July 2014 – Colorful clothes for creative souls

July 24, 2014August 3, 2014

BROCADE CLUTCH Give-away!

Win this One-of-a-Kind Clutch!

Why am I doing this?
Just because I am grateful that you’re here reading this!

The winner will be announced on July 31st.

What do you have to do to participate?

If you got this letter from a friend, then here is what to do:

Click here to go the homepage & sign up.
Make sure to scroll down to see the box where to enter your name and email!

If you are already receiving letters from me, you don’t have to do anything.
You are already entered to win.

About the clutch:

I made it.
What inspired me was the fabric.
I had a small remnant of a brocade fabric
that I bought from a small fabric manufacturer in France a few years ago.
Despite being made in France, the fabric made me feel like I was in Kyoto just looking at it!

I am in love with traditional Japanese culture.
I’ve never been to Japan and I don’t even know any Japanese people.
Yet their sense of design enchants me.

Kimonos, ikebana (art of flower arrangement), sushi, zen gardens…

The words that immediately jump to mind when I think of Japanese design are:

Simplicity.
Harmony.
Balance.
Perfection.

This clutch isn’t a masterpiece of Japanese design (after all, I am not Japanese!) but it is elegant and timeless.

Here you can see the front part of the clutch and the brocade fabric.

I added two “flowers” to the zipper pull, making it both practical for zipping open
and to add an exotic touch. 🙂

The inside has orange and fuchsia satin.

The back is simple, all in black, so as to keep the overall design understated & elegant.
This fabric is 100% linen, made in Barcelona.
It can also be worn with the black side looking out.

One-of-a-kind.
Made with lots of LOVE 🙂

I realize that evening bags are often just worn once and then stashed away in closets and forgotten. What a pity that would be if that happened to this bag. 🙁

So it occurred to me that when you travel, this bag could be the ideal place to store your undies & socks so they wouldn’t get all jumbled in your suitcase. And you’d have that evening bag ready, just in case you got invited out to that chic little bistro on the Seine…..
You just never know!

Do you like this bag?
Did you like the story behind it?

Invite your friends to join the give-away!

For each friend you invite,
you will receive an additional chance to win.

How do I know who your friends are, so you’d qualify for more entries?

Have them leave your name in the comment section below,
so I know who gets extra entries.

Thanks for participating!

Good luck to all of you!

The winner will be notified personally by email and also announced July 31st
on my blog https://www.hellomygoddess.com/blog/
and on Facebook over at https://www.facebook.com/hellomygoddess

Share this with your friends!

Don’t forget to remind them
to add your name in the comment box below so that
I know how many entries you have!

Talk next week!

Love,
Indre

P.S. If you love to read, here’s a dreamy & enchanting & romantic novel I read recently.
The protagonist? The Japanese garden!!!

The Garden of Evening Mists Tan Twan Eng.

July 18, 2014August 3, 2014

CHIME FOR CHANGE

Great news! Macy’s (CHIME FOR CHANGE) just donated $14,584.00 to the non-for-profit org APRAMP that helps victims of human trafficking. Most victims are young girls and women, from 14 to 25 years old.

http://www.catapult.org/project/weaving-future-survivors

APRAMP helps the women reintegrate into society, access the labor market, and become self-reliant.

APRAMP had been trying to raise $14,880 via catapult.org

to buy sewing machines and teach the women weaving skills.

The deadline for raising this money was fast approaching and they were still more than $14.500 short……. when a miracle happened TODAY!

Macy’s (CHIME FOR CHANGE) stepped up to donate the difference!!!

The reason I am personally excited is because I have been in contact with APRAMP and am planning a major sewing project with them.

I am planning something beautiful to offer you here at HelloMyGoddess!

It is still a secret. YOU WILL KNOW in due time! 🙂

Reading about bombs in the Middle East, passenger airplanes being shot down, too many innocent people being killed….it makes one start to lose hope in humanity…

Then, all of a sudden, you read news like this and you KNOW there is still hope to make the world a more beautiful place!

THANK YOU Macy’s & CLIMATE for CHANGE !!!!!!!

July 11, 2014July 18, 2014

BEACH = sea shells

It’s July!

Off to the beach!

YAAAAY!! I LOVE the beach.

Actually, I am lucky because I do not have to wait until July to go to the beach. I merely have to put on my shoes or sandals, and in 10 minutes flat (walking, not by car!) I am on the shores of the Mediterranean.

I never sunbathe. Boooooooooring!

