So last night I decided it was time to tackle a sink full of dishes that were probably more than a week old. Yeah, that's right, my house is sometimes a pigsty. Steve and I are both messy people and we try to keep our shit together when it comes to housekeeping stuff, but sometimes our true natures get the best of us. I can't help who I am. Anyway, when I got a whiff of that sink I was sure glad I had an arsenal of Mrs. Jones' Soapbox products to help me get the job done.

Mrs. Jones' Soapbox has quickly become my most favorite of etsy shops. Jamie, the proprietress, has a line of cleaning products that are all natural, packaged with recycled and upcycled materials, nice smelling and pretty. It's practically a miracle. An even bigger miracle? This stuff works, and it works great! My favorite product is the Tub and Tile Scrub, which smells like almonds and has a wonderful fluffy texture that kind of makes me want to eat it, and it gets my disgusting sink sparkling clean with a minimum of elbow grease. Also great is the Laundry Detergent, which made my clothes noticeably softer and also has a pleasant though subtle smell. And I just have to mention the Wood and Furniture Conditioner, which makes my coffee table gleam. And Jamie herself is the sweetest! Most important, it makes me feels good to know that I won't be accidentally poisoning my cats, who are pretty dumb and like to lick things.

mel

Porcelain Feather pleated dress by Owl Eyes

I came upon Sparrow Collective on the front page of Etsy the other day and I have been drooling over it ever since. Sparrow is a group of independent designers centered in Milwaukee, which makes me wish I lived in Wisconsin for the first time ever. My two favorite designers in the shop are Owl Eyes, who uses rescued materials, and MoshiMoshi. They both make beautifully delicate and girly dresses that are totally covetable. Also covetable are the models hairstyles, I'm really loving those heavy bangs. Check out the tunics with crocheted collars, they're shirts with built in scarves, so handy!

Lace Antoinette dress by Owl Eyes

Quarter Sleeved pocket dress by MoshiMoshi

love love love this necklace (and so much more) from Foamy Wader

Hi everybody! I'm not dead, I've just been having trouble adjusting to being back from vacation (I know, it's been, what, three weeks now? Let's just say it's been a loooooooooooong while since I've been on vacation for a whole week). Also, I've been fairly busy, what with the Indie Mart and all. How was the IndieMart? Don't ask. I think I've participated in my last show, at least for the foreseeable future. One awesome thing that happened at Indie Mart was that I met Breezy of Needles and Pens, where my books and buttons are now for sale! That's right, Roska Handmade has entered the brick and mortar world at last. Pretty exciting, right? If you live in the area you should wander over to Needles and Pens, it's a really neat shop full of zines you won't find anywhere else. There's also lots of really cool jewelry, my favorite thing is this pair of earrings from Honey Pie Love (who I met at the Indie Mart, she is a super sweet person), they are little studs that look exactly like the tops of your molars. I need to get my hands on those stat, I think they are so funny. Needles and Pens is located on 16th St, between Guerrero and Dolores, so there's tons of fun stuff to do before and after you shop, maybe hit up Bi-Rite Creamery, yum.
In other news, I have lately been adding tons of new notebooks to the Roska Handmade shop. I still have loads more to add; unbelievably, at the beginning of this month I used the last of the paper blocks I had made in that huge paper cutting binge of the early summer. And, rather reluctantly, I must admit, last night I began cutting more paper! Yes, cutting paper is not my very favorite thing, but it must be done if we are all to have beautiful Roska-made notebooks, right? So I will be working on that in the evenings to come, it will make my house a complete mess and I will probably go crazy. Look forward to that.
mel

I'm getting excited and nervous for Indie Mart! It's coming up soooooo fast. I hope to see lots of you there! It's going to be a blast. Last time I was mega-hung over from celebrating one of my bff's birthdays, but this time I'm going to be well rested and fresh as a daisy, so I can only imagine how much more fun it will be.

Are you sad because you can't make it to Indie Mart, or you live too far away for it to be an option? Well, dry your tears pal, I've got tons of books up in the Roska Handmade shop, just waiting to travel across the state, the country, hell, even the globe to come to rest in your happy hands. I'm really into these bug journals, I only have a few so if you're into them too, you would be wise to snatch them up quick.

