Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

When I lived in Hawaii, my sister came to live with me for a little while....we traveled all around the islands and walked on volcanoes. I had to put all the rental cars under my name. Today she can legally rent one herself. Happy Birthday!

New Creations:

I have added a few new items to the PinkBird Creations Shop. Go ahead and click here to see them. (And, more coming soon!!)

live your dream

You may know that I am constantly struggling to determine "what I want to be when I grow up." What makes me happy? What could I do everyday for the rest of my life and feel good about? I found the questions on this website to be incredibly helpful in helping you figure out what you really want to do with your life. Time and time again when I think about what I would do if I won millions of dollars or didn't have to work, or only have a few months left to live, I realize that typically the things I'm doing on a daily basis are not the things my dreams are made of. I am very lucky that I to get to create art and have a fairly successful online shop (at least in my terms of success) and I have a regular 9 to 5 type job that I like.

If your in the middle of that "what do I do?" or "am I happy?" stage, try questions like these and then get ready to unleash your dreams! (On another note, Cheri Huber's books are also a good starting point for a Zen way of following your dreams, and I'll mention it again, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is good if your seeking your "personal legend").

(Photo taken by me, a view from the lanai of our house when we lived on Oahu)
P.S. Happy Birthday, Janine!!!

PinkBird's Picture: Owakudani, Japan

This is a picture from the Owakudani crater, in Hakone, near Mt Fuji, in Japan. All that "steam" is really sulfuric gases being vented from the earth. In this crator, aside from the crazy-bad smell, are hot springs, where people boil eggs. The eggs turn black from the sulfur and tradition states that eating one will add 5 (or was it 7) years to your life. It seemed like everyone there was chowing-down on some black eggs. We were tempted to eat one, but eggs are weird and gross, and add that with the stink in the air, well, that would not have been pretty. If you're planning to travel to Japan I would recommend going to Hakone. You can take a boat around Lake Ashi, a hot springs bath at an Onsen, and then go to Owakudani. There you can take a "ropeway" (cable car/gondola) ride up above the crater and eat some black eggs for longer life--hooray!

The Origins of Some Selected Creations Part 5:

Well, feathered friends, it sure has been a long time since I’ve shared some of the stories behind the jewelry that I create…so, I figure I really should get back to it. Here are a few of my favorite pieces and the stories behind them:

I know I've said it a million times, but my Grandma loved owls. She had a huge collection of ceramic owls and owl themed things. So, essentially when I make something involving an owl, I am thinking of her.

Even when we were traveling in Tokyo, Japan I found some cute owl charms which I made into these fun earrings.

A few years ago one of my cousins actually bought this lovely owl necklace, and later emailed me to tell me that she actually bought it thinking of our Grandma.

When one of my best friends, Janine got married a few years ago I volunteered to make jewelry for the bridesmaids (which where me and her 2 sisters). The thing is that I knew the colors of the dresses, but hadn't actually seen them. I also wasn't entirely sure what her sister's styles were, so I made a whole bunch of jewelry and let them pick what they wanted to wear. Then I decided to sell what was left, so, these beauties were all made for a lovely beach wedding.

I made these Bachelorette Earrings with some left over cocktail glass accessories that my sister gave me after hosting a friend's bachelorette party. I thought they'd make great earrings for those girls nights out. Translucent pink (and blue and green) muscle men, nice....
I liked the way those looked so much, that I had to make earrings out of these whimsical mermaids too!

One of my close friends, Sylvie has a "horse themed" car. Well, not really, she just has a super-rad car-seat cover on which she painted a giant horse. So using that as inspiration I made her a little rear-view mirror decoration with horses. This necklace, in all it's playful simplicity, reminds me of Sylvie's car.


These next earrings, made with pretty red coral and Swarovski crystals are some of my favorites because they are pretty. I just really like the color combination. They remind me of a sunset over the ocean, or the colors of the desert--sky and clay.

Want to read some more back stories about PinkBird Creations jewelry? Click HERE to read those past blogs.

Tutorial: Get Crafy (or DIYODS!)

Have you seen Craftster's Best of 2007? If not, get over there, get inspired, and get crafting!
There are some amazing projects there that I cannot wait to try.

More Art, Less Everything Else:

I've noticed that taking art classes can be so consuming, but I do believe my hard work is paying off. I've been in my first ever drawing class for about a month and 2 weeks ago my drawing teacher hung one of my pieces in an art department display case. While I am excited about this, I do feel like this is not my best work--it's simple lines, and we weren't allowed to erase. I didn't even like the "still life" I set up (but it had to include certain things like shoes and kitchen items). But still, I was/am incredibly nervous about taking art classes, so this is just another instance that is helping me to believe I can do this.

World Calling:

Practically since we touched down at Dulles last June after returning from Morocco, we had been "planning" our next big trip. We had an idea of when to go (between semesters, when the weather's nice, etc) and knew we wanted to head to South American. So, we'd been planning a trip to Peru but things just weren't working out. Frequent flier miles couldn't be used for the dates we wanted and work things were getting in the way. So, despite having my heart set on Peru we listened to the Universe and decided to go someplace else. At that moment it was like the world opened up. We could go anywhere. Where? I had been dreaming of so many different places. Do I want to just relax on a Caribbean beach or people watch from a cafe in India?

We have chosen and booked a destination: Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. I think right now I am in search of the world, in search of myself and the world within me. I need to travel to help me shake off the habits I've gotten myself into and to see the ways in which other people live.

I will post more about the trip itself later. It doesn't quite seem real yet after all the planning and discussion we finally booked tickets to get off of this continent. Hooray!

I'll be Vague...

The effects of life and living are happening to me and around me. I have to go away for a few days. I have many new blog ideas floating around in my head and in my dreams, but they will have to wait.

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur,
'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."*
--Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

*It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye