Main Street Pop-Up Shop!

 

I am going to be part of a pop-up shop which is opening this week!! Sorry about the short-notice: we didn't have a lot of notice about getting the space, and then I got very sick this last week and am only now re-joining the real world! :)

The shop is in a brick building at 4570 Main street, Vancouver, B.C.  The building may not be the prettiest thing, but it will be filled with so many treasures! It will be open February 15 - March 31st. Our hours will be: 

Tues & Wed 11am - 6pm

Thurs 11am - 8pm

Fri 11am - 6pm

Sat 10am - 6pm

Sun 12 - 5pm (closed Mon) 

I will be there Thursdays, Fridays & Sundays. There is a Facebook page for the shop as well as an event for the grand opening this Saturday!

What will you find in the shop? Handmade, vintage, fair-trade goods and supplies from:

Honeywild handmade jewelry

Tender Buttons Vintage

Ruby Dog Art Supplies

Giving Gifts

A Farmer's Daughter

WTF? What The Frame?

LittleMoSo

Once Twice Design Antiques

Clare's Collectables
Daria's Hats

Hope to see you there!!

 

Sorry I'm Late

image belongs to printliberation on Etsy

Seriously you guys?? I need this shirt almost every. single. day.
You can get one for yourselves from the Print Liberation Shop here.
I have one in my cart right now.

Warm fuzzies

Photo belongs to Jenny Hine/SAINTS

Thanks to sales of specific items at my winter markets this year we raised $20 to donate to both SAINTS and HomeFinders animal rescues ($20 to each charity). This makes me happy! Here is a blurb about each charity:

"SAINTS is an end-of-life sanctuary for senior and special needs animals that have nowhere else to go. We provide a special place to be loved, cherished, and receive proper medical care for the rest of their days. All animals deserve to have hope for a better tomorrow." Check out their website here.

"HomeFinders strives to house, rehabilitate and rescue abused, abandoned and otherwise homeless animals, before placing them in new, loving homes. HomeFinders has a special interest in animals from small communities in Northern BC, and strives to assist these animals through placement in the lower mainland." You can check them out here.

Thanks to everyone who shopped honeywild this season! These rescues do awesome work and I am grateful to be able to help them out. I plan on putting some items that include donations in the online shop soon, I just need time & good lighting! :)

Happy holidays to you & yours!

Old-school shaving love

I've been trying to clean up the products we use around the house, choosing more eco and skin friendly options. I've been trying to cut out products made with chemicals and SLS etc and am buying more eco-friendly or handmade products. Among many other changes, Ben now has a new shaving routine. He picked out a beautiful handmade shaving brush from a market last year. It's made with pure badger hair in Bubinga wood and it's from The Copper Hat. Then I found him this awesome vintage Old Spice glass shaving mug in Amsterdam at an open air market, so that's where he keeps his shaving soap bar from Snappy Rockfish Soap, made by our good friend Brittany in Portland! He enjoys a closer shave (and hey, so do I!) and we have done away with shaving cream canisters. It's a pretty good deal! Brittany often posts on her blog about natural home remedies for your beauty routine and household cleaning. I've been really inspired by her attempts to minimize the amount of products she uses and to use natural remedies, some of them are pretty surprising! Switching over and getting into the habit of trying more natural or homeopathic solutions is a slow process for me but I feel good about it.
Do you have any natural or DIY secrets?

Anthropologie Pet Adoption Event!

Anthopologie, one of my favourite stores, is holding pet adoption & pet supply drives at many of their locations this September! I think this is SO AWESOME, you guys! Not only is it great that people will get to meet some sweeties looking for their forever families and maybe meet someone they'd like to take home, not only will supplies be collected for pets in need, but even bigger than those things, more people will be introduced to rescue pets and realize how great they are! I think it's very cool of Anthro to hold an event like this. To me rescue/adoption is just kind of obvious but lots of people are still stuck in the "get a pet from a pet store or Kijiji" frame of mind, and if that changes for even a few people, that's super! So thank you, Anthopologie, from the bottom of my sucker-for-animals heart. The Vancouver event will be at Anthropologie (2912 Granville st.) on Saturday, September 22nd from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. To find an event near you, check out their page here.

Can't make it to an event but are on the hunt for a new furry friend? Check out Petfinder: most shelters and rescues post their adoptable pets there and you can search by pet type, breed, age...  It's great!

