This is a Mind Gap

Summer is here! It is official. I’m feeling it, too. Long sunny days, melted Popsicles dripping on worn jean shorts, half-made travel plans to far-off corners of the country. I’m both here and there, in my mind and in the material, in the present and the future, waiting for a sign or some wind to maybe push me either way. My etsy store is taking on a life all its own, and while I’m making beads and new pieces as fast as my hands can craft them, I’m oozing with inspiration after this weekend’s random Renegade Craft Fair rendezvous in Austin. What started out as Jake and I making a trip to West Austin for a little bit of art fun at the West Austin Studio Tour, quickly turned into a whole day of shopping for handmade goodies instead. I walked away with plenty of new adorable prints for my craft room (which is coming along nicely), and a few shiny necklaces, courtesy of Oh Hello Friend. oh! And her blog is an amazing source of inspiration! DIY projects galore and plenty of creative people seem to congregate here, I would add her if you like!

I’m really trying to pin down some tangible ideas these days. The storm of creativity that seems to always be swirling in my head is fun and all, but at some point, mamma’s gotta get down to business. I’m really considering going all out on my etsy store, using it as an outlet for pretty much anything and everything I make. I get hung up on the idea that “I need to pick a specialty and stick with that” but etsy stores are so fun, I can’t just do jewelry or home stuff, not exclusively, anyway. I still have mounds of leather and fabric to be made into handbags, and I’m uploading more paper goods to my store this weekend. Get ready!

I’m one step away from having all my goodies online and for sale on my etsy store and upgrading a few of my shop goodies that customers will get when they order from the store.

If you like rare brass findings, vintage african snake beads, handmade ceramic colorblock and leather, you’re going to love my new stuff! I’m uploading things tomorrow, so check back soon to see the above and many more cute things to oogle at.

So…in case no one has noticed, I kind of stopped writing on here. I don’t know what happened since the move- any number of things going on can be classified as a distraction as of late. Work has been changing a lot, I literally JUST finished unpacking everything out of boxes since we moved, and I’m dealing with some uncertainty regarding my health, as well. Hopefully nothing too bad, but my “sensitive stomach” has taken a turn for the worse, meaning chronic pain most days and a fatigued Mandy for the rest of the world as I deal with it and try to figure out what the issue is. It could be gluten intolerance, my scapegoat for many-an-issue regarding indigestion, although I have never been officially tested to help put my mind at ease. I’m kind of afraid of doctors, and the whole western medical field in general, so I have been buddying up with a local acupuncturist in town that has been able to offer me some relief, but it’s fleeting and almost anything seems to set me off and make that pain come back. It’s strange dealing with a physical symptom in your own body that you do not know what it is trying to tell you. As usual, my hypochondriac side of me screams “But it could be cancer! Liver damage! Crohn’s disease!” but I can’t be sure. Medical things like that seem to run in the family, but I might just be preparing myself for the worst so whatever I have won’t seem so bad when I do get diagnosed.

Other than medical things, and moving, and dealing with the ups and downs of life, my spare time seems to be dominated by getting settled in to a slightly more grown-up life. If that means abandoning nights at the comedy club for a saturday trip to a flea market to find the remaining chairs we need for our kitchen, then so be it. I have an odd fascination with shopping for housewares and decor these days, so I’m trying to just go with it. As each room slowly starts looking more lived in and homey, I don’t feel so strange in such a big and new house. Jake has been able to get so much more music recorded since he has had his own studio to toy around with, and Mosey is loving the huge front yard, so I know it has been worth it in the big scheme of things. I’m just such a stickler for change, and even if its a positive change, my old memories still linger in mind just enough to remind me of just how new this life still seems, a more polished, more serious one at that. Mid-20s life is still so shiny and foreign to me, but then again so seems growing up, even though I seem to have been in a hurry to do that my whole life up until this point. Until I feel connected again, I guess I am playing the part, saying the lines, and doing the dishes, so to speak. Who knows what could happen next?

So here’s to change! 2012 sure seems like the year to do it right!

Hey all, hope everyone’s Spring Break is sunny and inspiring! Here in Austin, SXSW is dominating most of the town and while the influx of culture has been both a blessing and a curse (traffic, insane waits at literally any place to eat in town, to name a few), Jake and I headed West last weekend to escape a bit. Not to mention to quietly celebrate my birthday in minimalist Marfa splendor.

Besides hitting terrible rainstorms and driving through snow on our way out, we had a blast in our quaint 1950s airstream at El Cosmico. We rolled into town the same day as an unexpected cold snap, but the trailers were warm and cozy, with tiny hidden gems throughout. I’m just glad we had one with an indoor bathroom. 29 degree weather is not ideal for an outdoor shower!

Shopping and art-viewing in this tiny town is always a must- there are just a few places to visit anyway but every store has its own personality and energy. My favorite spots were Tienda M and Moonlight Gemstones.

We saw the Marfa lights! Big, bright, swirling and dancing Marfa lights! This is our third trip and the second time we have seen them, but we were awestruck to experience them so vividly again. If you haven’t heard of them, you should search the mystery of the Marfa lights online for a good rabbit hole of theories behind the phenomena.

Then Saturday we had our sights on Fort Davis, Texas, just a few miles outside of Marfa. Our historical room at the Indian Lodge was a charm to visit once again as this is our third time staying here. There is just too much to see and to take in out there! Needless to say, it was a great birthday trip.

Now I’m back in reality, looking to the next weeks wondering what is next? I’m filled with new ideas for art and jewelry, and I’m experimenting a bit with a book idea involving polaroids I have taken, new ceramic beaded necklaces and new printed goodies to put up on my etsy store. So many ideas, so short a lifetime! Do you guys ever have that problem? Maybe one day my mind will settle down, but for now, it feels like it’s on lightspeed!

So while it may have seemed like I abandoned yet another blog- as a small blog tumbleweed rolls by- I am back and I have a decent excuse! A few days after Christmas, Jake and I found and bought our new-ish dream house, and shortly thereafter began doing all of the fun things that come with moving. I might have been ready for the change, but I don’t know if I was ready for the sheer amount of work that is moving one’s possessions from one location to another. 

On the plus side, it has forced me to take a good, hard look at what I truly want around me in my life (and my closet!), and I have been able to downsize a bit in my material possession department. I am trying to not become a thrift junkie, but only time will tell. A lot of my creative projects have been put on hold for a while, but I hope to be back to making jewelry and sewing some new things (Jake got me a sewing machine for Valentines Day!) sometime soon!

In the meantime, I hang out on sunny days in my semi-furnished backyard. Texas-style.

Tiny cacti salt and pepper shakers!

Driftwood in the front yard.

Angles.