A Beautiful Mess

rainy saturdays are for l o v e r s!

*sigh*

rain gives me such a good feeling. i can hear the cars driving by and it's wonderful.
Welcome to Saturday.
tonight i have big plans of staying in all night, making pancakes, drinking chamomile tea and painting a big canvas.

here is some eye candy from the week that makes me feel really inspired. hope you enjoy....
new orla kiely for Spring
 

in love with the dress...
 
although, i think i love both colors equally!

and this bag.... be still my heart.

pretty*pretty!

ok... snap back to reality...
the orla kiely stuff at target is adorable.

everyone was getting so obsessed with it that i tried to resist, but i could not.
i grabbed a few things last week.

this little cutie.

and some tablecloths which i am actually using as curtains in my kitchen!

more inspiration. some peeks at Betsey Johnson's Spring 2009 collection...

the veil and the makeup. love.

love the lace gloves.
 
and i fully admit that i was a million percent done with pirates... until i saw this. Betsey Johnson is a trend-making-genius and she totally brought this back for me. in love.

and my favorite....

hope you are feeling inspired on this Saturday.
i am looking forward to creating all night.
Maybe I'll share some peeks?

Loves, e

projects, side projects & twitter.....

well hello. 

i am back, as promised, for a post with more words. :D 

thank you so much for your kind words about my shop tour photos (below). 

oh my...where to begin.... 

Italy. 

If you live in (or near) Italy and would like to take a class with me in about a month, click here for more info. I am super excited to take this trip. It's been over a year since I left the US and I am really looking forward to seeing new places & making new friends. It will be fun! Plus, my favorite boy is coming along.... can't wait! 

Here are a few sneak peeks of the classes I am teaching. 

Felt Friends:

10 things I love about you: 

Creative Embellishments: 

(promise to share more peeks as the event draws near!)

Personal-ish.

This is a long story, but I will try to make it short.... 

Opening the RVA store/website has been a dream for me. It's easily the biggest project I've ever taken on and I am incredibly thankful and excited to take my work in that direction. I adore Red Velvet and it's something I can see myself doing and evolving long term. 

That said, this past month I've had some emotional ups and downs that I could only compare (and this is a very far stretch, I know) to someone who has just had a new baby. I love what I am doing more than anything but there have been moments when I've felt like I was losing my own identity a bit. 

I'll explain more.... For the past six months I've done almost nothing that was unrelated to RVA. My friends here know that I haven't been going out, working on personal projects or even really sleeping. I don't regret it because starting a new business requires insane personal sacrifice and this is what I really want to do with my life right now. I just think that one day (soon after the store opened) it all started catching up with me. I started feeling really burnt out and I started missing the people & things that I hadn't made time for. 

Long story short, I decided that it was time to make some simple changes in my daily life. More sleep, daily time for personal hobbies and a new side project. These changes have been such a blessing to me in the past few weeks and I feel like some creative parts of me are coming to life again. I feel really really happy and more inspired than I have in a long time. Sleep, vintage shopping, hanging out with my mom and a new little project have made a really positive change in my life! 

A couple things I've been doing for fun..... 

Etsy

Closing my etsy shop was something that I felt immediately sad about. I felt like I "should"...obviously because we have a new lovely site (it will be back up next week, i can't wait!). But, there is just something about etsy that I really love. When I started my shop, I was designing Love, Elsie full time and it was just for fun. So, I decided to reopen my my etsy shop as a side project and make it "just for fun" again!

I am reopening my shop as a home for small, occasional collections of original art. These collections are a place for me to experiment with new styles, concepts and ideas. My first set is called 'Chamomile". The paintings are more delicate and detailed. They have some embroidered and vintage elements as well as Swarovski crystals...just some things i haven't tried before. It's been a lot of fun to work on and I am so excited to share them with you... 

:) thanks for sharing that with me.

and just for fun... my most lucky thrift shop purchase of the week: 

oh..... and i finally got twitter.

if you wanna follow my randomness... feel free. :D 

yes, i really am making a dollhouse. more about that later! 

i'm off to work for the night. LOVElove, elsie

Vintage Indie Store Tour!

Just a quick post to let you know that our first Store Tour has been posted. Lots of newphotos to share.

It was an honor & super fun! 

here come the p h o t o s.... 

(rings! i can't wait to put some of these on the site soon!)

 

(secret writers!)

Thanks for taking a look at my shop! :) 

I have a busy day ahead, but I'll be back tonight with more exciting news. 

LOViEs, elsie

thrift shops & a day with my mom...

*sigh* 

yesterday was the most wonderful day. i spent the day shopping with my mom.

for those of you who don't know, my mom is a painter. last year she quit her job as an art teacher to pursue her painting career full time. i am so proud of her. she is doing her first solo show soon! i am so excited! Congratulations, Mom! 

Since my shop opened we've had lots and lots of visitors from other cities & states! I've given out lots of handwritten lists of fun places to go and I thought it might be fun to blog about some of my favorite local spots over the next couple months! 

First up... My favorite thrift shop, Thrift Haven (located on S. Glenstone). This is a charity based thrift shop (all proceeds support a children's home!). I shop here about once a week and find lots of cute dresses & vintage items to paint. They play gospel music %100 of the time and all of the people who work there are volunteers. I love it so much that if it ever goes out of business, I'm moving. 

these blue suitcases are so lovely. i especially love old luggage if it has a monogram. 

(...the plaid one has my heart...)

i loved this green, aqua & grey book spine. lovely. 

prom/bridesmaids dresses anyone? 

in all honesty, i've purchased more than my fair share of ridiculous prom dresses. it's a little collection, i suppose (fun for photo shoots!). 

vinyl. i've been searching for a certain Neil Young record recently. 

they're beautiful. 

belts. i love them. i have a gold one like this that i wear all the time. the rainbow one is pretty cute too, though... 

in love with these colors. imagine the embroidery that could happen here.... pretty! 

this skirt was SO cute. not my size, unfortunately, but very worthy of a little "snap". I love embroidered vintage clothing! 

if only...

miles of ugly dresses that are just begging to be cut up and accessorized. :D 

i love this hunt! 

if my grandma would have worn it, it's twice as appealing! 

both my grandma's had killer cute style and it thrills me to wear the trends that they used to love. 

and this was just cute. :D 

 '

i loooove my mom. <3 

Oh, and this is what I took home with me from this shopping trip: 

this lovelyyy spring blanket. i think it was $3. score!

oh, and right next door to Thrift Haven is the Oriental Market. It's cute and very colorful. My foster sister lovies the cute candy they have.... 

ice cream cones!?!

eek! i am crazy about Panda bears. these are SO cute! 

and mushroom cookies. a d o r a b l e. 

well, that's a little peek at a few of my favorite local spots. more to come... next up is my favorite vintage shop (yes, thrift & vintage= two very different things!) and it's right across the street from my store! You're gonna freak out... it's sooo gorgeous. 

well, I have a new box of chamomile tea & a deadline to work on this evening. 

Happy Sunday! eeeee