Local Craftista Takes Her Dream to the Next Level!

A couple of weeks ago, when I returned from a much inspired vacation (Crafty Chica Cruise) a package arrived via snail mail to mi casa. I immediately tore through that package like it was x-mas! I so love mystery packages! Did I ever tell yall about the mail I got from some fool at Pelican bay? (He found my name through the Daily recorder when I applied for the business name of Sacred Snatch) I'll save that one for later.

Anyhoo, inside my package was a lovely note from my girl Annette in Southern Cali. It was an invite to her grand opening of her store and it also included some adorable goodies!

Annette has been in the art arena for a while and has been selling her wares at art shows and festivals. She had been working on getting some store space and, finally the opportunity came and she siezed it!

I have nothing but mad respect for her. If I ever had the nerve to open a store, I would want it to look just like hers! She has lots of handcrafted items that she makes herself and she also has folk art from all over. I even spied a few familiar pieces from other popular artists too!

If you find yourself in southern Cali, please stop by and tell her your favorite "Snatchy" sent you. You won't be disappointed! Not only does her stuff rawk, but you will also be greeted by a wonderful person!

I can't wait to go visit the store myself!

Annette, I wish you all the best. May your business continue to soar with the Angels!

Your fan Por Vida,

Yoli.

Picture time:



I already used one of the Santos on a handbag and I used a mini serape on an ATC. I am going to include a few items in the Sacred Handbag auction. (last two artists are making their mark)

Check out her Calaveras!

Yes, he is rawkin an actual beanie! lol, too cute!

Here is a link to her website and address information. She has some awesome photos of what kind of art you will find at her oasis of a store.

I can only imagine all the inspiring goodies that are begging for attention!

Once again Annette, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and the goodies.

I salute you!

Yoli

Be Afraid, Be very Afraid. Pics of my estudio.

I am biting off of Kathy's blog (Crafty Chica). She dared to do a blog featuring her sacred studio, and she inspired me to come clean about my workspace.

I too, had visions of a large open space, brightly lit, overlooking our glistening pool. I even fantasized about building a small workspace in our back yard with power and and clear drawers galore with all my ephemera neatly organized and sub organized. A large desk for my lappy and new printer would face the sliding french doors and I would have one large table for gatherings and another folding sewing table. All of this space would be in a Mexican meets Moroccan theme.

I would have chica's over all the time and during the hot summers, we would create, and take dips in the pool.

It could happen!

lol, for now, I am limited to my former formal dining room. Fortunately, I have a large breakfast room that seats a large table and benches as well as a large dining bar in my kitchen. (we eat informally) Only on special occassions did we use the formal dining room, go guess what, I packed my show and nested right there on the antique table. I have pocket doors, so this mess, I mean inspiration is easily concealed.

Ok, tread carefully, I wouldn't want you to get lost or get any loose glitter on you. (Ok, I lie, I hope you find glitter everywhere. ::evil cackle::

This is where I have all my embellishments. Yes, those drawers are loaded to the gills with tools, embellishments, rubber stamps, sequins, beads, fibers, religious relics, gloss, threads and in that bag on top of the small table is where I store my sewing machine.



This is the top of my desk,work table, and cutting board. This is on a good day.


Oh, it also serves as my sewing table. I am the Queen of multifunction! (notice the gold thread?)



Ahhh, here is where I dock my IPod. (It was also here where my last one got stolen. (our casa was broken into last year, and thankfully no one got hurt and they got away with nothing but my IPOD) Under my boom box is where I store felt and colored tissues as well as boxes in all shapes. To the right, is my fabric and trim bin and my sewing basket full of Gawd knows what.....


This is my paper storage and mailing center. (actually it's where I store my stationary for notes that go in my orders and swaps)



The large bins to the left are full of cigar boxes and handbags waiting to be altered and created into something.

All in all, this space is about 9 feet long and 7 feet wide. (If that)

I told you it wasn't pretty!

Trades Rawk!

