Life Lately - It's all about the bling

Some snaps from the last couple of weeks or so. . . Sometimes, based on my photos, one would think I live, sleep, breathe, think jewelry. . . oh, wait, I do! Happily so.

A few of the goodies that were shipped off after my Etsy flash sale ended. 

Stones all lined up for my By Chance horseshoe necklaces. Front to back of photo: labradorite, lapis lazuli, green onyx, carnelian. 

Wearing some earrings my sister made for me a few years ago. These are made of copper, silk ribbon and jasper stones. She's pretty creative, that sister of mine!

A shot from just this past weekend at the Temescal street fair here in Oakland.

Hammer-time =)

Part of my display at the Treasure Island Flea Market. This market is the last weekend of every month. You can find me there about 2 to 3 times a year. (Check my events page for upcoming fairs.)

By Chance and Featherlight pieces all prepped and ready to ship off to shop!

July is really looking so crazy for me this year. Car repairs, doc. appointments, wholesale orders, working on my new pieces for my fall/winter collection. And sales taxes are due at the end of the month too. Oh boy, oh boy! Time sure is it's own train that just keeps on moving whether you're ready for the ride or not. 

(All photos are from my Instagram.)

Go Vote

I voted today. I was amazed by how long the lines were at my voting place, and I got there at 8:30 this morning. It felt great being there, the energy, the hope palpable in the room. I live in a very liberal place (the San Francisco bay area) so the general feeling is "Go Obama!" And I absolutely want him to win. But I voted green party for president.

I don't feel like I threw my vote away. I can say with confidence that California will go to Obama. I am happy about that. But the Green Party is the party that most closely represents how I want the world to be. I vote Green Party but know that they won't be sitting in the white house just yet. One day hopefully!

K, tomorrow: a post about a trip to the San Francisco zoo. I got to meet an owl, an armadillo, and a parrot. It was pretty amazing. 

(And fingers crossed that all things politic go smoothly this evening!)

Questions

Yup. Not much going on in the Boozer-Komush abode tonight. I'm staying in, taking care of my sick honey, and relaxing. We lounged on the couch and watched An Officer and a Gentleman, and wowzers, romantic!

Seriously though, life keeps throwing me all of these curve balls. I feel like the universe is either 1. trying to tell me I need to be doing something else with my life (i.e. not the jewelry biz) or 2. is seriously testing just how committed I am to my work and thus making sure I'm doing the right thing with my life. I won't get into all of it right at this moment, but basically I've had to move my studio space, rather unexpectedly, this week. Right when I would be buckling down and preparing for the holiday craft fairs I'm slated for (hello, Baz Biz and Renegade!!!).

But the space is nearly all moved and should be completely moved by this time or earlier tomorrow. Yes, I am frustrated that I've basically lost a week's worth of jewelry production time. . . And, yes, I am trying not to focus on that. Because there are some silver linings to my new workspace. I have some wonderful friends that have pulled me through.

But still, many questions nag at me. Mainly, how much is too much to sacrifice to pursue my passion?

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!

Sunshine and Cats

Keep me happy. And while a part of me is already growing nostalgic for summer, I am looking forward to brisk fall weather. Fall is all about slowing down, preparing for the winter, hunkering down, saving your nuts, so to speak. Sometimes I let myself get so busy that I forget how to do just that. . .


But I've got this guy (and his brother) to remind me how to slow down and relax.

My life has been moving

My life has literally been all about moving for the last month. First there was packing up my place and finding a roommate to replace me and then actually moving all of my things to Jeff's and my new place. And then, two weeks later, there was the packing and moving of Jeff's place to our new place. There have been endless hauls of heavy furniture and boxes up steep steps and through narrow hallways, the sorting and putting away of things in the new place, paint shopping, more sorting and organizing. . . and so on and so forth. I feel extraordinarily lucky to be in this new place, starting this new way of creating a family. But through all the stress of moving it's too easy to loose sight of the little pleasures in life.

When times get like this I have a tendency to find myself writing more and not less (granted, the writing has not been done around these parts, I've been pretty absent from my little blog, granted). I found myself making a list of highlights from my week, last week and thought I might share them here. This might even become a regular "installment" 'round here if I can pull my blogging butt together. It speaks to me in a certain way - I like the ritual of taking the time on a regular basis to sit back and reflect on recent days, the good the bad, the sordid. . . but I think I'll just share the good here and save the bad for the pages of my journal.

For now, this post will have to be sans pictures, but hopefully the next one will be a bit more colorful.
~Highlights from last week~
~ Going for a walk in our new neighborhood with Jeff and Sean. Meeting the neighborhood cats and walking the steep pedestrian walkways.
~ Dancing to the "Hey Mikey You're So Fine" song with Jeff at a friend's going away party
~ Sitting on the couch in our living room in your new place, at night, simply listening to the crickets and frogs outside. (There's A LOT of them because we live very close to a small creek.)
~ Planting nasturtium seedlings in our side yard, getting my fingers in the dirt.

As life slowly comes back to a more centered place and more and more pieces of my life come back out of boxes I'm hoping to find the time to post here regularly again. . .

Ironing, Jewelry, and Cats

Just a normal day around the house. . .




The jewelry bench. . . (it's never very tidy!)



Okay, back to work! I'm super buys these days getting ready for a slew of arts and crafts fairs I have lined up for this summer. The first to come is the Temescal Street Fair on June 6th. More details coming soon!