Best of Phoenix

I won a Best of Phoenix award!

Last Thursday I was hanging with Trev when all of a sudden I got a text from my BFF Jasmine. It read, "You got a Best Of in New Times!" I was caught off guard to say the least... and to be honest, I didn't have a clue what she was saying (autocorrect mistake perhaps?). My slow brain finally connected the dots and then exploded out of excitement. MY BRAIN EXPLODED.

Growing up as a young girl attending high school in downtown Phoenix, I was always studying at Lux, eating at That's a Wrap or attending local fashion shows. I was always searching for cool things and totally admired the people working to make our town awesome. Now I'm growin up and feel like I'm becoming one of those people I used to admire so much! Every time I've gotten an award or recognition or, hell, even a blog post written about me I've been so honored, humbled, and blown away. I am totally inspired and hope that I can build my dream and maybe even one day be an inspiration to people, the way people like Angela Johnson or Kimber Lanning were to me.

Inspirations

Read this article. 

The Buddha said it truthfully,

"What we think we become".

If you think you are not enough, you will never be.

If you think your life sucks, it does.

If you believe you live in paradise, you do.

And if you love yourself, life, and everything around you...that will come back to you.

That love is your truth.

This week I give myself permission to:

Open up to at least one person- be totally raw and completely myself 

Wake up early and spend time on me

Nurture my body with mindful meals

Put off the "shoulds" and live in the moment

Read

Be still and silent

WAFA/Sarah Barnes

I stumbled upon the WAFA collective a little while ago and was super stoked and inspired. WAFA (We Are Fucking Awesome) is composed of artists all over the world and aims to bring people together to inspire and ignite each artists' work; WAFA (We Are Fucking Awesome) is a global artist collective dedicated to the support and development of emerging artists. We are an international network of working artists... Our hope is to bring together a community of artists, united by collaboration, to inspire one another. To have the sense of family and community restored, where we can belong and continue to give value to what we believe in. To have an open dialogue about everything we experience, and the free exchange of ideas, knowledge and tools. Our focus is on collaborative works and initiatives. All work documented on this website was created by two or more artists working together. We have found that collectively we are stronger than individually. Yeah, they are fucking awesome.

One of my faves is Sarah Barnes, a collage artist and embroiderer.

Lovely. Check out this interview with her. And don't miss her beautiful blog.

Six Things Phoenix Might Probably Need I think

Phoenix has really come quite a long way and it's getting cooler and cooler each day. I mean, I'm totally stoken on Filmbar, we've got the awesome market, lots of good coffee shops, the lightrail zippin through, and food trucks running rampant. Here's some other stuff I think we might probably need.

A super cute flower shop.

Flower Girl, NYC.
To turn the old buildings into hip, multiuse living spaces and storefronts, restoring the original architecture. (ie: not tearing em down to start from scratch and not letting aASU snatch em up to build parking structures on. And P.S. we don’t need any more new, stucco, blah places k? Why build from scratch when we've got architectural gems standing empty?)

Luhrs Building, Downtown Phx.

An awesome bakery or two.

Babycakes, NYC.
More vegan restaurants and options (maybe a vegan ice cream shop or something rad like that, eh?).

Yes, this Cheesy Mac and Rib sandwich is vegan. Mmmm.

KindKreme, LA.

Greenspace.

Unpack a park. Whaa? RAD.

Some cool boutique hotels.

Hotel San Jose, Austin, TX.

This all reminds me of the old argument- which came first- the rad downtown? or the rad folks inhabiting it? Do you invest time and money into it hoping the right folks will stumble upon it or do you get the right people's interest before you invest?

What are some things you LOVE about your home town? What are some things you'd like to see different?

Tumblr Love

I semi-recently got a tumblr account and I must say, I'm pretty much addicted.

I love that, with one button, I can post any pretty lil picture I see. And it's pretty cool to have a place to file all my inspirations (ie: not load up my computer with it all). Right now I have about a billion different folders on my computer with all sorts of inspiration in em- art, DIY projects, tattoos, makeup, home, and on and on. It's rediculous. 

Do you have a tumblr?? Let me know, I'd love to follow you! Do you have any favorites you wanna share? Check mine out here!

Thankful Thursdays v9

Hello Hello! I hope you all are having a wonderful week. Mine has kinda been flying by. I can't believe it's already November! Do you think it's too soon to decorate for Christmas? Here's a confession- I looove Christmas and probably have more boxes of antique, vintage, and handmade Christmas stuff than anything else (I'm only slightly joking).  Aaanyways, here's what I am thankful for this week!

New babies. We welcomed my cousin's sweet little girl Kaylin into the world this Monday. Awe.





