Tree Time!

See me up there? I was a young 27. A few days later I turned 28. Needless to say Big Sur was an amazing and much needed trip away from the city. Much too short though! I can't wait to finish up some things I've been working on. 

My husband Matt enjoying his new favorite rock. We found an awesome trail and in the midst of it found the tree to climb and the rock for sitting. Just lovely :)

Relax, You're in Big Sur...

I will soon be seeing this sign and I couldn't be more giddy about it! Its ok if you're jealous. Buuut, its for my birthday. I turn 28 next Wednesday so my husband and I are headed up to big ol' Sur (as I like to call it) this Friday and staying 2 nights at the Fernwood Motel. Hopefully one day I will be able to afford one of the high dollar places, like the Post Ranch Inn, until that day I will love my Fernwood. Afterall they have awesome live music (i.e. people watching) at the tavern on weekends :)

Here are some photos from a trip a few years back...

In other news, I've just listed my first wood burned piece in my Respect Your Mother shop :)

I'm not gonna lie, I'm obsessed with the smell of cedar. Ever since childhood, when I bought a cedar jewelry box (I wish I knew where that thing was now!!) from an Indian Reservation (I also had a small obsession with all things Native American). Anyway, this piece was made by burning the design into a slice of raw cedar. Below is another shot of this one along with another pendant I made with a tree design. I can't wait to make tons more!!

Cheers! Have a good weekend :)

Stitchy stitch...

I got my sewing machine working weekend before last (I think. Time has sort of been a blur lately!)

(yay!)

And since I have no current knowledge (you may remember me discussing this in a previous entry) and I am going off of some information in various books I am dying to take real lessons. I found out there is a place called Sew L.A literally on the bottom of the hill under my house along Silverlake Blvd. that offers lessons. I need to get that arranged!

                       

Until then I will continue practicing random stitches on random fabrics that I CAN'T STOP buying from Joanns. I am SO in love with textiles. Who knew?

I've pretty much been setting myself up a little factory little by little, ok I don't know if buying crap every other day is really little by little but whatever. I can't wait to really start sewing up some fun stuff!!

                 

And so I dont go through all of my fabric during my practice phase...

I started practicing on a few tissues the other day. It was actually quite fun! (I was playing with my pinking shears which is why the edges are cut that way)

                  

(my craft area becomes wrecked quite quickly)

For any of you readers who have basic sewing tutorials, please feel free to paste a link to them in the comments for me and everyone else ;)

paper and fabric and wood...OH MY!

I tried out wood burning over the weekend- 50% off coupon at Joanns and a $30 "Versa Tool" creative wood burner= a new hobby for $15. Well- then must acquire wood- but you can buy little pieces for super cheap. Although I am going to have my dad send me some slices of wood from back home. I purchased my dad a wood burner from Amazon for Father's Day because he has been a huge wood crafter lately. Apparently spending hours out in his shop using one of his (yes he has multiple) wood lathes crafting up all kinds of awesomeness.

He made this for me upon my request- an oak log candle holder :)

(oh and he actually said this to me "I know you are all Los Angeles..Respect Your Mother...blah blah so I made this from an oak tree that fell during hurricane Ike. HA! my dad is so Texas- but he tries to understand)

This is just a hobby of his, he is a full time business owner of a water well drilling company back home in Texas but I think he has potential to make this wood lathing a profitable hobby. He actually drove out for a "visit" to California last summer- but really for the sole purpose of buying another wood lathe from someone out here, visiting his daughter was just an added bonus. Haha.

My crafting has gotten out of control and if I thought I had a medium problem in my last entry I suppose it has only increased, I'm just learning to roll with it. Lately it's been paper crafting (cutting):

 that I just started experimenting with weekend before last, a little fabric fusing:

(thanks to Sister Diane over at CraftyPod for this fun idea!)

and now wood crafting (burning):

My first official wood burn I made last night. I'm still figuring out all of the strokes and which tip does what, etc... I think I will watch a few videos on the internet to learn some real techniques.

 Ahhh. Lots of fun. I can't wait to start making jewelry and all kinds of things with the wood. I have been wanting to do that for a while now- with just painting in mind, but now- combining that with burning is twice as exciting!

Cheers,

Julie

Join the Colloquy!!!

So...as you may or may not have noticed- I changed the name of this blog. Not that Respect Your Mother was not a good name, it is after all the name of my business as well as an important statement- I just felt I needed to change the angle.

Alas, you are now visiting the Creative Colloquy blog. I chose the name because colloquy means a conversation, dialogue, or a conference and that is exactly what I would like this blog to be.

