Non-Jewelry Craftiness

Ok, so I know that this is a jewelry blog and all, but I just had to share with you what I was up to craft-wise this weekend! Last week I said that I would rather spend the 4th of July cleaning my craft room than doing anything "patriotic." Well - rather than cleaning, I got to craft all weekend long! First I got a call from a friend in Kentucky saying that she saw a necklace on my Etsy site that she said perfectly matched an outfit she was planning to wear for a wedding this weekend... BUT - she needed a matching bracelet and earrings. No problem, let me whip one up in time to mail it out by Friday morning! I think the end product looked pretty good, considering the short time I had to create the trio. The best part, between you and me, is that all the beads I used for these pieces were given to me by a friend who bought them in hopes of really enjoying jewelry making, only later to discover she was really a quilter instead. Hooray for free supplies! Next on my list was to re-wire some necklaces for my mom (who is STILL in town, which means I still don't have access to my craft room! More on that later this week!). After that, I was pretty pooped with jewelry making for the weekend (though I still need to finish those necklaces for the wedding in Minnesota I am attending this weekend). The Hubs reminded me that I promised to bring the mid-west game of Cornhole with us to a 4th of July cookout. He had already handmade the cornhole board (if you are reading this thinking that cornhole is a food, I don't think you are alone. Read up on this mid-western/Southern/Great Lakes regional pass time game o'fun here), now all I had to do was to make the beanbags. "Sure, honey, I'll just sew them together really quickly." While this might sound like a "no biggie," let us not forget that, though I have had a sewing machine for over a year now (thanks to my friend Erin), I have only used it to make the Hub's and my Halloween costumes (Tinkerbell and Peter Pan - only I was the later!). And those were pretty rough. But, I saw this as a good chance to get to know my sewing machine a little better and also use some of the fabric I have recently accumulated in hopes of claiming my inner Project Runway (RIP until next month, dear friend!). So, with 4 bags of pinto beans and a lonely sewing machine ready on my craft table, I got to work.

I first had to decided which fabric to use, especially since I needed two differing shades/designs/prints, etc for each team. After going through my huge storage bin of fabric, I found this awesome upholstery piece I got from the As-Is section at IKEA. I think it's some sort of ottoman cover, but for $5, there seemed to be enough fabric to salvage.Next I found 4 sections that were large enough to cut from them 2 6"x6" pieces of fabric. I used a totally scientific method - a school ruler and a jelly pen. I also did the same with some upholstery fabric I got for $5 in the same As-Is bin at IKEA (the rest of it is acting as a valance in my living room). Next, I approached the project as I would a pillowcase (though I have never actually made a pillowcase...) and began sewing from the inside out.

I only sewed 80% of the exterior so as to leave room to turn the bag inside out and add the beans. First we turned the bags inside out and then the Hubs filled them up with 1/2 a 4 pound bag of Pinto Beans (courtesy of a coned-up piece of paper). Next I hand-sewed the rest of these bad boys one-by-one. And by the end of it, understood the worth of investing in a thimble (upholstery fabric, people!).But the end result was worth it. Hello, designer bean bags!The Hubs pointed out that the contrast in our projects - he was proud of his rustic, simple, utilitarian cornhole board, while I was proud of my designer-like bean bags! That's why we make a great team! I am totally not going to let that board stay plain wood - as soon as I get a chance, I am painting it in my beloved Marimekko print! It's going to look SO GREAT with those black and white beanbags!

No sooner was I done with my beanbags did the Hubs remind me that I promised to make cupcakes for the party. No creative rest for a gal who has lots of jewelry to make! I figured if I had to make cupcakes for my ::ahem:: favorite holiday, I would at least make them in my preferred 4th of July color scheme (hint: red, white, dark and light blue).

(I added 2 packets of Crystal Light instant flavoring to the Funfetti mix to add some color and flavor, in addition to using XXL cupcake tins. The whole box only yielded 12 cupcakes! My kind of dessert!) Whew! Now, on to a jewelry making frenzy of a week!

