From new the Bird Trouble studio.

My studio is coming together quicker than ever.

This past weekend, James put shelving up in there. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulder to have those shelving. I've become fond of working in a space that feels inspiring, and it's been a struggle achieving the organized comfort, but I think it's finally 85% there! I just need to repaint the walls.

I was snickering at the fact of becoming the type of person who cares about what their space looks like. Only because I used to work on my bed, or on the messiest living room floor, or the most cramped of rooms. I'm not too picky. I moved out at 19 and have only collected items from alley ways or thrift stores - and though some of the items aren't the best of condition, I love it this way. I remember having my fabric stored in milk crates, stolen from the back of restaurants.

The shelving has even added to feeling like I'm "growing up" to a young women who's establishing her style. I have a real studio!!! All I'm saying is that this shelving makes me feel really, really legit, guys. It feels really good to walk into this Bird Trouble studio. We can thank my recent promotion at the salon for this redecorating (yay full-time + PR/marketing work!)!

Here's a glimpse of some photos that I took today. I'm having a studio-feature soon (more on that later!) and I'm holding off on posting full room photos. If you follow me on Instagram, you may catch more glimpses!

xo

Studio Tour Part 2

Here are more pictures taken inside of my studio. My room is pretty tiny but I make the best of it & what I have. I love my room because of all the natural light I get. It makes up for the lack of space. I could use a credenza in there but the one I have is being stowed at my parents house in the suburbs and I still have yet found the time to rent a Uhaul to get it... but now that James has his van, I can see it being included soon! Ahh! I just got excited about it.

Studio Tour Part 1.

Compulsive re-organizational skills.

Compulsive moving around furniture skills.

These should be on my resume.

My work space has changed once again. This time around, I am the most happy with the arrangement of tables and desks. I feel that it seems like it's a bigger space now and makes me less cluttered. The only thing that I'm missing is a good shelving unit that doesn't take up much space, and I want my red Ikea metal credenza that has sitting in my parents garage 40 miles out side of the city since October. I really don't like the fact that most of my textiles are covered. Having them out in the open and exposed leaves me inspired.

Anyway, I'm here today to show you some photos of my space and how it looks now. This post will be too lengthy if I post all of the photos I took, so we'll show you these for now. 

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Decorating with X-rays.

I´ve been decorating. I put up the x-rays I found with my friends in the abandoned evacuated town of Gilman, Colorado. Some random squirrel tails are sticking around. A colorful sugar skull - gifted by my parents. I put this colorful door down as my desk, making my craft room seem huge. Pictures of that later. I´ve been using my post-it notes to organize my blog posts // as seen in The Dainty Squid & inspired by. I thrifted a new-to-me 2lb postage scale a few weeks ago next to a little clay molded head of a dog I made in behalf of my late Bowie. I have three random human teeth next to bullet shells, a really sharp ring, & a pin with two of my best friends on it. The seashell jewelry box was at my parents house growing up. The photo of San Francisco makes my bones all happy for possibilities of the future.

I´m just so excited about my x-rays being up. They´re from the 1950s; with the date & name of the patient. I have a few more but I´m going to put those somewhere else in the apartment. Can´t hog all the coolness in my room! Plus, I really need to work on the rest of the apartment.

Bags in the making :: the Free Bird collection

This weaved textile is thrifted from the north side of Chicago and resembles spanish roots and really owns it when it comes to having a gorgeous southwestern / bohemian style. It has to be one of my favorite recent finds. The fabric itself looks hand weaved, which only adds to the personality of being created into a handmade bag collection - and stays along the Bird Trouble ideology of being the original you. 

These photos were taken when I purchased the fabric and right after I cut out my pieces. I made sure to place the patterns accordingly to show off the embroidered open winged birds. Each bag is adorned with metal teeth recycled and high quality zippers. The leather is recycled out of a leather jacket.

What do you guys think about this fabric? Are you still into the bohemian designs? Does it remind you of the south, or maybe it reminds you of riding motorcycles?

Bon voyeur!

Alexz

The past few days.

[photos from the Bird Trouble studio. new bags hanging. Photobooth to the right of my work desk to remind me of all the silly, and awesome, people I enjoy. a drawing from a friend that tickles my satanic kitten lovin' heart.]

Lo siento on being MIA on the blog for the past few days. I've been having some really busy and fun days. It feels good to be sitting in my studio watching Girl, Interrupted and focusing on new blog posts and photo editing. 

Saturday, I had the day off from the salon, so I decided to have a sidewalk sale to try to get rid of some vintage clothing, trinkets, new & vintage home decor.

Sunday, I took the Bird Trouble bags to Sheffield's Market Days at Sheffields. It was my first time in their beer garden, and it sure was pretty. The customers came mainly for the local food or for brunch, but I had a great time. I was able to eat Bleeding Heart Bakery for breakfast since they sat across from me, and I came home with local eggs and locally grown corn.

Monday was a short and sweet work at the hair salon, then I came home to a custom project I've been working on. I made a rickshaw cover for a friend's boyfriend. It was pretty wild and I'm pretty impressed by my sewing machine, and the fact that I even made that. James and I finished off the night with dinner outside and had ourselves a basketball game and a nearby court.

Tuesday I worked at the salon early in the day. I had to run to International Camera downtown (super awesome with down to earth employees) and then we enjoyed a walk around the Cultural Center, helped ourselves to a tour to the top floor of some hotel, came home with a 6 pack of Tecate, and headed straight to the Wilson Dog Beach with Ty. We ended up having an amazing conversation and time with a mom and her 10 year old son for 2 hours. It was pretty adorable.

So yeah, it's been pretty busy! I'm going to slow down for a while and get some studio time in. This week, I'm working on some new bags that will be releasing in a few weeks. I'll be introducing a few shots of them to the blog tomorrow. The collection is called Free Bird... I hope to be able to release more than one collection all together, but more on that later.

