Auld Lang Syne

Well it's New Year's eve and I'm propped in front of the big tv with the Netflix Chase set up for me while he's "slinging shrimp" as they so vulgarly call it, at Bubba Gumps. I would order take out but I'm afraid I'd feel the need to tell the delivery guy (or girl for those of you that like to be politically correct and acknowledge the fact that women too, can attain such coveted positions) that I'm just sick and that's why I'm home alone on New Year's eve watching documentaries on the couch and possibly cleaning. We'll see. Then I'd tell him what I had for lunch yesterday and where I was born and how I came to be the open book of a woman, my mother raised me to be.

I'm sure significant events must have occurred this year, but when my retired therapist of a Grandmother pulled out the video camera on Christmas and asked all of us to say a high and low of the past year, (what a weird thing to do right? I thought so) I was so disappointed in myself for not having a provoking, thoughtful answer. Hopefully that won't end up in my E True Hollywood story someday.

So this year I'm making resolutions. I want to finally learn to play my ukelele and piano, finish my screen play that's been fermenting on my desktop for years, cook more at home, move my body, eat more produce, celebrate all holidays fully including dying easter eggs and making valentines, take more improv classes, and nurture my faith, get involve in a charity.... and roller skate.

So I say goodnight and farewell 2011. I met some great people in this crazy industry, witnessed and helped coach the birth of my cousin's first baby, camped in yosemite, landed my amazing job, learned to face paint and do magic and tie balloon animals, and did my first art show by myself. ... I guess it wasn't totally uneventful. Kind of wonderful. Here's to a doubly wonderful 2012. *cheers-ing with my tea* I'm off to nurse this cold.

Good night and good luck.

The Fantastics

Funny Face Birds on a Perch

Just returned to my freezing apartment in toluca lake and promptly plugged in the space heater my parents blessed me with. I'm gonna miss falling asleep by the fire every night!

She's fancy...

I spent almost a week at home for the holidays and packed away lots of materials to keep me busy while watching Christmas movies. I turned the coffee table into a pseudo art desk for the first 3 days I was visiting, which, needless to say, did not please my mother but I think she was just happy we were all together so she didn't say anything till I acknowledged what I had done:) I've got lots of fun new fantastical creatures on the way. A couple are now posted in my shop, and others have yet to come but I thought I share a little peek with you! These photos were all taken with my new iphone by the way!!! Can you believe it?! It rivals my old cannon that was destroyed in the move by chase's soda...long story...along with my blackberry, so this is more than a phone, it's a Christmas miracle! And there are apps for everything! Even a Shel Silverstein one which, of course I had to have! I'm in love...



There are lots of new little creatures on their way, patiently waiting for some paint and attention. I will finish them soon.

Fantastical

fan·tas·tic  (fn-tstk) also fan·tas·ti·cal (-t-kl) adj. 1. Quaint or strange in form, conception, or appearance. 2. a. Unrestrainedly fanciful; extravagant: fantastic hopes. b. Bizarre, as in form or appearance; strange: fantastic attire; fantastic behavior. c. Based on or existing only in fantasy; unreal: fantastic ideas about her own superiority. 3. Wonderful or superb; remarkable: a fantastic trip to Europe. n. An eccentric person.

I've had an epiphany! Last week, I sat down with too much time on my hands and discovered what a lot of my work has been missing. It is all whimsical, but it is not all fantastical! And that is what drives my creative spot. That's what mesmerizes me and leaves me in admiring awe when I read Shel Silverstein's poems or watch Jim Henson's muppets. When I study the dark illustrations filling the pages of Where the Wild things are, I get this twinge inside. An exciting kind of cool feeling in the pit of my stomach that doesn't leave me saying, "that's cute" but rather, "that's fancy and clever and witty and magical and what a wonderful mind to have thought of that!" Princesses are whimsical but a mouse with an umbrella is fantastical. Are you beginning to see what I'm saying?

I am going to be in the process of adding/removing and redirecting my work. Cats should wear birthday hats, birds should have human faces, and anything should be allowed to carry an umbrella! It will be a process but I'm excited and inspired.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Let the sales begin! It's Thanksgiving and that means SALES!!! I have marked everything in THE NAKE BIRD down by as much as 50% plus, expect all your treasures to arrive adorably gift wrapped and get freeeeeeeee shipping by entering : nakedfallshipping at checkout. Just click the link here or over there----->

Like him? He's my favorite.
And he's on SALE!

Them too! On sale!

christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat!

I cannot help myself. I have already started watching Christmas movies and I am so excited to decorate my new home! We are still in the process of getting things together and moving. The other day when we went by the office to drop of the deposit, we stopped back by the new apartment and went inside, imagining where we would put the couch and where the bed would go. I think that is a memory I will have when we're old and sitting comfortably in our wrinkles. Someday when we've "made it" we'll look back at our struggling mid-twenties and how excited we were to get the beautiful one bedroom with the wood floors and cute kitchen, and how we went and bought eggnog and brandy to celebrate. I know what is happening now and I'm not taking it for granted. This is a happy time.

