Goings on....

Hello everybody! I have a few events that you should jot in your calendars provided you are like me and still use pens, or for the super cool, google calendar the following!

On Saturday August 18th, I will be lending a helping hand to my oh so talented friend Melinda at Hot August Blues. This is an amazing music festival which you really should not miss out on. All the information can be found at the festival's website http://hotaugustblues.com/lineup/ If you can make it out, be sure you stop by the Byrdcall Studio tent which is where our post will be for the day! I have written about Melinda before and her amazing work, but if you missed that check out her website at http://www.byrdcallstudio.com/


On Saturday September 8th, Heavens to Bessie will be participating in the American Visionary Arts Museum annual Out-Sideshow http://www.sideshowbaltimore.com/outsideshow/ I can not tell you how excited I am to participate this year! Be sure you stop down and come say hey and check out my new work. There are tons of great vendors and this event will be held rain or shine so just plan on coming!!!


On Sunday October 7th, Heavens to Bessie will be at The Downtown Annapolis First Sunday Arts Festival. http://www.firstsundayarts.com/ By then hopefully I will be able to wear a scarf :-) I love fall, so I am really happy to participate in this outdoor event in October! And this is the last First Sunday Arts festival for the year, so be sure to come down for it!

There are plenty of other events in the works so check back often. If you are not already friends with Heavens to Bessie on Facebook....why not? Just search Heavens to Bessie Jewelry. I am also on twitter and instagram (@heavenstobessie) and as always you can check out my website at www.heavenstobessie.com

My Heart Really Likes You

A couple weeks ago, I had not left my house for 2 days choosing to watch movies that make me cry. It had been raining off and on and I looked like I had gotten punched in face a couple times so I figured I needed to find something to do with myself. I ended up joining a couple friends to go down to ArtScape, which if you are not from Baltimore, is a huge art festival with tons of music, food, music, art cars and of course local artists.

I hadn't been down to the festival in a couple years, choosing not to fight the crazy crowds and ridiculous heat. But that day was perfect. It was in the 60's and pouring down rain so I did not have to battle with either. I threw on some boots, grabbed my umbrella and set off with my friends.

We had a great day! So often rainy days can be depressing, hence the movies I was watching, but we turned it into a perfectly cheerful day!

I am on a savings spree currently, and I have a very strict no mug buying policy, as I simply have no place to put them. But sometimes you fall in love and something by Nelle Design spoke to me. This mug has anatomical renderings of hearts on the outside and one inside. Along the top it says "I hope you stay a while because my heart really likes you". This in particular, really spoke to me but all of her work is great! Be sure you check it all out at www.nelledesign.4ormat.com , www.etsy.com/shop/nelledesign and make friends on facebook www.facebook.com/nelledesign .

It is amazing how something so simple can make you so happy!

Persistence

Dear DSW,

I feel the need to write this letter to you regarding the post card I received from you today. The photo features a enviously sexy pair of legs in some very unfortunate snake skin stretchy pants, but that is neither here nor there. The real essence of this advertisement, obviously, is the shoes. Amazing, beautiful, high heeled sandals that perfectly combine brown white and black, ensuring that they would match anything in my closet.

You had me immediately. I am not an online shopper but I went directly to my computer to find these beauties, convinced that I would pay any price for the opportunity to slip my size 7 feet into them and strut as I have never strut before. So up to this point, well done DSW.

Then things went terribly wrong. You did not seem to have these shoes. There was no sign of them anywhere on your website. I then frantically searched the post card itself thinking perhaps you would have credited the designer for these magnificent shoes, but alas, you did not.

It was then that I felt the beginnings of what I can only describe as panic set it. I not only searched your entire online store but then went to searching other shoe websites for these heels. When that search came up empty, I spent time with google to see if perhaps there was a clue anywhere out there in cyber space to point me in the right direction.

I came up empty handed. My spirits had fallen. I had by this point made up my mind that I would of course continue to shop in your store, as I have a shoe problem that you so often seem to cure. However, I was feeling that distrust and harbored resentment would plague me for years to come. It was a cruel and dirty trick DSW. One that paid off for you as I put 4 (OK 5) pairs of shoes in my shopping bag during my search, but still, dirty trick.

In a last ditch effort to find my loves, I decided to go visit your store in person. Crazy notion in 2012 I know, but I had already put in a longer time than I care to admit in my search and then the subsequent time put into writing this long winded letter, so I figured it was worth it. I was pessimistically walking up and down each isle and then my eyes found them. brown peep toe, white stiletto, black strappy loveliness. My size sevens were in stock and they fit perfectly and as an added bonus were actually very comfortable, but they could have made me bleed and I would have found the will to buck up and strut on.

