Blue Hair and Music Love

Here is a pic of the blue hair! Finally :)

I wanted to post a video from You Tube, but I cant figure out how, so I will just leave a link. I cannot stop listening to Rocky Votolato, one of my favorite artists. Thank you James!!! We just got his new album and I have it on repeat! It is truly good, I adore his voice, his lyrics, his style. And he travels and does house parties, I am so jealous, I want him to come play at mine! But I doubt he would ever pass through a small town like Bandera! Anyway, love him, you should check out his stuff!

click here for a peek

I have not been able to get organized all day. I made some new jewelry this morning, cleaned house, did alot online, but I just feel lost.

I have a shoot in the morning that I am honestly not looking forward to waking up to do. I get myself into doing favors for friends, and I dont know how to ask for $. So I just dont. Oh well. I just feel like I dont have the time to spend on work for nothing anymore. Maybe I am just feeling negative today, I dont know.

Tonite my dad and my nanna are on separate dates watching and enjoying Willie Nelson at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio! Oh how I wish I was there and not here.

Back to Rocky, i was listening to the lyrics and these stood out to me. i think we all know someone like this...

"Ego is running wild - a monster is hiding behind

Your smoke ring eyes

The harder you fight the tide

The less likely you'll survive"

I dont know, just reminded me of old things Id rather forget.

And this last line I will share from the song 'Lucky Clover Coin' goes out to God and my husband...

"I only want to walk the way you showed me"

Ive always been a lyrics girl. My ex used to tell me that lyrics didnt matter, only the music does, I say that's false. They are equal to me, without good lyrics a song means less to me, except of course if we are talking about instrumentals, which i am not, i do see the beauty in that respect. But also, you can have amazing lyrics but with awful music and that is equally sad. I love how music is such a personal thing and that it is different for everyone. Ive only found one person with almost identical music taste, and unfortunately it is the one person i never want to speak to again. Although, James has turned me onto some really amazing music, and he even likes some of my girly music, like Kate Nash. We do pretty well in that respect!!!

Okay, I need to go do something else. My bestie just told me to stop working and relax, lets see if I can do that!!!

Peace,

Laura

Adorable New Upcycled Shirts!!!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Its been a productive two days in my world. Yesterday I spent all day sewing. I had some custom orders to work on which sparked my sewing creativity and I busted out 3 new shirts, well some today too. And today was mostly spent uploading and doing taxes and other various internet jobs. So all in all, Ive gotten alot done!

Just a cute pic of my and the most handsome boy in the world :)

This is my newest teddy tee, it was a custom order in a size large, so you can see how it is so cute in all sizes! She sent me the shirt and I made it adorable! I told her she can name it!

Here are my new babies that are in the shop!

First I screen printed the bird on this green shirt last week, and I thought it just needed more, so I dolled it up a bit.

Um, can you see my new obsession, collars! I want them on all of my clothes now! It is just so cute!

This one is so fun and playful :)

This is one I did a few weeks ago, but I re-photographed it today out of my kitchen lighting!

I have my sewing bug back, it comes and goes. All of the art I create is like that. One week I feel like making jewelry, the next I want to sew, and then sometimes I get the urge to make REAL art and not craft. Sometimes I just want to take photos all day. I LOVE my job!

Oh, and the amazing girl from Poor Pitiful Pearl has asked me to do her family portraits and I am so excited! She has the cutest little family, especially now with little Italia! What fun it will be. See one of my last posts to see pics of me in one of her shirts.

Check out her shop here:

Poor Pitiful Pearl

much love and joy to everyone this evening. I am off to get back to work! I just cant stop working when Im this excited!

Peace,

Laura

Pennythreads GIVEAWAY!

So, I know Ive mentioned this lovely lady before, but now she is having an awesome GIVEAWAY on her blog!

She happens to be a lovely friend of mine here in the hill country, I am blessed to have found her in this one horse town. Not only is she an amazing artist, but she is a bubbly, beautiful, intelligent, poetic, amazing person. I highly recommend supporting this girl.

She is just starting out with her etsy shop and her blog, so go show some love to both!

Here are just a few of my favorite things from her, but she does amazing paintings, prints, jewelry and cool wooden boxes as well.

I am not going to give it away, you must go visit her blog to see the goodies she is giving away, I just have to say the scarf is AMAZING!

Pennythreads

She has links to her shop on the blog!

Just so you know, she painted this amazing portrait of me! You can get a personalized painting from her!!! She is amazing!

Here I am sporting my favorite neck cowl from her!

So go now, send some love!

Ill be back later with a post of my new adorable shirts and jewelry!

PEACE,

Laura

Tattooed lovers dont like to reminisce

Here are a few shots I grabbed of my friend's Christie and Matt. Christie is the girl from my earlier post.

It was a nice visit, I was sad to see her leave. I wish she was closer!

She was wearing one of the mustaches I got her from Jamie! She pretty much rocked it like I knew she would!

