Poem Kick

Seems I'm on a bit of a poem kick and apparently I'm not the only one.
Travis and I were talking baby names, just because it's something we do- we have no big news at this time. And he mentioned that he was thinking of Annabel Lee for the poem by Edgar Allen Poe. We both love Poe! And it does seem a very appropriate name for a southerner. Anyway I just love thinking of it all. ~*

So while on this poem kick I thought I would share another that I wrote in practically another life time after a heart break. The heart break is long long gone but this poem is one of my favorites. I hope you like it too.


Can Pain be Cut Away

If she could pause existence
make all the world be still
could she then but cut him out
until her soul he couldn’t kill.
To make her heart stop beating
grueling wrench him from that place
so let her take the knife in hand
herself make him erase.
But as she holds the dagger
she thinks of the feelings lost
poised at her frozen heart
this choice a heavy cost.
Erase him now till she be free
but feel nothing at all
suddenly this feat is great
she lets the dagger fall.
“I want to live and love again
and pain cursed is it’s equal,
but face it now I have the strength
for I survived this prequel.”
And so she leaves her heart but whole
though the pain its edges burn
to leave it be so soon she’ll see
That love finds her in turn.

By Grace




The final line "to leave it be so soon she'll see that love finds her in turn." is what got me through those lonely nights before Travis came into my life. It was a faith that was hard to hold onto. But now looking back all that hardship seems so small. I hope all the world finds happiness the ways that I have.

Blessings to you all!

Quick Little Poem

This is just a quick little poem I wrote up this morning. I so wish that poetry would hit me more often, sometimes it just flows all free and fabulous and then other times its a year of nothing better than a stick in a bucket of mud. Anyway, *takes a bow* here is this silly mornings poem which is not yet titled...

I’d show what it’s like
but it’s different for each
true perseverance
is not something you teach
 
Is something that’s gained
through darkness and fire
and still keeps a light
with hope and desire

This pain that is hidden
remains all through life
it waxes and wanes
and adds to our strife

And yet always conquered
by moments pressed forward
till healing compassion
forever lean toward

We are what the world
has made us you see
yet held in our souls
is who we will be

Away to the endless
it reaches so deep
watch it fall ‘way
those hills not so steep

Forever fly onward
surrounded by love
until no below
there is only above

True grace and true passion
true love and desire
held sweet in my soul
always to inspire

By Melanie Grace Phillips

It's a little different from my normal rhythm. And it's a bit Dr. Seuss-y but all in all I do not think ill of it myself.  I hope you may favor it as well.

Anyway, I feel I've hit a bit of a stump with Live Steamy. I could really use some cheering up if anyone would care to aid me in it. If you would please 'like' us on Facebook at facebook.com/livesteamy and/or visit our etsy store to browse our items and pick your favorites at etsy.com/shop/livesteamy and then share us with all your friends, family, groups and social medias it would really brighten my day. Thanks loves!!

As always I hope you have such a wonderful day! xoxo

Musical Monday Little Flirty

I am a Good Girl- Christina Aguilera, Burlesque.
Opposite end of the spectrum from last weeks Musical Monday but variety is the spice of life after all. This is my very favorite scene from the movie 'Burleseque'. And I LOVE her costume! I want to make one so bad. Maybe someday I will. :)

Hope ya'll have an awesome Monday. XOXO


Linksy Party from Miss Angie at My So Called Chaos

Dark Alice Shoot

I'm not entirely sure how this shoot got pinned Dark Alice. There are several versions of Alice in Wonderland this and that. At first it was always just the tea dress which isn't very Alice in Wonderland at all. It's actually more Lolita. And the set for the shoot is a little gothy being a cemetery and all but really its Bonaventure, and during the day, not too dark. But then we added in the tea cups and more so the half tea cups and tea set stack which are very Alice and it just kinda stuck. Anyway Tea Dress or Dark Alice whatever its nickname it is the next shoot we are doing so I'm posting some pictures for ya'll to kind of piece together. We are seriously pumped and I hope you are too!

 http://stoddensnapshots.wordpress.com/2010/08/

bonaventurecemeterytours.com

Bonaventure Cemetery

our location

 Live Steamy's Tea Dress

our outfit

http://gothiclolitaromance.tumblr.com/page/3

our make up example

Live Steamy's Alice's Tea Time Stack

(this was made by special order and is not for sale) 

Alice's Half Cup

(available when in stock on our etsy store) 

our props

And most importantly: 

our model!

