Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Noise Pop Holiday Shop


After a restful Thanksgiving weekend spent with Jeff's family in southern California, it's time to get back into the swing of things for the rest of the winter holiday season. And that means more craft shows! Coming up this Saturday, a fun little Noise Pop Holiday Shop, noon to 5pm, at the Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa Street in San Francisco. I'm doing this one with Jeff, so really, you could kill two birds with one stone and buy a poster for your boyfriend and a pair of earrings for your sister. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Moths and Butterflies

A new favorite shop I just discovered on Etsy yesterday: My Selvaged Life.


I'd love to have one of these beauties. It'd look so perfect atop my dresser when it wasn't being worn!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Crow's Wings

Wednesday item of the week in my Etsy Shop!

~hand-forged brass earrings~

inspiration: crows swooping and diving through the branches of redwood trees, finding bits of this and pieces of that to take back to their nests




Enter the code "tangleweeds blog" in the message section of your Etsy receipt to receive 30% off these rustic, brass swoop earrings. Discount applies to this item only, from now until November 23rd, 2010.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pretty Penny Trunk Show

This coming Friday I have the good fortune to be part of a local jewelry trunk show and sale at the Oakland vintage shop Pretty Penny.


Details below:

The Craft
Four East Bay designers are bringing you their best pieces, exclusively, one night only.

6-9pm
Friday, November 19 at
The Pretty Penny
vintage clothing

Original designs from:
ANGELCAKE-heavenly jewelry and hair accessories
REALIA-jewelry made with materials from everyday life
ALANA DOUVROS-jewelry with an edgy take on classic
TANGLEWEEDS-handcrafted metal jewelry from Oakland, California

Come join us and shop local and feel great about it! There will be free wine and healthy (yay!) snacks. Bring a friend and get an early start on your Holiday shopping.

Clickity-click here to be taken to the Facebook page for this event. Hope to see you there!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Owl Owlie

I'd love to hang this litle guy on my bedroom wall.



It's an original painting from the lovely Etsy shop, United Thread. It's a whimsical shop full of paintings of jellyfish, whales, owls, other birds, and more!

Well, looks like it's time to get started on dinner. Have a lovely night all!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Gypsy Hoops

Wednesday item of the week in my Etsy Shop!

inspiration: gypsy jewelry, baubles and metals and gems all tinkling and clanging against one another

These hoops are a new design in my shop. The best part? They come with the semiprecious stone of your choice to hang on the hoops, and if you choose, you can wear more than one at once, or switch them out and wear them individually. So you get multiple different looks with the same pair of earrings. Right now, and for a limited time, I'm offering a free pair of stone dangles with every purchase of hoops!



Enter the code "tangleweeds blog" in the message section of your Etsy receipt to receive 30% off these rustic, copper hoop earrings. Discount applies to this item only, from now until November 9th, 2010.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Two Local Markets

I'm a busy girl this weekend. I'll be selling at the Beehive Market in Berkeley on Saturday. . .


and then on Sunday, I'll be at Real Mercantile in San Francisco at Chez Poulet, 3359 Cesar Chavez at Mission Street from 1 to 7pm. This local artisan market is organized by the lovely Nieves Rathbun, creatress of the skincare line By Nieves.

I will have some new earring designs as well as some "early-holiday shoppin' " deals. But you gotta drop by in order to find out what they are!

Hope to see you there!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Snippets from my life





Good night!

Wuthering Heights

A little bit of inspiration to kick off my Monday, from the lovely Kate Bush. Enjoy!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Red Onion Woodworks

For today's Thursday Etsy Feature I thought I'd showcase an Etsy shop I just discovered yesterday, Camille's Red Onion Woodworks.

Natural Edge Salvaged Maple Serving Tray

I love the simple, rustic, earthiness of the serving trays, cutting boards, and various style platters that you can find in this shop. Taken straight from Camille's profile on Etsy, here's a little bit about the creator of these functional pieces of nature-wonder:

"I'm an off-grid mom of two. I start every morning by milking my dairy goat. My husband, Henry, is a horseshoer, farmer, botanist, Spanish interpreter, and sawyer among other things. He and our friend Stu have milled up vast stacks of beautifully figured bigleaf maple lumber. All the logs for this project were salvaged from industrial logging operations, backyards, and storm-damaged areas, so you can rest assured that each tree had a long and full life."


