THE BEST CHIP TOPPER OF YO LIFE

Never ever did I think I would be typing a recipe into a blog post. However, if there's one thing I've learned from clicking on a recipe from Pinterest, it's that I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ONE HUNDRED PHOTOS OF THE FOOD- I just want to know how to make it.

With that being said, we are gathered here today for the recipe of the best hummus of YO LIFE. Here's one photo of it (peeking out behind a chip clip tassel... more about that later) & here's how you make it:

Carrot Sriracha Hummus

Ingredients:

2 cans chickpeas (AKA garbanzo beans)

4 medium carrots

1 clove garlic

3 TBSP sriracha (4 TBSP if you like spicy!)

1/4 cup oil

2 TBSP honey

1 TSP lemon juice

1-2 TBSP water

1. Roughly chop carrots & garlic & combine in food processor.

2. Drain & rinse chickpeas. Add to food processor along with all other ingredients except for water. Combine until smooth.

3. Add water gradually until desired consistency.

THAT. IS. IT.

Click here to find out more about the chip tassel.

#recipe #hummus #chips

Our Eco-Friendly Elopement

We decided to get hitched last summer with an intimate ceremony, a handful of family members, as many local vendors as possible & little environmental impact. It was the perfect day with a ton of tassels, lots of outdoorsy-ness, and some flying by the seat of our pants.

So essentially, us in a nutshell.

With old(er) age came the decision for a low key wedding sans 80% of the frills I had collected on my Pinterest board over the years. That was the second best decision ever. The first best was tying the knot with Ross (#sappymuch).

We kept the whole thing under wraps from most of the world until it was all said and done. And although the whole thing was pretty low key, there were still plenty of heartfelt flourishes and reasons why we did what we did. Here’s the whole story.

Photo by Kellie Rae Studio

Our Story (The Short Version)

Ross and I started dating when we were 15. Not yet old enough to drive, we had to convince our parents to bring us to the mall so we could awkwardly walk around holding hands, too embarrassed to talk to each other or even set foot in a store. On our first date I wore a hideous handmade outfit decked out in sequins & jeans trimmed in buttons. He must’ve liked my confidence, because I looked like a fool.

We met through mutual friends, lived in different states and would continue to date for 10 years long distance and a total of 15 years before tying the knot.

We’re a True Example of Opposites Attracting

Ross grew up with a love for being outside and appreciating all that the Maine landscape has to offer. An avid hunter, fisherman and all around outdoorsman, he went on to study natural resources and soak up any activity that includes four wheeling, snowmobiling or just plain being outside.

I grew up with a love of all things creative, staying up all night to sew an outfit to wear to school the next day, dreamed of living in a big city and travelling to every other metropolis I desired. I didn’t own a decent pair of hiking boots or a crazy warm winter coat until I finally got tired of being cold or showing up to hang out with Ross in inappropriate footwear.

Once I had the right shoes, and the right guy showing me around- I quickly came around to the idea of being “outdoorsy” (Ross would probably thinks it happened slowly). Encouraging us to take a hike, get in a canoe, buy sandals from a sporting goods store, and teaching me what the heck “portage” and a “clutch” (when not being referred to a handbag) are.

This guy can name a tree by its leaf, point out what type of frog is croaking in the distance, and spot a grouse from a mile away. He’s also the reason why 9 times out of 10 I can start a bonfire with a single match (a great party trick for city folk or you know, if you get lost in the woods).

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

By the time we came to terms with getting married, we both shared interest in doing something small, simple and somewhere in the woods. We originally toyed with the idea of a surprise wedding in our backyard- invite friends & family over, then mid-gathering whip out our vows & walk down the aisle. But the logistics got tricky so we opted to keeping our big day a secret from most of the world until after the big day.

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

The ceremony was low key. So low key, in fact, that we didn’t have an exact time or location until about 2 hours before it took place. Due to the looming rain clouds, we opted for the flattest spot we could find looking out to Gunflint Lake.

The Details

When it came to outfits, we opted for options that either:

A. We would wear again

B. We could rent

or C. Secondhand or hand me downs.

Keeping things casual made option A easier. Ross needed a new pair of jeans anyway (I wouldn't let him wear his favorite pair with a hole), a plaid dress shirt is a work attire staple, and the suit jacket will come in handy for being a guest at future weddings.

I considered borrowing my sister's wedding dress, but opted for option B and found 2 great options from Rent The Runway. This simple number was the winner and ended up purchasing it since alterations were in order. (Thanks for your sewing expertise, Angela!)

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

The leather jacket has a story of its own. I oogled over it in 2016 at the NYC location of All Saints- my kryptonite. I stored the style number in the notes section of my phone & there it sat. Years later, I Googled it, searched on Ebay & every other secondhand site I could find until I found it- the same jacket in my size, pre-loved from Poshmark.

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

Together we picked out rings from the amazing Britta Kauppila who enjoys using recycled metals & sustainably sourced stones.

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

My main request was for an epic tassel backdrop. Ross handled the hardware & woodworking, myself & a handful of friends constructed over 200 tassels to hang. Our lack of engineering experience made for a bit of a top heavy design. It fell over countless times during construction & once right before the ceremony.

