Giant Corporate Retailer: West Elm goodies

I won't really take up too much real estate on this blog talking about major retailer stuff when there is so much amazing stuff to talk about from Etsy, but I did find a few cuties in the new West Elm catalog. I also feel like its okay to talk about them because West Elm actually does feature Etsy artists in their catalog, which I think is pretty cool for a big retailer to acknowledge independent people. With that, here are some things that caught my eye:

In my house these tea towels would get destroyed instantly, but they are awfully cute

LOVE the orange on these Biscuit Tins. I mean, LOOOOVE it.

Any one of these three sets of measuring cups is welcome to measure stuff in my kitchen any day:

Pop Color Measuring Cups

Owl Measuring Cups

Sea Measuring Cups

Lastly, moving out of the kitchen, I really love the simple modern patterns on these sheets:

I'll take one set of each!

Adventure: General Bead

A place that I like to visit when I am in a creative rut is General Bead in San Francisco. 


Completely unassuming on the outside, and at a rather hidden location (on an ally basically, in San Francisco's South of Market district), walking in unfolds a colorful wonderland for jewelry makers of all skill levels. I took my two friends there for their first General Bead excursion. My friend Megan, the lucky girl, lives a block away from General Bead so we met at her house for a pre-General Bead toast.

Once we arrived at General Bead, we were greeted by George, one of the store's two resident felines. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the crazy, colorful decor. Every inch of the walls that doesn't have merchandise on it is covered with some sort of decoration or picture. There are pictures of cats and French Bulldogs randomly hidden everywhere in the store. 

The first floor walls are covered by rows and rows of glass beads and supplies. Here is Megan trying to make a big decision on what type of earring setting to get:

Upstairs is a treasure trove of just anything you can imagine for making jewelry, as well as a selection of beaded curtains (so in case you were wondering where to buy a beaded curtain in the year 2011, look no further). I am also a huge fan of the "5 cents a gram" bead boxes upstairs. The three of us spent close to 30 minutes combing through the boxes for goodies:

Megan and Stephanie doing some treasure hunting

Unfortunately we got the boot when the store closed at 6 and didn't get to spend nearly enough time at the store (the last time I visited I was there for close to two hours!). It was great getting to share this little gem of a store with my friends, and I hope it made them as happy as it made me. Its almost impossible to leave this store without a smile on your face. 

My General Bead haul. Soon to be jewelry!

General Bead is located at 637 Minna St between 7th & 8th Sts, San Francisco, 415-255-2323

Artist Feature: Stephanie Bolton of Sincesass

I met Stephanie, owner and artisan behind Sincesass, at the retail company we worked at together. We shared a love of bling, Mad Men, finding great deals and of course, crafting. She also has a great style and personality which is clear in her product line. Incidentally, we also both attended University of San Francisco, although at different times (because I’m old, ha).

Sincesass features wine bags, zipper clutches and totes, all handmade by Stephanie. She’s been sewing since she was 11 years old, and I have to say I admire her patience since sewing drives me bonkers.

I am the proud owner of my very own one-of-a-kind Sincesass wine bag that was given to me on my last day at my job which says “bai”. I like to carry it around the house in case of wine emergencies, and let’s face it, wine emergencies DO happen.

Stephanie and I got together for a glass of wine and a chat:

What are your favorite things, crafting related or not?

Crafting is definitely one of my top favorite things ever, but aside from sitting in front of my sewing machine, I like to go to the movies, gallivant around San Francisco, happy hour, and talk way too much about Bravo reality shows.

Embroidered "Bling" Zipper Pouch. Love the zipper color!

What are your goals for your business? Or are you just doing it for the enjoyment of crafting?

I started crafting without any goals (or craft business knowledge) in mind so I really dove in head-first starting my shop. After having my business open for almost six months and consistently making products, I've only focused on small goals to keep me going. This could be a new product line or experimenting with ads on blogs. I opened my shop as an outlet for my hobby and basic curiosity of how to turn a hobby into business. I just really wanted to see where it took me. If you would have told me in November that I would be selling my items in two San Francisco stores and having even more than five sales on Etsy, I won't have believed it. I think that keeps me going with this business. It's already exposed me to different experiences and people that it can only get better from here.

