Props

This weekend I'm headed to France for a 5 day photography and food styling class. We're instructed to bring some props, and since all our kitchen stuff is in storage, I decided to hit the Anthropologie sale table. I got a few fun plates, bowls and linens. Here are a few. I'm very excited about the class! The weather forecast isn't looking too great, but I'll take France rain or shine. Rolling green hills, a chateau, beautiful food and photos, interesting new people to meet... I'm ready! See you soon from southern France.

BHLDN: Wedding from Anthropologie

This may be old news, but it's new news to me. The Anthropologie family has a wedding shop. Did you know? It's called BHLDN. Wish it had been around when I got married! Here's a peek.

Laundry Day

A while back I saw THE cutest tea towels at Anthropologie. I usually like their embroidered and appliqued tea towels, but a few laundry themed towels really made me squeal (you can see them here and here). I wanted to buy them, but then again, I thought it might be fun to make something like it. And I'm kind of cheap when it comes to things like this. I don't know why, but I am. I'm okay with digesting a great $100 meal with some nice wine if I get the chance, but a tea towel for $20ish, something I could potentially use for years? I think twice and decide to spend 8 hours making one instead!

Swarm at Anthropologie

We're headed to Amsterdam soon, and one place I'd love to visit while we're there is Leslie Oschmann's studio, Swarm. It's by appointment only, so I don't know that I'll be able go, but I did recently stop by Anthropologie on King's Road here in London to see her current exhibit there. Having worked for Anthropologie for 8 years, and leaving as the visual director, of course her creations fit right in in their gallery space. I love the way she finds so many ways to rework old canvases, from her bags, to the great collage in mismatched frames (above), to her new series of plates. But I think my favorite piece in the exhibit was a book-nook of a chair. Two chairs, re-worked into a chair and bookshelf all in one. Creative indeed. So if you're in London, go check out the exhibit this week (it's up until May 10).

Swarm

Leslie Oschmann's work has made the blog rounds for quite a while now (on Decor8 a few years ago, and more recently places like SFgirlbybay). I try not to rehash products that have already been featured by other very popular bloggers, but I just love everything Leslie makes! She gives new life to old artist canvases by repurposing them into great bags and beautiful chairs. Check out her web site, Swarm, to see more of her great work. Anthropologie carries her bags and chairs, which I saw in person over the weekend, and now I love them even more.

Globe Shopping

Can you say dream job? I only wish I had the Sundance Channel so I could watch the full episodes. I first heard about Man Shops Globe the other day on Green and Pretty, and now I noticed it's all a-buzz in blogville. The show follows Anthropologie buyer Keith Johnson as he hunts for unique pieces for their stores. I always wondered where they got all those amazing fixtures for their merchandising (and ideas for a lot of the merchandise itself). How fun. You can watch clips here.

Online at Anthropologie

I'm so excited! My cards are now online at Anthropologie! Mine are the button ornaments card and the mitten card on the top row. Yay!

Time to Say Goodbye

Today I finished and shipped my Anthropologie holiday order--1,264 cards. I have mixed feelings about letting go of all those cards. It took me more than two months to make them, mainly because I'm slow, but also because these required a lot of cutting and gluing, and more cutting and gluing, and then more cutting and gluing. I feel like a mom who had the kids around all summer and today was the first day of school: I'm glad they're gone. But I miss them. I hope they're doing okay. And I'm not sure what to do with myself now that they're gone. People ask me if I get tired of making cards. I definitely get tired of making them. It's repetitive and fairly boring as you can probably imagine. But as I make them what keeps me going is thinking about all the people who will buy them and write on them--I picture all the different kinds of handwriting, different color ink, all the words: I love you, I miss you, wish you were here . . . etc. Then the best part is seeing them in stores. The first time I saw my cards in a store, the first store that ever ordered, I felt like a singer who heard their song on the radio for the first time. Very satisfying. Getting the check in the mail isn't too bad either.

Home Stretch

I'm almost finished with my Anthropologie holiday order, whew! I love buttons, but I'll be happy not to see them for a few weeks. Somehow I managed to get a ton of red, white and blue buttons. Even though the buyer knows that all the buttons will be different, they're likely to think I'm shooting for patriotic holiday theme. Luckily, though, I have some yellow and green buttons from ebay on the way. Here's a picture of the pile o' buttons. I have to break up the order in sections so I don't feel overwhelmed. I grab a pile of 100 printed cards, break those into smaller piles of 20, then line up 20 sets of three buttons--three for each "ornament" on the card. Then I glue on the buttons and the hooks. I pack up cards in their sleeves right before I ship them, so that will be next week's work. I made the mitten cards they ordered in sections as well. Those took even longer because I had to trace out all the mittens, cut them, then glue them on with their pom poms. I'll post a picture of those along with the button cards on the big day, shipping day that is, 8/31!

Lots o' Cards

It's Christmas in August around here (as well as May, June and July a lot of the time). It still feels weird to be making Christmas cards in the Spring and Summer, but that's when most stores order for the holidays. This week it's back to making a ton of button ornament cards for an Anthropologie order I'm working on. I'm so glad they've ordered, but these particular cards are soooo time consuming--printing the cards, gluing each button, cutting and gluing each hook then packaging them up. I need 1,800 buttons--whew, that's a lot of buttons. I already raided my mom's huge stash of buttons for colorful, nickel sized buttons and I've bought a bunch off ebay. But now I'm headed back to ebay again to search for more buttons.