A whirl wind week

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Oct 182012
 

The newlyweds at ACL, waiting to see the Afghan Whigs.

Just to catch you up...Adam and I eloped last Thursday! There are photo's coming, so I'll save the story until then, but it's official, we're hitched!  We woke up Friday morning and after sending off the sneak peeq orders, we headed over to ACL where we enjoyed amazing performances by Weezer, Wild Belle, Florence and The Machine and one of my all time fav bands, The Black Keys.  Saturday I was at the market on South Congress where I got caught in the rain and as a result, Sunday I was taken down by a cold.  Monday I set up again at the market for a rain day and still managed to make it to Monday Movie Night to see Pitch Perfect, which was hilarious!  Tuesday morning we heard that we got the house we love and I tried to catch up in the studio as much as I could before a lengthy board meeting that night.  Wednesday we signed the lease for the house and then I panicked thinking about how much has to be packed in the next two weeks...eeek!!

Today I finally had a few minutes to catch my breath, tidy up the house and of course blog.  I however can't sit still for too long as I have a hot date at the Restoration Hardware store scoping out beds.  We are finally upgrading to a king and I feel there is only so much you can tell about furniture online.  I want to stand next to it and touch it.  The new house is about 3 times the size of my apartment, and Adam does not have any furniture (a blessing) so the bed is the first in a list of new additions to our home we'll have to make.  A tv console, kitchen table and the bed are immediate needs.  The rest can be added slowly as I find pieces I love.

It's fun to shop for new furniture, but tough too as sometimes the pressure to find the "perfect piece" in a short amount of time backfires.  A few years ago, I moved into an apartment which required the majority of the floors to be covered in rugs.  I had to shop lightning fast as this came up only a few days before I was moving in and the result was that I bought an 11' x 13' rug that fit the space and I kind of liked.  I paid a lot for and therefore made myself deal with it for the 18 months I lived there, but each day I began to detest it more and more and ended up giving it to my mom when I moved.  As I had a massive purge only a year ago, I'd prefer to only buy furniture which I love at this point.

I'd love recommendations of local furniture stores here in Austin!  I'm pretty set on online places, and have been obsessively following One Kings Lane, but would like to check out local shops as well.

 

A place to call home

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Oct 082012
 
'Selective Amnesia' by Ana Correal

'Selective Amnesia' by Ana Correal

I think we found a house to rent.  Pretty excited about it, and crossing my fingers that we get it!  It's not perfect, but its only a rental and if we were looking to buy, we would snatch in a second as the issues we have with it are that the kitchen needs updating and there's (new) carpeting in much of it.  However, it's in a lovely neighborhood, there is an amazing fenced in back yard for Faye, a garage, a laundry room and a new addition of a master suite which is breathtaking.  There also is bamboo growing in the back yard, which two days prior to seeing it, Adam declared he wanted to have in our yard.

Our lease would begin on the 15th, which would give us two weeks to move everything in...ideal as the show season has already begun for me and it will just be easier that way.  Unfortunately, this next weekend I am set up at the market on Saturday, Sunday and Monday for 12 hours a day...so I don't really know when I'll have time to pack.  I need a clone.  Or a case of Red Bull and a few pounds of candy. Either way, I'll keep you posted!

image via

Leucistic Zebra

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Oct 052012
 

Leucistic Zebra

Being a designer of Animal Jewelry, people tend to share interesting tidbits and factoids animals with me.  Especially when they come into my tent at shows and markets.  It's pretty amazing what I have learned this past year...basically we chat for a few moments and then I research the subject on my phone and talk about it for the rest of the day.  I have learned about the Brontosaurus never existing, that Manatees smell when you're up close with them as they move so slowly algae covers their bodies (this was told to me by someone who swims with them!) and that Tyrannosaurus Rex had feathers.  I also learned that when you live in Texas, you should know that if you start talking about dinosaurs, there's a chance that someone will remark that they did not exist.  To each his own.

You can imagine that this information is not only useful to help the long days at the market go by, but rather addictive to collect.  You can I'm sure imagine my delight when I ran across the above photo of a Leucistic  (also called white-phase or blonde) Zebra the other day!  Thanks to google, I have learned that they have brown eyes, are not albino (there is no true albinism found in equines and to be an albino, red eyes must be present) but rather Leucistic. This rare occurance of pigmenting occurs many animals including Hippos, Tigers, Penguins and  Giraffes! Upon further investigation, I have also learned that Zebras can be black, brown, mottled and spotted as well as have different width stripes.

Alrighty...enough Animal Planet, I'm off to go look at 3 houses to rent as I am moving in three weeks and have not really done anything about it yet...eeek!!!

via

Sum it up: A week in review

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Sep 282012
 

WORKING ON:  Getting ready for another sneakpeeq sale on Oct 3rd.  Its a great motivator as I do them every 6-8 weeks and I have a very short lead time before each sale.  Which means I work like a maniac to prep and that mania usually sticks with me for a week or so after.