The best part is starting fresh! This is the time of year, (since living in LA, moving has been an annual thing for me) that I get to go through my tupperware and throw out the mismatches. I am actually wrapping my dishes and vases in paper this year as I pack them. I think that means that I must be growing up. I remember when I moved to West Hollywood my mother helped me and in a fit of laziness I carelessly placed knifes in a trader joe's paper bag and one of them poked through. It looked like I was setting traps to kill someone! I have learned my lesson. I just have to finish some orders and then I will be heading home for thanksgiving. This month has flown by. I am so excited for turkey and family and seeing my cousin's little chunkalunk baby boy. I am so blessed.

We're Moving and acting and shipping and packing....

Okay I am calling this week, Brooke's week of background work/The Naked Bird's Big Move SALE!

My new kitchen, how charming is that?!

Starting tomorrow, I am working background for the first time because this little birdie is packing up shop and moving from Studio City to Toluca Lake and bringing her birds with her. Yay! we found an apartment, it's so beautiful, I'm so in love! We can't have a dog which is the only downfall but I'm still heartbroken from loosing Buddy over a year later so maybe I'm not ready anyway. And hopefully I'll be too busy! Okay, so I've got less than 2 weeks, with Thanksgiving right in the middle of everything, to work and sell and put down the rest of the deposit and rent and move. Impossible? Possibly. Hopeful? I am! We can do it!

And desperate times call for desperate measures, so.......I AM MARKING EVERYTHING IN MY STORE DOWN BY AT LEAST 20%! Even my very favorite pieces, even made to order, even newly  listed things. Everything is on sale from now until December 1st and on that day, I will resume everything back to it's normal price and life will go on as it always does. What's more? For THIS WEEK ONLY I am giving you a free shipping code, my sweet, wonderful, amazingly supportive followers and fans! Are you ready? Here it is!

nakedfallshipping      <-------Expires Friday, November 25th (orders within the US only)

Newest addition to The Naked Bird!

Pretty cute huh? So there you have it! Up to 30% mark downs on some of my favorite things in The Naked Bird Shop (<-----Go on, go visit it) PLUS free shipping on your whole order! That is a very good reason to start Christmas shopping early!

Alrighty, I'm working a courtroom scene tomorrow morning early early early early early so I'd better lay out my wardrobe and get my 4 hours of sleep. Night night!

And The Bunny Goes to....

Congratulations to Derry Smith who will take home the sweet little bunny brooch! Yay! Thanks everyone for participating, keep following and like The Naked Bird's facebook page for more contests, giveaways, and updates!

** Derry, Please contact me, all of your social sites are blocked**

Many apologies for the delay in results. I am finally getting over a horrid flu. Take your flu shots everyone! I completely missed Halloween and I've still yet to get out to the store and scrounge up what little halloween candy is left. My pumpkin is sitting pristine and untouched. I WILL still carve it. Maybe I'll make a Christmas pumpkin. It'll work.

Yay, it's wednesday and do you know what comes on tonight? American Horror Story!

Tissues and Ibuprofen,
Brooke

halloween bellies, craft shows and bloopers

I should be working on stuff for the art show right now. I have Sun, Mon, and then it will be here Tuesday night! BUT I have some fun things to share first.
Okay so after we won the Sunkist contest, Cameron put together a blooper reel of our shoot. Its so funnnnnnay!

I am so sleepy, I had 2 celebrations today spanning a good part of Los Angeles but they were so fun and went so well. I've got two more tomorrow and then I can really just focus on the show Tuesday! Speaking of which, here is the flyer for anyone in the Los Angeles area!

It will be lots of fun there will be free drinks and treats catered and you can browse local artists and not have to pay for shipping! How wonderful is that?! It's my first big girl art show that I'm doing on my own so it's pretty exciting! I missed the deadline to do Unique LA but I'm sure it's better that I go check it out before jumping right in.
Keep leaving comments and liking The Naked Bird on facebook and leave a comment there to be entered into the bunny brooch raffle!
I've got to be at another celebration tomorrow at 10:30am so I wish you all a good sleep and leave you with Happy Halloween wishes. My roommate let me "face paint" all over her beautiful child growing belly. What a wonderful canvas....

Baby Aidan James kept kicking me where I was painting!

Special Little Feature

What an eventful week. I just got back to the central coast after a long weekend in the bay working soooooo many wonderful parties! I lived in my car Saturday and Sunday, changing from a cowgirl to a fairy to a princess...a very successful trip! And I was able to spend time with my sweet Auntie!