Photo by Kellie Rae Studio

One of the most personal touches overall was hiring my sister to be our clergy member. She delivered the most incredible sermon which included 3 epic top 5 lists which eloquently & appropriately summed up our 15 year relationship in true David Letterman style.

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

The one thing that made it from my OG Pinterest board: our unity ceremony. We enlisted both our moms to fill a jar with dirt from a meaningful location. For Ross it was his family cabin (Camp Ripley in Ripley, ME) & for me, the house I grew up in (Superior, WI). We planted the tree using the dirt from our respective locations to symbolize new roots together with the help of our past. “Love fern,” anyone?

Side note: it survived its first Minnesotan winter & is doing just fine so far!

Photo by Kellie Rae Studio

For the rest of the important stuff, we asked our friends for help. Saffron + Grey arranged the most beautiful bouquet, floral arrangements & crown. Pro tip: give those girls a smidge of inspiration, then let them do their thing. Collectively we picked out a loose color palette and I probably incorrectly named a couple flowers I enjoy. Then they rocked the rest!

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

Simply Gypsy Events wrangled up the rest of the décor (& knocked it outta the park, BTW!). Her keen eye helped our backdrop look like it totally fit with the surroundings. She's a resourceful badass who was making sure everything was perfect & in order so we didn't have to.

And then there's Miss Kellie Rae. She's probably shaking her head reading this (if she's even reading this). She snapped a few photos of me at a pop up (ironically at Saffron + Grey) a few years back & I've been bugging her to take product shots & help me with model calls ever since. She's really good at putting the most awkward people (AKA Ross & I?) at ease in front of a camera. Oh yeah, and she usually makes me cry from laughter. But also, that's not too hard to do.

Other Little Things

Heaven help me when my crafty side comes out. From cake toppers, to handkerchiefs (that we didn't even use), to tassels on just about everything, there were plenty of opportunities for little leather details (including a bow tie for our dog).

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

Speaking of hankies- there was one that got its spot in the limelight. On the day I held a piece of family history : a handkerchief that 9 other women in my family have carried down the aisle since 1856 (talk about something old).

Photos by Kellie Rae Studio

We opted for a family dinner at the lodge & picked up dessert on our way to Grand Marais. Betty’s Pies + World’s Best Donuts for an unexpected twist on wedding cake

Having just started the #18BagsProject a month earlier, a wedding purse seemed like a good idea despite everything else going on. It ended up being yet another unused detail, but we still got photographic evidence of its existence! (Please note the fringe falling from the bouquet).

Photo by Kellie Rae Studio

So thankful for this epic day, all the little things that led us to this moment & for the years to come!

Tell me- what's your favorite detail from a wedding you've attended? Could be your own or one you crashed. Spill the juicy deets in the comments below.

#wedding #elopement #ecofriendly #married #marriage

BIZ CRUSH: Junk Party Jewelry

Here's a great way to make people think you're weird. Tell someone you've only just conversed with via the internet that you "freaking love them."

That's what happened with Marseille. But it turns out we're on the same weird wave length (I mean that in the best way possible, Mars!) because she was totally cool with it. I think.

May you fall in love with Junk Party Jewelry & all its up-cycled goodness by the end of this blog post. In the least creepy way possible.

Photo by Max Torres

What kind of kid were you growing up?

I got kicked out of preschool! I lied and cussed and lied about cussing. I was an ok student eventually, I guess. I was very emotional which was embarrassing because I cried a lot at school. I liked playing football and kickball at recess. I loved art and loved all of my art projects but my elementary teacher was always unimpressed which pissed me off. I had a huge imagination and a fascination for clothing and jewelry at young age. I lived on a secluded Ohio farm until I was 5, then lived in Fort Lauderdale for 3 years and then moved back to Ohio to a college town. I was kinda all over the place.

How did that affect your path towards jewelry making?

My path has been weird and all over the place and awesome too. Jewelry making has been a constant in my life but not always on the forefront. We had a local bead store

(Beads & Things in Athens, Ohio) that taught me how to make jewelry and I was hooked. I went there a lot until I graduated from high school. I played soccer and partied in college. Jewelry took a back seat. I didn’t get into it again until I started to travel a lot. That’s when upcycling and jewelry first started to intertwine. I’d be traveling and have a chain but no charm. So I’d look for one in unconventional materials. Or my bracelet would break so I’d have to make do with whatever was laying around.

If your story could fit into a 30 second commercial, how would it unfold?

It would have to be a time-lapse of all the different events that led me to this place. Trying on my grandmother’s jewelry, playing dress up, making friendship bracelets, bringing home my lunch bags to reuse, college, dancing, crying, traveling around the world, more crying, experimenting with findings, getting yelled at in NYC, more crying, finding happiness in NYC, giving birth, moving to Cleveland, giving birth, launching Junk Party. Probably that one Cranberries song would be playing. Dreams?

Who’s positively influenced your path the most?

