So many brooches, ahh!

This is why I haven't been posting much lately:



I got my first wholesale order! It was 40 brooches, and it took me a few months to finish them. I don't know how some people manage to blog regularly, run a handmade business, AND go on fun adventures. When I focus on something, I can do so with laser beam intensity, but everything else around me becomes super neglected - like this blog! haha.

I've learned alot through this process though, and I feel like I got in some good practice honing my illustration style. I'm a lot more consistent, and a lot less scared to lay down that paint. Fear of failure holds me back a lot, and I caught myself procrastinating a lot during the brooch-making process because of it, but I've learned that jumping in headfirst helps a lot. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

The brooches are going to be sold at a cute little shop that'll be opening up next year in Vancouver BC called London Fields Shoppe. The husband-and-wife owners manage a lot of indie craft events, and from what I've seen of their stuff, they are seriously amazing. Here's a little snippet from their about page on facebook to give you a feel of their soon-to-be shop:

"Evoking memories of British cake stalls and handmade markets, our permanent space will be one part café, one part retail, and one part workshop space where people can drop-in for a cup of coffee, a slice of cake, shop, and learn a new do-it-yourself skill."

Doesn't that sound perfect? I wish there were something like that here in Everett. Franklin & I will have to get our passports in order and drive up to visit after they open, methinks.

Winter is coming.

Natural lighting is hard to come by these days.
I've been working on brooches, but the lighting's never quite right for taking good pictures for my etsy listings. I think I'm going to have to construct a light box or something. I've kinda been ignoring the bad weather, and pretending it's nice enough to wear cropped cardigans and short skirts. It's not. But I'll keep pretending. I'm super obsessed with pony-tails & knee highs right now.

OUTFIT DETAILS:
sweater, shirt, skirt, belt: thrifted
knee highs: old navy
red moccs: minnetonka
game of thrones brooch: stoic + pariah handmade

In other news, Franklin started school again, so I decided to start working on kid's songs while Franklin's in class. I figured if I can do a song a week, then we could have enough material for a kid's album or something by the end of the quarter. Anyway, I made a song last week about kids waking up early from nap. I work in the toddler room at my preschool, and when those little ones start waking up from nap, they usually try to make lots of noise to wake up everyone else, haha. This song is for those kids:



Anyway, I hope I can stay on track with my goal of making one song a week!
We'll see!

-Elizabeth

Bloglovin' Brooch Giveaway

Check it out, guys. I made a blogger badge of honor brooch for this most spectacular occasion: my first giveaway ever! The only mandatory entry is following us on bloglovin', but there's some other ways for you to earn extra entries, like tweeting about the giveaway, following us on twitter, and adding our etsy shop to your favorites :)

You can enter through Rafflecopter below:)
The giveaway ends at midnight, July 10.
Good luck, ya'll.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Elizabeth

Stoic + Pariah at Marinus Home

I'm selling my brooches in a real store, guys!

I've got some Stoic + Pariah brooches for sale at this cute little shop in Poulsbo, WA called Marinus Home. You should stop by and check it out if you're in the area - so much awesome stuff in there! They have a lot of sweet vintage stuff, and all of the handmade items they sell are from local (Washington State) artists, which I think is pretty darn cool. Franklin and I drove down yesterday to drop off a bunch of cat lady brooches and check out the shop. It was so cute! There were so many vintage typewriters, and picnic baskets, and suitcases, ah! I wanted to buy everything, haha. If you're ever in the area, make sure you check it out! <-- even if you don't live close, you should click on that link for the sole purpose of listening to the awesome French song that plays on their site, haha.

Here is the super-sweet shop owner, Talitha:

It was so neat to see my brooches sitting in a real shop! It makes me want to make a crazy amount of brooches and work the craft fair circuit. Seeing all the brooches tagged + displayed like that made me woozy with delight, haha. I want more of this feeling!!!!

-Elizabeth

PS: don't forget to follow us on bloglovin'!!! I completely forgot about the google-reader shut-down, and I am sad now. so please, let's be friends on bloglovin' :)

Badges of Honor

I've been working on some new brooches for the shop! The cat lady badge of honor. I've made smaller ones before, but these are way bigger - two inches high! Excitement. I've got a few other badges of honor I want to work on, but for now, it's just cats. Stately gentlemanly cats with bow-ties. heehee. I'll probably have them up in the shop by the end of this week, hopefully.

Gosh, other than that, I've been so lazy! I've been wanting to update my blog for weeks, but I kept ending up on the couch watching netflix instead, ha! I wish spring would get here already- I'm getting really sick of this cold & gloomy weather. blah.

