I must admit, I have such a little DIY girl crush on Anne of Wobisobi. I linked to her super easy no-sew t-shirt vest project awhile back, but I just discovered this gold jeans project via Pinterest:

The first gold jeans tutorial.
Re-vamped, with more gold!

Such an easy project, I love it!

My lovely best bud did a What We Wore post yesterday on her blog, recapping our trip to Festival International a couple weeks ago. Thanks again to Ashe for coming along to help! I couldn’t have done it without you!!!

A few weeks ago I had one of those days where I had to wear my glasses all day. I’ve worn glasses since I was a little kid, but switched to contacts for everyday wear pretty early on, when I was 13 or so. I still have to wear glasses every night after I take my contacts out, because I can barely see a thing without them, but I usually prefer to wear my contacts during the day. Occasionally though, I get a sty or something in my eye, and I need to wear my glasses out of the house.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my current, crazy red upside-down looking glasses. But when I had to wear them all day I was wishing that I had something a little more neutral. Plus I’ve had these glasses 5 or 6 years now so I was starting to think maybe I needed a change soon. Then I remembered hearing about Mezzmer, an online service for prescription glasses which offers a free at-home trial of up to 5 frame styles. They have a lot of cool vintage-inspired eyeglasses for both men & women, so I thought I’d give it a try.

I like that when I was trying to pick out glasses to try on their website they offer an easy to use face shape fit guide. It will offer up suggestions based on your face shape, which is really handy when shopping for glasses online! After you pick out your 5 styles, they send you the glasses to try on for free. It’s just the frames, no lenses, so you can pick which style(s) you like best. (They actually do a $1 pending charge when you order your trial frames in case anything happens or so if you don’t send them back they can charge you for them, but you get 5 days to try them all on for size and see what you like.) I tried out the following 5 styles:

Halliday – Black Lilac

Glass Ceiling – Champagne

Dockside – Tortoise/Gold (David said I looked like a boy from the 1950s between these glasses and my new haircut…)

Audrey – Black

Bella – Black (I think these are my faves, and the winner!)

Once you decide which frames you like, you simply send back the glasses – they come to you packaged in a fancy box to keep them safe, and Mezzmer provides a postage paid return address label – you just slap that back on the box and drop it at your nearest UPS drop-off location.

Then you go back to Mezzmer’s website and order your prescription glasses. Each pair is $99, which includes frames, lenses & shipping. (If you have a crazy high prescription like I do, you can get the high-index lenses that reduce how thick they are for just $30 extra.) They also donate a portion of your final sale to one of 5 charities – you get to choose which one!

Head over to Mezzmer.com to see all of the styles they carry!

cute things for your head, handmade by Sue Eggen of Giant Dwarf

So yesterday I was hard at work at Trashy Diva and I got into a conversation with one of our lovely customers. Somewhere along the line, she handed me a business card, which had her business name & a product picture on the front. And instantly I realized, “I know this person!!!!!” I freaked out for a second, and introduced myself as Miss Malaprop (is that weird?!?) and she knew me too!

The internet makes the world so much smaller, in such a good way sometimes. Yesterday’s chance encounter was with Sue Eggen, the creator of Giant Dwarf! She’s kind of a rockstar in the indie craft world, as she’s been on the scene since 2003 and has participated in a ton of the big craft shows including the Renegade Craft Fair & Martha Stewart’s Divine Craft Sale. She’s also been mentioned in national publications & design blogs, like The New York Times & Design Sponge!

So I was totally geeked that she recognized me too! She’s so super sweet, and I hope she has a fabulous time here in New Orleans for Jazz Fest this weekend!!! I told her about some of my favorite local shops, and also the pop-up night art market on Frenchman Street (next to the Blue Nile) this weekend, which is where I’ll be tonight through Saturday night from 7pm til 1am!

I must admit, I’ve had a long-time girl crush Leslie Yang of feistyelle. I’ve always loved her commitment to sustainability in her business, not to mention her use of fun colors and modern design. Leslie was one of the first designers to start creating earrings and other jewelry from brightly colored laser-cut wool felt. Everything feistyelle creates is designed and assembled in San Francisco, California. I recently chatted her up to find out more about her work and how she got her start.

Tell me a little about yourself and your company feistyelle.
I’m Leslie Yang and I’m the owner and designer for feistyelle. That’s “feisty” plus “elle.” I founded feistyelle in 2005 out of a love for making cozy chic things by hand. Feisty L was going to be my DJ name but I found out pretty quickly that I had a deeper love for designing things than scratching out beats, not to mention skill! When it came time to naming my company, I changed “L” to “elle” for all ladies because I design for feisty ladies that love color.

