Memorial: a tattoo!

  Howdy folks! Its been a while. I got sick last week and powered thru it with three days in bed! It felt good to rest and take care of myself but being sick always makes me bit sad and helpless. So many people are sick and said the same thing. I am so glad it is over! I was sad i didnt get to tattoo last week but Tom is letting me tattoo him twice, one on Thursday the next on Friday. Im totally so stoked!

Im excited to share a custom tattoo design for my friend. Its a memorial tattoo for her dad who passed away 25 years ago. He was a pilot so she wanted something that represented that and was feminine. I added his birthflowers, larkspurs and his initials. She is getting it on her back and i believe soon it will be offcially inked on her! I cant wait to see it and I feel so honored to be a part of something so special.

Xo,

cb

Fresh ink

 

Happy sunday! Oh boy, another hard week, but mostly personal which I wish not to talk about here. Mostly, being an adult is hard so getting a tattoo on friday came at a perfect time! My buddy at the shop did it and I designed it a while ago and have been itching to get it done. I am sooo in love with it. I can't wait to tattoo my floral designs on mu first customer! I tattooed tom last thursday and it went really well, just added some more scallops on his ankle and as soon as those heal i will fill them in. I think this week will be a shaded skull! Im pretty stoked as this will be my first try on shading!!! Yippeee!! I love everything about tattooing as scary as it may be! Sorry, I haven't been around to see what everyone is up to, its been pretty hectic over here but I am gonna make some time this week to make my rounds! Hope everyo e is doing well!

xoxoxoxox,

cb

the goings ons

Well, we survived, yay!!!! So glad we did, there was still so much i wanted to do! So im blogging from my ipod ands its kinda funky but here are the things i have been up to!

Got tattooed, again! always in a constant state of healing :( but i am so close to being done!

Went and did ifly, the best experience i have had in a long time! I want to go again!!! Any takers?

I have been drawing like mad! Here are some doodles from my sketch book. I will be painting these as soon as i can.

So since blogging is getting more difficult i am finding instagram and twitter to be sooo more my speed at the moment. You can find me at @citybirdsnest.

Have a great weekend!!
Xo,cb

Perks

happy monday sweet people! hope everyone had a stellar weekend. me, i didnt get a day off, i worked on my only day off but hey i guess there could be worse things? let me think about that a bit and get back to you....

in the mean time, the great thing about working at a tattoo shop is, well... free tattoos! ever since tom and i got our matching square knot bracelets i have wanted anchors on my middle fingers. it was kinda slow at the shop friday and i asked my buddy if he would tattoo me and he did! i was a bit shocked that it didnt really hurt that much and now i cant stop looking at my fingers, i love them soooo much! this week i will also be getting work done on my thigh. sadly that wont be finished, ill probably have one more session after that and then i will reveal my first and largest tattoo! cant wait!!

xo,
cb

what i have been up to

hey everybody! how was everyone's weekend? it has been very busy around here since i last posted. busy in a good way. i don't know if you have noticed but i don't like sitting still, i like to be busy even on my day off. here is what has been going down over in my neck of the woods...

i changed my septum retainer for a hoop! now i'm double hopping it and i really love it. sometimes it can take a bit for a change to settle in but i loved it the instance she changed it to a hoop. the retainer annoyed me because it was a bit long for my nose so it would end up sticking out on one side and making me feel a little silly. it feels so much better to have a hoop in too.

drawing drawing drawing! i am almost finished with my sleeve that i am designing for a sweet lady and i have been working on some lady portraits. i have yet to finish coloring the ones i am working on. it is part of my homework for myself to finish coloring and then i will add them to my portfolio! i have always loved portrait tattoo flash and now i am kinda obsessed with them and i have so many ideas!

i got a tattoo! it is a work in progress for sure and will show it off when it is all finished. its HUGE and on my thigh. it is of a mayan princess with some mayan artwork in the background. i love it and since it is a mexican run and owned shop and me being partially mayan i wanted something that represent my heritage. i am so in love with it!! i can't wait for it to be finished. plus this is my first colored piece and may be the start of something new!

