Thompson Family-Life

2012 Year in Review - Four (& what to expect in 2013)

Last 2012 year-in-review post (see one, two and three)! 

Highlights from this photo round-up: 

A new doll-making obsession, "Where's Anime Traveler" Geocaching Series, a new Designer Crush,  Rudolph at the Center for Puppetry Arts, Minecraft Craft, Mask Collaboration at Kitschy Digitals, my ornament collections (& mother-in-law's, too), our Halloween Decor, Classic Horror Movie Inspiration, and more Holiday Printables at Kitschy Digitals.

An amazing vintage boutique in Palm Springs, California, my newly painted vintage china cabinet, an awesome vintage kids book find (cool puppets!), more of our holiday home, a Sandy Hook and NAMI fundraser at Kitschy Digitals (we've made around $500! THANK YOU! proceeds from the Mr. Rogers pattern will be donated indefinitely!), my Happy Mail letter-writing kit for kids printable, and a Super Mario Pixel Party Backdrop DIY.

What to expect this year from this blog?

- More of my favorite local Atlanta spots

- New Kitschy Digitals products (get your craft on!)

- More original DIYs & crafts

- Home Inspiration

- Kiddo adventures, style, and crafts

- Ramona the Rat updates!

- Anime Traveler updates & Geocaching fun

- Dolly inspiration (& new doll patterns from me!)

- More stories & photos from our 2013 travels (I have a Palm Springs, California trip in February during Modernism week, planning an NYC trip with my Mother & Sister, a Georgia-to-Pennsylvania roadtrip and International travel this summer, and more!)

- And of course, lots of vintage-inspiration.

One thing you can always count on? Original content. In a sea of inspiration and design blogs that bombard you with product-round-ups and other people's photos & ideas (not that there's anything wrong with that), you can count on original photos (taken by me) and fresh ideas. I do an inspiration post every now and then, but about 95% of the photos I've shown in these year-in-review posts were taken by me. 

2012 was an awesome year and I appreciate each and every one of you that stop by! I hope you'll continue to check back here for more fun in 2013.

2012 Year in Review - Three (& 2013 Travel Plans)

So, up next are my last two year-in-review posts! (sorry these are coming so sloowly.) This is part three (see two and one). Gosh, I miss that cotton candy pink hair!!! ::sniff:: Now that my hair is growing out, once it gets a bit longer, I'm going to try doing a natural copper red on top like I normally do, and pastel pink tips, so that it at least won't have the shock-factor of the all over pink. Have any of you done this? Tips please?

Ok, pink hair aside (I dyed my hair today, so obviously it's on the brain), here are some highlights from this photo-round-up: 

TRAVEL/SHOPPING: more Myrtle Beach, North Carolina pics, Amsterdam Flea Markets, a visit to the Miffy store in Amsterdam, Bike Love in Amsterdam, the most amaaaaazing retro-style clothing store in Antwerp, Belgium, another incredible shop in Amsterdam called Kitsch Kitchen, The Netherlands countryside, thrifted Dutch & Belgian vintage kids books, a beautifully curated shop in Amsterdam, a very kitschy Fairyland Caverns in Rock City, Georgia, vintage shopping in Antwerp, the quintessentially Dutch town of Delft, more Amsterdam eye candy, HEMA love. 

ATLANTA (LOCAL):  Another tour of an Atlanta home that I photographed in the MCM neighborhood of Northcrest, our first Atlanta Roller Derby!

KIDDOS: peach pickin' with Campbell, a style post from Campbell and Cooper, our Family Art Gallery, Super Mario Party Invites.

HOME: our holiday home decor & gift wrapping, holiday lights at home, my vintage-inspired Vertical Record Storage DIY, and an MCM chair Craigslist find makeover.

CRAFTS: my Dutch Love digital & printable kit, Holiday Printables at Kitschy Digitals.

MISC.: an online yard sale (a shop-my-closet sale is coming soon!) 

These photos really make me miss traveling.

Ethan and I did some brainstorming this weekend on where we want to go this summer. We've eaten up a lot of our frequent flyer miles, so any tickets will probably be out of pocket, so depending on how much those will cost our options are Europe again or a Seattle/Vancouver trip. Ethan goes to Vancouver probably once a month because his boss is based there, but he hasn't had a chance to REALLY hit the pavement and explore the city thoroughly. I hear such rave reviews about Vancouver, so I know that trip would be amazing (not to mention, Seattle ain't too shabby either. ;)

If we do Europe, we decided that even though I'm *dying* to go to Sweden, we might do a Denmark/Germany trip (we usually have around 10 days or so that we can travel). Apparently flying to Scandinavia anywhere is pretty pricey, not to mention the price of food/shopping/etc (according to Ethan, I'm kind of oblivious to this sort of thing), so Denmark would give me that Scandinavia fix while being (hopefully) a bit less expensive. We will see.

