Eva Black asked me to share my studio space on her blog, and it took me a while to get it to a place where I felt comfortable sharing photos. I just see all of these beautiful photos of spaces people work in (usually in their homes) and feel my usual reaction of comparing myself and feeling inadequate. We’ve been in the studio for almost a year now, and I was feeling a little down there lately, uninspired and trying to figure out how to love being there. So I did a huge overhaul, painting things and replacing furniture, making it more reflective of my style at home and less dirty basement dungeon office. Another helpful new development in the studio is that my dear friend Katie now has a desk that she inhabits twice a week for both of our freelancer life sanity. It’s been immensely helpful for me to be around another human being besides my boyfriend on a regular basis, and we work well in the same space. And sometimes Peggy Day comes too, so, win win.

You can see all of the photos and a little interview on Eva’s blog here.

This week was certainly a serious learning lesson. I have to admit I thought I’d be a natural at arranging flowers, that it would be really effortless and no big deal, but it doesn’t come that natural to me, and this week I re-did my arrangement three times over two days. I learned that practice makes perfect, and making an “effortless wild arrangement” (this week’s assignment) is more effort than more formulaic bouquets. I learned a lot about how certain flowers and greens act and don’t play well together, which I think is huge – you have to get to know different plants to know how they’ll work for you. Here’s my second arrangement (the first didn’t even get to a stopping point), which looks like a sad wig or something awful? I didn’t have the best container to start in, and even with a flower frog and flower tape everything kept flopping over. So by the third try I downsized to a big mug and it worked beautifully. I got giddy finishing this one, even though I lost a lot of flowers along the way and there are things I wish I could have changed had I not. But in the end I was really happy with this.

See week one here.

I’m taking an online flower arranging class, taught by the lovely Chelsea Fuss, and I thought I’d post my assignments each week as an exercise in A. Taking photos with my real camera rather than Instagram them and B. Posting blog posts? Ha. I’m taking the class so that I can do my own wedding flowers, even though I’m not planning on having much use for traditional arrangements- but I mainly wanted to gain general flower skills to apply to anything.

Week 1 was a hand-tied bouquet. You arrange the bouquet in a fist in one hand, which is something I’ve never done before, I just pictured all things being arranged in a vase or something? I realized I know nothing about real arranging and struggled more than I thought I would. I had really limited options for flowers and not a whole lot of time to devot to this, so I’m not 100% jazzed about the outcome but it was still really fun! I made a mini version with the leftovers and brought it to Katie because flowers make everyone super happy. She tells me the peonies opened up and were gigantic.

I’m going to the downtown flower mart this week for the next assignment, I have a feeling I will be overwhelmed and implode, thank god Bianca will be with me for guidance!

There are two new pieces added to the jewelry collection – a new simple cast bronze necklace in a hexagon shape, and a smaller version of the half moon bronze necklace. I’ve also restocked the other cast necklaces, like the crescent that has been out of stock for a while! The smaller half moon comes in either rust or navy colored leather and is perfect for those of you who don’t feel quite bold enough for the larger ones. It’s a bit more elegant.

The half moon is made to order and the cast necklaces will ship out within a few days.

Did you go to camp as a kid? I went twice: once was a mandatory excursion all the sixth graders at my school were required to go to at Camp Casey, where hormones raged and awkwardness was rampant. The second time was a much more magical and nerdy experience when I was a bit older at choir camp when I was in the Seattle Girls Choir (some photos above). It’s probably one of my fondest memories. Which is probably why I am so jazzed about Unique’s upcoming Camp for adults here in California in Big Bear in June. Four days of the unplugged outdoors going to workshops, investing time in growing yourself and your business, meeting awesome people, and having some serious fun.

And guess what? Laure and I are going to lead a workshop together on photography! The fine details are still being hammered out, but it will essentially be a workshop with photo basics for business owners. So maybe you own an online shop or you’re some type of maker/doer and you can’t always hire a photographer every single time you need one – we’ll give you some tips on elevating the quality of your photos.

So I hope to see some of you there June 6-9th. I’m admittedly a little bit nervous as I’m still that shy 12-year-old somewhere inside of me, terrified of making new friends, but mostly I’m really excited to step away from my computer (and phone!) and do something different and nostalgic. I mean, I am the girl getting married at a summer camp, so obviously I’m excited about this.

Read about all the details here, and let me know if you’re coming so we can meet up there! I’m told there are not a ton of spots left. I know it’s an investment, but I think a lot of us small business owners don’t properly invest in bettering ourselves sometimes as we are so focused on tangible supplies and write offs. Or, if you work in an office, talk your boss into sending you!

I am very late on sharing these, but two things involving yours truly on the internets:

First, Meighan interviewed me for her new series Social Workhorse. I answer a lot of questions that I get emailed frequently about business advice and how social media helps my business. It was really fun to answer questions on a subject that I feel fairly passionate about, despite being a little quieter online lately. Meighan and I have been friends online for ages, and I love seeing where she’s headed lately in her career.

Next up, Emma has a sneak peek of the very exciting project she’s been working really hard on for almost a year now, which I was lucky enough to take part in. She’s releasing a book on knitting through Chronicle this October, and yours truly got to model for some of the pieces, shot by the talented Max Wanger. It was such an amazing day of playing dress up and inspiring people. I can’t wait to get my paws on this book! This photo Marissa took of Ali and I on set makes me very happy.

Also, if you are in LA, I will have a few pieces of jewelry for sale at the Echo Park Craft Fair! Jennifer of Ermie was so kind as to ask myself and some other makers to contribute some things to her own creations to sell.

