A trip to the Dia:Beacon

How is it that I live 45 minutes from a really great art museum and I have never been there? Well I can now say that I have visited the DIA:Beacon and no longer feel a pang of guilt whenever anyone asks if I've been.


I had a great time and was inspired and awed.



The highlights for me were John Chamberlain,
Louise Bourgeois, Robert Smithson and Robert Ryman.



The visit today made me realize one of the main reasons that I need to move to a bigger area. I of coarse have absolutely no idea where that are is yet, I do know I would like to stay on the East coast for a few more years, and that I am not a big fan of the heat....yeah, that really narrows it down, I know.

The best end to a long week...

Ahhh Sundays, I have never liked them. I guess it all stems back to school days and all the weekend fun had to end on Sundays. The funny part is, I have not had to deal with Mondays in years...between Manic Trout and bartending, Mondays are not my manic day...but still. So I came home from a very long night at the restaurant and had a pile of those emails I hope for...the positive follow ups, the praise messages...and the best kind of all...the notifications that my work has sold...go me. So things are looking up! Now I at least have more of a positive attitude to face Monday...my day of running errands and catching up...

My little Faye...and a little inspiration...

Yesterday I had to spend the afternoon at the vets office, my darling Faye had a lymes flare up from last years bought with the lymes. She is fine now and really happy to be allowed to eat peanut butter for a month while taking antibiotics again. Scary though when I was unsure of what was wrong...I spent more at the vets then I spent on my own health care all year, but I do adore her so, so it was money well spent.


After the vets I was lying on my studio floor nuzzling my darling Faye, I was gazing at my collage boards...I change them up every few weeks...and I always love them while they are together...so I thought I would share them today.

I love my new shoes!

So I saw these shoes one day about two months ago and decided that I HAD to have them! So I googled them and they appeared to be sold out EVERYWHERE...Oh the horrors...swoon...so I signed up for an email alert to when they restocked and lo and behold they did! So about two weeks ago I pounced on the Adidas site where my dream shoes had been restocked. I was so happy...I counted the days until they arrived...when they did, I ripped open the box and placed them on my feet...and oh crap I think they're too big. Once again I will have to wait for delivery until the shoes will be mine, I lamented dramatically...so I went back on line and looked up the Stella McCartney section and I found out they were sold out AGAIN, already all shoes, except size 8 for some odd reason...were GONE!!!! Well I took a shower and pouted...then I tried on the shoes again and *gasp* they fit...I realized my feet were really cold when I first tried them on and were all small...I was in the pool! So anyway...I now wear my shoes with glee and never take them off (I first tried them on a 1 am last night, so that’s really not a big deal, but still...) So lets all take a moment and gaze adoringly at my new shoes...Asheni by Stella McCartney for Adidas...

They are comfy...even for light exercise, they are made to deal with sweat (its almost summer gimme a break), they look great with my beloved full skirts I live in all summer, they even have a dash of disco...gotta love the silver...AND they are adidas...which as we all remember stands for All Day I Dream About Sex...

25 New Additions to Manic Trout!

Ok...so it took me two days longer then planned, but I just listed 25 new pieces of jewelry on Manic Trout ! You can click on the New link to see them all in their shining glory...Yay!

My favorite day...

I had a wonderful day today...Monday is my day for errands and catching up, but today it was over 85 degrees out and gorgeous so I decided to play hooky from the web page update I was planning for the afternoon...which I am doing now, so it will be late...but still up tonight. Well I began my day the best way...at the Millbrook diner, I love that place and live for whole wheat cinnamon toast. Tyler was dragged there with me and we then ran some errands in the village before I had to go home and leave the sunshine to change the sheets, start the laundry and chain myself to my desk.

I took a break to walk Faye and gaze lovingly at the Magnolia tree in the yard that is beginning to bloom, yay! I live for the first week of spring when all the trees bloom...

Well that did not last long...I decided I wanted to go finally check out Beacon...so I called Tyler and off we went...we arrived at about 5, which was not great planning as it was Monday and many shops were closed and those that were not closed were about to shut down for the night anyway.

I did however make it to a great little antiques store where I scored two additions to my odd brass animals collection that I have accidentally begun.... I now have a large fly, a horseshoe crab (although that pewter), a starfish and a parrot.


While there I inquired about chandelier crystals, as usual and may have made a hug score...I am returning on Thursday to seal the deal. The kind owner also told me to check out this rad store call Feel, which I love! It is a great little indie shop and I am thrilled to have found it.

After meandering around for a bit we decided that the best chance we had to make our wish we made last night to eat dinner outside come true was to head to Newburg and the riverfront...excellent idea! We had a fabulous dinner on the river after walking along the waters edge for a bit, I was very happy. (did I mention I had coffee too!)


