joie de bois

Holy moly. It was a long, tiring, but fruitful day today, friends. I finally set my little pet project free into the world, via my Etsy shop. I still suck at photography, but I hope that people can see these necklaces for what they are, little gems. And bear with me while I work on improving my pictures (it's gonna take some time). So... what do you think?



I got a rush of ideas after a long, long dry spell, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've always loved textural play, combining materials, and learning a bit about random crafts. These pendants are kind of a culmination of those ideas, and I really love how they turned out. I've been wearing the prototype for months now, and people ask me about it all the time. It packs a lot of punch for such a tiny package. I feel like there's a lot of room for play with these too, so hopefully I can expand on the designs!

I have some other projects in the pipeline that are mere musings right now, so expect me to be a bit busier as I start working on those. The goal is to produce more, and stop hoarding my handmade. ;) I know the geometric thing is getting to be cliche, but I'm not tired of it yet! So if you like that sort of thing, clap your hands. And for those of you who don't, there's something for you too. I'm so excited!

I made these necklaces shorter because they layer so well this way with an 18" necklace. See what I mean?



Have at it, and spread the love!

photo-grappling

I learned something today! I learned that I really SUCK at taking photographs of my MischaLee wares (above is one of the ok shots that I slaved over). Actually, I shouldn't say I just learned that, because I did know that before. But I guess it's been so long since I tried to photograph my stuff that I'd forgotten just how dreadful my skills are. I used to have access to an SLR with a macro lens, which might have helped before just a smidge. My little point-and-shoot Canon isn't as ill-suited to this sort of thing as I expected, but still. I gotta WORK on this.

One reason I'm always slow with my Etsy shop is because of this very issue, and how long it takes to edit photos and post things. I dread doing it, which doesn't do me a lick of good. Because what's the point of making this stuff if nobody can see it or buy it? I'm determined to get over this hump somehow. I believe I'll just have to slog through and hope I get it eventually.

I also redid my banners, tweaked the tags and titles, and made some other little adjustments. I'm kind of changing things to see if it makes any difference with sales, hearts, or views. The shop is still sort of in transition, so it's not completely cohesive yet, picture-wise. This was all very impromptu today, and I'm (happy? frustrated?) to say that I spent several hours fiddling with it.



On a side note, here is a sneak peek at something that is months in the making. I have a bunch of people bugging me about this project, so I'm trying to get on the ball. I'm being very secretive about it because I feel like this is one of my better ideas, and I'm very proud of it. But it's also quite labor intensive. I've been wearing one for a while now and I get compliments all the time (yes, you wear it, imagine that!).

treasures

I made a treasury on etsy to showcase some of my favorite picks for home. It's nice to dream sometimes...

mechanifantastic

I am starting to realize just how much I enjoy the videos posted on The Storque. This one on karakuri is especially beautiful, and simultaneously reaffirms my love for Japanese culture and automatons. How amazing is this craft?? I feel like if the world slowed down and just paid attention to what we were doing (like is necessary for a painstaking process such as this), we could fix some of the crappenings of the 21st century.

Karakuri from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

P.S. -- Do you like how I coined the term "crappenings" just now?

Ra Ra rant

The temperature is 83 degrees, the wind is blowing strongly, and the sun is shining. I was able to wear shorts (!!) and go to Maymont Park to get some vitamin D and exercise. Boy, does it feel great. Weather like this makes me so high. Not to mention breaking out Merriweather Post Pavilion and Saturdays = Youth. For some reason I associate those with beautiful days and weather. It seems a shame to listen to them in the winter or on a rainy day. I will never forget the feeling of walking down the dappled path at the park past rhododendrons listening to Bluish and feeling like everything is magical.

I just read an article in Psychology Today that says women benefit even more (because everyone benefits) from communing with nature. I can get down with that, for sure.

I definitely feel like eating a salad later. I think a lot of people associate the word "salad" with deprivation. It doesn't feel like deprivation to me, it feels like eating the earth. Hmm, I don't know how appealing that sounds either, but in my mind it's good.

pipe dreams

My bathroom faucet was leaking. Does anybody know where this is going yet? Most sensible people would call the plumber, or the landlord, as it were. Am I sensible? No, I like to do things myself! I like learning!

I had read a tutorial on fixing a leaking faucet in ReadyMade Magazine a year or so ago. I vaguely remembered it when the drip started becoming intolerably loud at night. I have realized over the mere four months that I've lived in this apartment that I am one of the only people in this building who calls the landlord for anything. So I thought I'd just give him a break, and use my rudimentary secondhand knowledge of plumbing to help him out. What a great tenant I am!

