to face, and my mom is changing our verizon plan to cover all of North America, so I can talk to them on my phone all the time too. My grandmom is going to stay with me for a month to help me get settled in (she gets my grandfather's pension, and social security so she can manage to leave work for a little while) and then my mom is taking all of her vacation days in November to spend my birthday month with me. Also, my parents are letting me take BOTH of the cats -- Hypatia and Chloe! Hypatia is technically my cat, so she'd naturally go wherever I go, but Chloe is actually the family cat, so it's really nice of them to let me have her, too!

My dad is applying to U of T next year for his Masters degree, and my mom might apply to finish her Bachelor's degree, so hopefully I'll only be this far away from them for a year. They wanted to stay here until Kyle turns 18. He doesn't want to move to Canada, so this way once he's 18 he can live wherever he wants to, and they can follow me up north. People have always kind of made fun of me for being so close to my parents, saying I should grow up and move on... but I think you can do both. I'm going to have my own apartment now, but I still want to be able to see them all the time. It doesn't matter that we're related -- they are my closest friends, and I don't think you should have to part ways with your friends just because you get older. Hopefully next year we'll all be together in Toronto, and this experience will have lost the "bitter" and only be "sweet" :)

So... I'll definitely be sharing more with you as I get more information. Oh, and in case you're wondering, Flapper Doodle will not be affected at all. I'll probably need to close the shop the week I move, but I will be running it out of my apartment in Toronto once I get there. Same goes for this blog... there might be some filler posts in July & August (and I would love some guest posts, too!) but I'm planning on continuing to blog daily even after I move :) As long as I have my laptop I'm set ;)

Oh, Canada!

That's me during our trip to Canada in 2005, in a Toronto H&M pretending I was Stacy from What Not to Wear... I don't know why, but I never seem to take real vacation photos that prove where I was, they always look like I could have taken them in New Jersey :-p

Anyway, I do have a reason for posting a photo from Toronto... we have news on the moving front! As much as I had my heart set on moving to Cardiff, it's looking to be just too complicated. The super difficult visa process, the fact that our cats would have to be microchipped & wait 6 months before being able to go, as well as the idea of getting rid of all of our furniture & most of our belongings, were just too overwhelming. So, we've re-focused our house hunt to Toronto. We've been there and we LOVE it! It also doesn't hurt that the exchange rate is MUCH better than the pound/dollar.

I still plan on moving to Europe when I'm a bit older, preferably when I'm married or committed to a guy who would be willing to make the move with me. I'm terribly dependent, and don't think I could live without someone around to kill my bugs, zip my zippers and watch scary movies with me! ;-D

So, that's my little bit of news! Since it's a lot closer (and easier) than moving to Cardiff, we'll hopefully be moving sooner than we planned, provided our house sells in this so-so market. I'm really looking forward to making Toronto my home!

ps. TOTALLY off subject, but this was bothering me so much I made a gif about it .. anyone else have this pet peeve or is it just me?