Secret Stanhope Pin-Up Girl Ring
I love vintage jewelry, & if it has a twist? ♥ {Hidden pictures of pin up girls visible through a bijoux photomicroscopique.}
♥ Momo
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Energy Pt II
Maneki
January and February were so grey and dismal that I think I might have buried my head in the pillows this morning and mumbled something about waking up again in May. That’s why my kitchen is in disrepair and my wardrobe until recently {really recently} was its own snowman-like structure on the bureau. How do you get out of a slump when the weather isn’t going to let up for another three months?
I’ve made what might have been a mistake & started drinking coffee again, & hoping it’ll jump start my system. I’ll put up photos soon of what I’ve been up to, now that I’m properly caffeinated.
♥ Momo
Energy Pt. I
Clean Energy: Step One
I think Tara Austen Weaver of Tea & Cookies put it best this past January: “If the sun hasn’t reported for duty, I have a hard time feeling like I should.”
♥ Momo
The January Blues
Are you really?
The Big Harumph on Etsy.
I don’t know about you, but I’m done with grey January weather. I haven’t had the inspiration to really sit down and make something in weeks, which I could probably write off to a bunch of little excuses that are a little too familiar for me to trust them. Oh, and the construction in the suite next to the one I work my part time job in has been poisoning us for the past week. Hooray! It’s only after I’ve put some distance between myself and the building over the past four days that I’m able to register exactly how foggy I had been.
…and we’re going to keep the last 24 hours of Pocket Frogs-playing just between the two of us, right? If word gets around, I’ll know who told.
So I’m drinking nettle tea with red clover, taking milk thistle supplements, and listening to Lali Puna… and trying to get back into a creative frame of mind. Any suggestions?
♥ Momo
Posted in Life
Simplicity: Thoughts on a New Year
Color: Flying Scotsman
I’m not going to succumb to temptation & paint my nails with Scotch Naturals polish {above}. I’m not. Really.
I file through my nails making jewelry more often than I file them for beauty, making cosmetics a thoroughly useless & wasteful endeavor. Those who know me might point out that I do really take care of my hands….sort of… but I would like to point out that I don’t wear nail polish for the same reason I don’t wear bright lipstick when I don’t wear makeup: it tends to point out what I haven’t done more than what I have. {What I have is a half-moon shaped groove indenting my left index fingernail & finger from a #2 Swiss file used ordinarily to remove large shavings of sterling.}
As long as I’m resisting the trappings of aesthetic insecurity, I’d like to start the new year with a non-consumer thought to start the year right:
This is Just to Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
– Wllm. Carlos Williams
♥ Momo
Posted in Life
Holiday Show & Work Photos
Dahlia Ring: Sterling & Ocean Jasper
I have five pieces in the Danaca Holiday Show!
Dahlia Ring
Agate & Sterling
This necklace is a point of particular pride; I found this stone at the bottom of a box of tools donated to my starving artist studio. Sad & alone, it’s a peculiar cut that I stared at for a week before I took a breath & sat down to set it.
Agate & Sterling
Agate & Sterling
Agate & Sterling
Rutilated Quartz Cube & Sterling
This is probably the cutest choker you could ever get for the holidays. It’s tiny, but still stands out above a little black dress or even a t-shirt. I have a limited supply of these rutilated quartz cubes, and am making them to order for $32.
Rutilated Quartz Cube & Sterling
Moonstone, Labradorite, Ruby & Sterling Necklace
I love the color of labradorite: that blue flash with a subtle backdrop of grey, brought out by the white opalescence of rainbow moonstones. I added a tiny string of raspberry-red rubies just up the collar.
Pink Ocean Jasper & Sterling
I love this stone; it looks like candy. ♥ Like the ring and the agate pendant above, this is a one of a kind piece, with a chain handmade by me! It will be on display at Danaca through the end of the month, and if it survives the show without sale, will go up on Etsy.
Pink Ocean Jasper & Sterling
I’ll be adding a few other pieces to the shop over the weekend; earrings for stocking stuffers, a couple of bracelets, necklaces, and a couple of one of a kind fabricated pieces with cabochons to capture your {or your sweetie’s} heart.
I also have a shameless plug about the joys of supporting a small artist rather than venturing out into the violent holiday madness of the season. Have you seen the ads that have come out this week? “Better than Black Friday”, “Post Black Friday”, “The Next Black Friday”. Before T-Day, there were pre-Black Fridays, and now we have desperate marketers with three more before the Big Day. Wal Mart is even having Black Wednesday.
I’ve been out for only one Black Friday in my life, and all I remember was how sad it felt: people lined up in the cold at 4 a.m. with coupons either in hand, or jostling everyone else uneasily, afraid that they will miss out on the limited number of “first come first serve” coupons handed out when the doors opened. I was hit multiple times by a cart pushed by a woman who wanted so badly to get past a child who was in her way that she didn’t ask, she shoved. It was just a lot of junk, but I had the chance to have it for $25 less.