So in conclusion, the anticipation and near disappointment really made the actual moment all the more sweet. I am a very happy customer and wanted to tell you that your marketing director is really quite good (again, despite the unfortunate snake skin pants).

Sincerely,

Sara Robbins-Page

Obsessive and verbose shoe addict.

Persistence pays off!

What I Have Been Working On

A few times a year I go on supply buying trips. I always manage to purchase something a bit quirky. Sometimes these things get used in work immediately and sometimes they sit, waiting for the perfect moment to inspire me. It was over a year ago that I purchased a few strands of bright colored skulls. I had NO idea what I was going to do with them. So they sat. Just a few weeks ago I went on a buying trip and picked up more skulls. These were tiny and as I love things in miniature, naturally I had to have them too.

When I got home, I pulled the ones out that I had bought the year prior and I laid them all on my desk and then went about my business. My thought was if I stared at them long enough, eventually I would figure out what to do with them. And then one day I did.

Though out college, little lithe bodies had found their way into my art work. I used them in a few paintings but by the time graduation rolled around I had sketch books full of them. I could just never seem to leave dance behind entirely.

My idea was always to use them in jewelry and somehow I only made that happen once. I decided to change that! I have been adding my old sketches to these funky skulls and have been having a blast in the studio ever since. I name each one because they really have their own personalities...well that and I am a freak.




https://www.etsy.com/listing/104158893/the-trapeze-artist-sterling-silver

https://www.etsy.com/listing/104158893/the-trapeze-artist-sterling-silver

https://www.etsy.com/listing/104312245/tiny-turquoise-skull-necklace-jewelry

All of these pieces are now available in my shop. At this rate, there will be plenty more, and soon!

Steve Martin, I Love You

I have varied interests when it comes to reading, that is for sure. I read books on history, classic British literature as well as modern fiction, and yes I love a good romance novel here and there. I have a few writers that I have come to love over the years and one of them is Steve Martin. It began with a crush and then quickly lead to be really me in awe of his talent and the variety of it.

LA Story had been one of my favorite movies for a couple years before I realized that he wrote the screen play. I could quote the whole damn movie as everything said seems to be my favorite line. But here are a couple of my favorites...

" Harris: Ordinarily, I don't like to be around interesting people because it means I have to be interesting too.
Sara: Are you saying I'm interesting?
Harris: All I'm saying is that, when I'm around you, I find myself showing off, which is the idiot's version of being interesting."

and of course this one...

"Harris: I could never be a woman, 'cause I'd just stay home and play with my breasts all day."


I read Martin's Shopgirl soon after it came out and loved it so much a read it again as soon as I finished. Soon after that I read his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile where in Picasso and Einstein find themselves together in a bar in Montmartre, Paris. Both of them on the brink of something amazing.
Oh God, Read it!

It has been a few years since I had read anything by Martin until the other day I picked up The Pleasure Of My Company. This book had me laughing out loud as the main character, who is a man plagued by brilliance and severe obsessive compulsive disorder, describes his bizarre thought process in very factual ways leaving no room for other peoples' idea of reality. For instance if he does not get to Kinko's and touch every corner of the copy machines panic will ensue. It is not his panic he is speaking of but panic in general.

Again this is one of those moments where to list everything I loved I'd be quoting the entire book. So do yourself a favor, read this book. And if you have not seen LA Story watch it!!!

Time In A Bottle

I have just come home from a couple days in NYC. Despite the fact that it was 200 degrees outside I had an amazing time. I had a serious Jim Croce moment with my photographs on the ride home. "I'd save everyday like a treasure..."

Follow me on Instagram @heavenstobessie

"Awake My Soul"

The past couple weeks I have been walking around in a bit of a fog. There has just been so much going on, I just can not seem to get anything right. I have managed to ignore my calendar and the pile on my desk and the fact that I have no food in the house for too long now. I am feeling restless and it is time for me to channel that feeling.

I went to bed last night thinking "tomorrow I will get my shit together". Naturally I got a phone call at 9:30 this morning to ask where I was. Yes. I had a 9:00am meeting with some fellow artists that I completely spaced on. This is very unlike me. So not exactly a great start to my "get my shit together" week, but I am on high alert now.

I am here at my computer, catching up on e-mails, ordering, bookkeeping etc. My go to band,  Mumford and Sons, are softly serenading me "Awake My Soul". Yes please! So I am carrying that with me today, along with all the amazing things I have experienced in the last few weeks, family, friendships, honesty along with a few self discoveries.

She is a gorgeous mess of chaos, and you can see it in her eyes.