the Blog is MOVING!!!!!!

hello everyone!
it's time for a fresh start. so i'm retiring this blog BUT you can find my new one over here:
http://grsgvintageluggage.blogspot.com/
please come by and follow so i can follow you too:)
the new blog is going to be a mix of shop talk, music, photography and my favorite finds on etsy. i'm excited!
see you over there
rachel

Where have I been?

oh my, where have been and where do i start?????

i've been bustin' the lens on my camera (NOT on purpose), listening to Kashmir like mad, washi taping everything in sight, shooting photos of my little sis with awesome luggage, making a rad bag for urbansoule............ well, that's all the photos show but in truth that stuff has been a small, very small, teeny tiny little fraction of my life. where i've really been is in la-la land. i've been sick and had probably one of the roughest moths of my life. i wanna delve into more but i can't because guess what? i'm tired. blech! always tired. i will explain more but for now know that my mental well-being has been far from well. BUT, i am on the road to recovery, taking things slow. learning to be positive. mental illness is a nighmare and i plan to delve into it here. the blog is gonna be changing up for the next few months- maybe longer. i need to change it. i wanna help others and be completely honest about the trails i've been facing with prescription drugs, NONE of which i've ever abused. ALL of which i've just followed my dr.'s instructions on. for over 10 years now. but this train is stopping. i'm getting off. one by one and taper, taper, taper. i love you all. i am so thankful for your encouragements and well wishes. your comments, convos and emails have been TREMENDOUSLY helpful. thank you thank you. now really, my hands are sore, my arms are sore, my back is sore. stupid benzo detox...........
GRSG out kids!

HEADACHES N STUFF

it's been raining like no other for days here.
the change in barometric unfriendly pressure has been killing my head.
the above photo is me trying to re-charge with my macbook power chord and it's not working. i also realized that my eyes are so sickly and swelled from the headache that i look like i got bit by a wild spider. i am currently completely wiped out to my very core.
off to pound pound pound the water and the coffee.
i hope my head starts to get fixed up right really soon. i'm very much desiring to share this illness of the brain with everyone but i'm not sure how to go about it? soooo many details. such a long saga. where to begin and how much to share is where i get stumped.
i may just start.
but not until this throbbing goes away.
have a happy weekend kids:)
xo, rachel

i'm taking out my STITCHES!

.....and no, this post has NOTHING to do with valentine's day. i waited until today to post it to avoid any confusion.
so here i am..... 2010 well on it's way, GRSG still open, i'm back in the full swing of drawing and the luggage is still selling!

i tend to vent, rant, complain etc. on my blog. i don't mean to. i just let my brain unwind here and reflect. it's never my intention of using this blog as a dumping grounds for my trails. so today it's all about the good news.......

2009 ended on a sour note for me, details as to why NOT coming, but it threw me into this bizarre artistic hole. it caused a forced halt unlike anything i had ever experienced. it was a time for me to really look at my business. re-evaluate, toss around what-ifs, toy with new ideas, draw new designs, draw NOTHING AT ALL, take lots of pictures, hang out with my brother, try to draw, fail, try to draw, finish a bag, think about closing shop, actually putting the shop on vacation mode, opening back up even when i felt artistically cleaned out! i digress but only to get to make the ending that much sweeter.

the people of the etsy community, as well as the ones in my personal life, whispering in BOTH of my ears was a GRSG life-preserver if you will. i don't remember a specific day but this line from one of my favorite movies sums it up:

"You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don't even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don't even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is." George (Kevin Kline) from Life is a House

so, february 15th 2010 is what i woke up to this morning, yes i know, we all did that. but here's the thing, i've been knocked off my feet in the best possible way. i crunched the numbers last night....
55 sales in January
33 so far in february
ACK! i couldn't be happier. that's some SERIOUS FAVOR for me and my shop.
and shop talk aside i could make a list a mile long of all the good things i've got in my life. so upward and onward! i don't want to make others feel as though my life is a bowl of cherries and i live in la-la land. i'm just choosing my focus right now- some days that's easier to do than others, i PROMISE i know. but GetReadySetGo isn't going anywhere! any thoughts i may have had about mnimizing or closing have been kicked to the curb and taken away by the garbage trucks.

so yes, i'm taking out my stitches! if you look real close the scar looks like one SPECTACULAR STAR! yeah, i'm fully aware i might be seeing things but all that matters is what i see.
and from where i'm standing.
the view is PHENOMENALLY BRIGHT WITH POSSIBILITY!

xox to ALL of you lovely faces (boys can be lovely faces too- just so ya know), you keep me going on the darkest of days:)
GRSG OUT!

crash n burn

ughhhhh. i got nothing done today. where is my mind? seriously?!? i do love the above train case i made last week. and i randomly made an Alice in Wonderland train case that i finished today. it was out of nowhere. i started with no idea and it just morphed.

i could really use a dose of smart pills because today i was apparently fed stupid pills. i suspect they were slipped into my coffee. i have no leads as to who put them there. i have nothing interesting to say but i thought i would try to keep up on my poor neglected blog and show those who read this but maybe missed the green treefingers case in my shop.

i want to live in a room that is painted bright teal and has white christmas lights and the biggest fluffiest bed in the planet. i want this room to look like the crate & barrel magazine i looked at this morning- and i NEVER EVER look at those. but everything was so clean and organized and comfortable and cohesive. my mind is craving all of those things. meanwhile our featherbed needs to be flipped and fluuffed as it's falling down in our sheets and bunched up over the bottom of our matress. i know, i know, i tempt you so with that image.
okay, off to fix the bed and then fall in it.

HELLO, my name is Rachel and i am a Blog Neglecter

..... no seriously. a few of us etsy kids were tweeting about this last night. if there were blog-protective services they would have come and snatched this thing right away from me and put me on the blog-neglecter list. i would never be allowed to own a blog again!

that being said, i have been living life. it's been 29 kinds of rough but as always, i get by and i'm confident in EVERY single thing having its purpose. this is how i sleep at night. this is why i get up day after day and keep trucking. there is so much beauty in this mixed up world. i am fortunate to be able to see it and feel it.

i could go on but i am up at 7 AM!?!?!?! and i have yet to put any coffee into my bloodstream, both things are recipes for a blogging train-wreck!

my friend kristin just started a blog. it's brilliant & you should follow:
Shout out Loud
so i leave you with a link and of course a giant XOX

~GRSG OUT!~

i could die trying......

BUT I DON'T CARE!

where have all the photographs gone? where has my life gone?

yes, it's been a rough year in MANY aspects, and i'm still NOT through the woods, but i WILL get this back. i spent tonight going through all the photographs of the past year and even some of the year before. i haven't been shooting randomness lately. my life is too fast and too rushed and too much. but it's changing and my business is changing and i will put a stop to this crazy runaround. i love my job. i do. but i need to love my life more. it's my business and i say how it goes right? i need to force myself to break! i will get this back. i will get this back. i will get this back

EVEN IF I DIE TRYING! it's WORTH IT!