Birthday Post

Today is my birthday I'm 31 and I feel like I'm still 25, maybe 26. :)

I spent a fun day, running errands all over Paris. I didn't work much, but that's OK.

I don't really care about being one year older, I feel fine with where I am and who I am today. I have a lot of projects in mind (Trip to Portland, expanding my jewelry shop, planning a new trip for next year, starting my own company for real this time, shooting more film pictures...). I have a lot on my plate and it feels great. Plus I'm the youngest of the people I hang out with, and this feels fantastic all year round! ;)

We stopped by Marks and Spencer and I loaded up on tea. I'm almost all out. That was a close one!

Next stop Lov Organic on Monday!

Last week I worked a lot on my cabochon jewelry. I made a bunch of new drawings and made rings.

I really want to expand this section of my shop. Maybe open a whole new shop only selling these. I've been thinking about buying a button making machine. You can also make mirrors with them and other items, and I'd love to do that. But the complete set (machine + supplies) is a little over 600€. So I'm still wondering if I should do it. Especially since I don't have a 'regular' job, 600€ is a lot of money, a whole month expense actually. I need more time to think about it.

Here are the original drawings. I'm waiting on more supplies to make more necklaces and I'll be all ready to go to use all these.

Latest Drawings, Making Jewelry

These last few days I've been drawing again. I haven't been able to work for my shop much. On monday I took a day off and went to the movies to see The Avengers, which was pretty cool. Then I spent the day shopping for DVDs and enveloppes... :) And I think I was more excited about getting the enveloppes rather than the DVDs :) I bought a box f 500 enveloppes, I really feel like I run a business. Even though it has been awfully quiet on the shop lately. Probably because I laid back a little... Anyway!

Yesterday our TV kind of exploded. It started smoking. I unplugged it and that was it. But I can't live without a TV. I spend my days in front of it sewing. So we took the next train to Epernon, to get my TV that has been all alone for 2 years and a half, waiting for me to pick it up. It's awesome, I love it! So much bigger than the previous TV!

That didn't leave much room for sewing and taking care of my onlne shop.

This morning I finally got the courage to get up 'early'(9:30), to print and turn my latest drawings into jewelry.

Here are the pendants I made. Blood, sweat and tears, really. I realy don't like making cabochon pendants.you always have to make sure there is no bubbles, and everything is perfect... Not my thing. But I love the idea of putting my drawings out there and that some people are actually wearing them as jewelry!

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This is Enora Tattoo. This serie is all about striped t-shirts and rose tattoos.

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Ha! This one is kind of a future self portrait...Minus the red hair...Mine is solid black (especially since I dyed it 3 days ago). Last week I've been obsessed about getting another film camera off of eBay. I bid on a couple of them, I missed the first and I was bummed because it came with 3 lenses! My current film camera is a Canon a1 and I 'only' have 2 lenses for it.So I was pretty excited about getting one with 3 lenses. Well, I missed it. Only by a few euros. So I bid on a Minolta and I got it for 35€(including shipping fees). I made this drawing of a girl taking pictures with my new Minolta camera. And then I received an email teling me I got a second chance offer on the camera with the 3 lenses, a Zenit EM. I bought it telling myself it was my birthday gift to myself (my birthday is in a month and half).

I still haven't received any of them but I can't wait!!!

Here are the eBay pictures of the two cameras. There will be cool mail days in the future!!!

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This is Little Parisian, the first one of the series.

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And here is Penelope Green hair, glasses and tattoo.

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Earrings! Yay!

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My original drawings. :)

Another Day Off...

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Today has been a good day. Sewing and cooking. All I wanted to do! :)

I did mini brooches, and earrings for my shop. I usually make much bigger portraits. It's fun and quick to do these little versions.

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I finally got to sleep past 8:30, which was nice. I'm kind of sad I have to go back to work tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I like my job but I kind of miss my freedom and being able to be creative. Sometimes work is slow and I don't like to stand there doing nothing. I'm not taking care of my online shop and working to add more stuff to it as much as I'd like to and since it will be half of my income starting in october I feel scared. What if I lose all of my costumers? Or the tiny bit of 'fame' I gained on the site. Or somebody takes my place... I guess I won't worry about it when I'm completely in business again.

