Indiegogo LahCia Studios Campaign

After what seems like forever……we finally got it organized and we have launched our Indiegogo crowd funding project!

You can check out our page here at indiegogo.

Youtube:

We signed our lease and are gearing up to start our build out! Here is where you come in, we are trying to avoid having a huge overhead and be able to hit the ground running, so of course we have more time to work on our crafts! We are offering an array of perks in exchange for your contribution to our salon. Here is your chance to help real people with a real dream and you get to be apart of it!

Here are our smaller perks that you can purchase:

We have many other custom perks to include artwork, tattoo designs, wood burnings, services at the salon and membership cards!

We will be updating the campaign frequently so please stay tuned. If you cant afford to donate anything, that’s ok, all we ask is that you share our campaign with your friends and family in hopes that they would like to contribute to our studio!

Thank you for your support!

xoxox, Cia

April Showers

Hello my beautiful readers! It’s April, can you believe it? March has gone by so fast and it seemed like everything picked up so fast that I am still catching my breath. I have been doing so much in between drawing, painting, face and body painting and now in the works of opening up a studio, I haven’t had much time to blog. Yesterday I took a day to myself and did nothing but watch redbox movings and lay in bed. Hey, we all need days like that don’t we?

I wanted to share with you some of the things I have been up to.

A couple weeks ago, I took my daughter and brother to go see our brother perform with his band Full Fledge at the Norva here in Norfolk. Can you believe how bog she is getting? I cant believe I get to be her mom. How lucky am I? It was her first concert and she had so much fun because she looks up to her big uncle.

I am so proud of my lil brother and his band to play at The Norva. I know they are gonna do big things!

I also got a chance to facepaint for a SYSCO Event at the Virginia Beach Convention Center for their spring product review. Since my mom is a culinary student, she was also at the event so it was pretty cool to see her there!

I also got to see my friend Mandy who actually I used to work with at Xotic Eyes and she put in the good word for me to become a facepainter with Magical Solutions Inc, which is who I get some of these jobs through. She is a silk aerialist, hoop dancer and flame performer. Oh and did I mention she also does suspensions. I always love seeing her and cant wait to work with her during the summer.

One of the photographers that was there for my brother’s band at the Norva asked me to be the MUA for a last minute photoshoot and of course I’m down to work, especially with friends!

This was a lot of fun to do. I haven’t done beauty photoshoots in a while so it was nice to switch it up from all the other things I am doing. You can check out the photog, Kevin Watkins for his work and contact info! He is very fun and professional to work with, so if you are in the area looking for a photog, I def recommend him!

This past Sunday was a very busy day! And it prolly deserves a full post by itself, but here is a sneak peek which if you follow my Instagram (sweetsurrenderart)  you may have already seen a few images. I will do a proper post on it tomorrow.

I will post more on that tomorrow, so stayed tuned! Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog. I really appreciate all my readers!

XOXOXO, Cecilia

Lah Cia Studios in the Making!

Hi my lovelies!!!! It is a beautiful day today, this Friday and as you can tell I am in a glorious mood. As I mentioned in my previous post just briefly, that  my business partner, Lah and I are opening up our own salon art studio. After looking at many different spaces, we finally found on we love. We are signing the lease on Monday and the buildout will start soon after!

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know how I have felt about working in a traditional salon or any traditional job for that matter, and Lah and I have worked so well together that it only made sense to go into it together!

Next week, we will be launching an Indie Gogo campaign to help raise the money needed for our shop, such as supplies, equipment and everything needed to start up. In exchange for donations, there are almost 20 perks you can choose from ranging from $5 to $500. And not to toot our own horns, but they are some amazing and fun perks that even if you are not in the local area, you can still enjoy!

There will be a range of items from stickers, coffee mugs, tshirts and custom artwork and lets not forget services at our new shop!

I am sooooo super excited and I hope you are too because this is just not something for us to enjoy its for anyone to enjoy!

Check out the space, before we put our love and style into it! We cant wait to being it to life!

Ok, folks, I am off to get more things ready, this weekend is busy, in between my brothers concert tonight, a photoshoot tomorrow and facepainting on Sunday, I need to get offline!

See ya soon!

