Looking forward to some real time blogging next week. Till then, a couple pics of two new items I have up in my shop and sooo much more to come. This week has been productive folks!  p.s. I am reading The Chronicles of Narnia for the very first time... Ah! I can't put it down and WHY did I not read this when I was a child. Shame...shame shame shame! Okay, well have a great weekend!

+ A HUGE thank you to my friends Tara, Kim & Lyric 

for loaning their gorgeous & fun kids to do this little mini petit-o shoot with my coloring posters. +

I'd like to in-erupt my non post week for a quick post so I don't forget. Just got an email from a girl named Severine who featured my spotted clutch on her blog: les images.   Apparently she is obsessed with dots, definitely NOT a bad thing! :) The pic below is from her post. Thanks Severine for thinking of me! xo

p.s. she has an Etsy shop too [ oelwein ] lots of fun stuff over there...do check it out! :)

A couple things:

My 15% off sale ends today, so take advantage of that if you can. :)

I will be taking a week off of blogging so I can use all my time towards 2 big projects I am wrapping up and 1 I will be starting. Very excited to share those with everyone. 

One of my very very verrrrrrrry favorite film scores is Little Women! Please tell me this is yours as well? <- if so we will most definitely be fast & forever friends!!! I have been listening to that all night while painting and working on prints. This soundtrack [& Marie Antionette ] give me chills every time I hear it.... they both make me so emotional inside .... and Little Women the book is absolutely wonderful too. I do wish someone would create a Little Women Ballet to this music for Christmas time! I would so love to see it come alive on stage.

Here are a couple of the prints I have been working/re-working on tonight....

They are called "Naptime" and will be made into new wrapping paper here shortly.... 

Hope you have a great weekend, LISTEN TO  THE LITTLE WOMEN SOUNDTRACK! :-[)

I just came across the label Sea via Frolic. sooo sooo in love! I've purposely have been blogging less about fashion just to eliminate some of the superficiality that comes with it ... however, Sea's clothes are definitely worth looking at. The color palate, silhouette, and fabrics are so lovely. It's well designed/made clothes like this that bring back that sewing itch. The two bottom pics are my favorite...outfits that I could have as every day uniforms.

I shared on my Roxy Marj facebook page, this message I received from an order the other day.

Working from home... all alone, can be REALLY hard some days. Occasionally I get messages from buyers that are so sweet that remind me again and again why I am doing what i'm doing.  I think many people [whom I know personally] think i'm crazy for working full time on my designs and trying to earn a living.  And somedays I think i'm crazy too and question myself. I've questioned this hundreds of times in the last two months.  I remember when I had reached my 50 sold items mark on Etsy and literally thinking this: "mmmm....I think i've sold to all the people in the world who like my items....now what am I going to do?" <- I still am in disbelief when I have a new order... I won't know what to think when I've reached 100! My goal for this time next year is to be passed 500 orders... fingers crossed :

Annnyways, I will always be saying thank you over and over again to those of you who make the effort in supporting independent designers like myself. As my little business grows, I am trying to make more of an effort in including "special things" to my orders, particularly to the ones who leave me a note that gives me a week and month's worth of encouragement. You have no idea how much this helps! :/ 

As a thank you to Sarah's note I included a little Tilly wall ornament, I hope this makes her day!

A couple things i've discovered and love :

1. Blue Mason Jars 

My little sister used these as vases on the tables at her reception. They looked so pretty. As a thank you to Jesse and I for helping with things, she filled the two with our favorite M&M's and gave us the Jars. Such a cute idea. Thank you Mari! :)

2. Honest Kids lemonade

Our friend Adam [one of Jesse's best friends] has a sweet wife. Tara, made us all dinner last night [still working on our roof] and she including a bunch of these lemonades for everyone. LOVE THEM and I love the packaging/coloring....plus they're aren't too sweet.... Thanks Tara!

3. La Tourangelle ROASTED Walnut Oil

You can purchase this at any Whole Foods/Gourmet grocery story. This stuff is awesome...great for simple things like dipping bread or frying some rosemary potatoes. So so yum yum!