Yay, I was fortunate enough to score a trade with the fabulous Ms. Funky Art Queen. A few weeks ago she posted a blog about an ATC swap, and I jumped at the chance. ATC cards (Artist Trading Cards) are all the rage and I love them because they can be done, zip, zap if you want, or you could spend days on them. Sky's the limit, and although some are for sale, the original premise was that these little gems be traded only. The founder of this movement thought everyone should be able to own original art, and started the trading movement. ATC's have exploded across the world and I find it quite moving to open up my mail and staring at me, is an original piece of art just for me.

I have quite a collection building up and have now settled on finding ways to store them and display them. I am working on this altered art journal and have decided that this will be the perfect way to show off and store my mini works of arte.

If you haven't jumped on the ATC train yet, get busy! They are loads of fun, and the sky is the limit!

Ok, picture time!

Sorry for the poor quality of picture. My scanner is on the mend, so I took pics of these with my camera. This is what I rec'd from Funky Art Queen.



This is what I just mailed out to her today. I have been having fun mixing it up a bit. I hand painted and rubber stamped sheets of fabric for the background and then I made a photo transparency out of packaging tape, using Frida's image. Then I added some embellishments and stitched around the card using different stitches. I am a firm believer of using metallic threads. I know some metallic threads can be tricky to work with, but I found these threads at Wal-Marrrrrrrr of all places. It is just as sturdy as regular thread and it is not necessary to use specialty metallic needles! yay!



Now go make some Art!

My 1st Fabric ATC

Fabric ATC
Originally uploaded by Sacred Snatch Designs

Ok yall, be kind! I am so in love with fiber arts right now. I joined a fabric ATC challenge, and this is what I came up with.

Materials used were: Fabric (ok, durr) gold thread, hand dyed (not by me) wool yarn by a homegirl of Crafty Chica's. Photo transfer on packaging tape. (Thanks for the tutorial, Alisa!) and beads from a swapbot partner from Italy.

What can I say, I am eclectic. I am going to be practicing more with beading and layering of fabrics.

Stay tuned........................

It's all about timing, positioning, and Douching!

It’s true, this fact (my title of blog) was stated while eating breakfast with a table full of random strangers on a recent cruise I took.

I have been wanting to blog all week, but because I was on vacation last week, I had butt loads of work to catch up on at my day job. (Real Estate) Don’t believe the ugly hype about how bad the market is, It is a BANGING time to go out and buy some real estate, mmmmkay? Buyer’s are starting to recognize, therefore my time has been limited to quick peeks here and there on myspacio.

back to the above conversation.................

So in the mornings of my cruise, we have a choice of where to eat breafast. You can have it in your room, up at the lido deck or at one of the main dining rooms, where you can have sit down "service". We like to be waited on by the potential of a certain hawt waiter, so we grabbed sit down meals every chance we got.

We ended up getting seated next to two pregnant couples and an "older" couple. We all say our hello’s, ask were we are all from, and proceed to eat and enjoy small GENERIC talk. The two pregnant girls, naturally start talking "baby" talk. One couple were on their 3rd baby, the other couple were on their 1st. I didn’t volunteer news about my herd, but chose to listen and get my grub on.

I am not sure what couple spoke up, but one of them mentioned they at some point wanted a girl. That’s when it spilled out. Out of know where, the "elderly" lady. (ok, she wasn’t that old, but she was older than me) chimed in with her wisdom. "Oh, when we were hoping for a girl, my doctor gave me a pamplet! It said it is all about Timing, Positioning and Douching!"

I almost spit out my hashbrowns. I asked my mom, "Did she just say douching at the breakfast table amongst a bunch of strangers?" "Yup, she suuuuuuuuuuuuure did, "said Mamita.

I am not sure what happened next, but I know the two couples didn’t go there for further details. (Thank Gah)

Elderly woman did say it worked for her, though.

Yes, I just new it was going to be a glorious day after that great meal!


******************************************************

Mmmkay, I totally have some great pics to share and I want you to know the Crafty Chica Cruise was off the hook! We made so many cool artes, and lots of great friendships were formed.

Yes, Kathy is all that and 3 bags of glitter! She is VERY down to earth and a great hostess with the mostest. I know next year it is going to be even bigger and better! She probably is going to have to charter a private ship! How cool would that be Kathy? (No pressure)

Anyhoo, I am getting ready for another appointment, but I do have lots of pics to share. For now, I have some pics in random order of the cruise in my photo album, but I have even more to upload.