Moustache Tote

Do you have any new product ideas in the works, or would you like to focus on your current product lines?

Yes, I'm working on launching wedding party wine bags! Based on the idea of my current wine bags, they will be a bit "fancier" and playful with weddings in mind. They will be made of upholstery material with a classy detail, lined, and finished off with webbing straps. There will be different options for men and women in mind. A buyer will have the option to customize certain features and the quantity (based on the size of the wedding party). I noticed after selling my wine bags, that there was interest in using them as party favors and gifts. I thought this would be a great opportunity to jump into the wedding world and see what happens. I also have a long list of other ideas that I have to figure out how to execute and the time to do it!

This wine bag isn't afraid to say what we're all thinking

With thousands of people participating, selling on Etsy can be difficult and discouraging. What do you do to keep yourself going?

I've learned that I can only focus on my shop and what I'm doing. It can be overwhelming if I spend hours just looking at shops similar to mine and seeing their sales and products. I figure my time is better spent making new items or working on improving my shop. I also believe to be a successful shop, you do need to promote it outside Etsy since the likelihood of a buyer finding you on their own is low. But on the other side, Etsy has created a great community of sellers that want to talk with each other and share information. I've learned the most from forums and becoming buddies with fellow sellers.

Zipper pouch in action

What as been your most popular/best selling line so far?

For my online shop, it's been my wine bags (mostly over the Holiday season). In brick and mortar stores, it's been my glitter oilcloth zipper pouches. The glitter oilcloth is difficult to photograph so in person, it's eye-catching and so pretty!

Bronze glitter oilcloth?! Yes please!

You mentioned that customers in San Francisco can buy your products in a few physical locations outside of Etsy, where can they find them?

They can find my products at Urban Bazaar (Inner Sunset) and Green Zebra (downtown). Fingers crossed more locations soon! I'm always updating my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/SinceSass) and Twitter page (www.twitter.com/SinceSass) with the latest info on my shop.

Finally, and really most importantly, how long do you give Don and Megan’s marriage on Mad Men?

The moment when millions of Mad Men fans simultaneously exclaimed "Whut?!?"

Oh, my heart is breaking that Mad Men will not be back until 2012! Not sure how I will survive. So many theories about this marriage, but it could be one that lasts until death do they part. Don will probably go back to being Don the Player and Megan will want to do the right thing and stay with him, but develop extreme bitterness towards him and their life together. For the most part, the characters in Mad Men can't be that happy so something has to go wrong. Or she could die in a tragic accident (jealous Betty?!). Either way, I'm staying tuned.

BIG thank you to Stephanie for being my first featured artist on Stellaspace! Please check out her Etsy shop, Sincesass. 

Inspiration: Succulents!

My succulent "garden"

I'm not a huge plant person, I don't know how to take care of them, and well, the plants of the world are just better off in other, more capable hands. I do have a weakness for succulents however. There is something so interesting and architectural about them, plus they are pretty low maintenance. 

Me, 1980

Perhaps my affinity for succulents began here in my great aunt's amazing backyard. Here I am at age two, hands on hips, contemplating something very important, I'm sure.

This one started off as a little guy I got at Trader Joe's for a couple bucks, and it grew like crazy. I have transplanted it three times already in less than a year.

The colors! The shapes! How to decide??

I spent half an hour staring at these at the hardware store trying to decide what I wanted. They are all so cute!

I know succulents in terrariums have become quite trendy, but they really are great for people who like plants but need something difficult to kill. I water this maybe once a month. 

I love these "aspirational" pots from Vessel USA. Maybe someday my succulents will be lucky enough for these fancy digs:

While I love the pots, the best thing about succulents is that they don't need these fancy containers to be inspiring!

