Bon Voyage 20's

Tonight is my last night... Ever... Of being 29! It is crazy! This is my last picture in my 20's. I am sooo going to be 30 tomorrow!!! WTF! Here we go! It is gonna be great! I just know it is!... I will stop yell writing at you now and age gracefully.

Business Class...

Tonight I went to a small business class in preparation for my...Well, Holiday, my small business. So that I know how to take good care of her, and I can insure her future for when all of you fall as madly in love with her as I am.
Yes, yes, my first business class, it was the BEST... And terrifying! It was yet another stage for me to be cute and funny and interact with the people ;)... All of which I love and, quite modestly, am fairly good at. But the content of the class was, overwhelming and was all the nitty-gritty about being a REAL BUSINESS! The part I have always insisted I am lousy at! The stuff that paralyses me and makes me cry... Or really maybe it is just boring so I choose not to make it my priority, then cry when I screw it up? whatever the case, I have been saying, "I'm an artist" (in the tone of "I'm a blond") for so long now, that I actually believe it! But really who am I kidding... I am smart! AND I can totally pull this off! More then pull it off even, I think I will actually be really good at it. I AM organized... So why am I holding on to my cutesy, double right brained, glitter tornado,artist act???? Do I think it is easier being flaky (and feeling guilty) and just smoothing it over with cute, sweet ownership all the time? 'Cause I actually don't think it is easy, and I am sure it gets old for the people around me. It surely doesn't work on the IRS... It actually has been the source of my biggest insecurities... this behavior has kinda always been like a fat person just accepting that they were fat, well I have seen the biggest loser, and that is not how it works. People can change, and me too. Basically, I am not willing to use my art or whimsy as an excuse any longer. So guess what? This year... I am owning the entire left hemisphere of my brain! Just watch me rule it and you will see that 90% of everything is only what it is because you THINK it is what it is! I THINK I am organized! I THINK I am smart! I KNOW I AM GOOD BUSINESS WOMAN! So watch and see... If I can become this organized person that I know I already am, then YOU can be whatever you want to be too!

(above, representing this post, is one of my paintings from my other job entitled "all grown up")

I have an ACHING CRUSH!!!

I found IT! THE spot! Oh, I want it, I want it, I want it! Calm down... Breath. Ok... Now... I found a spot. I think it is perfect. It is more like my dream then any image I could steal from the internet, yet it is nothing like what I described of my dream, I know that sounds weird but it is more of the feeling that it gives me, then the details of the spot itself. It has that home familiar feeling, like it is the spot that was meant to be mine. I have no picture yet... Because well I still want to keep that part to myself until it is closer to being mine... Although I don't know how it could get closer to being mine? Because... IT IS MINE!!!!!!! Mine! Mine! mine! (it has just got to be) Wish me luck!

Magic little paintings

Good morning everyone! If you are a stranger of mine then you may not know that I am a painter as well as a hair sculptor. Here is a little story about a couple of my paintings...

A while back I painted a painting that had the words, "If you have never been to Mexico, you should go." The funny part was I had never been to Mexico myself. But here I guess I was the expert? A couple weeks later my mom called and said that she was taking everyone to Akumal, Mexico for her 60th birthday!!! Pretty weird, don't you think? We all thought that it was pretty magical how that happened!

So now, about a month before I even knew I was going to get a trailer--I had not yet been brewing up the idea of my lovely Holiday Hair Studio at all (it all just kinda happened over night really), I painted this picture of these two little trailers... NEVER painted trailers before, or since, but I painted these ones and shortly after I got my trailer and here we are!

I call them my magic paintings... So if anyone needs anything at all just buy one of my paintings... Or a commission? I could paint you piles of cash! And psssst... You can buy this little prophecy for $100 dollars if you'ld like.

Short and sweet

I have always wondered what it would be like to be short and sweet (in so many ways) but I pretty much always end up long and awkward. My letters, posts, emails, whatever, always want to be just like me, six feet tall and kinda goofy. So this week my goal is to keep all my posts short and sweet... like yesterday, pretty good right? I fear now though, with all of this explaining, that I am off to a bad start for this post. So to wrap it up and show you something hopefully new and definitely lovely... It's a book! And I want a copy of it to live inside the lovely little notion that is my styling cart. My Cool Caravan! go look! See all that is possible... And adorable!

A little inspiration to hold you over.

To hold us all over! Here is a little mobile afternoon tea caravan in the UK... She is called Lola and you can rent her for 49€ an hour if you happen to be across the sea with your tea!

So basically...