THINKING ABOUT:  How much I miss the colors of Autumn in the Hudson Valley.  *Sigh* the only thing I miss about the North East.

ANTICIPATING:  Um yeah, still dreading moving....still have not found a place...still have not begun packing.

LISTENING TO:  The same mix of 30 songs in iTunes over and over again.  I think I listing to .00002% of the music I have in there.

EATING: Trying to figure out how to prepare oatmeal and not be hungry 5 minutes after I'm finished.  Adding, chopped almonds, honey and a chopped apple seemed to work...although as you can see above, I should have used a bigger bowl.

THANKFUL FOR: Adam coming back home on Monday after a loooooong summer apart.

PLANNING FOR:  Tomorrow's market was cancelled due to the crazy forecast, so I have been given the gift of time...many ideas on how to use it...all of them involve the studio.

READING:  My Life in France by Julia Child, with Alex Prud'Homme.  I'm really enjoying it, if you're a fan of hers I highly recommend it.

WATCHING: Last night I watched the season premier of Grey's Anatomy, which is extra special this season as the wardrobe stylist bought 4 critters from Manic Trout this summer for the show!!  I however think they had started filming when she did, so I doubt they will appear for awhile.

Apparently I can’t function without internet

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Sep 262012
 

Time Warner broke my internet last Friday.  If you saw me, spoke to me or were on my facebook page between then and now, you already have heard all about it.  I was very traumatized.  They broke it and then told me they wouldn't be able to fix it for a week.  I swear my heart stopped when they told me that.  They fixed it 3 days early BUT STILL!  As it turns out, I don't really use the internet on weekends.  Friday I was so in shock that I can't remember how I felt.  Saturday I was set up at the market, so it didn't matter anyway.  Sunday was tough, but I got though it.  Monday made me cry without it, although I did discover that Adams iphone with att (step it up, Verizon!) makes it really easy to use as a hotspot and you're not charged for it...so I squeaked by, but it had limited power.  I realized Monday how much of my day involves uploading and sending photos all over the place.  And so I waited.  I swear the very nice repair man had it fixed in under two minutes.  Had he not been such a peach, I would have made some snide comment about easy it would have been for them to do that on FRIDAY! But it wasn't is fault, so I just smiled and thanked him for his help.  Within minutes I was zipping around at lightning speeds, filling drop box folders and posting prettiness all over the place again, the outage receding deeper into the past with every minute.

Without the internet, I did however have a few chunks of time where I would normally find myself browsing pretty things on pinterest (p.s. does not work with a hotspot very well...too many photos) or reading blogs and it got me thinking about how true the quote up above is.  There is so much talk about how due to the internet, there is a greater chance that your ideas will get ripped off and that it will happen faster and blah blah blah.  But how many times does someone execute an idea as you have imagined it anyway?  Or taking it the next level, I started reading the book Different by Younge Moon whos message is that "Most companies, in most industries, have a kind of tunnel vision. They chase the same opportunities that every other company is chasing, they miss the same opportunities that everyone else is missing. It's the companies and brands that see a different game that win big--but all too often, the big companies in a field see things exactly the same way."  Something to think about.

via

Sum it up…the week in review

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Sep 212012
 
Manic Trout Austin American-Standard

In the Austin American-Standard on Thursday, September 20th 2012

WORKING ON:  Cleaning out the studio and jewelry for the upcoming season.  There seems to be a pre-packing, get rid of stuff I haven't used in a year, type thing going on.

THINKING ABOUT:  How badly I want to redesign manictrout.com (for no reason other than I'm tired of looking at it).  I however do not have the time, so I have been tweaking it here and there instead.

ANTICIPATING:  DREADING: Moving.  Only 5 weeks to go. Did I mention we haven't seriously looked for a new home yet.

LISTENING TO:  I have become oddly drawn to Lucinda Williams since moving to Texas.  I've decided to just go with it.

EATING: I added local honey to my nightly snack of a Fuji apple with natural chunky peanut butter.  Its amazing and I've convinced myself that I'm doing it to help my allergies, so thats pretty cool.

THANKFUL FOR: All of the awesome press I received this week!  Both the Austin American-Statesman and Influential Magazine included Manic Trout (and me!) in their pages, yay!

PLANNING FOR:  The Holiday season...I should just leave this sentence here until January.

READING:  Straight Up and Dirty by Stephanie Klein for pleasure and Different - Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon for work.

WATCHING: Don't laugh, but I started watching Ally McBeal on Netflix.  I was in college when it aired and never saw it. I may not last more than a season but its ok for background noise while I work at night.

