In the leather shop: hurry before I change my mind and keep it :)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Custom Emotion
I don't know about my other creative ladies out there, but every once in a while I get a custom order that makes me very emotional: like this one - I cried when I finished the moon. Sometimes I feel like inside of each koi is something dying to be partnered, a little loneliness that the central stone or silver charm helps allay with its presence: and here is the moon, the loneliest thing in the sky, so solitary and serene - that they are together entwined in sterling chain just made me misty.
Like something was made right.
Hm.
Not a Mall Girl
Anthony saw some things he wanted to wear in the wedding at Macy's in The Beverly Center.
If left to his own devices, I know he'd do just fine, but I wanted to give him moral support: we are not lovers of mall culture and the Beverly Center is especially painful because of the carefully studied nonchalance and sunglasses-indoors-wearing-cell-phone-affixed-to-ear-through-transaction Beverly Hills-ness of it all.
It just feels so foreign to me in so many ways, that mall - and trust me when I tell you I was glued to my local mall growing up: it's where I had my first covetous feeling ( an off-the shoulder pink sweater at Express ) and the first place I desperately hoped boys would notice me: it was a mecca of sorts to a suburban teenage girl.
She who was once a teenager is a full-blown woman who prefers to shop online, prefers handmade to machine and cannot get her head out of the numbers when looking at tags, "How much is this made for? Marked up percentage-wise?" and the mall was so painful for me I felt RIdiculous -- in and out of technoflourescent stores with salespeople who so obviously see you as potential and seem to have no interest real kindness....
Oh, my.
What a difference a decade makes ( and some serious change ).
If left to his own devices, I know he'd do just fine, but I wanted to give him moral support: we are not lovers of mall culture and the Beverly Center is especially painful because of the carefully studied nonchalance and sunglasses-indoors-wearing-cell-phone-affixed-to-ear-through-transaction Beverly Hills-ness of it all.
It just feels so foreign to me in so many ways, that mall - and trust me when I tell you I was glued to my local mall growing up: it's where I had my first covetous feeling ( an off-the shoulder pink sweater at Express ) and the first place I desperately hoped boys would notice me: it was a mecca of sorts to a suburban teenage girl.
She who was once a teenager is a full-blown woman who prefers to shop online, prefers handmade to machine and cannot get her head out of the numbers when looking at tags, "How much is this made for? Marked up percentage-wise?" and the mall was so painful for me I felt RIdiculous -- in and out of technoflourescent stores with salespeople who so obviously see you as potential and seem to have no interest real kindness....
Oh, my.
What a difference a decade makes ( and some serious change ).
Monday, September 22, 2008
Birds of A
Peacock Feather stick together :) I missed the large feather necklaces so much, and since I am going to be selling at the Abbott Kinney Street Fair this coming Sunday I had to make a few more!!
I suggest that if you really, reall love something in my shop, this is the week to get it.
Everything will be on hold and my shop will be empty on Sunday with everything I've made coming with me.
I have no misgivings that I will sell everything I come with, but it's best to be on the safe side if it's a one of a kind item.
I am so excited to be a part of something so big and fun as this festival: so many good things have happened to me on Abbott Kinney. It's where the voiceover studio is, it's where I can get the best macaroons in town, it's down the street from the first boutique to ever host my items....
Life is sweet on Abbott Kinney! If you're in Los Angeles, come down and see me, this Sunday the 28th of September from 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM :)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Exuberant!
Oh, this color is so divine!!!
The little brass ovals hanging from the bottom of the earrings say, "Real Love", as one oval shuffled behind the other one. They are reminder earrings. On a date with a young man who speaks and never listens? In the throes of terrible self doubt? Alone in the woods? Meditating by an open city window?
There you have a little reminder in the whisper of brass under a flower as lively and lovely as you. 'real love', 'real love', 'real love' says the breeze.
Wait for it: I promise it's worth every 'wasted' minute :)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Here it is
I think I left some of my heart in this necklace: it appears to have been stolen away by the stones and the way this takes me somewhere else: I am in a car with the windows open and it is setting in Santa Fe.
In the leather shop now.
Dust those Beautiful Shoulders
With these beautiful earrings:
I have been momentarily revived by taking a trip to my favorite bead store where I found this strand of turquoise that glowed from within with its very own sun. Sometimes on Fridays I have to force myself out into the world ( it's my day off from most everything else ) and get some sun and smile at strangers.
