THREADS + TATTOOS

 Today's threads post is a combo of the outfit, and showing you my new tattoos!  They are finally all healed up and nice enough to show.

Outfit:  I wore this pretty mustard skirt from Sheinside again.  I just cant get over the color of it, the best shade of mustard!  I layered it with a scarf tank I made a few years back, and my favorite crochet tank from F21. I wear this baby alot!  I thought these boots from BCFootwear complimented this outfit so well.  Uh-mazing shoes!!  And my favorite Spiral Drift necklace.  I'm so in love with Christina's artistry.  She is personally one of my favorite designers out there.

Tattoos:  Finishing this half sleeve has been more than 3 years in the making.  I finally got the gaps filled in and it feels so good!  The new pieces are the feathers, the pink flower on top and the green birdie.  This sleeve is a dedication to my mama.  The quote "Wish I had a river I could skate away on" is from a Joni Mitchell song that she used to sing to me as a baby.  And from an album that her and I shared a love for as I grew older.  We would sing it together all the time.  The Alphonse Mucha woman is a portrait to represent her.  The teacups represent her art.  For 26 years my mom was the originator and designer behind a company called Broken China Jewelry, a jewelry line made from people's family heirloom (broken) china, turning them into pieces they could wear and keep forever.  She was known as the 'china lady'.  I added a little cardinal bird in one of them b/c they remind me of her.  And I quite believe she visits me as one everyday.  The butterfly was really a pretty filler.  But anything from nature or garden reminds me of her, so it fit.  She loved peacock feathers.  When my dad built the statue that is on her grave, there was a place he kept just to put peacock feathers in.  For the new pieces, I had changed my mind a few times this past year on what I wanted.  But Im happy with what I ended up with.  I decided on two feathers together to represent my parents being back together.  After my dad passed away last year, I had several things happen with birds that made me feel like they were reunited.  So this was the most appropriate thing for that.  It's like an eternal talisman of their love.  The pink flower is just a filler.  The bird specifically doesn't have any meaning as far as the color or kind.  I just really wanted a larger bird in this space b/c birds are so significant to me, especially dealing with the loss of my parents.  It feels so good to finally have this piece 'complete'.  It feels right, and in a way, a landmark. 

I think it will be a while, but I have pieces in my mind for the beginning of a space on my body for my dad.  I miss my parents so insanely much right now.  Some days all I want to do is scream as loud as I can big fat cuss words all over the earth.  But then I remind myself that I am okay, and that there is a greater purpose to them not being here.  I'm still trying to learn exactly what that is.  Some days I feel like I know, and I can be so peaceful about it all, and then others, not so much.  I feel like Im about to be stepping over a threshold into a new bigger part of my life, but I keep getting caught in a web of something.  Something keeping me stuck.  I'm learning everyday how to weave this web into something else.  

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My Tattoos

Sara, this is for you!

I know Ive shared my tattoos here somewhere, but I couldnt find the post! So for those of you who have asked to see my tattoos, here you go.

It was actually super hard for me to find one straight on of my arm tattoo! This gorgeous black and white photo was taken by Katelyn Demidow. I cherish this photo.

Me & My Boy

This arm sleeve is a work in progress. All of the spots in between each tattoo is not intended to be black, I just have not gone back to fill it in yet.

All of my tattoos are for my mother. This arm sleeve was started about a year after she passed away. The woman is an Alphonse Mucha painting and it just reminded me of her essence. The rest including the butterfly and the peacock feathers is just going to be full of nature and beauty, things that remind me of her.

The teacups represent her lifelong business. She made jewelry from broken china dishes for almost 30 years. I spent my first several years out of high school working with her. It was what kept our family fed and my mom at home with me. It was a huge part of our lives. Now it is gone, but I am living the same dream in my own ways now. I think you can click on the photo to make it bigger to see the details. There is a cardinal in one of them and 'mom' in another.
Around the woman it has lyrics from a Joni Mitchell song 'River'... its says ' I wish I had a river I could skate away on. This song was one she sang to me as a baby. And I sang to her as she was dying. It is the single most meaningful song in my life.
The crazyness from the back. I think this is one of the first photos Ive seen with all of showing like that! We just took this for the Skyline Fever shoot!
This is my shoulder tattoo, two bluebirds of happiness on a branch of cherry blossoms. Besides the silly black tramp stamp I got on my lower back (not being shown), this was my 3rd real tattoo. The second you cant see b/c this was a cover up of it. If you look in the photo above, the big purple peony is covering up a black celtic love knot. My tattoo artist did an amazing job. I wont go into why its covered, it was sad but had to be done for personal reasons.

I got this tattoo when my mom first beat her breast cancer. We thought she was going to be okay, and this tattoo represented her and I and all that we both personally were going through during this time in our lives.
Im a pretty firm believer of only getting tattoos that mean something personal to you, not just something cute or pretty. And I also believe in making them original, not just copying a pic of the wall. If you want a tattoo, take time to really think it through, the design, the color, the placement. Even if you have to think for a year or two, its worth it. I even went in with a design in my head and my tattooist started drawing it up, I didnt feel it was perfectly what I wanted, so I told him to stop and do it later. You must be 100% sure, its going to be there forever.

