Focus on...Night Owl Craftworks!

*I accidentally posted this early (meant to post on Friday) - I couldn't wait! Enjoy!*

Sally of Night Owl Craftworks is quite possibly the sweetest person I've ever met. And by met, I mean talked to online. She is a super-sweet mother of three daughters (12 years, 6 years and 11 months). She is also a very talented crafter! She creates beautiful, hand-bound journals, sketchbooks and brag books. Her husband, a very talented artist himself, hand-carves beautiful stamps with original drawings. Night Owl Craftworks offers FREE Shipping throughout the U.S. Those of you who troll Etsy as often as I do know that sometimes you come across the best find and then you see that exorbitant shipping fee! None of that here!

I can't getg enough of these stamps! They're all one-of-a-kind and can you believe her husband draws directly onto the block and then carves it right there?! (Trouty Trout Stamp)

All of her sketchbooks are made with high-quality, 70 lb drawing paper. (Odd Bird Out Sketchbook)

Her chopstick journals are my favorite! (Chocolate Tree Chopstick Journals)

Like so many other people, I am a huge fan of kawaii. I'm already filling this sketchbook in my head. :) My favorite feature is the ribbon ready to hold my journaling pen! (Kawaii Dreamer Sketchbook)

Her kangaroo style book is ingenious! Every few pages, there is a pocket for you to store notes, ticket stubs, anything! I love this book for planning a wedding or baby shower, because you can keep your inspirational pictures all together! (Little Black Book - Kangaroo Journal)

Sally was kind enough to write up a little bio about herself at my request:

I love to create. I am sort of a collector of hobbies. I quilt, crochet, knit some, help my husband in the pottery, and I love to bind books! My passion for book binding was sparked when I read Corniela Funke's Inkheart. She has such romantic descriptions of the tools and supplies of a book binder. From there I was thirsty to learn as much as I could about the craft. I am self taught through books, thank you librarians! I am always on the hunt to learn more!

I didn't consider Etsy for my journals and sketchbooks in the beginning. I would just create books for friends and family... and I ran out of people to gift my books to. I was in limbo until I started selling on Etsy. I discovered a whole new group of wonderful people that very much appreciate the sentiment behind a handmade book. My husband still has his sketchbooks from his college art courses, and I think of that every time I create a new journal.

I love the stories I get from my customers about what they will be using thier journals for, from planning thier weddings to writing about thier childrens first steps or loose tooth. I do my best to use quality materials so people will be able to hand down these journals for years and years. When I find fun papers I get giddy and need to create! I have never done two of the same journals. I'm not sure I ever will.

Sally is a genuinely lovely person and I can't wait to see what new goodies she comes up with!

Breakdown:

Blog

Shop

Twitter

It's Raining, It's Pouring.... Remodeling Isn't Boring! (+ a sneak peek!)

Here, in Southern California, it's raining. A lot. We are not used to rain. People get all befuddled when it rains here. Last night there were 196 traffic accidents in the Greater LA area. The night before, there were 19. Everyone piles on the jackets they've had stored away all year, swaddling themselves with scarves, hats and gloves. Never mind, it's not particularly cold - the high here is 69 degrees - didn't you hear? IT'S RAINING.

I love the rain. I like how everything looks green, how the ocean turns all crazy and dangerous, how everything smells a bit more...alive. I like it even more in the past 2 years or so - since I had Lasik eye surgery. No more water on my glasses, walking with my head down, or constantly un-fogging the fogginess. Now, I can turn my head to the sky and enjoy the rain on my face. Which I have been doing all day!

The only problem is that rain, lovely though it is, make things more difficult. My dad and I are currently in the middle of a remodel on a vacant unit in a triplex he just bought. Parking at Home Depot is bad enough, but parking 4.6 miles away and then walking to and fro in the rain is no fun. Luckily, our handymen finished most of the outside work before the rain started, but the granite installer had to cut in the rain - which apparently worked out okay, because the granite is beautiful.

Today, the painting begins and Friday the carpet will go in! We already have a prospective tenant, too - my boyfriend, Adam. :) So I might get to use the kitchen I designed!

Friday, I will have a great feature on one of my new favorite Etsy shops - here's a sneak peek:

Can't wait, can you? :) Come back on Friday around noon to learn all about this lovely piece and more!

