10 Things I Love on Etsy November 2018

It has, unfortunately, been a bit of a while (uh, since May, guys) since I've done one of these posts cataloging some of my favorite Etsy finds from the prior month. This has not been by choice, mind you, but more due to principle: Your girl Nau has been way, waaaaaay too busy working on making that money to worry about the idle ways in which to spend it... I know, a shame, but I'm back at it with this post and happy to share some of my sexiest finds from the Etsy-sphere!

Let's get started!

1. ROSE QUARTZ moon ring size Us, made to ORDER, raw jewelry, copper electroformed, crescent moon, knuckle ring, midi stacking, moon phases

Um, have we ever talked about how much I love gemstones? I can prattle on for a ridiculously long time about how much I adore the sunny shades of citrine or the soothing purple of amethyst, but who can resist pretty-in-pink Rose Quartz?! It's such a feminine, gorgeous shade of pink and the stone itself is symbolic of love, both that ever-rare love of self-acceptance or unconditional external love, rose quartz is all about the warm and fuzzy feelings.  Anything lunar is a guaranteed win in my book, too, so, naturally, I can't resist this gorgeous hand-made moon ring! 

2. CRYSTAL PIPE - Lunar Blue Goldstone gemstone pipe, boho smoking pipe, psychedelic smoking bowl, rainbow galaxy pipe, gift

Yoooo, get your chakras right with this gem-stone pipe! The shop is currently on break, but you might be able to catch them again soon so if you dig this piece give it a favorite and Etsy should notify you when they're back online! 

3. Mandarin Mimosa 9oz Soy Candle - Classic Collection

This Mandarin mimosa soy candle is right up my alley this winter. I've been burning so many candles, and luxuriating in their fragrances to the best of my ability. As a partial anosmiac, I don't have a very strong sense of smell to cull from, but working with essential oils and mindfulness I've been able to bring a little more depth to a sense I normally never noticed. This has given me the ability to appreciate a whiff of vanilla from a candle where before I might have simply gotten a headache, so this new appreciation for all this scentsual has brought on a strong desire to sniff ALL the candles! And this particular candle fuses many of my favorites, "like mandarin oranges, pineapple, and peaches blended with mimosa blossoms, soft lavender and vanilla." Ohhhh yes. Doesn't that sound delightful?!

4.Get Lost Hard Enamel Pin, Mountain Pin, Adventure Pin, Explore Pin, Hiking Pin, Cute Funny Pin, Nature Pin, Let's Get Lost, Stocking Filler

OMG! Is this pin not the cutest?! It's got one of those goofy silhouette birds we all learned to draw as kids, trees, mountains, and that wanderlust spirit we all know and love. 

5. Dark Blue Hair Dye

This hair dye has long been on varying wishlists of mine, and now that I know the shop and I share a city, I'm all the more inclined to buy it! The hardest part is trying to decide which of their gorgeous shades I want to try, but luckily they do offer multipacks, either in the form of their astronomy-themed lines like the Moon pack (shades of grey) or the Split Dye packs for people who want to try the edgy half and half look. 

6. Magenta Pink Angel Aura Healing Crystal Necklace -Turquoise Gold Dipped Rainbow Bullet Pastel Boho-Galaxy Natural Quartz Jewellery -Stone

Is this necklace magical or what?! I'm a total sucker for gemstones, and pendants, and necklaces, so this is a natural fit. I love how irridescent and refractive the stones are!

7. Watermelon Crossbody Bag

This watermelon crossbody bag is ridiculously cute. Not only does it fuse the fruity fresh and cute flavor of summer into any damn season you want it to, but it's practical! Carry your phone, your chapstick, and other goodies in this fresh and fun tote! 

8. Raw crystal necklace Healing crystal necklace Angel Aura Quartz Necklace Opal crystal necklace Rainbow quartz point Unicorn crystal gold

WOW! So, obviously I'm a fan of crystals, right? Isn't the blue-reflect on this stone GORGEOUS?! With that pretty gold chain it's all the more classy. These would make a wonderful gift for that crystal loving boho-spirit in your life!

9.  Crescent Moon Ring, Half Moon Ring, Zodiac Ring HSRMOON

Ok, so not only is this crescent moon ring ridiculously lovely, but you get to choose what metal you want it made with! So if you're more into silver, or rose gold, never fear, this shop has got you covered, in style, naturally. 

10.

Handcrafted Exfoliating Sugar Scrub - Japanese Kumquat/ Body Scrub / Natural Body Scrub / Vegan / Soothing/ Smoothing/ Inspirational/Citrus

And last but not least, this beauty rounds out the round-up. I'm obviously going hard on that winter citrus theme, with Japanese kumquat scented sugar scrub helping freshen up our senses during the long-grey season. 

What do you think? Did you find any new favorites among my round-up of this season's favorites? Hope you enjoyed this list! Cheers!

💖

XOXO,

NAU

Art: March Tie-dye

While I haven't been posting about tie-dye as much this month, we are still certainly creating away! Recently we've been applying the dye directly to the shirts and then putting the ice on top so that we have a bit more control over the dye placement with the design of the folds. It's worked out pretty well so far, though I don't know that we use any less dye in the process... in fact, this might actually use more dye! Previously we would apply the ice first, then sprinkle the dye over the top and you get a very strong visual guide as to when you might want to stop as the dye immediately begins to hydrate and spread. One of the best things about tie-dye, though, is that you can't really do it incorrectly so long as you're having fun. It's such an abstract process that you can take all sorts of creative liberties- feel more traditional and want to do a single-color indigo shibori? Go for it! Want to make a prismatic rainbow alien smoking a joint? If you've got the skills to fold it, you can make it. 

