rainbow locs

 

 Speaking of locs... I took these photos of rainbow dreadlocks at Sonic Bloom festival this summer. This woman had the most beautiful head of crazy tie dyed locs wrapped with bits of rick rack and hologram tinsel! She also had a beautiful blissful baby on her hip, and a huge smile on her face. When I asked her about her hair she told me, "It's like a little art project on my head!" which I thought was adorable. These are the first in a photo project of stranger's dreadlocks, although it's NOT the first time I have ever stopped a stranger to photograph their hair...

 I took this lovely ladies picture 3 or 4 years ago! So my obsession has just grown... and gotten closer up, haha.

flower dreaded shred head

I have been allowing my hair to dread lock totally naturally for about 2 or 3 months at this point. I would very much like to write a post about how this process has been affecting me, but the timing hasn't been right yet. My family has had mixed feelings about it, and I am finding it to be a very personal and internal process as well as an external, out in the open one, so it's been hard to verbalize it. I am loving the journey though. I wanted to take this photo to stop and smell the flowers about this time in my growth as a person, and find it beautiful for what it is, regardless of what it WILL be, and no matter how messy it has been along the way.

tiny turquoise details...

 

 I really loved this outfit. I found this cute top at Target and I'm delighted at how the pattern pairs up with other things (like turquoise and fringe!) It was an impulse buy, as I usually don't buy tops at big box stores.

But, my favorite part of this outfit was really the jewelry.

 I think hands are so delicate and elegant that they cry out for decoration and attention. Bangles jingling musically on a woman's wrist, fingers adorned with small art pieces. I love it. All of this jewelry has a story as well - the spoon ring on my thumb my mother originally got in the 70's. It's by Avon, and one night after a show, I was being introduced to a girl everyone in my group knew but me. After hanging out for a few hours, I realized that she was wearing the exact same ring, which turned out to have been her mother's, as well! We've kept in touch ever since that ;)

The turquoise bracelet was also my mother's, and the turquoise ring someone left behind at my work. Someone must have taken it off to try out a lotion sampler and forgot about it. I found it, and no one ever came in looking for it or called about it, so I've kept it.

 I like to think it's a little gift from a loving universe, but hope the owner doesn't miss it too much :(

 

The poster I sold this summer at red rocks... :)

sew much love...

 Another snippet of the commission I've been working on. I am so incredibly grateful to have this hobby in my life, and grateful that my mother felt it was important to learn. I received this sewing machine for my 16th birthday instead of a car, and it has seen a lot of my teenage growing up and been sturdy and reliable through it all. Sewing has completely altered the path of my life, given my spirit somewhere safe to play, and even helped me make an income from selling my art.
It is my one true love.

 

You guys, it SNOWED last night! It's almost time to play! But that's not what this picture is of... I just got this summertime pic off my camera as it began to snow, thought I'd share a peak of the magical little things my mother has always done.  Summah summah time... But first, we shred!

 I've been busy working on an awesome commission lately, which is why I've been so quiet. But I thought I'd show a sneak peak of what I'm working on, to validate my silence ;)

Peace & Love

Love & Light

 I just wanted to drop this photo of myself and one of the love's of my life, my soul sister Hallie, taken while we were vending an original gig poster I designed to sell at Lotus, EOTO and Emancipator's summer Red Rocks show.  It was a pretty awesome moment, I ended up selling out of those posters, the music was probably my favorite show of the summer, and the company was unsurpassed. I'm also happy to have this picture - I'm always the one making the stupid face or slouching, or something else that makes virtually every photo of me ever taken to be horrible (and the other 500 pics taken around this one were no exception to that rule) so it's nice to have one where even I feel like I was accurately captured - grinning, blissful.

 I can't wait to be back in those lots again, but until then, the sista and I will be ripping up the mountain this winter. 

What Peacock Ore Teaches Us...

 Have you ever seen anything this beautiful before? I'm totally in awe when I think about how the Earth forms this intense and beautiful natural thing. It being Bornite, also known as Peacock Ore. Pretty fitting name, huh?

I found this one in a really neat crystal shop in my town. I love going in there just to look - they have cracked open geodes full of purple crystals that stand 3ft tall and cost over $1000. So I love to look, and never touch, lest I pull a butter finger move and knock something over. But the other night the honey and I were taking a walk after work (to work up an appetite for margaritas!) and stopped in. I found these little pieces of bornite and couldn't resist...

Thankfully the honey was kind enough to fulfill my fancy and got one for me :)
So, I took it into the sunshine today to try and photograph it's ever changing, kaleidoscopic array of colors. I only learned afterwards that usually you put minerals into water when you're photographing them so that appear more brilliant? Anyone heard of that? Wisdom from my momsy.

I have a rad coworker named Emily who is deeply into crystal and crystal healing. Inspired by her love of it, I went searching on the internet for information about this particular ore. I was pretty happy with what I found.

" It is a colourful stone helping to dismiss "grey days" by inspiring hope and lifting ones mood. As with the bird it is named after, its display is an inspiration and reminder that life is not limited to a mundane combination of atoms, but permeated by a magic that does not cease to exist because we cannot always perceive it. "  

(from http://www.kacha-stones.com/crystal_properties_2.htm#Peacock%20Ore)

Dang, you don't say? All right, I'll take that ;)

 The day before my birthday, I was able to get together and celebrate with some of my tribe - my parents, my honey, my boss lady/favorite person, my close friend Jaymie and her boyfriend, Blake.

I rounded everyone up and begged & pleaded for them to accompany me to the Butterfly Pavilion - an insect zoo in Denver with a garden of indoor butterflies. It was part of my Wonderland kick, you see, and it was perfectly dreamy. An imitation tropical rainforest with 1,600 free flying butterflies. What more can a girl ask for? It paid off as well~ I snapped the above picture when a flutter-by landed on the boyfriend's hand. It was one of the few photos I felt didn't need to be edited, and it's funny because in some ways it looks the most messed with. I was so pleased to see it, none of the others I took were anything like this.

Hopefully I feel like there is this much magic in the world long past 21.

Amazing Eye Candy...

Photo Copyright Jennifer Trollope :)

 When I was working on the design of this blog, I had originally envisioned a purple lace background of some type. Whilst searching for one on google images, I came across this original work by the artist & teacher Jennifer Trollope. Ms. Trollope does a variety of jaw dropping textile arts and ever since I found her, I've been enthralled. Wow.

She teaches workshops on her techniques and can be found at her home at www.jennifertrollope.com 

 I originally started out this post with the intent of showing off these two excellent thrift finds I've scored in the last month or so. The top is from a Goodwill in Portland, OR and is just light and airy as can be. It's got these adorable little lace up corset ties in the back that help give it some shape. And the BAG. The bag I found here in Colorado for a dream. My favorite local thrift store has been overflowing with awesome leather bags lately, I've gotten at least 3 there recently that are all just kick ass. I like to imagine there is someone in my town (and my town is small, very small) who just has awesome taste in bags, and they have just an overflowing closet of wonderful bags that they're purging, and I'm going to out and about with one of their donated pieces, and we'll meet and become best friends forever... or something like that. 

A 21st Unbirthday...

 My 21st birthday was on the 8th this month :) I had spent the weeks leading up to the day in a hazy daydream of Alice in Wonderland party ideas. Actually, this "Wonderland" party idea is not by any means a new obsession. I seriously dream of someday being able to throw the trippiest, most immersive wonderland party imaginable - with an environment that mimics and even extends past that world of Alice's; part rave, part art show, part house party. I'm sure I'll get into it more in depth here another time (and blog it when it happens? I think so!), but for now...