Have a lovely weekend, friends. I’m overwhelmed by the kindess on my wedding post in ways I cannot explain. :)

Over the weekend we saw an amazing movie, Upstream Color, and I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s by the same writer/director as Primer, another really remarkable movie that blew me away a few years ago. It’s hard to describe Upstream Color as I think it’s best to approach the film not knowing much about it, as the story makes connections that are best made with a fresh mind. In fact I think it’s best to watch the teaser trailer rather than the full trailer for that reason (though it makes it looks like a horror movie, which it is not). It’s screening in very select theaters and starting today you can rent it on iTunes, and I highly recommend you go see it.

This is not going to be a post about wedding stuff, but I included some things from my inspiration board for eye candy and for those who keep hounding me for such things, since my inspiration board is online private. Credits at the bottom of this very long post.

This weekend Will asked me, “do you still have a blog?” and he was totally serious. It’s a topic that causes a bit of pain in my stomach and heart because I feel almost paralyzed about what to do with this blog lately as I open up a page for a new post and feel no inspiration on what to write whatsoever. It’s gone so far that it feels awkward to just suddenly start again, but as Will said to me: “you just have to go back to your roots, just start, just do it before it’s too late.” And he’s right. It’s like when you’re creatively blocked and you just have to make something, anything, to get the juices flowing. I can question why I even blog in the first place to death, but after reading Lauren’s amazing post about needing a witness to our art and making connections, I feel energized and inspired. So here I am, I want to try to connection again to something that brought so many good things into my life before I lose it all.

I would like to start on a topic that I’ve written roughly five drafts on but never hit publish on: the wedding. I’m glad that I didn’t hit publish previously because up until about a month ago, I was in a bad place with planning. I hated it, I dreaded it, I was so unmotivated I’m sure I gave off the vibe to others that I didn’t want to get married. But that wasn’t it, I was just suddenly terrified that maybe I didn’t want a wedding, but to just be married. Just as I had to do a lot of soul searching to decide if I was ready to get married again (long time readers, holler?), I had to do a lot of soul searching to decide if a wedding was what I wanted as well. But guess what? Contrary to what many wedding blogs may make you believe, it’s not all the bride’s decision, it’s not just her day. And I’m not just talking about the groom here, I’m talking about your family, and what you want all of your guests to be a part of. Our families are so important to us that there can only be a certain amount of “this is what we’re doing, deal with it.”

So I soul searched. I did a lot of eyes-closed imagining of what would happen that day to make me happy. I made plans, I hired vendors. I got excel spreadsheet happy and made a budget that will win awards. I decided what wasn’t worth a dime and what would make me feel more sane to throw money at (biggest tip I learned from A Practical Wedding). I learned to shed guilt and most of all, I learned through reading stories of other weddings that our day will not be a display of wealth and glitter, but as saccharine as it sounds (you have to get so used to that when planning a wedding) – our day will be a day for our friends and family to witness us promising and declaring our commitment to each other. To welcome each other into our families. To celebrate not only the present and future, but the past hardship and magic that got us to that very moment. And to thank all the people in the room that day for being a part of that journey.

So, I have arrived on the other side of soul searching and now I am excited. I relish in the planning lately because I’ve come to realize to my amazement this past year that I am really into planning things and that Will is (and has always been) a good counter to my crazy ideas that need to be roped in. Because I cannot stand being bored and like a DIY challenge, I am happily elbow deep in felt and Martha Stewart hole punches. I’ve learned how even more awesome my helpful friends and family are. I still have some anxiety over our itty bitty budget and how exactly this whole camp on an off the  grid mountain will go, and there are still moments of tears and yelling and totally non-understanding family members, but it’s a challenge I am much more accepting of than a few months ago.

—

Inspiration board credits:
Studio Choo - Felt Garland DIY - Cupcake stand DIY - A&B Creative - DIY Dot Garland - Flowers* - New Orleans Wedding - Beauty Inspiration - Happy Menocal

*Pinterest link I found didn’t include a direct link, sorry!

Lovely Bre asked me to share what essentials I carry in my Scout & Catalogue Mañana Clutch, which you can read about over on her blog. I am normally a plain jane with accessories but have been branching out lately with fun stuff, like studded flats and this animal print-reminiscent clutch. It’s perfect for karaoke nights, if I do say so myself.

There is a little peek here of a new necklace that is coming very soon.

Hey friends, did you know that I make Big Cartel shops? I customized my two shops, as well as others using purchased themes and fancy trickery I’ve taught myself over the years. The #1 email I get each week is “how did you make your shop?” and one of my buddies from Big Cartel emailed me recently to tell me the fun fact that when people email Big Cartel asking for design help, the biggest request is to make their shop look like mine. Blush. That makes me sound really fancy except for the fact that people do not often equate that with the fact that they should hire me to fancy up their own shop.

They recently listed me on their page of designers to contact for customization help, so I decided to get organized and create a structure of options and prices and then actually tell people about it as I’m really not the best at promoting my design work. In fact, most people think that I’m just a jewelry designer but that is not even close to my bread and butter. I’ve discovered that helping people with their shops is one of my favorite things to do! So let’s make something together, eh? You can have an existing shop already (like Etsy), no shop at all, need a logo, have a logo, sell two things or 50 things. Something that some don’t know about the shops is it’s the perfect place to host both your shop and portfolio/display your past collections using slideshows and galleries (you could even hide the shop til you’re ready to use it.) Maybe you’ve looked at purchasing a theme and customizing it yourself and it made your head spin? Or you just don’t have a minute to spare to figure it out? You just want something simple but beautiful! I’m here for you. And even if you want something kind of fancy, I have developers on hand to help us with getting fancy.

katemiss at gmail.com – let’s do it.

If you don’t need a shop/don’t care/are annoyed that this post is void of pretty pictures, may I direct your attention to a baby sloth?