Vintage Bike Project on Its Way at Last!

So I bought a bike.  Like, two years ago when we first moved out here.  It was during one of our many, many, MANY estate sale outings we like to do on Saturday mornings.  The drill always goes as follows:  we pile the kids in the car with muffins and sippy cups of juice and milk;  we arm ourselves with Craigslist listings and our iphones for GPS reliability;  then we driiiiiive.

On this particular Saturday, we just had to go down the street.  Estate sales are a little bittersweet for me.  You can find amazing and one-of-a-kind treasures, yet you don't always really know the whole story.  Today it was an elderly couple.  They told us that they were moving into a smaller place, easier to manage.

The woman had a lot of great vintage linens and picture frames.  Usually, I like to hunt for china, cakestands, and platters.  You really will not believe the places I have found Haviland china (trailer park, anyone?). 

Milk glass cake platter!  A dream come true!  This came from the wonderful estate sale company Odekirk's.  They host sales Friday through Sunday.  Sunday everything is half off, and sometimes they will host Mondays, where everything is 75% off. That is how I scored this lovely gem!  I have used it for several birthday parties, it is just so pretty. 



Anyway, I decided to take a chance and go out to the garage.  This is usually Carey's territory.  He has found some amazing antique tin signs that we now have strewn in our garden and the garage.  In this garage, I saw a lonely bike, sadly leaning on one of the walls.  I asked the husband how much he wanted for it, and he said 'TWENTY BUCKS'.  I liked the shape of it...not mountain bikey, not road bikey, but that old, yesteryear type of silhouette, the kind that screams for a baguette to be strapped to the back of it. 

Another famous protocol of ours when we go thrifting is the arguments.  It goes a little something like this:
'Carey'
'Yeah?'
'Look'....then he looks, and pauses.  He says nothing. Ugh.
So I continue,
'It's only 20 bucks, I can do a lot to it'.
'It's a piece of shit, lookatit'
'Yeah but you know me, I can fix anything, it will look so good!!!'
'It's going to sit in our garage for months before you touch it'  (ok, ok, so he was right!)
'No, no, I can soooo do this!'

Then he takes out his wallet and the man helps us put it in the trunk.
Yay!

I have to interject here and say that EVERYTHING that we buy at estate sales, or that I want to repurpose, or that I want to decorate and/or design in our home, Carey MUST give me the third degree for it.  But you know what?  He always loves and revels in the finished product, then wants to do more.
Case in point below (which, by the way, he enjoyed doing the whole time with me...and has recently informed me that he is 'itching to do another project'.  Whatta guy!!!):

Before:  $20 table from Craigslist

After:  Fabulous kitchen island!!!



I digress again, so sorry!  When I talk about DIY projects, I get a little crazy and giddy and my mouth starts to water.  HERE IS THE BIKE:



Dusty, grimy, dirty, smelly.  What a beauty!  I go all My Fair Lady on it and make it soooo purty!

I wanted to buy all new accessories for it, like new brake calipers, hand brakes, pedals, etc.  But instead, I decided to try something.  A wire brush.



So I brushed the living hell out of all the shiny parts.  check out the before and after:

Rust, rust, rust.  Blech!

Shiny!  Well, shiny enough considering it's ANCIENT stuff!

Let's compare again, shall we?







Plus, when you see that the pieces are made in Japan versus China, it's time to reconsider tossing them in the bin:



Next step is going to be to clean up the frame, take off the pedals, and possibly repaint the frame. 

Cute bicycle basket scored at an Odekirk's sale for a cool $3!



More photos to come soon!

See you next time!

xoxo

Twig and Sparrow Bridal Pieces now Available at Ruche!

I am so happy to announce that as of today, Ruche has launched its debut wedding line.  You can check it out now at shopruche.com.  They have a lovely and inspiring lookbook as well.  What surprised me the most was that this wedding line just came out a few hours ago, and already it looks like one of my pieces is selling pretty well!  There is only ONE left:

Above is the 'Treasured Traditions' bridal cap.  It's also called 'Genevieve' on my site.  Swiss dot tulle, antique white leaves with ivory flowers on each side, finished with a few airy organza leaves on each side.  It reminds one of a turn-of-the-century bride.  Beautiful.

