Where Has Time Gone?

Where have the past few months gone? How do you find time to do everything in your day?

It's been hard to keep up with everything that I want to keep up with. This blog being one of those things. A quick recap of what my life has been the past few months... I've gotten a full time job working at South Lake Tahoe High School as the athletics and vice principal's secretary. I love working with kids, and helping one of our students get his senior project mentor form from his mentor made my day. Seeing how happy he got from my help was pretty awesome; I was recently published in Reed Literary Magazine. One of my photographs was used for their cover and I had a photograph published inside as well; I have started writing a young adult novel, and I'm super excited about it; and of course I'm continuing my photography, and my shop, ZoiShop, has reached over 100 sales!

Wednesday Giveaways

This week on The Handmade Wedding you can enter for a chance to win a really groovy giveaway sponsored by Andrea of Legal Miss Sunshine on Etsy.com. You can win a pair of her handmade vintage-style cufflink's for your soon to be groom, spouse, or significant other, in the style of your choice.

For a chance to win visit The Handmade Wedding. This giveaway will be open until Wednesday, January 25th. A winner will be announced the next day. G'luck loves!

Ana & Edwin

At the end of last year I had an engagement session with one of my good friends, Ana. She had been dating her high school sweetheart for over five years, and this past summer they finally got engaged! We went to a water temple in Redwood City, California. A really pretty place that I had never visited before, despite it only being a few minutes away. We had the place to ourselves, except for a few workers, so it was great to be able to roam around as we wishes.

I was thrilled to be able to take their engagement photos and thought I would share some of my favorites.

Congrats to Ana and Edwin!



To view my entire portfolio online, you can click here!

During this new year, Joe and I are combining our photography companies into one entity and working forward as a company together. We're stoked about what the new year will bring photo wise. And will soon be posting our new website!

The Handmade Wedding Blog

Happy New Year Everyone! I know I haven't written anything on here for a while, and it's mostly due to my new endeavor, The Handmade Wedding. It's a wedding blog, with a mostly DIY oriented vibe. It also includes real weddings, projects, a bunch of great segments like The Manmade Wedding by Joe and Beauty & Fitness by me.

We launched the blog only a week ago, and I'm really excited by the success it's been having and all the positive feedback I've been receiving from it so far. We reached over 1,100 views last week, and I'm hoping to increase the amount of page views this week by at least 100. So if you haven't checked it out yet, take a moment and take a peek at it! There's a lot of great stuff coming up this week and onward.

We're also looking for DIY contributors as well as real weddings and engagements to feature on the blog, so if you're interested in any of these, please click here for details!

Enough about me though, I want to hear about your new endeavors for the new year? What are your resolutions if any, and how do you plan on achieving them?

Hope everyone's new year is off to a great start. I wish everyone much success in 2012!

Featured Seller: Anca Gray

There is nothing as special as having a deep and unnerving passion for the work one does. Artist Anca Gray is not stranger to this. A passion for her art seethes from her every word.

After acquiring a degree in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, spending a few years as an architect and designer, and working at a local organic restaurant, in 2010 Anca finally started working full time on her art.

"My parents say my favorite toy to play with when I was very young was a pen and paper. When we went camping, I would first sit down and draw the trees and mountains and only then run around and explore. To my mother's despair, I always loved getting my hands dirty, and creating is in my blood. Although I got derailed by family and society's expectations, in the end it was just a matter of listening to my heart, letting go, and jumping in," Anca said.

You can purchase the Romanian born, Chicago based, artist's beautiful mixed media artwork internationally through her Etsy shop, Anca.



"I love creating delicate new art pieces out of discarded vintage books and found objects! They become one of a kind, original, mixed media abstracts and figure paintings. I also create found poetry reclaimed from existing vintage books. I am interested in everything poetic, emotion, capturing and savoring unique moments in time and space, the simultaneous absence and presence of all colors, embedded memory of objects, texture, and a raw and feminine aesthetic. I wish for my work to reflect glimpses of hope and [to] help widen the horizons of possibility," Anca said.

Anca's artwork is also at times dreamlike and geometric, and always unconventionally alluring.



"My husband dubbed me Anca Gray because I surround myself with black, white, and gray, and lady gray is my favorite tea, of which I drink about a pot of every day," Anca said.

