about

♥ The Story ♥

One day during some of my darkest times, my Art Therapist noticed that over the years I had drawn many tiny fairies in combat boots. She offered that the fairy was a part of myself I kept drawing, that these metaphorical boots represented the sadness, past, and junk weighing the little fairy girl down. She asked me to draw a place for these boots to stay awhile so that the fairy could use her wings and fly. I immediately started drawing a coffin with flowers sprouting from the earth around it. As I drew she said, “Here Lies Boots.” I jumped out of my seat because as a lover of words I especially loved these three together. That day a name was finally given to my passion for searching for and creating things that open minds, evoke memories, and remind us to be happy to be here.

 ♥ The Girl ♥

 At the age of 3 a little girl made many of what she called “projects.” She painted seashells and used crayons to the nubs. It was recognized that this girl was sensitive and saw the world differently than most. She was an old soul. Some saw her being unique as special while others shunned her for caring and being different. Her blessing was also her curse and this made itself known especially during the dark years. Images, experiences, lyrics, and words read in books stuck in her mind and served as guidance. She never let go of her dreams of creating and searching for pretty things. Her silly collages saw her through and just barely kept her alive at times. People began buying the things she made and found and a dream of one day having a web shop was born. After countless obstacles, years later this dream is coming true.

 Erika now lives in Southern California where she being a Pisces, is at home nearby the ocean. At night when the stars glisten above the mountains’ shadows she is convinced there are worlds beyond this one. Her love of otherworldly things will lead to greater passions, new paths. She is grateful for having been to hell and back because everything that has happened has made her who she is today. The need to create, get ideas down on paper, and capture feelings or thoughts continues and sometimes overwhelms. she wishes she could capture moments, images, words, and bottle them up to save me whenever she’s confused. When she creates the world disappears. So she continues to learn new outlets for expressing her inner knowings, confusions, or experiences.

♥ The Shop ♥

 The shop is a one girl project run by Erika. The graphics were made by her and Lightning Bug Designs did all of the coding and were wonderful to work with. Everything here is made with love by me Erika (soon other creators), or found and bought for a special reason. A love for vintage and unique finds has me both reworking these old pieces to give them new lives or finding new homes for them as they are. The shop is influenced by my loves:

 Vintage jewelry, different fabric, old trinkets, jewelry boxes, art of all kinds, reading books, taking apart books with nice pictures, the beach, shopping amazing little boutiques and antique stores, sushi, the spiritual life, cutting up magazines, beads, painting, re-decorating and organizing other peoples things, cemeteries, morbid things, girly things, heels, black nail polish, pressing flowers, writing in journals, pin up girls, fairies, glitter, candles, taking pictures, lyrics from her favorite songs, finding a real treasure, and selling things to good homes.