Meet Bessie

My mom bought me an awesome new toy for our housewarming! I'm a bit late in posting this, I know :) I wanted one of these babies but really did not expect to get one before I got married or something! I have named her Bessie and we are going to make some yummy things together. Ben took photos of the first time I used her, making cookies. Also featuring some cute beggar dogs.

Handmade Joy Exchange

I recently took part in a swap organized by Anne of My Giant Strawberry. It was a "handmade joy exchange" where everyone made something for someone else. I had so much fun putting together my package for Judy of Harfelt Fabric Art,

and loved opening my sparkly package from Vixie of Matin Lapin!

I also love that name - morning rabbit - so sweet!

I made Judy's earrings with vintage silver bows I'd just bought and peach aventurine faceted semi-precious stone beads. I also sent her a peachy flower petal button I'd made and enjoyed making her package beautiful with a big bloom on the front, cute notepaper etc :) You can read more about the exchange and see photos of other handmade joy pieces and packages on Anne's blog here! Thanks Anne and everyone else, this was great fun!

Phone photos that make me smile

Even though they're poor quality :)

snoozing boo

swinging

hopping boo with her hood stuck on her head :D

rainy day girls

Ben calls this "checking the message board"

she's a goose (between Ben & the cushion)

my favourite snugglebunny

Happy Things

Kitty in a paper bag, drinking from my pug mug from Britt, painted nails! (they lasted all of 2 days - sigh)

Keds dilemma

Ok loves, I need your opinion! I bought these today:

Except mine are dark denim. They're pretty cute and the light thread contrasts nicely with the dark denim. I was a bit torn between them and the all black ones though:

Cute and feel a little retro to me :) Might be better for wearing with denim? I want them for wearing with skinny jeans and maybe shorts/skirts etc. The denim are really sweet with floral print inside and the contrasting thread outside which I really like. But maybe the all black would wear better & go better with everything? But maybe the thread contrast makes the other ones look "nicer" ? I can't even really afford one pair so I definitely can't get both this time like I did with those sweaters, haha (bad girl!). I only have two pair of skinnies that are blue denim, so that wouldn't be an issue with everything I wear...

I know this is totally silly but I need some input!

Dreaming....

SO. STUNNING. How I wish wish wish we could afford such a thing.
Vintage engagement ring from Erstwhile Jewelry.

*image belongs to Erstwhile Jewelry.

Cute for a cause

ADORABLE! Little white and grey poodles are probably my favourite kind of poodle. They are so darn cute and I am a sucker, even for the one that barks every time it comes into the store I work in. So I want this one, and the super sweet hand-woven cowl she's wearing! What's even better is that 20% of the sale price of all items from this shop go to the Riverside City Animal Shelter in California. Check out this cowl and more in the Charlie Hearts Diesel shop here.

*image belongs to CharlieHeartsDiesel

Got Craft?

Spool of Thread will have a fun DIY table again this year!

Got Craft is one of the best craft fairs in Vancouver, in my opinion, and I'm so sad to be missing it this year! I have to work this Sunday and can't get out of it.  Super bummer! These are the things I'd be most psyched about seeing/buying if I could go:

Bake Sale - I bought my mom a box of flower cupcakes last year and they were both beautiful and delicious!

The Beautiful Project - I love her (illustrated) cards and always buy a few. My favourite is the the one that says "You look beautiful today."

Dani Press - More awesome cards! These ones feature awesome photos with meaningful words. My favourite is probably one that says "Never give up on the idea of what your life could look like." Perfection.

Sadie Designs - Sarah is awesome. She makes these necklaces with geodes and puts little figures in them (among other lovely necklaces and earrings). Maybe you have to go and check them out to understand. They're completely unique and full of adventure and whimsy.


Thistle Town Studio - They make lumberjack animal stuffed animals!! Love them!! I first saw them at Collage Collage and wanted one sooo badly.

AND, of course, the swag bag! People line up early in hopes of getting one of these covet-worthy bags of goodies from the vendors! Layer up, grab a hot drink and camp out early if you're brave and if you get one of these babies it will be well worth it, I promise! Got Craft is this Sunday, December 4th from 10:00-5:00 at 2205 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. For more info or the full list of vendors visit their website. And don't forget to buy me a present while you're there!

