Full Circle : A Pastel Spring

Ahhh, Mondays! I know it might sound crazy, but I love Mondays. I love the potential that a new week brings. I'm either refreshed by a weekend off spending time with loved ones, going on small, local adventures, and tackling random projects or I'm revved up from all the great energy from my lovely customers and collectors who have visited me while I was vending at a craft fair or other event. 

That's not to say that everything is hunky-dory right now. There are things right now that are really driving me up a wall with frustration. But, ultimately, they are showing me how to live my lie and relax into it even when I can't control everything. Especially when I can't control everything. 

Looking over my photos from last week, the main unifying theme I was seeing was pastels! I am currently obsessed with all pale colors, and I think it's showing in my wardrobe, my displays, and the new wall hangings I've been making on a whim (see the second photo from the top.) Those wall hangings are hopefully going to make it into my Etsy shop in the next week or two. 

In the meantime, happy Monday everyone!

Mini Berkeley Adventure

Last Saturday Jeff and I took the day and just sort of winged it. We knew we wanted to just chill out, have some good food, and not have to deal with traffic on the bridge (so SF was out.) We stuck close to home and had a pretty awesome day in Berkeley. We tried out the newish BBQ place, Smoke, on San Pablo, walked through the local plant nursery, hunted through treasures at Omega Salvage, and admired adorable front yards in the resdential neighborhoods near by. 

I seriously lusted after that settee in one of the photos above. If I had the money and space it would have been mine! Oh well, another time, another place, another settee =) And that idea of using old drawers as planters is definitely going to happen in my yard in the near future!

If you've got interesting/inventive gardening ideas for the spring, share them in the comments if you like. Happy Tuesday everyone!

LWM ~ Keeping it Comfy

Listening ~ Roy Orbison's album Mystery Girl. Sometimes I get in this place where one album and one album only can really fit the bill for my listening pleasure. Currently it's this one.

Wearing ~ Loose flow-y, comfortable clothes like this dress scored off the clearance racks at Anthro. 

Making ~ Tassel jewelry. This week I'm having a little sale on all tassel jewelry in the Etsy shop. Use coupon code "vintagetassel" and get $15 off any tassel pair of earrings or necklace. 

I hope everyone's week is going well. Happy hump day!

Full Circle: Take Time to Slow Down

Those of you who know me well, know I hit a bit of a road bump in February with my living situation. (Don't worry, all is well now!) During those tumultuous times I find it's even more important to take some time to just slow down. 

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet on this Wednesday. That photo of the natural dye books is hopefully a foreshadowing of new things to come for Tangleweeds. It's too soon to say for sure, but it's fun experimenting regardless! Happy hump day everyone!

This Life: It's Going To Be Tough

Back at the beginning of February I was interviewed for the Dear Handmade Life blog (run by the same lovely gals that put on the Patchwork Craft Fairs that happen throughout California.) One of the questions I was asked was: 

***What inspiring advice would you give to other creatives be they established or just starting out?***

photo from 10+ years ago when I had my first handmade jewelry business: Designs By A Hummingbird

photo from 10+ years ago when I had my first handmade jewelry business: Designs By A Hummingbird

Here's the answer I gave:

"The advice I’d give to creatives, whether just getting started or well established might be a bit unexpected: It’s going to be tough. Whether or not you’re trying to turn your creative passion into a business, it’s going to be a lot of hard work. It’s going to be amazing too, but sometimes the hard and difficult times will outweigh the shiny-bright-life-is-a-breeze times. I say this because I think it was the advice I needed the first couple years of going full time with Tangleweeds. I really thought I was doing something wrong because I didn’t wake up every morning thinking “gosh, my life is amazing because I get to work for myself!” So, if you’re waking up thinking “gosh, this is really HARD,” you’re not doing anything wrong, in fact you’re probably doing something really really right. It just takes some time for it all to start paying off."

I hesitated before I gave that answer, worried it would sound depressing or too negative or too much like I'm not over the moon grateful for the opportunity to be able to work for myself. But then I went ahead and gave that advice anyways, for the reason I stated above: it was the advice I needed when I first started out.

There is so much inspiring fodder, to be found on the internet, about people setting out and turning their creative passions into a successful business. I lapped that stuff up like an abandoned kitten when I was toiling away at my "day job" and trying to work on Tangleweeds in every spare moment I could find. By the time I left my day job to pursue Tangleweeds full time I was of the mindset that everything was going to be AWESOME, that I would find the time I needed to get EVERYTHING done, and that motivation and inspiration would stalk my EVERY MOVE as I went about my new life. 

Well, as any of you tried and true handmade business folks out there know, the reality didn't quite look like the dream. While I was toiling away at the day job I had painted such an overblown picture of what my life would look like when I finally got to work for myself full time that the let down was pretty severe. I had a long way to fall.