Comes in two sizes now. My little guy was on sale for $6. Hoping to get the Truffle soon, which was out of stock

4. Belcolade Cocoa : Dutch Processed from Belgium

My mom brought me some kitchen items the other day, one of them being this cocoa! HOT DANG. Seriously...hot dang! This stuff is amazing you will absolutely taste a difference from your regular cocoa's. I tasted it for the first time in my mom's dark chocolate cake that she made 4 months ago...we took half the cake home and I ate the majority of it that night. NOT ASHAMED!

Our house looks like hurricane Katrina hit it.  So I did what I do best and called in the troops: the red ghosts....they're outside picking up shingles as I type. Love those guys! I'm hoping they'll be done before Jesse gets home.

A ball doll?!? Are you kidding me?! This is thee cooooolest thing EVER!!! :-[)

image via Furze Chan

I don't know about you guys, but I am sooo so tired of hearing negative things about both Mitt Romney and President Obama. I watched most of the conventions and was literally left feeling ill inside. I blame this on the blaming, on the contention, on the finger pointing and everything else negative. 

I just don't get it. What is absolutely wrong with wanting to be President? Let's say Obama wins, great, he has 4 more years to make a change in things. And then we are all back to the same old junk of finding fault in others. Anyone can find dirt on ANYONE, keep reading and you will have a perfectly good story to use against me someday if you wish...plus, there's plenty more if you need.

Early this morning I read the article about Mitt Romney on Bloomberg and then many of the comments that followed it. Again, frustrated, annoyed and left with a sick feeling regarding anything government related. And then I decided this: neither Romney or Obama is getting my vote until I hear one of them speaking kindly of the other. This decision [perhaps naive to some of you] came to me after thinking about a situation that happened to me in the 2nd grade. 

Mrs. Meier [who sadly died of cancer when I was in 5th grade] was my 2nd grade teacher. She was so lovely and so very patient. I was a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE elementary school kid folks...HORRIBLE <- did you get that? I called other kids bad names, pulled hair, picked fights etc. all the way up till 4th grade [why I did all that is a very long story in itself ] well... one day while on the playground Melody Tuffard happened to be using the monkey bars...and guess what, I wanted to use them too. However, she was not in the mood to let me use them right then, so I called her a really bad name that doesn't need to be written here. As soon as that word left my lips Melody let go of the monkey bars, fell to the ground, and ran over to Mrs. Meier, and proceeded to tell her what I had done. I was called over and by that time Melody was crying and saying how she doesn't like me and that I am always mean to her. I remember looking at our teacher the whole time while Melody was saying all this and wondering in my head what was going to happen. After Melody calmed down, Mrs. Meier got down on her knees so she was eye level with the two of us and asked Melody if she could say 5 things about me that she did like. This took us both by surprise and Melody whimpered a no. Mrs. Meier asked her again to think real hard and to tell her what she did like about me.  After about a min [perhaps it was less] Melody replied "She's really good at drawing" Mrs Meier: "Okay, good..4 more" Melody: "She is really funny and makes the class laugh a lot" <- this continued till she said nice things about me. Hearing all of this made me feel bad inside  and then I started crying. Mrs. Meier then made us both hug and I apologized and from that day forward we became good friends.  Melody moved away a year later.   

This story in my life always chokes me up. :/ and was such a great learning experience for me at age 7. I have used that same tactic when similar situations have risen.  I don't expect Romney and Obama to cry and then hug...but name calling, accusing, blaming, all of that doesn't lead anywhere.  Nor does choosing sides: I'm a Republican, I'm a Democrat....honestly, when I hear people so tied up in government identities I think "so what!" Great, you have a title for yourself...what else is interesting about you? What do you do for your community, for the country, instead of bark about all the things that people aren't doing? <- Note to self: become more involved with my community!

I have said before on my blog that I am not a good writer.  I have tried and tried to understand proper grammar, I get half of it, the other half....not at all. I have issues with syntax that I know pop up in most of my posts. But I keep writing because I like words and I like to express myself even if it is piercing to those English major eyes. With that said, if you are in agreement with anything that I have said, and feel that you can explain my thoughts in a more eloquent way...well then PLEASE be my guest and share your thoughts.  If it's negative stuff you've got brewing, I am not in the mood to hear it. :/ 

I apologize if this post sounds abrasive, that is not my intention....just on my soap box and feeling so frustrated over this campaign. Now back to work. 