And for anyone curious, my tattoo artist is Brian Johnson from austin.

PEACE,
Laura

NEW TATTOOS!!!

Im back from being MIA. James has been off this week, and I have been taking some much needed down time with him. The past few days I have thrown all responsibilities to the wind! Ill be back at it soon enough.

Two days ago we drove to austin to get out tattoos worked on! James got a beautiful old school butterfly, i love it soooo much! It looks so good on him! {Girls, keep your hands OFF, no matter how tempting :) } he he.

Here are some before shots, about to get in the car.

Oliver came with us. James made me the most perfect mix cd ive ever gotten! I love it!!! So we listened to that and Kate Nash on the way up there! Along with our tea that james made from scratch, that is going to be a whole post on its own, it was freakin amazing!
I think you can click on the image to make it larger if you wanna view my awesome mix list!
Here is James butterfly! Is it not amazing???
He decided he is going to piece his sleeve together over time. Gosh he is so adorable :)
and i love it when he smiles, its hard to get this on camera!
We went to his mom's house yesterday to say hi and hug his parents, and to look for some flowers. There werent very many flowers, so we just took some pics around the yard. I love this wall anyway!

Here are my teacups! Mine only got half finished, again. Ill go back in a week or two to fill it in. There will be flowers and peacock feathers filling in all the gaps, and above the woman.
The teacup design is from the adorable artist Tabitha Emma, whos art I adore. We changed it up just a bit to make it work more for a tattoo. I really wanted the cardinal on it, so we put it in a teacup, and on one we wrote 'mom'. I adore the way they came out! For those of you who are new to my blog, this whole tattoo is a dedication to my mom, who passed away 2 years ago from breast cancer. She was the 'broken china' lady, she created the business of making jewelry out of china, and did that for over 25 years. So this is why I got the teacups.
This little butterfly looks so lonely without the rest of the tattoo. I cant wait to finish it, it feels a bit empty now with all of these gaps! But I love how it is coming together. I love all of the colors!


we havent taken photos like this together in forever! im so happy we did!
If you want to know who tattoos us, its Brian Johnson from austin.

Hope you like!

I have so much to post about its crazy. Sorry ive been MIA for so long now. I need to get back with it. My nanna checks my blog every morning! I love you Nanna!

PEACE,
Laura

ALL ABOUT LAURA PHOTOS


Okay, here are the pictures you guys asked for!

Thank you Jamie, Amber and Olivia!

{Jamie, I did not get my favorite beauty product photographed, but it would either be my Bare Minerals because it covers up all my imperfections, or my "Satu" cologne from Anthropologie that my husband picked out for me to wear on our wedding day, and I love it!}

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THE TATTOOS:

*this shoulder tattoo is actually a cover up, unfortunately neither of these photos show the whole thing, i just realized. but below the birds is a big magenta peony flower that covers up my first tattoo. it was a black celtic love knot from when i thought i was going to get married at 18, kids, dont get tattooed for your wedding proposal!!!*

I got the cover up with the two birds and the flower when my mom got sick the first time. She lost her hair, eyelashes and breast all to chemo and radiation. At that time we thought she was going to be okay, and she was going through lots of emotions of 'letting go'. Letting go of what made her feel like a woman, letting go of her life before cancer, letting go of so much vanity.

At the same time I was ending a relationship I was in since I was 16, we were together for 8 years. I was dealing with emotions of losing him and possibly losing my mother, so serious emotions of 'letting go' as well.

So I chose two bluebirds of happiness in flight to represent this for me.



This tattoo is only half way done. I got this after my mother passed and it is all about her. I have always wanted an art nouveau piece, and this image just struck me and made me think of her. It is a work from Alphonse Mucha. I changed the colors though. The words say "I WISH I HAD A RIVER I COULD SKATE AWAY ON". They are lyrics to the Joni Mitchel song River. My mother sang this song to me when I was a baby. When I was older we would sing it together, she gave me a serious love for Joni Mitchel. Then as she was dying, I sang it to her when she could no longer sing.

I am planning on adding peacock feathers, butterfly, a cardinal and some other things to it.

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THESE ARE MY TWO BABIES THAT MAKE UP VIOLET BELLA:

This is Violet, my dog.

She loves car rides, nature trailing, ice cream (she only gets a few licks every now and then), sneaking bellas poop from the litter box, wildlife animals like deer and squirrels.
This is Bella, my cat.

She loves being lazy, crafting, the color pink, peas and corn, playing chase.
I am going to do a whole post on these two guys because I have so many adorable photos of them!
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CRAFTING:

This is one of my crafting areas. Pretty much anywhere I am I craft, and Bella ALWAYS finds a way to be near me, see her on the shelf?
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HOLIDAY ITEMS:

I made this stocking for James, I will make one for Violet, Bella and Nico, our bird.
This is my favorite ornament. My mother made it when she was pregnant with my brother, her first child.
And these are my favorite decorations. I made them when I was 9, and they have held up through the years. I always wanted to be the one to put these little angels on the tree each year, I think I was secretly proud that I made them, and I think I still am a bit!
HOPE YOU ENJOYED, THANKS FOR PLAYING ALONG!

PEACE,
LAURA

ps... today is the last day of the sale in both my shops, go check out my new items!