Personally, I tend to stray away from overly intentional designs, like the aforementioned prismatic alien with a joint, because I get too stressed out and anxious in the process. I'm something of a perfectionist and from the point of choosing a particular image and trying to create it to the final unveil, it cranks my anxiety up high...and I don't want that. Tie-dye is supposed to be fun, relaxing, enjoyable craft-time. Doing the ice dyes is soothing, an exercise in patience that's rewarded with colors galore... I'm sure I'll try again and again in the future, to create that particular image I had in mind, but given the nature of the tie-dye it's better (for me, at least) to go in with some flexibility. Even if the design doesn't turn out the exact way I had envisioned or hoped, there's still someone out there who might love it for exactly what it is! Each shirt is unique, after all, just like people, and there's something kind of cool about that, don't you think?

We HAVE started to dabble in techniques for creating images on the shirts separate from the tie-dye, and we might experiment with screen-printing in the not-too-distant future, too. There's always something new to try, after all, and even if you use the exact same colors on the exact same size shirt with the same folds it might not be a perfect carbon copy, so the options are quite truly endless.

More photos below!

Art: More January 2018 ice-dye

Another day, another tie-dye. I suppose some people might consider it tedious work by this point, but for us it's a continual process of experimentation and discovery.  There's always new folds, new colour combinations, new alchemy to uncover. No matter how many times we've dyed there's always something new cropping up, some fun new melt, something to uncover. It always seems photogenic, to me, though I guess our viewers might have their opinions about such matters. Both +Antho Jay  and I have been pretty happy with our most recent batches of creations, and as each new batch is a further step in our journey of learning and creating, I like to imagine they keep getting better as we go.  We've been experimenting with applying the dye powder directly to the fabric and then applying the ice recently, in an effort to create more precise colour patterns and lines. We haven't been unhappy with the result- and we've had a couple of items come out that we were really excited about. I'll be posting about the reveal for those when the time comes, but for now please enjoy these photos of our behind the scenes creation process for our tie-dye. We're always trying new colours and techniques and though I've posted about our tie-dye many, many times in the past I can honestly say I don't feel that it's something that will ever become redundant due to the infinite methods for creation and combination available to us.  We recently invested in a big bulk box of shirts so that we could try to create whenever the impulse struck, and I've been very very pleased with the outcome of that. We've been making tie-dye on a nearly daily basis now and trying things we might not have otherwise delved into if we didn't have such a backlog of bounty to experiment with available. While Google might say otherwise, that's their problem. We love making tie-dye and are happy to share it with the world. We hope you enjoy our colourful creations! Plenty more photos will proliferate below, so enjoy the colourful alchemy occurring below. Cheers.

Art: Early Ice dye for 2018

Rainbows here, rainbows there, rainbows everywhere! We love making tie-dye and do it as often as we possibly can. It's always fascinating seeing what kind of mad science color combinations we can create! We typically work with ice-dyes, sprinkling dye over the ice so that it hydrates through and deposits pigment as the ice melts, which creates a more space-like watercolour effect. Even using only one or two colors we've been really surprised by the depth of the results! We do experiment, though, and no matter how many times we dye no two shirts (or skirts, shorts, dresses, hoodies, crop tops, etc...) are ever the same.  It's been a lot of fun throughout the journey, and we've been doing tie-dye for fun now since some time in 2015 or maybe even 2014. I can't even pinpoint the exact date, it just happened that we were driving along and Antho suggested doing tie-dye on a whim and we found that we actually, really, thoroughly, deeply, passionately enjoyed doing tie-dye. Of all the things.  It makes sense, I suppose- I've always enjoyed painting, digital and traditional illustration, and most things artsy-fartsy... there was an awkward phase around 4th grade where I found out there were these brightly coloured three-dimensional paints you could use on clothes and went about drawing all sorts of goofy lizards and things onto every clothes item I could...Colour and aesthetics have appealed to me for awhile, and Antho has always been fashion/image conscious, crafty and hands-on so tie-dye has just been kind of a natural fit for us both. We're always learning and growing as we go, though, it's just part of the process. Nothing is perfect in the beginning, and there's an adage that it takes roughly 10,000 hours to become truly skilled at any given craft, whether it's playing a guitar, tie-dye, or aeronautical navigation, so we relentlessly we strive forward in our efforts to create cloth and colour alchemy. The more we try, the more we practice, the better we get after all. This also means more shirts (or skirts, shorts, hoodies, crop tops, tank-tops, etc) we can share with everyone!  We hope to be as inclusive as possible with our size options and though our funds are limited we try to invest in items that will work for all of our fans regardless what size they wear.  We want everyone to be able to taste, or wear, the rainbow in their favourite spectrum. Everyone deserves to feel fabulous!

More photos below!

Seoul Trip: March 3rd, 2014

Hey guys!

      It's about time I shared my epic journey to Korea, right? Seoul is a city bursting with top-notch design, beautiful fashions, old and new architectural wonders, and some seriously delicious grub. Korean food has long been a favorite of mine; if you've ever checked out my cooking blog you might have noticed this trend. Have you seen the new Avengers movie?! I got SO excited to see Seoul as a location in a major blockbuster film!

Head's up: image-heavy post ahead!!