When I moved away from New York, I left a lot of my school work behind at my older sister's place. Three years have gone by and I completely forgot about all of that. My sister recently brought them back to me. Last night I was reunited with my work and it was like Christmas!  Looking through all my sketches and collections brought back many fun memories .... here are just a few of them from 2006-2007

These were done in my fashion illustration class. The top left was a homework assignment, the images were found from a magazine, the other three are from live models that we had every week.

This children's collection was one of my very favorites. I had SOOO much fun designing this! So many of those pieces I want for myself ... I think i'm gonna have to make a couple items here soon.

closeup of some favorites

Pinterest, we're all inspired! 

I recently started painting all my favorite pins and then realized I should compile them into a zine...or book, whichever you prefer to call it. I just finished my first volume and there are more to come! I only have one stipulation with my paintings: I am not allowed to paint a picture of another painting... I just put my first volume up in my shop, P.V1 [Pinterest Volume 1] and will be adding volume 2 here shortly.

on another shop related note: I've had quite a few emails now asking if my clutch's are gift-wrapped or if I can gift wrap it for someone. <- Lot's of nice folks buying my clutch's for their relatives or friends...sooo so sweet. :) Anyways, I realized I should probably state in each listing that my clutch's ALWAYS come gift-wrapped, always! And, not only that, but they are wrapped in my specially designed prints and taped softly so one can reuse the paper. The only things that aren't "gift-wrapped" are my prints and HCH pillows. The pillows are wrapped in tissue w/ twine. :)

Hope you're weekend is going great so far. My husband and his brothers and dad are redoing our roof as I type. It looks like a tornado hit our home....I can't wait to see it complete and how it will change the look of the little house. She is so excited, I went outside earlier and saw a huge grin on her face...<- it's as if she's getting a whole new hairdo. Whatta gal!

Creator of Little Universes couldn't have described summer turning into fall better! 

Here are her thoughts:

"This is some of my recent pictures on Instagram. In Denmark it's slowly turning darker 

during the days... the air is refreshing, in a way only September's air can be. Berries 

is harvested, herbs tossed in salads, teas brewed. Notes written. Cups stirred. Hands held. 

Dot drawings and doodles. Sweaters knitted. Summer turning into Autumn."

OKAY! That's it! I'm officially planning a trip to Yosemite with or without Jesse. I've been begging him to go on a camping trip there...since we started dating and it's hard to get him to see past going outside of Utah. I will go by myself if I have to. This video gave me chills...you?  Oh.. and, I need to start saving my money for a telescope! <- for those of you who do have one, I am already jealous!

Found via Imogene + Willie

p.s. ever seen the movie "The Gnome Mobile"? :-[) A favorite of mine...I won't suggest watching it... some of you might wanna ring my neck afterwards...it's definitely not a movie for everyone. But if your fascinated with gnomes [check] and have love for the forest [check] as well as the two kids from Mary Poppins [check] well...then this movie is right up your alley! 

Im OBSESSED with her song Spiritus! 

Doesn't it just make you wanna get up and dance? 

Yesterday I went and got an eye exam. My first ever. And, apparently I am near FAR sighted [my husband just corrected me] lol. I knew my perfect eyesight jig was going to be ending soon. This past year my eyes have slowly been giving me problems...I'm sure it's from working on the computer a lot. I found the site Coastal  with affordable glasses, and that let's you upload your picture. Nuff said. :-[)

p.s. My husband's coworker just shared this interview with him, which he then just passed over to me. LISTEN TO THIS: Two little girls Explain the Worst Haircut Ever.  <- HILARIOUS!

