Last week I got a lovely little surprise in the mail from a sweet reader & blog friend. I couldn't have been more surprised or giddy about it! She took the two IS•LY stickers I sent her & applied them to a white patent wallet. It's such a genius idea & totally brightened my day. How did she know my previous wallet was getting ratty?! Many, many thanks, Shaela, for your thoughtfulness!! Shaela's sweet, unsolicited gift reminded me of a couple of other things. 1) When I was in my first trimester with wacked out eating habits, I walked out of DI to the smell of homemade bread. The exact smell that wafted all through my childhood (my mom makes THE BEST bread ever, btw). I had to have some fresh baked bread right then & there. I hopped on my phone & searched for the nearest bakery: Vosen's. It's a German bakery in an old house in downtown SLC. The cashier was super friendly & went out of her way to talk to Penelope & make her feel right at home. She kindly slipped a little sugar pretzel in the bag just for Penelope. How sweet! The next time I returned, the same woman remembered me & Penelope and again left Penelope another surprise in the bag. Their bread is divine as is their customer service. Even though that was months ago, I'll never forget how special they made Penelope & me feel. 2) I've needed to take my Bernina in to the shop to get a tune up. The other day I searched the nearest Bernina shop in my area & found a place just around the corner from our house: Nuttall's. I had to get a few notions for my recent pillow projects, so I headed there to ask about repairs & new Berninas. Everyone there was mega friendly & one ladies there spent time playing blocks with Penelope so I could get my shopping done. SO NICE! I chatted with a very knowledgable woman about repairs & new Bernina sewing machines, bought the notions I needed & headed home. A couple of days later, I received the above little card in the mail. The same woman I talked to at Nuttall's had taken the time to hand write me a little thank you for coming in to the shop. She remembered both my name & Penelope's & she genuinely offered to help with anything I'd need with repairs or buying a new machine. Obviously, she's doing her job to keep my business, but a hand written thank you? That's going above & beyond. Her heartfelt thank you truly brightened my day. I'm going there for my sewing needs from now on. There are so many kind & thoughtful people out there. It's inspiring. I'm going to work on paying these kind acts forward.

Altitude Summit last week was fabulous. It's so fun to meet other bloggers (especially the ones you look up to!) and benefit from their advice. If you're totally confused as to what this thing is (or why I'm blogging about it the second year in a row), let me fill you in: It's the best conference out there for design-savvy, awesome bloggers. I say this not because I put myself in that category, but because you can find the best of the best bloggers in the design/lifestyle/diy community. It was such a thrill to meet Danni, catch up with Kathleen, tag along with Kirsten, chit chat with Ryan & Cole and rub elbows with countless other creative superstars. I saw this conference as one of my last big hurrahs before Felix makes his debut. It was so energizing to socialize with like-minded men & women! To sum up what the conference was all about, I think the bullet points from Tina's closing keynote will do more justice to the conference than my words ever could:

• Always credit your sources.
• Respect the reader.
• Keep it light.
• Blog with the right intentions, know what's important.
• Images, images, images!
• Find your place & own it. What makes you different?
• There is such a thing as blogging too much
• Be personal & approachable.
• Know what not to post about.

I like that this bullet list could go beyond the realm of blogging & into every day life. It's so important to be respectful, genuine, positive, personal & unique whether or not blogging is a part of it! I thought it was great to hear all of this at the beginning of the year, when I'm still thinking about resolutions.

image via alt summit flickr page

I had an absolute blast teaching calligraphy at Alt! I had the hopes of getting a few pics of my own of the class, but alas I left my camera battery at home. HUGE BUMMER. Thankfully a few shots were taken by the Altitude Summit Photographer to document my experience. The class went incredibly well, despite my nervousness. See, the night before class I had a horrible nightmare that the class went poorly & everyone was saying awful things about it. I'm self conscious like that. Thankfully that nightmare (and the one about my water breaking during the conference) was never realized.