My husband. I absolutely would not be doing Junk Party if it wasn’t for him. He is a cartoonist and a maker and a fixer and a genius. I hate when people get gushy about their spouses but mine is seriously the GOAT.

What ultimately made you decide to do the lovely thing you do?

I’ve been making jewelry since I was 9 but my Junk Party journey began in 2012. I was still living in New York and I just quit my fancy-on-paper job in the UN Plaza. After being miserable for the previous 2 years, I was determined to make ends meet by only working on stuff that interested me; I worked as an extra, sold vintage clothes, upcycled old T-shirts into dresses, walked dogs and eventually worked for Holst+Lee. While I was walking dogs around Brooklyn I would find little things (broken zipper, safety glass, a charm that fell off a bracelet, etc.), take them home, clean them and experiment with jewelry findings. At some point I needed a pair of black earrings and I didn’t have any I liked. My boyfriend (now husband) refurbished computers and we had parts everywhere so I asked if he had any junky black cables or cords. He did. I made a simple pair of earrings from an unknown defunct cord and some bronze findings.

What inspired you to start up-cycling?

Upcycling was ingrained in me. I was born in an old farm house a mile from the nearest neighbor. We had a claw foot tub in our yard for baths and an outhouse for everything else. My mother was a frugal hippy. My dad restored wrecked cars. I moved in with my grandmother (in Florida) later on. She lived through the Great Depression and reused everything-from coffee containers to pantyhose. My first upcycled necklace was a vintage key on a candy cane-striped string from some Lipsmackers pack. I was 10 years old and that was my pride and joy.

Favorite part about working for yourself?

Being my own boss! I had a boss in NYC that threw papers at me and made fun of my clothes.

Most challenging thing about working for yourself?

Vulnerability and self doubt! Gotta push through the “What the fuck am I doing with my time?” moments.

Photo by Amber Patrick

How do you get your creative juices flowing?

I love to travel but I’m pretty limited at the moment. Coffee is good! I also write a lot and come up with ideas while I’m running.

If you could be a fly on the wall to anyone’s creative space {dead or alive} who would it be?

First name that comes to mind is Yayoi Kusama.

Talk about a failure you’ve learned from.

I’ve gotten obsessed and entrenched with projects before and lost interest or self doubt has taken over. I’ve learned you have to push through all that if you want to make anything special.

What’s one of your proudest accomplishments in business?

At the risk of sounded like a complete a-hole, I don’t see a lot of other makers creating from cords or cables that would otherwise go to a landfill. I’m an Aquarius so I take a lot of pride in being unique, if you believe in that astrology stuff, which I sorta do.

What do you wish you knew when you first started that you know now?

Haters gonna hate?

What has been your favorite project to date & how did it come to fruition?

I made a huge statement necklace with Burning Man (I’ve always wanted to go) in mind. It’s made from many, many silver telephone cords which people don’t seem to like as earrings. So I loved that I took something that people don’t really like and made something that I really, really love.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen or experienced thanks to your career path?

I rented a private karaoke room for my birthday and invited some women friends and told them to wear sequins and to invite some of their lady friends and tell them to wear sequins. So how pleased was I when almost everyone came wearing sequins AND a friend of a friend of a friend (who I had not met) came wearing Junk Party earrings that she bought from me the previous fall.

What’s next / What are you most excited about?

Everything! I have so many ideas and so little time. Barrettes, rings, wall decor, body jewelry. I just hope that I can keep progressing and moving forward and people keep liking (i.e. buying) what I put out there.

Time of the day you are most productive:

9am-12 but I can’t really work on Junk Party until between 8-11PM during the week after my kids go asleep. Oh yeah! I have two kids too btw!

The app you couldn’t live without:

Is the camera on my phone an app?

Social media outlet you love most:

Instagram by far.

Favorite account to follow on this outlet:

@susan_alexandra

Favorite internet radio station or podcast at the moment:

Hmmm nothing at the moment but my best friend Riley and I took a road trip to Graceland last year and listened to S-Town and it blew my mind.

Favorite Netflix binge:

I rewatch The Office from the beginning every winter. BUT honestly I’m always going on benders. This year alone: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, GOT, Broad City, True Detective, Project Runway All Stars, Romanoffs

Go to piece in your wardrobe:

High top aqua blue Vans.

Coolest thing you’ve ever thrifted:

I found this insane vintage Ice Cube t-shirt when we were traveling in Michigan at a really stinky thrift store for $2.50 or something. I ended up selling it on Ebay for 65 bucks, I think.

Go to accessory:

My nude landline earrings that go with everything.

Favorite thing to repurpose:

No surprise here, old landline telephone cords are my favorite material. Honorable mention is USB cables.

Weirdest tool you use:

Not a tool but I like packaging earrings in old Brie box containers. The cheese is wrapped in wax and then put in a box…so that box just gets thrown out? No.

Where can we find you?

Instagram all the way @junk_party_jewelry Lining up events with my humble booth and trench coat for the rest of the year so if anybody wants to host a mouthy broad, get @ me.

#wordsofwisdom #bizcrush #entrepreneurship