New Listing

New necklace added over at my Etsy shop, Stellaspace. Love the colors on this, kind of more Fall than Springtime, but these were the colors I was feeling inspired by when I made it. Enjoy!

Vintage Hillsdale

Vintage Hillsdale Mall postcard

If like me, you are a fan of funny old public domain short films, and if like me you grew up in San Mateo, you will enjoy this film, "Shopping Can Be Fun: A New Concept in Merchandising". 

This was a public relations video produced for the then only three-year-old Hillsdale Mall in 1957 (I worked at this mall in high school). It's got some great old footage of the mall in its open air, pre-Hot Topic glory. It looks like the mall was also more of a community gathering center at the time, with all sorts of wholesome 1950's family activities. I also really enjoyed voice of the narrator who seems to be the voice of EVERY short film made in the 1950's (Check out the way he pronounces Peninsula, "Penin-chu-la". WHAT??).

In 1980, the mall was changed to the enclosed style that most of us are used to, so you really won't recognize the mall at all from this video (unless you are old enough to remember that, I suppose. I was only two, so, yeah don't remember it). In addition to Macy's what does still exist from the mall's glory days are some of the cool Beniamino Bufano animal sculptures featured in the video. I believe they are all there but I don't recall ever seeing the owl they show in the video so maybe that one got moved. The video is kind of long but the Bufano part starts at the 10:35 mark, worth watching.

Fun fact about Benny Bufano via Wikipedia: Apparently in protest of WWI, he cut off his trigger finger and sent it to then-president Woodrow Wilson. Artists!

Some treats from the Easter Bunny...

Notice how Easter just isn't the same when you are an old person like me? You don't really dress up anymore, you eat less candy since it will just result in more time at the gym, and you finally realize how creepy those Easter Bunny costumes look. Here are some non-creepy bunnies:

These were two week old bunnies at my friend's daughter's birthday party. 


I guess when you are an adult there are just different things that make holidays special. Here are some Springtime-y type things that are pretty special to me today:

This dogwood tree in our backyard looks kind of like a Halloween decoration most of the year, but in the Spring its just beautiful.

This is Poocumbers, she will probably show up a lot in this blog. Just a warning. 


Anyway, Happy Easter.

Grab a glass of wine and be prepared to stay a while. It's the History of Stellaspace...

So let me give you a little background on my shop. This is long, but once I get it out of my system you won't have to hear about it again, only new stuff, I promise.

I have a bin in my garage that is filled with various crafts that I have engaged in and swiftly gave up on. I have crocheted, I have embroidered, I have attempted to paint and collage as well. After successfully completing one paint by number that a friend gave me, I got another for $1 at the craft store and it took me six months to finish it (but I DID complete it, so I guess that can also go in the success category):

My painting skills in action

Being a person that starts things and doesn't finish them can be really unrewarding and kind of damaging to one's self esteem. It was time to change that.

Back in July 2008, I attended my first Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason in San Francisco with my friend Sara (Extremely talented crafter, makes amazing dresses for her daughter with vintage patterns and fabric, also can needlepoint like nobody's business). I left it feeling exhausted from just sheer amazingness overload but also just really inspired. If the people at that craft fair can do it, so can I. They are just people like me right? No these were people that FINISHED things!

So that very day (or maybe it was the next, it was almost three years ago after all) I opened an Etsy shop. I had no real plan, just knew that I was going to do it this time, not just talk about it. I started off pretty simply. I had this large collection of vintage buttons an I started off making hair clips with them:

Early-era hair clips, pretty "meh"

But then I started buying supplies, like earring posts and bobby pin blanks so I could do more:

Early Vintage Button Bobby Pins

Early Vintage Button Earrings

Every crafter evolves in their style or it would just get boring. I then discovered a love for these vintage "flowers" that you could stack. I am not sure what they were originally used for (does anyone know?) because I had never really seen them before in vintage jewelry. Sure I had seen vintage brooches with enamel flowers, but not plastic. So I decided "I have no idea what I am doing, but let's try and make something with these" (this would really be, and continues to be, a reoccurring theme):

Stacked Flower Hair Clip

I also started making cocktail rings, which anyone who knows me can tell you, I love a good cocktail ring, the flashier the better. These are only made out of vintage buttons and findings so not super flashy but still fun:

Adjustable Cocktail Ring

More recent creation. Actually sold right away...