Two Little Girls Explain The Worst Haircut Ever

Yesterday I helped out the SLC Anthropologie with packing their store up since they are moving to another location. Right before I left, this well dressed lady whom you could tell had a lot of money, walked inside. She came over to me and another girl and asked what was going on. While she was talking I couldn't help notice the AWESOME huge clay bead necklace she was wearing. The beads weren't huge I guess but about the size of olives....it was a brightly colored, hearty looking necklace. Just before she walked away I complimented her on it and asked where she got the piece. "Ohhhhh ahahaha [embarrassed laughing] this thing is just from daughters school...she made it or something" sounding even more embarrassed, I think she forgot to take it off before going shopping. <- eek, how embarrassing is that?! lol Heaven forbid anyone thinks she actually put it on for her own personal use. Anyways, as she walked away, I thought to myself "I feel so bad for you, another parent missing the boat".  It's things like that where I wish sooooooo badly I had a child of my own but at the same time, soo grateful for my experience as a nanny. I was showered often with little quirky gifts and pictures from Annie & Emily [whom I helped take care of for 8 years] that I still have and treasure dearly.

Off my soapbox now. :-[) What made me think of yesterday though was this awesome necklace that I just saw from Not Tuesday via Joy Cho on Pinterest [btw, she has almost 6 MILLION followers! <- That is so crazy, because I had no idea there were even that many people on Pinterest]  Not Tuesday is such a cute shop with that beautiful elementary design feel. LOVE this necklace! and I love how it looks like it was made by a little kid.... oh and I love that color red. my favorite. :)

A couple weeks ago I decided to paint some faux hing straps on our door. This project came about because the hinges that I wanted were not within our budget. :/ I was then reminded of my trip to Italy in 2005 and how I couldn't get over the fact that soo many things were faux, and easily painted. This project took me less than an hour to complete, and the materials were less than $2, compared to over $100 we could have spent on each hinge.  I am really happy with the results and they actually look like real door straps, it is hard to tell just from five feet away!

p.s. off to the right, I have added a couple more pages to my bar: Free, DIY, & Type <- I went through my entire blog and finally grouped all those projects, designs, etc. together. :) So if there was a project you liked in the past, now it's easy to find.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Saturday evening, Jesse, Harley and I went for a hike in the mountains behind our house. This was officially my first hike in Davis County where we live, and Harley's first hike....ever, we think. It was a lot of fun and went above my expectations in terms of the kind of wilderness I was expecting to see...I guess more dry terrain? 

Jesse and I were laughing so much at how hilarious Harley was. This dog was in HIS ELEMENT! We hiked a total of 4 miles, which for Jess and I was a lot since we are not in the best shape...there were times where Harley was dragging me up a hill and I was panting. Too funny! This will be my last post for awhile in regards to Harley, I don't want you to get sick of him now! :-[) I do adore him though. I never thought I could love another dog/s the same way as my two yorkies I use to have but Harley has really won my heart. Aside from Jesse, he is my #2 best friend. Aren't animals the best? I don't know what it is, but I could sit around and listen to people talk on and on about their pets and their funny idiosyncrasies! Okay.... i'll stop now. :)

two more things about the hike: I found a horseshoe! So stoked about that, I was also extremely surprised that some of these steep and narrow trails were even ridden on by horses...I kept saying to Jesse "There is nooo way horses have been up here" But he kept reassuring me that they have, due to the foot prints and their poop, and also reminded me of the "Man from Snowy River" <- I need to watch that movie again, I'm still in disbelief about the horses....

Then, I saw these three logs....and thought to myself "that's funny, this looks really familiar!" 

I just stood there and looked at those logs to try and remember why.......

Then it finally dawned on me. Earlier that morning I had completed a lot of mini paintings from my favorite pictures online, one of which was of these loggers! How odd is that? :]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lastly, something that freaked both Jesse and I out this morning was this: 

Jesse found it inside his converse just as he was about to put his shoes on. What made him notice it though was the crazy web this spider spun in just 2 days! <- Since he wore them last. He showed me the web and I couldn't believe it. Then he said he better look inside to make sure there wasn't a spider. There was, and it was the size of a half dollar! CHECK YOUR SHOES FRIENDS! We're so creeped out now! And now....back to bug bombing again. :/ 

 To kick off Fall coming and people headed back to school, 

I thought it only appropriate to have a sale! <- my first ever. :) 

Hope you have a great weekend!

at checkout remember to enter the coupon code!