Moth Notebook
I've also got lots of cool new bird books, and I'm adding more nearly everyday.

Nuthatches, Kinglets and Gnatcatchers Notebook

Hope to see you around soon!
mel

If you are a long time reader of this blog, you are probably aware of my love affair with the etsy shop Savor. Savor has the most mouthwatering soaps I've encountered, as well as some of the most beautiful product images on Etsy. And the soaps definitely live up to the photos; I have yet to be disappointed and I have ordered from Savor many a time. It's my go to shop for gift giving as well, so if you know me, chances are pretty good that you've already received Savor soap, or will receive it sometime in the future. Lucky you. I'm pretty excited about the anniversary sale Savor has got going on right now. Trust me, you want to go to the Savor blog, The Cookbook, to get the deets. Hurry though, the fun ends after October 25th! I will definitely be partaking as soon as payday rolls around. I've got my eye on several items, like the Salted Caramel Creme Fraiche pictured above. It's so hard to decide, I want everything! And Lisa will be adding limited addition throughout the week, which will make my decision all the more difficult. I would share more of my favorites with you, but I've decided to be greedy and keep them to myself. I don't want you snatching them up before I get a chance to! Or maybe that would be better because it would narrow my options and make my decision easier. You know, it really doesn't matter, just go buy some soap!

mel

LOVE. WANT.

So awesome.

State by Celebrity Tote by Melangerienyc

Hi! I'm sorry this blog was abadoned, but my life has been really busy lately! Weddings and trips and bike stuff...my calendar is finally clearing up, but don't think I'm going to just settle back and relax now. No, it's time to get back in business! I have lots of plans for new products for the Roska Handmade shop, I'm hoping to get some coptic stitch sketchbooks in there and re-introduce animal sticker notebooks. Also, I have the Mission Indie-Mart coming up on November 8th. The Indie-Mart is the coolest craft fair in San Francisco, it takes place on the block next to Thee Parkside at 17th and Wisconsin and it is a lot of fun. It would be so awesome to see you there! I'm going to have the usual fun animal and record cover books as well as some holiday gift wrap stuff. It's going to be so rad! My favorite part of indie mart? Meeting lots of awesome people, and eating awesome cupcakes! What could be better than that?

Hi guys! Sorry things have been so quiet around these parts. I hope to get it picking up again soon. How about some photos from my Angel Island trip to tide you over?

Yeah dudes, it was pretty rad! By the way, did you know there are some awesome new places to find me on the internet? At Goldentooth I'm writing about my goal to eat at all the restaurants in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. At banana hamburger you can see some of my food photography and some of my other thoughts. I'm sure I'll see you there soon!

mel

Sorry for disappearing. There just hasn't been much to report. The paper block making is slow going, it's taking much longer than I remember. It's also been warm so all I want to do is lounge around and drink beer and take a million pictures of my cats. I apologize. I'll try to make it up to you by having an awesome Welcome to Summer sale over at Roska Handmade. There is free shipping on all regular priced items, and sale items come with a free surprise! (probably something like this, but cooler.) I hope that will make you happy. I'm out of town until tuesday, so I hope everyone has as wonderful a weekend as I'm going to have!

So here it is, as promised, lots and lots of paper! I just calculated it and this is 10,400 4.25" by 5.5" sheets of paper. Enough to make 130 notebooks! Pretty awesome, huh? I was pretty psyched while I was cutting and organizing it to see all the cool vintage papers I have to work with. Lots of graph paper, which is my favorite, and lots of typewriter paper and colorful paper. I really like having color in the notebooks, so I was glad when I found a stash of ultrabrite that I had forgotten about. This paper will make some really awesome books. I can't wait to get to work! Also very exciting is the new field guide books I'll be using in the future, including guides for insects and wildflowers and some exotic birds! Next I'm going to have to go through my current record collection and decide which to use...so much to do! I'm not sure when books will start popping up in the shop again; I'm heading to Sacramento for friday and saturday to celebrate my mom's birthday, but my plan is to start gluing paper blocks together tonight, then starting on some books on Sunday night, so with any luck new books will available by late next week! Yay!

