Relocating

As you probably already know, my husband and I and baby to come have relocated to the Paris of the Midwest... Kansas City!  We are currently staying with friends as we find a place that we like.  Daniel will be looking for a job too.  I may do so as well, but it will be harder for me as I'm pregnant.

On a similar note, we are making our way down to Texas this next week to clean out my storage unit.  We'll be selling a totally glamorous red velvet couch with claw feet, a huge queen size poster princess bed with almost new mattresses, an antique dining set with 6 chairs (upholstered with a completely retro Missoni style graphic fabric), some little rustic side tables and chairs, and glassware & dishes.  Also, I made a note of our tentative itinerary on Facebook so feel free to check it out to see if we can cross paths. 

We are so excited to be living back in the central time zone and we can't wait to see you! 

Ylang 23

When I was an impressionable young middle schooler growing up in Dallas, the greatest thing to do was go shopping at the Galleria. Going to the Galleria was a post Christmas tradition. Going to the Galleria was the wonderfully creative location of my 13th birthday party. Going to the Galleria, to this day, warms my heart as I think about years of memories with girlfriends & giggles & good things to eat.

And even amidst all of the memories, there's something else about the Galleria that instantly transports me back to fond mother/daughter memories that, without a doubt, have set the stage for my fashion taste to this day. And that something is Ylang 23. Up until a few years ago, you might have known it as Ylang Ylang. It was a matchbox sized stand alone shop on the south side of the mall on the first floor.

My mother and I would frequent the shop as it was one of the only places in town where she could purchase her favorite perfume, Ylang Ylang Autumn. They had lots of perfume, but I remember most the jewelry. When everything else was bigger in Texas, this shop featured dainty and delicate creations. Designs were, and to this day still are, ones that are beyond elegant in their simplicity and utterly luxurious in their construction.

If, by chance, you are captivated by my obsession with the shop, you'll no longer find it where I described. It has grown tremendously and rightfully so. The world wouldn't be right if it had not. It can now be found on the 2nd floor of the Galleria overlooking the brisk and bright ice rink. The windows are now bigger and the variety is plentiful. And, in case you were wondering, the shop is as inspiring as ever.

I'll leave you with one more fond memory of what you now know as Ylang 23. The last time I wandered through the Galleria (which was about 3 years ago since I no longer reside in Dallas), I happened to be wearing one of my own Chrystalyn creations. I, as always, perused the intricately wrapped gemstone necklaces and the earthy leather stamped bracelets. While I was coveting in a flattering sort of way, the impeccably dressed saleswoman commented on my necklace. She loved the texture of my vaguely faceted raw opal chunks and round, crisply cut smoky quartz all hand knotted on silk thread.

From a shop that sets the standard on taste in my book, I am forever grateful for that kind compliment. Ylang 23, I hope you never cease to captivate me!


Cathy Waterman - Love of My Life Collection

Current designers include the breathtaking Cathy Waterman, Me & Ro, Temple St Clair, Ten Thousand Things, Good Fortune, Irene Neuwirth and more.

dang, this blog is in shambles....

so i'm always trying something new and different. always considering new ways to link all of my cyber life together. sometimes it works well, other times the gesture is much like a bad outfit. good idea, wrong execution. anyway, i need to tighten things up here.

for instance, i noticed that my parallel jewelry supply photos are intermingled with pictures of me! if want to hear about me, why would you care about stones? good question, chrystal.

anyway, i still haven't posted dallas. so wrong. i just keep deliberating over how i'll do it. i should have done a story here or a story there all throughout the trip. however, there was no time for that. it was a full on adventure. i think i'll just go along and pick a photo and tell a story. yes, that's what i'll do. and i'll do one at a time as not to make myself nuts.

in the meantime, follow me on twitter. yes, do that. http://twitter.com/chrystalpaasch.

posting, oh, posting.

i think i have a hard time updating my blog sometimes. i think it may have to do w/ the fact that i can get my jewelry blog to feed over to my social media sites but can't figure out to how to get this one. it makes me uninspired to think i'll have to copy and paste. oh, the horror. anyway, i'm going to do a bad thing and backblog. it's sort of like being backlogged on blogging. yes, that's what it is. so i guess i should post about my texas trip. i wonder if i can remember anything but the shining faces i saw there. oh yes, i weight about 5 pounds more because of that beautiful trip. (-;

watch for it.

TOUR OF TEXAS

so i wanted to let you guys know that danny (boyfriend) and i are leaving on sunday to roadtrip to texas. we will be hitting up dallas, longview, and beaumont. the tentative dates for the tour of texas are as follows:


