We've been cramming to get a particular project done and at this moment we're on the home stretch. It's our brand new Springtime kit!!! I kinda want to keep the details under wraps until we debut the photos...but trust me, if you love spring imagery, scrappy ephemera, pattern, vintage color, nature, texture, and fun projects...you're gonna flip! We'll definitely have it up here for your eyes to see within 36 hours.
Designing a kit is harder than our usual M.O. because with each detail we have to think of somebody else doing it. Our method with kit making is to design backwards. We create a multi media, multi textured, sometimes complicated piece of artwork...and then we dissect it, simplify the steps, add three dimensional stuff and work out the kinks so that anyone can make it. This one is gonna be easy to execute but the final product will look like you took hours and hours. Ok, enough teaser talk...the new kit will be up very soon!
Our part of Jersey is nothing but slush. I guess you could say that in the anatomy of Jersey we're on the shoulder...and it's not a cold shoulder. If we get overnight snow it will undoubtedly turn to sleet by the morning. Then it gets cold at night and we have roads coated in black ice (I love how they have "black ice warnings" on the news but every two minutes they have to explain to the audience that the ice is not in fact black...I mean, don't give us "black ice warnings" if you think we aint hip to your jargon! :) . So lately when it snows in my area it's never any fun. No sleds, no snowmen, just shoe ruining slush and spooky "black ice"!
Me and my friend Sadie did a little swap and here's what she sent me. Two, very fab Betsy ornaments! I already own a few of her ornies but this is my first blonde...I love her. The color of the sequins is just so perfect for blonde hair. And the other one...the Hollywood glamour gal...complete with a teeny tiny beauty mark! I swear, I think everyone in blogland now owns a Betsy, how could you not? They're one of those Eureka! designs. If you're reading this and do not yet own your own Betsy then by all means head over to Sadie's shop and get the adoption process underway. She's always coming up with new styles for the season, for fashion's sake etc...
Sadie also sent me these sweet tags and this handmade "pillow" envelope/box. Love the little birdie on top! Thanks Sadie!!
Just in time for V-Day I got a little piece of unexpected mail from Mary Holcomb, who's just one of the sweetest gals in all the land! This handmade sweetheart was really such a bright spot in my all over the place Valentine's day. The whole day at the hospital with Jay, then Aar picked me up and we stopped to pick up some Indian food on the way home. It's like our favorite restaurant so we weren't mad at them when our takeout order took an hour and forty five minutes as opposed to the forty minutes they quoted. Since I was walking around on only an hour and a half of sleep I passed out in the car while Aar stood waiting in the restaurant...But we got our food, which was unbelievably delicious, undid our top buttons, sat back, watched Lost, and opened up this sweetheart from Mary. I love the image. It looks like Zelda and F. Scott when it was still the good times. "Thoughtful" is a much used word and almost rendered meaningless by it's proliferation, but if we use the word in it's truest sense then it describes Mary Holcomb to a T. She's always thinking of you and yours. Thanks Mary!
And speaking of you and yours...check out these Valentines roses from Aaron! He's never ever gotten the color more right! There are a million varieties out there but these are IT! When I stumbled in the door after the long day, I flicked on the lights and these were already cut and arranged in a vase on the dining table and right along side them were some dynamite chocolates, the likes of which I've never ever tasted. Drop dead flavor combos...one had rose water, one even had real bits of lavender in it (though not so thrilled with the taste of that one, but wow!) And as you read above, we ate dinner on the couch, my eyes barely open, I recounted the day at the hospital to Aar during Lost commercial breaks. After dinner, I'm thinking my chocolates are the dessert but Aar says "no, no" and goes to the fridge and comes back with this pre planned pink plate, complete with glass dome. he raises the dome and here are these two individual heart shaped chocolate ganache cakes he got from Whole Foods. Wow! If that was the last thing I ate in my life it woulda been fine with me. Nearly passed out from the chocolate high.
We just added some of our all time favorite 4 x 4's to our Etsy shop as well as some Easter designs..our Party hat Chick cake, Easter cupcakes, Easter art squared, paper mache rabbit ornament, choc. bunny ornament...etc. And some new ones on the way. Oh, and our all new birdhouses. We did them for our mom's for mother's day last year and we just weren't ready to do them for sale...they were like a one shot deal for us. But so many people asked us about them and gave us so many sweet compliments on them that we decided we'd do some to sell. So those are listed too, and we'll do them until our fingers tell us to stop (they're a bit labor intensive!). And rumor has it that Etsy is gonna be a key topic on this upcoming week of Martha Stewart. I guess she's gonna let the whole world know about the best kept shopping secret ever...but bring it on Martha. I'm psyched to see if the Etsy traffic multiplies this week. There are some dazzling artists on there who are just being plain neglected...I'd love to see their sales go through the roof. And the Martha audience is well suited for Etsy. I'd like to think they (we) have a keen eye for the handcrafted.
One last thing. Tonight when Aaron went to the grocery store he came back with this candle from Pepperidge Farm...it smell like their Chessmen cookies. I don't know if I'm a late arrival on the Pepperidge Farm candle train, but I was thrilled at this discovery. I'm always on the lookout for edible scents and Chessmen's are good stuff. Aar said they also have classic sugar cookie scent, Milanos in like four varieties and some others he couldn't remember!! I may just have to get over there and get a few more tomorrow!
Ok, back to business. The Springtime kit is coming and I promise, you'll like it! xoxo, Jenny
