Pygmy Hippo Turns Three

Last month we attended Pygmy Hippo Shoppe's third anniversary party, and it was such a fun day! I love visiting the shop and its more-than-fabulous owner, Emi. This was the first year the stars finally aligned and I was able to go to the party. The place was packed the whole time, and it was so nice to witness so much support for this teeny tiny little gem of a store. There were all kinds of treats being offered, from cupcakes and cookies to Boxed Water and old fashioned sodas. The Pocky truck even showed up, and Dolly's Cotton Candy was spinning candy floss in the cutest little cart!

Me and Emi were accidentally reverse matching. I love that lady! I admire her so much for creating such a unique and amazingly curated space; there is truly nothing like that place, and nobody like Emi!

I got to meet some very cool and talented people during the event, like Esther Kim. Esther is an artist I've been following on Instagram for a long time, and she does some really wonderful and fun illustrations. I've been wanting to get one of her books for a while, and Pygmy Hippo had it for sale, so I bought it and Esther signed it for me. I love how she did the lettering!

After the party ended, I got to see Emi and Nathan's pretty-darn-amazing house, then we all went to Pingtung, where we had some delicious dim sum and the best chicken curry of my life.

If you ever find yourself in Los Angeles, make sure to stop by Pygmy Hippo Shoppe! There are so many nifty handmade and vintage treasures to be found there, you'll want to spend forever looking at everything! Plus Emi is awesome and she's so much fun to talk to!

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8
Above are some of my favorites from the shop. If you've already been, tell me about your experience!

The Shell Shop

A couple of weekends ago, I headed out to Morro Bay for a little day trip. Whenever I visit this seaside town, my eye is always drawn to the pretty pink and white sign of The Shell Shop. This time, I finally stepped inside the store and took a look at the thousands of shells and other curiosities for sale. There were so many interesting things to see, I had to snap a few photos.

There are shells from all over the world, as well as starfish, coral, and plenty of other oceanic odds and ends. Each piece has a sign displaying its name and where it is from. Also for sale are objects covered in shells, and novelty items like shell sculptures, conch lamps, and shell chandeliers.

Everyone needs a little googley-eyed shell owl, right? My favorite part of the shop is the signage, both the painted signs in the window and of course that giant shell-shaped sign.

Have you ever been to Morro Bay? I'd like to start sharing more places close to home, I just need to make myself feel less awkward about taking photos in public. There are actually a lot of neat places around here.

October Funfair

♥ This Lil Bub Documentary is so darn adorable! It's mostly about Lil Bub herself but it also covers other internet kitties as well. And make sure to check out I Used To Be Scared Of Cats, the coolest all-cat blog ever!

♥ We didn't decorate for Halloween this year since we're long-term house sitting, but I plan on saving these cute Halloween Party Printables to use for next year.

♥ I am so excited to get my hands on a copy of Emily Martin's Dream Animals, and I absolutely adore Emily's sweet little video about the book.

♥ Kailey's blog always knocks my socks off, but I particularly liked this post on blogging as self care. I can relate to blogs being a source of escapism.

♥ I always feel bummed whenever one of my posts doesn't get very many comments, but Kat makes a great point about why we shouldn't worry about comments. That's a tough one for me!

♥ Like I've said many times before, I'm so lazy when it comes to makeup, but I would like to try these pretty sparkly eyes. Love the glitter with the cat eye liner!

♥ Katie's Peter Pan and the Lost Boys family costume DIY is basically the most adorable group costume ever!

♥ And another amazing costume DIY from Katie; her Björk swan dress.

♥ Megan is a real live Ariel in her Little Mermaid themed outfit. What a cool skirt by Mod Dolly.

♥ The Honey Trees traveled to Mexico for a show at Hotel El Ganzo, and while they were there, they recorded this beautiful acoustic version of their song "To Be With You." I can't wait for their new album!

♥ I'd like to make one of these Day of the Dead Mini Matchbox Shrines for my grandpa who passed away last month. There's a DIY for a shoebox altar as well.

♥ Che talks about the importance of a Blog Editorial Calendar. I really like how she color codes everything. She even offers up her own calendar as a free download.

The photos are of our pumpkins for this year. I'm terrible at carving so I decided to just paint them. The donut idea is from this DIY. Lily sitting with his pumpkin just kills me! He tried to eat the stem, that little rascal.

