Kelly Purkey

Snapshots of My Weekend: 6.20.10

I wanted this blog to be 95% scrap related and 5% personal related.  What happened?!  Pretty much I stopped making stuff.  The only thing I've scrapped in the last seven weeks was the April album and Scrapfest classes for American Crafts.  Ay yi yi.  I need motivation to get scrapping again.  Hoping it finds me soon.

So instead what you get is a whole lotta photos on the ole bloggo.  Here come the weekend snapshots...






Friday I got to have breakfast with Chloe and it was definitely a roll out + wear bed head/a wrinkled t-shirt/sunglasses/red lipstick kind of morning for me.  Blahness.  But that night I actually brushed my hair, put on some eyeliner and headed to the LIC for D's birthday party.  I love this photo for the complete unprepared randomness on our faces... "hmmm what is that black box thing with lights and a flash that Missy is pointing at us?!"  On Saturday I met up with Wonderful Jennifer and her daughter Kay to gobble down Shake Shack (which we didn't get to do last time Jen was in town and heaven knows a trip to visit me in NYC that doesn't include the Shack doesn't actually count) (kind of like that whole tree falling in a forest thing, you know) in Mad Square Park.  Then thanks to Jennifer, we all went to see "Wicked."  I've seen it years ago in Chicago and it was incredible!  I fully admit to tearing up at the end of "Defying Gravity" (if I don't get chills from the music + singing at a Broadway show it doesn't actually count either, I think.)  This afternoon was spent on my friend Missy's 1st Ever Candy Tour, where 10 of us followed her to some really awesome candy shops around the city.  It was kind of brilliant. This evening I met up with Jennifer and Kay after they saw "Promises Promises" and we got up close + personal to Sean Hayes.  I've seen a lot of celebs around New York and he was by far the most gracious to his fans.  Adorable.

I also saw The A-Team on Saturday night and have to say I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would!  Great summer movie.  And let me just slip this in there... Bradley Cooper.  Mmmm yeah.  Go see it.

And Happy Father's Day to my Dad!!!

My Dad does not appreciate having his photo taken. 
However, I think he is the best and certainly do appreciate him driving me to East Lansing so I can get my Sparty on for an afternoon.  Thanks, Dad.

Hello, Weekend

The weather for this weekend is supposed to be beautiful.  Lots of fun times with friends on my agenda.  Going to get out and enjoy the city.  So excited.

There may even be a cupcake involved.  Or two.

Mmmm these are our cupcakes from Molly's (my personal Chicago fave) with Amy (who is also a personal fave) on Monday.
And yes, that is a stranger's boo-tay in my cupcake photo.
Awesome.

My Kind of Town

I am in Chicago waiting to meet a friend for Chinese. And cupcakes. Yes, I actually said cupcakes. So I thought I would take a minute and blog... from my new iPad :) Remember when I said I was going to marry a letterpress? I changed my mind. I'm definitely marrying an iPad. I love it.

Tomorrow I'm back home in NYC. It's been a great trip seeing lots of good friends and tons of my favorite places. Including Wrigley and my Cubbies. Woot! Lots of photos to share once I get them onto my computer.

In the meantime I thought I'd share another fun video. This is Ian Axel, who is a NYC artist and I first saw perform back in January. He quickly became a fave. Looking forward to his concert at the end of the month. I guarantee this video will make you smile. Well I hope it makes you smile! It makes me dance every.single.time I listen to it :)

Have a great week.

Wide Open Spaces

I grew up playing here on my Grandpa's farm...

And playing here on the beach of Lake Michigan...

And that's where I am this week. Home in Michigan. Spending time with my parents and going to my favorite places.

It's ironic that I lived for so long in the Mitten, which has some of the most beautiful nature - from the great lakes and the beaches and the forests and farms.  Then went to Michigan State, which is known for agriculture and definitely is the most gorgeous campus I've ever seen.  I grew up in such wide open spaces.  Now I think I'm a city girl for life.

But I still love the outdoors. 
Really, I do. 
You know me and my Central Park addiction.
I'll always be Midwest.
And I'm happy when I'm on the water.  As evident from this photo my sweet City Mitten took...
from Friday night at the Frying Pan.

Happy Weekend.

April TwentyTen Mini

Last week I was sitting at my desk staring at my calendar and thought "Wow. It's June."  How is it June already?!  There are so many things I still want to do this year... time is moving too fast!

Back in March I decided to put together an April mini album and saved every slip of paper from the month.  Everything went into a big plastic ziploc bag.  The interesing part was when I decided to do it, I had no idea what a HUGE moth April would be for me.  It brought me my highest highs and lowest lows... I never would have expected my life would go on such a rollercoaster ride in just one month.  Man, I picked crazy month to document.

My inspiration came from the awesome mini albums that my talented friends Amy and Elise put together.  I had a chance to look through some of Amy's when I was at her apt in May and it was even cooler in person.  I wanted to be cool like that ;)

I bought a small binder at Muji and covered the front with Studio Calico patterned paper, stickers, and a fabric rip.  The spin was covered with old Love Elsie fabric paper I've been hording.  And I added some of my beloved Hambly doily rub-ons.

I kept the inside of the album simple because the most important thing to focus on was the memorabilia.  The supplies I used were...

• Studio Calico Documentary paper
• Basic Grey Basics 6x6 paper + little stickers
• Washi tape (which Amy also introduced me to)
• American Crafts Precision Pen .03
• Fiskars hole punch
• A stapler
• Skyline stamp purchased at the Ink Pad

I wrote a little opener on a piece of Basic Grey 6x6 paper.  I won't bore you with the journaling ;)

I also included the 5x8 page from my desk calendar behind the opener.  This is what the stack of photos + papers look like behind the calendar.  I had a hard time deciding how to include journaling throughout the album and originally just stuck things in without worrying about it.  But then I realized that 10 years from now there's a pretty darn good chance I'm not going to remember what these random items are!  So I added some Washi tape here + there right on top of things and just wrote quick notes.

I love how things are all different sizes and I can see the layers peek out from below.  For years I've saved business cards and the ones from the month of April went into the album.  As did menus from restos, boarding passes, concert tickets, baseball tickets, hotel keys, and lots of my favorite photos.  I tried to punch the photos going different ways... for example a horizontal 4x6 could be punched to go in the binder vertically.

Oh April.  You almost did me in.
But with some paper and tape... I turned you into something real pretty.