Fall, my not so secret lover…

Oh Fall. You make my heart happy. Too bad we have only had a few Fall-ish days here in Los Angeles, but I’m still loving it! We had such a cool summer and when that happens, the beginning of Fall acts as Summer here.
Matt and I are about to head out to Olive Garden (because his mom is always sending us gift cards to it, so sweet!) but I wanted to post because I haven’t in a few weeks. Oh and I changed the blog name and layout a bit. Hope you like it :)

Last night I was looking through all the Fall issue magazines I bought last year (we have a tighter budget this year so I’m glad I spent about $60 on magazines last year, they are still as inspiring as last Fall) and getting super giddy about trying out some of the decor and mainly some of the decadent dishes. Yum!
Anyway- a week or so ago I decided to take on the project of hand cutting a bunch of leaves in beautiful Fall colored felt. Tedious but the outcome was quite enjoyable!! Take a look yourself!

Fall Leaf Necklace

Ultimate Fall Leaf Earrings

another view :)

Fall Leaf Coffee/Jar cozy ;)

   
Fall leaf necklace, earrings, and a jar/coffee cozy :)
Be festive and make your own fall leaf accessories and decor! If you don’t feel like it, each item above is for sale in my Etsy shop :)

P.S. If you have come over here from my Respect Your Mother facebook page, I would love it if you liked my new page, the Folk Collective - I will soon be closing the Respect Your Mother page and will be replacing it with the Folk Collective. Why become a fan? Because from time to time I give exclusive coupon codes! Hurray!

Helllllo and thanks for heading over here from Rachael's amazing blog. And if that's not how you landed here, then you should definitely go check it out!

Anyway thanks for entering the giveaway. I'm excited to be taking part!

Don't forget you guys get to use an exclusive coupon code for 10% off for the rest of the week in my Etsy shop. Just enter: friendsofrachael1

So...
I just wanted to create a little post to greet the giveaway participants and give a brief summary of who I am ;)

(from my trip to Yosemite last weekend!)

My name is Julie. I'm orginally from Texas and have been living in Los Angeles since graduating college in 2005. (I studied Political Science and Geology. Weird combo right? Oh well! Not using my degree anyway :0 )

I'm in love with the Earth, which is what my shop name is all about- Respect Your Mother, Mother=Earth. Nature is so beautiful, inspiring and rejuvenating. I'm continually in awe of her beauty.

I married my husband Matt (also from Texas) in November of 2008...

 (I was dyeing my hair brown back then ;) )

 ...and we have two lovely cats Vinnie and Peter :)

(Peter and Vinnie)

A recent history: Earlier this Spring I decided that since I was turning 29 in July that I would finally be brave enough to quit my (well paying!) nannying job of 4.5 years to pursue my handmade thing full time. Hurray! It's tough essentially living off of my husband's salary alone plus the bits of money I'm bringing in here and there but hopefully I will start expanding soon! I'll also be teaching craft classes with my pal, the craft-famous Mark Montano (a former fashion designer, author of several craft books and also hosted some tv shows!) which is super exciting. (If you are interested in taking any web based courses with Mark and I leave your email address in a comment and I will put you on the mailing list)

I loooove creating. My work is all over the place ranging from fabric to woodburning, jewelry making, wire, polymer clay, knitting and this week I've been teaching myself to crochet (which is sooo addicting)- I love learning new things. I hope to never ever stop learning new crafts and all kinds of things for that matter. You will notice that I've got a bit of everything in my Etsy shop- I'm always skipping around with the medium I work with- which has its positives and negatives but I think it's just how I have to do it. Balance is important though :)

So here I am! Excited about pursuing my passions. I hope each and every one of you are living and/or on your path to a passionate life :)

So please, say hi in the comments. I'd love to hear from you lovely folks :)

p.s. good luck in the giveaway!!!

Road Trips and Yarn

 

SO excited, my in laws are arriving in town this moment and tomorrow morning we are heading out for a long weekend trip up the Pacific coast! We will go through Big Sur (my most favorite place to be!) and then up through Carmel for one night and on to San Francisco for 2 nights. Majestic! I will post photos when we return.

I’ll probably be bringing some balls of yarn along with me because I can’t stop knitting this week! I taught myself a little way to make hats and I’m having waaaay too much fun with it. Hopefully I will get some new work listed in my Etsy shop soon!

My love for yarn doesn’t stop at knitting. The other day I just sort of unintentionally started coiling some yarn around itself and I loved the way it looked so much that I made the design into shoe clips. (Of COURSE my first thought was shoe clips. obsessed.)

 

It was super easy.

