Nautical Mix...

I like stripes.  Maybe you haven't noticed.  But for me, stripes are the best pattern, even better than floral.  Stripes can be easily mixed with other patterns, they add a variety of colours to your wardrobe, they are somewhat masculine feeling to me, so I like to pair them with feminine details. When I was looking at the fabrics I had pulled for my latest pieces, I realized I had blue and white, black and cream, charcoal and white, yellow and white, and red and white stripes... I don't think I've left any out!

Sleep Tight

Adrift

A Classic

Nautical Trio

Navy

Chrysanthemum
Photography by Franey Miller (http://franeymiller.net)
Modeled by Alida
Makeup by Cassie Lynn Young 
Hair by Jade Mulgrew

Chrysanthemum

Back

I'm not even sure where to start... I completely overhauled my Etsy shop this weekend.  I had so many old pieces, with photographs I wasn't 100% satisfied with so I took an inventory, re-shot old pieces, and added a ton of new items.  Basically everything in my shop is new, save for a few old standards.  I don't even know what to show first.

I had the pleasure of working (remotely) with a photographer currently based out of Louisville, Franey Miller (http://www.franeymiller.net/).  She, along with a very talented Makeup Artist, Hair Sylist, and Model, did an amazing job capturing exactly what I was feeling with my new pieces. I just love, love, love these photos to pieces.  I wasn't entirely thrilled with my last collection.  I felt under pressure to make new items, and wasn't feeling inspired by anything in particular.  The result were pieces that were nice... but not really cohesive, and not entirely 'me'. I am much, much, much more happy with these pieces.  I have introduced a new style - a brazilian cut panty (kept these samples for myself, I LOVE these), and some cropped camisoles. I added more basics, I branched into Neon, I added more nautical. I focused on the fun, quirky things I love.

So, I think I'm out of my funk. I think I worked right out of it.  I am happy with my shop - everything looks consistent and 'me.'  I played around with my camera more, and tried some new techniques.  I am happy as a clam.

Rose Cropped Cami
Photography by Franey Miller (http://franeymiller.net)
Modeled by Alida
Makeup by Cassie Lynn Young 
Hair by Jade Mulgrew

Rose Panties

Honeysuckle Cropped Cami & Linen Panties
Photography by Franey Miller (http://franeymiller.net)
Modeled by Alida
Makeup by Cassie Lynn Young 
Hair by Jade Mulgrew

Sheer Mesh

Peony Lingerie Set
Photography by Franey Miller (http://franeymiller.net)
Modeled by Alida
Makeup by Cassie Lynn Young 
Hair by Jade Mulgrew

Peony Lingerie Set

Bow Sleep Mask

Another week bites the dust...

Remember when you were five years old and a half an hour seemed like an eternity? I have this very vivid memory of being a kid, eagerly anticipating when my favourite show, She-Ra, would be on.  I remember asking my mom how long I would have to wait to see the Princess of Power in all of her sword-wielding glory.  "Half an Hour." Half an hour felt like it could have been forever.  I remember thinking, "what the heck can I do for half an hour to make the time go by?" Half an hour was an eternity .. Now, a week flies by in a blink.  It's scary, really. 

Thank you for your thoughts and comments on my last post.  I'm still feeling a little "blah" but had a better week.  I got a lot done, especially yesterday. I think I will have about 6 orders to pack up and send out this afternoon.   I finally am caught up and keeping up with orders and wrapping my head around the fact that it's good to have a never ending "to do" list.

I did a few things I enjoyed this week.  I went to the park with my cousin and her little boy. I watched him run that funny, teetering way kids run, and watched him swing, and slide, and climb, and giggle.  My cousin and I took turns on the swing ourselves, which was way more fun than I remembered.  I planted some flowers in my planters by the front door, and sunk my hands right in the dirt which was cool and felt good on my sore hands.  I am not really a very good gardener, but I really enjoy gardening.  It reminds me of my grandma, my parents, summer days as a kid. I listened to two audiobooks - one great and one so-so (and I will take book recommendations please! I'm into thrillers / mysteries / historical non-fiction / some horror).  So, overall, it was a nice week.  I feel like I'm getting back in the groove.

This weekend is Victoria Day Weekend, which is the unofficial start of summer (oh, and a day to honour Queen Victoria with fireworks).  Dan has three days off and I am looking forward to spending more time in the garden (weather permitting).

On Thursday I photographed some new items on the new backdrops I made.  I think I have stencil-fever because I want to stencil an entire wall now.  Anyway,  I also pulled out a couple of my antique magazines from my collection to use as backdrops  I totally forgot that I had picked up a copy of Delineator Magazine from 1906 a few months ago.  I never really considered myself a 'collector' but I suppose I actually do 'collect' fashion magazines, pre-1930.  There is an antique store downtown that I visit on a monthly basis, and snatch up any magazines they may have.

The Delineator is a magazine I've always wanted to own, so I was really excited when I found this.  The only thing that upsets me about this purchase is they stuck the price sticker right on the front cover.  Doh! That was disappointing, but it was inexpensive and I love it anyway.  I just love the illustrations in these magazines.  I love imagining what it would have been like to wear these clothes.  This magazine is from 1906, when you think about it, that's not really that long ago and look at how much fashion (and the world) has changed.

