And the winner is...

First of all, thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway. I'm so happy to be able to celebrate with all of you and to be able to share my hard work! It's great to hear such positive feedback around something I am so excited about. Thank you thank you!

So without further ado...

Which means the winner is...

Congratulations! Please send an email to dropandanchorstudio (at) gmail (dot) com with your choice of hand muff and your mailing information.

Again, thank you to everyone who entered. Keep an eye out on the blog and you will be the first to know when the muffs are available in my Etsy shop!

And keep reading the blog because you like it, obviously ;)

my night in photos

Yes, I could have already seen Mates of State weeks ago here in DC. But. They just happened to be playing on a Wednesday night and the mister has class on Wednesday nights. When I first realized this, I was kind of devastated. I don't even know how many times I have seen Mates of State at this point, but suffice it to say it will never be enough. But it was not to be. 

Until.

I heard that they would also be playing Baltimore. Just a little while later. On my birthday.

So, yeah, I could wait.

 

I think it was pretty much meant to be. The Ottobar is a cute little venue, with an odd little balcony that puts you just at top left of the band. You could probably reach through the beams and touch Kori's head (if that weren't a totally creepy thing to do). And for some reason I thought I had read an article that indicated they would be playing almost exclusively new material at the shows, but was so absolutely thrilled to find out that was not the case! Not that I don't love the new stuff, but they played so many of my favorites that I was totally not expecting to hear. I kept thinking well I'm sure they're not going to play this one. And then they did. 

Fluke

 At Least I Have You

For the Actor

Goods

True Love Will Find You in the End

And then some. I was also surprised at how many songs they played from Re-Arrange Us, given that it was largely disliked by critics. I liked it, but I'm a little bit biased. And I'm still waiting to see Mags on stage. That's what people are really there for, right? No? Just me? Ok.

Oh and whatever you do, don't forget to enter my giveaway! There's still time!

Click here

it's a celebration!

It's my birthday!

It's my 500th post on this blog!

And I've got something great to give away! 

Let's celebrate!

 

I can't even remember how I got this idea in my head that I wanted to knit hand muffs. It's almost like it grew there silently and suddenly sprouted into this giant idea that I could no longer hold in. No one wears hand muffs anymore, but why? You think if your hands are cold, the best solution is to wear gloves. But gloves can be bulky and hard to do anything while wearing them. I can barely open a door wearing gloves. Operating a touch screen cell phone wearing gloves? Forget about it.

 

 

So imagine this: You're walking down the street in the cold and the wind, your hands cozy and warm inside this lovely hand muff. Your phone rings. You slip your hand out of the muff, find your phone, answer it, and when you're done you slip your hand back into the muff, still warm and cozy. If you were wearing gloves you would have been fumbling around trying to pull the fingers off, and you've probably dropped the glove you just took off while you were trying to find your phone. Not so with your trusty hand muff. It's hanging around your neck just waiting for you to use it.

Now that's practical.

A modern take on an old fashioned idea. That's something I can get behind.

 

 

 

The Giveaway: 

The winner gets to choose either the blue or yellow hand muff. Both are designs that I have been developing for sale in my Etsy shop. I hoped to get to the point where I could do a product launch in the shop and do the giveaway at the same time, but I'm not quite there yet. And I just didn't want to give up on the giveaway. So. There you have it. One hand muff of your choice. A Drop & Anchor exclusive!

How To Enter:

Leave a comment here telling me which one you would choose if you win. Bonus entries if you re-blog or re-tweet this giveaway with a link to my blog, just comment again with a link to the post or tweet. Or pin one of my photos on Pinterest with a link to this post. Again, leave me a comment on this post letting me know that you pinned my photo.
Winner will be chosen at random using the Random Number Generator. You have until Friday October 14 to enter!

Good Luck!

warm and fuzzies

It may have been nearly 80 degrees today, but I'm having a hard time not thinking about cold weather, cozy scarves, cuddly blankets, warm jackets, Christmas music (did I just say that?), chai lattes, baking and decorating cookies... Did I mention I traditionally strongly dislike cold weather? I'm a summer girl. Or at least I was for the first, well, lots of years of my life. But then something happened.

I have a growing collection of jackets, but I think I need to add another one. This one is just so cute and classic and I can wear it with everything! I can pretend I would retire my army jacket that the mister hates but who am I kidding, there's no way. I love that jacket. But... I promise to love this one too?

P.S. here's a sneak peak at the upcoming She & Him Christmas album. LOVE.

sharing the love

Because I like you.

