Vinyl Chalkboards

The wait is finally over! My big announcement is that Spell It Out has newly designed (thanks Jon) vinyl chalkboards. I am super excited about these. As I have mentioned to a few of you I have been wanting to change the direction of Spell It Out a little. I will still offer vinyl letting and such, but I wanted to start offering some fabulous home decor items. This is the first of many things to come. In this post I am highlighting the first home decor chalkboards we have to offer.

The Victorian

The Ribbon

The Martha

The Crest

(The Crest is available as a solid or with element trim. Both styles seen above)

Each of these frames is available through the Spell It Out Etsy Store. Please note this is a different Etsy store than the Needle & Pin Productions. Also, we will have different home decor and styles for children in the coming weeks. You can always check in on what's new at the Spell It Out blog.

Roadtrip - Jamestown Wyoming

Jon and I recently took a roadtrip into Wyoming to look at a truck Jon was interested in buying. Before taking a roadtrip I like to look up the route on google maps and then check a few different websites. I like to see if any of the towns we might pass by are ghost towns or have cool points of interest. One of the towns we passed through on our adventure was Jamestown. There wasn't a lot of buildings of interest; but this one really stuck out, so we spend some time taking pictures. Jon with his professional DSLR and me with my point and shoot. yay.

The following are *my* pictures.

Bad Luck

I've had a little streak of bad luck lately. Slicing my finger open and having to get stitches and then on Saturday, Lucy (the car) broke down while we were on our way to a car show in Price. We can be lucky it broke down before we made it far considering Price is a couple hour drive from here, but she happened to break down on the freeway. Of course I am know you are thinking, that's not too bad of luck Bekah. Well.. where we broke down on the freeway they were doing construction and there happened to be no emergency lane!

I am going to spare the details because I don't really want to talk about it since it's now over and done with. But I am just going to say it really sucked.

We did have to leave Lucy behind on Saturday and go the rest of the way to Price without her. We had a good time at the car show and Lucy got towed home on Sunday.

I hear that bad luck comes in groups of three. I am just nervous for what's coming up next.

PS. Thanks Dad for the ride. You're a life saver.

Fireworks, First aid and Food

Oh boy what a holiday weekend it was. I managed to start the weekend off just right while injuring myself during a craft project. Unfortunately, I couldn't have done something simple like burn myself with the glue gun. Instead I managed to cut open my index finger with a very sharp pair of scissors. This injury, although a clean cut, was deep and began to bleed profusely. Thankfully Jon was nice enough to drive me to the hospital and reminded me to keep my hand above my heart to limit the blood loss.

Being the evening of the 4th of July the emergency room was very empty. I was expecting there to be people waiting who had blown off a finger playing irresponsibly with fireworks. Nope, just me, the girl who cut herself with scissors.

After quite the ordeal to get my finger numbed so they could stitch me up, I got three stitches.


After the stitches they wrapped me up in a split that I get to sport for at least a week. This is because, once again, I had to make things difficult and cut my finger near the joint and in order to heal I can't bend it. This splinted finger has resulted in many jokes on my behalf from Jon and my coworkers.


The whole weekend was not all tragedy though. On Saturday Jon, his brother Jason and I all went to a new restaurant that opened on Oakley Utah. This isn't just any old restaurant, it's an original classic diner. This diner was originally manufactured in 1939 in Elizabeth New Jersey. It began it's restaurant life in Fall River, Mass. until 1953 when it was sold and moved to Middletown, Rhode Island. There it operated until 2006. Oakley Utah was then picked as the new home for the diner and it was transported cross country here to Utah.

It's a great little place and has great food. There is a very retro vintage style to the diner, but also has modern conveniences such as air conditioning and remote jukeboxes. The jukeboxes weren't up and running yet when we where there but they were cool non the less. They also make their own potato chips, which I thought were amazing. If you go there to eat, definitely get the chips.