saturday tom and i did a bit of thrifting and hung out listening to the a's game in the park. i scored this awesome, what i think is handmade, dress. there are no tags on it and parts inside look a bit unfinished. i love that it looks a bit mexican and it fits me like a glove, heaven! plus i also scored a knee length apron for tattooing in. no more ink spots on my jeans & skirts :) that is always a good thing, no?

oh, and happy first day of october! can you believe it! halloween is almost here and then thanksgiving, the greatest holiday ever!!!

xo,
cb

cover up: a tattoo

hi everyone!

today i have another tattoo design to share with you. this one is a cover-up. this is my second cover-up design that i have done. cover-ups can be a bit tricky depending on the design and what the client wants. my client had a cross on her back shoulder that she wanted to get covered.

she was so awesome and super chill. she was really open to anything but really wanted flowers as long it covered her cross. since her tattoo was about 2 inches, i had to make sure whatever i designed was about that big.

she had a few constraints. she is a teacher so it couldn't spill over her shoulder onto her collar bone nor could it really go over her shoulder onto her arm so instead she wanted it to go further down her back. i had so much fun coming up with the flowers and then arranging them for her. and i think it turned out super awesome. i can't wait for her to get it done and to show you all. yay tattoo's!

>>> don't forget august 1st my pricing will be going up so snag up a slot now at the current price!<<<

matchy matchy: our tattoos

hi everyone and oh happy day to you all!

over the weekend tom and i got our matching tattoo's! it was such a great day because that morning was when we went swimming with our adorable clemie-buns and then headed back down to sf to get tatttooed. my tattoo artist moved to the mission so it was our first time being at the new shop.

we had been wanting to get a tattoo together for some time and couldn't find anything that we both really liked. one day while getting pizza i spied a guy with a square knot on his forearm and really liked it. i passed the idea by tom and asked what he thought if it were more like a bracelet that went around our wrists and he totally dug the idea. like a permanent friendship bracelet :)

i was a bit nervous as the wrist is a very sensitive place and really, it wasn't at all what i thought it was going to be. she is just so awesome and we talk the entire time and you end up kinda forgetting about the pain. plus it was so fast! the moment she started minutes later she was done! awesome, right?

now this one is done, i have been thinking of getting a tattoo on my finger like the girl in the above picture. (i am kinda obsessed with this picture) i think when i get my matching diamond tattoo with kelly anne that i will have her do this as well. aaahhh the ever addicting cycle of getting tattoos! already gearing up for my christmas tattoo too!

xo,
cb

sometimes i....

>>> want to scream at the top of my lungs

>>> want to dance on bart and not give a hoot

>>> live off the grid, move somewhere super remote and get lost

>>> want to go on a year long road trip around the states

>>> work 24/7 on my artwork

>>> want a leather fringe jacket, even when tom says no

>>> want to start a family

>>> want to renovate a barn into a loft like studio, thanks tumblr :)

>>> want to live on a farm, have a few chickens and a bunch of fruit trees

>>> wish were a cat, so i could sleep in front of the heater all day, and basically, rule the world

this weekend was a bit stressful. the government is not my friend and again for the second year in a row we are owe but i am still working on them to bring that number down. i am hopeful. we attempted to go surfing friday morning only to be a few miles from the beach and the rack, boards and cooler, just flew off the bug and crashed on the road. the rack was demolished. we were stranded on the side of the road until tom's dad, who has a truck, came to our rescue. it could have be waaay worse and we are grateful that both boards are still in one piece. they are in the shop getting repaired from the damages. it was just blow after blow and we did our best to rectify our moods. not every weekend can be magical and you deal with it the best way you can. thanks tamara for the inspiration for this post, sometimes when you have such high emotions it kinda feels good to write a list like this.

