loud noises.

do not like.

this is panda at 10:30am on july 4th. 

people in our neighborhood are crazy.

sorry for going MIA! we had a lot going on. 

still do, but hopefully I will have more time (and things!) to post soon!

xo,

beth

handmade market

hello!

i've been so busy this week! i had a few custom wallet orders to complete earlier in the week. both turned out super cute.

i had to take wes to the dentist yesterday. he doesn't have a car and it's not easily accessible by public transportation, so i had to sit there for 2 hours!! at least i had a good magazine to read!

 i've been sewing for the handmade market at the empty bottle this weekend! super excited!

next weekend is the urban folk circuit at the grafton pub, so i have more sewing to do next week!

i'm stocking up on pouches, but i'm waiting on a zipper order, so i couldn't get many made. i also sewed some more coin pouches because most of them sold in my etsy shop already! they are so cute. i want to make one for myself, but i have to figure out what fabric to use!

in other news, we put an offer on a house we looked at last weekend! i'm excited to hear if  we will get it! here is a photo from one of the bathrooms:

ok, i'm kidding about that one. but that was one of the bathrooms in a house we looked at. you can see my reflection in the wallpaper! whut?! crazy!

i will keep you posted on the house. if you are in the chicago area, make sure you stop by the handmade market on saturday!

xo,

beth

busy busy bee

I have been a little busy this week! I have a bunch of custom orders and I keep thinking about our vacation in a little over a month! I have so much shopping to do for our trip. this is what I've purchased so far:

swimsuits.

I haven't worn one in YEARS, I will need some cover-ups.

these are from old navy. I bought two of the same style, one in purple and one in the plaid.

this cute little backpack for the beach that wes actually ended up getting me for my birthday:

little marc jacobs bag from zappos

I also bought this super cute dress to wear for the wedding we are going on the trip for.

it took me so long to get this dress. it kept selling out!

rising from the sea dress at modcloth

and these sandals to go with the dress:

rocket dog luscious wedge from delia*s

I still need to get some dresses and cover-ups to wear. I will keep you posted on future purchases. I love shopping, I just wish I had more money to do so!

we are going house hunting tomorrow and moving in the next few weeks. more on that later!

have a great weekend!

xo,

beth

and the winner is...

time to pick a giveaway winner!

and the winner of the mondo zip pouch is...

the BL just means that 'lilcoop' was the handle for a blog comment.

so lilcoop please email me at besu.shoppe@gmail.com

with your shipping info so I can send you your prize! yay!

congratulations!

birthday birthday!

i had a great birthday yesterday. i still don't feel 30.

it's so weird to say!

we started the day with lunch at chicago diner. my favorite.

i had a lucky leprechaun shake. it was chocolate soy ice cream, mint syrup, vegan marshmallows, chocolate chips and chocolate drizzle. yum! we also had teese sticks for an appetizer!

i had the dagwood sandwich with sweet potato fries. this is my favorite sandwich, but they changed the bread and now it's impossible to eat. it used to come on two buns, but now they just pile the contents of what would be two sandwiches onto one bun. sadness.

my parents sent me a funny card.

wes had to work all day. boo. so i got a piece of cake to go for later.

i made panda sing happy birthday and i wore a birthday button.

it was a nice, relaxing day. we will go to my parents' house on saturday to celebrate some more!

xo,

beth

a craft show and a sale!

I had a blast at the urban folk circuit on saturday. they had some really great bands playing and a good size crowd came through! I can't wait for next month's circuit at the grafton!

view from behind my table

so guess what tomorrow is? MY BIRTHDAY! *dances*

to celebrate, I'm having a sale in my etsy shop all week! 15% off all orders with coupon code 'THEBIG30'. oh dear. I can't believe I'm that old!

tomorrow I will have a super special one hour sale from 6:54-7:54 pm CST. (I was born at 6:54pm) make sure you are a facebook fan or twitter follower to get the details!

don't forget to enter my birthday giveaway here. I will pick the winner on sunday! you have 3 chances to enter to win a zip pouch!