The beautiful and completely sweet and adorable miss Xan!

We would like to give our deepest gratitude to our photographer- Darryl Reynolds. To our make up artist Jessica. To our model and her mother. And to everyone who has supported us on this journey so far. Thank you thank you!!

Steampunk Tea is Finally Happening!

I've been dying for a Steampunk event near Savannah but having not found any I decided to start my own. So here it is ladies and gentlemen! Our Steampunk Tea Time event!

Date: Saturday, October 13th, 2012
Time: 11:00AM
Location: The Tea Room, 7 East Broughton St.
Ticketing and Important information: Tickets are $25 each. There are a limited number available so buy early to reserve your spot! You may purchase tickets here https://www.etsy.com/listing/109837360/live-steamys-tea-time-event-tickets using paypal or credit card. We will mail your ticket to you. Tickets are refundable only up to six days before event! Your ticket pays for your bill at The Tea Room as well as all gratuity, so there is no hassle during the event. However, Live Steamy will have small items up for sell and a made to order portfolio so don't entirely abandon that pocket book. You may just fall in love. It is important that you purchase your ticket as soon as possible so that we may reserve enough space at The Tea Room. If your ticket is purchased too close to the event and we are unable to accommodate you the price of you ticket will be refunded.
Dress: Now this is the best part! Please feel entirely free to wear your steampunk getup! We want to give Savannah's steampunks a place to flaunt their stuff, so don't be shy, just be you! However, steampunk attire is not required! No one wants you to miss out just because you don't dress completely spastic like some of us. Please come join with new and hopeful friends.
We hope to repeat this event bi-monthly if not monthly! So please show you support for a Savannah event and come join us for a lovely mid-morning tea!

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/109837360/live-steamys-tea-time-event-tickets

Musical Monday's Not for the Faint of Heart

Alice in Chains- A Looking in View

I am so very glad I got introduced to Alice in Chains. Their music is so powerful. This video is not cheery by any means but neither is life at times. We have all faced our own kind of darkness and hopefully make it through to find peace. Suffering is part of our experience and it is the only thing that can truly teach us compassion, strength and deliverance. The first time I saw this video I had such an incredibly deep emotional reaction. But Alice in Chains does that to me often. 

Hear footsteps creek the floor
The shadows give away
Someone outside the door
Wont let me in

life damaged gears to grind
a rundown broke machine
that steals your peace of mind
before you know its gone

lay down
lay

silence burning
hold your tongue
keep us separate
so they'll know

hiding in the darkness under
boiling to the surface don't go far

looking in view to long on the outside
desperate plans make sense in a low life
hey

these things i hate in you
also reflect it seems
distortion laced with spikes
digs you outta me

lay down
lay

hiding in the darkness under
boiling to the surface
crawling on your skin discomfort
makes you break and run, stumble, fall

looking in view to long on the outside
desperate plans make sense in a low life
hey

its why you never tell me (whatevers on your mind)
its why you never tell me (whatevers on your mind)
its why you never tell me (whatevers on your mind)
its why you never tell me (whatevers on your mind)

looking in view to knock on the outside
desperate plans make sense in a low life
hey

its why you never tell me (whatevers on your mind)

The Junk is Consuming Me!

In order to prepare for the up coming Atlanta Mini Maker Faire I've been making more signs and sorting junk. I've been clipping (and doing that back and forth, back and forth thing with the pliers)  to get the back off of all the junk earrings and prying (with great amounts of frustrating difficulty) old linked watch bands apart. Such a pain! Oh and literally a pain indeed as I have many blisters. :(

This is the one I'm working on at the moment and I really forgot how time consuming they are. It's not done yet but it's pretty close. I'm going to make some more Happy Halloween signs but out of plain wire, not junk.






My favorite junk sign is still my "Steampunk" one:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/105270629/steampunk-junk-sign

And then of course there is "Burlesque" that is super snazzy:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/108763791/burlesque-love-the-junk-sign

And... just for fun I'll post this photo Travis took the other night when we were goofing off. No make up and thrown back hair, in my pajamas but oh well, I'm sure you'll love me regardless!

My curly fry mustache!

Kick Ass New Men's T-shirts

Oh man! The first one of these shirts that I stamped I messed up on a bit so I did what I could to fix it and gave it to Travis and Oh My Word! the boy could make me drool. (drool like a complete lady that is, of course) But ah, he looked great! I'm seriously so thrilled about this design he made for these t-shirts.