Spooky Stickers & New Business Cards

I designed new business cards earlier this year, but right after that, I changed my blog's name and address, so I figured it was about time to make a new batch of them with the updated information. I ordered from Moo as always, and this time I chose sixteen different images for the backs (there are only fifteen pictured because one is from a pretty sweet photo shoot I haven't shared yet). If you're not familiar with Moo, their cards are particularly awesome because you can upload as many photos as you want!

Since Moo was offering a discount on all of their products at the time I placed my order, I decided to try out their round stickers too. They turned out so cool! I made stickers of my favorite illustrations and a bunch from my Cats in Costumes zine, just in time for Halloween. At the last minute I decided to make a few silly ones of Lily too... how could I not?

The Spooky Illustrations Sticker Set and Cats In Costumes Sticker Sets are for sale in my Etsy Shop now, along with other spooky art prints and brooches to get you into the Halloween spirit. Which one's your favorite?

If you want to try Moo for yourself, you can use my referral link and get 10% off your first order!

Adventures With Twinkie Chan & Sourpuss Clothing

I am so jazzed about what I'm sharing with you all today! A while back, Twinkie Chan and I were contacted by Sourpuss Clothing. They wanted to know if we'd be up for wearing their "Shake and Shimmy" dresses on an outing together and snapping some photos along the way. The dresses come in a pink spaghetti strap style, and an aqua peter pan collared number. The fabric print is a super cute retro-style array of foods, from pizza and fries to pie and ice cream. Response: Um, heck YES! All we had to do was figure out when we could meet up, since unfortunately we live about four hours away from each other. Luckily, Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco provided the perfect excuse for a meet-up! I showed up on Saturday and got to spend a lovely evening with lady Twinkie and friends, then came back on Sunday for a full day at the fair, bugged Twinkie all day, and squeezed in a photo session. We braved the crazy wind and dive-bombing seagulls, and I am so pleased with the results! It's so nice to take photos with a friend; you can be awkward and silly together instead of being a lone weirdo. We took video of the day too, so you can see our antics in motion!

That's what we look like when we're in the midst of an incredibly witty conversation. Don't you wish you knew what we were talking about? You'll just have to imagine...

As you can see there were a lot of silly times to be had. After we exhausted our super-modeling skills, we headed back inside, but the fun didn't stop there of course. We had to take advantage of the free photo booth provided by Magnolia Photo Booth Co. (see our snaps here) and take tons of ridiculous phone pictures! The amazingly adorable Twinkie Chan carnival booth was clearly the place to be that day. You can't complain about being surrounded by crocheted food scarves, pizza pins, and ice cream pillows. Speaking of which, helloooo, have you checked out her Shop yet? Get on it! I'll share the sweet treat I snagged for myself in my next post, which will be about the actual craft fair.

So here's a little bit about the dress itself. It was so hard to choose which one I wanted because they're both so cute, but I ended up picking the aqua dress. The fabric is an airy chiffon, and I like the peter pan collar, the covered buttons and the scalloped rick-rack details. The collar and buttons look like a pastel pink on the website, but you can tell by our photos that in person it's more of a bright pink. I absolutely love the kitschy food print, and the little cut-out part on the back is a cute addition. The dress is a bit short on me (I'm 5'7) but not super-short. I wore it for the whole day so I can attest to the fact that it's very comfortable. I got loads of compliments on the dress, so that's a great sign! The colors look great with my hair. I really love it! I'm also wearing my trusty gold Giant Dwarf starlette crown, shoes from TJ-Maxx, and in some of the photos, my cupcake hat by Twinkie Chan. Her pink dress is so pretty too; the tiny black bows on the straps are so sweet!

I could get lost looking at all of the pages and pages of retro-style dresses and accessories on the Sourpuss Clothing website, plus they have some seriously nifty housewares too. I put together a little collection of my favorite things on the site. I am especially in love with the dress: the perfect mint green, with embroidered mermaids on the sleeves! And I wish they made the kitten cardigan in my size!

My Sourpuss Favorites: Fluff Perla Wristlet / Beachcomber Starfish Hair Pins / Mermaid Tea Towel / Atomic Diner Coffee Mug / Pinup Couture Mira The Mermaid Dress / Classic Hardware Seahorse Pin / Retro Kitten Kid's Cardigan / Atomic Bowl

Sourpuss is also offering our readers a 15% off with the discount code UNICORN (all caps), and you can use it until October 14th! Better get to browsing!

It's been a few weeks since our adventure, and I miss that lady so much! I can't wait until we can get together again, hopefully soon. Lots of thanks to Sourpuss Clothing for the dress and the excuse to reunite with my wonderful friend!

Be sure to read Twinkie's post too!