Kande

7 Bad Habits of Insanely Productive People

A friend sent me an article this morning and I thought I would share it with you - The 7 Bad Habits of Insanely Productive People. 

I saw a lot of myself in this article - thin-skinned..check, flaky...check, easily distracted...check, self-doubt... check, etc.  This article took traits that I consider to be my "faults" and shed some light on how these can be assets for someone trying to build a successful business.  I especially like the part about "productive paranoia"!

It cheered me up and I hope it might do the same for you.

Have a great day,
K

My Word for 2012. Brave.

I've been doing my Susannah Conway workbook, Unraveling the Year Ahead, and have spent the last few days trying to come up with my word for 2012.  It was staring me straight in the face and I didn't even see it until this morning - Brave.

Image via Pinterest

This year I want to be brave.  I want to take chances, try new things, embrace change...and most importantly believe that I can do it.  So many good things are just waiting to happen if I will just put myself out there and take the chance.  So I'm going to hold onto my new word with both hands and see where this year takes me. 

New Year. New Goals.

I like to start the year with a clear plan on what I want to accomplish both in my business and in my personal life.  Usually the goals for my business are crystal clear and the personal goals get run over by the business and are left for dead on the crazy highway that is my life. 

But this year, I feel in a really great place personally.  I think it might be my age.  I feel like I have a firm grip on who I really am and I feel ready to let go of some issues that have been chasing me around most of my life.  Its a fantastic place to be in.  On the business front, I seem to be floundering creatively.  I felt like I spent too much time spinning in circles, chasing my own tail last year. I do have an idea of where I would like to go creatively, but I can't seem to figure out how to get there. 

I was visiting the Brandi Girl Blog earlier this week and stumbled across a great workbook from Susannah Conway.  Its a great resource for setting both personal and business goals.

"A chance to try again, to make new goals and start new systems. I don’t make resolutions — instead, I like to look back over the past year to see what worked, and figure what I can build on in the next 12 months. I’m also a big fan of choosing a word for the year to give me a guiding light to follow when the way gets murky (and the way always gets murky)."

I've been filling in my workbook this week and it is really nice to reflect back on last year and get a firm grip on where I want to go.  What goals do I have for the new year?  I would like to be more open here on the blog (I am an intensely private person), more open to new experiences and move out of my comfort zone a bit, basically to be brave on all fronts.

Wednesday's Quote

Dandelion Dream by Alicia Bock

Dream and give yourself permission to envision a YOU that you choose to be...Joy Page

 

Inspiration. Eugenio Recueno.

Its just about time to start planning designs for Spring  2012 and as usual I am not any where near that frame of mind.  So off I went on a search for inspiration across the world wide web and what did I find?  The work of this amazing photographer - Eugenio Recueno.  There is nothing quite like a little fairy tale inspiration!

Oh, so dreamy!  These images are definitely going on the inspiration board this afternoon.

In other news, things are very busy on the home front as you might have noticed by the lack of posts lately.  E is going on his first date on Friday night....my gosh, where did the time go.  He is taking the lovely young lady to homecoming which is a huge deal in Texas.  Plus since E is in the high school band, he is participating in almost all the activities this week including a parade and candlelight pep rally (which lasted almost 2 hours!).  Its a whirlwind!

I'm hoping to put in some serious time in the studio over the next couple of nights *fingers crossed*.  New items will be appearing in the shop on Monday.

Have a great afternoon!

K

Inspiration. Blue Morpho Butterfly.

While looking for something online for the day job last week, I stumbled across a photograph of a Blue Morpho Butterfly.

Pretty, no?  I have a close friend who loves butterflies and the picture of this one stuck in my head.  Then over the weekend, I found a pair of london blue topaz ovals in my gemstone stash that I have been saving for a special project and the blue reminded me of..yes, you guessed it...the Blue Morpho Butterfly.  So, I dug through the rest of my gemstones and put together these earrings:

Blue Morpho Earrings

London blue topaz, labradorite, iolite, fluorite, Swarovski crystal, gold

P.S. I found the photo of the Morpho Butterfly, used above, on Wikipedia.

Pearls of Wisdom

"All art is autobiographical.  The pearl is the oyster's autobiography." Federico Fellini


Quinn Earrings - freshwater pearls, silver, gold

Fall's Outlook

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day!  The boy and I had a lovely day - we BBQ'd and enjoyed the beginnings of summer sunshine. I worked on my paper mache teacup and hope to have something for you to see soon. 

Now that Summer is officially here, its time to look ahead to Fall designs.  As you might have noticed, I seemed to have skipped my Summer Collections.  Between the day job and home life, it just didn't happen for me this year.  I'm keeping positive about it and think that it is giving me the opportunity I've needed to get a season ahead - FINALLY. 

Although I had a general idea of what colors I wanted to explore this Fall, I decided to look around to see what the fashion designers are doing for the upcoming season.  I stumbled on this great site - Refinery29 - where I found out that my color ideas for Fall are being echoed in the fashion world.  To be honest, it shocked me a bit.  Most of the time, I feel sooo out of the fashion loop.

So what colors can you expect from me this Fall?  Brights mixed with neutrals similar to what can be seen in J.Crew's Fall 2011 lookbook.

I'm also loving these colors - orange, lemon yellow, champagne, marigold, olive green, electric blue, fuchsia.  You can see some examples of these colors for Fall here.  I've already started ordering my gemstone goodies and will start sharing sneak peeks once there is something to see.

I love bright colors, but I tend to only wear them in accessories - purses, shoes, and of course, jewelry.  Most of my wardrobe consists of black and white.  Which might explain my obsession with this J.Crew outfit:

Love, love love!

Blue Green Crayons

I loved my Crayola crayons when I was a kid.  My favorite color has always been Blue Green. 

Because I am such a geek, I went over to the Crayola website and found out that on their list of America's 50 favorites, my beautiful Blue Green is number 13.  I also went on Wikipedia and found the RGB code for Blue Green...geek much?!?  Why do I bring this up?  Well, last night I was looking through my gemstones while planning out new projects and I realized that I have an overwhelming amount of moss aquamarine and other blue green stones.  I thought to myself, what is the deal?  Then it popped into my head - Blue Green crayons!  Anyway, my obsession with this color continues with these lovely newbies that made their way into my Kande shop this week.

Archwood Earrings

AAA gemstones - smoky quartz, moss aquamarine, fluorite, prehnite, moonstone, tourmalinated quartz - and oxidized silver

Hayes Necklace

AAA moss aquamarine, oxidized silver and copper

Enjoy your day!

Kristina

A little musical inspiration....

Things have been busy, busy, busy around here, but its so hard to stay focused when spring blows in - blue sky, wildflowers, golden sunshine.  Sometimes, I need a little musical inspiration to stay focused.  This weekend I stumbled across a group called Florence + The Machine and fell in love with their song - Cosmic Love.  I love the images the lyrics conjure up in my mind. This song will definitely be in heavy rotation in the studio this week!

Hope you have a fabulous Tuesday!

K