•  •  •

Thrifty & Chic: Alt Summit Excursion

•  •  •

As part of the Alt Summit festivities, there was a small group of us bloggers that went around Salt Lake for a little thrift shopping excursion. We had such a great time getting to know each other & talking shop. Everyone found great stuff and I'm sure many of the ladies were more than a bit frustrated trying to fit all their goodies in their luggage for the trek home. Again, I went with the intent to find a headboard, a chair, a sideboard and/or dresser. No such luck. I've got to get more aggressive on my hunt for these things. Time is ticking & I need to find at least a few of those items before Felix arrives. While I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, I did seem to find a few things I couldn't justify living without. I scored the above Nine West leather purse for $2! Since finding my brown purse, I've been wanting something black, too. These will both be my everyday purses. The black purse is sort of small, but has plenty of room to hold all of my stuff, plus a few baby/diapering essentials. It's got two compartments so I can separate what's mine from all the kiddie riff raff. I found these pinkish, nudish patent leather heels for $9! It's a tad more than I'm used to spending when it comes to thrifted shoes, but these babies are 1)BCBG -originally around $200! 2) super hot & 3) very comfortable for 4 inch heels. I'm totally digging the nude heel these days, I think it lengthens the legs & looks hot. Unfortunately there are some scuffs (not pictured) that I've not been able to take off with my usual nail polish method. I may take them into a cobbler to see if removing them is even possible.

Penelope is showing off her favorite dance move: the plié.

No thrift shopping experience is complete without a glance through the little kid's section. I found a burbery look-a-like plaid jumper for Penelope for $3. It's SO darling on her! I really couldn't pass this one up. I love it. Have you found any good deals lately? Please Share! Last week's awesome thrift finds: Abby found the most adorable Crew Cuts sweater for $3 & Mary found a real vintage Burberry coat for $4!

I'm sick of all of my pillow covers. At least all of them from the last apartment. We're going for a more cohesive, grown up look in our new place (while still keeping things funky & fun), so I'm focusing on a simpler color palette. For now, my main colors are brown, tan, black & white. I haven't quite figured out what accent color I want in the room to really make the whole place pop, but I'm sure I'll find something that inspires me soon. The pressure is definitely on to get this room (and as many rooms in our house as possible) finalized, since the baby really could come any time in the next 3 weeks. AH! I can't believe how fast these last 9 months have just flown by. The fabulous Proud Mary sent me a yard of their beautiful fish scale fabric months ago & I've been meaning to do something cool & awesome with it. Yesterday it was time to make things happen. I had had this elaborate plan to hand sew tan & white leather scales intermittently on one of the pillows, but as I cut out the scales & arranged (& rearranged!) none of my compositions looked quite right. By the way, scales are the new bow and bows are the new ruffle. Not kidding. So for my first pillow, I let the gold & black scale fabric shine all by itself & for the second one, it was like this pillow & my first scale pillow had a baby. I'm incredibly happy with how the two turned out. With both of the new pillows, I took a different approach to the zipper. I installed the zipper similar to the pillow I made back in December, but I didn't leave the zipper exposed. Instead, I sewed a large flap over the zipper in order to protect the leather on the couch. Chris definitely appreciates my thoughtfulness. We're still in the over-protective phase with our new couch. I just want to give my sponsor Proud Mary a huge shout out for sending this fabric to me! I love it. It's high-quality, hand-printed & supports a great cause.

This post is brought to you by Ruche.