in other news, a received some really awesome & supportive comments on my last post regarding cayce's tattoo. the best being from mallory who mentioned me becoming a tattooist. my mind has been turning ever since i read her comment. since tom and i have known each other tom has always wanted to tattoo but other things have came up, like going to college and getting degrees. it hasn't been till lately that the idea of him getting a machine and learning has resurfaced. we talk about it casually that he would tattoo and i would help with design but i never thought about tattooing myself, not that i didn't want to but it just never crossed my mind..... i have been on a journey to find out what part of the art world to call home and designing tattoo's has been the closest to that feeling....now to dive in a bit further and truly find out.

xo,
cb

home is wherever im with you...a tattoo!!

hi and oh happiest of thursday to you all! first, off i want to thank everyone regarding my post yesterday. this community is so wonderful and i am so happy to be a part of it, thank you.

 today i am super duper excited to share with you a design i just completed. as some of you know i just recently started offering tattoo design. a bit ago the lovely larissa emailed me about getting a tattoo design.

 we discussed what she wanted, she sent me images of things she liked and then i got down to business. i did about 4-5 rough sketches of the idea i had in mind and then sent those to her to have a looksy. the last drawing i did ended up being my favorite and hers too.

 
 i was so happy. it is always so nerve racking to put yourself out there and have people view your work, even now as i am typing this i am nervous about sharing but i love doing this so much i just can't help but share.

i had so much fun designing larissa's tattoo. what i love about drawing tattoo's for others is that it opens me up to designing things that i normally wouldn't draw. as an artist we always need to be challenged otherwise we can never grow. that also goes for being just a human too, if we don't challenge ourselves we can never discover new things about ourselves.

life as an artist is an interesting and wonderful journey even with all the stress & nervous butterflies i get about expressing myself through my work it is all worth it and i wouldn't have it any other way.

xo,
cb

love thyself: a bit of honesty

if you take a gander to your right you will see a round black beautiful button. this button was created by amy from a is for ampersand. february is the month of love. typically to express love to others but amy has turned the tables inwards making it a month of self love. this act of wonderfulness really really touched me. we all struggle with some kind of self hatred whether we are men or women. self hatred is not sexist by any means.

amy touched on how the blogging world can portray a world of perfection, something that all of us have strived to attain at some point in our lives. at some point most of us have realized that what we think is "perfect" is unattainable to achieve or at least i have come to that conclusion. what i have learned is this:  i am not perfect, nobody is, and that is the way we are meant to be. our imperfections are what actually makes us perfect.


i wanted to share my struggles to show that i too, am human and just like everyone else i have a story. here is mine. (please bare with me, it isn't something that can easily be expressed)



 since i can remember i have always been extremely hard on myself. i don't know why, i mean i could take a stab, point fingers but when i sit down and really think about it, it has always been me that has allowed myself to go to those dark places and wallow there.

i have never felt truly beautiful. i mean this in a superficial way. i have never had a problem with who i was internally, i had a problem with the shell that my soul resided in. i always felt the awkward ugly duckling, with the big ugly nose and horrible posture and just all round just strange looking. i didn't get teased much, a couple of jerks were mean, called me toucan sam but all kids are mean. i tried not to take it personally but at a young age it is hard not to take what others say about you personally. i always felt odd in my own skin and i had a bad case of image distortion. what i wanted to look like or what i thought i looked like was not what i actually saw in pictures or the mirror. who was this person and why didn't the images match up?

i didn't know who the person was when i looked in the mirror, why she didn't look like the perfect girls i saw on tv or magazines. i thought if i could change the way i looked then i would be happy. i dreamed of plastic surgery, getting my nose fixed, thinking it would solve the problem. years of staring in the mirror and smashing my nose to what i thought it should be.  i felt ashamed of what i looked like. i hate and still feel uncomfortable when people stare at me. i always thought people were looking at the ugly parts of me when it in fact who knows WHAT they were even staring at. it is crazy what we allow ourselves to think.