The rest of the story goes, it was the sweetest little alley ever! I know I am always saying things like that... That this or that was the best of this or that ever... And then am always following up with yelling it all right at you (!). Well I assure you that it is all true. I AM the judge of cute... and sweet, and best etc... So just roll with it. Anyway this little spot was in an old run down area. But with plenty of life still in it. I imagine there was a little cheese shop and an old neghborhood dive bar (for cute little grandpas only) and a family resteraunt and a courtyard with a fountain... Ah yeah! This was definitely not here it was continents and seas away. Maybe Italy? In a place where I am sure I knew nothing of the language but everyone's eyes sparkled so we knew we were all the same. Maybe it wasn't Italy at all maybe it was Spain?... Or maybe it wasn't old at all either, nor forgien?? Maybe it was Carmel, Ca. and it was just rich pretending to be old? Oh yeah... Or? Maybe I was dreaming!!! I almost forgot that part because it was so vivid. It seamed like a set from the movie Big Fish. That magical-fantasy-could be real-and is out there-somewhere sort of feeling. It was dusky out but not yet dark and zig-zagging the ceiling of the alleyway were big round bobbely white string lights. My little Holiday was parked there at the end singing sweetly in her little nest. strung with multicolored lights. The door was open to the trailer leading out onto a little deck which had two steps wrapping all the way around it and was dotted with lovely Terra cotta pots of Succulents and Angels Hair and other dappley varieties of flora. There was a rusty old table and two chairs sitting there decaying only for our pleasure inviting us to sit and sip some smoldering dark roasted coffee from tiny cups. From inside the trailer beyond the golden glow of the window against a blueing dusk were soft smudgy figures and laughter and faint melody. Seeing this scene played out in my dream was like watching the sunset over the ocean from the top of a fairswheel... Everything seemed to be in perfect balance. And THAT was my dream spot.

Now to go find it in Portland Oregon. I searched the internet for an image to represent my fantasy. For some reason I was even hopeful that I was going to find the spot from my dream. As if I would be able to find this exact spot?... But no luck. Only alleys, sweet little alleys, but not mine.

P.S.

Sorry, too tired to finish the story about my dream tonight... So I'll leave you with this picture. Not anything near my spot... The one I dreamed up. But cobble stone anyway. On the road to finding my perfect little spot. I know it is just patiently waiting for us to come fill it with love!

Goodnight everybody!

Spot hunting...

Since the remo of the studio is on hold until I meet with the designer, I will share a bit about the search for a spot. I have been looking around and there are definitely potentials but nothing has stollen my fancy and made me obsessed. Well one place did do this... It was last night... In a dream. I am not usually one for relaying dreams as most often I find them excruciating to listen to... You know? Unless you are Martin Luther King... I would really rather not hear about your dream. Well actually those kinds of dreams, daytime, awake time dreams I actually do like. I mean this whole blog is pretty much the telling of one of those dreams. But the, while you were sleeping "craziest thing happened" kind of dreams... Unless you 100% know that it is going to be absolutely funny to someone else don't even risk it... That is my rule anyway. That being said, let me let you about my dream!
I found seriously the perfect spot! It was in a narrow deadend ally! Doesn't that just sound amazing?!? (joke) but really it was in an ally and it was amazing... It was a winedy little cobble stone ally that deadended into a perfectly decrepit brick wall. 20 feet tall! On the other side of the wall was a huge willow tree that. Partially hung over to myside. I am pretty sure this scene was played out in Italy... Or some place old!!! Way older then the baby Northwest. But just for fun-or for boring (whatever your take on dream telling may be) I will go through with the fantasy... Ooop, Gotta go right now but I will be back to tell you the rest in a little but. (does that last part remind anyone else of "the Princess Bride"--Fred Savage: "what happened next grandpa") Ok, so not only telling a dream but also making you wait for the ending? Lame.

Here is the update...

There is no update. Just sorry about the molasses that is the progress of the trailer. And no one is sadder about it not moving forward then I am! I am soo ready to get this party started! Aaand the weather has been kinda poop too, so our adventures in garden land (my other major project these days) have been lacking as well. The only update is very non-hair realated... But does have a bit to do with fashion--and edgy fashion at that, so I will share. It starts out; my 3 year old son wants me to sew him a "princess dress"! In a baseball print!!! I told you it was edgy... So, you know, being the gender molding parent that I am, I suggest... A cape, how 'bout? Melt down ensues. So I figure I'll make him a smock instead. It is not so much that I don't want him wearing a princess dress (I mean maybe he will calm down if he plays girl for a while) it's just that I don't want to spend one million hours making one and have him not want anything to do with it by the time I am finished. So I go the cop-out smock version of his vision and call it a "princess dress" so we should be all good right? Wrong! Upon presenting the child with the "princess dress" (smock) this morning he said to me most disappointedly, " Ahuuuuu! Mom! This is not a princess dress! This is for the kitchen!" So a baseball print princess dress just may be what keeps me busy until I get to start smashing up that trailer.

Again with the pitcher!

Here is the wonky, two glasses missing picture that showed up when first I posted it, but now has seemed to disappear. To show to the pitcher I was such a nerd over at Pix.

It is starting to look like...

