Hi, my name’s Melissa and this is my blog. I’ve been blogging in some form or another since 2001.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have a day job in the East Bay and spend my free time pursuing my various interests which include jewelry design, knitting, writing, building my nail polish collection, revamping my diet to a Paleo lifestyle, and reading garbage space barbarian novellas (my weakness! haha)
JEWELRY DESIGN
I have a longtime interest in geology and tend towards using stone in my work. At the moment, I am primarily interested in color blocking and mixed media as well as traditional brick-stitch earrings, which can be found in a variety of cultures around the world, including Native American, Egyptian, Ukrainian, etc.
KNITTING
Historically I have preferred knitting socks and shawls… Currently my interest still remains in those items however sweaters are starting to interest me as well as gloves. I have started to wear out my many pairs of handmade socks so I’m needing to start to make replacements. Also, I want to knit down the stash as I currently have a redonk amount of sock yarn. So, goals.
Find me on Ravelry here. 🙂
PALEO & WHOLE30
After a painful yearlong bout with tendinitis in my shoulder, I turned to clean eating to help the inflammation in my body. Learning about the Whole30 program and becoming part of that community has led me down the Paleo path, which is fairly ironic seeing as I used to make fun of one of my coworkers for it (what goes around comes around, ehh?). I am not 100% strict Whole30 or Paleo but eating clean has really agreed with my body and I am finally on a sustainable, healthy path.
SPACE BARBARIANS
If you can’t enjoy space barbarians, what can you enjoy?! (Nothing.)
CONTACT ME
Please feel free to email me at pynnski (at) gmail (dot) com or follow me on Instagram at @pynnm.
WHY “BEHIND THE SMILE”?
Behind the Smile is the name of a Matthew Sweet song, part of which goes like this:
I have seen my perfect day
I have watched it fade away
you know I’m fighting to be real
I haven’t been a good friend
for a long long time
you know I wasn’t happy
behind the smile
At the inception of this blog, it seemed like the thing to do (for a variety of reasons), and has since stuck. I may or may not change it in the future, who knows!
Updated 8/9/17