all of these thoughts consumed me, twisting into monsters making me think i was never good enough. the thoughts would get darker as i got older,  thoughts that i am am even ashamed to think of now. looking back at it all, it seems almost silly, that i let something like beauty hold me back from leading a happy life. really, what is beauty? it is all in the eye of the beholder and that saying has stuck with me.

until recently, i have moved from that dark place and into the sunshine where it is bright and warm. i still find myself sitting in the shadows at times but i am much better now at pulling myself up. what was it that brought me into the light? a mix of things....

i found someone who loved me for me, not just my shell but for my mind. he is an artist and what i find interesting about artists is that they capture and hone in on things that others may not. i was tom's subject for a lot of his art. he would extract the features that i found hideous and turned them into beautiful works of art. seeing that he loved my imperfections made me think more about what beauty was. being able to step back from myself and see what somonee else saw was one of the most eye opening moments that one can hope for. it was truly life changing. from then on whenever i complained about my body, he would tell me to do something about it. that is when i started biking, instead of being down about something i did something about it.  i got my first big tattoo and then my world forever changed. something about expressing myself and putting a stamp on this shell made me realize what beauty was for me.

what inside me is what truly is beautiful not what the outside looked like. covering the outside with my designs is what got me over the hurdle, let the inside out instead of the letting the outside hold the inside back. now when i look in the mirror i do see someone that is truly beautiful throughout. i have let the insecurities melt away and now lead a happy life full of amazing adventures.

we all struggle with something and it is what we do with this struggle that makes us who we are today. i can not say i am happy that i had let myself hate myself for so long, but now i appreciate so much because of it. life is about growing and i am happy that i still am :)

thanks for reading, i know it was a lot but honestly it felt really really really good to put it out there. i encourage everyone to write their story out even if it never gets published, it is so therapeutic and you will thank yourself later.

xo,
cb

little gardens

 drawing my tattoo designs are one of my favorite things to draw. they make me so happy. a few weeks ago i started doodling some violets and i am pretty set on getting them as my next tattoo, my birthday perhaps?  tom has expressed how much he loves my designs and that he would like to see more of them actually drawn out rather then just doodled.

i take his advise very seriously. as an artist i look up to him and respect his opinion. one of the things i love about our relationship is the ability to be able to bounce ideas off each other so while tom was at work i got inspired and got to drawing........ now, i am very unsure about it as i love everything i make, they are all pieces of me so i am attached to them all in a sentimental way so sometimes it is hard for me to step back and critique my own work. does that make sense?

shy violet anyone?

when tom got home that night and looked at what i was making he was amazed and this really touched my heart. for someone whom i look up to artistically to admire my work is truly amazing and damn it, it FELT GOOD.

california poppies

one of my goals (more of that on monday) for this year is to narrow down my crafts to things that make me happy and this is one of them. i want to be able to make things that make me happy as well as support my small little family. i still feel like i am trying to find what that is but i think the first step is making things that make me happy and that are truly me and this feels right! later that weekend i started another design of california poppies. i am using the same frame as my animal portraits and the frame will be a faux wood grain.

don't forget, you can take 20% off my shop the entire month of january :D

xo,
cb

a true california day

hi peaches! hope everyone had a great weekend <3 as always ours went by way to fast but what can you do. i got a lot of things done on thursday and was very happy with myself too :) i will be updating my shop with a small hand full of cute day of the dead pins & hair clips that i made a while back with kelly-anne, i'm really happy with them.

in other news friday was an awesome day! the weather here has been SUPER nice and the indian summer has been lingering longer then expected to my happiness. my tattoo appointment was later in the day so we look our time and got to the appointment early to enjoy a nice cup of joe. sam, my tattoo artist wasn't ready so we walked around our old stomping grounds.

the most AWESOME surf shop EVER!!!