I know that feistyelle strives to be eco chic, and you keep your production local to San Francisco. Can you tell me more about this and why it’s important to you?
As a consumer, we see the end product and don’t think much about who makes things and how they’re made. However, when I switched sides and began to sell things I made, I couldn’t ignore all the waste that I could accumulate in a short amount of time. I feel deep in my bones that that’s not the right way to do business. I and other companies can easily make ecologically smart decisions when it comes to how we make things.

Plus, as a designer I like to give myself design constraints like: only use eco-friendly materials. I’ve set myself up to be innovative versus choosing to make things the way everyone else does. Sometimes this constraint is super frustrating but it’s been totally worthwhile in the end. For example, after much sourcing and prototyping, I’m ready to introduce a line of jewelry made from vegan suede. No one’s ever used this material the way we have. I’ll go more into that later.

Why I strive to keep production local is important to me for two reasons. One is that I do right by the community I live in. I like that the money I put into local companies stays local. Two, and this is equally important, is that I can see that the people I work with have decent working conditions. I know I can drive over to vendors and see their places of business, meet the people that work for them.

You started your company in 2005. How has it changed over the years? Where do you see feistyelle two years from now?
It’s really evolved. For the first few years, I treated my company like a hobby business, I was making and selling needle-felted flower brooches and hair clips. It was fun at first but over time, I became tired of working so hard and charging too little. It wasn’t a business I could grow. I knew I needed fresh perspective so I put the company on hiatus and told myself to be open to new things. During this time, I starting playing with laser cutting wool. I’d always loved wool felt and for fun, I started designing a laser cut dahlia brooch. I made a smaller version for a hair clip too. When a coworker saw the smaller dahlia, she asked for them as earrings. Once I made them, there was a stampede to my office of ladies asking for their own pair. I literally started selling earrings out of a box out of my purse! Over time, I started doing tradeshows and getting into stores. Today we’re in 30-plus stores across the country.

Two years from now, I see feistyelle being in two to three times as many stores in North America and being a nationally recognized independent fashion brand doing cutting edge work with eco-friendly materials.

What’s your favorite design from your current collection?
I’m in love with our new line of gorgeously soft earrings and necklaces made from super soft and resilient vegan suede (made from recycled polyester)! I especially love the gold-bamboo lotus earrings, which use vegan suede and bamboo ply. Wood and metallic gold are hot!

What do you like to do when you’re not working on feistyelle?
I like fussing with my growing succulent collection. I love shopping for brightly colored clothes. I enjoy having meals with friends. My biggest vice is I watch an unhealthy amount of Hulu, bad Leslie!

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring designers or business owners, what would it be?
May I give two pieces of advice? I would say don’t fall in love with the idea of your product so much that you can’t see that it’s not selling and/or the interest isn’t there. If that product doesn’t work, don’t beat yourself up, but do set it aside and try making something else.

My second piece of advice is to always talk about your business. You’re promoting your company, your products, and you. The time for shyness is over!

For more feistyelle goodness, shop online at the feistyelle website or follow feistyelle’s adventures on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest!

So it was my very first time attending & setting up a booth at Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette. I’ve heard so many great things about this festival over the years (including from my friends Heather & Mark of Unique Products, their booth is pictured above), I can’t believe I didn’t go to check it out sooner. And I think if it wasn’t the same weekend as Jazz Fest here in New Orleans, you’d definitely see more New Orleanians heading over to Cajun Country for this world music festival. As it was, I saw quite a few folks from here!

Downtown Lafayette is really cool, and this festival brings such a diverse range of music and art together, it’s really fabulous. Ashe came along for the ride to help me out, and we both agreed – for some reason the festival fashion over in Lafayette was more interesting than we usually see here in New Orleans somehow. Don’t get me wrong, I love New Orleans! But I totally have a crush on Lafayette now! The food trucks in the beer garden had a big part to play in that:

I discovered the California panini at the Bon Repas Wrap Truck the first night, and then spent the next two days devouring Roscoe sandwiches from Viva La Waffle. (Yes, I had 2 – one on Saturday and Sunday. They were that good!!)

Oh yeah, did I mention I chopped all my hair off before we headed over to Lafayette? A good thing too, it was so hot all weekend!

Yesterday my guest post over at made-to-travel.com went up. My friend Jamillah is on vacation so she asked me and some other blogger friends to cover for her while she’s away. Since her blog focuses on ethical fashion, I thought it would be a great idea to interview one of my favorite ethical brands about what ethical consumerism means today. I chatted with the founder of The Andean Collection, Amanda Judge, about that very topic.