previous swag bag treasures

*photos from Got Craft website/blog

Inspiration

I haven't made much jewelry lately. Really, I've hardly made any jewelry at all in the past few months and when I have I haven't felt very inspired. I'm come to the realization that I've started making things with selling in mind and let that reason sort of take over from making things because I like them, because I've been inspired. The last number of items I made were because I was trying to get stock together for consignment, following a store owner's suggestions. And while her input is really valuable, I sort of felt like I was losing control over my pieces - like I wasn't following my heart anymore. I also started limiting my creations in terms of money - I resisted making things that would cost more for fear that they wouldn't sell, or wouldn't sell for a while. These are all good things to keep in mind (outside input, cost...) but they sort of dampened my spirit. I was down near one of my favourite supply stores the other day on an errand and even though I didn't really have the money to spend on supplies, and I didn't really need any supplies, I let myself go in. I ended up buying a number of things, including the three items pictured above. Things that made me go "oooooh, beautiful!" , that I was already dreaming about making into gorgeous, magical necklaces. And I realized I really missed that, and hadn't made things for those reasons in a really long time. So my advice to other makers is to make sure you make some things for the pleasure of it: the things you dream about or that make you dream. That geode slice definitly cost more that I'd usually spend on a pendant, but I finally caved because dammit, I LOVE geodes, I think they're unbelievably magical and beautiful and I always drool over jewelry made with them, so why shouldn't *I* make something with them? I'll really enjoy it, and even if they sit around for awhile before they sell, it's totally worth it. Yes, I'll still make some earrings and silk cord necklaces and other nifty things, but I've realized that those special silver charm necklaces are my ~thing~, and I need to make sure I let myself have fun making them more often. You've gotta be able to keep your passion going - otherwise what are you doing it for? I'm pretty sure none of us are doing it for "the money." (At the going consignment rate? HA!) Really, I think when you make things that you're really inspired to make, rather than "I ought to make this" or "this might sell well," it shows, and makes your work so much more special.

If you want more Etsy tips, Sarah did a great post recently with her top pointers.

Number 1!

I Feel Like a Number by Melanie Favreau on Etsy

This pendant by Melanie Favreau cracks me up. I have to get a lot of blood tests these days so I am forever taking one of those numbered tickets and waiting... waiting... I wish I could buy this and just walk up to the front every time, haha. I am number one! Every time! To check it out in Melanie's shop, click the link below the photo. She has tons of other awesome jewelry there!

*image is property of the artist

Here, Now

I made a new treasury of things I'm thinking or dreaming of lately - check it out here.

Things I'm Loving Lately

These earrings I made recently. A bit hard to see in the photo, but they're made with sterling silver bubbly connectors and labradorite beads. So pretty! I'm trying to decide if I should order supplies to make more. They would retail for about $42. I suppose you'd need a better photo of them to give an opinion?

view treasury here

This gorgeous treasury featuring my new dino necklaces!

Sunrise Life Coaching 

I don't have an image for this one. I went to high school with the lovely Ashley. She is now a fantastic life coach, ready to help you kick-start things! I did an intro session with her a couple months ago before being set back by the arthritis flare-up. She was great at helping me figure out what was blocking my progress on things I wanted to do and helped me make a list of things to do to get started. What's really fabulous is that she does her coaching online and by phone, so you can benefit from her services no matter where you are in this wide, wondrous world. Check out her website here. Follow her on Facebook and/or Twitter for inspirational tidbits.

That's it for now!

XO.

Crane tattoo

The Crane Wife by theumbrella

Blue Cranes by Barbara Carter

These are two of the images that are really inspiring me in terms of my possible future tattoo. When my joint problems were at their worst and I was kind of freaking out, I thought that when I figured out what was going on and had it under control (I hoped) then I wanted to get a tattoo on the inside of my wrist of a flying crane. For me it would symbolize being free, living life, not letting things tie me down, restrict me, stop me from living the life I dream of...  that sort of thing :) It's freedom.
I am completely in love with the top illustration, I love the style. Unfortunately if it were to be a flying crane in that style I doubt it would fit on my wrist like I imagined. The bottom photo I love for the lines, the exquisite tail feathers and regal neck. Unfortunately I've realized that since the drugs I'm on kill my immune system and one of the drug sheets tells me specifically to avoid doing things where I might get cuts etc. (since I may not heal well) I guess this will have to wait, if I do decide to get it. Same goes for the ear piercing I've been wanting. Sigh.
Check out my Pinterest board for more crane and heron photos.

*images belong to the respective artists

I made a new treasury featuring some of my local faves! Check it out here on Etsy.

It's Oh So Quiet

I LOVE this beautiful treasury on Etsy which was sweet enough to feature one of my necklaces! Check it out here.