Currently:

Feeling guilty cooking up lots and lots and veggies! To counter the veggie karma, I found some vegetable poetry to munch on. As a petitioning vegetable I think I'd be the potato..."POTATOES." Hahaaa

Allowing some corny kitty inspirations to work while meditating on this neat fountain!

 Wondering if the state fair light festival will be fun to go to, the fair starts SOON!

Reading a lot about ammonites and hoping to one day find some of my own! These two are incredible!Wanting a kitteh!! Especially one like this, a Norwegian Forest cat. Awesome. Letting crystals and good stuff inspire some blog changes. I've really been appreciating the fact that I get to talk about rocks and gemstones throughout the day and how much I enjoy that. One customer asked me why I didn't major in geology and I didn't really have an answer! Always something to think about I suppose!

I've been listening to "Summer Hits of the 90s" on Pandora constantly, and it's flipping awesome. Really. Cheesy dancing galore. 

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I also signed up for the Reddit teachers exchange! It's a win-win-win...I get to have fun buying school supplies, teachers catch a break and kids have fun, yay! Sign up here!!!!

Snail Mail #3

This package was too long overdue! When I first started working at Nature's Twist I immediately thought of this friend and had been waiting for the right piece for her, and it ended up being labradorite!  Normally I would mosaic or sticker a jewelry box but since this piece was special I thought it should have it's own box. These wooden boxes are 1$ at craft stores and can be painted, mosaic-ed, stained, whatever your hearts desire or covered in fabric like I chose to do this time. You can buy cheap fabric squares at the craft store or use scraps!

I took out the screws and wrapped the box like a present, using Mod Podge to secure and cover. The only problem I ran into is that the box has a hard time shutting now that there are two layers of fabric in the middle but it looks pretty! I took one picture of the pendant with flash and one without, trying to capture the coloring in the stone but it's difficult to capture the iridescence of labradorite! Let me just say this piece is ten times more beautiful in person! Of course, another funny address label and an Oscar Wilde card to inspire - 'Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.'  Happy Birthday!! 

Orange You Glad

Ok so this isn't the best photo, cause it was blown out so I just decided to play with it, or the best 'outfit' but I'm posting both anyways because I love that my toenails match my agates in the window, I love that these leggings and tee are so soft and so comfy I want to fall asleep in them and I love love love this new necklace. I did some work trade a while back for some gorgeous pieces from Nature's Twist in Seattle and I'm enjoying creating outfits around the pieces to let them shine! This outfit is a fairly simple, easy, comfy day kinda outfit for me, but of course I gotta pile on my gypsy jewelry! Vintage silver bangles plus a few others, still lovin' on ma cicada ring and of course, my twisted Tree of Life Labradorite pendant. 

According to an Innuit legend, the Northern Lights were once trapped inside the cliffs up and down the coastline. As two great warriors were fighting, one struck the stone with his mighty spear, releasing some of the shimmering lights into the night sky, but not all the light could escape and the rest is found as Labradorite stone.

I love wearing this pendant, it's like wearing the Northern Lights! 

DIY - Travel Trunk Revamp

Ok, I don't know if this constitutes as a "DIY" project because I didn't make the trunk or anything so I guess you would call it a DIY trunk upholstery? I love travel trunks and I actually collect them - one day I hope to have a legitimate stand up travel trunk but for now this works! I had the great fortune of finding this trunk as it was being left on the street (city streets can often be a goldmine!) so it wasn't even sitting outside for long. A girl was moving out of her apartment and decided not to sell it because it's a little banged up and held some old fabric and costume materials but the best part was she said I could keep everything in the trunk as well, which included this amazing fabric! The raw wood inside would snag at clothes so I figured, what better way to solve this problem then use the free fabric as lining! Ta-da! I used the "present wrapping technique" with a staple gun to secure the main areas, like the corners, and then a glue gun to round off and secure the edges by the metal edging.

I dont know how well this picture shows it but the fabric is super textured, soft and sturdy with velvet fleurs. In the top photo you can see a secret pocket that runs the length of the lid; the last thing I want to do is add some velcro across the pocket to secure it, or maybe some ribbon or something. Either way I haven't done this, hence the rough edge, but a secret pocket is super awesome! Since I'm living in limbo, the trunk is basically my room which of course means I had to go ahead and decorate.

 I, am, an obsessive knick knack collector slash collector of randomness (I got this from my mother). To me decorating means putting my treasures on display, grouping them, regrouping them etc. Here we have some geocaching trinkets, the lizard and the marble. Postcards! Best decorating tool ever, beautiful and versatile. The card on the left (ink) was a gift from my incredible artist friend, Yvette Fuentes. Stones for channeling good vibes, very important (another thing I got from my mother). The small polished rose quartz (stone of love and self love), was a wonderful gift from some very good friends to carry with me on my trip. Quartz crystal and chrysanthemum stone both essential to my 'new path' in life. River rocks, the red, green and orange, or just rocks I've found that I like. If anyone wants to know the specifics of any stone just message me, I'm happy to gush about it!

 

I got this Squidy flask a few years ago from Stellar Custom Images on Etsy and I love it! It's held up really well and they have tons of great images and different items which make great gifts. Below are my favorite postcards from the Road Trip, the ones I'll probably end up framing for my next real place.