I'm nearing the end of this pregnancy & I can proudly say that I have yet to buy any maternity clothes. I didn't mean to do that at first, but I've been increasingly disappointed with what's out there. Either it's frumpy & inexpensive or sorta cute & expensive. I don't want to spend a lot of money on clothes that I know I'll want to burn after Felix comes. It's been pretty easy to avoid maternity clothes with the current trends of jeggings & belted tunic tops. I've been able to find most of these items at my favorite shops, which is great! I don't want to limit my style just because maternity isn't offered at all of my favorite stores. Ruche is one of those shops that definitely doesn't have a maternity line, but with their wide variety of clothing & accessories it's easy to find something to suit any style/figure. Ruche kindly sent me a tunic dress that I just love. The elastic waist is meant to hit at the true waistline but is easily adjusted over my belly bump. I think it'll also make for a great transitional top for afterward because of its hourglass structure. This tunic dress is SO comfortable! It's lined & well made. I'm also impressed that it's $30 (originally $40, but still!). If you've never heard of Ruche, think of it as the affordable Anthropologie. This is one of the outfits I wore at ALT. Check out the fashion section for all of my Alt outfits. Thanks to Ruche for sending this to me! I LOVE IT! Ruche has generously offered to give one lucky IS•LY reader a $50 gift certificate to their online shop! Best part? You don't have to live in the US to enter. Here's how you can win:

• Visit Ruche & take a look around
• Leave a comment on this post telling me  & tell me what item(s) is(are) your fave
• Comment by 11:59pm (MST) Monday, January 31, 2011
• This contest is open to everyone!
• Only one (1) comment per person
• No purchase necessary
• One (1) winner will be chosen via random.org & announced Tuesday, February 1, 2011

This is what I wore out thrift shopping with the ALT ladies:

• necklace: handmade
• cardigan: Mode Boutique, $15
• top: H&M, $10
• belt: thrifted, $14
• jeggings: Walmart, $12
• shoes: Urban Outfitters, gift

TOTAL: $51

My sister-in-law got hitched two weekends ago. Yahoo! I'm so excited for her & her hubby. They got married down in Manti, UT (read: almost geographical center of Utah, very small town) on Saturday. They couldn't have picked a better day to get married. The snow was still on the ground, the sun was partly sunny and it wasn't terribly cold. I'm sure it was somewhere in the high 30s, low 40s. The weather made for some fabulous photo ops. Lindsay kept her wedding very simple & didn't fuss about a reception or much of anything, really. What a happy way to get married; denying the stress/anxiety of finding a caterer, cake, flowers, invites, etc. She paid the most attention to her dress, which I just LOVE. I also love her shoes. They're real snakeskin. She was brilliant & found her dress at a local vintage store; Decades. That place has the best vintage dresses for special occasions. Lindsay found her dress for $30. The shoes were vintage, too. They were $20. I love that her entire ensemble cost $50 (not including alterations). What a way to go! If I hadn't worn my mother's wedding dress (all of us girls did - my mom, aunt, two sisters & me!), I definitely would've gone this route. Lindsay's dress is so unique, beautiful, simple & brilliant! LOVE it. I went to Decades with a bunch of ladies from ALT this last weekend. I'll be showing you later this week what I found there!

Way back when Chris & I were dating, one of Chris's roommates offered me some of his disgusting-looking green smoothie. I asked what was in it & he simply replied, "Lots of spinach & fruit." I bravely gave it a try & absolutely loved it. Gosh, it's been somewhere around 5 years since then and now that we just bought a new blender and loads of spinach in the house, I've been thinking about making something similar. Last week, I asked if any of you have spinach smoothie recipes & THANK YOU for all of the links, recipes & suggestions! It definitely got me going in the right direction. I didn't follow any particular recipe for the smoothie I made this morning, but I took bits & pieces from all the recipes you suggested. I threw in pineapple, 100% pineapple juice, frozen 100% orange juice concentrate, a generous handful of spinach, frozen bananas and vanilla yogurt. My first job (at 15) was working at Jamba Juice with my older sister. We had such a great time working together and it was there that I learned the secret to smoothie perfection: add liquids, solids THEN frozens in that order; a little bit of orange juice makes every smoothie wonderful and frozen fruit in lieu of ice cream or ice is the best way to thicken up a smoothie. Penelope devoured the smoothie, as did I. It was so delicious. I just loved how Penelope kept chanting, "Mmm, dewishush!" (Mmm, delicious!) with every sip. I'm going to be making it again. I also think I'm going to make every excuse to use my blender, too. It's awesome. Thanks again to everyone who pointed me in the right direction for a delicious spinach smoothie!!