So, with that said, please DO feel free to comment and interact often, check in daily and email me with anything you think I may want to include or discuss in the blog. I would very much enjoy getting to know all of you out there with common interests!!

I also updated the design with the new options from blogger, not quite sure how I feel about it yet, any input?

The topic I would like to discuss tonight is something I'm currently struggling with. The medium war.

(Felt clip holder)

(Clay pendant)

(Fabric/Felt aromatheraputic hair clips)

(Glass tile pendant with vintage book text and felt)

No- my clay, fabric, felt, glass, etc... are not bombing one another. The war I speak of is purely internal and I'm thinking, completely useless and a waste of thought.

It's just that- sometimes I feel like "Am I betraying my clay right now?!?!" when I am playing with my fabric. And the fact that I started out making jewelry with my original Etsy shop. Oh my god I just realized TODAY is the 1 yr anniversary of my opening my Respect Your Mother shop on Etsy! Whoa. I should have totally had a sale or something. It kind of snuck up on me. Anyway. Interesting. So- I had never actually intended to do only jewelry when starting out with RYM but I think I sort of got addicted to making it so I stuck to it pretty seriously for a while. I remember always thinking, ok so when will I start working on the other things I have sketched out to make?? Some of the things I had made before opening my shop at the urging of others weren't even jewelry. They were shoes, well, altered shoes, and an altered shirt and some other things of that nature. As well as some clay pendants of course.

What I'm trying to say is, I haven't made jewelry in a while and I feel weird about it. Hahaha. But at the same time I'm starting to do a lot with fabrics and such and I am absolutely LOVING it and reallllly wanting to learn so much more on technique and skill.

For example, I whipped this up last night.

Another view...

I can't say I know what I am doing. But I recently learned about interfacing, fusible web, etc and got excited that there was a product to help stiffen the material. I have made 2 other pouch type things previously but this one is my favorite so far. I don't have the inside photographed but the problem is I just don't know how to finish off edges and what not!! The outside is linen, with a felt tree and a little polyfill inside of the tree for the dimensional feel. I think I will add something else to the opposite side. Maybe some poppies? I have a cute yellow gold floral fabric lining the inside, with the stiff interfacing fused in between.


I'm sort of going off a little internet researching, and the knowledge I gained as a little girl when my mother taught my sisters and I how to sew. So this was probably like 20 years ago or so. Oh and the Home Ec class I took freshman year of highschool. I got a second hand sewing machine for Christmas from my inlaws and when I pulled it out a while back I could NOT figure it out and it frustrated me so I put it away. I do think it might have an issue and need a repair, I SWEAR I was doing everything right but the thread would get tangled on the underside of the fabric. I need to take lessons. I ordered a used book on sewing technique online last night (only a dollar! heck yes!) from abe books.

Oh, and to continue with the dilema of "cheating" on certain mediums while spending time on others, I have the HippityClippity shop which is strictly hair clips, which by the way I can't even decide if I should sell ONLY childrens clips in their which was my original intention, and sell adult ones in my RYM shop or put all clips in HC?? But HC is such a kiddy name. Ahhh. See? I have decision making problems. Haha. Input is CERTAINLY welcome.

Anyway. Enough about that. There are HUGE problems going on and my internal war of mediums so completely trivial. Anyone living down near the gulf and have seen the oil spill first hand? I get so sad everytime I think about it. I feel so removed being all the way over here in California, but I am originally from and grew up in the Gulf area of Texas, between Houston and Galveston. Hey someone tell me what you think of this- I ran it by my husband and he said he didn't think it was good taste but I don't think he understands my point. I have earrings that I sell in my RYM shop, I Love the Earth Earrings, and a few weeks ago I thought about making a version of them that have an ugly black splash of paint in the area of the gulf, to really exaggerate on this terrible problem, like a political statement against the awful oil companies like BP, and donate ALL of the proceeds (minus the shipping cost) to the recovery down there. If I can't physically be there, I would atleast like to do my part. After all, the creation of RYM was not only to be inspired by the planet, but to help save it. I have been donating 1$ per sell to Greenpeace since the opening of my shop a year ago. It is my mission and passion to help this beautiful planet!! Anyhow- what do you think of that idea? Is it somehow in bad taste or do you understand my angle? Input please!!

Have a happy day/night!!


Julie

Off to Home Depot

Eeee! About to head off to Home Depot to get materials for my new craft table. I'm going to go with the awesomely cheap alternative of cinder blocks and wood! Stay tuned....

Happy Birthday Matt!

