New Blog

Hi everyone! Just letting you know that after taking a looong break from this blog, I have regrouped and refocused myself and created a new blog. You can now find me over at:
www.jazzychalks.com. I still share similar topics - with a focus on creative living and my chalkboard illustrations. Please come over and say "hi"! I will still leave this blog up and going, just no longer posting here. Thanks for reading :)

Maybe there's nothing wrong with me after all!

If you have an Etsy account, you may be familiar with the Etsy Success emails that they send out frequently. Sometimes I read them, sometimes I don't. But they are usually packed full of helpful information to becoming a better Etsy seller. About a month ago, one of the Etsy emails featured this article about "taking mini-risks". More so than being interested in the article, I became fascinated in the girl who wrote it, Emilie Wapnick, and what she is trying to achieve through her website puttylike.com. She keeps using this word multipotentialite which she describes as "a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life." But also she explains that a multipotentialite does not have one true calling in life the way that "specialists" do. See, it's socially acceptable to be a specialist in something, rather than bounce back and forth between passions and directions. A lot of people don't understand this multi-potential point of view, but to me it makes TOTAL SENSE.

The process of  - becoming interested in something, putting 100% of my heart into learning about it, doing it once, and then having no interest in pursing it again - is the story of my life. 

These are common questions I ask myself. I've always felt there was something wrong with me for having these multi-interested tendencies. But after reading Emilie's website, she has helped me to realize that there is nothing wrong with me. AND there is a whole community of people who share these same feelings. Emilie's pursuit is to help all of us multipotentialites have a successful life! Thank God! She has an e-book called "The 'Undeclared for Life' Manifesto". That you can download for FREE!

Photo courtesy of Mike Linksvayer.

She has also written a book called "Renaissance Business" that teaches you how to make your multipotentiality your day job! I can't wait to read this one:

If all this is resonating with you and you think you may as well be a multipotentialite, PLEASE go visit puttylike.com and get connected.

I've been a bit MIA lately. My natural way of coping with hardship is to have reclusive tendencies. My shop Wild Honey closed at the end of February. I fought to keep it up and running but it just wasn't bringing in the money that it needed to. I think a lot of it had to do with the location and other speculations. I have come to terms with all of that and have prepared myself to move on to other things, but it just left me with that, "What am I doing with my life?" question. Therefore, discovering puttylike.com has truly helped my esteem. I really want to continue working for myself and I have big goals set for the future... but until I get all of that figured out, I hope that you can be patient with this blog and my activity within it. I want to keep sharing my art and my passions but I'm just taking some time to figure myself out and get my priorities straight. 

Thank you for understanding,

Jasmine

Love LOVE Love

Russ and I recently celebrated 3 years together! I made up this mixed media plaque for him featuring lyrics from one of our favorite John Grant songs. I used my standard chalkboard method for the background and text and then added various scraps of paper, photos, and some pretty findings. One great thing about being an artist and crafter is I usually have enough supplies around the house to come up with something new and original just by putting new mediums together. This was fun to make and most of all it reminds us of how much fun we have together.

Well today IS Valentine's Day. We have some fun things planned for our evening. I hope you find a way to enjoy the day! Single or taken, know that you're LOVED! 

<3, Jasmine

Custom Chalkboard Pet Portraits

I mentioned that I was going to get back into chalkboard art, so over the past few weeks I've been busy working up some examples of custom artwork that I can offer. Pictured above, are examples of 5"x7" custom pet portraits that I just listed for sale in my Chalkbird Studio Etsy shop. I will be adding some larger sizes, as well as people portraits and custom menus and signs.

For now, I've included some upcycled book journals that feature covers with my custom artwork, that you can also view in my shop. If you have any suggestions for chalkboard artwork ideas, feel free to share them with me. There are so many possibilities with this medium and it's exciting to discover new purposes. 

xoxo, Jasmine 

Gypsy Dreams: Bold and Beautiful Chairs

Take a seat, my dears! I'm starting a new feature here on my blog called "Gypsy Dreams". I will be featuring collections of gypsy-inspired items, from home decor to fashion to ways of life. Today I am sharing some fanciful, color-rich patterned chairs that I can't get enough of. 

source

I am a HUGE fan of kilim rugs, which are woven tapestries, usually from Turkey and Pakistan. I am lucky enough to borrow a few kilim rugs from my mother that I use in my kitchen. This chair is upholstered in a bright kilim textile and is so fun!

source

I just love the mix-matchy patterns and designs used in these chairs. No matter the style of the chair, the eclectic upholstery seems fitting. Something about that is so cozy to me. 

source

Another kilim chair from Anthropology. 

source

This patchwork chair looks so comfortable! 

source

Another lovely chair with tons of character. 

I could see a chair like these in a funky, colorful sitting room. Or my favorite, as a statement piece in a rustic cabin. Dontcha think?

 ~Jasmine

Chalkboard Art

As some of you know, a few years ago I lived in Orange County, California working for a menu board company where we created chalkboard menus for restaurants and the like. What a fun job! I got to draw all day, everyday. I enjoyed hand-lettering just as much as illustrating. And when I moved back to Missouri, I tried starting my own business creating chalkboard signs. 

I started by making some wall plaques, and doing some fun menu boards for people's kitchens, but the business never quite got off the ground. Well, it basically came down to not having enough start up money to keep pushing the business and I had to go get a "real job" and lost focus from creating chalk signs. 

So lately, I've been reminiscing of my love for creating these chalkboard illustrations. Don't get me wrong, I love fashion and crafting and bargain hunting which I'm immersed in with Wild Honey on a daily basis, but I believe my true talent and passion thrives in drawing. 

