This is such short notice, but there will be a shop update tomorrow (or today, depending on when you are reading this/where you are in this world!) at 5pm PST. A preview is up right now, and an email to newsletter subscribers will go out tomorrow morning as a reminder. Everything will be shipped on the 7th, so while US orders* will get to you in time for Christmas, and there’s a semi-good chance that it will get to you in Canada before then, I cannot guarantee that those of you in the rest of the world will get yours in time. Delivery timing boggles my mind lately, sometimes those of you in the UK get it in a week and sometimes it takes a month. Will the technology for teleportation please be invented soon?

Let’s talk about this shop update: I’m really excited about the new ceramic woven necklaces. As soon as the last batch of them worked out well, I was immediately on the hunt for more great vintage beads to use and my search did not disappoint. Some of these beads are from Japan, Mexico, handmade right here in the US in the 60s, and some are completely one of a kind so the necklace will never be made again. While my goal for next year is to get the brass beads cast (the thorn in my side right now), I’m still looking for ways to evolve the woven necklaces into something fresh and new. It’s really hard when you stare at Pinterest day after day and feel like everything’s been done and you can’t get a new idea to enter your mind, but I’ve been finding interesting beads and materials and letting those inspire a piece rather than a flushed out idea in my head to begin with. Freestyle making, I guess you could say. Actually I kind of feel like my entire business is freestyle. Just going with the flow…

*don’t forget – if you’re a CA resident I will refund you and re-invoice you with your correct tax included! Two people have still not paid for their new invoices from the last update and this is a constant problem because people use email addresses for their Paypal accounts that they never check. *Fist shake* at Paypal for not having a way for me to charge CA tax correctly.

UPDATE: I’ve turned the comments off on this post and deleted all the previous ones, good and bad. Not because I want to “silence the truth” that an anonymous commenter has decided to repeatedly comment, but because I don’t want this negativity on my blog. I lost my temper in the comment section and don’t want myself or anyone else to further this pointless conversation (as others were jumping in on throwing insults to this commenter as well). Yes, a majority of the beads I used are from one source, but not all of them, as I stated in this post, and I have many other beads I plan to use in the future that haven’t even been touched yet, and I stand by that and also know that probably no one cares. Ha! Moving right along.

I will start by telling you briefly that the weekend consisted of nothing too terribly interesting between all the hospital back and forth driving besides the above that was worth photographing, so it’s misleading to call this Bits Of My Weekend when this is really Bits Of My Epic Walk, or Urban Hike, which is most fitting for what I did. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been really into walking lately. I just take a peep at Google Maps and pick a place to walk to, double check to make sure I’m not getting myself into any insane hills that might destroy me or streets with no sidewalks that may kill me (this is LA, afterall), and put my sneakers (yes, I own some) and headphones (my new key ingredient) on and hit the road. But I haven’t been able to go for a walk in almost a week because long infusion weeks are nuts and there is no time for a walk unless I want to get nothing else done. Well, not taking on any more projects lately has paid off in the sanity department (the bank account department is another story…) and Sunday I finally had time for a walk. But since it had been a while I was getting bored of my usual northern route, I decided to take on a much longer walk than usual. I decided I would pick a destination to reward myself with, which I decided would be Trader Joe’s because snacks were calling my name. When I looked at the map, I found a cool way I could walk through the Franklin Hills that didn’t require much of a hill at all, but what looked like an amazing little bridge (Shakespeare Bridge). When I finally made it to the bridge and up and over to Trader Joe’s, I was hungry for more awesomeness and surprisingly not snacks, so I turned around (also Sunday at TJ’s sounded so unappealing after a peaceful walk where I barely saw another human being). I double checked the map on my phone and decided to hike. Literally. I climbed this massive hill on a winding street in the Franklin Hills and when I got to the top I could see the Griffith Observatory and all of Los Feliz and beyond. I kept going and came across one of those secret staircases I always hear about from LA walking legend (ok, my LA walking legend) Alissa.  I didn’t go down it but the view of downtown from above it was pretty spectacular. Now I really want to buy the Secret Stairs book. And speaking of spectacular, the houses up there only get more amazing the higher you go and the quieter the street, but I decided against being a stalker and taking photos. I finally started winding down the other side of the hill, saw the little baby Jesus, and then right when I was back to my boring neighborhood was rewarded with a hummingbird.

I am so ridiculously sore even my arms hurt (why??), but it was pretty amazing. After I picked Will up I felt a little guilty telling him about how amazing it was, but he said he couldn’t wait for me to go again and take him with me when he was better. And I will. Here’s my route if you’re interested. It looks wacky due to my turning around. I edited my address to conceal my secret lair, of course. I actually live farther into the beautiful, trash-free, polite and quiet neighborhood of East Hollywood, thankyouverymuch.

In other news, I am hoping that there will be a shop update tomorrow evening that I unfortunately have to announce a bit last minute. Our apartment building hasn’t received mail in three (!) days for some reason (Santa Ana winds damage?) and I was supposed to get some important supplies for jewelry. So, fingers crossed, it comes today and we can make this happen. Stay tuned!

Holy cow, did you read this whole post? Well if you’re still here I would like you all to join me in high-fiving Will for completing his last long infusion on Sunday. Just two more short visits in the next two weeks. The home mothereffing stretch.

Guys, I’m having kind of a crazy week (Will’s long infusion weeks always test my sanity) and completely forgot to mention that Handmade Holiday is now open for business! You have until next Wednesday to get some amazing handmade holiday shopping done over there. My greeting cards are very limited edition so get ‘em while they last.

ps. the product pages for my cards say that everything will be shipped by the 10th, but I will be trying to ship orders as I receive them, so if you’re in the US you should definitely get them before Christmas, probably if you’re in Canada, and somewhat possible if you’re elsewhere.

[bringing back Wordless posts with a new roll of developed film, but there will be word posts as well in between]