A Perfect Natural Edge Cheese Board

I feel like Camille's work is the kind of great kitchen pieces you can have around for a lifetime, and then pass on to your children. The prefect antithesis to our throw-away society!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Autumn Swans

Wednesday item of the week in my Etsy Shop!

inspiration: the crisp autumn air, the smell of fireplaces, crunchy leaves underfoot, dew covered blades of grass first thing in the morning

These earrings feature a lovely array of stones in gorgeous fall colors: citrine, andalucite, peridot, spinel, green garnet, sylvinite, and two large chunks of rutilated quartz.

This week I thought I'd feature an item that will soon no longer be available. I will only be making one more pair of these beauties and then this design will be discontinued.



Enter the code "tangleweeds blog" in the message section of your Etsy receipt to receive 30% off these rustic brass and semi-precious stone earrings. Discount applies to this item only, from now until November 9th, 2010.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Good things come in threes

I'm not much of a numerologist (although, give me time and I'm liable to grab a book on the matter and start reading) but I've always loved the number three and numbers divisible by three. . .

I figured since this is the first time I've put new work in my Etsy shop in about three months (I gasp when I see that in print) I figured I do it in threes. . .

inspiration: crows swooping and diving through the branches of redwood trees, finding bits of this and pieces of that to take back to their nests

I bring you a trio of new swoops to my shop. Brass, copper, and silver-platted copper, all are accented by spinel stone, all are inspired, to one extent or another by the fall season.

inspiration: the way foggy mornings feel so mysterious, the air a thick swirl of possibilities, all of the starlings lined up on the neighborhood fences waiting for the sun to break through


inspiration: the tiny brown, white, tan, and black sparrows greeting the mornings with their cheerful chirps perched in the spindly white-bark branches of birch trees

I hope that everyone's autumn is coming along nicely. I, for one, am definitely feeling the strong pull of the seasons. I want to make large batches of tomato sauce (with the last of the tomatoes from our very very late summer) to save in the freezer for the middle of winter, and walk through piles of crunchy leaves. Curl up with a steaming mug of mulled cider, and start thinking about what dress I want to wear for Thanksgiving dinner. Mainly, I want to hibernate a bit, and while I can't completely go into hibernation, I can find my own little moments and make them that!

I hope everyone is having a lovely beginning to their fall season.

Monday, November 1, 2010

My "normal" weekend

It is unusual for me to have a "normal" weekend. By which I mean a weekend where I do not have to work, at either of my two jobs, and I don't have to get up at an ungodly hour (such as before the sun rises!)


~sunflowers from the farmer's market in my kitchen~

So, yes, I define a "normal" weekend around some pretty conventional notions of what that means. While for the most part I love having a life that is set to my own schedule, at least more so than having a Monday-Friday, 8am to 5pm job would allow, there are moments when I long for some defined time off. And of course, that is the nature of working for one's self. . . but the finer tunings of that, the subtle nuances of being self-employed will have to be for another post.


~a single passionflower from the vine in my side-yard~

Suffice it to say, I spent this weekend doing many of the leisurely things I love to do but oftentimes don't have the time for. I went to the farmer's market with Jeff, listened to lots of Kate Bush, and finally got around to planting a winter veggie garden in the backyard. Kale, chard, beets, and spinach! I started watching 3 Women (the Robert Altman film) which I've been meaning to watch for the longest time, and read the Sunday edition of the New York Times on Sunday. (Yes, the part about reading it on Sunday is the shocking part. Usually I don't read it 'til mid-week.) Mainly, tho, I simply enjoyed not having to rush around from thing to thing and tried my best to not worry about how little in the way of work I was accomplishing.

On Saturday night I made dinner for Jeff, Sean and me. While this is not an unusual occurrence, it was the mood and the general take-my-time mentality that was.


Chanterelle mushroom sauce with fresh mushrooms from the farmer's market.

Chopping up purple kale and purple carrots!

Saute time


Dinner! Dinner was delicious: pork chops with the mushroom sauce, rice, and sauteed veggies. A rather straight-forward and technically easy meal to prepare. And well enjoyed!

I like how my taking the time to slow down this weekend goes hand-in-hand with the changing of the seasons, and with Halloween, All Souls' Day, and The Day of the Dead. I chose to honor this time of the year in my own way. I planted the garden that I mentioned earlier in this post, I created an altar for all of my non-human animal friends who have passed on, and I just generally allowed myself the time to sit and reflect on where I am right now in my life.

~pumpkins carved by Sera, Jeff, and Sean on our front steps~

While, I did miss dressing up just a little bit, I'm glad I took the time to make the holiday something that meant something to me. Something beyond the junk food and cheap costumes and commodification of yet another sacred time of the year.

And there's always next year to create a costume! I'm thinking something Kate Bush inspired. . .


And one last photo of Arlo, hanging out with us in the kitchen. Have a lovely evening all!