Last night was the first full night of sleep. I am now waiting on my car. She had some trouble starting this weekend, poor overworked thing, and now she's in the shop. So sad.

But, I just wanted to share this wonderful blog, herlittlemister, who just recently featured my zombie head cupcake toppers and now is promoting my giveaway. Speaking of which, leave a comment here for a chance to win! Anyway, Kate's blog is soooo sweet and thoughtful, and she features such wonderful things for mommy's and anyone who likes adorable things! I'm definitely following her now to get inspired and you should too!

Pray for my car!!!!

It's a Naked Bird Giveaway!

Have you heard of etsylush.com? It's basically a  marketing site where you can submit your product once a day and if it is approved, it will appear under the category you've listed it under and when clicked, will redirect shoppers straight to the item in your shop! I just found it this morning, submitted, and my lover birds are FEATURED on the front page right now! How exciting!
Okay are you all ready for this? I'm going to start hosting giveaways on here and through The Naked Bird facebook page so like it, and check back daily for updates, contests/giveaways, art shows, etc.

And today we begin!

From now until the end of the month, you can enter to win this one of a kind, funny bunny face brooch from my shop! You can enter a few different ways! Follow This blog and leave a comment here, or like The Naked Bird on facebook and leave a comment there, OR follow me on twitter and leave a comment to me there! Or do all three! Each comment you leave will count as an entry so maximize your chances and do all three!

This sweet bunny is hand-sculpted from premium quality paper clay, sanded, and painted with lots of love and attention. She is signed and dated on the back and her pin is molded into the clay to ensure durability. Though she is delicate, she is certainly made to last.
-Thenakedbird 

Always bake from scratch

I have always thought that my grandmother made the best pumpkin pies. When I was little, I didn't really like the crust so she'd make a few special, little pies with no crust at all. Just filling. Just for me. That's love. I'm pretty sure she makes them from the canned pumpkin pie filling but she makes her own crust and always makes about 10 pies every thanksgiving and christmas. That means there is plenty for seconds, plus a pie for anyone who wants one to take home. You think I ever pass that up?

I got so excited the other day when I saw pumpkins at Trader Joe's here in Studio City. They're the first ones I've seen this year. I grabbed a big traditional pumpkin, from the bottom of the bin, and put it in my cart before I headed in. There were beautiful cinderella pumpkins in white and light orange too but they were more than double, so I'll just enjoy the one sitting outside my neighbor's door. I grabbed two mini ones from the produce section annnnnnnd one for a pumpkin pie! There was a sticker on it with the whole simple recipe so I grabbed some pumpkin pie spice, picked up a can of condensed milk and the thing was gone 2 days later. Between just me and Chase mind you. And I had extra batter so I even made myself two little crust-less pies. Yes they are all gone. Now there's no need to compare here, but my pies hold some pretty fierce competition to my Gram's. If it weren't for all the love she pours into the task... This is the grandma who taught me to love clay and sew and gave me an art room to do it all in.

The recipe is super simple and I simplified it further! If you have a TJ's, you can grab these perfect sized little babies and some of their pumpkin pie spice (which has nutmeg and clove and all the other spices a pumpkin pie calls for) and then get some condensed milk from the normal grocery cause they don't carry that horrendous, deliciousness.

*Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F
*Cut the pumpkin in half without the stem and scoop out all the gunk
*Bake the sides face down for an hour and a half
*Scoop out the flesh when it's cool to work with
*add an egg
*add the spices (I just added like 5 tsp of the
pumpkin pie spice, you can add more if you want it stronger!)
*add the can of condensed milk and viola!
*Blend it all together, fill your pie tins and bake for about an hour

Soooooooo Delicious and rich and flavorful. When I bake, I always bake from scratch and there is a good reason. Everything comes together so much better, no matter how simple the recipe, when it's made from scratch, there's no comparison!

corseted fairies and eskimo animals

Okay, I've been away for a while. Busy busy! So many wonderful things!

First, I am finished with fairy training and I'm flying out to my first party tomorrow! Oh my goodness, I'm super duper excited! What an amazing job, I mean, I dress up in gorgeous fluffy skirts and corsets and big flowered wings and I face paint and do magic shows and balloon animals while kids proceed to ask me if I know Tinkerbell and the Tooth Fairy. Oh my gosh, so much fun. And I not only received the most beautiful fairy costume in all the land but also a magician, a pirate, a circus girl....So many new corsets, so many sparkles! So this is all I do now! I'm a fairy and a crafter and someday someone will pay me to act, after all, that's what I spent thousands and thousands of dollars going to school for but alas, this will have to keep me for the time being. I'm not complaining.

