It's all about dresses and skirts

Been listening to a lot of older music lately, especially old Emmylous Harris. No one compares to this graceful, beautifully vocal lady. . . 

Wearing. . . well, if you follow my Listening-Wearing-Making posts much you've probably noticed that I mostly wear skirts and dresses. This has been the case for most of my adult life (with a few intermittent years where I wore either colorful courdoroys or skinny jeans) mainly because I find them to be so much more comfortable than pants. That, and it is infinitely easier to find cute skirts and dresses that fit at thrift shops than it is pants of any kind. This particular dress was a slam dunk find with it's sheer white floral patterning. . . 

Making - this is a funny time of the year for me. I've just made it through the marathon that is making making making for my summer fairs. Now, I'm gearing up to prepare for production work for the holidays. Right now tho, things are a bit slower, which is wonderful for exploring new designs and ideas for designs. I even took the time to take a torch-fired enamel class at a local bead store last week. So glad I did because it really got the creative juices flowing. Here, a sneak peek of more new designs to come. This pair is an example of my re-purposed tin pieces. There's gonna be A LOT of these for the holidays since you all seem to love them so much!

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

Round Here

As I sit down (or stand at my makeshift standing desk as it may be) to put this post together a little apology about how I don't blog that much these days starts to burble up inside of me. Instead of apologizing tho I'm making this concrete decision: I'm gonna blog as often as I can when I have the time and when I want to and I'm going to stop apologizing for whatever the duration in between posts may be. How does that sound? Good? Good! Life's busy for us all these days. . . 

The photos in this post are sort of a mish-mash of photos from my little trip to Sebastopol for the Gravenstein Apple fair and from arriving back home. Top to bottom:

1. Otis, happy I'm back home
2. Some new work. These won't be available until the holidays. I'm fine tuning a bunch of new designs, many of which will be OOAK or very limited edition.
3. Drinks and dinner at East Bay Spice Company, in Berkeley, with Jeff. It was my first time here and I really loved this place.
4. A window display at Field Day and Friends in Oakland. That's one of my large moon necklaces!
5. More moon necklaces. I really can't make these fast enough this year!
6. Booth set up at Gravenstein Apple Fair in progress.
7. And ta da! Booth set up done!
8. Close up of part of my booth.
9. Rosemary's Garden - a wonderful herbal emporium in Sebastopol. I picked up some herbal tea blends, handmade soap, and some tincture of achey joints while I was there.
10. The dress I wore to work at the fair on Saturday. I love this dress! Hence the hotel room selfie.
11. Stopped by Flying Goat Coffee in Santa Rosa Sunday morning before heading to the fairgrounds. The shop is very clean, high ceilings, BIG, and everything is yellow, white and black!
12. Ear cuffs shipped off to a salon in Santa Cruz after getting back from the fair.
13. Lastly, a dress I picked up on a big thrift shopping excursion when I got back home. 

Well, I'm working on paper work today while I recover from a yoga class I went to earlier this afternoon. The class kicked my butt! I'm supposed to go back on Friday. Fingers crossed I have the will power. . . 

Happy hump day everyone!

Listening Wearing Making Returns!

And, I'm back! I've actually had the time to put together a blog post that isn't another edition of my "Weekly Recap." (In large part due to the fact that I had to get work done on my car this week and am catching up on work on my laptop at a cafe near my mechanic's garage.) So, with no further adieu. . . 

I can't get enough of this poppy gem. The non-conformist liberal in me does wish that at one point the lyrics went something like "girls chase boys, boys chase boys, girls chase girls, etc." Still tho, all "editing" aside, it's a fantastically fun song. 

Wearing - Florals. Lots and lots of florals. As I've mentioned in previous posts I am quite the thrift store maven, junkie, addict (choose your adjective!) Florals (from the late 80s and early 90s) are still pretty easy to find at thrift shops, and even tho I was a teenager during the 90s I still love a lot of the clothes from that time. This long skirt is from one of my recent thrifting excursions. The earrings are my Pale Blush earrings, the bracelet was a gift from Jeff and the rings are two of the many I've collected over the years. 