Next came bows. I became obsessed with filling everyone's hair with a bow around the time I left my job. In between scouring Craigslist and various company's job boards, I made bows. Big bows. Mini bows. I saw bows in my sleep. If you have seen me in the last few months (on one of the rare occasions I leave my house), I was wearing a bow. 

Black Leather Oversized Bow. I wear one of these almost every day...

Mini Bow Trio

After taking on bows (everyone in the world is not wearing one yet, but soon, I can feel it), it was time to take on something I had been wanting to attempt for pretty much this whole time since my journey began, and that was necklaces. Keep in mind, I have never made a necklace ever. But I had a vision of what I wanted to do. So I have now embarked on making necklaces:

Chunky Multicolor Bead Necklace

I have only made two thus far (the first one was featured in my first blog post) and started a third, but you will definitely see more of these in the future of Stellaspace.

So that's my story. I am terrible at editing myself, but I could have rambled on much longer, believe me. Thank you for indulging me. 

XOXO

Inspiration: Mary Richards and her Amazing Bachelorette Pad (Oh yes, and the advancement of women)

[Part of what I would like to do on this blog is share some things that inspire me both in my crafting and in general. Here is the first installment.]

I realize what I am about to talk about is hardly unchartered blog territory but its my blog so just deal with it. 

When I was in high school I was obsessed with The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I was a very geeky, uncool kid and Mary Richards was pretty much my idol. She was stylish and independent but still sweet and charming, AND she had the most amazing living quarters I had seen that far in my life. I had daydreams of moving to the city and having a great studio like hers, with those unique architectural elements (great Victorian windows looking out on snow covered Minneapolis, exposed brick wall in back of an old timey wood burning stove, floor to ceiling wainscoting, built in bookcase in the stair leading to the sunken living room). Of course I didn't think of it that way at the time, I just thought it looked cool, I don't even think I REALLY knew why.

Here's Mary with her neighbor Phyllis. Her bathroom, we were to believe, was reached through the closet although we never actually saw it:

Okay, that sofa is pretty awful, but that really wasn't what was great about it (plus it was also her bed, Mary was so perfect that she somehow managed to fold up her bed every morning when she woke up! If it were me, there would just permanently be an unmade bed folded out into my living room, probably coated in cat hair and maybe wine stains. Mary would never do that.). 

Whut? Is that an Eero Saarinen side table we see in the background? As practical a gal that Mare (that's what her friends called her) was, I'm sure its not a knock-off since they probably weren't $1000 in 1970. And have I MENTIONED the built-in bookcase stair?!? Oh I did, didn't I...

This wall was always interesting to me. My friend Lisa was also a Mary fan and she managed to find a little cabinet like the one under the "M" at a flea market. We called it a "Mary house" for some reason I don't recall. I also like that she had a typewriter before they became strictly decorative items that you see on the front page of Etsy everyday. And speaking of the famous "M", large decorative letters like that have been a trend for several years now, I am pretty sure Mary was the originator.

Mare shared many meals and conversations with her best friend, Rhoda (whose own apartment is quite popular among those who like interesting tv/film interiors. I always preferred Mary's myself) at her dining table next to her amazing old fashioned wood stove.

Mary redecorated after a couple seasons much to my dismay, but the great "bones" were still there. Sadly at the beginning of season six she left this apartment for a high rise that was no where near as special, but she was a successful tv producer by then, so it was time to move.

I really could go on for days about this (seriously, I really could), but aside from the apartment, The Mary Tyler Moore Show really was a great moment in tv that covered some new ground in its portrayal of a single, career woman. So check it out, the first three seasons are available on Hulu.