Check out Crafty Chica’s and Krissi’s blog for more information on what a fabulous time we had.

Stay tuned................

Bon Voyage! Going on a much needed vacation!

I just wanted to say a last minute good bye to yall. I am currently packing and repacking for my journey overseas tomorrow! I am gonna be kicking it with 40-50 other Artists, Crafters, Celebrities, Homies, and a boatload of party goers. We are headed to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada! Because I am hardcore, I am taking my lappy, but I don't anticipate a lot of time to be online. however,I am planning to upload a butt load of video's and photos! I also plan on making some mad playlists to inspire us all.

On top of the craft projects I had to complete, packing, shopping, and tyiing up all the loose ends at work, I tweaked it last night and made these Sacred Swag bags for all my new homies on the Cruise.


Please wish us all a safe and smoooooooooooooooooth sailing trip!
Catch you all next week, same Sacred time, same Sacred channel!

Besos,

Yoli

Oh, The Horror of It!

Disclosure: To my Gentlemen readers, "You may want to skip over this post. It won't be pretty."

So like I have been boasting, I mean saying, I am about to embark on a cruise of a lifetime on Monday with Crafty Chica and her Posse. In preperation for said excursion, I had a huge list of things and tasks that I had to take care of prior to leaving. One of these tasks included a Pedicure. You see, it has been winter, and I am always cold, so my "toots" have been snuggled up in socks and boots or clogs these past few months. In other words, I can't even remember the last time I had a pedicure. My dainty feet gradually turned into ravinous hoofs!

I decided today would be the day that I would get them done. My plan was to go do some shopping and then head over to the nail salon. It was such a nice day, I wore flip flops. However, my feet looked so bad, I was too embarrassed to go shopping, and decided I would go DIRECTLY to the nail shop. I kept hearing my hubby's voice in the back of my head saying, "If there is one thing I can't stand is seeing a woman dressed up and out and about and then having some tore back toes!" Well I didn't want to be one of "those" women, and chance a man gasping at my neglected hoofs. Nope, that is not how I roll.

As soon as I locked my front door, I made a mad dash into the car to avoid anyone seeing my feet. I went to my favorite nail shop, and thought I scored big when I noticed no one was inside the shop. Normally all stations are busy.

A pleasant looking young man asked me what services did I need. I told him "Pedicure!" and expected him to get the woman who normally does the pedicures. "Do you see where this is going?"

So he tells me to grab my color and I see him drawing the water. I still didn't think much of it, and I found the prettiest dainty pink and walked up to the Pedicure chair. He tells me to get in and then motions me to put my foot on the foot rest.

THAT is when I realized that HE was going to be my Pedicurist! OMG. I wanted to crawl backwards out of that shop!

So than I tried to ignorantly reason with myself, I said to myself, "Yoli, get a grip, he probably doesn't even speak english, (as if that was going to blind him to the fact that my feet were buried under 20 layers of scales!) Just throw on your Ipod and imagine yourself suantering across the labido deck.

I see him eyeballing the damage and then he busts out. Is that an 80 gig Ipod Video? Shit! He speaks perfect english and he is trying to chop it up with me! I told him yes, and from there I got a full class on how to download and convert wma's and video to Ipods. Perhaps he was trying to get his mind off of my talons, I don't know, but I was miserable! He went on and on about how much of a techy geek he was, and all I could think of, was, "Why the heck are you doing my toes, and not behind some techy desk job?" I thought against asking him, because I didn't want to remind him of his reality of filing sawing and hacking at my feet.

Then the next part came, he started to roll up my jeans to give me the leg massage portion. I almost choked and kicked him in the face, but then I realized, I shaved my legs this morning! THANK GAH!

On top of that, he spent extra time kneeding my jelly because he was into a show on TV and wanted to see the outcome, so he was rolling and squeezing and slapping for what seemed like eternity.

I couldn't take it anymore and told him I was in a hurry and if we could speed the process up. He laughed and said no problem. I promptly tipped him a 5 spot. (although it should have been a 20, but I was short on cash) and made it out with just a shred of dignity.

On the bright side, my feets are now looking purrdy and fierce and are ready to hit the sunshine for next week!

Ayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!