I left my ::beading:: heart in San Francisco

They say that you don't know a good thing until it's gone. I can second this saying indefinitely after my weekend in San Francisco. I lived in Berkeley for 3 years (thank you, grad school) and moved from there to LA less than a year ago. I loved San Francisco when I lived there, though was looking forward to moving away to La La Land and away from all the drama that had become my surrounding in SF (isn't that always the case when you are sick of exams and writing papers?). When people ask me if I miss The Bay at all, usually the only things I can list on my "Miss You" list are the stores there (LA's shopping culture is less condensed and quite spread out. LA's Chinatown, for example, is pretty much for local Asians or for tourists who are in the market for faux purses and shoes. In terms of jewelry, I have observed, LA is of a buying culture, as apposed to a making culture. LA's crazy busy highways and lack of stellar public transportation also make it hard to shop - I also miss San Francisco's excellent subway system in which one can easily get to wholesale stores without having to worry about parking or traffic jams!). I especially loved Chinatown when I lived in SF, and frequented it as often as I could for both it's shopping and Chinese language resources (bargaining with the Chinese ladies in Mandarin Chinese is a great way to practice the language outside of the classroom!). I also made a point to always bring my out-of-town guests to Chinatown to both show them this mini-nation within SF's city limits, but also for all the great and cheap souvenirs available with it's crowded, smelly streets. I have always loved Chinatown and felt that, by the time I moved, I knew it better than the average San Franciscan. What I did not know, however, was that San Francisco is TOPS in jewelry supplies wholesale. Don't get me wrong, I always knew there were plenty of jewelry stores that sold beads, jade, gold, etc in Chinatown - I frequented them often and even bought all my wedding jewelry supplies (pearls and findings) in Chinatown. But now that I am actually in the market for such supplies, go figure, I live in LA, which is supposed to be a fashion capital but has NOTHING in terms of jewelry supplies (I met a jewelry designer at an art show here in LA who says that she GOES to Texas to get her supplies. Why has Texas figured this out but not LA?). That said, I truly saw Chinatown with new eyes this weekend. In fact, I saw the whole city with new eyes. I saw things I never noticed before and had such a great time getting around carelessly, without a map and without a prerogative other than taking pictures and finding beads. I returned to LA reporting to my husband that I fell in love with San Francisco all over again -- THOUGH I would never really care to live there as I find its value most potent when experienced in small doses. I love it more now than I did when I could see it's skyscrapers on the other side of the Bay from my window. My friend from grad school, Erin, was kind enough to join me on my crazy and at times quite intense adventure around Chinatown and Berkeley for the best beads we could find - I was a woman on a mission! I visited half a dozen stores within a few hours and walked away with SUCH treasures! I don't want to post pictures of the supplies yet as I want the new items to be a total surprise, but in the meantime you can read the reviews I have written for some of the stores I visited: Lawrence Trading Company, Hoang Jewelry #2, Baubles and Beads, and Scrapbook Territory (a great source for charms - and I used to work here!).

(picture is of Lawrence Trading Company in Chinatown).

Meanwhile, I got to hand deliver a commissioned necklace to my pal Erin while in Berkeley. Erin was in Costa Rica a few months ago and came home with dozens of rad shell beads and figured I could make a few necklaces out of them. I not only made several of starfish necklaces that sold out with a few days of listing, but I also made Erin this fun and abstract necklace:

(Erin took the above photo while in Costa Rica - inspiring or what?!)

And an addendum from last Thursday's post: Chrissy asked me if I had seen Top Chef Masters and if it was brightening up my otherwise reality TV-less Wednesdays. I did watch the first episode and was left feeling "ma ma hu hu" (Chinese for so-so - there is your Chinese lesson for the day!). I will surely give it a few more go's before making a final verdict. Either way, So You Think You Can Dance is up and running, making my Wednesday night routine of making jewelry in front of the tube better (much to my ESPN-loving husband's dismay!). Also, Chroma Lab reminded me that "Bemz and Marimekko have teamed up to offer slipcovers in a range of their fabrics."