Making - Lots and lots of moon pieces. My moon necklaces and earrings have been a really big hit at fairs and at shops, so it's got me making double time on these designs to keep up with demand. With every new season I make decisions about which designs to continue and which ones to discontinue. It's safe to say the moons will carry over into my fall/winter collection!

Well, it's just about time to go pick up my car from the shop. I hope everyone's week is chugging along nicely. This time tomorrow I'll be driving out to Sebastopol for the Gravenstein Apple fair. Fun times!

A Capital "L" Lazy Weekend

This was my weekend. Lazy-ness all around. It's so rare that I have a weekend without any events (craft fairs, whatnot) that when I woke up on Saturday and Sunday I wasn't sure what to do with myself at first. I quickly realized I shouldn't do anything I didn't absolutely WANT to do. I spent a lot of time reading (and being completely ADD about it, skipping around back and forth between a couple of books about astrology, a fantasy/sci-fi novel, a collection of essays) and just took the whole weekend in slo-mo in general. 

I did, however, vend at First Friday at the 25th Street Collective on Friday evening. It was a wonderful night. I really am grateful for the events where people come out to appreciate the work of artists and not simply find a bargain for $20 or less. A lot of my regular and longtime customers came out. Much love!!!

Below is a little sneak peek of my fall/winter collection. It's going to be fairly bangle "heavy." I have SO many ideas for bangles right now that I decided to make that the focus of my next collection. There will be necklaces and earrings too (and I'm hoping one new ring design at least.) This collection will be a little more finely curated than the last one tho. After putting together a 40+ piece collection for spring/summer and realizing that I'd bitten off more than I can chew at times, I think it's going to be wise to create smaller, more finely tuned pieces. Especially because I want to continue with new wall hanging designs. . . AND some surprises for the holidays. I'm keeping those surprises under wraps for now tho!

Below, lots of orders delivered to local shops this past week. After the deluge that is Renegade I've been busy re-stocking many of my local shops.

Lastly, I'll leave all of my wonderful customers and followers with a little reminder. I'll be at the Gravenstein Apple Fair in Sebastopol this coming weekend. This is hands-down one of my favorite events of the year. It's so much fun, with live music, cute farm animals and all the apple pie you can eat! 

Happy Monday everyone!

Mindful

This week has been slower and quieter. Its been lovely really. I'm starting to put the pieces together for my fall/winter collection. Spending more time in the yard. Hoping to get some seeds planted for a fall/winter veggie garden. Just taking the time to be more mindful and present. 

Flowering herbs in my backyard. Left: mullein. Top right: skullcap. Bottom right: red clover. So pretty!

Bedroom corners. Yarrow flower essence, flower clippings from the backyard, violet goblet for stray bits and bobbins.

Pieces from the pop up I did with the SF Etsy street team last Saturday. This is a selection of the men's/unisex pieces I now offer. Still figuring out the best way to go about marketing these. Women love them as much as the guys, so I think I'll be listing them as "unisex" when I finally get them photographed and in my Etsy shop. In the meantime, you can always find them at my fairs!

Off to the city today to drop off new inventory at a few shops. Happy hump day everyone!

Oh July, and an event!

What. A. Month. Getting ready for Renegade was quite the journey this year. Building a whole new display, creating new wholesale line-sheets and figuring out how to publish them online, making, making, making and more. At a certain point in the whole lead up to this event I think I just put my nose to the grindstone and stopped concerning myself with so much of the rest of my life. This is what I learned: doing that once in a while is good. It allows me to really get more done in a limited amount of time than I think I can complete. But it must have a end point, a reasonable one that allows me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Oh, and there must be small breaks throughout to keep me energized and focused. Even tho it was really exhausting at times, I'm looking back at all I accomplished in the last two months and I'm feeling pretty darn proud =).

Meanwhile, some photos from the last week or so. . . 

Top to bottom:

1. new pieces headed off to Field Day and Friends in Oakland
2. some fun finds from the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. I went on a little scavenging trip on Monday. 
3. Selfie in the car the first day of Renegade. My sunglasses matched my coffee mug. Funny little moment.
4. Wall hangings. These are brand new. They debuted at Renegade. None of them sold just yet, which I'm secretly happy about 'cause I get to enjoy them in a my studio for a bit longer. I'm really happy with how they turned out. They are my first round at a line of wall hangings, and I have TONS of more ideas for new ones. Hopefully, in time for the holidays I'll have a complete line of them.
5. Some Etsy orders that shipped off this week.
6. My display getting packed up for the weekend.
7. The last two photos are from my booth at Renegade this past weekend.