Her daily pot of tea might be what allows Anca to work often chaotic hours. "I'm fairly obsessive, so I stay with a piece until it is finished, which means it needs to be finished within days. I've been known to work on a piece for 30 hours straight, and only get some sleep once it feels complete. I often work on several pieces at once while I wait for layers of paint to dry."

Anca's inability to stop once she's started working on a piece, is a true testament to her passion. And every piece she creates and sells is a piece she truly believes is complete and ready to be hung in a buyer's home.



"I finally know what I want to be when I grow up, so I wouldn't trade it for the world. I am doing what I long to be doing. What I've always longed to be doing," Anca said.

Outside of her craft Anca enjoys everything about food, cooking for friends, reading food blogs, parties and afternoon tea with friends, camping, reading, skydiving, seeking god, and loving her husband all while trying to remember to breathe.

Anca is not truly sure where she will be in five years, as she believes that anything and everything can change within that time frame, but she hopes that she'll still be cooking for and feeding the people she loves, getting her hands dirty, and becoming more comfortable by the day in her own skin.

You can follow Anca's journey through her Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts.

SPECIAL TO MY READERS: Get 15 percent off your purchase at Anca's Etsy shop by entering promo code MORE15 at checkout!

The Handmade Wedding Blog

I haven't been writing as much on this blog, because Joe and I are starting a wedding blog, The Handmade Wedding!



We're so stoked about our new endeavor, which will feature real weddings, DIY projects, a segment by Joe just for the groom and his groomsmen, food ideas, dieting and fitness segments, giveaways, and much more! The blog is set to officially launch on New Years Day, so we're working hard right now to get it up and running. We've got the layout and pages up, and now we're on the lookout for content.

So if you have a DIY idea, real wedding submission, wish to sponsor us or a giveaway, let us know by emailing us at: thehandmadeweddingblog[at]gmail[dot]com.

If you get a chance, do check it out, become a follower and support us!

What endeavor have you been working on loves?

Featured Seller: Becca Sohoni

It's getting cold. More often than not in the ever growing chilling town of South Lake Tahoe, I find myself reaching for my scarf whenever I go out. But it's just a plain black scarf, nothing like the uplifting and beautiful scarfs by Becca Sohoni owner of Happiknits.

You can find Becca's bohemian style knitwear, including her fabulous infinity scarfs, for sale internationally through her Etsy shop.



For Becca the craft runs in the family, and unlike my mass produced scarf, her's are a little more genuine of character and heart.

"I learned how to knit about 10 years ago. I grew up in a family where all the women did some kind of needle craft. My mom sews and does embroidery, my grandmother was a master crocheter, and I have a great Aunt who embroiders and knits. I fell in love with the serenity that the knitting brought into my stressful life.

"I found Etsy about a year before I became a seller. Opening my shop came at a point in my life when I was suffering a lot of disappointment from infertility. I needed something to lift my spirits, and my customers do that for me. 
In addition to my knitting I work as a full-time Pharmacist and I am a certified yoga teacher," Becca said.



Although you wouldn't think that there is a lot that goes into knitting besides knowing a pattern and executing it, Becca does a good amount of research for her craft. This means that her work is not only easy on the eyes, but that she also strives to keep up to date in style.

"I read all the fashion magazines, Somerset magazines, which is where I find a lot of inspiration. I also will go to Anthropology and walk around. I love their window displays. I have been inspired by a lot of my customers and sometimes ideas just pop into my head! My passion comes from truly enjoying the way a piece of yarn feels in my hands. I tend to knit with some fabulously soft yarns," Becca said.

The research step it truly only the beginning as her knitwear creations can take anywhere from several hours to several weeks to create, which makes it no wonder that Becca, like many other crafters including myself, faces time management as her greatest obstacle.

"As my business grows, I sometimes struggle to keep up with all of the social networking involved in growing a successful business," Becca said.

But as hectic as it all may seem, not having enough time to do everything is also a sign of success. Becca is close to reaching a well deserved 650th sale without any negative or neutral feedback, a true testament to her passion as a crafter and seller.



Besides knitting Becca enjoys working out, visiting her local vintage market for buttons, lace, or anything that catches her eye, and baking, which she learned from her grandmother.

In five years Becca sees herself on a beach in St. Lucia with a needle in her hand.

You can follower Becca's journey through her Twitter and Facebook.

HER WINTER HOLIDAY PROMO: Enter HAPI10 for 10% off any purchase OR HAPISHIP for free shipping from Happiknits!