jules and juniper

Take me to the Punk Ballroom Rock Show…! Okay, if you’ve ever been into Dancing With The Stars at any point in your life (for me it was season 6?) then you must must must come out to Rock and Roll Hotel tonight to see Mark Ballas and Derek Hough perform in person with their new band, appropriately if not obviously named, the Ballas Hough Band. Maybe it’s not usually your thing, that poppy boy-bandy sound (even though they have a female in the group), but c’mon – this is Derek Hough and MARK BAALLLLAAAAASS!!! I will be there and you can be sure I will take loads of pictures – can’t wait!!! :)

My first class in jewelry-making/metalsmithing ever was last Wednesday evening at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. I was a bit nervous and anxious all day, but once class started I found my groove and relished in the excitement of learning something new about my chosen craft. Much to my surprise, and delight, the first class included two hours of bench work. Each of us received a toolkit and learned to saw, drill and file with lots of demonstration from our lovely instructor, Jimin Park. My classmates have all taken different paths to arrive at their interest in jewelry and I was also surprised to learn that I am the only student who is already making jewelry on my own.

Here are some pictures of my in class work. The whole time I was at the bench I couldn’t believe I was finally attacking metal with a saw. Well maybe not ‘attacking’, but in either case it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for so long and it was such a rush to finally get into it. I love working with my hands and jewelry making is such a great outlet and stress reliever….

A free-form window…

Practicing corners…

Straight lines and cuuuurvy ones…

I finished early and used the extra time to work on a bow! (no surprise there…)

Look at that pretty sawed side – can you believe this was my first time?!?

It’s snowing outside… no, I mean like really snowing. Something that happens maybe only once a season here in DC. It seems that over the past few years the winters have become much more mild and I’m just not used to seeing all this snow. If I were on top of things and had my camera with me today I would take a picture and post it. It’s a remarkably beautiful sight, for those of you who like me get all giggly and warm inside when you see fluffy white stuff outside your window. I’d much rather be home in my bedroom, curtains drawn, under two down comforters and propped up on eight or so pillows, watching anime on my laptop and drinking cup after cup of delicious coffee. Instead I’m in the office, but thinking about where I’d like to be and what I’d like to do is making me smile…

My current pile of netflixed anime includes…

The Place Promised In Our Early Days

I’m only halfway through this one and decided not to finish it quite yet because it’s THAT GOOD and I will be sad when it’s over… :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently gained five new family members. This Christmas at home was especially exciting because our immediate family has more than doubled in size. It was such a treat to have everyone together for the holiday and to introduce American holiday traditions to my sister, brother-in-law and nephews.

One tradition, however, was not American but very much a part of Vietnamese culture and that is the Buche de Noel! A traditional Christmas cake from France, it now graces the table of many a Vietnamese family as a leftover from the days of French colonization in Indochina (“Indochine”). In fact, all ‘baked’ goods in Vietnam are of French origin. Vietnamese curry is served with baguettes and Vietnamese sandwiches feature french crusty bread. The Buche de Noel or Christmas log is a rolled cake, usually chocolate or mocha, and decorated to look like a log, complete with sugar mushrooms! I adore them not only because they taste and look amazing but also because they have a heavy dose of cuteness which is a particular weakness of mine!

On Friday, Laura and I went to see our favorite band, Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears. I dressed in usual vaudeville fashion with a hint of geisha and Laura wore her BSST t-shirt (with their button still on!). You see, BSST is a unique sort of band. Their music spans all sorts of pop-rock genres and influences but the one consistent element is concept albums with costumes for live performances. For their most recent effort, Flight of the Knife, all five members don flight suits. Bryan wore some interesting eye makeup this time around and did the usual play with props and hats to play into the theatricality of the lyrics. Perhaps Laura and I are the only ones who ‘dress up’ for their shows but that’s not going to stop us anytime soon. Unfortunately I left my memory card for my camera at home so I have no pictures of BSST or my costume. Next time I suppose…

Saturday morning I delivered a custom jewelry order for a little girl’s birthday. It was a nice reminder of why I make jewelry in the first place and it kept me smiling all afternoon. It’s also reassuring to know that there are little girls out there who love flowers and rhinestones just as much as me!