At the end of our trip I even had time to grocery shop and have come home to work on the web page and finish the laundry...I still think it all had to do with wearing my favorite skirt in the whole world...

I have to add that I am jealous that Beacon had more blooms on their Magnolias then I do...

The benefits of procrastination...

Not only do I procrastinate with the best of them, but I can rationalize anything...for example, I put off listing new designs because I have to rearrange so much to do so...I add variations to existing lines, but when was the last time I listed something really new...February? So I now have a really big pile of new stuff to list and I will do so tomorrow, so get ready all my adoring fans, there will be 22 necklaces and 3 pairs of earrings posted! Some of these items are new additions to existing lines, some you may have peeked at here on the blog, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve and there are never before seen designs appearing...woo hoo! So you see, when I procrastinate, it makes a big celebratory release of goodies all at once, yay!

Spring!

It was a beautiful day today...I even have flowers blooming in my yard...I don't do the gardening so it makes it even better.


I even managed to get out of the house to go running and then walked my beloved Faye around the neighborhood...more days like this and I might manage to cheer up too!

Golden goodies for wholesale now available!

The quest continues...I have been trying to design in a new direction and create jewelry that I can wholesale, without losing my usual flair. Here is a sneak peak at the new Brass Monkey line of necklaces made of brass charms, gold plated chain and findings and glass czech beads; well the first four anyway. They should be available next week on Manic Trout, along with a whole pile of other jewelry that I just found around my studio that I forgot to photo and post. I know, you cannot contain your excitement, but you'll have to for a few more days...

No time for much...

Its been one of those weeks, I think a great deal of it this weather...so grey and rainy, its like I'm back in the 'cuse. I still cannot believe that I managed to avoid flood damage with all of this rain, only a bit of water in the bedroom by the out side wall, but nothing that is not easily manageable. I will have to post more later, in a rush to get out the door...just wanted to shout to my youngest reader...must keep the kids engaged...Hi Kika...you rock!


Kika gave me this a few years back and it has somehow been on my studio wall in two houses!

After the rain...

Or in the middle of the rain...I think it’s supposed to rain for the rest of the week. I had no idea how bad it was until I left the village today...walking around I thought the water had somehow managed to disperse...but at 5 pm when I finally ventured out to the great beyond I saw the roads closed and the basements being pumped out. In Pleasant Valley Tyler jumped out to photo the river while I visited blockbuster...he was nice enough to share...

The Perils of Creative Business

If you have your own business in a creative field you will get what I am about to ponder...if not...just smile and nod as you read. As I have come to learn in the last few years as a sole proprietor artist, creating is a small part of creative businesses. The marketing, advertising, bookkeeping, organizing, shipping, sales, accounting, planning, packaging etc takes up sooooo much more time then you would ever have imagined. Now mind you, I began Manic Trout because there was no way I could go a day without creating, so I do still make things a good amount of my time...but the strange situation that I often find myself in goes along the lines of allowing myself to sit down and be creative for hours at a time only when I am done with all the stuff I have to do. The creative aspect of my art career has become my reward for doing the other 90% of my job.

I strongly believe that if I sold a greater amount of my work this could change a bit and I could create more often, as right now I have enough inventory to keep up with sales. One day I may even be able to quit my "day" job and create even more often...but right now I do a great deal of the other stuff more then I get to make anything!

Ironically, the more I have to do, the more I have a creative streak burning to be released...sometimes I can rearrange my schedule and fit it all in, but there are times that the to-do's have deadlines that I have not set and there for I once again have to stifle my urges. Although I will admit that I get more done on all other projects when I procrastinate, as long as I reach my deadlines its all ok, but sometimes I wonder why I am stretching canvases when I need to work on bottle caps...

Rain, rain go away

I feel like its all I can do to not obsess over the weather right now. It seems like it will never end, by the end of the week I'm going to have to build an ark...its like living in one of my own paintings...

Sketch Books & Journals

I like to record my life in a variety of mediums; I am also an image junkie. The result is a multitude of sketchbooks and journals that have been created over the years, noting the events and inspiration of my life. A good deal of these are private, but many, many pages are filled with inspirations and are thumbed through again and again when I need ideas. Of coarse in the past year....when I have had to devote 40+ hours a week to working away from my studio, I have gotten behind...the images of slowed down and need to be caught up on. I am trying to do this right now and have been going through my current working books getting ready to finally update them. I have my ever present sketchbook, that honestly has few sketches, but more of an image catch all and a keeper of lists...with musings thrown in for good measure, I have a big book collecting all the images and notes from the 4 bulletin boards I keep in constant rotation on my studio walls, and I have my jewelry books...one for images and one to draw out my ideas in.