What you do:

1. Take a strand of yarn and coil it around and around on top of a piece of felt until you are happy with the size. Mine are about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.

2. You can stitch the yarn down or fabric or hot glue it to the yarn. I just kind of lifted it up in fourths and squeezed a little glue to secure it down to the felt.

3. Then I stitched another circle of felt the same size as the coil to the coil/felt for reinforcement. I just ran a whip stitch around the circle’s edge.

4. Lastly- a sewed a metal shoe clip into the back of each. Ta daaa.

(I’ve never found shoe clips at a supply store, but there are many sources available on Etsy.

Let me know if you have any questions.

If you don’t feel like making them, they are available in my shop HERE. Custom colors available :)

P.s. I encourage you to make your own for your own personal use, but let’s keep originality on Etsy. Please don’t sell my design ;)

Have a great holiday weeeeeeeekend!!!!

xx

 

Julie

Love

Some things I’m loving right now in no particular order:

* Trader Joe’s Peaberry Coffee- grinding the beans and making at home. It’s helping me curb my addiction to buying coffee out. I used to spend SO much $ buying iced espresso 2x’s a day. Yep. So this is helping me with my new budget.

* My new life- working towards my goals and creating full time. Even though the new budget mentioned above limits from some luxuries my husband and I had gotten used to (going out to eat yummy breakfasts every weekend with soy lattes and mimosas and egg white scrambles, oh my! haha, dinner, lots o’ coffee, books, movies, etc.). Working full time for my self is totally worth it and eventually it will pay off and we can add the old luxuries back in little by little ;)

* Creating with wire. It’s fun. Also frustrating, but sometimes you create something new on accident that you like even better than originally planned. I like to switch my mediums up quite often but the past week or two I just keep picking up that wire even when I sit down to work with fabric.

* My early morning walks/yoga. It’s just the most beautiful way to start your day :)

* My city. I love Los Angeles. I’ve been living here for over 6 years but I still find something new every day and I love that. I was in Echo Park the other day and I hadn’t been over there in a while and I fell in love with it all over again. I also recently got acquainted with the fabric/fashion/jewelry district in downtown where there are TONS of places to buy supplies at discounted wholesale type prices. Thanks Mark Montano for introducing me to that area!

* My husband doing this silly dance in the doorway of the living room. I make him do it often to make me giggle. It’s hilarious! I would post a picture of it but I think he would have me killed ;)

 

Now I invite you to list what you love right now, whether in the comments or create a blog post and share the link here. Let’s spread the vibration of LOVE around as its the highest vibration and great for manifesting MORE of what we love. Ready, set, GO!

 

xo

 

Julie

Inspired Ideas

I’m a new age junkie, for real. I love it all. Energy work, meditation, frequencies, vibrations, la la la lala. You know what I’m talking about.  I like to get inspired by all things metaphysical while I create, while creating with source energy. It’s a full circle experience. A few years ago I made a 7 chakra pendant out of clay and acrylic paint.

 

And last night I sat down and quickly created this 7 chakra bracelet by 1) knitting a simple base bracelet (3 rows knit stitch for the desired length- then stitch the ends together to form the bracelet loop! easy peasy!) 2) needle felting little rounds of colored wool roving directly into the knit bracelet.

 

 

Isn’t it super fun to look at? 

This is a super easy project for a beginner knitter and felter, but if you aren’t up for the challenge I’d be delighted to craft you one! Click HERE to view the 7 Chakra bracelet in my Etsy shop :)

 

Thanks so much for looking! Be sure to follow my blog and stay tuned for tutorials and giveaways and new shop listings :)

 

xo

 

Julie

Volcano!

Ok so I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this previously but I’m a pretty huge rock nerd. I studied geology in college and it was love at first rock. I’ve been known to make inappropriate advances toward rock and mineral specimens. (in a joking way, of course. i think. anyway.) It’s something about the history of it all that just mesmerizes me. These prehistoric minerals and rocks created during crazy early earth times- it’s just amazing. Think of what they have experienced. I know not all rocks have been around foreverrrr but you know what I mean. Oh and fossils, don’t even get me started on those…ooooh boy.
So anyway, yesterday I picked up some wire and some pumice stones (a volcanic rock- you may know of it as a wonderful exfoliant for your skin) and created this:

another view:

Patch of dry skin? No problem, buff it up with your trusty pumice ring! Haha.
My husband said “This one is…ugh. Not pretty.” Haha. I of course told him it’s not always about being “pretty” in a traditional sense. I would describe it as “neat”, and I like neat things. And I hope other neat people out there can appreciate neat too!!
Oh and even better, this could be made for a guy too! I would make the wire band a little less fem.
What do you think?
Love it? View it for purchase in my Etsy shop here.
Be sure to add me to your blog reading list to stay updated on new listings, chances for giveaway, and exclusive coupon codes for blog followers!!
xo

Julie

Wired

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well. It's nearly been a week since the last day at my job. I find that time moves much faster without a traditional job! NOooooo. This isn't good.