Instead, I swim. Or I walk. Occasionally I run.

What I always do, no matter what, is pick up the little treasures I see at my feet:
seashells, pebbles, stones, twigs, sea urchin shells, sea glass……….

Sometimes I carry the little jewels in my hand for awhile, and then end up throwing them back into the sea.

Other times I cannot resist the temptation of taking the treasure home.
The big ones are doorstops and paperweights, the tiny ones get made into jewelry or mini shelf art pieces that you can get here.

I ran across an idea in Sweet Paul magazine* about converting seashells = spoons.
Oh, I HAD to try that!

Here’s a handful of shells that I picked especially for the project:

I won’t give you instructions how to make these spoons.

If you are artsy fartsy, like me, you can figure out it out by just looking at the photos.

If you are not a confident DIY-er, then here’s what you need:

***an assortment of seashells

***different thicknesses of wire (you can get some at the hardware store or at a craft shop)

***pliers (to help bend the thicker wires. any old pair will do)

***a hammer & nail (to punch a hole in the shell, you place the nail in inner part of the shell. With one quick blow, you’ll make a hole. Careful for your fingers! Be forewarned that some shells will break this way 🙁 Be sure to have lots of extras!)

It was a bit fiddly to make the first one. I was ready to give up.
I ventured to make another a week later. That’s when I got hooked and made 4 in one go.

So now I have 5 of these sweet mermaid spoons.

Where to use them?

In the salt jar? hmmm, maybe not. I already have a cute wooden spoon there.

In the sugar bowl? YES! Good idea!

My mom made this sugar bowl eons years ago.
(OK , I know, I know. White sugar is a “no-no” nowadays but I have the stuff around the house for a few of my friends who need the so-called-white-poison in their coffee or tea).

Anyone for some blackberry jelly & freshly baked whole wheat bread & a cup of tea??? mmmmmm

This isn’t a story. So it doesn’t need an ending.
But just in case here are the 3 morals:

·Observe the tiny things in life. (seashells, smiles, butterflies, free hugs)

·Nothing is perfect. Yet everything is perfect in it’s imperfection. (each seashell is uneven in shape, size and color. like my teeth. like my body. like my new website. )

·Enjoy the process. Savor the journey. Sure, the outcome is important but if you don’t pay attention to the ride, you’re missing out. (making the seashell spoons was just as fun as seeing the end result. life rushes past too quickly. take each day one at a time. and don’t forget to smell the flowers. you don’t know if they’ll be around tomorrow.)

*Original seashell spoon idea seen on http://www.sweetpaulmag.com/crafts/seashell-spoons

July 4, 2014July 4, 2014

Come visit me in Spain!

Happy Birthday, US of A !

For those of my American friends reading this, I hope you are enjoying these 3 days of outdoor fun.

After indulging in

grilled zucchini + secret spicy sauce,

green onion + red skinned potato salad,

special brew beers,

and those crazy red-white-blue jello-O margarita shots,

maybe you’re wishing that this non-work weekend could last forever.

Maybe not.

Maybe you suffer from an acute case of of wanderlustitis

and wish that your whole life were a vacation.

Come visit me in Spain!

I’m not kidding!

I’ve made several good friends through the internet. And TWO of them actually ventured beyond their comfort zone and made it out to my teeny weeny town in the middle of nowhere in southeast Spain.

(Caralee & Laura Z, here’s a winking at you!)

We had the best time, going for long walks by the sea and indulging in the best hot chili + rich dark chocolate ice cream that money can buy (around here, anyway). If you don’t believe me, ask them 😉

Since it might be awhile since you can make it all the way to my little corner of the world, I’ve decided to invite you into my studio.

OK, I’m sure you’d just prefer the beach but since you are my guest, you’ll have to put up with me while I show you some of the tiny things that have meaning in my daily life.

A little cabinet that I found abandoned out on the street in Madrid eons ago.

It was a boring brown so I painted it a snazzy black +white + red.

A couple of years ago I white-washed it, adding grungy swirls.

A closer look at what I keep on top of it:

+A triptych of mini art, entitled “Beauty & the Beast” , painted by my best friend Doreen.

+A heart shaped rock I found on the beach (no kidding!) that I decided to paint red. I use it as a paperweight.

+Another beach stone, this one painted with an all-seeing eye by my son when he was 8? 10?

+A trade-fair bowl I bought some years back. I loved the story behind it: Made by Nepalese women, using traditional basket-weaving techniques but made out of candy wrappers!