So I make a point of not going shopping that day. No one I love or who loves me wants anything from me from a sale like that. Nothing worth having can be found amid the throngs of angry, anxious shoppers running through a Wal Mart for something that was made with the sweat of factory girls in China or Taiwan, Mexico or Haiti. It’s 50% off? It’s never going to be 50% off of the people who worked inhumane hours & wages to make it, or the time that American retail associates are putting in working til midnight or later at minimum wage to make it available to you.
And no one I know wants a present with that much karmic stress attached.
I’m baking this year. Chocolate stars, vanilla wafers, ginger cookies, butterscotch brownies. {Someone recently asked me if this was made with those butterscotch chips from the store: no. Just lots and lots of sugar, with some more sugar for good measure and a lot more butter than you really want to know about.} I’m doing something small and fun for each person, but I’m not actively shopping for them. I just find things when I’m out & about throughout the year that make me laugh, & look somehow just like that person to me, & I hope that when they open their presents they feel as much joy as I did in putting them together.
My shameless plug: I hope that something I’ve made inspires you to buy it for someone special. I understand that everyone’s budget is tight, & I try to make my prices reflect that. I hope that your holidays are bright, full of laughter & good food!
♥ Momo
To Go
Bento to Go
I love boxes. The best things come in small boxes: Chinese take out, cold burgers and fries in little white diner boxes, truffles from the local chocolate place in bright boxes done up with a bow – & Bento boxes. {I’m hungry; you’ll have to read something else for non-food obsessed writing right now.}
Bento boxes are the perfect lunch box. They keep your food from touching, they hold just-right utensils, and you can often heat up the elements separately. I can pack my shrimp in one and my rice/udon noodles in the other, or my curry in one, rice in the other, and black rice pudding in the next. {Don’t get me started on Thai food right now; I could live on curry all winter long. I am also capable of putting away enough black rice pudding to make the average diner nauseated} *Update: I have apparently eaten enough that it now makes me nauseated. I spoke too soon.
Bento II
Bento III
Bento IV
Bento V
It’s the perfect way to tote your holiday leftovers to work, to the park, or over to a friend’s house. Food tastes better when you share it.
♥ Momo
Playful Holidays
Big Eye Toys
Big Eye Toys. Very cute.
Toys were never what I was after for Christmas when I was growing up; I wanted what the adults had: I wanted jewelry {go figure}, I wanted CDs, books, clothes, but never toys. Now that I’m an adult, I love toys. Toys are somehow at the top of my list, but I’m trying to reduce the mass of my worldly goods, so I can’t really ask for them. That would be silly…right?
P&C Christmas Cracker
Holiday crackers are perfect: the pops, the laughing, the exclamations of joy after everything is collected, the fights over the better bits and pieces. I know people who still have their favorites stashed away in memory boxes. {Guilty} Crackers are designed to make you smile. ♥
I never had much use for dolls, but my inner child is apparently in charge of my adulthood. Non-sequitur: when I was little, a big, fat amanita mushroom grew up overnight in the middle of my front yard. It was surreal in a very David Lynch way. A couple of mornings after it appeared, my Dad & I went out to inspect it, & saw that there was an itty-bitty bite out of one side of the mushroom – & a very dead field mouse about a foot away. It didn’t make it far! I’ve been a little obsessed with amanitas ever since.
Amanita doll:
Momiji Dolls: Snuggle
Amaretti cookies. {Not amanita, much tastier & better for your health, given context.} In my experience, you either hate them & regard those who love them with newfound suspicion, or you love them & value them the way one might value bricks of solid gold. The crunchy, crisp cookie melts away into a perfect, caramelized sugar in your mouth, with sharp balls of solid sugar on top….you get the idea. The red Amaretti tin is one of the most coveted sights in my family:
Amaretti
This holiday, we’re limiting our gift giving to a maximum of $25/person, which started because the economy has stretched us all pretty thin, but I’ve come to realize that it might be nice to do every year. I haven’t spoken to anyone else in my family about this, but the budget has made me take more time with what I’m finding for everyone, and it’s made the whole process a lot more fun: I always get a little stressed out about the monetary value of everything associated with Christmas. {Ok, I stressed out a lot, I may have a history of holiday season-related panic attacks.}
But now we all have the same budget, & I hope it means that we’ll spend more time catching up without the pressure of the shiny boxes under the tree. {Gift giving can get competitive in my family.}
…I might add that a one pound shiny red tin of Amaretti cookies falls five cents below the maximum for our gift giving. Just thought I’d point that out. ♥
Wrapping paper! What’s actually inside the presents is only slightly relevant. I love wrapping presents. I would wrap empty boxes if the paper that I’m partial to weren’t so very expensive. {I really ought to get myself a job at the seasonal wrapping places around town, now that I think about it.}
Smock Wrapping Paper
Peppermint puffs:
Peppermint Puffs
Happy holiday planning; I wish you sanity & calm.
♥ Momo
The Owl Thing {Still}
I introduce you to the owl equivalent of Maru the Cat.
♥ Momo