• earrings: hand-me-down
• cardigan: refashioned DownEast Basics, $30
• top: Anthropologie, gift
• bracelets: gift
• leggings: Target, $4
• moccasins: thrifted, $3

TOTAl: $37

• top: Ann Taylor Loft, gift
• belt: thrifted, $1
• bracelets: gift
• jeggings: H&M, $15
• socks: BYU Bookstore, $1
• shoes: thrifted DV by Dulce Vita, $4

TOTAL: $21

• top : refashioned DownEast basics, $3
• necklace: Vintage Oddity, c/o Vintage Oddity
• jeggings: Walmart, $12
• shoes: thrifted 9 West, $5

TOTAL: $17

• top: Ruche, c/o ShopRuche.com
• belt: thrifted, $2
• leggings: Target $4
• shoes: Uptown Cheapskate, $30

TOTAL: $36

For Alt & BlogHer last year, I spent countless hours hand calligraphing the front of my business cards with "<3 Melissa". I really liked how it turned out, adding a little handmade personal touch, but doing 100 at a time really flares up the wrist issues I got in 9th grade. I hate hand cramping. Instead of inflicting more discomfort (who needs more when you've got a giant wiggle worm in your belly?!), I decided to go an easier route. I made stamps. Can you tell I'm a little obsessed? I hand wrote my name & the heart, scanned it in & sent the graphics off. I separated the heart from my name for a couple of reasons; it was cheaper and I'll get more use out of them! Instead of taking 2-3 hours hand writing on the exterior of 100+ biz card envelopes, it took about 15 minutes to stamp it all out. It was so wonderful to get that finished quickly AND without any hand pain. Ohh geez, I'm feeling old. I love how they turned out. I was pretty excited about alternating colors within my blog scheme, so I sorta went to town. I love the girly rainbow of color, they match the colorful stickers I put inside. Funny story: when I went to pick up my stamps, the guy helping me out was having a SUPER hard time finding my order. I had no idea what other names to give him, other than my email address & my first & last name. I said it's for an order of two small stamps. One's a heart & one has my name on it!! After about 5 minutes of searching he exclaimed, "Oh, it's the gigantic order! Why didn't you say so?" Imagine a huge question mark above my head at that point. What? I had two small stamps made. I had no idea that was a big order. He pulled the stamps out for my approval & unveiled a 6" heart. WHAT?? I told him the stamp was supposed to be 0.6 inches tall, not 6 inches tall! He retrieved my email of instructions & saw that the technicians had totally skipped over the "." in my instructions. So now I have a 6 inch stamp and a 0.6 inch stamp. It's pretty handy that Valentine's day is coming up soon! I'm sure I'll find a use for it besides decorating my belly bump. What would you do with a 6 inch heart stamp?

• cardigan: Ann Taylor Loft, gift
• top: thrifted & refashioned, $3
• belt: borrowed from a thrifted dress
• jeggings: H&M, $15
• boots: thrifted, $6