But here's the thing: (and one of those times where I see with hindsight that life really was watching out for me) I needed that dream, that rainbow filled sky of what my future would look like, in order to have the guts to leave my job. It was in part what propelled me forward and kept me focused on Tangleweeds even when things were growing at a snail's pace. 

The first two years of running Tangleweeds full time were really rough. So many times I wished I was one of those people who had a viable career to "fall back on" or another latent passion to pursue. There were times when I simply wanted the rest of my life to quiet the fuck down so I could focus on Tangleweeds 24/7. And there were the other times when I wanted to set a match to Tangleweeds and never look back. No joke (just ask my boyfriend, he can testify to this ;-)

Eventually though, through hard work and learning the fine art of "letting go", things started to coalesce in such a way that I actually started to LOVE my work again. I never stopped loving it, I had just become so overwhelmed by the initial stages of the business that I had stopped feeling the love. Yes, I absolutely still work just as hard as I did when I first started Tangleweeds six and a half years ago, but I've become better adept at setting things aside for REAL days off. I've also better learned how to accept what I have to give. Period. Usually things don't quite turn out the way I expect, whether that's a craft fair I'm selling at, a blog post I'm writing, or a new piece of jewelry that I'm designing. That's part of the art of what I'm doing. I can see that now, but it was really hard to see in the beginning.

Coming full circle here, I was prompted to write this post because of what a good friend told me the other day while we were having coffee out in Jack London Square. She said that the advice that I gave in that original interview has really ben helping her as she sets out on a similar journey with her illustration business. She also said that she passed the advice along to a fellow creative, someone on their own self-employment path, and that it helped him during a difficult spot as well. 

When my friend (hey Amy Rose!) told me how much my "advice" had helped her and a fellow friend, it really touched me . I share it here now in hopes that it might help another handmade business owner out when the road gets bumpy. Oh, and that topmost, and bottommost photos are from way back in the day (10 or so years ago) when I made my first go at a handmade jewelry business with Designs By A Hummingbird. It's fascinating to see where things have come from and where they have gone and to ponder where they might go. 

The First Day of Spring : Tangleweeds Open Studio

Happy new week to everyone! I'm dropping in here this morning to mention that I am now planning my next open studio. I'm going to be celebrating the first day of spring, on March 20th, with this event! More details to come soon, check our events page or Instagram for the latest info. 

My last open studio event, in November of last year, was such a great time. I loved that I was really able to spend much more one-on-one time with my customers, helping them (you guys!) to make jewelry shopping decisions for gifts for loved ones and gifts for yourself. 

I'm greatly looking forward to the next one and hope to see many of you wonderful folks there!

LWM ~ Old/New

Is this year just flying by for anyone else? Kind of a silly question to ask, I realize. We're all so busy these days! Amidst all of the busy-ness I've been slowly getting reacquainted with some of my favorite music. The 90s album, Stranger's Almanac, from Whiskeytown, is such a good country-rock-folk amalgam. This song, Houses on the Hill, is fairly melancholy, but it's one of those melancholy songs that resonates so completely with me that it just makes me feel more alive when I listen to it. 

Wearing ~ The weather has been so warm lately I've actually been pulling out the tank tops and tank dresses! This dress is one I picked up at Savers in Berkeley (before they closed!) It's a bit short, but nothing a vintage slip layered underneath can't fix.

outfit details ~
dress and slip ~ thrifted
boots ~ Dr. Scholl's
necklace and earrings ~ Tangleweeds (the Double Moon Lariat and the Dusk Earrings)

Making ~ I've pretty much been busy making EVERYTHING. This year I'm really pushing to increase my on hand inventory so it's not such a scramble to fill large wholesale orders when they come in. But I wanted to use this post to let my collectors know that several of my designs are going to be discontinued in the next few months, including these Sepia Petals Earrings. Once I finalize the selection process I'll be offering a limited time discount offer on these and several other designs. Stay tuned for more on that!

So much has been changing 'round my parts lately. . . I'm headed to a closing/farewell party at a favorite shop of mine in Berkeley tonight. I've been thinking a lot lately about how you've really gotta appreciate people, place, and things NOW, cause nothing lasts forever. If anyone else is headed to the Gorgeous and Green farewell party, I'll see you there! I plan to be there around 6 tonight. In the meantime, have a lovely day!

Full Circle ~ Colors in Town

The last week was lovely. I think I'm starting to find more of my own rhythm with work and the rest of life now that I'm living on my own. It's tricky at times; I thought there would be ample time for everything, only for life to show me that time is still a finite resource. Sometimes the obvious lessons in life have to be learned over and over again =). 

from top to bottom:
1. a gorgeous aloe plant in my neighborhood
2. my cozy reading corner in my cottage
3. blue rosemary flowers matching the blue of my dress
4. some Swoops earrings in mid-production
5. out at Point Isabel for an afternoon stroll

I hope everyone had a great three day weekend (if you had Monday off.) My week is busy, but I'm promising myself that I can stop and slow down and even take a nap when need be!