Astral Boutique's blog

From Russia, With Love

One of my wonderful blog readers just paid me the highest compliment ever- she sent me a series of mind-blowingly beautiful photos that she says were inspired by me! Her talent is inspiring me now... so I guess that is the perfect circuit of artistic energy. 

Lena lives in Moscow, Russia, and she took these photos of a friend of hers. Her model is gorgeous, expressive, and has a magical twinkle in her eye... just a dream girl in every way. And then there is Lena's lighting, styling, and use of color, which is breathtaking. I will let them speak for themselves:

 

Thank you so much, Lena!!!

 

Black Is The New Black

In celebration of all good things that are black, including Friday, I am trying out the new fancy-shmancy Etsy tool of the "Coupon Code" and having a Black Friday Sale! And because I am impatient/spontaneous, I am starting the Sale right now. It's 15% of ANYTHING in the store (yes, even in the $10 FUN SALE section) and you get your discount applied immediately when you enter this code at Checkout:

BLACKFRIDAY15

This offer cannot be combined with any other discounts. 

Shop on, my friends!

My black cat, Moochie, cuddling up with a Health Beverage.

Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One Degree of Separation

You all remember how my friend and customer Nicole was off to Boston to see Amanda Palmer in Cabaret? And how she was going to wear the dress that I had upcycled with the gold lace doily neckline? Well, seeing is believing, because here is Nicole with Amanda Palmer! 

This is my screen saver right now, and every time I look at it, I regress into a starstruck teenager, thinking "she (Amanda) is touching something that I made!" (I love how small the world is sometimes.)

Thanks Nicole for having such an awesome adventure that allowed me to live vicariously, and thanks for documenting this incredible moment! 

She's Crafty

Hear ye, hear ye! Our "alternative" craft fair in August was so much fun, we are doing another one before Christmas. We changed the name to the Nevada City Bizarre (cause we are a little bizarre up here in the foothills), and we planned it on the same day as the popular Victorian Christmas street fair. With a spectacular musical line-up, a full bar, and all of the festive and lovely people of Nevada County vending and shopping around, this will be the premier destination in town... so if you are a potential vendor, come sign up while there are still a few spaces left! (Vendor info here, and an online registration form here.) And if you need to shop for cutting edge, unique, thoughtfully handcrafted and vintage items, put this on your calender NOW!

Catching Up

Oh my gosh, it has been so long since I last blogged! Life was moving way to fast to be recorded these past several weeks. Still, this blog serves as my own record of what happened, and I want to fill in some blank spots.... starting (ridiculously as it may seem, in this week leading up to Thanksgiving) with HALLOWEEN!

My band played a show on the Friday night before Halloween. I played in two of the four bands that night, and Chris played in all four, which meant four costume changes for him as well as being the roadie for several vehicles full of heavy music gear. (And people think rock music is all fun and games!) The show was at St. Joseph's, an old church in Grass Valley, and the vaulted white ceilings were the perfect setting for the laser light show that two local folks put on for us that night. They had just bought an elaborate set-up to do these shows, and our event was their "publicity" demonstration. I have never seen lights like these, except for moments at huge stadium shows! When my band, which was doing all covers, played "A Forest" by The Cure, they shot hundreds of green lasers at the stage, and made the whole church look like an enchanted wood. Wowsa!

Most of my pictures are from the well-lit dressing room backstage... one of these days I will upload the video footage of us playing. Meanwhile, here is a peek into our night:

Chris as a unicorn, my friend and bandmate Cynthia as Catwoman

Bands and friends 

Good vs. Evil- Chris with our friend Zach as Satan

Graham (partner of Amber from Violet Folklore) exuding a Day of the Dead vibe

Sasha and the Shamrocks- we reversed our hair colors! We are trying to look very goth and serious here. I think we are succeeding. 

Me as a giraffe, Chris as a mosquito

My beautiful friend and neighbor Leonna Sapphire, and Tyler, my bassist

Lights and lights

Friday night, of course, was merely the beginning of Halloween weekend. We went out the next two nights as well! Saturday we went to the local "Fright Night" in Nevada City, which is kind of like an indoor version of the old Halloween street party in the Castro district of SF. Here we are with our good friend, who took on the Unicorn mantle:

Everyone decided that Chris was not just Elmo, he was Tickle Me Elmo... which he wasn't expecting. He got tickled all night long by strangers! Here he is with the Count:

Halloween proper we saw some great live music, including the psychedelic western band Spindrift from L.A. that were so right up my alley! Here we are with our friend Dan, who obviously won the (unofficial) costume contest of the evening with his Psycho outfit. He even had a knife that he stuck out the shower every once in a while.

Chris was Andy Warhol, if that isn't already obvious. The funny thing is that no one recognized us since we were so made up!

Okay, that is gonna do it for the holiday catch up...I feel some sense of victory that I managed to get that done before the next one! Ha ha! I have lots more to blog about but we are getting snowed in (again) in the Sierra foothills and it's time to cozy up for the night. Hope you all are well!