Hello all! I'm a little late in sharing this with you, as in, the whole world has been blogging about their home made butter, but I still had to share because I was so proud of mine. Isn't it purty? I ate it on some rye matzo with those perfectly cooked hardboiled eggs...so yummy. Currently I have a big jar of eggs pickling in the fridge...I can't wait to share those with you. Pickled eggs are something I thought you would never catch me eating, but I tried them and now I can't get enough. That's one of those important life lessons, isn't it?

What else I can't wait to share with you is a photo of my coffee table covered with piles of cut paper! I decided to just go ahead and cut up every scrap of paper I have, so it's A LOT of paper. Paper that will soon become awesome books! Are you excited, or what?

I forgot I said I was going to share pictures from my Sactown trip! Well, here they are, my sister Jaqui at Folsom Dam. It's a pretty cool spot.

Oh, I am so glad it's Friday! This weekend is going to be A W E S O M E. Well, I hope so anyway. It will certainly be better than work! I have some fun stuff planned, like movies, hanging out in my old hood and hitting up the Mission Indie Mart. It hardly seems likely that all that could not be fun.

I'm pretty exhausted today; I'm not sure why. I spent a few hours last night cutting paper into notebook size pieces and I've hardly made a dent in what I need to do! But it feels good to get it done. I'm hoping to check out a used bookstore tomorrow to see if I can't find some cool nature guides for covers. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ok, it's definitely coffee time now!

PS! I'm still listing books in the Roska Handmade Shop! Like this one with titmice and bushtits....sorry, it's a little naughty, but not really. I know it's been all birds for a while, but there will be some furry creatures to look forward to soon!

Is it wrong of me to say that I would really love to sell you a notebook?

Yep, that's my desk and yep, that means I'm at work again! I took the day off yesterday which was so so nice, and I even got some important stuff done! I was able to go to SCRAP and get a bunch of fun new paper for making paper blocks. I got some really cool stuff, like this cream colored red and blue lined ledger paper and some green graph paper (one of my favorite papers ever I think). I even got a few sheets of handmade paper with a border of elephants! I also got some more booktape, unfortunately I was only able to get green, pink and orange (I was hoping for blue), but beggars can't be choosers, right?

I also went to the movies last night (of course!) and saw a good one; Goodbye Solo, I recommend checking it out if you're able.

Hello world! It's good to talk with you again. I've been wanting to update here, but I didn't want to until I had these pictures to share with you and I wasn't able to get them on my computer because I was out so much last week. And actually, last week was one of those rare ones where I was actually super busy at work. So, sorry for neglecting you, but now I'm back! I'm trying to get over the fact that it is really hot today and I think it's causing me to have allergy symptoms, like everytime I breathe I feel like I'm doing so in a thick cloud of dust. Yes, I'm trying to think more about things like that I am excited to finally finally be able to post new books to my shop (like the one in the photo above, which you can get a better look at here). And also that I have finally used up the million (exaggeration) paper blocks I made those many months ago, and so now have a paper block creation marathon to look forward to, which is both daunting and kind of fun. So...hooray! Hope you're having a happy monday too.

To Do:
Buy a bunch of foam core.
Cut it into medium size pieces.
Paint the pieces in a variety of colors.
Use as backdrop for product photos.
Wonder why I didn't think of this before.

Ugh, why am I feeling so ugh today? Today is lame. I am a bit excited about seeing Made In USA tonight, though generally I hate French movies...I don't like to make blanket statements, but it is odd how few French movies I've enjoyed. But I do like Anna Karina, and I'm kind of excited that this is basically the US premiere...I guess it was shown at a the New York Film Festival in 1967, but was never properly released here because of some copyright issues. Man, check out those colors.

Yep, I can't wait to get out this cubicle.

Hello everyone! As you can see, Ava and I have been working on photographing my latest notebooks and getting them into the shop. I've been adding them throughout the last few days, and will continue to list them as the week goes on. I'm excited to finally have something new to share with you. I'd love it if you'd go check them out.

Tomorrow I'll have some photos from my lovely Saturday in Sacramento to share with you. Happy Tuesday!