I am waiting and waiting and waiting for the magazine to come out so I can get a little more exposure in my shop. It is almost a month late! I just have to keep telling myself that it will come out eventually. I saw the new cover so I know it's in the works. Patience isn't one of my best attributes. I have been rearranging and adding to my shop though. My little etsy box on here has some new stuff in it. I'm really in love with my new brooches and paper clay and everything you can do with it. I've kind of fallen in love with painting which I was never really good at before but I guess it's good practice for both jobs now. I am dying to do the Unique LA art show this holiday season. It looks like one of the BEST, HANDMADE, LOCAL, QUALITY, art shows I have ever seen! And they get sooooooo many shoppers in the two days it happens in. I grew up doing art shows with my mother and I always get so excited when I see craft tables at events, I want to do one on my own now! It's just super expensive and that is the catch of an art show. You have to pay A LOT for your space and usually a percentage of what you make which may not be the case with Unique LA but it's still a lot of work and money to make it happen. So once I have enough for a table, I'll send in my application!

Let's see, I think that's all for now. We won the Sunkist contest, Cameron is amazing and always wins those things. And I learned how to play Scrabble. We are going to Disney on the 1st with Chase's family. It's a Saturday and they just opened it for Halloween so the lines and crowds will be a beast but I'm so excited to go on my Little Mermaid ride!!!

Okay, happy Friday all! Have a lovely sunny weekend if you're in LA.... I want the fall to come already!

Balloon twisting requires great valor

When twisting balloons, you must have the confidence that the balloon will not pop no matter how tight the twist may seem or you'll never finish a shape. And when it DOES pop, because it will, you get another and do it again. The other night I sat down to finish learning my balloons. I watched inspector gadget, labrynth, and dunston checks in while twisting and popping and growing a very large pile on the floor. I let chase pop them all the next day but I saved a balloon flower bouquet and left it on his sister's door step. She was so confused she finally called two days later to ask if we knew anything about them and if I was learning balloons for my new job. hehehe, success....that just there sounded really nerdy. I'm leaving it.

Before the night out! 

We went to the lobster fest in Long beach and oooooh my goodness what fun! We danced and drank and ate so much lobster and I got a GIANT cotton candy! Then we all cleaned up and went for a night out where people kept handing me gummy bear drinks and how can you turn down something that smells like a bag of gummies?! That kind of night is very infrequent for me now that I'm out of school and more susceptible to hang overs. Thank goodness I'm just a crafter lady during the weeks now so I was able to take it easy. But, I can never just do nothing so with a dizzy head and shaky body, I had a photo shoot for my newest items and listed them in my shop. I had to be a LITTLE productive!

Lobster fest 2011

This weekend we will finish fairy training and have a photo shoot of our own and be added to the company officially! My life is just so whimsical right now! 

happy halloween!

'I put a spell on you, and now you're mine' by thenakedbird

it's thundering in LA with storm warnings. Time to watch Hocus Pocus!

Wicked witch. Unusu... HoneyCase2 $25.00	Custom Size Peach a... Glamtastik $250.00	Ghost Pumpkins - Fa... AmeliaKayPhoto... $32.00	Halloween owl - Han... jolucksted $7.00
Black Cat Halloween... oldworldprimit... $28.00	landscape photogaph... AmandaRaeK $65.00	Hand Printed Pumpki... RusticCountryC... $26.00	Bear Art Print - Ch... frighten $25.00
Wicked Weeds dried ... offthetop $15.00	Licorice Spice Tea TempestsTempta... $5.00	vintage deadstock G... capricorne $64.00	French antique book... LucieTalesVint... $14.00
Halloween black ca... Raceytay $11.25	Black and clear swi... LaurenceCollec... $28.50	SPELLS Halloween Bl... SmittenLovely $21.00	Skull and Bones Nec... kbjhandmade $34.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Wild things

'Wild things halloween' by thenakedbird

Chemistry of Little... ShinyPennies $27.00	Faux taxidermy anim... PlanetFur $35.00	Organic Lemon Cucum... cubits $3.50	Seed Bombs - Indoor... visualingual $7.00
Print of a hunting ... plastinate $25.00	8 oz. Matcha Green ... FusionSweets $19.00	Furry Monster Slipp... babycricket $40.00	Flora - Altered Ant... frighten $25.00
Creepy Recycled Cra... buppins $7.00	18x24 Vintage Anato... curiousprints $20.00	Assorted Parisian M... CandiedMeringu... $34.50	Where the Wild Thin... literaryluxe $7.00
Pumpkin Cheesecake ... sakurabathandb... $5.50	Mom's Frankenst... KbOriginalsetc $19.75	Classic Dough, Boy&... allsewnup $13.00	Two Green Tomatoes TheLuxFarm $39.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Look at this fun Halloween treasury I whipped up! So many creative things in here! 

I'm waiting for my bolognese sauce to finish and I'm going to top some spaghettis squash with it and open a bottle of red wine! yum yummmmmmm. Hope everyone is having a good start to their weekend!