Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Okay I'm gonna get a little personal here.

Is that okay? Of course it's okay cause I run this here blog...seeeee?! This is partly to vent, partly to rejoice, partly to share an important lesson.

The bittersweet reality of childhood friendship, that you can't fathom when you are 12 is that someday, your best friend may be just an acquaintance or maybe you'll loose touch indefinitely. You become different adults and sometimes that innocent bond doesn't carry over. And that's okay. After moving to LA and only checking in with each other quite sporadically I accepted that my best friend and I were very different people and it was time to move on an nurture new relationships. My friend is quite self destructive and lives in the past, blaming other people for her depression. This morning, that hatred surprisingly carried over to me. It ruined my whole day, it made me late for my oil change, gave me an anxiety attack, and caused me to have a margarita with dinner. Or was that all me?

Here's my point. You create your own happiness. Okay so perhaps your parents are partially to blame for your therapy bills- I mean, who's aren't?? and it's okay to be lost and dependent when you are still, as 'the friend of my' life jillian put it, "turning into the person you'll become." But there comes a point in your existence when you take the reigns. You are in charge of your own happiness. Living in the past, trying to find someone to blame for your unhappiness will only waste the present and the future until suddenly you have no more days left. Congratulations. You've got a lifetime of misery to look back on, just want you've always tried to create for yourself! Bravo. I let this one, absolutely absurd comment ruin almost* my entire day, when I control my happiness! I get to be happy because I have a wonderful little apartment in a wonderful place with my prince charming, a craft table and the most adorable bunny rabbit named Gideon. Sometimes you just have to accept you are the only person you can make happy. You are the boss of you but only of you and it's not your responsibility to make your manic depressive friends elated with the same joy you are. My new year has been full of giving and peace and love. I've been so calm this year and I choose to be happy everyday. Today was a little bumpy. I was quite upset through a lot of it , and that's okay too. Cause tomorrow I won't be. Fill your cupboards with people who love you and scrub out the mold and move on. Well don't really put the people you love in cupboards. That wouldn't be very nice. Unless they are really tiny people. Then maybe make them a bed out of cotton balls and put a cookie in there.

Notice I said "ruined almost* my entire day"? I got a hair cut, shipped an order, got an oil change and my love took me out to dinner and to see The Artist. And now I'm going to take this fuzzy little bunny off my chest and go sit down at my art table and paint some new creations tonight. Because I'm alive and I'm blessed and I'm grateful.

Who's the boss of me??? I'M THE BOSS OF ME!

Monday, January 23, 2012

3 parties, 2 rubber stamps, and 1 bunny named Gideon



Le sigh. Oh I am so content and fulfilled and sleepy! Long wonderful week through and through. Let's start with the most important. Gideon! For those who haven't met him yet, may I introduce to you, my new love. He's a tiny little baby bunny and he actually won't get much bigger cause he's a mini! I was so worried because he wouldn't eat much or poop at all for the first two days we got him and now it's poop city! Yay and boo. I'm so happy he's healthy. Praise God. but I wish he'd be more like a normal clean bunny and pick a corner. Anyway, isn't he the cutest thing?! It's so funny to watch him hop around the apt and when he get really cozy, he spreads his little body out becoming a long flat little blob. I love him.


I am thrilled to say that my etsy shop is doing better than ever! I've been so inspired lately and I'm even working on a line of muslin, hand painted totes! I ordered custom stamps from BlossomStamps on etsy  and they came out exactly as I drew them! They're incredible. So so soooo happy. I spent my Friday night   sewing a bajillion little muslin mesh bags, which isn't really that sad for me cause my weekends are my weeks and the other way around and my days sort of run together. Still I couldn't help feeling a little sorry for myself slaving away in front of my sewing machine while Chase was out with the boys for one of his friends' birthdays. It was my choice. I could have gone but I stayed to get things done. The passion people, the passion!! Anyway, they look sooo great with my shop logo, I've been waiting a long time to finally do all that and now I'm just so pleased. I feel like everything is in place for The Naked Bird and it makes me feel very calm. 
The weekend was full of fantastic parties (my "real" job) and today I fulfilled an event I was booked on when I used to do princess stuff at my old job. I bought and styled such a great Ariel wig and it was just such a happy wonderful experience. I made sand dollar hair clips from paper clay and bought pearls and jewels and really tiny baby starfish from SeaShellSupply and they turned out even better than imagined. 

And now it's the week again which means new etsy listings and productivity in my shop! Have an enchanting week everyone!


Monday, January 9, 2012

Valentine's Day Giveaway...yay!

Okay my lovely readers! Valentine's Day is upon us and you know what that means....time for another giveaway! And this is a good one! In keeping with the theme of love, I've decided...to give away a set of Lover Birds! My most popular item thus far, these birdies are all one of a kind, signed and dated and sealed to protect. This is the first time I've used a facebook giveaway but I think you just have to go>>>>>> HERE<<<<<<< and like Thenakedbird fb page and you should be entered. It's all out of my hands now, controlled by a computer but I can tell you that it ends in 2 weeks on February 24th so I have time to pack them up and ship them out before the Holiday. Good luck to all!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

I MADE PASTA

I have so many memories as a little girl standing on a backwards chair pushed against the counter, smelling the vanilla and helping my mom bake in front of a giant silver mixer. One of my most cherished gifts came this year when I opened my very own stand mixer from the love of my life. He knows I love to cook and...also, probably, that he would reap the benefits from this gift, but nonetheless I love it. I was sooo overloaded with cookies and fudge after Christmas that I probably won't bake again till Valentine's day, but here is my first venture with the contraption...Raviolis!

Chopped mushrooms, garlic, goat cheese, mozzarella, parmesan filling

Super simple pasta dough from eggs, semolina flour and salt! 

I think these could have been rolled even thinner, they puffed up so much.

Okay...that was more work than I realized. But a beautiful result!

A little vodka sauce, broccoli, a red and Grumpy Old Men. Good choice.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Faerie "work" retreat...or, what I get paid to do.


Leaving on a jet plane!

 Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. What an amazing couple of days. I just got back from my work retreat and what a fantastic experience! For those of you that don't know, I am a professional faerie with one of the most reputable, magical companies in the bay and Los Angeles. My "faerie godmother", or more commonly known in the human world as, my boss, rented a farm near Napa Valley and we (about 30 faeries) traveled up and had such a memorable, sensational time. We filmed a new movie which will be up on the website soon, played secret santa, had a black and white ball and an awards ceremony. I think the photos will speak for themselves. 

Miss Raina Picking LA faeries up from the airport!

We had our dance parties on this patio




The balcony leading to the upstairs bedrooms in the main house

Miss Polly in our sunny incredible room. I didn't want to leave it!

Great new friends!! I love her!
From right outside our bedroom


Teaching Phoenix how to make the parrot balloon
Faerie circle!

Our amazing talented hilarious faeries and the best faerie godmother in the world right in the middle, Miss Fae Diddle Diddle!



I know this all seems so frilly and ridiculous but you get used to it fast. And fall in love with it. And realize that you have one of the best jobs in the entire world. I'm so lucky, I'm so blessed. Thank you Lord.