Saturday night was local bands at the bar. My friend Jeremy is a member of the band that opened, Loose Lips. I think we were both pleasantly surprised to run into each other and catch up a bit. Check our their music and that of the other bands. I got to see most of the headliner’s performance which was … AWESOME.

Sunday I found myself having a late brunch and board games with Alfonso and Kim. Nothing says hangover cure like $2 mimosas at The Red Derby and a game of “SORRY!”. The best part of course was getting to say “sorry!” in a sarcastically whiny tone while catching up on the past weeks events….

Sunday night I ventured out to College Park, MD to ‘practice’ djing with my friend Rayhan. We spent most of the evening setting up and figuring out how Serato works… instead of actual practicing. It was great to work out the kinks though and I think I learned a great deal about equipment, bpms, beat-matching and transitions. Plus it’s just kinda fun to mess around with music with your friends and wear comfy headphones like a real dj. Couch djing is totally the new thing – everyone’s doing it!

Ray shows off the setup…

Ah, but isn’t serato a wonderful thing?!

I also came in at the tail end of a clothing swap and snagged an awesome pair of polka dot gloves. Unused because apparently everyone else’s hands were too big for them except mine. Thanks to my mixed heritage and small bones I guess. Maybe my petite hands make the jewelry work easier for me…?

The swap pile!

Ray and I got a little chilly so into the pile we dove! Instant warminess!

After djing and generally hanging out we decided to grab a bite at Plato’s Diner  – a Plato themed diner, but a real diner, not like the diner wannabes in DC that serve seared ahi tuna on a bed of seaweed salad. :) We sat in front of a mural of the death of Socrates framed by fake pillars built into the wall. Ray had some sort of delicious looking greek-type burger with melted feta on focaccia, appropriately named the “Employees’ Favorite”… I had a scruptious onion soup and about five cups of coffee (hadn’t had any yet that day) and we had a Chocolate Mouse for dessert. It looked kinda creepy but was filled with so much yummy chocolate mousse and cake that we ate everything but the tail. Seriously! We left the chocolate tail. I don’t know why but we did…

I have seriously been thinking about and craving this chocolate mousse mouse alllllll f-in week!

Then I went to bed…late… THE END.

I’ll be doing a series of ‘catching up’ posts to recap some things that have happened during my break from blogging. Here’s the first one and it’s a goody!

My dear friend, Peyton Ware, is as some of us know, a poet. Not just any poet, but a GREAT ONE! Check out his blog: Street Savoir Ware for daily poems on all subjects and in all forms. He always uses a healthy dose of humor though he often touches on sensitive subjects of the human condition variety. He is sometimes silly and always genuine as well as generally very clever and entertaining. I expect that one day Peyton will turn around and wrtie the next surprise broadway hit – a la Avenue Q! Thank you Peyton for supporting my craft, winning my jewelry contest, giving my jewelry to your loved ones and especially for writing such a lovely poem about my store which is really my passion!

Jules and Juniper by Peyton Ware

Friday, January 30th

6-9 pm

@Studio 4903

4903 Wisconsin Ave, 2FL, NW, Wash DC

With work from: Susie Ganch, Natalya Pinchuk, Gayle Friedman, Jimin Park and Anya Pinchuk

Jewelry, artists, wine – what more could you ask for on a Friday night!?

After a longer than anticipated break from this blog I am finally back and ready to recommit myself to blogging, craftiness and most importantly – JEWELRY!!!!! I am taking a class this semester at the Corcoran Art School here in DC and my first day in tomorrow. I’m feeling all sorts of things at the moment – nervousness, excitement,… the sore throat I contracted from staying out too late this past week and partying a little too much. What better way to distract myself than checking out new music online since the aforementioned sickness kept me from the National Mall and parade for inauguration. So, without further ado I give you Honey by Lovers Electric. Awesome!

Also, stay tuned for recap postings – so much happened over the holidaze – and more jewelry related things as school is sure to give me lots to write about…