Today is my husband's birthday. Happy Birthday Matt!!! I love you young one. He is finally a mere 26 today. I, however, am approaching 28. Rather quickly. Ahhh.

(haha. this photo is from when he was only a young 23 or maybe 24 yrs of age and had recently moved out to los angeles to live with me)

So we have been on our strict diet for 3 1/2 weeks now. We haven't had sugar or bread. Ahhh. But starting today we can begin eating larger portions as well as a little dairy, nuts, oils, and a few new veggies. I'm SO glad. It was getting soooo boring. However I have lost 18 pounds!! And Matt has lost I believe like 22!! We are now in the "stabilization" phase and are not supposed to lose more than 2 pounds in the next three weeks while our metabolism stabilizes. And then after that we are allowed to slowly add back in sugar and bread. We are so very excited about our new bodies. Woohooo :) (we both put on extra weight after marriage. ugh. we our keeping it off foreverrrrrr)

So I went to the boutique yesterday that I had an appointment for consignment selection with- I get everything prepared, which even distracted me a bit from the 2nd to last episode of Lost everrrrr! I rush over there after work and bam! No one is there and the closed sign as up. I felt sad and stood up. Haha. I'm hoping we can reschedule, I'm sure something came up and they had to close it down early or something. It is called Mila-A Boutique for Little Tots in Atwater Village. It's really cool and gets really good reviews on the internet, so I'm hoping it will work out.

I made a few new pieces over the weekend and Sunday I met with my bf Julie in the park and I demanded to use her as a model for a few shots. Here they are...

                                    

                   

The one above is made with a hand cut felt flower stem and concentric circles of vintage fabric for the flower head, on a layer of burlap and backed with felt.

                   

This is my new favorite one I've been wearing everyday since its creation Friday night. Whether it be in my hair on clipped on the neckline of my shirt or dress. Either way it adds a lot of fun to my wardrobe!! Hand cut felt leaves with a burlap and fabric center.

Spread the love? (or should I say "like"?) -->

Cheers!

clinging to spring

Ahhh the end of spring is nearing. Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to summer but there is just something so magical about spring. Also I'm not gonna lie...when you live in southern california the beginning of summer is basically a prolonged spring. I've been checking the weather back home (ok actually i have as many cities as allowed in the iphone weather app to check on. i'm a strangely curious person. a few on my list: Alvin, TX (my hometown), Big Sur, New York City, Sleepy Hollow, Athens Greece, San Francisco and more) and the temp has been in the 90's! Gah! I think its hot when it hits 77 here. Pathetic. But hey, you get spoiled and quickly forget how terrible weather can be elsewhere.

So I'm kind of sad because today when I was watering my container plants I noticed they were not doing so well. For example I swear it looks like there is mold growing in my beets. WHYYY. Anyway. I think they may not be getting enough sunlight. Hmm.

OH! I'm so excited and proud of myself. Today when I was stopping to get coffee I parked right in front of a children's boutique, which I have so many times before. I have always wanted to go inside and talk to the owner about selling my hair clips but I just never could quite build up the courage. It just seems so audacious. Like "Hey! Look at this! Sell it please!?" haha. But it was really easy and comfortable. I just kind of asked her about how the process would be to sell things in her shop and then I pulled out some of my business cards from Moo.com that have photos of my products on the back (awesome idea). Her daughter was there too and she LOVED them. So that was good. Anyway so get this....next Wednesday I am bringing in my collection for consignment selction!!!! WOoohoooo. Now I feel confident enough to take my things to other places for consignment consideration. Way cool. Etsy is just way hard. Too many sellers on there to stand out.

I roasted large chunks of red, green, yellow and orange bell peppers for dinner and it was SO yummy. I need to do that more often. Just thought I'd share that piece of information. Not sure why. It may be because of the iced espresso I'm sipping on. Makes me "mouthy" as husband lovingly refers to it.

I will now leave you with a piece of spring. My spring flower patch hair clip to be exact. Enjoy!

So cheery and springish ;)

Buy Spring Flower Patch Hair Clip

Respect Your Mother in Silverlake, California

Respect Your Mother in Silverlake, California

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Hmmm...

Hellooo.

So this Saturday I got my container gardening all set up and planted and took tons of photos during the process and MUCH to my dismay....

I somehow deleted all of the photos on my camera while trying to change some settings. LAME. I know. BUT good news: most of the seeds are already sprouting!!! So freaking exhilirating. For real. Pictures to follow in my next post.

Well I have photographed the mixed greens that are sprouting so I can show that one.