I even had the courage to put on make up today! :p

Here's my cat with the last book I read, Murakami, The Chronicles of the Wind-up Bird. It was a great book. I loved the style of the author and how poetic he made all the daily life actions like cooking pasta. It is a very soothing and unsettling book at the same time.

My cutie pie :)

And I baked madeleines. I bought this new mold last week and couldn't wait to try. I did a first try last week. They were not very good. I tried a new recipe today and I think they will be better.

Rings Rings Rings

I don't wear a lot of jewelry, well, that's not true, what I mean is that I always wear the same. The other day I did a post about my necklaces. Here's one about my rings.
I love the fact that they all have a story, as uninteresting as they must be, these stories mean a lot to me. :)
I wanted to share about what my jewelry stands for for me,.
I wear these seven rings almost everyday. I say 'almost' because I like to take them off when I sew or draw, and since I do that all the time, I mostly wear them when I go out nowadays.

I wear these four on my left hand. The three rings I wear on top of each other have all a story and a person behind them. My most precious ring is the blue one at the bottom (you'll soon know why) and I like to think of the two others on top as protecting it.

And here's my right hand. I wish I had more fingers. :)

My favorite ring used to be my Grand Mothers' on my Mom's side. I remember when I was a little girl she had this box of her jewelry in the living room and I would always get this ring out and try it on. It was way to big at the time, but I loved it! I never thought it would be mine one day. But about 2 years ago, my Grand Pa took it out of the vault at the bank to see if my Mom was interested in some of my Grand Ma's jewelry.
I saw this ring and tried it on, perfect fit! I had to take it, my Grand Pa let me. :) It's trully one of my most prized possession.

This one is lapis lazuli. My Mom brought it back for me from Chile. I don't think it's really pretty but as the clear blue stone represents my Grand Ma, this one stands for my Mom.

Next ring was a present from my Dad on one of my birthdays years ago. We picked it together in a jewelry shop in Montparnasse in Paris. On my finger it's on top of the two blue rings, it protects them. :)

My late Grand Ma on my Dad's side bought this ring for me when I was 15. I used to visit her every October. She lived in Paris and we would spend our days shopping. We found this ring on one of our shopping sprees. :)

Talking about shopping spree, I got this ring with my good friend Estelle on one of ours! She bought one as well with a star and red stones. They were really pricey but hey! It was around Christmas 3 or four years ago and we would keep repeating, 'We only live once! We might as well buy these expensive rings!'.

We bought them in our favorite jewelry shop in Paris, at Saint Michel. It's a tiny shop with such a great selection of antique jewelry.

These two are the last ones I got. I bought them last September on a market in Chicago, in the beautiful Lakeview neighborhood. It was such a great day, we hit the market, the record store and the bookstore that day. Then we headed to our favorite diner for some lunch. *sigh*

And that's it! :)

My Lucky Charms

It all started back in 2001 in Las Vegas...I bought this pendant at the Luxor Hotel. For me it was a symbol of life, and being happy to be alive. I've been wearing it ever since, almost every day.
Along the way I found companions for my Egyptian cross.

These are all of them. I wear two chains.(They are all tangled most of the time. :) )

On the same chain as my ankh, I wear this angel that has been given to me about a 2 years ago by a lady I met through the website where I sell my creations. I lost touch with her but she was so nice to me and helped me with so many things in my life with such great advice.
The amber pendant I got from my parents, they brought it back from Lituania.
I bought the Labradorite pendant on Ebay. It was really cheap and I love labradorite. I've read somewhere that it supposed to help being creative. I can't think of a better stone for me.

On my second chain I have these.
My Mom brought me back the angel from Ireland a couple of years ago. It's so dainty.
The black stone was given to me by my boyfriend last year for my birthday.
The moon and star was a gift from my friend Estelle on shopping spree we went together about a year ago. She has a similar one but bigger.
If the apartment was on fire, my necklaces would probably be the first thing I would grab before I get out. They're always around my neck though, that wouldn't require much effort. :p  But still, you catch my drift.