nyigf january 2011 - handmade, booth 9554

Hey, y'all! Marcy and I are heading to NYC for the NY Gift Fair for a few days slash a whole week. You know the spin - if I can, I'll try to bloggy blog while I'm away, but you might not be hearing from me for a few.

If you're a buyer reading this fine blog here, come see us in the Handmade section (booth 9554)!

Just a reminder that the Reece's Rainbow giveaway is STILL up until Friday, even though I'm away. So read on up about it and enter yourself to win!

do good: reece's rainbow

So I'm doing something fun and cool and not really something I've done before over here in blog land. Or...I guess technically I've done it before, but never on my bloggy blog. It's a giveaway of one of my newest (and most popular) necklaces to help raise funds for this amazing cause, Reece's Rainbow. Sweet Priscilla, who I met at a crafts show in Waynesboro, Va a few months ago, emailed me about this cause and asked me to help her out with awareness and I jumped on it. A gal can start to feel like all she thinks about is herself and her jewelry and her calendar and all of that nonsense every once in awhile when she's trying to run her own business and that just makes me feel gross. And selfish. And grosser. Know what I mean? Opportunities like this give me teeny tiny ways to give back and make me feel, oh, a tad less gross.

So here's how it works:
Priscilla is trying to raise money for these two specific darlings, Clara and Sophie. Please oh please go to their pages and donate and then leave a comment here on this fine blog that you've done so. On Friday January 28th, we will randomly pick one lucky winner to receive this necklace (a $97.00 value).

As an added happiness, anyone who donates at least $25 to either sweet baby will receive a free "dwell in hope" print. You can check out images of that print here.

You can also comment on Priscilla's blog to be entered into this giveaway! I know sometimes blogger isn't the easiest format for blog commenting...

what to wear no. 012111

This weekend is my sweet soon-to-be-sister-in-love's (who also passed along that sweet title for us) bachelorette weekend and I'm oh so excited! We will drink wine, chat, surround her with love, and take a little cooking class tomorrow evening.

navy dress | gray tights | yellow sweater | laurel denise love tag necklace

ps: I might have run out of time to find the appropriate shoes to go with this outfit. Forgiveness is a great thing...is "forgiveness" a word?

lovely coasters

Y'all, aren't these coasters from 12fifteen just the most beautiful? Would love to be drinking my piping hot cup of coffee (slash big glass of riesling, but it's only 8:15am and that could be considered inappropriate in some circles?) on one of these right this very second.

apple pie is good

So, basically, this sweet little Etsy shop, All Jarred Up, is combining two of my favorite things - mason jars and pie. And so that just about makes my day. Which is awesome because it's only 8:00am. Win!

atlanta gift show: january 2011

I can't even believe this right now, but I leave for the Atlanta Gift Show tomorrow. Tomorrow, y'all. I'm sort of in shock that the wholesale show season is beginning again, but the January season always sneaks up on me despite the fact that I've been planning and preparing for it for months. So, bright and early tomorrow morning, I head to the snow-covered (question mark?) Atlanta to enjoy some time in a brand new showroom (Nest Showroom - Building 2, Suite 813A) with some gals who have become great friends of mine after seasons and seasons of trade show hanging outs. I'm sure this fancy iphone can figure out how to blog while I'm there, but I'm not sure that I can in fact figure out how to make it to that (Photoshop app, anyone?) so I might not be chattin' with ya until early next week. I'll be sure to be active on the twitter and the facebooks with that fancy hipsta-something-or-another photo app though, so be sure to stop in and say howdy.

Nanda Home (Cutest alarm clock in the history of everything. I seriously want to squeeze it.) | This is J (Most comfortable pajamas ever, ever, ever. I'm literally wearing them right now as I write. And will probably still be wearing them this afternoon. Because maybe I work in my pajamas.) | Molla Space (I mean, seriously, is there a place that makes better cool, hip, modern things that make your life easier?) | Tea Forte and Chronicle Books and Soap & Paper Factory (While not in my specific showroom again this year, I will still be hanging with two of the amazing sales gals behind these lines for some dinner and drinks - S & P gals, you'll be missed!!)

ps - Calendar order loves, don't you worry! The calendars are still being worked on while I'm away so as not to cause any delay in your shipments! Can we all give Mr. Cute Husband a huge shout out here? Because he's amazing and basically just the very best ever.

linea carta

I've been a big fan of Linea-Carta's goodness since, oh, way back when sometime and was excited to get an email over the weekend announcing some new goods in her Esty shop. This tea towel is just perfect, isn't it?