So, James and I went on a date tonite! First one in FOREVER! It was so wonderful. We went to our favorite pizza spot, Fralo's. We split a hand tossed pizza, he got bbq chicken and i got pepperoni, pinneapple and spinach. Then we got a layered vanilla and chocolate cheesecake that was on a chocolate cookie crumb base and it has caramel, nuts and mini chocolate chips on top, with a homemade whip cream on the side, um yeah! And a hot sweet chamomile tea, perfect.

Then we went to Walmart and got James a new playstation controller and i got a rad pink plaid flannel!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day of CLEANING house and CATCHING UP on custom orders. Time to get BACK TO WORK!

{oh yeah, i dyed my hair today, teal streaks, but didnt take any pics! and i had a cute outfit on today, oh well :) }

Peace,

Laura

My Day in Pictures

The day before the last day of James being off. He has had like 5 days in a row off and Ive been loving it! Our friends were down and visiting for most of it, but today and tomorrow we have to ourselves.

Today we took a drive to Lakehills to visit his parents. Something we wanted to do while he was off. We ate some lunch while we were there and then tracked around in the creek where he grew up. We love doing this. I found out that I am a horrible rock skipper, he tried giving me lessons and I failed miserably. This is something I should know how to do! I mean come on, I am a country girl!!!

James was in his old bedroom looking through old stuff, and I went outside and made him look out the window! I have always loved this window. It is a huge old iron window pane, the kind that cranks. He used to have a big sleeping back tacked to the wall to cover the window when we were in high school. I remember coming to visit him when we were friends, and not wanting to leave his bedroom. Oh, and the orange bracelet on his wrist has been there for like 8 years!

He found his old Garbage Pail kids collection! He has so many of them, they fill up a 'Chipmunks' lunchbox :)

I wore my new Poor Pitiful Pearl Oxy today! I love it so much! And I broke out one of my mom's Broken China Jewelry necklaces, it is one of my favorites, it's a Botecelli painting we found on china!

down by the creek...

wearing my mom's sandals...

um, yeah, thats a stick in my mouth :)

my favorite grasses ever! {i am obsessed with dead grass}

and I wore pigtails today. still havent dyed my hair yet, been a little lazy about it, but soon!

love this brick wall :)

Also added some newbies to the shop, go check them out:

click here

And I finally made it into a treasury and named it BOHEMIAN BUTTERFLY:

show some love

PEACE,

Laura

Thank You!!!

Hey everyone!

It snowed in Bandera today! I couldnt believe it. We woke up around 9 and then it started snowing. It was just little snow flurries, but its not something we would have ever expected, especially after having two days of perfect picnic weather! James and I both were thoroughly enjoyed!

Our friends left today, boo. It was so nice to see them! I am in the middle of editing some photos, so maybe by tomorrow!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I made it into the top 5 in the photography category for The Lovelies! I cant believe I have gotten so many votes, wow! There are still 5 days left! I am now falling behind in the lead, but no worries, all who entered are very deserving! If you still want to vote, all you have to do is leave a comment, or retweet with the click of a button! Click the link below:

vote here

MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO VOTED FOR ME, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!

And I have seen many new followers to my blog since my recent giveaway, funny how that happens :) I just want to say HI! I try to comment back to many of my comments, but sometimes I get behind and cant get to them all, just know that I truly appreciate them all!!!

Etsy Buy Handmade violetbella

I should be adding some new work to the shop very soon, Ill let you know!

Peace,

Laura

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Okay, the moment you have all been waiting for! We made a simple little video, so you have to watch it to find out if you won!

{Ive never made a video before, so I felt kind of silly, sorry its not more elaborate! We had plans to wear mustaches that I gave Christie from my dear friend Jamie, but I think we will try to do a mini photo shoot with them instead. This was after a day of driving in the hill country}

Congrats to the winner! Please email me violet_bella@hotmail.com with your mailing info!

Thank you all so much for participating, it was super fun and I loved reading all of your favorite memories. I think I will be doing one big giveaway each season of this year. With little mini ones here and there, so stay tuned for more!

And thank you so much for everyone who voted for me on the Lovelies! I was wrong about the deadline, you can still vote if you havent, you have until the 28th! You can just leave a comment under my blog banner (its in the photography section) or you can just retweet it from the link at the bottom!

click here to vote

Time to catch up a bit online, Ive been out most of the past two days!

PEACE,

Laura

That Vintage, O Bella Naturals and Style Feature

So, they say patience is a virtue right? well, for all of you wonderful followers who entered my giveaway, you are going to have to wait until tomorrow for the results! I wanted to do a video response with my friend that is down from Cali, so it will have to wait until we can do it tomorrow! Sorry for those of you who are impatient!

Speaking of giveaways, I won my first one last week from the one and only, THAT VINTAGE. I won the awesome wooden feather ring on my finger! Her work is stunning, I want every piece. I usually dont get excited over many jewelry artists, honestly, but I am just IN LOVE with hers!