P.s. Kinda yuck, but I'm growing this particular container in the window sill of my bathroom. It gets the best sunlight! Ha!

I can't wait to use the veggies that I grow. Although who knows if any of them will grow to maturity in these containers. I'm trying to grow beets and carrots in a container, probably not gonna work but fun nonetheless.

So last night I pulled out some of my hair clip craft materials for the first time since being in my new place. I had to declare a spot on the floor as my temporary craft station. I hope to build myself a work table in the near future!

See that cabinet thing in the background, this past weekend I painted and distressed it to make it look older. It was basically the color of the wood floor and I didn't like the way they looked together so I decided to paint it a light sage. Home Depot is fun!!

Umm also, if anyone could tell me, why the hell does Blogger change your font and alignment after adding a photo. Someone help me out here, what am I doing wrong!!!

Anyway. I made one adult clip and one child (or adult) clip. It was a lot of fun to make things again. I'm going to post a picture of the "adult" one showing an example of a different alternative for wearing my clips. I like to just clip them onto my shirts in various places. It's tons of fun!

Fun, yes?

The back layer was made from a piece of a vintage suitcase that finally bit the dust last year. I knew there was a reason I hadn't thrown it away yet! The other layers are felt, fabric and burlap!

And here are a few shots of the "kid" or "adult who isn't afraid of bright colors" clip.

A "packaged" (I've used a lot of these: "" in this post by the way) view.

An intimate encounter. I love how you can see all of the threads in this one.

Being modeled by the lovely Violet (whom I nanny), who is seriously teething these days. Not sure if a teething child is worse for the child or the person taking care of said child ;)

Love it? Purchase it here!

 

What do you think? I have SO many ideas for crafts that I haven't even materialized yet. I hate that, because I know I lose so many of those visions before I get a chance to make them. My creativity flows strongest just before falling asleep. Grrrr.

Anyway. I need to go prepare lunches to take to work tomorrow for my husband and I and make our "apple surprise" night time snack. (Slice an apple, put in a bowl with a little water, and sprinkle stevia and cinnamon for a guilt free yummy treat!!) We are on a strict diet right now as we both have some weight we could stand to lose. I've gained about 20 pounds since we got together almost 3 years ago. OUCH! I'm 27 now, and I can't let that stick with me. Its going AWAY. SOON.

Goodnight blog world.

"Erf" Day 2010

Well good evening fellow earthlings. Hope you all did something nice and earthy today. The weather was pretty terrible here in Los Angeles today but I managed to dedicate about and hour or so enjoying and feeling grateful for our great Mother, Earth.

While I was at work Miles and I (who is responsible for the "Erf" in this blog title) finished some miniature painted earths we started yesterday then cut them out and went around his house taping them next to every light switch and some of the water faucets as a reminder to conserve energy. He was totally into it which is really cool. He is a neat kid like that. (He is 3)

And, we also painted some leaves and rocks....

I also read Miles one of my favorite books from childhood. It had a profound effect on me and my relationship with the planet. I'm so thankful for my mom for discovering this book and sharing it with my siblings and I. The book I'm refering to is Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg. 

                              

I'm sure many of you have heard of this book and might share similiar sentiments about it as I. I just can't say enough about its awesomeness. At some point last year I started thinking about volunteering at local schools, reading it to the children to educate them about protecting the planet. I still think this is a good idea. I should do it! I ordered this particular copy last year from Amazon and I love the inscription I found inside.

The imagery in the book is amazing. I think it is why it had such an impact on me at a young age. It came out in 1990 so I guess I was about 7 or 8 when I first read it. 

                                          

After leaving work I drove over to Griffith Park, ordered a soy latte and the most amazing lavender vanilla shortbread cookies from the Trails cafe down at the bottom and then drove up to the top where the observatory is, the view up there is amazing. It was raining lightly but I didn't mind. I was feeling very connected to the earth and the universe. I love that feeling. I didn't have my camera with me so I don't have any pictures of this. Well I had my iphone camera but it just really doesn't do it justice.

Then I made my way over to Home Depot to and picked up some supplies for a little container window sill garden. I'm SO excited to get that set up this weekend. Hopefully the weather will warm up in the next few days. Gosh I can't believe myself, I'm such a Californian these days. Go away rainy coldness, I need me some sunshine ;)

Then I picked up my husband and we can came home and ordered Thai food. Haha.

I'm SO cold right now, our new place actually has gas heating vents throughout which we used a few times when we first moved in so I know they DID work, however I noticed yesterday evening that it stopped working and I have a sneaking suspicion that the hook up of the gas dryer last week has interfered with the heater!! Ahhhh. Need to call the plumber that set it all up and see if he can make it work again, because I have no idea where my space heater is. It gets mighty cold up here on this hill with all of these windows and hardwood floors. Eeeeee.