Do you have any cool travel plans for 2013?

2012 Year in Review - Two (& some thoughts on opening our business!)

Continuing my year-in-review (you can see Part One here), I dyed my hair pastel pink (and loved it!! will continue the tradition every summer I've proclaimed to Ethan), visited St. George Island, Florida, shared some floppy-haired Campbell pics, cross-stitched some circle pendants, shared a style post of moi (pre-pink hair), more vintage thrifty finds, shared PeeWee & Simone's trip to Dinosaurland outside of Palm Springs, California, a gorgeous Kid's Room Tour from a beautiful home in the Netherlands, and Palm Springs Weekend the movie!

I also shared my love of Vintage Sindy (and my awesome find!), some beautiful interior shots of Parisian Julie Ansiau's home and her work, Muppet Love, home photos, Kentucky Derby (& hat!) inspiration, geocaching fun, nautical pastels, arcade fun, crocheted blanket progress, my butterfly perler bead craft, a handmade gift, nostalgic vintage slides, new specs, my Studio Tour, pool time, a cool spy camera find, Japanese and Korean Kawaii finds, a Mid-Century Mecca in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina, some cute vintage style cousins, and I shared an AMAZING Home Tour that I photographed in the Mid-Century Modern Atlanta neighborhood of Northcrest.

And last but not least, we opened Kitschy Digitals!! This was definitely the number one highlight of 2012 for me. I kept it under wraps for SIX MONTHS (started the project in January) so it was tough to keep myself in that bubble. That was a hard thing, keeping it to myself, but in a lot of ways it was liberating! It was just me, myself and self-motivation (and TONS of valuable support from my husband, Ethan). I spent countless hours at home and at coffee shops across the Atlanta Metro area (ha) working away.

(Above, an teaser animation I created for the Grand Opening)

It was a labor of love in the truest sense of the phrase. I've never really talked a lot about that experience here, but I hope to sometime. There's almost nothing more fulfilling than conceptualizing something, doing ALL of the website design myself (something I'd never done before - my friend Pilgrim came up with the Kitschy Girls and logo/branding), working with a developer to "make it all work", bringing many designers on board (many, my design heros!) to sell their products, and to FINALLY see it all come together in the end - almost exactly how I'd envisioned. 

It's been an amazing 6 months (yes, it's been 6 months since we opened!) and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you customers out there. More than you know. We've had some amazing press across blogland and I've been getting all of my ducks in a row over the past week or so, planning new things for the store and inviting new artists and designers. 

I've also put the wheels into motion on a blog redesign (gosh, this has been a long time coming!). One of my favorite artists (who just happens to be a vendor at Kitschy Digitals! hint!) is creating some custom artwork for me. I should be able to share that in the next few weeks.

See more posts from April, May & June.

2012 Year in Review - One

I'm sure you're seeing a lot of these year-in-review posts on your favorite blogs this week. I love doing this myself because it reminds me of everything I've done within the year and things I'd forgotten I'd accomplished. If you're new to my blog, these photo mosaics also allow you to see what I typically share on my blog and what sorts of things to expect in the new year (along with - hopefully - some fun new things, too)!

These photos represent the first quarter or so of the year. As you can see, I shared lots of my vintage collections and thrifty finds, we got a pet rat that we named Ramona, I created a Needlepoint Purse DIY for the CRAFT magazine blog, I tried my hand at the growing trend of nail art (which I inevitably couldn't keep up with because of lack of time and just my general non-talent with nail polish!), I shared some Dutch Comics that I found (and my growing love of all things vintage Dutch, which would be a forerunner to my Netherlands trip in the Summer!).

I shared my adorable new business cards (with portrait designed by Rachele), I shared some vintage shop finds on our trips to Memphis, Tennessee and Tampa, Florida, I let you in on my secret desire to get a tattoo(s) and the inspiration I'd been compiling for said tattoos (unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to justify the expense of getting one quite yet!).

I shared some photos of my home, I played with dolls, visited and photographed a local vintage bookstore, shared more photos of my 2011 trip to Palm Springs, California, shared Ethan's Aunt's adorable chicken friends, and of course shared some photos of my sweet boys and their activities.

See more posts from January, February and March.

Three more year-in-review posts coming up!