here we come ny!

ahhh its thursday which means the mister and i are actually on a plane on my way to NY for the weekend for my best friends sister's wedding! i can't wait to see them! my best friend lives in boston at the moment...hopefully that will change sometime in the near future! so we don't get to see each other as often as we like but we do what we can! i have known my best friend since kindergarten so we go way back :D i just love her family, they love to dance and have a great time :) we are doing the bachelorette party on friday and i know we are gonna have a blast! just what i need to destress...DANCING!!

we will be staying through monday and don't really have any plans just to have fun and maybe do some exploring in brooklyn which is where we will be staying! although the moma sounds like a great place to spend a day :)

in other news i finally got a shipment of owl beads in! i got two new colors...white and grey! i will be making these for two shops and a bit more for the store and for the craft fair i will be in next saturday. i found some matching leather for them too which really excites me...these little owls just always make me smile! what makes you smile?

i also did a guest post for simply bike on bike ride dates. sandra who is the women behind the blog is a super cute bike riding mama to be! truly an inspiration!! thanks sweetie for hosting me!!

hope you have a great weekend! i will be back monday with a happy post!

xo,
cb

and the winner is.....

wait for it wait for it........

 clare from green valley crafts! yahoooo!!! check out her awesome crafts and blog!


shoot me an email pretty lady and tell me where to send your little package :) yay! my owls will be flying all across the world, so awesome!!


i hope you enjoy your new earrings sweetie! hope to see you sporting them on wardrobe wednesday!

thanks for all your amazing comments in the last months especially all the kinds words regarding my craft fair! it feels so good to have such wonderful readers!  it was wonderful to read about why you buy handmade. every one of you buy handmade because it feels good supporting an artist and knowing that your gift is unique and that time and love went into making it. as an artist it is sometimes hard to put something up for sale because as i make it i become so attached to it so in a way i am selling a little bit of me...but SO SO worth it if what i makes others happy!

keep buying handmade!!

xoxoxoxoxoxo,
cb

its an owl attack

i am happy to report that this weekend i found a bunch of owls! well 3 and a half really...there was an accident when one of them...r.i.p little ceramic owl head sugar bowl i will remember you fondly...although you were only with us for a short time...your body shall live on in your memory...totally cheesy but when we got home from the thrift store, the mister was putting my owl finds on the shelf of the "owl room"  and the head of one of the owls fell and broke into a million pieces...very sad but what can you do, so the mister suggested we put a succulent in it and so i did and he looks darns cute! too bad i didn't get a picture of him before but here he is given a new life!

here are the other owls we found!

this owl has oil perfume in it...doesn't smell to bad but not sure if i would wear it but i love how crazy he kinda looks!

this is kinda what the broken owl looked like but a bit bigger, it must have been a set, too bad the rest of the set was there for my taking! he looks so sweet and innocent, no?

this is a strange one...it has holes at the top for either salt or pepper but then has string coming out of it for hanging...i am going to hang this on our christmas cactus! can't wait to go get it in a couple of weeks!

hope you all had a fantastic weekend! do any thrifting?


***thanks for all the wonderful comments on my bike embroidery! i still haven't made up my mind! i think the night before my craft fair will be what makes the final decision!****

xo,
cb

i've got obsessions...

sooo things have been crazy over here..we hit a few bumps in the bike shop but like a rolling stone...we will keep on rolling no matter how long it takes to accomplish our dream. my emotions have been a little up and down lately and i thought what better way to cheer myself up then to show you my owl room that i am so proud of....so it sounds really amazing but really it is our powder room but still i am very impressed with myself that i can say i really i have an owl room because really there are only two other owls that are not in this room...so it is safe for me to say that yes, i have an owl room :D

i am not really sure when my obsession really happened well...wait...i do! it was harry potter! i LOVE hedwig oh so much and the thought of owning my very own owl and it sending letters to all my friends was by far the coolest thing i had EVER heard of. my very first owl figurine was from my mom...not exactly sure where it came from but we both named it hedwig...and them from there my obsession grew....

i have always been obsessed with some kind of animal...first it was cats because of the movie gay purr-ee. i also highly recommend this movie...the art is so AMAZING and psychedelic and the songs are great! we named all of cats after the characters in this movie too!

then it became koalas! in the craziest way! this started with a stuffed animal i got as a little girl..it was made from some kind of  animal fur and it came as a set, a mommy and baby koala...i carried them E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E! when we moved i had my very own room and i was sooo excited to decorate it sooooo....my mom designed a koala stencil and we stenciled a boarder around the room, stenciled the curtains and stenciled my bedspread...i wish i had pictures of my room so that you could get the full effect of how koala krazy i was but i don't :( but i can tell you that it was A LOT of koalas!