My adorable sister in law Megan [in the striped top] did a fall makeup segment on Studio 5 yesterday. She asked me to be her "fresh face" model for this one. I've wrote about Megan's talent for doing makeup on my blog before....and i'll say it again, this girl knows her stuff! AND she has the funnest and sweetest personality which definitely shines through...i'm so proud of her! :)

Gearing up for a legit "Roxy Marj" site here soon ...

till then, making minor tweaks to my blog, i.e. my about page. :)

I am adding all new items to the shop this week. Here are a couple of my favorites. :)

Jemimah the sheep.... a painting of her waiting.

More ceramic plates due to request.

p.s. hanging plates in your bathroom is not only classy and charming, 

but the plate itself won't get ruined by humidity....just saying..... ;-[) wink wink

Our state fair is starting tomorrow and we're pretty excited! It's events like these that bring out the wanna be cowgirl in me....and nothing says cowgirl like a nice old bandana! I found 6 of these at the thrift store for 50 cents a piece! I don't know if they are vintage or not, but the pattern sure is pretty. Since I couldn't justify buying the whole lot to add to my wardrobe....I could however buy them for another purpose.

And that my friends was to make a tablecloth! I figured I would keep one for myself and then sew 4 together  to make a nice little cover for our outdoor table. This project is too easy and fast! Plus, a lot of bandanas isn't something one comes by often at the thrift store, but the dollar store does have plenty of them! And if not a table cloth, then why not napkins? Also, some of them do come in crazy bright colors...to get more of the used/vintage feel, I would either bleach them or get the RIT color remover, would look so lovely huh... :)

Or if bandanas aren't your style...no fear, packs and stacks of vintage napkins are always at the thrift store, much cheaper and quicker than trying to find a vintage table cloth. :) If you don't know how to sew, this by far is probably thee easiest hand sewn project ever, and would probably look even cuter! Now I wanna go roast some hot dogs tonight and get to practicing my rodeo holler!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

After taking the above photo, I then started officially gathering the walnuts from our tree. Up until last Saturday, I had been chucking them in the bushes thinking that they were rotten. And they in fact were not. Jesse had come home from his Grandpa's house who also has a walnut tree and said that his Grandpa told him to start collecting the fallen ones every day and then just let them dry out. You then have a perfectly good and tasty walnut to eat! I felt like a fool.... I should have known better, or better yet, I should have googled walnut trees. For weeks now I've been chucking those guys, well over a couple hundred! 

Currently, one of my snacks that i've been munching on a lot, are the items below.  The candied ginger and cranberries paired with walnuts and chocolate edamame really do make for a perfect combination.... If you aren't crazy about candied ginger, perhaps candied orange, lemon, or lime is more your ticket? It will be nice to be getting one of those items [walnuts] for free here soon!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lastly, I wish I could say that today was cozy sock weather....but it was indeed not! The reason for me wearing those socks up above is due to the two thorns I stepped in late last night in our front lawn. Ironically, I stepped on a thorn in exactly the same spot on the palm of my foot, the socks have been providing extra padding for me today.... but what is the reason for me telling you this? What? You don't care to know the reasons as to why I wear socks?! :-[) HA! Wellll....  Jesse and I were hanging outside last night on our stoop after watching Hunger Games [horrible movie by the way, and I'm sure I am the only one on the planet who thinks so...] and then all of a sudden he said "Roxy, look at the mountains!" And just barely before 11pm....was the moon scurrying its way up to the sky.  Definitely a sight to behold! Jesse said "quick, go inside and get your camera and tripod" So I ran inside, collected the items, ran outside and down our steps onto the lawn and over to the sidewalk where I stepped on those blasted thorns! Anyways, we got a pretty neat shot:

A couple weeks prior, Jesse and I drove home from our Barrus family trip to California. We left Carlsbad California at 10 pm and drove that 12 hour drive straight through, with only one break about a 1/2 hr. out of Vegas. We stopped at a pull-off off the side of the highway to do more long exposures .... these photos turned out pretty nice, especially the one with our heads cut off. Would make a perfect 2012 Christmas card! :)

 )) moon ((