I can't wait for my vegan shake tomorrow!

xo,

beth

crafty crafty

I'm busy crafting away for the urban folk circuit saturday at the abbey pub!

here are some new zip pouches.

and a new item I just started making today!

little coin purses!

these come together pretty quickly, so hopefully I have a nice bunch for saturday. 

the rest will be in my shop soon!

here are the show details if you are in chicago this weekend!

I hope you can come!

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. day 15.

I'm behind!

on my shopping list.

whole foods:

nooch

we actually JUST went to costco on thursday and trader joe's on friday, so I don't have much of a list. I made some goddess garlic dressing from 'appetite for reduction' yesterday and noticed I was low on the nooch aka nutritional yeast.

I would also like to say happy birthday to our little panda. she is one year old today!

here she is playing with her new kong. I stuffed a dried banana chip in there.

xo,

beth

birthday giveaway!

I will be celebrating an important birthday one week from today. I will be 30! holy cow! I can't believe I am that old already! time flies! so to celebrate with you, I will be having a giveaway. it will begin tonight and end on sunday, march 27th, 7:00pm CST. the prize will be....

the mondo zip pouch!

(zipper color may vary as I will be making one just for the giveaway!)

to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post! you can get another entry by tweeting about the contest. make sure you @hellobesu or I won't see it! you can also enter by commenting on the besu facebook page telling me what is your favorite item in the shop!

I will be having a birthday sale all next week with a super special 24 hour sale on my birthday! so stay tuned for details!

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. catch up day!

I had a crazy busy weekend, so I am playing catch up on my daily projects! here are my lists for the weekend!

day 12. weekly rituals.

monday - 

tuesday - post office

wednesday - errands

thursday - post office

friday - 

saturday - watch parks & recreation, portlandia and pit boss

sunday - order dinner, watch bob's burgers, californication, mad men, true blood, the walking dead

I don't have many rituals these days. mostly the post office on tuesdays and thursdays. the closest post office doesn't have parking, so it's the biggest pain in the butt to go to. so I made it so I only have to go twice a week!

wednesdays are sometimes errand day, but really any day can be errand day.

we usually stay up a little later watching tv on fridays after wes gets home from work. saturdays we watch the shows we missed during the week.

on sunday we sometimes will order dinner to be delivered and we watch some tv shows depending on what season we are in. as you can see by the list...

list 13. diys i want to try.

oops. I forgot to put a fancy filter on this photo!

- redoing thrifted furniture

- slip covers

- curtains/pillows

- headboard

I seriously tried everything before I decided to stick with sewing. knitting, crochet, jewelry making, resin, so I don't have much to list. I am mostly interested in sewing things for my home. I wanted to make kitchen curtains for my last apartment, but never got around to it, same with pillows! maybe I will get my butt in gear for our new house.

list 14. things I love about: being vegan.

- helping animals and environment

- healthier

- maintain healthy weight

- I love fruit!

- eating!

- learning to cook

- trying new foods

- buying cookbooks

ok, so I like to eat! I love buying new cookbooks and drooling over recipes and eventually making them! I also love when I make something and my non-vegan family members love it! that's so exciting!

that is all for now. I'll have another post later about a giveaway!

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. day 11.

date night ideas

- boiler room

- chicago diner

- flat top

- target

- movies

- tv

- rock band

- karyn's on green

- drew's eatery delivery

- concert

- millennium park

ok. we are dorks and we don't go out much. neither one of us really drink, so we were never the 'let's go hang out at a bar' kind of couple. we are homebodies and we like to hang out with our pup. we both like to eat, but there are only a few places we can go because I am vegan. Wes is not even vegetarian. (*shock*) but he is a really good sport about going to my favorite veggie restaurants.

the boiler room is a new pizza place we discovered recently and it's only one train stop away! they have regular pizza and vegan pizza with vegan cheese and vegan meats! it's vegan heaven!

the chicago diner is my favorite place to go. they have vegan shakes! we will go there for my birthday, so I will write about that later.

karyn's on green is a vegan restaurant we haven't tried yet. it's kinda fancy!

drew's eatery is vegan friendly and they deliver! and they have shakes! can you tell I like ice cream?

we haven't been to a concert in forever! we need to go soon! millennium park has free outdoor concerts in the summer. too bad we can't bring panda!

