Talented Friends Corrie Hill Sullivan

In the first post I introduced Julia LoVan the creative mind behind Julia LoVan Dresses on Etsy! Now I would like to introduce another friend and fellow etsyian Corrie Hill Sullivan of Corrie Hill Design on etsy!

I met Corrie through Mosaic(I forgot to mention in the prior Talented Friends post that I also met Julia through Mosaic as well)and she is an energetic, adorable and amazing woman who is originally from Ireland. CorrieSullivan is her user name on etsy and she boasts a delightful mix of goodies for the wee ones. These range from bibs, onesies, baby T's, pillows and more, with fashionably handmade applique adornments such as cupcakes, vespas, guitars, butterfly's and birds. If you are an LA local at Unique LA she also offered a mobiles made of bird ornaments lovingly adorned with vintage buttons and lace. For my little girl's baby shower she presented this Corrie Hill Designed original super adorable cupcake baby T-Shirt!


Corrie's designs are a cute blend of pop culture and folk art rusticity which gives her a great style for kids and cupcake lovers. If you have a baby or toddler in the house, one on the way (like me)or are searching for a gift, take a peek at what she has to offer at corriesullivan.etsy.com

Talented Friends Julia LoVan

I would like to recognize some of my amazingly talented friends that I know in person! I will try to spotlight someone either each Friday, within my next few blog posts or just sporadically because I'm bad with blogging in general.

The first person I want to showcase is Julia LoVan the creative mind behind Julia LoVan Dresses on Etsy



The things I appreciate the most about Julia is her dedication to the underprivileged community and in addition to that focuses on being eco-conscious by being, "on the constant search to use more recycled or sustainable materials." Her day job is working with intercity kids and I had the pleasure of helping her with Illuminate that gives a safe and creative haven to underprivileged kids during the summer, by equipping them with useful artistic abilities that they otherwise would not have known.



With everything she does she gives back in some way and this is stated in her shop. "Julia LoVan Dresses operates out of Los Angeles and create products that are hope-filled. We are on the constant search to use more recycled or sustainable materials. The desire to do so comes from a passion to seek justice for our friends: the local and international poor and underserved populations. This is achieved through using fashion and networking with global organizations to create housing and jobs. Part of the proceeds goes towards the building of orphanages in Lusaka, Zambia with Breath of Heaven Children's Ministries. For more information or to partner in this endeavor, please email julialovandresses@gmail.com.
Simplicity, compassion, beauty."

Recently she has been featured on Wrecked For The Ordinary



So kudos to Julia as she is one of my talented friends that really shines!

The Impending Baby

Monday was my most recent appointment with Mary Lou (my midwife) and everything is great except the belly is measuring a bit small and it didn't show any growth from the last visit =/ So I had to set up another appointment with Dr. Rothbart to get an ultrasound done to see what exactly is going on with my little girl.
Fast forward to yesterday morning...The the ultrasound is done and she is measuring slightly small but not showing any growth restriction (although it could be the first signs of it) or problems with her getting nutrition. So I just pray that she is petite and that growth restriction is not the cause! Anyways no pics from the visit but I had my hubby get video enjoy.

Busyness

Last week was awesome having my best friend Kieu aka Kieutiepie on Etsy over from Weds to Sat. On Thursday was the V-tines Day gift fair at EA of which the gift fairs are well set up by Staci G. and attended by the peeps at EA. It's a great event to boost moral and help put those on "crunch time" to be reminded, and get something for their temporary neglected significant other. While at the fair Kieutiepie and I met another etsyian named Magic aka ChaoticHappy on etsy who runs the etsy shop with his wife and makes a fun eclectic assortment of plush zombies and other unique items. Here's a pic of Kieu at Magic's table


And this is a pic of me with a customer at the table Kieu and I shared.


Other then that we ended up being pretty busy with her short term testing job at Activision, the wonderful gift fair at EA, and with Jason hiring Kieu to do data entry for this big Final Cut Server Event he's putting on. So needless to say we had very limited time to fart around playing video games or make jewelry, however having her here made it a great valentines day being with the two people I cherish the most in my life.
For the most part Jason and I don't really celebrate v-tines day but we had sushi (cooked only for me of course) and then later that evening stayed home and watched "Day Watch" the sequel to "Night Watch" both of which are fantastic movies to come out of Russia and you have to watch it subtitled because of the artistic innovation used in the titles. I'm also glad that Timur is now working on the third one (Twilight Watch) as I heard rumor that it was not going to happen.

Anyways photoshop has crapped out on me, I know why I'm just not saying why and it will be resolved in a month or (groan) longer which really puts a damper on listing new items. So far I've been farting around with GIMP and it's really nice for a free program but it really messes the quality of the photos or I just can't figure out how to get it to output the same quality as PS. Anyways adding new items is going to be a pain as I may have to migrate from my PC to a mac G4 but perhaps I could use this to my advantage and swipe my hubbys G5 and use the Cannon 50D in the process.
Anyways I have more supplies to list in my Sacred Supplies shop I give you brass adjustable ring blanks!

