getting there....

tangled up in roots...

"all that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost."

J.R.R. Tolkien

~roots~

i have been searching for a while now.

trying so hard to fearlessly grow and evolve and transform into this butterfly that i have been imagining all of my dreams to flutter effortlessly through after all of my hard work comes to life from this cocoon i have been weaving.

it occurred to me today that i am not a caterpillar at all...i have always been most centered when grounded and happiest in the sunshine. i reach out to those who nourish me and hope to always give a breath of inspiration, a chat in the shade on a sunny day, and a home to all of my friends. 

all at once i became tangled up in this concept of roots.

realizing that i have strong foundations that drive me to grow upwards, hoping to reach for the sky, but keeping me grounded and true to myself and my support of a loving family, wonderful friends, and the beautiful inspirations all around me. 
they are my soil, my water, my air.

perhaps i need to get back to these roots in order to strengthen my creative energies, my personal happiness, and my business practices.
get back to what inspires me, what motivates me, and what i can realistically achieve. 

so as the leaves begin to wear the colors of the season i am getting back to the basics in my studio. i feel a calling in the changing winds to get back to my passions for patchwork, perfect pants, and pirate pieces...i have decided to get tangled up in roots this fall~

a pirates life for me...

ahRrrrg!!!

~a pirates life for me~

i have been creating treasures ever since i can remember.

growing up i was always wrapped in scarves, barefooted, and bossing my little brother around the beach. we played dress up every day and adorned ourselves with our best costumes so we could pitch our latest treasures. we painted pebbles, picked berries, choreographed clown shows, and everything else you can think of that young children peddle for pennies from strangers so that they can buy candy from the corner store. i was sure that sun kissed skin, braided blonde locks, and the knack for finding the shiniest rock on the shoreline made me a mermaid, or a pirate, or a water fairy queen or....something with great magics. 

i think i may be sure of it still.

our pops was a pirate, even then. 

he was a carpenter by trade and an artist at heart and we were always excited to see what he would dream up for us next. we had a sandbox in an old speed boat, a wooden crafted horse we hung as a swing, a log castle tree fort, a fence that purposely doubled as a balance beam, and countless make~shift toys that he would put together for us at a moments notice for various school projects, birthday parties, or creative whims of any sort. i remember wandering around his job sites as a kid searching for 'shineys': flattened screw heads, those little coin shaped metals that cookie cutter out of electrical boxes, stray sink gaskets...anything i could sneak into a treasure pocket to turn into something wearable later. he always seemed to figure out my supply source when he would catch a glimpse of the finished product and always seemed secretly impressed i had pillaged it from his scraps (or later, as i got older and wiser, his garage).

i don't remember how old i was when he found the ship.

i was old enough to have been joined by all three of my siblings and young enough to see a vision of ship masts and sails as the captain stretched across the front of a shambled houseboat one day holding a two by two from the bow yelling "do you see it?" at the four of us lined up in front of our almost broken down van at a junkyard, or foreclosure lot, or somewhere where tired boats go to retire from water. we took it home on the trailer that day and giggled at moms rolling eyes and smiling sighs when he told her. the captain proudly parked the someday ship in the front yard  and began dreaming out loud of the adventure we were about to have becoming pirates until enough time had past that we all kind of thought that was all that it would ever come of it...dreams. until one day he called all hands on deck and like the sea was about to swallow us whole, we built the ship and it came to life with such rush of ideas and saw dust and 
magic that we became it.

its been ten years and the pirate ship has become not only our family business but has truly transformed each of our paths into some form of playful piracy. the captain continues to sail with his ship of scallywags on the eagle river chain and the four of us wander home each year with the summer winds to suit our 

sea gypsy souls.

i still play dress up every day and i have turned my passion for plunder into a constant need to create. my collections of handmade wearable art are made with love for 

fellow sea gypsies and are inspired by dreams.

ahoy fellow sea gypsies...

~the treasure lives in the journey~

ahoy fellow sea gypsies!!!

i welcome you to come aboard and join me as i create this sort of a treasure map of all of my adventures as the captains daughter and share with you my latest creations from www.popsisapirate.com ...my wandering SeaGypsyBoutique!!

naturally, as the captains daughter(my pops is actually a pirate..he captains a ship of scallywags about the chainO'lakes in northern wisconsin..check it out www.eagleriverpirates.com), i have always found myself wandering about various curiosities. my attentions seem to mostly meander between impulsively seeking treasure and this constant need to create. i can hardly keep up with all of the amazing inspirations i find about my wonderous worlds!! a lady pirate indeed, forever addicted to glorious goods...always attempting to bring my dreams to life and diving into new depths of self exploration on my journey to find happiness, beauty, and balance.

i hope that by sharing my path and process with you, we can come a little closer to the real treasures in life (& hopefully loot some lovelies along the way).

~may we never forget to be brave, be playful, and be kind as we sail about our sea gypsy shores~