See her beautiful blog here:

That Vintage

Visit her etsy shop here:

Sophie Hill artist

Wow, we have actually been going places lately, well today was the grocery store, but I did a Style Feature anyway, well, because I wore my favorite jacket from when I was like 15, I still absolutely love this jacket. I has a HUGE rip under one arm, Ive needed to patch it forever, and after wearing it out today, it was a bit embarrassing, I am going to patch it asap so I can wear it more! And I broke out some baggy jean shorts from my shed, plus I wore my new little vintage cab pin I made last night, so it was well worth a Style Feature!

And this, the cutest shirt ever, was so generously given to me from my Bestie, she truly is the BEST. Oh, and I bought hair dye today, darkest brown, and while we are out tomorrow I am thinking of picking up some blue to replace my pink! Cant wait!

And a few days ago I received my package from Betsy from O Bella Naturals. All I can say is that I am never buying soap at the store again, nope, never! I am hooked and I am only on the first sample! I LOVE it so much! She included a sample peppermint lip balm which I cannot stop applying to my lips and a cracked earth hand salve which smells like the most delightful candle. I love it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeeeek, I am so excited. I am going to try to be so patient and only use one bar of soap at a time :) I smelled so good all day today after using her soap!

So, from my personal experience to you, I think you should go buy some! Right now I am using the Brown Sugar, Honey and Oatmeal soap and its heavenly! She sells a sample pack! And the wrapping is so cute and earthy!

Visit her blog here:

O Bella Naturals Blog

Visit her etsy shop here:

O Bella's shop

I just made cupcakes for Christie and Matt, well and us too! I bought the decorating stuff today on an excited whim, I just had to! It was super fun. I made strawberry flavored cupcakes. My nanna use to make me strawberry flavored cakes when I was little, so it always reminds me of her! And it smells like the Nestle Strawberry Milk she used to give me to!

Soon, we shall meet up with our friends and go to the local coffee shop, hopefully catch some good tunes and get super wired way too late! Yay! That is basically my high, I hardly drink at all anymore. It just doesnt even sound that good in general.

PEACE,

Laura

Thrifting Finds and Style Feature

Yesterday, I got to go thrifting with my best friend. First I took her to the coffee shop in Ingram where my art is hanging. I sold two prints! She liked it alot. She got a fruit smoothie and I got a Vanilla Bean esspresso shake, but I only had a bit before I got a crazy rush and had to stop!

First, this is what I wore, which will be another STYLE FEATURE!

I found these blue velvet slippers a few weeks ago when me and my bestie went to Goodwill! I paid $6.99 for them, which made me cringe, I am such a cheapo! Goodwill has gotten so expensive since back in my high school days.

The outfit:

my favorite vintage blue velvet jacket

brown tank

paisley under tank

my nanna's butterfly belt

super wide leg jeans

blue velvet slippers

blue velvet purse

I usually dont put that much 'matchy' stuff together, but I could not help myself with the excitement of owning 3 BLUE VELVET items!

A quick pic before I was off. By the way, I am such an air head, since James was home, I didnt think to grab my keys, so when we got back, and he was at work, eeeek! I found a way to break into my house :) Im not telling how!

Between 2 thrift stores, I found all of these goodies for only $26!!! The first thrift store was amazing and cheap, the second one had prices that made me want to go up to those old ladies and ask them if they knew they were ripping people off! ha ha!

Items are:

2 vintage sheets

2 vintage scarves

10 crochet granny squares

1 crochet newsboy hat

1 birdie tie

1 vintage frosty candle

1 crochet afghan

1 yard vintage floral material

1 american eagle floral shirt

1 wooden wall accessory hanger

1 wood and metal owl wall plate

eyelet trim

2 vintage doilies

2 long strips of vintage material

1 amazing american tourister bag

my new baby! i think i will stencil something on her! It was only $3!!!

We had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to spend time with each other, doing what we love to do best! Her little Xavier came along with us and got smiles from so many people! I cant believe he is 8 months old already!

I was going to post a photo of me and Shelley and I couldnt find one! Oh my we need to take photos together! I wish I had another photographer friend who was always around snapping photos!

I'll most likely be out and about for the next few days, between pet sitting and my friends being down. Ill try to update here and there with some fun photos!

PEACE,

Laura

Spring Inspiration!!!

I just cant wait for spring. Ha, it feels like I was just saying that about Autumn...but they are my two favorite times of year. Right now when the trees have no color, the ground has no color, it is just drab. Although we do get lovely over-cast photographer friendly days in the winter, I am just ready for some color.

All of these images were found on flickr or weheartit.

{except for the earrings, those are mine baby!}

I absolutely adore fields with yellow flowers!

Birdcages!

Pretty spring jewelry :)

Light flowy spring dresses!

The perfect mix tape for driving in the hill country!

{yes, I still have a tape player in my car, and that is all}

Bike rides in pretty dresses!

Fun tube top dresses with belts, love!

And, I would die to have a real camera that looked like this one. I dont think you would ever see me without it!

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER MY WONDERFUL GIVEAWAY!

G.I.V.E.A.W.A.Y.

Peace,

Laura