Anyway. OH yeah, this morning I found some papers in my Just a Dream book that I had stashed in there, I'm thinking like last March or April and one of them contained sketches and ideas for what eventually became Respect Your Mother. Its so cool, I'm so glad I found it. It gives me new inspiration plus makes me feel proud that I did move forward and create an online shop to sell my things and reminded me of ideas that I never materialized before and would like to do so now. Here is a photo of the paper ;)

                                    

I'm a serious list maker and am always jotting down words, lists, ideas, sketches on random paper and I love finding them later, its like a little mini journal of your life that you can look back on think wow, so thats what was going on in my world at that particular time. I usually become nostalgic. This group of papers contained a to do list in preparation of my mother's visit out here last spring. We had such a good time. She helped me create my outdoor garden at the old place. So much fun!

Annnd I will hush now. Happy Earth Day!

Super Woman

If I listed all of the things I accomplished this weekend, you may start suspecting I'm Super Woman, so I probably shouldn't list it all, but I'm feeling super good about it :)

It feels so good to have a really productive weekend, especially after last weekend, when I let my hormones get the best of me (i.e. lady time) and I pretty much stayed in some sort of stationary position for a large portion of it. And I can't stand being still like that. It was hard. Especially knowing the zillion things I needed to work on.

The concept of moving is so strange, you pack up all of your belongings just to unpack them all again very soon. We have been in the new place now for nearly 3 weeks and I'd say we are now ALMOST done with all of the unpacking. I finished the kitchen today and I can't explain how great that makes me feel. I put together a pantry friday all by myself except for the very last step where I had my husband help hold the door in place while I screwed in the hinges. I also put together a wall shelf thing in the bathroom and drilled it into the wall. A power drill is super fun by the way ladies, if you have never assembled something before, I say next time try it out for yourself, its a good feeling.

 Oh my, I almost forgot, WE HAVE A WASHER AND DRYER now! Haha. You have no idea HOW exciting this is. When you live on a hillside and have to trek up and down stairs, possibly walking a long way to your car depending how close or freaking far away you last parked on the street, with a huge hamper of laundry, its a very tedious experience. But NOW, now, we purchased our very own washer and dryer because the new place had hook ups in the "upper basement" which the entrance to is literally right outside our door. They were delivered Wednesday but some extra work was needed to create a vent so the set up was completed this Friday and when I got home from work I began the 4 or 5 loads of laundry that I did all through the afternoon, evening, and night. Yippeee.

Anyway, I will soon do I post where I show photos of the old place and now the new place. I'm also starting to do some re-photographing of more of my crafts for both of my Etsy shops (Respect Your Mother & Hippity Clippity) as we have a massive and lovely amount of beautiful natural sunlight here in the new place.

Here are some new photos of one of my clips for my HippityClippity shop that I hadn't yet listed in my shop until tonight. I actually have quite a few pieces for both shops that I haven't listed in my shops yet. It just takes so much time and I'd rather be doing something else I suppose. Oh well, eventually they will find themselves listed. Until then, here is one of my favorites, a leaf and ladybug hair clip. I think its super cute for spring and summer. I hope you agree. Its made with felt and the ladybug was made with a tiny red pom pom and black thread ;)

                                                                         

   

This clip may be purchased HERE

Hi there. So, Earth Day is coming up. Pretty exciting. I hope the weather permits to do something fun and earthy outside!! Yesterday and today I completed an order for 2 pairs of my "I Love the Earth Earrings" so I decided to rephotograph them since the photos I had on Etsy weren't really up to par in my opinion, although its one of my best sellers, so I guess something was going right. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm going to post some of the new photos here for Earth Day inspiration and I hope to start crafting again reallllllly soon. My husband and I just moved! Pretty excited about it as the new place is much bigger, well, ok its still a small place compared to most I'm sure but we are pretty freaking happy about it. Anyway- my crafting materials are stashed away in a closet at the moment and the house still has boxes everywhere. I had to totally improvise when I made these 2 pair. So. Since I'm tired, here they are. Ta daaa! Oh, and P.S. another day I will blog about business cards from Moo.com, they are way cool!

Oh yeah...so I'm also running a buy one get one half off on my Etsy shop on these little cuties. They happen to be my "best seller" so I thought I would spread the earth love and discount them for Earth Day! You can purchase them here:  I Love The Earth Earrings