So the other night as I was falling asleep I got this like download from the universe or something to create some new wire pieces.  So I hopped right out of bed and started creating!  I can't wait to roll them all out but for now, here is my first official one just listed in my Etsy shop.

Isn't the design so simple and sweet?

Anyone else work with wire? I'd love any tips you may have. I just kind of make it up as I go :)


xo

Julie

New Routine

So it's day 3 of my new position as self employed artisan. I've gotta say, I'm loving it however I am still working on getting into my groove. I'm trying to use the first week or so just really organizing my craft area and supplies in order to streamline my productivity.

 I've been waking up between 6 and 6:30 which I LOVE to get the day going like that. Maybe I should even wake up earlier. Yesterday I went on a walk first thing around the beautiful reservoir in my neighborhood and this morning I did some yoga in my livingroom. Such a wonderful way to start the day! Then came back to make coffee and have some toast and take my husband to work. It's nice.

(I took this yesterday morning- sun coming up over the hill and a tractor mowing the grass at the park)

 I spent a large part of the day adding new listings to my Etsy shop that I hadn't gotten around to before so that's good.

(a precious little floral mini tote, available HERE)

I think I will need to pre-structure my days in order to get the most out of them. I'm also thinking maybe planning a weekly blog perhaps even with tutorials and such.

So to all of you self employed artists out there, I am accepting any advice you may have as to keeping yourself streamlined/efficient/productive. It would be much appreciated :)

xoxo

Julie ooolie oooh (that's how my Grandma addresses me in birthday cards. hilarious!)

New Adventures

Exciting news folks! After this Tuesday I will no longer be working as a nanny in order to pursue my handmade business full time as well as teaching craft classes with the amazing Mark Montano!

Hopefully I will have wonderful updates on that soon and on that note, I should be able to actually update my blog much more often. YAY!

No surprise I've picked up another technique to obsess over: needle felting! Yup. It is sooo amazingly cathartic to stab the shit out of the wool fibers with the needle. Haha. Oh and I've been lucky enough not to "stab the shit" out of my fingers. Hopefully my next blog won't be a photo of a bloody finger ;)

Exhibit A: Knit and Needle Felted Necklace

Pin It

Another View

This piece can be viewed for purchase HERE :)

Yay! More to come!

Mother’s Day

Not gonna lie, I’m super proud of this design.

Inspired by Mother’s Day and my own mother’s love for this particular shade of green, I created this lovely spring time scarf for her :)

Will there be many days in hot, humid Texas this spring for her to wear it? Nah, probably not. But will she love it anyway?

I think so :)

Who else crafted up something lovely for their mom?

A New Addiction

Well, I’ve decided to fully embrace my crafting ADD. It’s a new year, a new season and the weather has been just lovely here in Los Angeles!

I’ll let the photos tell the story of my newest  obsession: knitting!

P.s. For those of you interesting in learning to knit and happen to live in the LA area, or for those of you who already knit, please check out: The Little Knittery of Atwater Village where I learned to knit in a 2 hour class about a month ago :)
 


Bows!

 

         

&




Belt! <-- click for Etsy shop listing!





Ruffle!  <-- click for Etsy shop listing!


More to come soon, must get back to the yarn and needles :)

Well helloooo

2011? Whoa.

Apparently I took a leave of blogging absence. I'm going to blame the holidays.

Here are a few things I've been working on. It is definitely time to get back into serious crafting mode!

So a recent interest: I've been dappling in wire wrapping. Oh goodness, and clay I forgot that I picked up my clay towards the end of the year and went kind of nuts with that and have a ton of finished clay pieces laying around sadly waiting to be turned into a piece of jewelry! Eek. Glad I'm writing this blog and reminded myself about this. Oh boy.

Anyway the piece above has two faux pearls and, well, a clay center in blue.

This one is a simple style with one faux pearl.

So I have acquired a ring mandrel to wrap the wire around for size and shape. Super neat. I just have to get the technique down. I bought a book for that. My crafting ADD is insane as usual. I will get really into something and acquire bits of knowledge and materials and then get distracted/involved/immersed in something else.

I love this piece. It is a pressed flower under glass tile backed with vintage lace. I actually just listed it here in my etsy shop!

Anyway. Taadaa. I hope to post again soon! Stay posted.