so without further ado...(sorry i got really caught up with my other obsessions)....my owl room!!!

all of owls have come from near and far...i really couldn't tell you my favorite as they are all so special to me...but i do LOVE the two macrame owls on either side of the mirror (sorry the pictures are so dark) that the mister found for me at the thrift store! they were the perfect gift and a wonderful surprise too!!

what are your current or past obsessions?


xo,
cb

a very lazy day

saturday didn't turn out the way we planned.....the night before we went through out entire house and get things ready for the garage sale. we had asked our neighbors if they wanted to join forces to have a multi family garage sale. a couple of people said yes, i had posted a craigslist ad and we were all set friday night...welllllll.....to make a LONG story short all of the neighbors had bailed on us and since we didn't have a ton of stuff and it had rained the night before and the weather was to say the least crappy we decided to have the garage sale another day... so instead we jumped in gladys and high tailed it to breakfast!

 we didn't get waffles but i did get a huge bowl of grits...mmmmm my favorite!

after that we made a very very short trip to the thrift store where my eagle eye spotted these SUPER CUTE green/gold owls!!! super stocked!!! these will go in my owl room!!!! i also got a couple more frames for my bike embroidery, yay!

we had a meeting at 12 which i can't really go into more detail as it is still all up in the air...i can tell you this, if it DOES work out...it means a whole new life adventure for the mister and me to go on together! and no we are NOT  pregnant...sorry just needed to put that out there :O

after the meeting we took a short cap nap, woke up got some yogurt and then went to see MACHETE. if you went and saw grindhouse you will like this movie...it actually was a fake trailer that was featured during grindhouse that robert rodrique actually ended up making...it was pretty good but i have to say lindsay lohan is in this movie and this poor girl has just really brought herself to a new low.... the part was perfect for her which was kinda sad...but hey i am sure she made a bundle...

back tomorrow with a bike chick tip outfit post!!! oh and don't forget to leave a comment on to be entered in the bloglovin' giveaway :)

xo,
cb

a shop update shout out!

just updated my etsy shop, citybirds with some new charm owl earrings! since this is my very first post about my shop i thought i would tell a little about it...i started my etsy store while still in college... stopped adding to my shop due to an overwhelming amount of homework and finals and just recently got back into what i love and who i am...being creative! i dabble in a bunch of different mediums from drawing patterns, painting, jewelry making and just recently sewing...this is all very hard while working full time but i make it work...if it is your dream one must follow it...but what started citybirds were my cluster of retro inspired chicks!

 all are hand drawn, hand painted with acrylic and finished with a coat of varnish that is water resistant and uv protected....they always seem to make me smile whenever i see them...they look great hung in a cluster, add a great little something something to a cluttered bookshelf or are perfect for babies rooms :D

over the past months i have been working on my charm owl earrings... i love making these and hearing the clinking noise the metal charms and the porcelain owls make when put together. i can't get enough of these hand painted owls beads... they are so darn cute!!

i am very excited for my next shop update which won't be until end of july early august. still doing some finishing touches :D i decided to combine my love of thrifting and sewing into one! i have some fun ideas for my photo shoot and i am very very excited to see the outcome! here's to the wonderful world of being creative...cheers!

xo,
cb

double take

i found my gem of a headboard while walking home to our nob hill studio in sf. at first glance i new it was a keeper. my cousin, who was with me at the time kept asking me if i was sure i wanted it and that she would be MORE the happy to take it off my hands but i new better. unfortunately for her i knew it would make a perfect fit to our 70's inspired pad.

a couple of weeks ago the mister and i were watching harold & maude and low and behold our much loved  wicker head board was used not once but twice in maude's over cluttered appartment! i was so thrilled to see it!! to think that someone in 1971 saw the very same heardboard and was able to purchase it new at a store. i can imaging the orginal owners house....brown shag carpet, macrame pot holders, wood paneled walls, owls, splashes of orange & green throughout the house, velvet and heavy stripes....don't you just love the 70's....

well when we moved from the city to our new hayward casa there was no question that our work of art wicker head board was coming with us. this is my spin on a modern 70's bedroom equipped with mexican embroidered folk art, unmatching 70's pillow cases and a green, brown, orange afghan but it wouldn't have been accomplished without the head board. Thanks to whomever left it on the street in nob hill your trash was definitely my coveted treasure <3

xo,
cb