Twitter. I'm just getting the hang of it. But I'm kind of addicted! There are so many neat folks sharing the coolest, most inspiring things- my favorites are @go2publicschool, @Junkculture, and @Teenangster. If your on Twitter let's be friends (@mmhandmade).

Finding Shaun Kardinal's work (via @junkculture- told you they're good). I'm in love.




Smart friends. I am totally a type a person. That means I get super overwhelmed by everything because I want to be a hero- I wanna help everyone, do everything, and do it perfect. Of course, I can rationalize that perfect just doesn't exist but sometimes I get caught up in it all. Do you have these moments? I think we all do. They are sometimes hard to shake but its easier when you have smart friends to talk to and to support you.

What are you thankful for this week?

It's October 1st!!

I seriously can't believe it's October 1st. At the risk of sounding old, I must say that time is just flying by lately.

Now that it's officially October I'm throwing caution to the wind and starting an all out Fall celebration (if you're a new reader you must know that I live in Phoenix where it has been record high temperatures. Makes it hard to do Fall-y things).  That's right! I'm breaking out the boots and warm coffee drinks. I don't care if we've still got triple digit temps still!

Here's some cute fall fashions I've collected that inspire me.

 [Marc Jacobs]

 (I've collected all these over the years so if you know where they came from. Please let me know if you know the source so I can give proper credit.)

I hope you all have a lovely first day of October.
XO

Life Lessons Part 2

Focus on yourself. Like I mentioned yesterday, I do think there are some good things about being selfish. First off, selfishness propels us to act. It helps us get things done. I also strongly believe that you must take care of yourself first before you help others. If we focus on ourselves, our desires and needs, we will be better able to help others.

There is no use in complaining; it doesn't do any good anyway. Here's another from my sweet ol' great grandpa. Of course everyone needs a good bitchfest every once and a while. But not only is it better to act than react to situations that arise, its far more empowering and esteem building to find the silver lining in any situation. Looking at things positively makes it easier to make magic happen too.

Don't waste time planning; things rarely unfold as you had planned. Ok so I must admit that this one is seriously hard for me. I waste soooooo much time planning. It's so stupid because all the time we spend planning we are missing out on so many beautiful things going on in this world- we're letting life pass us by! And, seriously, have you ever had a plan for how things will unfold and things happen exactly as you had planned? Not me. Not once.

There's always time to create. Sometimes it's really hard to be creative, especially in the working world where creativity if often squashed by systemization. But there are tons of quick and easy ways to infuse your world with creativity. And your time will be well spent because creative expression is empowering and, to me at least, life affirming!

And an extra I just thought of : ) Do what you say you are going to do. If you want to succeed, in business or relationships, do what you say you are going to do. That means, if you know you never wake up before 8, don't schedule a coffee date for 7:30 in hopes you can drag yourself out of bed. It's worse to make plans and promises and break them than not make them at all because its just not realistic for you. Be respectful of others by doing what you say. Plus, you don't want to be known as that person.

What lessons have you learned in your life? I would love to know.

100 Abandoned Houses

I came across this website earlier today and had to share it with you. The artist began the project as a hobby, documenting his decaying neighborhood. The photos are gorgeous, sad, nostalgic, haunting, and peaceful- all at the same time.

Beautiful Losers

When we went to Los Angeles for FYF Fest I promised myself that, outside of food and the like, I would not buy anything else. I had almost made it until our last minute, on our way out of town trip to Amoeba Records in Hollywood. (Okay, so in retrospect it is almost unbelievable that I didn't blow big bucks at the huge and wonderful place, especially after my Saturday filled with amazing music.) Anyways, I ended up picking up the movie Beautiful Losers, which I watched only a small part of (after wanting to see it for ages!) but was sooo inspired. But, hey, they were having a Labor Day sale so I saved a good dollar or so : )

Check it out.

Heroes

I wanted to share with y'all some of my personal heroes. These folks are all amazing and inspiring. I hope they get you jazzed for your day!

Faythe Levine is the producer and director of my very favorite documentary Handmade Nation. She is working on a new documentary about American sign painters which will surely be amazing.

Rob Kalin is the founder and CEO of Etsy.com. "In June of 2005 while living alone in a wood shop and wanting some company, I came upon the idea of Etsy, and then the name, and then the design. I was twenty five years old with three cats." It's so inspiring to see someone so young doing such unbelievable things.

Ira Glass, the totally attractive and brilliant host of This American Life, began working in public radio as an intern some 30 years ago. Look at him now.

Jenny Hart is a writer, artist, and the founder of Sublime Stitching. She makes some of the most unbelievable pieces you will ever see. She has revolutionized the art of hand embroidery.

I just really like this show : )

Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Who are your heroes??

Something Lovely: Holly Farrell

Holly Farrell paints some of the most lovely paintings with some amazing content; vintage barbies, vintage furniture, vintage cookbooks... One day I will own one of these.