Cecilia



Paper Dresses

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while, but I just haven't had the chance to, but I wanted to share something I think is super cool and something that fuses art and fashion into one. My sister, Dominique and her very talented friends got together and created a paper dress for a fashion show being held in Denver.

An article was posted here, showcasing the event.

Our friend, Aimee doing the models makeup before showtime!

That's my sis above on the left with her friend, Aurora

I am so proud of all of them, for doing an amazing job. Even though they did not win any awards, they spent countless hours creating a masterpiece and was able to partake in an event that I am sure they will not forget. I have always loved working fashion shows and performances and I am glad that she got to have a small taste of all the creative outlets that her and her friends can participate in.

I just wanted to share this with fellow creative people who may enjoy this!

Thanks for reading and stopping by! I hope you have been inspired!

New Etsy Shop UP and Opening a Salon Art Studio!

Last week seems so long ago. All of last week was a blur and it all started when my mom got this crazy idea to paint some glasses for her tapas party last weekend. We went to Michaels and various other stores to get glass and paint supplies. We picked up some really cute stemless martini glasses and some paint. As my mom was preparing her many dishes to be served during a spa party at her house, I was painting my ever-popular swirls designs. Check it out!

After I posted this picture, I had many people interested in buying a set. I had got 5 orders within 24 hours! I couldn't believe it, so of course I jumped on it. I created various other designs for the swirls.

I even had a friend of mine ask for hunting style glasses and I had a really cool idea!

The cool part about this glass is that I made a scope so that you can have it aim at the deer. You may think that is a lil crazy, but there are plenty of people that hunt and loved this. (Sorry if it offends you)

I also had a friend request all purple, pinks and blacks in the swirly designs! I absolutely love doing this design!

I was quite surprised at how well these glasses came out and I really enjoyed painting them. They took off so fast, that I decided to open an ETSY shop: Sweetsurrenderart757 shop and offer them. You can check the link at the top of my blog!  

I am also planning on having a booth set up in upcoming shows, craft fairs and festivals this summer and winter. I am super excited because I have always wanted to have a booth selling something, so I am happy that this kind of jumpstarted that.

In other exciting news, that my business partner and I are ready to share is that we are in the works of opening our salon/art studios! There is more to come but I want to put it out there! I will give you more updates on that tomorrow. I just finished another set of the hunting glasses, and it has been a rather long day! SO, I am off to bed.

Goodnight and sweet dreams!

xoxox, Cecilia

Weeping Willow

Hello my lovelies! How is your weekend going? Mine is going good, my cold is almost completely gone and the weather has calmed down enough to give us some decent weather.

I did have plans to go to the 4th Annual Hampton Roads Tattoo Festival, but plans fell through and just cant make it, which I am pretty bummed out about, but I know I will catch the Tattoo Expo in Virginia Beach in August.

I just wanted to share a few art projects I have been working on.

Here is another createmytattoo.com design that I had an invite to and decided to give it go. I really love the way this weeping willow turned out. Very wistful and innocent. I didn’t win this design but I am still putting it into my portfolio.

A friend of mine asked me to do a cover up for him to get rid of an ex’s name. So I knocked out this lil guy and I really like how it came out. I think my skills are improving.

I am working on some glass painting for my mother today. She is enrolled in Culinary school and wants to show off her new skills tomorrow for an Arbonne Party that will also be a Tapas tasting party. I will post more on that project in the next post!

I hope that you have a great rest of the weekend and are enjoying the weather!

xoxox, Cecilia

Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday Facepaint Tutorial

It is a dream of mine to visit The French Quarter in New Orleans, especially on Mardi Gras. The music, the food, the people, the mystery and lets not forget the history the streets hold. Have you ever wondered why masks are worn for Mardi Gras? They were worn so that anyone, no matter their social status, could put on a mask and everyone was considered equal, whether you were a servant, or someone of higher social ranking and celebrate life and music and culture as one.

The past weekend, I have been laid out in bed due to a cold. I blame it on our really strange fluctuating weather. I have been on anti biotics for a couple days and I am feeling better. I think taking a few days off from life, helped me to recharge and re-energize and so when I woke this morning, I wanted to do a video.

Check out my video tutorial below and don’t forget to subscribe and like! If you want to see some other looks, please comment and I will do my best to do another look!

I hope you enjoy this video and I will see you in the next post!

XOXO, Cecilia