Colorful dreams of spring.

I can't wait for spring. I'm imagining colors galore and cute outfits that aren't hidden under coats, hoodies, scarves and hats. I'm aiming to dress nicer (I've only recently been comfortable wearing skirts and shorts, and I shouldn't let them go to waste in the closet) and to bring some more color into my spring since I miss it so much.

See, I used to be a very colorful person in the hair department (I'll throw in a couple pictures below :P), and the only thing stopping me from going back and dying it again is remembering how high maintenance it was, along with having to be an adult with a job that doesn't allow it.. Pfft..

Hopefully my spring will look a lot like this, glitter, open backed tops, and colorful hair pieces when the urge gets too strong...

New semi-natural hair color?

Shirts like this with big glam necklaces.

Getting my but in gear and making shoe clips.

Anthro hoodie.

Glitter eyeshadow, Rock this alllllll the time.

Clip in bangs, for when the urge gets too strong. From here.

Gorgeous flowing tops like this scream nice weather. From here.

PS: The new fun. album can be previewed a week before its release on their website here. I don't know what I think of it yet. Some songs I adore and some are autotuned to death and make me sad. I don't know if they'll grow on me. Part of me hopes so, since their first album is amazing. Give it a listen!

PPS: Like I said I would include, a few colors I've had.

The return of Jurassic Park

So.. I made another dinosaur skeleton necklace. I just couldn't resist any longer!
This time its a triceratops, and he's oh so cute. I now have 3 dinos to call my own, the raptor the Mr made me, the triceratops, and the ceratosaurus. I also discovered the other day there's a dino named after Harry Potter (Dracorex Hogwartsia!!) Might that be the next???

Rawr!

If you're new to my blog, I originally posted a tutorial to make a dinosaur necklace here, if you're interested in making one for yourself!

I'm also going to be selling a limited number of them in the store (only 10!) so if you want one but don't want to go through making one, you have options.

He's also a little meatier (for a skeleton) than the first dino I had for sale, but that makes it more sturdy. Length is about the same too (~5").

I lost my lip ring cause I have to take it out every day for work, so I'm stuck using this annoying thing. On the plus side, its a good picture of the necklace :P

If anyone has since made a dino based off my tutorial (or any skeleton, for that matter!) I would absolutely love to see it!

Blend in? I don't think so!

I've got a confession. I'm an eyeshadow-aholic. I've got so much and I always want to buy more. Seriously, look at all this:

They're all on the cookie sheet because I attached magnets to all the shadows. Now I can stand it up against something and they don't fall over. Eventually I'll get a pretty frame with a metal insert to spruce it up..

I tend to buy a lot of eyeshadows off etsy cause I like getting different colors I can't around here, trying out new brands, but best of all.. Sample sizes. I can get 10 eyeshadows for 10$ +S&H. And even though companies say 'good for 3-4 uses' I make my eyeshadows bright and interesting and I have yet to finish any of my samples as of yet. Getting close on a few of them, and when I do run out I'll buy some more.. But it's justified because its the only make up I wear.. right? Right? I think so. I don't use foundation or eyebrow stuff, and I own a whole 2 lipcolors, both red, and I wear neither.

Point being, I get so many different colors that they all last a really long time. And I figured I would share some of my favourite looks with you when I do them. I'm often too lazy to grab the Mr.'s nice camera so I can't promise the best pictures but I'll do what I can to show what I do, with what products, and what I think of them.

My friends call me brave for wearing such bright colors. I just think its fun :).

So! First up on the docket after this little ramble:
My 'Tequila Sunrise' look.

These pics are old, of the first time I did it. They're much better than the ones I tried to take today with it on though, trust me!

What I used:

Plus eyeliner, not in the photo :P. I also just realized I took a picture of the wrong palette (reasons why I shouldn't blog late at night). I used this palette (image courtesy of google):

And I used the 3 middle colors from this one.

How to:

Apply your primer/base. I ran out of primer so I've been going straight on with the Nyx pencil (in milk) to start.
Apply the yellow shadow to your lid until the crease.above the crease, fade the light orange, dark orange, and pink from the inner corner out, making sure to blend the pink really well and out a bit. Use the darker pink under the eye. Add mascara/eyeliner and you're all done.

Product reviews:

A little different way of doing the look (without the pink and more shading) that I had on today.