What I'm listening to: Stars Of Track and Field - Belle & Sebastian

-Elizabeth

Bricks & Burritos

Hooray for matching Franklin today!
His style is like a weird bohemian grandpa bum, which I totally dig. So I embraced it and wore a few extra layers to really emphasize that homeless look, haha. I think we really captured each others' awkwardness with these pictures, don't you?:

I made him wear this Kerouac brooch set I made, because it fit today's vibe pretty well. We had every intention to screech up to our friends' house, and force them go to Tacoma with us, but we chickened out and texted them instead. They were busy. So we turned around and went home to drink whiskey & coke and make music. On the way back, we stopped by this burrito place that boasts their baby-sized burritos. Not baby burritos. Baby-sized burritos. I'd say the description was pretty accurate:

And now, stomachs full and heads a-buzz with whiskey, we're off to go make music in the attic band room.

What we're listening to right now: Nirvana - where did you sleep last night?

-Elizabeth

Staying Home Sick & Making New Brooches

I stayed home sick today with a really nasty cold. (Take your vitamins, kids!) I still feel as awful as I did when I woke up, but guilt is probably going to make me drag myself into work tomorrow. I hate calling in. Even if it's completely legitimate, I feel so guilty knowing that someone has to pick up extra slack because I'm not there. Blah. I spent the day in front of the heater, watching netflix and working on some new brooches for the shop.

Check 'em out:

Winter Is Coming Brooch // Cat Lady Brooch // Twin Peaks Series: Log Lady Brooch

Franklin & I started reading Game of Thrones, which my cousin recommended to us, and it's so good! She actually requested a custom brooch a little while ago that fits the same "Winter is coming" theme, so she was the direct inspiration for that first brooch. I've taken so long on the brooch she requested, though, so I'm probably just going to send it to her as a christmas present, haha. Hopefully she doesn't read this, or it won't be much of a surprise!

What I'm listening to:


-Elizabeth

PS: What should I have for dinner?

New Brooches!

Hello, folks! I finally added a couple brooches to the shop! I have a bunch more, but I've had a bit of an issue when it comes to taking photos for the shop: by the time I get home from work, it's dark out! Daylight, what's that? I don't even remember.

Allow me to introduce, the new Kitty Brooches:

(From left to right: Fat Kitty, Knitting Kitty & Bookworm Kitty)

I've only added Fat Kitty & Bookworm Kitty to the shop so far, but I'll be adding Knitting Kitty as soon as I get enough daylight to get a good picture! These brooches all come with a matching "pocket totem" that you can tote around with you for good luck! I like having little trinkets in my pocket or my car for good luck, so I thought it would be fun to start including them with my new brooches.

I also decided to start freshening up the shop with a new look. I'm still in the process of taking new pictures of the older listings, but it will happen eventually! In the meantime, you get a look at my embarrassing hodge podge of a shop.

-Elizabeth

Floral & Teal

Look who joined the glasses-wearin' club. I couldn't see very far driving, and every day was ending with a really awful migraine (my worst enemy). So I got me some glasses, and now I can see. My headaches are way less frequent, which is the most awesome thing ever. Oh yeah, and being able to see while driving on the freeway, is also pretty sweet.

With my new job & Franklin's new job, our weekends have meaning again. This weekend was: thrifting, sushi dates, playing duck hunt using the sweet Konami NES laserscope Franklin found at the thrift store, watching daria, and drinking ovaltine. I have a bunch of brooches I'm workin' on for the shop, and I swore to myself I'd finish them this weekend, but that didn't happen. This weekend was for relaxing. and LOTS of thrift store shopping, yikes. I spent a little too much money, I think. I think the act of shopping-but-not-buying is really fun for me, too. I like to fill up a cart at the thrift store, and then have Franklin convince me I don't need any of it, and then I usually put it all back, hahaha. But the act of putting it in the cart is fun stuff, in my book. What a weirdo.

Franklin and I are going to start carpooling to work with each other starting today! I've never carpooled before. It makes me feel all grown up and stuff. Look at me, all married & carpooling and requiring glasses to drive -what a lady! Anyway, yeah. In other news: I had the girl at the coffee stand make me a pumpkin spice latte, with egg nog instead of milk, and it was AWESOME. I have dubbed it "the holiday drink" and I vow to have one weekly. Maybe. Maybe I shouldn't. No, no - I definitely should.

What I'm listening to: Dogs - Page France
What I'm excited for today: drinking coffee out of my new coffee cup! haha.