To come home with a handful of beads and some of the most sumptuous gold-filled chain lit a small fire under my seat and I hear the studio calling my name. There is a feather necklace I hope to complete and photograph before the sun gets too dim tonight: I'll show you soon :)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Janey
We got Jane in March of last year after seeing a picture of her sent in an email: small, scared, blank and brown. Tabby. Eyes of green that were not a window to anything in particular, but perhaps her fear.
We took her out of her carrier and Jones hissed and hissed around her while she sat blinking as if into the midday sun, disoriented and afraid.
Weeks were spent under furniture where we couldn't reach her. Sometimes we'd catch her sitting on the sofa and we'd pull her onto our lap where she would sit, unmoving, unresponsive for long periods of time.
Jane had spent the first five months of her life in a parking garage at USC, which is near downtown Los Angeles. People left food for her and that is the only way she survived. How she managed NOT to get hit by a moving car is a mystery to me, but when I think of her there in the cold and dark my heart breaks even now.
You see, she has become a dynamo of sweetness and even when she's playing she acts as an angel at all times. Janey pibbers in a kind of bird language and only meows when she sees a bug or if Anthony and I are in the creative room, to which the door is always closed. If you visit and you hear a thin, high strangled sound as though an injured baby pteradactyl has landed in our home, that is Janey complaining that we've been away too long behind closed doors.
As the months pass she becomes more playful, more curious about our visitors and apt to offer them her cheek in record time.
She makes me ache with love. When Anthony goes to put on his shoes in the morning, she knows it's time to get petted and jumps up on his lap, purring like a rusty motorboat, jumping up and down to mush his feet with her cheek and forehead over and over again, each time more awkward and loving than the last. This is our Janey, the brave and cautious love of our lives.
We took her out of her carrier and Jones hissed and hissed around her while she sat blinking as if into the midday sun, disoriented and afraid.
Weeks were spent under furniture where we couldn't reach her. Sometimes we'd catch her sitting on the sofa and we'd pull her onto our lap where she would sit, unmoving, unresponsive for long periods of time.
Jane had spent the first five months of her life in a parking garage at USC, which is near downtown Los Angeles. People left food for her and that is the only way she survived. How she managed NOT to get hit by a moving car is a mystery to me, but when I think of her there in the cold and dark my heart breaks even now.
You see, she has become a dynamo of sweetness and even when she's playing she acts as an angel at all times. Janey pibbers in a kind of bird language and only meows when she sees a bug or if Anthony and I are in the creative room, to which the door is always closed. If you visit and you hear a thin, high strangled sound as though an injured baby pteradactyl has landed in our home, that is Janey complaining that we've been away too long behind closed doors.
As the months pass she becomes more playful, more curious about our visitors and apt to offer them her cheek in record time.
She makes me ache with love. When Anthony goes to put on his shoes in the morning, she knows it's time to get petted and jumps up on his lap, purring like a rusty motorboat, jumping up and down to mush his feet with her cheek and forehead over and over again, each time more awkward and loving than the last. This is our Janey, the brave and cautious love of our lives.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Thoughts on Creativity
This has been quite a year for me: getting married, learning how to help my own self-created business thrive, reaching out to those I admire online in moments of bravery, getting into Pilates and transforming my muscles, falling in and out of rather formidable sadness and then being caught while falling by what feels like the palm of the Creator...
Yes, it's been quite a year.
Last night I had a night.
One of those nights.
And I prayed and it was answered in the most unquestionable way. Here is my giant realization that has made this day feel full of wonderment:
When I am grateful to a friend or family member I find myself making them something: I cannot help it, I feel compelled!
When I am grateful to The Powers That Be I say my thanks and leave it at that.
What if instead all of my creativity was my gift of gratitude? What if my conscious and joyful breathing was a kiss on the Divine cheek for answered prayers or simply the blessing of being allowed to experience the ache and bliss of this earthly life?
I feel strongly about this: I have had my creative bursts where I can conquer the world and create anything, but with the business side of running a business, sometimes that gets lost.
Since I am creatively a little slow right now I am going to simply let it rest and stop trying desperately to think of new and exciting things to try.
Instead I am going to make that Koi Pond Painting that's been in my mind for some months.
I am going to kiss my fiance artfully.
I am going to use the stones I have purchased to make luscious things for the shop AND something wonderful for myself because I must thank myself, too.
