Packing

Although I was busy packing for the big move all last week, I managed to find some time to design a new shell necklace.

Bella, the little girl who lives next door, found a beautiful cone shell along the Santa Barbara coast and gifted it to me a few months back. She wrote me a really cute note to go along with it too. Bella and her sister already have their very own beach glass necklaces, so this shell necklace was a surprise for their mom (:

This is my very first shell necklace, and I'm quite pleased with the turnout. What do you think?

Well, I'm all packed, boxes shipped, studio cleaned, and no longer in Santa Barbara! I'll be traveling for the next month, so stayed tuned for updates about my adventures!

The Bed-Table

As you may or may not already know from my previous post, I have my very own studio apartment to design my jewelry in. And to live in... and to share with another person. It's cozy and cute, but you can only stand so many components disappearing and later found somewhere on the floor (or never) when the only workspace you have is your bed.

I was making a couple necklaces last night while watching TV, and I couldn't help but think about how excited I am to move. Moving will mean I will have a little more space for my jewelry - maybe even my very own table to work on! Or if I'm really lucky, maybe my own corner of a room (: A girl can dream, right?!

Big Sur, CA

I'm sorry that I haven't been designing new jewelry pieces lately! With the anticipation of leaving California, I've been trying to soak up as much of the coast as possible. The significant other and I drove up to Big Sur last week for some camping fun.

We chose the Kirk Creek Campground because every campsite has its very own ocean view! It was such a beautiful, sunny day with not a cloud in sight.

We took a short hike down the cliff to enjoy some rocky shoreline bliss. I'm always in awe how breathtaking the California coast can be.

Five miles south of the campgrounds is Sand Dollar Beach. Unfortunately, I didn't stumble across any sand dollars, but I did happen to find two beautiful cone shells! I'm looking forward to using them in a new necklace design. We almost had the entire beach to ourselves and enjoyed homemade panini's, crisp sugar snap peas, and a light frisbee toss.

At the end of a relaxing, unplanned day, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset with smores and a glass of wine. It was quite the mini vacation I needed after 104 consecutive days of work. No stress, all sun. With all the scenic coastal views, I'm not too worried about lacking inspiration (: