Boutique

Filling a boutique order looks so delicious after it's done :) This week has been eerily quiet in the Etsy shop, but I am taking it as an opportunity to organize and get everything squared away across the board....that feels good.

Golden Goose

Now in the shop: my homage to fairy tale birds :)

Red.

In honor of my childhood Japanese Maple tree. A magical red necklace to protect and embolden a body. Now up in my Etsy shop :)

Labor of Love

Sometimes the most amazing thing is finding the bravery to try something new and maybe impossible. That very bravery jumped into my heart when I saw an old leather crafter's magazine article about cobbled bags. They are made of super heavy leather, cobbled together using rivets or nails and then stretched via completely soaking the leather, tooling and all.
Talk about scary!!! Here: let's do at least 10 hours worth of tooling and then soak the bag and see if the tooling sticks!!! Yikes! It did, and the bag took on a really interesting shape. It's rather compact, and fits against the female hip as if made by the hand of the Almighty.
Soon it shall be painted, and then it shall be given two attachments where the rings shall be for the strap: a small pouch for a cell phone ( no more digging in my bag when it vibrates!!! ) and a slightly larger pouch for whatever one might want on hand.

Theriottthly?????????

Time to photograph a new design, in this case a custom order for a dearly beloved return customer ( Hi, Sue!! ) when who should run up on the scene and overshadow my work? Jones. Never Jane, as she respects my space and my worktime, but Jones....he is always underfoot, always under hand, never on your lap but constantly around.
If I do something that makes a noise he comes running and gets involved. Very community oriented.
Here is an illustration of this delightful point:
In all of these pictures he is 'unaware' of me, aloof as he can be, yet the moment I walked away from the window so did he.
In five minutes he will be peacefully sleeping and as soon as I get up from this here laptop and re-enter the studio ( whose doors are understandably closed to him ) he will sit outside the door, miraculously wide awake and wail like he's at an Irish wake.
Heaven help me.

Things to Do

Places to be, etc.....

Life really does get busy, especially lately -- really over the top busy, and then inspiration hits and I find myself compelled to make brand new things.....a bag, to be exact....a bag that is going to take me weeks, and I don't even know if it will be a success, and it makes me nervous.
To gear myself up for it I am making sure to make the things I know I can make, keeping my hands confident and nimble.
I am obsessed with bees lately, not sure why :)

But there are quiet moments, lately more of them being added in: I have a heart palpitation issue that I am certain is coming from the stressful way I approach my life, so I am taking time to breathe. Sometimes Jones sits with me and meditates on birds and such. We really just understand each other, he and I.

From Pre to Post

A pile of lovely tooled goodies all have homes already. Custom orders comprise this bounty, and also orders for a boutique: a boutique to drool over and die for!
Here is what became of some of the leaves:

Fresh Start

This weekend I played at a benefit in Palm Desert, and as part of the package they gave us a lovely room at a resort hotel. After we played Anthony, Matt and I went to Target and I got an adorable bikini. Upon our arrival at the lovely MiraMonte we swam for over an hour, dolphin diving into the warm blue as the clock neared 10 and the night air chilled.

Anthony and I slept in our big king sized bed for nearly twelve hours before we rose up, refreshed and vacationed. We've since returned home and even now after a day of chores and a killer pilates class I feel like someone refilled my battery full of new ideas and limber intellect.

Here is a bowl of fresh Meyer lemons and tangerines from Matt's Grandpa. He picked them for us from trees in his back yard.

Spring Has Sprung

Here in my heart.