Also, I'm not sure who has me in their contacts via email... but I changed my email address. I haven't deleted the old one, but I will soon enough deactivate it and move permanently over to alexz [at!} birdtrouble [dot] com. 

UNTIL NEXT TIME.

Alexz

[What if I start going by Alexandra? I might think it's too weird.]

Photos from the Studio

My studio looks different since the last time I show you guys. Again, of course. I'm excited it's starting to feel like a comfortable studio now. There are two desks, one for my laptop and one for my sewing table, and my cutting table to the side. I love the getting up and moving to different to the table, and back to the desk. 

I still need to get some real paint in there, some shelves, and some last minute finishing touches. There are windows at my front window facing the street, it's really great, but I've recently thought about getting some planters. I'm confident it'll get there really soon. I took some photos a few weeks ago, before the Jade and Blossom bags were finished, so naturally, it looks a little messier. I think I did move my chest shelving to the other side of the desk.... haha. There is just something I have with re-arranging furniture. It's a hobby of mine, I swear.

Here are some pictures of where it was at about 2 weeks ago. I need to mess around with this camera because my photos are lookin' all kinds of grainy. But until then, here they are.

 

Want to see how it looked like before?... or maybe see what goes on in the studio?

I'm not sure why I'm still awake. It's 12:30am and I have to wake up to open the salon by 8am. So... I need to wake up at 6am and wash my dirty head of hair that is currently piled on the top of my head. Into a giant messy ball. It's really tangly... guh.

Thanks for reading! Have a great Memorial Day / aka party-time-long-weekend.
Alexz

Yoga and new shoes!

This week has been filled with a lot of earl gray tea (with milk, please), sewing and trying to become more efficient with my sewing, planning future projects with swatches ( probably the most organized I've been with the thought process of a bag ever), and yoga. I'm doing that week free at Core Power and my first class was Sunday. I actually haven't done a yoga class since 2007. I've done Pilates and I've done yoga at home, but this was my first class in years and it was hot yoga! Holy crap did I love it. I definitely need this to help clear my head from my crazy life outside this blog. I felt more clear and refreshed... and dripping in sweat. Literally watching my sweat drip down my leg.

Priscilla and I went thrifting last week Friday. Priscilla found a few awesome summer pieces and this really pretty ring. I lucked out big time and found some really cute shoes! Oh, and I also purchased a hammock. A single seat hammock. We rigged/attached it to a metal rack at the thrift store so I could sit in it and "test" it out. Well, of course Priscilla asks if I feel safe, the hammock falls, and I fall hard on my butt. 

It was hilarious and I was sold.

Do any of my readers do hot yoga classes? Any tips or good feelin' results from it?

Happy Thursday!,

Alexz

Packaging

I like to make Bird Trouble's packaging interesting and creative. Now, you'll notice stitching on the edge of your packages and new hand drawn branding for the return address. It's just another touch of hand-crafting that you wont get just anywhere. 

Inside is just as neat!

One of those packages went to the United Kingdom. 

I am always jealous of the places my bags get to travel to.

-A.

Construction in the Studio

In the process of creating the Fringe Satchel bag.

I am in love with the new set up of my craft room. My roommate's father was recently given the permission to rummage through an old barn that he is restoring. The owner told him to take some things, so not only do we have a million frames for my roommate's illustrations, but I have a new desk! Look at this damn beauty:

This is before I moved it to the other side of the room so I can have full TV view. I need my black & white movie or King of the Hill entertainment while I'm sewing! I'm now using my old desk (in the above photos - that is actually a drafting table) as a cutting table. I'm able to walk around on either side and I can probably sit on top of it if I needed to. It's pretty exciting to me.

It's always a huge refreshment to me when I change my surroundings. Hence my blog being updated again. I realized that the "Dynamic View" that blogger offers wasn't giving my readers the full experience. I didn't like that it cut off my pictures, which I obviously like to show. I freshened up the banner and my "About BT".

I'll be keeping busy this week with sewing more ready to ship bags. Have you seen my new ones recently?

Enjoy the beginning start to your week!

Alexz

In the STUDIO

I recently purchased a wood burning tool. I've used one before but never had one of my own. Man... I could use that tool for hours. I burned Bird Trouble leather tags the other night. This is a very tedious project for me knowing that I need to actually like my penmanship, so instead of obsessing over it, I tried to have an obvious lack of cohesive penmanship in these. Some of them are in cursive, some are in print, some are short, some are fat. Imperfections, I dig them.

I also came across some new envelopes for my packaging. They're cheaper than other ones I've found and feel super durable. I put them in a retro hamper next to my desk so I can be forced to look at them and think about packaging orders. I just cut them to size and sew the seam shut. I'll post pictures on how I do that later this week.

There are five squirrels making an appearance in the last photo. 

Can you find all of them?

xoxo,

Alexz

Welcome December :: new craft room renovations!

Finally, December is here! Good riddance November. I'm probably speaking too soon, because as soon as the bad snow hits, I'm going to beg for November... or at least March. I did some slight rearranging in my craft room, again. When I moved in, the previous dude who lived here left this platform and he painted it this weird muted blue-gray. It matched the cement too much. I needed more of a contrast and a different feel.

Originally, I had it as it was probably made to be as, a platform, and my move-able rack (love it because I don't have a closet!!) was on top of it. I moved the rack to the side where my bed is, and I flipped the platform to lean against the wall backward. I took some nails, and nailed them into it, and proceeded to hang some of my bags. It actually got me all giddy, because I sort of felt like I was selling up a store front. I still need to fill it, paint it, and play around with it, but I do like it's new home. 

   How often do you rearrange your space?   

xoxo,

Alexz