TOTAL: $24

I went on the hunt for a cool chair/stool for Chris to practice his guitar on, but no luck. I did however find a heart shaped wire basket to add to my collection & a pair of sweet white leather saddle-style shoes for Penelope for $2. Aren't these adorable? They're in practically unworn condition, too. I think Penelope will look mighty cute with her pomegranate dress, pink tights & these shoes. ALSO, I think when Felix gets big enough, they'd look mighty cute on him with a little seersucker suit. Don't you agree? These shoes are leather with leather soles. I've got to be careful that Penelope doesn't wear them when it's too wet or icy outside. I imagine with her coordination & zeal for being outside she'd slip & fall on her face. Have you found any great deals lately? Share, share! I've got another one: a few weeks ago Chris broke the glass pitcher to our blender, so we decided it was time to replace the thing (Sadly it would've cost more to replace the pitcher than get a new one). We scored! We watched America's test kitchen to see what blenders they recommended & found our new Kitchenaid blender on Amazon for $60 less than list price. PLUS, since we have Amazon prime, we got free 2 day shipping. SCORE! Now that is how you buy a blender. I want every little excuse to use it. Do you have any good smoothie suggestions that call for spinach? Please share. ALSO, I just have to give a shout out to Laura & Abby for sharing their sweet deals with me last week. Laura scored a solid Teak buffet for $35. SERIOUSLY. How amazing is that?!? Abby found a set of playmobil characters + car for 99¢. I love those old school toys!

I'm officially 35 weeks along and I have yet to purchase any maternity clothing. I can't help but feel proud of that fact and I definitely owe it all to the popularity of jeggings & stretchy tunic tops. Back in November I stopped by the DownEast warehouse to say hello to some old coworkers & pick up some cheap basics. I was all out of tanks & tees that were long enough to cover my belly. While there I spotted this top: A whole pile of these shirts have been lurking the warehouse store for well over a year & a half. I kid you not. I gave them a second look only because of their fabric. It's a two directional stretch knit. PERFECT for a baby bump. I snagged the largest size available & headed to the check out. I believe this shirt cost somewhere around $3, so there wasn't much of a risk that this thing wouldn't fit. As soon as I tried it on at home, I threw it in the "to alter" pile in my studio & forgot about it for a month & a half. Today it was high time I alter the sucker; after all, I have less than 5 weeks left before this baby bump turns into a jelly lump. Plus I've been craving a little more variety in my wardrobe recently. Here's what I did:

• tapered the sleeves
• rouched the sleeves
• took in the armpits by 4" on each side
• tapered the bottom sides of the shirt by 4 inches

I think it turned out fabulously. I was not looking forward to altering the knit fabric, but by aggressively pinning the sides down (like a pin every inch & a half), I didn't get any puckering. HALLELUJAH! The fix took me about an hour & a half of trial & error. What do you think? The transformation is quite subtle, but I feel about 20 lbs lighter now that it's altered. Before I felt like I was hosting a circus underneath my top. Do you see how my belly button is about 2 inches off center? Maybe I'm only noticing it, but I think it's hilarious. It did the same thing when I was pregnant with Penelope; it's a drifter. To see the full outfit, check out my fashion section.

• top: refashioned DownEast Basics, $3
• earrings: gift from a friend
• necklace: Vintage Oddity, c/o Vintage Oddity
• jeggings: Target, $4
• boots: thrifted, $8

TOTAL: $15

I really liked passing out stickers last year at ALT & BlogHer so much that I think I need to keep up that little trend (but not make the same mistake of slicing my fingernail in half). Since I was running low on stickers, I went a little die-cut crazy yesterday with my Silhouette machine. I made almost 200 vinyl die-cut stickers! There's something about weeding out the negative space on a vinyl sticker that's so therapeutic. I'm sure if I did it for about 15 minutes a day, I'd be a much more centered person. This time around I still made my "i still love you" stickers, but I added to the mix with some little hearts. I designed the heart by hand-calligraphing the heart, scanning & cleaning it up in Illustrator. I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm having a hard time deciding what I want to plaster with my little hearts & "i still love you" stickers. It may just end up being the car. Would you like one? I'll mail a sticker to the first 10 people that comment on this post.

I finally found my mittens as soon as I stopped looking for them. Typical right? Also, Penelope didn't hide them from me. I hid them from me, putting them in a new place that I thought would be so much easier for me to find. Typical mom-brain. I love it. If you'd like to make your own mittens, click the link below to download the pattern! Enjoy! This tutorial is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!