Sunday Morning

Ho hum... that 'down' feeling that I had talked about a month or so ago still hasn't seemed to have left.  We had a week or so of some nice, warm weather, but it's cold again... cold enough that there is a risk of snow/rain over night... Perfect timing too, since I bought a bunch of plants yesterday. I was feeling better when it was nice enough to get outside, but I'm back to feeling "blah... nothing matters... what's the point..." again.

I had a disappointingly unproductive week.  I felt like everything this week was a massive effort.  Just dragging myself out of bed was horrendously hard.  I normally am a morning person, so sleeping in is unusual for me.  I don't know what it is.  Nothing is wrong, everything is going well, business is steady, Dan's work is going well, we are all healthy, I have no perceivable reason to feel anything but content... but I just feel blank. Not happy, not sad, just nothing at all. If you get to really know me, you will find I am a bizarre mix of extremes - I love things, and I despise things, I do things to the max, so feeling "meh" just feels absolutely bizarre.  I desperately want to feel excited about something.  As a result, I have been unusually quiet on my blog.  I feel guilty about talking about feeling down, when there is nothing particularly wrong.  I feel like a crazy person, unjust in my feelings, like I should just zip-it because other people have it much harder than I do. I know it's going to be hard for me to click the "Publish" button on this post, but I will do it anyway.

I have been working on summer pieces, and stenciled some new backgrounds to take photos on.  That was kind of fun.  I like doing crafty things like that... My new summer items are mostly cotton, with some linen, crochet lace details, and some flapper-esque sequins, lots of peach & pale yellow.  I have a few more stripey items to finish up.  I can't help it, I just love stripes.  I realized the other day, while preparing some new pieces, that I had 3 stripe variations that I was working on.  Stripes are just the perfect print.  I also am working on a bunch of cropped camisoles.  I like the idea of cropped cami's for summer... I got some gold metal sliders, which I like very much.  I feel like they give the straps a jewelry feel.  The only other thing I want to incorporate into this collection is some fine silver chain.  I'm not entirely sure how I will do this yet, I have a vision in my mind's eye which hasn't come quite clear yet, but it will reveal itself to me...

The worst thing about the way that I am feeling right now is that I feel like it's really reflecting itself in my work - not in the quality or creativity really, but in my perception of it.  I look at things that I finish and instead of giggling gleefully, I stare blankly and add it to the pile.  I've shown a few pieces to my husband, and they have elicited an unusually excited response, a wide-eyed "ooooo." But that hasn't stopped my pile of unfinished, unphotographed pile of lingerie from growing. I feel like I woke up one day with all of my confidence and zeal just drained out of me.  What happened?  When will it come back?

Refreshing...

I am no longer allowed to complain about the weather... at least until it starts getting too hot.  We had unseasonably warm weather last weekend, which was great because we went out of town for a wedding, which happened to be outdoors.  It was absolutely beautiful, one of the nicest weddings I've ever been to, so full of love and personal touches.  The groom was an old friend of Dan's who I hadn't met yet, and I'd only had the pleasure of emailing back and forth with the Bride.  The ceremony & vows were so sweet it actually brought a tear to my eye! It was wonderful.  Totally made me want to have another wedding.

The location was pretty far, about a 3 hour drive for us, so Saturday was a pretty long day, considering Dan worked in the morning.  We left the wedding around midnight, crashed at our Motel.  I couldn't sleep, which isn't unusual.

We woke up really early on Sunday, packed our bags, and headed into town for breakfast.  I thought Orillia was small.  Goderich, which is on the edge of Lake Huron, is very, very small, and pretty remote! It's a beautiful town though.  Staring off over Lake Huron feels like you're looking over the ocean, it is so vast.

We took a very long, very winding way home, up around the lake.  I think it took us about 5 hours in total to get home... Along the way I saw a sign for "Eugenia Falls." I remembered a few years back, my parents, brother and I decided to head out for a family road trip and went to "Eugenia Falls."  We quickly took the turn up an old, desolate county road and followed the signs.  It was just as awesome as I remember.  The area is fairly hilly, though not nearly as rocky as the area just north of us, so the landscape is really unexpected. The other side of this canyon is a sheer drop off, just one flat rock wall.  In the picture below, you can see a tree leaning dangerously over the ledge...

The coolest part of Eugenia Falls is this abandoned shell of what I think is an old mill (?).  I have to admit, there was a sign, but I didn't read it.  A few years ago, Dan's mom gave Dan a framed print of a photo she had taken of some graffiti.  It turns out that she had taken the photo here, because we recognized the exact piece. The building is very cool, but has started to crumble a bit since I was there last.

As we got closer to Collingwood, the views from the hills were amazing.  We were surprised to see snow still on the ski hills, considering it was 28 degrees Celsius! We pulled over at an Entry Point to the Bruce Trail, and took a bit of a walk. The view was amazing! I love driving across Ontario because the landscape changes so drastically.  It is such an amazing large province.

Our weekend away was exactly what we needed.  Everything was just perfect.  I think it gave me a little perspective over my life, and the importance of work/life balance, which I'm still trying to get a grasp over. 

This week will be busy. I am pretty caught up on my orders, just two stragglers to catch up with this week, but I am also preparing for a photoshoot at the end of the month.  I am meeting with someone from a local fundraising group this morning, hoping I can get involved in a local Bra Decorating event, which I am looking forward to.  I am also looking forward to hopefully another weekend of great weather, because Dan and I are planning our first camping trip of the season!  I think this might be the year that we try backcountry camping.