The other pieces that Ruche has on their site are below.  I just really love the way they showcased my very treasured creations, they did very well!

Ruche Exclusive

The 'Fetching' hair piece

Halcyon crown...the Ruche version I did has a self-tie delicate ivory satin ribbon in back


See you next time!

Rainy Day Love

Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day.  Tomorrow is our third photo session for Twig and Sparrow!  It has been a very hectic couple of months, trying to figure out how to get my face and name out there in the design and bridal world.  It is pretty competitive and takes a looooot of time sitting at the computer contacting all sorts of people and convincing them to take notice of you. 

My biggest frustration thus far has been updating my website.  Like many people, I pretty much am terrible at it.  For now, my website is so very basic and, well, blaaaaah.  For now, I work with what I have, and at this moment, it means I am very very very lucky to know a few wonderful people.

Enter the photo shoot.  I will be showcasing my new designs (about 18 of them) on a couple of great beautiful girls willing to model for me, as well as the talented hair and makeup artist Georgia Syrengelas, and the wonderfully gifted photographer Nicole Long.  If you have seen my past posts, you can check out the pictures there or here.

I love doing these sessions!  For weeks, I spend hours daydreaming about how everything will be modeled, the clothes, the makeup, hair, environment, and light.  I even play a soundtrack in my head of how everything will flow.  This time, we are going to take photographs indoors.  I am secretly wanting to do outdoor as well, in spite of.....

Okay, it has been raining here for the past 24 hours (for So Cal residents, this is HUGE!  Break out the scarves and coats, it's like, OMG, winter here!!).  I am one of those Californians that love the rain and clouds and what I like to call 'Winnie the Pooh weather';  you know, all windy, cold, and blustery?  I have once called it that to an old boyfriend of mine while we were living in Scotland, and he didn't bat an eye when I referred the dreary (and lovely) Edinburgh weather as that.  See?  It really is the perfect moniker for it.

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh (via Pinterest)...this was the BEST running track ever!

The Meadows, Edinburgh.  Another great running venue back in the day!

The wheels of my mind begin to turn like mad in the chaos of creativity.  There is no sunshine to distract me, what with all those shadows and rays.  I find that colors are actually more vivid under a grey sky, elements are sharper, the eye takes in all those beautiful tiny details that an otherwise fair day could never provide.  My brain becomes calmer, almost meditative yet still so active, during the dormant cycles of the seasons.  Even in the earliet hints of spring, there is something about the light that still holds on to the last pieces of those quiet, cool, introspective moments.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain some more.  And, to be honest, I really wouldn't mind taking a few pics in drizzly weather.  The refracted light through those miniscule droplets may give just the quintessential ambience that I always hope for. 

bettencourtchase.blogspot.com

Just wanted to share a few nice pictures for you to look at! 

Enjoy your Sunday!

xoxo

Bridal Line at Ruche Coming Soon...Twig and Sparrow Will Be There Too!

I am very excited to be a part of Ruche's debut of their gorgeous Bridal line!  It comes out next week, Monday, March 19th.  All of their designs are sooo budget-friendly yet unbelievably incredible.  I will not be surprised if their site gets flooded with page views and orders.  It really is a sight to behold.

Want to see a little sneak peak?  Just hop on over to GreenWeddingShoes!  You can also see some of my designs on here as well.

These are my pieces that their wedding line will be showcasing, let me know what you think!

Hope you come and visit Ruche on March 19th!

See you next time!

Twig and Sparrow now available at Ruche!

Over the past several months after the trade show, I have made myself pretty busy getting inspired and creating new designs for my website.  After sketching, playing around with bits and pieces, and making several prototypes, I managed to streamline my collection. 