My mind has been meddling in ideas of how I can work my chalkboard art into my Wild Honey store. A few thoughts I've posed for myself are:

Custom people portraits

Custom pet portraits

Illustrated chalkboards for the home

Wedding signs

Chalkboard fashion? <-- Why not!

These are just a few ideas to restart my custom chalkboard illustrations. And if it lead to full on restaurant menu boards, I would be okay with that, too. 

Today is the first snowy day that I'm in the shop working. I don't expect tons of business due to the weather, so I'm spending this day experimenting with chalkboard art. The trick is keeping all this paint and chalk dust off the clothes I'm selling! 

xoxo, Jasmine

Changes at Wild Honey

 As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, Wild Honey is going through some changes. My business partner, Anthanett, has decided to part ways with Wild Honey and pursue her own adventure. Therefore, Wild Honey will be my own business! There are advantages to having a partner in business, but there is also a lot of freedom that comes from owning a business yourself. All decision making and product choice will be of my own control and I'm excited as to what Wild Honey could become.

After Anthanett pulled out her belongings, I had a big task of rearranging the entire store. 

It took 3 full days of work to get the store back in order, but now it looks like a whole new place in here. Since I'm now going to be in the shop 5 days a week, I'm working on getting my desk set up and I'm bringing in all my craft supplies so I can work on projects while I'm at work. 

 Russ has helped me form the new shop appearance and I couldn't have done it without him! I appreciate his advice and sense of taste. He believes in me and in Wild Honey, and that support is priceless. 

Through all the hard work, we never forget to have fun! I'm excited to take full ownership of this business and be the one responsible for presenting my customers with unique, creative products that are found and made with love!

xoxo, Jasmine 

Upcycling Leather

Ever since I started making the hippie headbands, I have become more curious about using leather as a medium. Here are a few cuffs that I made out of upcycled belts and embellished with glass beads. I'm having fun experimenting with different effects that can be achieve by adding paint, beads, stitching, etc. 

Taking leather as the canvas, I decided to try illustrating on it and came up with these peacock feather cowboy boots:

Gosh, I really like where this is going, but I'm still trying to find the perfect way to seal the artwork so it will wear well with creasing and moisture, which naturally happen to footwear. I've tried a few types of wax and leather shine, but no luck yet. If any of you have any pointers, I'd love to hear them! Leather is such a new medium to me but I'm loving all the endless possibilities that can form out of this versatile material. I'll keep experimenting. :)

-Jasmine

Resolutions for 2012

Don't you just love the beginning of a new year? It somehow reserves itself as a marking point for new goals and hopes of a "better future". I have big aspirations for 2012, especially being a new business owner. Whatever your goals may be - big or small, it's comforting to know that it's the time of year that we all try to do better! So let's give 2012 a big "HURRAH!" and enter it with style. 

Happy New Year! -Jasmine

Winter Window Display

The day after Christmas, Russ and I spent several hours at the store changing out the window from its Christmas theme. We had fun hanging lace and chandeliers, letting each new added element build off of the ones already placed. I like the "tattered elegance" that arrived from the collection of items we used. Changing out the window display is always refreshing. It's almost like a new start. 

Speaking of new starts, there are going to be some major changes made with the store and my blog. I'll share more in the upcoming week. But I wanted to tell all my readers that the name of my blog will be changing soon to wildhoneyblog.com. It will make more sense to keep a consistent name between all my online accounts. If you have missourijones.blogspot.com saved, then you should be rerouted to my new blog address. But just incase, here's a heads up. I will still be blogging about the same things, sharing the creative parts of my life and the business. But I hope to be blogging more often and making my blog become an accent to my business. Thanks for following my journey. You guys are what gets me inspired to keep moving and making.

Love, Jasmine

Documenting 2012 and Beyond!

I found this great little idea for remembering a piece of my day, everyday, over the years. Most of us don't have time to journal everyday, but writing a brief sentence or a couple of words each day isn't much of a challenge. Won't it be neat after doing this for a few years to look back on what you did on this day a year ago... or ten years ago? I'm surely going to try this. Take a visit to Design Sponge to view a very simple DIY of how to make your own! 

I'm off to start my list of New Years Resolutions. I definitely have a few!

☮ + ♥, 

Jasmine 

A Very Merry Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas, it was! A bit spontaneous and random but just great. My family is full of musical talent, so it's not unordinary for a session of Christmas hymns to break out in chorus and horn. 

We were planning on opening our gifts on the morning of Christmas Eve. My family is pretty flexible on when we have our "Christmas" even if it's not on Christmas day. But on the eve of Christmas Eve, everyone was getting antsy about opening gifts so we decided to open just one... well that led to opening them all!... at midnight!!... right on the kitchen table!!!

One of my favorite gifts was wrapped up in this lovely box. You know the "don't judge a book by its cover" phrase, well it applies here. Inside was a beautiful stained glass owl that hangs in the window. My words do no justice so I'll share pictures when I get it hug. 

Russ surprised me with the f/1.8 Nikon 50 mm lens that I was dreaming about on my Christmas Wishlist! I was not expecting it at all! I'm so thankful for this so I can take better photos for my blog and Etsy shop. Ever since I got it I can't stop taking pictures of everything! It's like getting a brand new camera. I used it to take all the photos on this post.

 My mom gave Russ some Super 8 film reels and a splicer to edit the film on. Russ is really getting into analog video and this gift was perfect for him!

My brother, Stetson bought my cat, Scoby a hooded pet shirt. Oh my, does he hate wearing this! He would walk backwards as if he was trying to walk himself out of the shirt. Such a cutie! 

 (You may remember seeing pictures of Scoby in this post. His name was "Hatchback" but I changed it to Scoby. It just fits him better).

 This weekend was full of family, food and sleep! I napped so much! It was so nice to get away from the "norm" and surround myself with loved ones. 

Now only if I could stay out of this Christmas candy!!!