sun, 3/8 - leave redding
mon, 3/9 - sleep in arizona, drive
tues, 3/10 - audit classes @ convergence school of supernatural in fort worth (want to see what our friends are doing)
wed, 3/11 - longview, spend night
thurs, 3/12 - leave for beaumont
fri, 3/13 - beaumont, parents!
sat, 3/14 - beaumont, parents!
sun, 3/15 - beaumont, parents!
mon, 3/16 - leave for dallas, dinner w/ family in greenville
tues, 3/17 - 6am prayer in denton , fun in denton, dinner @ greenhouse restaurant on locust @ 6pm (rsvp w/ me please)!
wed, 3/18 - move a storage unit in aubrey(want to help?), fun in dallas!
thurs, 3/19 - fun in dallas, dinner @ gloria's on beltline & tollway @ 7pm then drinks @ palomino club (come one, come all... just rsvp!)
fri, 3/20 - fun in dallas!
sat, 3/21 - fun in dallas!
sun, 3/22 - church @ denton, leave for california
mon, 3/23 - sleep in arizona, drive
tues, 3/24 - back in redding

i am going to do my best to see as many of your as possible. one thing that will help me is if you make an effort to attend one of my fun dinners tues 3/17 or thurs 3/19. oh, how i've missed black bean dip and quail! oh, how i’ve missed quaint patios w/ mild non-rainy weather!

note, we're still looking for a place to stay in longview as well as on the trip back and forth to and from dallas. we'd ideally love to land in arizona for a night on the way to and from texas b/c it's a pretty good midway point. even still, we're open. i feel a tad weird about asking for a hookup and i know we could just get a hotel, but it took a miracle of god to get us on this trip. you have no idea how much we’d appreciate it...

love you all and can't wait to see you, catch up, have a nice drink, and laugh a little. and i know that danny looks forward to meeting all of you!

much love...

Customer Appreciation Contest

Congratulations Kristin from Dallas for winning the Customer Appreciation Photo Contest! You'll be happy to know that your Shape of My Soul Coral Necklace will go out in the mail tomorrow!

Thank you everyone for submitting your happy photos! You guys rock!

"chrystal the hairstylist"

i'm so far past proud of the fact that i cut my own hair this past friday. when i was in dallas, i had a friend do it and it was always amazing. i got compliments all the time about how chic it was. the great thing about the cuts i used to get was that i didn't have to do anything with my hair after i awoke in the mornings. it was true bedhead. i went to bed with it wet, tossed and turned all through the night, and arose each morning with a tousled and textured mess that was a little rocker and a little kindergardener. it was wonderful.

since i moved to redding (a year and a half ago), i'm embarrassed to admit that i've only had one haircut. the cut wasn't bad, but dang, it wasn't very much fun. it was stuffy, it was bland, it was grown up. no one seems to understand (god bless danny in texas) how to cut my hair in such a way that i don't have to fight it's natural tendencies.

so on thursday i got a wild hair (pun so intended) and started snipping away. i used the techniques i learned from my most beloved stylist and twisted every which way all the while blindly hacking here and hacking there. i forgot to mention that i prayed too. it turned out great except that i couldn't seem to thin it out enough.

friday morn, i hit up wally world and made a $7 investment for thinning shears. how's that for the price of a haircut? i arrived home utterly eager to do part two of the hack job on my coiffe and it was so worth it. after i was done thinning, it looked like i had cut my hair all over again.

in conclusion, i think i've found a new passion... anyone want a cut? (-;

really, what am i doing???

so we all know i'm not doing 2nd year. we all know that i still make jewelry. but how do i support myself now that i can't reasonably send out letters soliciting money from anyone i've ever met?

i'm doing temp work. i just got a 3.5 week job @ a local human resources company. i volley between answering phones and mailing out my chic little jewelry postcards. now and then, i actually return an email or blog.

i'm also (still) revamping my website. i'm already offering gift certificates that can be purchased right off of the site. i'm also working on a bridal section. i have to get the photos from the brides first... *sigh* i'm getting things ready for a holiday show slated for november 15th. can't recall if i've already announced that or not. i just got the sweetest postcards to promote it. they may very well be my favorite ever. i'll be selling ornaments & wine markers that day @ monica's.

let's see... what else can be said for my evasive posture these days? i still don't answer my phone or texts b/c i have one of those super oldschool ones that does nothing but calls people. it's illegal to talk while you're driving so the only thing to do is put that phone on speakerphone and stuff it into my cleavage. driving used to be the time when i talked to everyone. but since the commute in redding is a fraction of the commute in dallas... there's just not time for that. i've been trying to get a reasonable amount of sleep these days. such a strange thought, i know.

and then there's ministry. my homegroup from last year felt like it was time to take it to the next level so we changed days and moved to a room in the church (was a home group... in the home). i'm on the ministry team as a lead for prophetic ministry. woo hoo. i'm excited b/c i enjoy shaping and building new things. this should be interesting. and as a sidenote, i designed the business cards for the ministry. they turned out lovely, if i say so myself.

overall, my life has gone from macroeconomics to microeconomics. i've gone from seeing things on a grand scheme to beginning to see the bits and pieces and how they all go together. if i recall correctly, i really hated macro b/c it was all so foreign to me. however, i fell in love w/ micro b/c i actually began to how all those pieces and parts snap together and what they're used for. i hate generalizations and, as w/ economics, i had a really hard time figuring out the grand overview of what life looks like in the kingdom of heaven. however, i'm seeing an ease surfacing that i can partially contribute to the way that my brain works, i believe. that's a great revelation, chrystal.

until next time, be expectant and proactive w/ your faith. and by all means, enjoy the process!

xoxo