I am opening a food cart??? And not a hair salon at all! What with the cream brulee dishes and the water pitcher and the crystal set, which there are four glasses of btw (???) the other two got cut out of the previous picture. Oh, this silly iPhone just takes too good of pictures, and apparently they don't fit into my blog format when I am posting from my phone (push nerd glasses up with the eraser end of # 2 pencil). I promise there are progress pictures to come... Until then I shall leave you with this sweet reminder.

Little finders here and there

So what I would really like to be doing is going to town, with a sledge hammer, inside that sweet little trailer of mine... Well, kinda, but only in the sense that I would like to get my hands dirty and my feet wet... GET STARTED already! But the story with that is... I have to wait. I can't start until the designer comes in to do the official layout and tells me what can go and what has to stay. And that is still two weeks out! But ahh, I can hardly wait! Until then I will have to make due with list writing, paper plans and thrifting for sweet little treasure to fill my "trailer chest" with.

Yesterday I found this pitcher, which kinda has a little story to it--about a month ago, before I even knew I was going to have a trailer salon, my husband and I were on a date at Pix (then to see Where The Wild Things Are). If you have been to Pix then you know it can be kinda twinkly magical, dipped in dark chocolate then sprigged with gold in there. And that was happening this night too. I kept noticeing the pitcher that the gal was pouring our water from... It was fancy, fancy ... And I was kinda mezmorized by it... I went as far as to ask the owner where it was from... Like I was just gonna run out right then and buy one, I felt like I was the "Tatget Lady" (on SNL), like a total nerd, that I was so into the water pitcher. Anyway she said it was from Turkey... I stopped prying there, So I don't know if she had picked it up there or if that is just where it was made. Either way this pitcher was about as big as our kitchen and kinda over the top for our tiny little bird house, as I like to call it, so none of it really mattered anyway. Then, yesterday, I was at a thrift store and saw the very same pitcher from Pix, the exact one! So I pixed it up I did, and right there on the bottom it said, "Turkey" and all! You know I had to get it! Right along side it was this sweet little set of worn vintage crystal. Also from Turkey... And I said to the whole lot of them, you are coming home with me to live in a trailer!

Creme Brulee?

One of my favorite parts of this whole big adventure is that I get to shop... A lot! I mean so many details that need purchased. And, well, what I am looking for, I am not going to find at the beauty supply store... I want everything to be cute and special. But obviously work for my purpose as well. Which is why I am tickled over these mixing bowls I found today... They are so perfect! These sweet little peas, formally known as a creme bulee set will be re purposed into my color bowls. I love this for two reasons, the first is quite obvious, and that is, THEY. ARE. SUPER CUTE! And the second reason is probably going to mean nothing to you unless you are a hairstylist... And that is, their weight! I know this is a total industry nerd attack here, but bare with me. In those other boring old plastic bowls when you get down to the bottom of the color, you go to scoop up some--whatever you got there, and you push your bowl away because it is so light. No, it is not the end of the world... I've found ways to adapt... I've managed to make it through... But now I don't have to! Because these cuties are porcelain, they're heavy, and they don't slide... Maybe not so exciting for you, but very much so, exciting for me.

As I warned, she is very cute inside... And it is all going to be destroyed (salvaged really--but for dramatic purposes--destroyed). Here are some before inside shots of the little bell, I say that because I imaging she might be just a a little bit southern. You see the hammer there... But, my word, it is hard to start the demo... Like killing a chicken... Even though you know it is going to be good... You kinda want no part of the before aspect of the whole deal.

My hair idol...

You may have gathered, by my banner up there, that I love Jean Seberg! I think she is the absolute cutest thing that ever was! And the hair? Don't even get me started on that do! Perfection, is all. Her hair in Breathless is hands down the best hair I have ever seen... But then, it was on the prettiest face, and cutest french speaking pucker lips ever too, so it is, all around, an unfair analysis. Still every time I see her hair I just want to chop my mop all up... In hopes of achieving just a trace of the cuteness that is unmistakably Jean.

Meet Holiday!

So this is it! The start of something grand! Here she is... Holiday Hair Studio (in the making). This is the BEFORE picture. She's got good legs she does and a solid frame... Really she is in excellent condition and rather quite lovely just as she is if you ask me... Raw beauty! But as so many of her occupants to be, she is about to get all gussied up.

I would like to invite you along for the ride, hop aboard ya'll we are about to go on Holiday! Come along as we transform this 1964 Kenskill travel trailer into a 2010 private hair studio! We will start by gutting it (ouch--and double ouch once you see how flippin' cute her little guts actually are). Then we rebuild! And paint and polish the exterior and find her a place to call home! I am so excited to figure it all out--The interior mainly, the outside is pretty much all planned already, and the home, well, it will just come when we are ready. Oh! So much shopping ahead of me... I am one lucky girl! Check back often to follow our journey...