The good news is that Ruche has kept on buying, yay! 

If you are not familiar with Ruche, they are an amazing and gorgeous So-Cal based online boutique that sells vintage-inspired clothing, accessories, shoes, and home decor.  If you like Anthropologie, you will love love love loooove Ruche!  If you have sticker shock from Anthropologie, then you will absolutely love Ruche!  Check them out please, you will not be disappointed!!! 

This spring, Ruche has recently launched their new lookbook.  My new piece, Alice, is now available through their website.  See the beautiful headband here.  Here is what is looks like, so keep an eye out for it!

I lined the gold headband with beige velvet ribbon for Ruche's order. 



See also all the designs below in action at Ruche



See you next time!

Aftershocks of the California Gift Show 2011

I apologize for having taken so long to post another blog (well, at least to whoever is out there actually reading my posts!  Gimme a couple more months, then this baby will take off...I promise to even post a few giveaways once the momentum gets going....please???)

Well, I attended and exhibited at my very first trade show.  The path leading up to it was so smooth and stress-free, thanks to my other half Carey for pushing me to move into one nice, long, continuous pace day by day.  I even managed to make a back-up lot of my samples, should anything happen during the show (one show attendee took one of my 20+ page lookbooks...come on, those things cost 35 a pop, do you REALLY think I have that much bank to just give a lookbook to 18,000 prospective clients?  Do the math!!!!).

A lot was learned.  A lot of leads were made.  Not to mention a ton of ideas and more networking than I can really handle at this point.  So many ideas were flowing though that convention center that I was glad to have my handy-dandy sketchbook/notepad to write them all down. 

All walks of life come to this show pretty much.  Hospital reps, costume designers, buyers from synagogue gift shops, florists, even one very lovely online boutique stopped by and it totally validated my business existence (haha...no really).

My booth was one giant learning experience.  Note to self:  just because it looks pretty, doesn't mean the fire marshall will agree with you.  Two hundred bucks later, he seemed to like my layout just fine (arrgh).





A lovely vase of dried lavender from our backyard next to the two lookbooks I made for prospective buyers

Brass candlestick held all of my headbands (the plastic ones had to go....)

Tree in a box with moss, covered with pages from a very old book.  My display for my one-of-a-kind pieces.

Antique plates were blu-tacked onto brass candlesticks to showcase my headpieces, along with hand-me-down silver plates from my MIL

Postcards made at SO last minute by dear friend and talented English-Canadian artist Phil Jones
Thank you for making these at my crazy whim!!!!

Proud of my homespun booth, complete with hand-painted sign, photos from Nicole Long photography, flea market toile I bought a gazillion years ago, and a wire mannequin a man practically threw at me (yes, it was free)  while out running in my neighborhood.  Thanks!

It was wonderful to see all the different types of exhibitors there at the show.  The amount of creativity these people have just amazes me.  And Carey was such a sport to be there the whole time.  The best part?  We had FOUR date nights in a row!!!!  Here's a glimpse of where we dined after a grueling day of selling:




Noshi Sushi...big portions, generous price!

Korean BBBQ Love

Bottega Louie

More photos of this downtown gem

Of COURSE I picked the salted caramel macaroons!

Back at home, after giving our little chickens about a million kisses each, my creative wheels started to spin again.  With an armful of orders that I needed to start working on, my creativity ADD set in to make more designs for Twig and Sparrow.  Focus, D, FOCUS!!!!!!!

The idea of this headpiece is photographed here for mere demonstration of where it goes on the head.  Please disregard the state of my overstressed, overprocessed hair.  Instead, picture this little number on the head below:

See?  Much better now!

Still need to finish embellishing, but couldn't wait to post!

heehee!

Love this clip, clips from behind the butterfly and will give an illusion of wearing a halo.  See my little one below?  She's already behaving better with it on! 

OK, I can dream, she just woke from her nap and it was the best op to click a pic of her in her nice 'quiet alert' state.

See you next time! xoxo