Stitch!

Hooray! I got my acceptance letter for Stitch last night! In case you don't know, Stitch is this awesome fashion show and craft bazaar that happens here in Austin every November. It started out in a grimey little club off of 6th Street, then last year it moved to Austin Music Hall and this year I hear the venue is going to be even bigger! That is pretty amazing growth - and for good reason, the show rocks with great fashion and super cool merchandise. The tickets will probably be going on sale soon so if you want to attend this year, be sure to get them early because it sells out! More info at their website http://www.stitchaustin.com/

I am working on getting the newest necklaces up on the site. I will be dropping off some of them at Parts and Labour today too! And... my jewelry has found a new store home which I will be telling you about very soon. Oh yeah, and there are a few new bracelets as well!

Looking forward to another fun creative weekend getting some stuff ready for ACL. Hope everyone has a nice long weekend planned!

so many rings

Last week we made hundreds of new rings. Omg, so many rings. I have had really great creative flow lately. This past weekend I made 50 new charm necklaces. I'll be putting those up next week. Sometimes when I am looking at these old pieces I get this shudder of happiness. I hope they make other people this happy too.

I have some really great news. My jewelry will be for sale at Austin City Limits Music Festival next month in the Austin Craft Mafia booth. I will be out there too helping out my friend Liz of Bolsa Bonita in her booth. I am excited because I have never gotten to attend the festival before. Bob Dylan is playing on Sunday night and I am really excited about seeing him. Wow, I just realized my blog has been especially Bob Dylan heavy lately. Sorry about that.

Freedom

I am so excited! My son, Forest, has gotten his driver's license. Yay for him. I know he is really enjoying the freedom of being able to go somewhere when he wants instead of waiting around for me. Freedom for the both of us!

I have been spending lots of time down on 2nd Street in Austin. Met up with my friend Sarah yesterday for a salad at Leaf and today I met up with Amber for a coffee at Jo's. On the way today, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a tree following me down the street. I was so excited! I hurried to park and then ran to take a picture. They were moving a tree that is more than 100 years old from a vacant lot to the shores of Ladybird Lake. It was a pretty cool thing to see!

I was also on 2nd Street last week to meet with Elizabeth at Eliza Page. She picked up 14 new Ornamental Things pieces. Stop by and see them! Some of them were new and hadn't even made it onto the website yet.

Sassy Sally's

I am excited to announce that Ornamental Things jewelry is now being carried in this super cute little store called Sassy Sally's in Ventura, California. This place is all about offering super original pieces, encouraging individuality and supporting indie artists. Lindsay Miller, the owner, also carries her own sweet line of clothing that is made from repurposed items so you know I feel a special affinity for what she does. Check out some of her designs:

If you are ever in Ventura I hope you will check it out! Whoa, I just realized that as I write this, that song Ventura Highway (1972 mix - by America) is playing on my itunes. I love that!

Baseball and Cassette Tapes

This past weekend we went up to Arlington to celebrate my dad's birthday and see a Texas Ranger's game. Baseball games are pretty fun. I enjoyed spending more time with my niece, Maddie too!

Right before we left, Forest was cleaning out the trunk of his new car (my old car) and unearthed a bag of cassette tapes. It was pretty funny looking through some of my old tapes. It seriously felt like some kind of archaeological find. The eclectic contents included Tom Waits, John Coltrane, Nirvana, The Ramones and several mix tapes including that Bob Dylan mix tape that James made for me, which I mentioned a few blogs back. Pretty neat!

I am happy to say that my assistant, Julie is going to stay on with me permanently. She has been such an amazing help to me over the last month. There is no way I could have accomplished so much in the past month without her. I am so happy she has agreed to stay on!

Jewelry Boxes

This weekend I organized my own jewelry. I had purchased a big old jewelry box at a garage sale a while back but it needed a good cleaning out so I was putting it off. Then yesterday I went out for a little thrifting adventure and found another jewelry box. So, I came home and got busy cleaning them both out.

It was pretty fun going through all my jewelry. I found my charm bracelet which I thought was lost forever. I have vintage jewelry pieces that I bought when I was a teenager. My best friend in high school and I used to have so much fun going to garages sales. I am so glad I still have some of that jewelry! I also found a bunch of my early beaded necklaces (circa 1992) as well as some jewelry that was given to me as a gift from James and my mom. I am super sentimental about jewelry. I also have pieces from my grandmother's, both of whom totally inspired my love of jewelry. It was a really fun project and I really like my new jewelry boxes.

No sooner had I written my last whiney blog entry about being a homebody than I got an email from my friend, Sarah, inviting us to join them to go see Metropolis at the Paramount on Saturday night. We had a great time! We ate dinner at a Moroccan restaurant beforehand, barely escaping the evil eye of the belly dancer we didn't know we were supposed to tip. Seriously, I had to come home and look up belly dancing etiquette to find that out.

The movie, Metropolis, was really amazing. The sets in the movie are so ahead of their time. When I fell asleep that night, it inspired good dreams. I was driving around a foreign city by myself and seeing amazing architecture. In the dream I had forgotten to bring my camera and I told myself to just enjoy it and not worry about. I love when you get positive thinking in your dreams. In honor of the movie (made in 1927) I wore my new necklace design that I think sort of has an art deco theme.

I heart Summer!

I have really enjoyed the warm weather. I am not usually a fan but after all that freakish rain, it's nice to see sunshine and blue sky. I even like the heat right now. Never thought I would miss that.

Thank goodness, my camera is alright. When James took it in, it magically started working. What a relief!

I had another productive week in the studio, I have been producing so many new designs. I love dumping a whole bunch of new stuff on the site. Tonight I finally figured out a way to photograph my earrings that I like. Earrings have always been harder to photograph than anything else! I love learning about photography.

I am feeling like such a homebody lately. I kind of feel like all I ever do these days is work and watch Sopranos and sleep. Oh yeah, and exercise. That's about it! Last night James and I went out for Thai food at Thai Passion. It was so nice! I have been thinking that maybe I need to get a new hobby since I turned my hobby into a business. I tried embroidery but I don't think I am really into it. Maybe I should pick up reading again. I don't read as much as I used to. That's sad! Okay, that's it, I am going to order the new Michael Chabon book. Now. Other book recommendations are totally welcome.