InfluentialMagazine_SeptOct_2012

Influential Magazine, September/October 2012

What it means when your outfit matches your beverage…

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Sep 192012
 

lavender mocha

Today I woke up all sorts of excited to have lunch with my dear friend Chonie.  99% because since the moment we met, we realized that once near each other, we never shut up. 1% because we were headed to Bouldin Creek who makes the most unbelievable beverage called the Lavender Mocha (which I get with Almond Milk).  Normally I am a black coffee with sugar kinda gal, but this frothy cup of awesomeness has stolen my taste buds and left me obsessed.  So obsessed that I realized later that when I got dressed this morning, I actually dressed in the outfit version of lavender mocha.  What happens in my brain is strange...I just drink coffee and go with it.

Dior Inspiration…as intoxicating now as it was back then

 Life of A Designer  1 Response »
Sep 182012
 
Marion Cotillard by Jean-Baptiste Modino for Dior Magazine No1

Marion Cotillard by Jean-Baptiste Modino for Dior Magazine No1

When I was many years younger, I used to embark on wild adventures with my paternal grandmother.  We explored most of the great state of NH (where I was born but due to my parents divorce when I was a baby, visited for the summers and some holidays until my teens) as well as a good deal of Maine and Massachusetts.  We visited every single historic military site, all possible museums and made sure to stop into every antique shop, art supply store and book store in the area as often as possible.  To say that my grandmother was an influence on who I am today would be a great understatement.

I learned how to bake, sew, embroider, quilt...you name the craft and we did it.  I explored bugs and leaves and flowers, picked berries and then baked with them or turned them into jam.  I was encouraged to decorate doll houses with odds and ends around the house and was assisted in figuring out how to design and sew clothes for the dolls.  I had notebooks filled with watercolored architectural plans (that part was more from my dad who designs and builds houses) and made crazy piles of friendship bracelets (and sold them...I was always an entrepreneur at heart) and made piles and piles and piles of paper dolls.  I look back on those summers and think of all of the wonderful things we did together and how much they influenced my being a designer and it amazes me.

One day we were at a museum with a good deal of historical costumes, I think it must have been the NH Historical Society Museum, and we brought home a bunch of paper doll books.  I was mad for paper doll books and liked to buy them in twos so I could leave one intact and cut one up.  I had tons of them!  Well that day we bought a Tom Tierney 50's couture fashion book, and it was incredible. (you can actually still buy it...which proves how awesome it was that its still printed almost 30 years later!) Anyway, that day I was introduced to Dior and Balenciaga as well as other couture greats from the 50's and was instantly smitten.  I will never forget the first time I saw the designs, I poured over them for hours and hours.  Anyway, the whole reason why I thought of this was that when I saw the Marion Cotillard spread from the Dior Magazine No1, I was instantly taken back to that wonderful day I discovered Dior in fashion illustration paper doll form.

Ga, Sierra & Faye, Summer 2010

Ga, Sierra & Faye, Summer 2010 (Ga is in a Manic Trout Necklace inspired by her influence)

Thank you Dior for continuing to inspire me for so many years and a huge thank you to my Ga, who had the wisdom to introduce us.

Sum it up…the week in review

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Sep 142012
 
purple candy cron

Blackberry Candy Corn from Big Top Candy Shop

WORKING ON: Photographing my silver bling rings, as I switched to Argentinium silver this spring (brighter than what they were), the rings are long over due new photos.

THINKING ABOUT: How odd it is that the larger the dog breed, the shorter the life expectancy and vice versa.  Yet with birds its the opposite, the larger the bird, the longer the life expectancy.  Yeah I know, it's bizarre what consumes my thoughts.

ANTICIPATING:  Getting excited to see my wedding dress next month now thats it's been all made to me and what not...I may be also planning a photo shoot of it.  It's that fabulous.

LISTENING TO:  Obsessed with This Head I Hold by Electric Guest...combined with what's in the photo above, it caused quite the mini dance party in my studio last night!

EATING: Blackberry Candy Corn from Big Top Candy Shop.  They're ok, it's just that I'm super partial to Brachs Candy Corn, which I haven't been able to find here (yet!) boo.

THANKFUL FOR: The support of so many people in my live regarding Manic Trout, it's pretty amazing.  Even more amazing is that there's a team of us now!

PLANNING FOR: I've already started dreading the idea that I have to pack up everything to move approx 5 blocks in 6 weeks.  Ugh.

READING: Just finished Candy Freak by Steve Almond, which I loved and sparked a looooong conversation at Big Top last night regarding independent candy manufacturers.  Now I'm reading The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler.  I've seen the movie countless times and rather enjoy it as far as chick flicks go.  The book is already blowing it out of the water.  I have been devouring biz books as well, and I finished What Women Want by Paco Underhill  and am sailing through The Boss of You by Bacon and Mears and Girls Just Wanna Have Funds by Blake and Goodman.  I recommend both if you're looking to expand your knowledge in either area of self employment or investment/money.

WATCHING: I started Rescue Me this week on Netflix, really enjoying it...have been a fan of Dennis Leary for years and he's fantastic in it, it's been around forever but I never thought to watch it.   Glad I finally did!

Have a great week-end!

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