That's right, you heard me, he made this design! It is completely original! He drew it, edited it and cut out the stencils for it all. And I hand stamped each shirt individually! This is "Divebomb" from our men's steampunk line 'Gear Up'.

 Front

Back

We currently have them on white and sand (color in pictures) t-shirts but, as always, we can make any color and any size you like! That's the beauty of dealing directly with the artist. :D I would also love to make some chick shirts with 'Gear Up'! So let me know if you are interested! Shirts are available on our etsy;  https://www.etsy.com/listing/109312092/gear-up-unique-mens-steampunk-shirt-tan

Where is the Wonder?

I would like to know if other people are getting totally sick of being a cookie cutter copy of their neighbors? Oh, it cringes me when I go to my neighbors house and oh I have that exact lamp, it's from Target, oh and I have that exact rug, its from Pier 1, and yes yes those are my exact dishes, from Walmart and so on and so forth. (this is not a specific example of my own home, but the point is ture)

What I want to know now is when will we get absolutely sick of being cookie cutters and start really being unique. You don't have to be artistic to be creative. Human beings are born with a spark to create. We choose to make our space, to form our style, generally from what we find around us that is easily accessible. I just wonder when we are going to stop being a Walmart world and start getting back to art. If you have to own something, have to identify with something shouldn't it be something unique?

The greatest thing about finding a person to get things from instead of a machine/corporation is that you can actually get what you want! I may like that arm chair at Target but it only comes in black and brown because those are the most commonly purchased colors or whatever, but I want it in pink! Buying from an actual artist/creator/furniture maker means I can get the damn thing in any color of pink I can think of. I tired of settling and I'm tired of living in Walmart world and all the things that that bleeds into. I'm afraid of what our culture is turning into.

Anyway, there is my rant for the day.

Pinning Without Pins

So quite admittedly I am not a very good pinner. (don't you love, or love to hate, all these crazy words that are coming out of our era: pinner, tweeter, steamer, etc.) Anyway I know some people who get on pinterest.com everyday and just pin away. Respectfully, I do think its very clever. Even the name they came up with you have to give a bit of kudos to. Clever and fun. But it's also a good way to share ideas. I have gotten really really great ideas from pinterst. I am also aware that pinterst is a time sucking trap and one click leads to another, leads to another, leads to reading blogs and looking up this and that and then going to my kitchen, art room, shed seeing if I have this or that in which to make this or that. Gah! Suffice it to say that before I know it 4 hours have gone by and I was completely thrown off track from what I was doing.
My point being: that I don't pin much but if you are on pinterst if you don't mind please check out my boards.

http://www.pinterest.com/livesteamy/my-heart-is-full-of-steampunk/

As always I hope you have a most beautiful of days!

Back to Musical Mondays

Musical Mondays is brought to you by My So Called Chaos (who's freaking awesome!!)

This song doesn't have an official video, oh well. I love Rosie Thomas. 

Has nothing what-so-ever to do with steampunk but again, oh well. :)

Weekend

I've been so excited for Saturday but now that its here I just want to work.
It's difficult when you work at home and make your own schedule to have any kind of stability. Or maybe it's just hard for artists like us. We have been pretty go with the flow about it. But often that 'flow' turns into whole weeks were we work from 8:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. And after a work week like that we will crash on the couch with our TV shows and books for 4 days straight. It doesn't sound so bad but it is hard on the mind and body. It's hard on the business too actually.

So when we returned from our Florida trip we had a stern conversation and made up a schedule. We will work Monday thru Friday 10:00 to 6:00! And we will actually take our weekend to get out and do stuff. Well.... we kept the schedule for a day. :S

Today is supposed to be our day off but now I'm just hoping that Travis stays asleep for just a little longer so I can have a little time to work. I promise I will stop as soon as he wakes up. I just... hope its not too soon.  Oh, I knew this schedule thing wouldn't work out too well. I just like the flow.

A Place To Sell

I had such a great day yesterday. I met a new friend for coffee and we just sat and chatted for 2 hours on a beautiful, warm Savannah day. I then went to the Tea Room to ask about holding events, it was just before closing so they were slow enough that I got to look around and they spent quite a bit of time talking with me. I am very excited about planning a Steampunk tea time with them! By this time next month I promise you locals we will have a steampunk event in Savannah!!
While talking with my friend she told me that tonight was Fashion's Night Out down town. So I ran home to get Travis and we dressed up and headed down to check it out. Turned out to not really be our thing but I had fun pulling out some of my steamy gear. And after walking around a crowded down town with a ton of rail thin, wanna-be models we went a few blocks off the main strip and relaxed at a local English Pub. And that was wonderful.


