Goin out of town for the weekend

...and I'm so excited! Me and the man are taking the train down to LA for a super quick trip to get me a new old car (thanks grandpa!). We're both really excited about getting TWELVE FULL HOURS of pure relaxation, beautiful views, and each others company, though I'll admit that the food is so terrible on amtrak that we are packing all of our meals for the extremely long trip. Julien and I have been wanting to go on a train trip together for a long time, and the Pacific Starlight line goes through some really beautiful areas. I'm also looking forward to seeing the family and taking my younger brother out... he just turned 21, so big sis finally gets to go out on the town with little bro... hopefully stumbling distance from my parents house!

In other news, I've really been working hard to get it more updated in the last month... and its paying off! I had three sales to three different people over this last weekend... and I didn't even know any of them! To the left are two of the items I sold. After about a year of neglecting my etsy shop, and without any sales, its really refreshing knowing that there are some people out there who like and want my wares.

...And on that note, I'm offering a discount to any blog readers on my etsy shop.  Just enter "Honest to blog!" in your "notes to seller section" for a 15% discount on any item. Just commit to buy the item and wait for me to update your discounted price, then make your payment! Otherwise, I can refund the 15% if you jump the gun on making your payment.

As for work, I've been making zines with the fifth graders... and its going pretty well. I've got three kids collaborating on an electronics zine, one girl working on a zine titled "How to Annoy Your Big Brother," and many more. The kids have to have one section about themselves, one section that's a How-To, and one section that they can do whatever they want... but they are free to address these "topics" in whatever way they want. For example, for their autobiographical section they could do a self portrait, write a story taken from their childhood, write a poem about themselves, or anything else they can relate to themselves in any way possible... After the first day of confusion and bewilderment, they are getting pretty into it now... thank goodness!

Well, that's all folks! Time for me to head to work... Until next time!

Laura

Hello There!

...and welcome to my new blog! Yay!

So, here's a little bit about me:

I am almost constantly making things... usually fabric brooches, hair clips, and earrings, but also wallets, terrariums, and anything else I can think of. I've recently been experimenting with stamping and other print media. I also love sketchbooking on the go... right now I am in the process of making myself a teeny watercolor set out of an altoids container. (You can check out a tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgcZX4pBOyI).

Today, was actually a pretty perfect representation of my interests...
Me and and my boyfriend, Julien, started off the unexpected sunny day by taking a bike ride to nearby Lake Merritt, where we stumbled upon a Bonsai garden. There were tons of these gorgeous little baby trees of all different kinds. My favorite was an Atlas Cedar, "styled in 1959," which pretty much looked like an enchanted forest scaled way down.

After running a couple errands, I finished making a wallet for my neighbor, Joseph. Of the 10 or so wallets I've made, his went the most smoothly... not a single hitch!



Next up on the agenda was updating my etsy (yesandyes.etsy.com). It had been a while since my last update, especially since I've really been trying some new things, mostly going more three-dimensional, and more floral. At the right is a new brooch I put up tonight.

Yup, yup. That's about it! Signing off.