There are lots of designer discount sites out there. I know because I belong to a lot of them. Rue La La is pretty much all clothing. Gilt has a little bit more diversity, but it's mostly the kids clothes that get me excited (no I do not have kids, nor do I have immediate plans to have kids. But boy am I in trouble when I do. I want to buy little people things all. day. long.) But I'm pretty sure Fab is the most interesting and diverse and appealing of the bunch.

There are cute toys

Stationery and notebooks

Fun pillows

Bikes

Crazy backpacks & messenger bags

And design books

And did I mention... that's just today's sales. It's pretty amazing. But you decide for yourself.

It's free, and you get a $10 credit when you join, so you may as well check it out here.

feeling inspired

Been doing a lot of this lately.

And really excited to give you more than just little instagram shots very very soon. I'm loving this feeling, knitting project after project, coming up with different features and variations, finding the perfect little details, but mostly just having this feeling that I am on to something. I think I have a good idea. I think it's coming out well (and I'm working on sewing better. I'm a little rusty.) And I really want to share it with you!

books

My goodreads newsletter hit it out of the park yet again. I mean, they didn't have to try very hard. They just recommended a bunch of books by authors I have read previously. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. Here's three new books out this month that I might be willing to put down my knitting to read. 

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. The man is an amazing writer, and he has a knack for character development that makes you care about every single character in a story regardless of how many characters there are. They are real and honest and believable. I'm excited to see his modern take on the classic love story. 

 The Damned by Chuck Palahniuk. I find it mildly amusing that they are still advertising "Author of Fight Club" on all of his books regardless of how many successful books he has published. They may as well put a picture of Brad Pitt on the cover. But oh well. Also, truth be told, I haven't read a Palahniuk book in YEARS because I kind of got tired of the hype and also there were a couple of books that didn't quite do it for me. But this one sounds interesting. Here's to hoping.

And a new coffee table book for good measure.Artfully styled photos of pets' chew toys along with a collection of short stories about the same. I find it hysterical that someone came up with this idea, and I really need this in my life.

Thanks, goodreads!

where did the time go?

Ok, first of all, how the heck is it October already? Unbelievable. 

Instead of inching closer and closer to the end of the year, this year when I made myself so many promises I have yet to keep, it is coming by leaps and bounds and I find myself staring into its face and thinking "well, what are you going to do about it?" 

What I'm talking about, in case you were not aware, is that I set a goal of having my Etsy shop up and running this year. Finally. And with more in it than a few vintage items. I made this goal, mind you, at the beginning of the year. And now it's October. My one huge roadblock right now is photographing my knits. I have tried taking photos in the house but the lighting is terrible so the colors are off and the detail is not great to say the least. I need to get outside and take photos, but the weather has been dreary, rainy, and unpleasant. And in the rare event that a sunny day coincides with my day off, it always happens to be a weekday and I'm home by myself, and if you have ever tried to take a picture of a scarf on yourself (or worse, hand muffs) you will know why this doesn't really work out. I need a model, or a bust form, or a photographer, or all of the above. 

On a positive note, I tested out my first hand muff design yesterday and got lots of compliments on it, so I am really excited to launch them! Soon, I keep telling myself. Soon.

In the meantime, to help with the denial that it is indeed October, a pretty desktop wallpaper for you from poppytalk: (follow the link for the full size image)

 

Oh, and if you haven't checked out my limited offerings on Etsy yet, check it out here!

photodump!

Halloween decorations. Mini-pumpkins, big ones yet to come. Movie night with the hubs. Home-made cream cheese stuffed french toast. Food is always better (at least visually speaking) on checkered paper. My first cuckoo clock (yes, I said first with intent to buy more). My beautiful Rifle Paper Co recipe box! (Thanks so much siblings for the wonderful wedding gift!) Kitty having a lazy day off with me. The inexplicable Beatlerama.

It's that time again

I'm fairly certain I talked about this last year, but it's that time again. Frankie magazine has come out with their 2012 diary (planner), and it is incredibly lovely. I have never been one to use a planner (in fact, I had a professor in college challenge me in the beginning of the year, saying something to the effect of "we'll see how well you do in this class without using a planner" and I got an A) but it's fun to dream about all the things I could plan for and accomplish if I did, in fact, use a planner. A pretty pretty planner.

It can be found here, if you are interested.

So, this weekend did not turn out quite as planned, but we had very important things to attend to. I did get some fall decorations out, we have officially made the switch to fall/winter home fragrances, and we did some cleaning. So there's that.

How was your weekend?