For those I didn't get to personally say Happy 4th to, I hope you all had a festive holiday weekend!

It's that time of the year...

Wedding Season. And in honor of those new and soon to be brides I thought I would post some tips I recently came across. This is from Woman's World, 1957. I don't know who has the time to be the wife described in this article, because I sure don't.


All he wants is the basic love, companionship, warmth and fun of a good wife and mother. He wants to be able to bring his friends home unexpectedly and find the house in order, a meal miraculously brought out of the hat without any fuss, and a warm welcome for everyone.

A man is the envy of his friends if he has a wife who does not greet him at the door saying, "Why didn't you ring me and say you were bringing someone home?" He likes to know she'll say, "What nice friends you have," instead of "I can't think why you bother about that awful bore....besides he doesn't stop drinking. He hasn't left a drop in the house."

She sees that his clothes are always spotless and well pressed. Looking at him, his friends know that he has a good wife because he always looks well-groomed and his expression is contented.

There are some women who can't wait to tell their husbands what kind of day they had, what they bought, what their neighbors had to say. Every woman might as well accept the fact that to make a marriage work she MUST put her husband first. Before she tackles her own affairs she should ask tenderly, gaily, kindly, brightly, thoughtfully, according to type, what his day was like. There are plenty of wives who complain that their husbands never tell them a thing. Are they sure it isn't their own fault?

A wise woman plans for her man in an encouraging way. She won't ever say, "Why can't you earn as much as Bill Jones? You started at the same time and he makes twice as much as you do." This is fatal. She'll say instead, "Fancy that silly old Bill Jones doing so well. I bet he wouldn't have got there without YOUR help, darling....I'm really proud of you."

With this wonderful spur, she'll gently lead her husband the way she wants him to go, tactfully, with a word of praise. She neither pushes nor persuades. She simply angles whenever she sees the opportunities until, in the end, he takes the bit between his teeth and bolts just where he has been led; but he still thinks it was his idea and she is happy with his male misapprehension.

The sensible wife dodges sarcasm unless she is really witty. She may be so capable that she would make a strong man wilt, but she plays up her feminine weaknesses. While she does most things well - she never makes it a point to do so - she never neglects her appearance. She never seems to have moments with her hair in curlers, her make-up messy, or her face all greasy. She manages this sort of thing when her husband is at work.

She is probably a little extravagant - it's the only way to be impeccable, whatever anyone may say.

And tired though she is from bringing up the children and all the other chores, she somehow or other manages to appear bright and interested to her husband when he arrives home. She never puts the children before her husband but gives them a lot of loving when father's not about; and she builds up a picture in her children's mind that their father is a wonderful man.

She never nags - it's the quickest route to the divorce courts, and even grounds for divorce these days. She often flatters, but never so much that she appears false, and she never picks on her husband's weaknesses unless as an indulgent joke.

She realizes that no one ever really outgrows their weaknesses but knows that a slight awareness of them isn't a bad idea. He might overcome them one day. She didn't marry the man with the idea of changing him. She just makes the most of the things she likes about her man.

Patsy

Jon and I spent the other night working on my Vintage 60's Hawthorne bicycle.

We got the rims straightened and put some new tires on them, which then inspired us to clean up the rest of the bike.


After a little elbow grease and some steel wool she almost looks like new. I formally introduce you all to Patsy. She is named in homage to my mom who is the original owner of the bike. She used to cruise around on it while she was going to school at BYU.

Now I have another set of sweet wheels to cruise around on this summer.

New & Old

A few weeks ago Jon and I were down on Broadway checking out Frosty Darling (it's a new kitschy item store) and we decided we would also visit the antique stores. In one of the stores I happened upon this beauty hidden on the bottom of a bookshelf. The owner said he has had it for a few years. Now I know, I have a sewing machine - why would I need one from the 50's. Well, because it's from the 50's. I love my new machine. I haven't had a chance to clean it off yet, but it will be even more beautiful once I do.