Nyx pencil: It creases a little bit by the end of the day (like you can see in this above picture that I took today) but this eyeshadow crayon is AMAZING! It helps keep your eyeshadows in place and it helps weak shadows POP if they don't have enough pigment to do it on their own. I don't even remember what I did before this.

LA Colors palette: Love it! Super cheap (got 2 palettes for 5-8$ at Urban Planet). Wonderful color payoff on the warm tones and it states right on the back that it's not tested on animals. Yay!

Concrete Minerals: I got their shadows off their etsy (which they no longer have) but they have their own proper website now, found here. The colors are true to image, and when I bought their little sample packs they included one free. Application is a dream and the texture is really nice and smooth. I use all but one of the shadows I bought from them regularly. (I don't use mad hatter, not because it isn't wonderful, but its too dark for the looks I want to use it for). Unfortunately it looks like they don't offer samples anymore so I don't know when I'll buy from them in the future (I find it hard to justify spending 7$ on just one color) but their stuff is wonderful so I'm sure I'll be back eventually.

The rest: Nothing that I would brag about, it does its job. :)

Ice Sculptures & New Purse Pattern

We went down to see the ice sculptures in down town Ottawa today. They were pretty impressive and I tried to only take a few pictures of the best things to share with you :P.

Colored wolf sculptures inspired by thermal imagery. By far my favourite thing I saw that day.

OCTOPUS!

Also, Craft 6 or 50 down! I made myself a new purse. And I love love love the pattern so much that I'm going to make a few more for my store. (The base pattern that is, they'll all be decorated differently). I first was going to use another fabric for the ruffles but I couldn't be bothered cutting and hemming and all that, and I already had a huge strip of fabric already cut and hemmed that I saved for like, a year to use as ruffles on something, so I went with that instead. It was my first time making them and I think they turned out pretty good. I didn't have enough fabric to cover the whole front though so that's why only half is done, hahah. I like how it looks though!

Its also fully lined and has 3 pockets, one for girly stuff (hand lotion, spare eyeliner, etc), one thats currently holding business cards, and one that was meant for my camera but it seems I've put an ipod and a little notebook in there to keep the clutter down on the inside of my purse.

Lastly, I've been holding onto this little thing for months. Its some kind of bike part that the Mr didn't need that figured I'd want to keep. He was right. Its cool looking, has a good weight, and is quite shiny. Only problem is trying to decide what to do with it. Any ideas? Ideas I've had include: a locket, filling the centre with epoxy, macramé..

It's all chrome-y and shiny, and 3" wide. What to use it for...

Etsy Inspires

I thought today I would share with you a few people that I just find outstandingly inspiring on etsy. They're so imaginative, creative, and best of all, they're doing what they love for a living. Who could ask for more?!

So now, in no particular order...

Toxic Vision

Seriously, how amazing is this woman?! Just look at her shop. Or if you really want to see what she's made of, look at her sold orders (there's many more of those)! So much to look at. So much color, leather, fabric and pattern combinations and spikes. I can't get enough.

Shrinkle

I'm not big on vintage clothing, but Shrinkle's original items are awesome (I so want the dress below) and she's extra amazing because she made her own makeup line (Sugarpill) which features the most pigmented eyeshadows I've seen (I've yet to own any, sadly, but I will someday!)

(That's the owner of Shrinkle right there, btw. How amazing is she?)

Beat Black

Super fun polymer clay jewelry unlike I've ever seen. Zombie cupcakes, brains in every shape and color, this stuff is right up my alley! I always enjoy seeing her work (and I noticed, shes from Toronto. Yay Canadian!)

Untamed Menagerie

Cut steal and acrylic jewelry in gorgeous designs. This shop owner I can say from experience is wonderful. I bought the wonderful necklace featured above and it was shipped in its time frame, came in a cute little box with 2 stickers with her logo on it (and a business card as well, I believe *amazing memory*) and the quality is great. Nice dainty little chain, super great stuff. And so many amazing designs.

There's many more, but I figured I'd stop before this list got overwhelming. Tell me, who do you find inspiring??

One of a Kind Clothing, Yay or Nay?

I'm genuinely happy with the way my shop has been going since I started it a few years ago, but the more days that go by, the more time I feel I need to do everything I can to improve it. (Ignore me sitting on my computer right now.. I'm being productive I swear!)