days like this in the city make tom and i want to move back. the sunset district is one of my favorite areas in sf, it feels distant from the city, a bit more quiet but still has the city vibe. you forget that days like this in the sunset though are far and few. 99% of the time the sunset is foggy but that has its advantages too...

succulents grow like weeds here! they LOVE the sunset and rightfully so. we headed out to the beach to watch the waves, it was beautiful! we headed back and got down to inking. sam is really the best tattooist EVER. something about her makes getting inked so painless, really. they have never really hurt and i have know a few people who have been tattooed by her and say the same thing. it isn't extremely fun to be poked by a needle but somehow she makes it feel like a walk in the park. i think she is a wizard or something...

so i didn't get the poppies, just the quail and i couldn't be more in love with him!!!  i absolutley just LOVE LOVE him! he is perfectly plump!!! i just need to figure out a proper name for him. i am trying to think of a "california name" if that is a such thing but i also want it to go with harvey, my jay.

 oh and he got touched up too! since my little fatty quail was so heavy textured i wanted to balance both my arms out so we added a bit of black to his head. i think i might add a bit more to even him out but i like the result so far!

since the poppies were too big and i didn't want to reduce the size, i need to design a smaller flower to fill in the blank spots. i also want to add a mushroom some where. i have a native california flower in mind and will for sure be calling sam to get another tattoo in about 6 months...so far that has been the trend, every six months... and i like it that way :) well, time to start planning for the next bit!!

xo,
cb

going solo

yay, its wednesday! which means it is my friday :D

i couldn't wait to wear my new dress so i wore it sunday to work & an appt. after. i paired it with red, grey & yellow accessories. such a fun summery dress just wish the weather would corporate more. but i can definitely where this with some colored tights!

after work i road out to the sunset district to my tattoo artist to go over my idea and get her opinion on placement as i wasn't sure where i wanted it was gonna work. i had the pleasure of riding through golden gate park, i love this ride. here are some things i spotted along the way....

a fleet of segways. yes, sf offers segway tours of golden gate park..we are fancy like that!

BISON!!! yes we have bison in our park

me & the bison

i was so excited to show sam, my tattoo artist, my drawing and she loved it! she is a HUGE bird lover and she just adores quails so she can't wait to get my all inked up and i can't either. i had to change my appt. to oct. 21st as my co-worker is going out of town for a week i made my appt. while she was gonna be gone. bummer but it is just 2 weeks from my original appt. so no biggie, it will make it all the sweeter :) it was so nice seeing her and she gave me a fresh loaf of bread when i left, which was soo awesome of her!

the view on my way home of the civic center. such a great ride home :D

xo,
cb

on the horizon...

hello peaches and happy thursday. yep exciting thins coming my way. the annual all girls camping trip nest weekend, shooting my new collection tomorrow...eek!!! REALLY excited to show you but then also really nervous too. a giveaway at kyla roma's blog, which i will for sure tell you all about and of course my tattoo and of slew of other things too! it is nice to look forward to things.

my sister in las tatto

my tattoo design is coming along nicely but i am not ready yet to show it so i thought i would show you two designs i did for my brothers wife and one for another fellow blogger who had seen my ink featured on sometimes sweet's, tattoo tuesday.

a bouquet of wheat

today will be a busy day for me... a lot of...fold, iron pin, repeat. i am finishing up a job i took from craigslist making napkins for a wedding. i think i was half crazy at the time thinking that i had time to make them but i took the job so i must power through and get it done. i love sewing, it always feels so good to sit and sew and it drums up so much motivation......

which leads me to some exciting ideas i have for the blog that include some easy diy, along with calibrations with some other blog ladies. i also wanted to set up a fun challenge for myself for the month of september and others who wanted to take part. i am working on a button for this said idea which i will post as soon as i have a free moment!

i have a GREAT citybirds chirp for you tomorrow and stay tuned for a shop update early next week! have a great weekend everyone!

xo,
cb