These are so much better then the ones I've gotten before as they are solid brass, very comfortable to wear, and they have a nice ridged design going around the band and the band ends under the glue pad so it looks seamless. These were a great find for me and I will be switching to using them after I finish with the other adjustable ring blanks which require sanding to make them comfortable.
Anyways I'm fighting off an impending sinus infection V_V so now I shall nap till it's time to make dinner.

A Wonder-Full Day

The day started with a beautiful drive to downtown LA in which the skys were clear and the mountains could be seen showing gleaming with a white brilliance of fresh snow unobstructed by the usual Los Angeles smog.
The first stop on my check list was A&A Jewelery Supply to gather some displays for the EA v-tines day gift fair on Thursday. They have the best prices on packaging and other great items for a variety of jewelry making and levels of jewelry making.
A&A Jewelry Supply is located at:
319 w. 6th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014

After finishing up there it was time to hit up the bead supply stores! Which are located off of 8th and Maple where I usually shell out the $6 to park in a lot and walk the area as the stores are in close proximity and I tend to spend over an hour in the area. The first of these I hit up on my usual supply gathering circuit is Berger Specialty Co. Inc. aka Berger Beads I check out this store for various findings and other fun vintage items that the others don't have.
Berger Specialty Co. Inc. is located at:
413 E. 8th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Next I walked to Bohemian Crystal which has the best prices on Swarovski Crystals! Also another utopia of various findings as well.
Bohemian Crystal is located at:
812 S. Maple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014

My final stop on the supply gathering circuit was Athenian Fashions Store which they have two down town but only one is their official supply store and it's on Maple just a few store fronts up from Bohemian. This store has a highly organized and vast chain selection this is where I get most of my chains from but I don't suggest getting much else as their prices are a bit on the high side but sometimes you can find those awesome deals by stalking the rows of items for a bit.
Unfortunately I don't have the address to their supply store but walk in to their jewelry store which is right across from Berger and ask them for the location of their second store, or just walk up Maple and they are just past the lingerie store.

After pilfering those shops back into my trusty steed of metal Jeepness of Fury, and I was off for some tasty vegan goodness that goes by the name of Doomies Home Cookin' however to my horror and dismay this portion of the quest was thwarted! Doomies has closed until a better location can be found which is a good thing as it was in Chinatown and didn't offer Chinese food, a bit misleading for an area that is reserved for cheap yummy asian eats loaded with sodium, MSG, and all sorts of meat. It is also a land weird herbal shops, counterfeit and (sometimes illegal)wonders! Doomies just didn't quite fit in to the mystique of Chinatown. However the man is doing catering and I highly suggest the vegan goodness in the form of tacos or fried junk food goodness that only he can make! For further updates on Doomies or info on how to get him to cater your event go to his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/doomieshomecookin

Since that was a phail I defaulted to Little Tokyo Sushi, which by 2pm most of the sushi places were closed for the afternoon so the hunt was on for the open sushi restaurant! I landed in Tenno Sushi which closed at 3pm and had 1/2 off sushi (saving money with my expensive tastes is a good thing) so I ordered a veggie roll, inari, and an eel roll. All was good and 1/2 off is a splendid thing!
Tenno Sushi is located at:
207 S. Central Ave / off of 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Alright so after a quick lunch I was running late to my next stop of the quest! Which was to pick up something most wonderful! A custom made crib bumper set for the head and foot of the crib, that I have been waiting to get and it has not happened yet >=[ I'm in nesting mode I need it already!
Anyways so this miraculously splendid item was created by the amazingly adorable genius of etsy seller HiTree! I have been dreaming of the day I could buy one of her items from seeing them pop up on the Etsy front page. This urge came even more apparent when I found out she's a local artist when I spied her booth at the Unique LA even that two friends of mine were sharing a booth at (they are awesome and I'm a flake for not blogging on them but I will get to that this month or next month)
So needless to say I've been drooling over the cutness that the HiTrees are and I began following her blog and she follows a blog that my best friend Kieutiepie started called Etsy Addicts making this a neat little full circle of Etsy community greatness! One day upon following HiTree's blog a post about her making a crib bumper of the trees really caught my attention and I had to have one for the impending baby! However to my dismay the one that was created was out of my budget so we tossed some ideas about and she was able to create a partial bumper for the head and foot of the crib that could fit my budget! I was sold instantly! So about two weeks later it's finished and illuminates with tree hugging love as we opted to save a tree on shipping and I went to the studio to pick it up! Meeting and chatting a bit with Tina was awesome! This was a huge treat and I would love to get a Los Angeles street team meet up going because of how amazing Etsyians are! Also I will take pics and blog more on the bumper once I get the crib, I may jump the gun though with getting the crib taking such a long time.
However after that fantastic experience the day was not over yet! I deserved (craved) ice cream! Which being in the downtown area hopping on the 101 and going to Scoops is the only option! Fortunately I facebooked this endeavor and was joined by two friends Ernae and Helen! So it was a social event as going to Scoops should be!
The special thing about Scoops is that they have homemade ice cream of unique and delicious flavor. On top of that 4 of them are always non diary! So I can really go to town there. I had three out of the four strawberry cheesecake, banana oreo, and chocolate vanilla.
Scoops is a must try and is located at:
712 N Heliotrope Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90029