Now, I have something to admit. I've always been nervous about making clothes for other people. Some deep rooted fear of me missing some detail and having everything fall apart when they wear it. (Impossible to miss a 'detail' like that, I know, and I've made enough clothes for myself to know that I know what I'm doing.) It will probably always be there though. Lately though, I feel like I should take Tamed Raven to the next step and make all these wonderful one of a kind pieces I've been dreaming about. Only problem being.. If there's only one of them.. How do I choose what size to make it? Am I the average? Or are most readers/shoppers bigger or smaller than me? I know that I everything should be varied, and that there's always going to be someone who likes something that's not their size (story of my life, do you know how many pieces of clothing I've held onto saying I'd resize it?) but here I don't even know where to start.

This is where all my readers come in, and I sincerely hope that you take a minute to give me your opinions. Do you often see a shop lacking in your size and you just wish someone would make things in your size already? Do things often run too short or too long? A little feedback would be wonderful.

So please, send an email or leave a comment and let me know what you think! As for now, there's a huge pile of fabric calling my name and a new purse pattern that I should finish testing. Thanks!

(Please note, I'm referring to women's clothing. I have no experience in sewing plus sized clothing besides hoodies nor do I have a plus sized dress form so it will be a little while before I try to make flattering XL clothing.)

How It All Started.

I've been sewing my whole life but never really thought anything of it. When I was a child, I used to build houses for my stuffed animals. Then restaurants, grocery stores, shopping centres. Walls from boxes, 'hardwood' floors out of popcicle sticks that I hot glued down in rows. Little fridges with clay cupcakes in them, shopping carts made out of tiny finger skateboards with playing cards cut and taped into little buckets and handles made of k-nex. A couch made of sponges cut, then covered in red velvet fabric that I covered in gold glitter glue. I wish I had pictures of these but I don't. I dreamt of being an interior designer, despite making clothes for myself all the time.

I was also taking piano lessons, and the teacher would notice I would always come over with new clothes, and be so proud of them, although I didn't even notice this. In my mind, I just thought 'why should I have to pay hundreds of dollars on these cool pants when I don't have that kind of money, I'll just learn to make it myself'. One day, after seeing what I had made that week, she asked me what I wanted to do, and said I should be a fashion designer. That was the first time I thought about that (in junior high) and the thought never left my head. I remember what I was wearing that day. These arm warmers I made from this bright pink plaid fabric that hung down in points by my wrist, that had some tulle cut in triangles around the hem, and this funky elastic around the top held on with safety pins to keep them on my arms. I wish I still had them. I wish I had photographed everything I made, and I eventually did start doing that.

Since then I've wanted to not only make clothes to sell, but to own a store. I've dreamt of how I would organise it, how I'd decorate it. A lot of things have changed but some have stayed the same. These thoughts have been taking over my mind as of recently. I know its nothing that I can do anytime soon (still needing to settle after moving, save money for the future, etc, but I know that I will eventually. I need to do this so I don't have that regret in my life and I don't want my whole life to go by wishing that I'd done it sooner. I already wish I had been as serious about what I do now when I was in high school, and hadn't waited so long to get an etsy store. (I didn't have a credit card for a long time after I had wanted to open one, and one day decided to try a prepaid credit card. Worked like a dream and my first sale was a month later. I never should have waited so long to try it.) I'm itching to do more craft shows because I want to get into that scene.

Point being, once you realize what you want to do, go at it full force and don't let anything stop you. Every story has a beginning and don't let yours go untold because you didn't realize what it was.

I know this has been a long post, but I wanted to share this with you. I also wanted to share some pictures I took of some of the first things I made. I think it's interesting to see where it all started and compare it to now..

Made from the knee down of a pair of jeans, folded over on the inside for the lining. Bedazzled with japanese characters.

Two purses. The bottom one has the first (and only real) attempt at machine embroidery I've ever done. 

My first attempt at stencilling. 

I'm pretty convinced a very well known store ripped off this idea. Far too many similarities to be coincidence.

The first necklace I ever made (besides ones as a kid). A woman I was staying with in BC during Katimavik was an avid beader and taught me how.

After finally building up the confidence to make things for other people, I made this skirt for a friend (slash biggest customer/person with the biggest collection of TR products :P)

I thought I was the shit. Nuff said. 

The first thing I ever sold on etsy. I've been wanting to make more like this but I never have. Maybe its nostalgia holding me back? (Or laziness.. Quite possibly the laziness..)