• scarf: hand-me-down
• jacket: ModBod, c/o Modbod
• top: DownEast Basics, $10
• leggings: Target, $4
• legwarmers: Charlotte Russe, $3
• shoes: Bass Outlet, gift

TOTAL:

My studio is a disaster area. I'm working on a bunch of projects (none of which are ready to share just yet) and prepping for my class at ALT. I was going to post the pattern for the cashmere mittens, but I've not been able to find them since we went sledding on Saturday. I know they're in the house somewhere, but I think perhaps Penelope hid them from me on purpose. I swear I've looked everywhere. I've sort of been going crazy with how messy things are in my studio, I guess I have a few things on my plate. Anyway, this is the state of things as for right now and I'm going to come to terms with it. Eventually. My sister-in-law writes a clever & genius blog, Coming to Grips, where she writes about her perfect & imperfect life. It's hilarious and well written. I need my daily dose; you should get yours, too.

• cardigan: Mode Boutique, $15
• scarf: New York, c/o ShopAtHome.com
• top: H&M, $10
• jeggings: Target, $4
• shoes: Urban Outfitters, gift

TOTAL: $29

Chris & I have been hard at work trying to get the house all organized & decorated in time for the arrival of baby Felix. This weekend we worked on getting curtains & artwork up in the living room. It's been a tiring process and I have to admit, hanging artwork puts me in a sour mood. We also reorganized the room to open up the floor plan a bit. While reorganizing, I've been taking a mental note of the things we could use that would really make the space a) more organized and b) POP! It's come down to these things: I need a sideboard for the kitchen, a new headboard for our bedroom, a sidetable for the livingroom & a full-length mirror for our bedroom. Last night I headed to D.I. to see if I could score any of those things, but no luck. I'll just have to be persistent & troll all the thrift stores & classifieds in the area until I find what I need. On the bright side, I did find some great blue leather shoes (not pictured). They're super comfy; perfect for these last 5 weeks of pregnancy. AND. . . I found - and purchased - my first leather purse. I feel like a grown up now that I own a nice leather purse! This baby cost a whopping $2. It's simple, very functional & so trendy with the long strap & camel color. I'm pretty stoked about my find. For it's size, it holds a surprising amount of stuff. I might be switching to a bigger, bulkier bag once Felix comes around; but for now it's my new everyday purse. Love it! What have you found recently? Please share! Last week Amy (the music player is at the bottom of her site, FYI) shared with me all of her scores. SERIOUSLY, who gets lucky enough to find an Eames-style lounge chair for $30?!? I'm still incredibly jealous. Here's how I accessorized the purse today.

I bought my first real leather purse! Yahoo.

• necklace: Ann Taylor Loft, gift
• top: H&M, $10
• cardigan: DownEast Basics, $15
• purse: thrifted, $2
• leggings: Walmart, $5
• shoes: thrifted, $3

TOTAL: $35

A couple of you have emailed me about the hanging system I used for the Seesaw calendar I hung last Friday. I thought I'd show you how I did it. It's super simple, cheap & easy for hanging those cool prints that you don't have the time/money to frame (just yet). Here's how it goes: SUPPLIES:

• clothespins
• coarse string/jute twine
• drill
• 2 finishing nails
• hammer

Take two clothespins (end-pins) and drill holes in the top of each end using a bit just slightly larger than your nailhead. Test your nail with the holes afterwards if you need to make the hole larger. Measure your string about 6 inches longer than the width of your desired clothesline & tie giant knots at each end. Trim off extra string & sandwich knots inside each of the end-pins. Hammer your two nails into the wall at the appropriate distance, making sure your nails are level with each other. Slide the two end pins onto the nails & adjust the string tension. You want it to be tight and your endpins parallel to the ground. Hang your artwork on the string using the remaining clothespins & enjoy. For your DIY-ing convenience, the tutorial is available for download by clicking the button below. This tutorial is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. If you would like to use this for commercial purposes, please email me. Thank