I don't think we will be doing any of these ideas this weekend besides the tv watching part. tomorrow we are going house hunting! yay! I will be sure to take photos of any crazy things we come across. I'm not sure anything will ever top what we found in one house:

the whole bathroom was carpeted and then you had to walk up steps to walk into the tub. and there was no shower. so weird.

sunday we are going to a wedding shower for wes' brother and fiance. there will be lots of driving because his family lives almost 2 hours away! fun times will be had! panda gets to come. I'm sure she's excited.

xo,

beth

friday finds

here is a recap of some etsy shops I discovered this week.

I am definitely not a camper, but who doesn't love cocoa?

campfire cocoa cross stitch by campfirechic

I love my mixer, so of course I would love this.

kitchen illustration postcards by amyawalters

I love old picture frames, especially when they are repainted in fun colors.

bright sunny yellow frame by mandolingoose

pretty pictures.

heart. by photobyjodi

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. day 10

wish list

- good health

- job (looking for 2 years now)

- house

- money

- more sales in my etsy shop

- vegan shake from chicago diner

I guess a lot of these are related.

right now, I just really want a shake though.

xo,

beth

what i made

i made some card wallets and a custom mini wallet today.

i need to start stocking up for my next craft show. it's coming up!

did you make anything today?

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. day 9.

favorite websites/blogs

i thought the top sites on safari would be appropriate to see what sites i go to most often.

1. flickr

2. etsy

3. facebook

4. twitter (although i use tweetdeck)

5. my flickr page

6. craigslist (job hunting)

7. teefury

8. 30 days of lists blog!

9. craftcult

10. blythe kingdom

11. blogger

12. my blog

what are your favorite sites?

xo,

beth

pictures.

just wanted to share some photos from today.

this is lonnie, one of my blythe dolls. she was the model for my 'a doll a day' photo project today. i wouldn't be able to do this project without my iphone and the instagram app!

this is me.

i need a haircut. definitely before i renew my drivers' license in the next two weeks.

also, i haven't dyed my hair since august! i had been dying it for almost 12 years. my mom started going gray when she was 20, so every year i check my head. no grays yet! so i thought i would enjoy my natural hair color for a while.

my favorite puppers, panda.

her favorite game is to steal something that isn't hers and make you chase her!

she stole my pj pants from the bedroom!

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. day 8.

in my bag

I just did a blog post like this, so I'll keep it short.

1. canvas crossbody bag

2. checkbook wallet in donuts and coffee!

3. iphone 4

4. keys

5. epically epic lip balm

6. shikai hand lotion

7. zip pouch

8. envirosax reusable bags

9. tissue

10. business cards

11. gym membership card

12. trader joe's receipt and costco coupons

what's in your bag?

xo,

beth

weekend recap. 30 days of lists.

so I was a slacker yesterday! isn't that what the weekend is for? I think I only accomplished a few of my weekend goals. I cleaned for the condo showing (I didn't have a choice!) and I took one blythe photo. I need to catch up tonight! we went to my brother's house on saturday night. it was nice to hang out with my family and see my nieces. scarlett, the one year old, can now say hi and doggie! so cute! and of course my 9 year old niece, ashley (her cousin) was trying to teach her to say butt while we were eating dinner. how appropriate!

yesterday we had the condo showing and had to get out of the house for a little while. we went to petsmart because we couldn't leave panda at home and then stopped at chipotle to pick up lunch. veggie burrito bol yum! I love the chipotle ordering app. it's so awesome!

panda's new favorite toys are these ropes she pulled out of a rubbery stick toy, so we bought her a fabric rope ball at petsmart. she really likes it! yay! we also bought her another treat toy because she has figured out the kong too quick. the new treat toy is trash already! if anyone has any toy recommendations for heavy chewers, I would love to hear them!

after our outing, we were pretty much lazy the rest of the day. we watched bob's burgers, californication and the movie youth in revolt. I love bob's burgers! so funny!