-Elizabeth

Out of the Woods

I had every intention to keep this thing updated this week, but it sorta got away from me! So here's a little recap.

1. Finishing up a custom fern brooch for a dear friend
2. In the woods for a night. We forgot a vital part of our tent, but it worked out :)
3. Our good friends Justin & Cat have chickens, and these are their eggs! So pretty!

I spent the rest of the week battling migraine headaches and working on some new brooches to add to the shop! Once I finish this new batch of brooches, I'm going to completely change the look of the shop. I'm hoping I can get that all finished before the end of the month. Also, I don't know if you noticed, but I gave the ol' blog a little makeover.  The changes were small, but I like the end result. What do you guys think?

What I'm listening to: the hopeless opus by of montreal
What I'm gonna do when I'm done posting this: play minecraft with Franklin!

-Elizabeth

Floral and Denim

I bought this really sweet old floral fabric, and some light denim fabric at the thrift store a long time ago, and I wanted to make clothing with it. Whenever I take on any sort of sewing endeavor, I usually make some awful mistake that takes hours of me ripping stitches and crying in frustration. This was the first project I worked on where I didn't completely wreck everything, AND my sewing machine decided to cooperate with me. TWO FIRSTS. I think that deserves a glass of wine. Oh, what's that? I'm already drinking it? okay.

BEHOLD! My floral masterpiece!

I made the shirt and the skirt from scratch, huzzah! (oh, and the brooch!) I don't use patterns, but I do reference my own clothes, just to get an idea size-wise. The fit of the shirt is a little wonky, but I still dig it. The front is closed with snaps -- the buttons are just there to trick you. (bwahaha!) I've never sewed a button hole before and I have no intention to try, haha. The same goes for sewing zippers. Some things are better left unlearned.

Also, I don't know about you, but no matter how much table space I have in my sewing room, I always ALWAYS end up on the floor, cutting and pinning like a mad man. But whatever works, right? When it comes to makin' stuff, I live by this rule: THERE ARE NO RULES. If anyone tells ya different, then they're fools!

I made a matching bow with the fabric scraps (it looks pretty awful on the backside, haha) and I used this crazy 70s polyester for that sweet mismatched pocket, which I haphazardly sewed on using a zig-zag stitch (of which I am not very familiar with). I am not friends with my sewing machine. In fact, I think we might hate each other. Thread tension? I know it should be adjusted when you change stitches and material, but I always keep mine at 2. I don't even know what that means. Any tips about thread tension are welcome, by the way! I'd like to finally get the upper hand with my sewing machine. Too many times has it left me in tears, haha. Oh, I'm rambling! Here are some detail shots:



I think I'm going to make about a million of these skirts now. They're so easy! I made this skirt this morning, while Franklin made us breakfast! haha. The pocket is what really gets me. I'm so excited to make more! heehee. If I understood sizes better, I might even think about selling them. but for now, I'm just going to focus on frugally expanding my wardrobe.

-Elizabeth

New Brooches!

I've finally added some new brooches to the shop! I have a few others in the making, but I haven't had the time (or patience) for painting this past week. I just have to say, that this soy sauce brooch is my absolute favorite. I almost don't want to sell it. I know I can make another one for myself, but I like THAT one, haha. The kikkoman soy sauce dispenser is so iconic to me, and it totally reminds me of my childhood, so lookin' at it makes me oh so happy. heehee!

Also: I know it sounds super weird and sappy, but whenever I ship off a brooch I've made, I get a little sad to say goodbye. I get attached to them, because I spend so much time working on them that they almost become like characters to me. Like weird little friends, haha. But then I think, now they can go be someone else's weird little friend! Maybe I should change the name of my shop to weird little friends, haha. It's starting to sound quite catchy.

-Elizabeth

Book & Quote brooches, yay!

I finally added some new brooches to the shop! I just started a new "Book & Quote" brooch set series, but I've only made one so far. It's a book I first read in seventh grade, and it's been one of my favorites ever since... On the Road, by Jack Kerouac:

I have no clue what to do next, though. Walden, maybe? That's pretty classic, and up there in my favorites. I'd look to Franklin's book collection for inspiration, but it's all sci-fi and fantasy, haha. Don't get me wrong, I like sci-fi and fantasy every once in a while, but I don't know how many people want to sport The Dragon Reborn on their lapel, hahaha.

-Elizabeth

**Custom orders are welcome, by the way. Especially regarding book & quote sets! just shoot me an email at lizzy.sadile[at]gmail.com