**Update: I was the one who couldn't wait! I accidentally posted it early, so here you go!!**

Cart-Worthy + Heart-Worthy

I was trolling Etsy today and found lots of fun stuff - here are my faves:

Barfette Sweetledum Card

The Aqua Fruit Punch Mini Lovey

Yellow Bicycle Print

Alpha Dog Throw Quilt

Glass Necklace in Sea Breeze

Sylvia Plath Took Her Life, But Saved Mine

When I was a freshman in college, half semester courses called seminars were offered in a variety of interesting, eclectic subjects. The intention was for us to try something new and to find our hidden calling. I chose one on the writings of Sylvia Plath. Three years earlier, I discovered the poem Two Sisters of Persephone online. I love my sister, but I always felt like we were treated really differently. I was aware that it was a big part of my adolescent psyche and I sought out stories that mimicked that (Jacob and Esau was a favorite). A year after that, I read my mom's old copy of The Bell Jar. It felt like Sylvia knew something about me. Like she had given words to something I felt. A year after reading The Bell Jar, I discovered Ted Hughes' poetry and was given a copy of The Birthday Letters. This is a collection of 88 poems that Hughes wrote over 25 years beginning shortly after Plath's suicide. 86 of them are addressed to Plath.

That seminar course was amazing. We re-read The Bell Jar, combed through her Collected Poems and read biographies of Plath. We discussed the significance of her word choice and the recurrent themes in her poems. We talked about the way she used German to describe her father because it was harsh and ugly, but when he died, she said, "I'll never speak to God again." I learned a lot about poetry in that class, but it was also a turning point for me. I was incredibly unhappy that first year. I used to take a lot of late night drives to a park a few miles away and just swing. There was an uphill turn on the road there and I would sometimes think (innocently, I thought) what if I didn't turn? I may have also lit candles and cried in bed, but that sounds so sad, I can barely type it.

In that course, I made a realization: Plath was upset, too. Plath understood me. Her words FIT into my heart in a way that nothing else had yet. But Plath was dead. Of her own doing and before her time. I was not going to be her. I was not going to inspire someone to write raging, woeful, cruel things about me. I was going to write my way out of whatever it was that was pulling me down. And I did. I wrote in my LiveJournal and I wrote by hand. I wrote notebooks full of poems and short stories and thoughts. I fixed myself.

Two Sisters of Persephone by Sylvia Plath

Two girls there are : within the house

One sits; the other, without.

Daylong a duet of shade and light

Plays between these.

In her dark wainscoted room

The first works problems on

A mathematical machine.

Dry ticks mark time

As she calculates each sum.

At this barren enterprise

Rat-shrewd go her squint eyes,

Root-pale her meager frame.

Bronzed as earth, the second lies,

Hearing ticks blown gold

Like pollen on bright air. Lulled

Near a bed of poppies,

She sees how their red silk flare

Of petaled blood

Burns open to the sun's blade.

On that green alter

Freely become sun's bride, the latter

Grows quick with seed.

Grass-couched in her labor's pride,

She bears a king. Turned bitter

And sallow as any lemon,

The other, wry virgin to the last,

Goes graveward with flesh laid waste,

Worm-husbanded, yet no woman.

No Words Necessary

{no idea where this is from, sorry}

Cookies

These are peanut butter cookies I made a few days ago.

Don't they look yummy? :)

Faux Bois Everything!

Since I want a ranch/farm/woodland/forest wedding setting, how perfect is faux bois as an accent? I can literally incorporate it everywhere: invitations, save the dates, vases, candles, photo booth backdrops and favor boxes. The list goes on and on...

{Faux Bois Cake from Sedona Wedding Cakes}

{Wedding Programs from Sara Hanks Giessen}

{Faux Bois cake and forest-y themed dessert table from Martha Stewart Weddings via House Martin}

{Faux Bois themed tableware from Life Abundant}

{hand-drawn save the dates from Brooklyn Bride}

{letterpress from Alee & Press via Elizabeth Anne Designs}

{via Paper Crave}

{unexpectedly colored faux bois table runner from Project Wedding}

{faux bois cookies (perfect for favors/dessert) from Content}

{faux bois soaps (even better for favors) from Gianna Rose}

OMG, I have so many more, but I'm going to have to stop here for your sanity (and mine).