H O L Y     M O T H E R   O F    P E A R L.

Watch out, Mr. Wallet. Things might get tight. And, in the spirit of saving the best for last, it seems that Chinatown read my last blog entry. Seriously? No words!

I love you, Wednesdays.

Ok, I actually don't care for Wednesdays, now that Top Chef and ANTM is over and we are still 2 full days away from the weekend. I do, however, love browsing through other people's blogs and seeing the items and photos they find inspiring. I love pictures and colors and patterns, and putting such images together can be super fun and uplifting! Since Wednesdays are otherwise boring in my life and often find me wordless, I am going to start a new lil' feature on my blog:

I love you, Wednesdays.

Here I will post things I find inspiring outside and perhaps not directly correlated with my own work, whether it be other Etsy sellers, photos, fashion, prints, nature, etc. I think that you will dig this for 3 reasons: 1.) Who wants to hear about just me all the time... I mean, really? 2.) This will be a great way for me to formally define what inspires me in hopes of starting conversations and sharing inspirations with each other. I also think that 3.) this will be a good networking tool, as I am always on the look out for blog lovin' and spreading the word about other great Etsy sellers. So, with no further adu, let the lovin' commence! I LOVE BIG, BOLD PRINTS. Love 'em love 'em love 'em. If you were to look around my house you will find big, bold reds, pinks, blacks, and limes surrounded with splashes of prints. Most of the stuff I buy is either at IKEA or stuff I find along the way (CB2 is one of my favorites. Here is a picture of the edge of my living room leading into my kitchen - we painted the main living room wall red; b/w striped rug is from IKEA's as-is section and the Chinese chopstick plates are from Crate and Barrel - I am proud that I bought them LONG BEFORE either Chinese or lime were "in"). One day, while watching Project Runway (RIP until August, dear friend) I noticed a SUPER SWEET wall canvas on the contestants' apartment wall, I saved the DVR of it for months in hopes that I could one day find the print somewhere and make an acrylic version of it myself. I even bought the colors and the canvas, took a picture of the paused TV screen and was ready to go, but when I moved to LA I thus lost the recording and my inspirational piece. And when my camera pooped out on me, well, let's just say I was more upset about losing the pic of the print than I was of my pictures of family and friends. Yes.

Today on Etsy I happened to stumble upon a product that used the same long-lost material I have gone ga-ga over (visit Kid A Collective to see the rest of her super-cute-kid-clothes Etsy shop!). Thankfully, Maria's shop listed the designer and label of the dress' print: Pieni Unikko. Upon further research (Wiki counts as research, right?), I found out that the print is from the Finish line of textile called Marimekko, and was started by a Finish gal named Maija Isola in the 40's!

It has recently found itself in the spotlight again, and people all over the place are ripping the print off, including car makers (too much for me) and this Charles David shoe (ugh).

Thankfully, Etsians know how to do it better. Check out the amazing uses of this print I found on Etsy (now I just need to figure out which one to purchase!)

(You can find these super awesome items on ModDiva, fieldofroses, mabels, lyyli, and chromalab's Etsy sites!)

Now that I know the name, I have discovered that the label, Marimekko, is everywhere. H&M did a line of Marimekko clothes last Spring (and, to my surprise, I recognized the black and white dress on the left -- it's in my closet! Turns out I have been an official Marimekko fan all along!). Apparently Dolce and Gabbana did a knock-off line a few years ago that doesn't really do the pattern justice, in my opinion, and of course is totally overpriced. I would rather make it myself with IKEA fabric (to read all about it, click here). Either way, I am out to find all the Marimekko I can get (thankfully they have a branch store here in LA!). These pattern make me feel alive and inspire me to surround myself with bold color and bright, lively flowers! So, what inspires you today?