For being brave.
For trying.
For showing up every day as we all do.
Don't you deserve something amazing today? Try breathing as an exercise in grateful love to whomever or whatever: I think you'll find your bounty ever-increasing with every cleansing and refreshing inhalation.
Yes, it's been quite a year.
Last night I had a night.
One of those nights.
And I prayed and it was answered in the most unquestionable way. Here is my giant realization that has made this day feel full of wonderment:
When I am grateful to a friend or family member I find myself making them something: I cannot help it, I feel compelled!
When I am grateful to The Powers That Be I say my thanks and leave it at that.
What if instead all of my creativity was my gift of gratitude? What if my conscious and joyful breathing was a kiss on the Divine cheek for answered prayers or simply the blessing of being allowed to experience the ache and bliss of this earthly life?
I feel strongly about this: I have had my creative bursts where I can conquer the world and create anything, but with the business side of running a business, sometimes that gets lost.
Since I am creatively a little slow right now I am going to simply let it rest and stop trying desperately to think of new and exciting things to try.
Instead I am going to make that Koi Pond Painting that's been in my mind for some months.
I am going to kiss my fiance artfully.
I am going to use the stones I have purchased to make luscious things for the shop AND something wonderful for myself because I must thank myself, too.
For being brave.
For trying.
For showing up every day as we all do.
Don't you deserve something amazing today? Try breathing as an exercise in grateful love to whomever or whatever: I think you'll find your bounty ever-increasing with every cleansing and refreshing inhalation.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Delicate and Strong
This is a bracelet for a friend ( unfinished colorwise ), who will receive it this week -- when you see the detail of the design keep in mind the bracelet is half an inch wide.
Teeny weeny!
One More Reason to love my Pop
My Poppy ( my Dad, we always called him Poppy ) is a quiet, blindingly intelligent man of tremendous dignity and gentle intensity. That he would so adorably pose while drinking from the cup I had laid out for my Mom to use ( she has a wicked sense of humor, but he sat in the place I had set for her and hence, drank from her intended mug ) is just too cute.
It reminds me of the time we bought him mugs for Christmas from our school-sponsored gift shop ( Moms gave their kids money to shop with a verrry limited supply of products to choose from ) and my sister and I bought him mugs that said, " World's best Fisherman" ( my father doesn't fish ) and various other things that couldn't have been further from who he was.
My parents left for China today after staying overnight with us, and for some reason I feel worried. Quietly worried.
I will keep myself very busy in the shop to still my mind: I have discovered engraving, and it feels so lovely.
It reminds me of the time we bought him mugs for Christmas from our school-sponsored gift shop ( Moms gave their kids money to shop with a verrry limited supply of products to choose from ) and my sister and I bought him mugs that said, " World's best Fisherman" ( my father doesn't fish ) and various other things that couldn't have been further from who he was.
My parents left for China today after staying overnight with us, and for some reason I feel worried. Quietly worried.
I will keep myself very busy in the shop to still my mind: I have discovered engraving, and it feels so lovely.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
My Love Affair
It began two days ago when I spied this listing on eBay, having been realizing of late that some of my purses and lighter leather products are so painful to punch and stitch -- the leather sewing machine on the Tandy website is thousands of dollars -- and my left thumb is really really angry at me for using it as a stitching pony half the time------
I am rambling.
I am so excited.
This is going to be my new sewing machine, made in the 1930s, with a brand new motor, able to stitch through 4 layers of garment leather and leap tall buildings in a single bound --
My ( or soon to be ) Singer 201-2, well thought of and rather coveted among the sewing set. I cannot imagine what I will make with this machine, after I practice: thank goodness I save my scrap leather as I will certainly need it!
Later today ( I would say tomorrow but it's 12:30 AM ) I will be listing the bag to end all bags. Convertible. Sunshine-y. Holy moley!!!!!
I am rambling.
I am so excited.
This is going to be my new sewing machine, made in the 1930s, with a brand new motor, able to stitch through 4 layers of garment leather and leap tall buildings in a single bound --
My ( or soon to be ) Singer 201-2, well thought of and rather coveted among the sewing set. I cannot imagine what I will make with this machine, after I practice: thank goodness I save my scrap leather as I will certainly need it!
Later today ( I would say tomorrow but it's 12:30 AM ) I will be listing the bag to end all bags. Convertible. Sunshine-y. Holy moley!!!!!
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