So all that catching up but now I have news!!!! I've been trying to get into finding a place to sell Live Steamy. Of course I have online my etsy and website and all but I really want to sell in person too. Conventions and whatnot. I've found getting into such much more difficult than I had anticipated but today I got an email that I was accepted to sell at Atlanta Mini Maker Faire. I'm not doing all of Live Steamy just my Junk signs but I'm sure its going to be great fun! I also get to do a demo and have the patrons make signs with me. So if you are in Georgia check out the faire and come see me!!!!

Lastest Obsession~

So a few weeks ago I made the Tea skirt and on it I used a doily, or actually half a doily. And because I'm me and I totally hate wasting anything I kept the other half of doily and started working my brain to think of some way to use it. I had just bought this ribbon so easy peasy I glued the ribbon to the doily. Searched through my bucket of little charms and scraps and found this sweet little rose. Then added snaps and voila! A cuff accessory.
I always called these things wristlets but apparently "wristlet" already exists and is a clutch/purse that has a little wrist tie.  :p

I totally fell in love with this little wrist cuff! And naturally I want to be able to share that love.  I gathered up all the spare lace that I had laying around (and ok ok, I also went to the craft store and bought more). I hauled out some ribbon and went through my jar of buttons and I made several new cuffs! I haven't made any more using the doilies but as soon as I find a good source for them I will. Here are the ones I have made now. I'm in the process of putting them up for sale on Etsy.

My Wedding

 

 Ok, so I promised wedding pictures. And in true Melanie Grace fashion I am just now getting to it. But in all fairness its a lot of time consuming work, there were over 800 photos. 

Here we go-

My father and step father walking me down the isle. We set the chairs in a spiral for a little flare. My big sister, Brittney, made the beach so beautiful!

 Our dear friend Ben wrote and officiated our ceremony. And he was awesome! If you're looking for someone in Georgia to officiate I would love to hook you up with Ben or his girlfriend Jen, as they both are wonderful officiants!

 We wrote our own vows and of course I bawled through mine. I'm amazed anyone understood a word. It was a perfect ceremony. And I'll never forget that kiss! Wahoo!

 My bridesmaids were my sisters, my eldest sister from my mother and my two younger sisters from my dad and my new sister in law! Most unfortunately I'm missing my sweet sister Sara, she was unable to make it and she was dearly missed. 

Travis' groomsmen were all very dear friends of his. It meant a lot to him to have them all there. His brother and Mike and Kenneth are from NY so it was really great that they made it down.

 We didn't have a lot of time for pictures on the beach but we got a few really great ones. And I'm happy.

 "Now announcing Mr. Travis and Mrs. Melanie Grace Phillips!" (yea I made them say all that as opposed to the tradition Mr. and Mrs. Travis Phillips. Hey, I'm already giving up my name, I am a person too ya know.) I love being a Phillips, I'm proud to take on his family name.

This was our first dance to our wedding song- Dreaming Light by Anathema.

It was perfect.

 Our reception was at the Olde Pink House in the ballroom and it was gorgeous! You can't really see it in the photos but the walls are lined with sink murals of the natural swamps and with the dimmed lights of the ballroom they glow in pinks and golds. It was stunning! We had our own 'sweethearts' table. (I have given up on trying to get the photos to align nicely so it's a bit jumbled from here on out.)  My daddy-daughter dance was to Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle.

 My friend Nen and I. She got married the week before! Wahoo!

 So, as I said, jumbled. But all the following pictures are just us having fun at the reception. We did the garter and we were both so shy. It was amusing. Sarah got us doing some crazy dance but oh man it was so fun!

 This is my new sister, Courtney!!  And me with my little sisters and brother. It was such a blessing to have them there. Kelsey and Devon were so helpful and it was great to have some time to get to know the adults they have become. You two were the best! Thank you!

 Laughing with our bestest Jaime.

 Dude, Kenrick freaking dove for that garter like it was a Benjamin. lol

Travis and I with his parents! They are the most incredible people!

Me, my ma and my sister.

Our wedding was beautiful and the out pouring of complete love and support has been amazing. I feel so blessed to have been so surrounded by so many people that I love. And still so supported by all those who couldn't make it. 

"You shine inside and love stills my mind like the sunrise. Dreaming light of the sunrise."

I love you Travis Phillips, now and the rest of my life!!!