I thought as a way to get myself all inspired to catch up and get back on track, I would share a few pages. Excerpts are from last years sketch book and my current jewelry inspiration book.

Cold, grey, rainy day

I feel like I am living back in Syracuse with this weather...its miserable out. I need to get a bunch of designs done today for jewelry as its one of my two full studio days, and so far nothing at all has been done. I still have to do some sort of exercising too, although that may help the energy level...it will have to be indoors though.

A great day to relax and veg...I wish I could let myself spend the day on the couch. So speaking of which...check out the best things to veg on, if I had a room filled with these I would never get any work done. They also come in neoprene for poolside (mom, get these!)


The pillow stones are from France, and you can check them out here. My dream house will include these...when do I get my dream house anyway...



Well when I do get my dream house, be sure I'll have a room of these wool stones. I was a big rock dweller when I was a kid, I loved to play on large rocks and make "houses" out of them...I would of coarse also make "houses" out of little nooks in the woods, which I later realized were animal dens..yeah...don't let your small children wander off to play in the woods folks, they could end up as dinner. Seriously though, I loved creating spaces out of nature and let this love of natural habitats even draw me to Architecture school, where I found out it was not the same and transferred to art school a mere year later...I still love natural habitats though.

Candy Holidays

Is it a mere coincidence that the holidays in the cold months are pretty much just a reason to sell mass amounts of candy...and that the last holiday also brings the warm weather and with it the inclination to show some skin and a slice of (hopefully) flat stomachs. Easter is now behind me...I have a stomachache from the jumbo bag of jellybeans I finally finished and I am done for the season! I am running regularly to train for the half marathon...going well thank you, I am lifting the weights, walking Faye often and even doing Yoga twice a week. Yet I continue to feast on sugary goodness and taint all the hard work that I have been doing. Is there even a point of eating so well if I just eat a bag of candy at midnight?



I want the warm weather, flowers and energy of spring to get here already! Faye does too..I may dwell on this for a while; it’s not supposed to reach warmer then 45 degrees all week...

A day of chores...and a dream of flowers

I spent the day doing so many of those things I love to put off...book keeping, organizing files and the biggest dread of all...my taxes...what a royal pain in the butt...but at least I don't have to deal with it for another year. I also had to do my usual Monday tasks...laundry, grocery shopping, taking the garbage to the curb. I now am in the mood for some fun, but instead I will read my marketing book. I have to be up early to open the restaurant for the last time tomorrow...from now on I am a nights only gal and I am so glad it can finally happen, hopefully it will stay that way...I am not a morning person and cannot seem to function in the single digit am hours...well unless I am still awake from the night before.


So anyway I was all lusting after spring plants at the grocery store...which I did not buy as my green thumb friend Kahlyn told me that there are better places to buy plants and I should be going to them for a reason, but it made me really want the trees to bloom and flowers to blossom already! The buds have appeared, but the skies have been grey and its still cold...where is spring? So I will have to call up some photos from last spring to tide me over...

Measuring Success

I have been confronted with the subject of success a great deal recently and this has led me to wonder a bit about how I define success to begin with. A few times over the past few years I have revisited these thoughts and I do realize that perhaps what I define success as will be ever changing, but at the moment I am unsure of how I feel right now. Is it a measure of my dreams coming true, or of reaching a certain monetary level, or a passing of multiple milestones in life that I want to pass... Do I consider myself already successful at some aspects and failures at others, or is it a more straight forward then that. I do know that I feel success can be fleeting...it can go away once achieved just as fast as it came. Will I never feel successful because it creeps up you when you least expect it....like the 5lbs gained over the winter that goes unnoticed until you try on a bathing suit...Will I ever feel as though I have success because I will always be reaching higher and moving onto the next definition while my previous one is conquered? How do I stop the nagging in my head that I must work harder, better and longer then the day before if I have no idea what I am trying to accomplish...ahhhhh...tomorrow is another day....

Manic Trout at The Stanley Family Lodge

Its official, you can now purchase Manic Trout necklaces from The Stanley Family Lodge! The line of Brass Love Necklaces are available, including a new design that I created exclusively for them (see top left)...meaning you cannot purchase it from anywhere else, including Manic Trout. I am thrilled to be a part of this lovely shop, it was created by Melissa Stajda and her husband Jeremy, and its a green shop, which makes me feel even better about joining their list of fabulous designers! Check out their shop, I know you'll love it!

New Paris in The Springtime Necklaces!

It was warm here in the northeast for about 5 minutes, and in that 5 minutes I was very inspired...I went on a creating craze the other day and conjured up 5 new necklaces! Check out the newest additions to The Paris in The Springtime line...there's something for everyone...a combination of vintage lucite, sparly glass, fuzzy yarn and all in big and bright colors! My personal favorit is the Bijou...