what to wear no. 010711

This weekend brings me my only at home weekend for the month of January. Can you guys believe that? Wow. So I'm going to live it up with some 2010 quick books work (I'm a party animal), some relaxation with Cute Husband, some first friday art show attending (especially this one because that Rachel Callahan happens to be the wonderful and super talented gal who helps me out in the studio!), and some girls night movie attending. Couldn't be happier for another relaxing weekend at home!

shirt (gosh, I love this shirt) | boots (frye, my darling, you have my heart) | comfy & warm sweater | jeans | laurel denise yeehaw necklace (in honor of Country Strong tonight, obviously)

studio tour no. 010611

Howdy, friends. [Inspiration for that "howdy" comes from that fact that I get to go see Country Strong tomorrow evening with two girlfriends who participated - kind of - in my country jig in the middle of a kitchen to express my excitement over our date. Interpretive dance session for three, thank you very much.] So, okay, howdy (again)! This here is the first studio thursday I've done in a long, long time. Like, a long time. Right? I've been a busy gal these past few weeks and this week was no exception. Not quite on the floor of my kitchen/home/studio pulling out my hair in a "holy moly how am I going to get this stuff done" sort of way, but in a very busy let's get things checked off without a break down kind of way. I'm going to go ahead and say I prefer the second kind of busy? Yeah. Been making and packing and shipping all kinds of 2011 Planner orders, been assembling and writing sweet notes on my new catalogs to go out to buyers who will hopefully attend the Atlanta show next week (holy cow, next week) and love my new stuff as much as I do, been starting to make my shiny and new and lovely samples for the new york gift show at the end of the month (holy cow, this month)...just been trying to keep up and keep going. Sweet responses from happy customers like the ones below make it much easier to keep up and keep going and also make me want to make a mad dash to where ever they are and give them a giant squeeze, letting them know just how much they've made my day:

"Thank you so much for such a beautiful labor of love. I only have eyes for your planner now and look forward to filling every inch of it. I can tell you now that you can put my name down for a 2012 planner."

"I just wanted to shoot you an email and thank you for all the help you gave me. You went above and beyond what most people would and you were amazing. My girlfriend loved her necklace and was in tears when she saw that it was the exact one that she lost a few years ago. It means a lot that there are people like you in the world who care about others. Thanks again and best wishes to you in the upcoming year."

"I just wanted to tell you how much I love your new design (size, cover, etc) on your planner! I had the 2010 and I loved it. Seriously the way the calendar is designed with the month and the week within the month so I can see little details of my week and then the big stuff for my month, it's awesome. And the pockets... I can't tell you how much I love the pockets. If I were designing a calendar this is EXACTLY what I would do. I had to get one for my mom this year for Christmas."

I mean, seriously, who gets to wake up to such sweet emails, right? So blessed. Thanks, sweet customers. You've made my day!

an idea is brewing

I woke up with some new ideas floating around in my brain this morning. And this, right before I head into trade show wholesale selling season, is quite dangerous. What this means is that when I'm in Atlanta at my first wholesale show of the season, I'm going to really develop these random ideas floating around in my head so that when I get back, I will be in an absolute mad dash to get these ideas out and in design-form and ready for the NY Gift Show. Which means production madness, insert for the catalog-making, and general creative idea energy obsession. This, I guess, is how my inspiration works - in a frantic sort of way. Anyone else here like that? It's painful sometimes, right? But always worth it...it's these ideas I have, right before I'm about to have to sell them, that usually work the best and seem to get the nicest response from buyers. So, here goes nothing. And, oh yeah, it involves masking tape. Or tape. Or something like that. Who knows, it's still floating around...

Above tape from here and from here and here and here and here, too

iphone outfit

Y'all, I did something drastic over the holiday vacation. I got an iphone. I know, welcome to the world of, um, everyone else, Lol, right? Cute Husband got one for Christmas and I was absolutely green with envy. Not an emotion I'm proud of, but it happened. So I decided it was time. And, guess what! Absolutely no dropped calls yet. Only a dropped phone...in a concrete parking garage. That, my friends, is why one purchases a warranty. So, anyway, girlfriend should get a new outfit once her face is fixed up again, don't you think? And these cute numbers from Etsy (that, yes, all look a lot alike - hey, I have a style and I'm sticking to it) seem like strong contenders. Except that none of them seem to leave enough room for the rubber bumper that will now never leave the edges of any phone in my possession...but, what the hey, I'll post about them anyway:

uno | dos | tres | cuatro