Gratitude list

1)  Starbucks earrings from Shirin

I'm not even going to go into how tough it was for these earrings to get to my house (owing to a snafu in which I may or may not have misquoted my address the first time) but when they finally did get here, I loved them, right down to the little green straws!  Who knew people even made these? 

They are such a sweet, thoughful present from Shirin and they fit my personality to a T.  I'm very embarrassed now to say that the first day I wore them, one earring fell off.  I don't even know how I managed that and I was furious at myself, but I'm determined to replace it so that I will have a complete set again.  I'm so sorry, Shirin, but thank you, they are awesome.

Etsy, here I come!

2)  A cute drawing from a student

Thank you Nic!  (And Eli!)

3)   Washi tape

The day that Amanda and I hit Kinokuniya, she introduced me to washi tape.  If you aren't already on Pinterest, Washi tape is the new in thing among bloggers and scrapbookers of all creeds.  It's essentially masking tape with beautiful prints on it and apart from being used to hold things together, it works really well as decoration.

I bought some patterned blue tape strips and one roll of gaily striped tape and I've been using them in notebooks and to liven up my journal.  I hate to admit it, but I love washi!  You can write or draw on it like you can normal masking tape and because it's a little translucent, you can even paste it over artwork.  As you can see, I like using it in my journal (the paper is not patchy, I just wanted to blur the showthrough).

Unfortunately, this means I've become one of those annoying fartsy hipsters who can't leave a page without smacking some tape and drawing bunting on it.

Oh well.  At least it's pleasing to the eye!  And if you're looking for a quick, easy way to make things look cooler with minimal artistic talent, well...

(Washi tape and stickers from Art Friend and NBC, both in Ngee Ann City.)