on to the lists!!!

day 6

least favorite words

ambiguous

cancer

the 'other' c word

bachelorette party

bridezilla!

for some reason, when I was in college my art professors were obsessed with the word 'ambiguous' and it drove me nuts. so I still hate it.

cancer. obviously not the sound, but what it actually is.

the other c word. it's very hurtful if someone has ever called you that. it stings.

bachelorette party. ok again, not the actual word, but what it is. ok. i hate bachelorette parties. I think they are dumb. no one throw me one. (not that I'm having any bridesmaids in my wedding.)

bridezilla. every time i see that word, I say it in my head like the show. it's annoying.

day 7

blog goals

to actually keep blogging!

get more followers!

make friends!

so I started this blog almost two years ago and have blogged very sporadically. (does that word remind anyone else of the movie 'clueless'?) my goal is to keep blogging! plain and simple!

ok, get more followers. this isn't 2003 and i'm not trying to see how many myspace friends I can get. basically what I mean is, I want to blog and I want to be interesting and I want people to want to read what I have to say. so I guess if I have more followers, that means I'm getting better at blogging!

make friends. I have twitter friends, blythe friends, flickr friends, etc. I love internet buddies and I just think blogging is another way to meet new people and share ideas. I love it!

so now that I've shared some more lists, what are your least favorite words? blog goals?

I wanna know!

xo, 

beth

30 days of lists. day 5

weekend goals

surprisingly, I don't have much to list.

clean house for showing

sew

take blythe photos

watch weeknight shows: parks & rec, portlandia

bake cookies

I just found out someone wants to look at our condo (it's for sale) tomorrow, so I have a ton of cleaning to do. mainly my sewing room/office. it's a disaster as usual. I guess I should have cleaned it yesterday. it was on my 30 days of cleaning list after all!

sewing is on my agenda every day of the week, just depends on if i get to it or not. this weekend, probably not.

i always slack on my a doll a day photos on the weekend. you'd think i would get more creative on the weekend.

wes doesn't get home from work until 10:30pm during the week, so he misses all of his shows. we usually watch them on saturday nights.

i really want to try to make those 'oreo' stuffed chocolate chip cookies. veganized.

what are your weekend goals?

xo,

beth

30 days of lists. day 4

today's playlist

I listen to my ipod on shuffle from the time my fiance leaves for work at 1pm until about 9:30pm.

these are my favorite songs that played today.

the first song I actually listened to on npr radio because it's not released yet!

wild flag - glass tambourine

sleigh bells - tell 'em

school of seven bells - if i had glass hands and glass feet

maps - glory verse

sleater-kinney - the size of our love

rogue wave - sleepwalker

bloc party - trojan horse

tegan & sara - nineteen

cut copy - far away

calvin harris - i'm not alone (dance party!)

telefon tel aviv - your every idol

what did you listen to today?

xo,

beth

30 days of lists

I happened upon this fun little project while perusing after nine to five. I am a list junkie, so I thought this would be neat to do. and it would give me an excuse to blog more! I'll be posting my lists every day, but today you get three! lucky you!

day 1

vegan

doggie mama

fiance

baker

crafty

hypochondriac

worrier

stubborn

collector

twitter junkie

animal lover

tree hugger

music lover

lefty

procrastinator

seeker

day 2

baking cookies

procrastinating

surfing the web

tweeting

accumulating stuff

following directions

sense of direction

making lists

snuggling

sleeping

being messy

punctual

sewing ?

photography (sometimes)

day 3

vacation to cayman islands in may

my bday in a few weeks even though I'm turning 30! eek!

buying a house

having a veggie garden

our wedding

having a baby

getting another doggie

building my business

warm weather!!

hanging out with my family this weekend

dinner tonight

making a binder for my lists!

if you want to join, click here!

xo,

beth

wishful wednesday!

here are some new etsy faves. wish I could buy them all! enjoy!

poppy mug by dahlhaus

hemp pocket tunic by consciousclothing

woody knoll yarn wreath by knockknocking

hedgehog toys by imaginationkids

xo,

beth