The Andean Collection works with artisans in Ecuador to handcraft jewelry and accessories using sustainable materials. Their work blends traditional materials and techniques with modern sensibilities. The result is beautiful jewelry you can feel good about buying. If you’re so inclined, I’d love for you to check out my interview, or take a peek at The Andean Collection’s website.

glasses – St. Charles Vision
earrings – made by me
robe – Trashy Diva
dress – Audrey Mini by Trashy Diva
belt – vintage
boots – Miz Mooz

What a crazy weekend. The weather was especially crazy – while Friday was BEAUTIFUL, a cold front decided to blow through, bringing crazy thunderstorms, rain and wind all day Saturday. Which of course was right in the middle of one of my favorite shows of the year: Crawfest at Tulane University. This is what it looked like during set-up:

The rain cleared up later in the day, but that just meant that it was time for the wind to pick up! Oh well – the weather was much nicer, albeit still windy, on Sunday for the Earth Day Festival on Bayou St. John.

This cold front is bringing what is probably the last bit of nice weather before it gets crazy hot around here. So yesterday I figured I should take advantage of it. I was forced to wear my glasses to work, because after spending all weekend outside in weather insanity, I was having some eye issues and decided they needed a break from my contacts.

A few months ago I had a customer at one of the Trashy Diva shoe stores who had just bought the 1929 Robe and she was planning to belt it and wear it out that night. Which made me remember this older Trashy Diva robe I have, and it made me want to wear it outside of the house too. So since the weather was cool enough yesterday I finally tried it. David said I looked like a geisha. I don’t know about that… but I still kind of like it.

- Aqua Blue Cross Smocked Maxi Dress
- Braided Rope Cross Back Maxi Dress
- Purple Jersey Maxi Tank Dress

Ashe recently sent me a link to a few of these maxi dresses at Old Navy and said they made her think of me. I guess it’s because it’s festival season, it’s hot outside, and about a year ago I finally wised up and realized that long jersey maxi dresses are SO much better for spending all day outside in the heat than wearing my denim skirts. (Which I love – but hey, denim + hot, sticky, sweaty Mallory = no fun.)

“Damn her!” I thought. Because of course I want like all of those dresses now. I would totally wear each and every one. And probably also all of these:

1. Culture Phit – Sawyer Tank Maxi Dress
2. Alternative Apparel – Eco-True Racerback Maxi Dress
3. Ella Moss – Striped Maxi Dress
4. Donna Morgan – Jersey Printed Maxi Dress
5. Diedra Stripe Maxi Dress (Raspberry/Dark Navy)
6. Diesel – Veehl Jersey Maxi Dress (Army Green)

(Although you know my heart is still reserved for that darn octopus dress.)

This weekend I’ve got two festivals back to back: Crawfest at Tulane University tomorrow and New Orleans Earth Day Festival on Bayou St. John on Sunday. I’m very, very nervous currently because there are supposed to be thunderstorms tomorrow! Plus 20-30mph winds both days this weekend! I’m trying to think dry, calm wind, positive thoughts. But just in case, you can be sure I will be wearing my rain boots both days. Which brings me to… festival fashion means cute rain-gear!

1. Ted Baker – Mardea BOW Rain Boots!
2. When Life Gives You Rain Coat
3. Free People – Lacey Raincoat
4. Panda-monium Umbrella

Unfortunately, I’m kind of bummed because I realized today thinking about tomorrow’s weather that I don’t really own a rain jacket. Uh-oh. At least I have a pair of Wellies though!

What do you usually wear to outdoor festivals?

I’m so pleased to have my picks chosen for the newest Lovely Clusters Spring/Summer 2012 Catalog! Rachel Follett always does a great job curating the Lovely Clusters catalog and I was so excited when I got an email from her inviting me to curate one of the clusters! I’m so glad she liked my choices, pictured above. It’s definitely a me collection – full of bright colors and wanderlust! She’s doing a giveaway for $200 worth of advertising to help promote the newest catalog – so if you’re a small biz in need of some free advertising head on over to find out how to enter!

There are some options to enter that Lovely Clusters giveaway via Pinterest – but don’t forget, today is the last day to enter my very own Pinterest giveaway! Check out this post to find out how to enter if you haven’t already!

My friend Juliet of Midnight Girl Designs told me about her newest endeavor this past weekend during the Voodoo Garden Art Market. For her senior project as part of her graphic design degree, she’s created Sustainable NOLA. Her goal is to use graphic design to encourage awareness of the need for certain lifestyle changes the citizens of New Orleans can make to create a more sustainable city in the coming years. The project encourages things like eating locally, shopping locally, reducing waste, using alternative energy – obviously all things which I’m a big fan of!

Juliet hopes to raise $500 for donation to Edible Schoolyard New Orleans by selling prints of artwork through the Sustainable NOLA website. Artwork is available with the text or as image-only, and it is printed on high quality artist paper. Each print is just $25 each, which includes shipping costs.