Which I did not even realize until the next day that it mimics the painting I am in the misdt of...very interesting...

Bibliophile Alert

SO I finished the first business book of my self-imposed homework assignment, I learned a little, I feel accomplished; it was a good idea to start this. I am now on to the next book...this one covers Marketing for Small Businesses! Now don't misunderstand, as much as I do not get around to reading non fiction, I devour fiction, mainly of the literature variety...occasionally with some chick lit sneaking in there. Did you know that there is also a category called dick lit? I've read some, I think Adam Davies was one of the first...he wrote The Frog King... I just bought his new book, perhaps I'll read that one next...any way...I read every night in bed, have for years...need to in order to fall asleep. I think the best part about living on my own again, and there are many great things, so this is huge...is being able to read in bed for hours without getting complaints from the other pillow. It was the biggest issue I had about cohabitation, to be honest I have always dreamed of a mate who would read in bed right alongside me, but after years of boyfriends and even a husband come and gone...I have yet to find someone who has the same reading habits as I do, sigh. Well right now I am reading a Jennifer Weiner book, Little Earthquakes, I really enjoy Ms. Wieners' writing...its like hanging out with the girls...and with mine living scattered around the world and all of us being so busy that I only see them sporadically...so I have been devouring this book...I was reading until 4:45 this morning, not so late, as I got into bed around 2:30, but still...I had to make myself stop and go to sleep. My favorite guilty pleasure is reading in the middle of the day, and not work related reading, but my night time reading, its the only thing I like about getting sick...I can read all day without feeling naughty that I am not working. In fact, writing about reading is making me feel a bit guilty...I have to work on bottle caps, I have necklaces mid creation and I have to go running...ok back to work…

Spring is in the air!

So all this nice weather is not only spoiling me, but its making me really excited to release my summer jewelry...but not yet wee ones, have some patience while I add to the collection! I am still obsessed with Brass, and I have even been working in a bit o' gold...part of my ability to mass-produce plan. So I thought it would be nice of me to at least give you a taste of what is to come...

Ok...So here are the Limited Editions:
A Summer version of the Brass Love Necklaces


This is a very leafy necklace...


A new line with a more delicate chain and big and bold charm clusters.


A very simple version...this vintage piece is so great, I decided it was awesome enough to hold its own.


Very summer, I need a trip to the beach!


I can make as many of these next two as your heart desires!

I think its a talisman to find find true love...I need to work on a title from that idea...


The first earrings I have made in a while...they are rather fabulous...yes, I am modest.


OK...back to the jewelry table, I am in the process of making many, many more...I will leave you on this quote from Lady Miss Kier "Try me on, I'm very you"

The dreaded mall experiance

I had to go to the mall today. I tried my best to avoid it...I needed new running shoes and decided to order them online so I would not have to go to the dreaded mall. Unfortunately when they arrived this morning, I discovered they did not fit...so I sent them back and gave in. Actually I was all set to order another pair on line but my sister Gillian called and decided it was perfect timing because she too had to go against her will, so we might as well do it together. Well I must say that today's trip completely convinced me that I should continue to avoid these places at all costs. Everything that I was remotely interested in was not small enough to fit me...this was even true in the finish lone....there were only three pairs of Adidas running shoes and only one pair in my size. Fortunately they fit, and I was actually glad I went for about five minutes because the very helpful sales person introduced me to gel inserts, which made a huge difference in comfort.

The gel inserts were the only highlight however...maybe its from being in the indie world for so long now, but there is something so depressing about stores filled with low quality merchandise being sold by people who seemed to want to be any where but there. I have become so spoiled by passionate women who love what they offer; it was quite disheartening to see the norm. I do so love the indie world!

At the risk of sounding like a groupie...

I missed yesterdays post...I feel all icky from it, but sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day...

So I want to rave for a moment about my current favorite photographer Alicia Bock...I actually found her work before I created in the same circles as she does, but my admiration only grows and grows. I never thought I would buy photos of flowers to hang on my walls and now I have two of them!





Well I have just started to catch a glimpse of the water photographs that will most likely begin appearing more frequently as warm weather creeps into Michigan where Ms. Bock resides, and I cannot wait! I have always been an ardent adorer of photography and was waiting until I was grown up enough to start covering my walls, well I'm now 30 and a slow accumulation has begun!

Besides the photography of Alicia Bock, I also have a love for Lonely Trees as I call them...one impressive tree standing in the middle of a field, off center. I have also fallen in love with a gorgeous pink peony and a jellyfish, both of which I found on Etsy.

I already have my eye on the next group to purchase, although I have to find a wall for them first...maybe I'll move!