Lastly, I will be joining a few other members of the SF Etsy team tomorrow for a pop-up shop at Rickshaw Bags in San Francisco. Stop by if you'd like to check out my new men's collection. I'll also have jewels for the ladies too of course. Hope to see you there!

Round here

Round here it's been so busy that apparently I have not been making time to blog. . . But this always happens in July, between the frenzy of getting ready for Renegade and the allure and distractions of summer "break" my days fill to bursting. Anywho, here's some snapshots from my last couple of weeks. . . 

Above, many Tangleweeds shots from fairs and orders shipped out. The second photo from the bottom shows some of my upcycled tin earrings, now available at Gorgeous and Green in Berkeley. 

And some stolen moments - (top to bottom)

1. Relaxing with the summer issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine and gleaning much inspiration from the story about the artist behind this lovely piece.
2. Wearing one of my OOAK pieces at a fair, enjoying it for myself before it finds a new home.
3. Relaxing at Stinson Beach with my nephew, Noah. He literally stayed in the water for 3 solid hours. No ocean is too cold for him!

I also should mention one more thing: I know I was remiss in running a giveaway for the month of June. I think I'm going to hold off on anymore giveaways until August. So, if you're itching to see if you'll be the next lucky Tangleweeds winner, check back in August. In the meantime, I'm gonna be finishing the mini-men's collection I'll have available at Renegade, and prepping for the Temescal street fair this Sunday! Oh, and happy fourth to one and all!!!!

A bit Last Minute

I'll be vending at this event in the city tomorrow if anyone's in the Dogpatch neighborhood and wants to drop by and say hey! It's gonna be kid friendly too, so bring the little ones out if you like. The weather also looks like it's gonna be beautiful. Lovely!

Back and Better than Ever!

(I jest.) After a week's break from the blog I'm back! It's really been a whirlwind week for me. This whole month is really packed and I'm finding myself feeling a bit rudderless at times. Between building new display props for Renegade and working on jewelry production for all of my summer fairs, I'm lucky to get one whole day off every week right now. Things are going to even out come July, but right now is intensely busy (along with Tangleweeds there are many family related plans filling every spare minute of my "free" time.) I'm dreaming of 90 degree heat and floating in a river sometime this summer!

Below, some snaps from the past couple of weeks. . . 

From top to bottom:

1. morning glories in my neighborhood
2. getting ready to vend at First Friday
3. construction time at my studio
4. workbench status: a gazillion projects going on at once
5. Sky Above necklaces made by my lovely assistant, Alice
6. my By Chance necklaces on display at Azil (in San Francisco)
7. morning oatmeal with strawberries (a quick but delicious meal)
8. moon pieces for sale at Field Day in Oakland (it was the full moon on Friday.) My earrings and necklace are pictured here
9. some snapshots from my display at Jack of All Trades in Oakland on Saturday
10. waiting for the train to pass during my coffee break one afternoon at my studio

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

Country Music, Classic Dresses, Simple Designs

Listening to. . . lots of country. Jeff turned me on to this guy after he heard him interviewed on an NPR program. Really good if you like your new country not to "new."

Wearing. . . Lots of simple, classic dresses with layers of long necklaces. I will admit, this is an outtake from my Essentiality Collection, but it's exactly the kind of out fit I've been gravitating towards lately. 

Making. . . lots and lots of my new Rain Drop earrings. These have been popular on Etsy and at my fairs. Sometimes the simplest designs carry so much elegance. 

I might step away from the blog a bit this month as I start to heavily prepare for what is to be a very busy July and August for me. I'll try to drop in weekly still, but (per my post on Monday) I'm realizing that right now some things just have to give a bit and I just want my readers to know that I will be back in full swing soon again! Also, I'll still be announcing a giveaway for June just as soon as I make up my mind about what it's gonna be =)