After the joyous meeting with friends I had one more stop on the quest! Surfas! This is where one can find all sorts of things like good imported beer, cooking, baking and confectionery supplies and the packaging there of. As well as cooking courses and more fun items. I only needed packaging for the baked goodies I will be bringing to sell at the EA V-tines Gift Fair oh and a large bottle of organic vanilla cause that stuff goes fast.
Surfas is located at:
8777 W Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230

As if my day was not full already with wondrous delights I had one more quest to take on Dinner! So I went to downtown Culver to hit up M Cafe and what fun! There was the Culver City farmers market that goes late into the evening! Which had lots of preped food vendors, fresh produce, and some hand made items. Which with that and dinner at M I was done for the day!
M Cafe is good food and is Macrobiotic meaning no dairy no eggs no meats besides fish! All of their food is good and budget willing I frequent this place quite often.
There are two locations see their website MCafeDeChaya.com for more info.

Pics Of the Baby Belly

These were done a few weeks ago so it's a little bigger now and I plan on taking more once I get my hair done this weekend.


The Belly in it's full glory!



Peekaboo belly - I look like I'm trying to hide it

Fun things Ahead

I have delayed a post that I said I would post a while ago about my eco-friendly rug solution. The delay was actually a good thing and perhaps a touch of the ol intuition as I found out on Saturday that they are here o_0.....

Also tomorrow I'm taking a special trip to meet a fellow etsyian who has made something incredibly wonderful for my baby!
Stay tuned for the cryptic nature of this post to be revealed!

About Work

These are not yet complete but I just had to show them off.
Sorry but these are not for sale, until I decide to go through the process of making more. These bad boys, for the time being, are my fancy little work goggles comprised of hand hammered into shape military wings (I'm not a wiz with the metals yet so I use brute force rather then a torch and pickle and I don't have proper studio space for such fun useful things). The other parts are hack sawed screws and brass carpet spikes (recycle reuse).

The things I still have to add are more screw heads and then brass clips for securing the extra portions of the elastic straps.

The next item I want to show off is a wire wrapped dragonfly that took me a little while to flush out the concept and work it into the final sterling silver design. Overall I think it turned out pretty well and I will be making more of these eventually.

Things of today

I had my midwife appointment today and things are all good the only thing is that the baby has not turned yet but that's not too much of an issue till my next visit. Which if she hasn't turned by then, I've got exercises to do to make her turn. Anyways yoga helps out with that too so I need to join a class by next week to help with that and the ever on going hip cramps. Also another thing that Mary Lou (my midwife) brought to my attention was potty training infants http://www.pottywhisperer.com/howitworks.html which I think is cost effective and eco friendly by not wasting water on washing cloth diapers or putting disposables in landfills. Really if a kitten can use a litter box why can't we teach an infant to use a toilet? Are we really dumber then a kitten as infants as toddlers? I would pray not, and the people who do that prove it.
Since I'm on an eco kick right now I'll go into a few of my ambitions with the home front. I really want to start composting since I cook nearly every day and with the rinds and extra bits going in the trash I feel bad because it can go for good use and on top of that it stinks up the house when the trash is opened. The biggest issue it that I don't have space outside to compost things so I'm looking into getting a NarureMill electric composter

I also want to start a little garden on my balcony for that compost to go to good use. Now for those who know me I have quite the brown thumb =( but for some crazy reason I think I can do this with the baby in the household. For starters I'm not going to be growing from seeds but I'm going to buy young "organically" grown plants from a new seller that I spied the other week when I went to the Saturday Santa Monica farmers market off of the 3rd Street Promenade. So the things I want to start growing are peas, blueberry's, tomatoes, and garlic. Then I'll move on to lemon and avocado trees, carrots, potatoes, and work on growing other things from seeds. Most of this push to make my brown thumb green is because of several agendas first being that I want to start juicing and growing ones own produce is highly cost effective since it takes a lot to make a little juice. My other agenda is that I think its a good thing to invest in my child's future by being able to teach her practical and useful knowledge like this. My third agenda is with the major corporation pushed consumerism mentality which is horrid for the environment.
Anyways I shall leave you with and image of fresh baked vegan chocolate chip banana bread!