I unscrewed some of the parts of the faucet one lazy afternoon to take a look at it. Well, it didn't exactly look like the faucets in the article, but it couldn't be rocket science. I put it back together and went to the hardware store. I talked to one of the associates there, who told me to just replace the whole thing. No thanks! Rubber 0-rings cost next to nothing, and I wasn't about to replace the whole faucet for the landlord. I bought a wrench and went back home.

So a few days later around midnight, because that's the best time to work on your plumbing, I turned the water lines off and began disassembling the faucet again. All the parts were laid out before me, and I crouched down below the sink to fiddle with the plug mechanism. Confusion set in, as I all at once realized a) there was a very loud sound, b) I was freaking cold and c) it was raining inside my bathroom. Anyone who hasn't been drenched in a matter of seconds cannot understand how long it takes to realize what is happening, haha.

I popped up and saw a geyser of frigid water shooting out of the place where the knob had been. I stuck my thumb into the hole to plug it while I frantically scanned the bathroom for the missing piece. I couldn't reach it, so I went back down, getting wetter by the moment, to shut the water line valve all the way off. Apparently, I didn't do a good enough job with that before. The water had bounced off of the CEILING and all over my bathroom, soaking everything in there, including my Tammy Faye Bakker-looking self. After mopping, hanging my clothes up, and draping things over my radiators to dry off, I put my faucet back together. And called my landlord.

Everything dried out overnight, but the crappiest part was my sink was EVEN WORSE after I tried to "fix" it. The maintenance guy came a few days ago, and he was in there for ten minutes and now it's working perfectly. LEAVE IT TO THE PROS. If I keep this up, I'm gonna have to rename my blog DIY Disasters. <3

a darling DIY Christmas to remember

You guys, I was determined to have a really cute Christmas this year. Normally it's hard for me to get into Christmas, because I work retail. And you know how that can ruin holidays. But I got my apartment set up nice, and being low on cash this year, I decided to DIY what I could to get into the spirit. I thought, What better way to do that than have some live greenery in here? Of course, I have no room for a whole tree, but a branch or two, yes. I got excited about the prospect of selecting a few branches from my parents' property in the country when I went to visit for Thanksgiving.

It was a brisk misty morning when I went out with my dad, the day after Thanksgiving. He dug up the saw, and we treaded across the lawn. He showed me where he thought I might have the best luck finding good branches. In fact, there were a few hanging low in front of his shed. "You'd be doing me a favor if you'd take something from here. Look, it even has pinecones!" he said. We took turns sawing at one of the boughs until it was released from the tree. It was indeed charming, with its scattered pinecones. I was feeling the spirit already.

We chose a few more branches, and I threw them all in my trunk. I bid farewell to my family, and trekked back home to my humble abode. As soon as I made it in the door, I was overcome with excitement, and began pruning my branches and decorating right away. Wow, it came together even better than I expected. I ended up rearranging one area of my living room for that one special branch. This will be the one I put my best ornaments on, I thought to myself. My great aunt Dody, year after year, handmade beautiful felt ornaments for our family members. I had a small collection to myself, and they looked darling on that rustic pine bough. I sat back and surveyed my work. Perfect!

After a few weeks of enjoying my decor passed, I noticed my branch looking wilted. I suppose it was time to water it, so I took a closer gander to inspect the damage. Well, I guess I hadn't looked that closely at it in a while, because I hadn't noticed that the damn thing was infested with FREAKING SPIDERS. It was like a spider apocalypse, there were dead spider bodies EVERYWHERE!! Hanging off the branches, ALL OVER the freaking shelf, on all my things, in freaking PILES on the floor. OH. MY. GOD.

I stepped back and let a few waves of disgust, skeeved-out-ness, embarrassment, and girly heebie jeebies wash over me while I tried to think about what to do. I begged my friend Amy for help, on the internet. "WHAT DO I DO?? I think some of them are still alive, oh god, it's so gross, noooooo... AHHHH!!!" Finally, it just came down to me donning a pair of rubber gloves and taking care of biznass.

Of course, the thing was the perfect unwieldy shape so that it banged on everything and scattered pine needles and spider carcasses all over the place when I tried to remove it to my side porch. Out in the 25 degree weather, I could see that all of the spiders were in fact dead, and learned that rubber gloves are NOT WARM AT ALL. I carefully removed all of my aunt's beautiful heirloom ornaments, also noticing that there was SAP on a lot of them now as well. At least the dead spiders that were on them turned to filmy grey powder when touched!

I threw the whole damn branch over the rail when I was done, put all the tchotchkes from my shelf into my bathtub, and then scrubbed down the entire corner of my living room. I thought about microwaving my ornaments too, that's how creeped out I am. And the only thing I can figure is that there must have been a spider nest in one of those pinecones. THAT'S WHAT I GET FOR TRYING TO BE CUTE. Maybe I'll still do a DIY Christmas next year, but this time if I have some sort of tree-like thing, it will be handmade, by me!!



GOOD RIDDANCE.