I enjoy working closely with customers to create a pillow look that perfectly fits their style.  I always have a few custom orders in the works and thought I’d share a couple recent ones.

I loved working with this first customer, Lisa. She was so kind and VERY patient while we waited for the perfect teal green to come about. It seems more often then not, the color desired serendipitously turns up within days of a request for it. But this time, the teal kept us waiting! But it did finally turn up and I knew immediately that it was just perfect.

Lisa had sent a few reference photos which were so helpful in getting to know the look she was after. The photos included the yellow floral print of her furniture, an accent pillow she had just purchased and a ruffly teal throw. Upon seeing the photos, I knew immediately what she was after and we came up with two gorgeous large teal pillows with ombre red centers. Aren’t they fun? It was a joy to work with Lisa. It took a while for the perfect color, but well worth the wait! And better yet, Lisa was very pleased with them.

And another lovely lady, Shonda…. I had such fun with her request for pink and brown to match her Pine Cone Hill bedding. When Shonda mentioned that she was up for mixing in some animal print, I knew the pillows were sure to be electic and fun!

Originally, Shonda had purchased a bubble gum pink pillow from my etsy shop and then contacted me about a custom order for a second pillow. We realized pretty quick that the bubble gum pink wasn’t a good fit with her more coral pink bedding and I was glad to have the perfect coral pink on hand (not an easy color to come across). I whipped up a new solid pink pillow for her and several other pillows to go with it. Adding bright yellow greens and ivory tied in the stripes of her bedskirt and the bit of animal print added sass. It was a fun project.

Do you have a certain room that needs that extra pop of color or uniqueness? I’d love to work with you on a custom pillow or two. Or in Shonda’s case, four! I don’t charge extra…it’s the same pricing as all my other pillows. Don’t wait too late…as the holidays get closer I get pretty slammed so now would be the perfect time!

I had the pleasure of getting to know Megan and Jenn at MC Adams Clothier this weekend. For my local peeps, MC Adams Clothier is amazing. Beautiful, well-curated clothing and great service to boot! You really should stop by. It’s right next to Char restaurant on Howard St. Just one block off King St.

Last month, Megan and Jenn so kindly asked if I’d come and be their featured local artist/designer during September’s Art Crawl. I immediately said yes as I’ve been thinking about doing some things locally with my business and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get my feet wet. And what fun it was!

As I pulled up and started to unload a trunk-full of scarves and pillows, it began to drizzle which made us all groan but we rolled with it. The original plan was to set up outside with a antique couch to display pillows but moving inside their beautiful store turned out to be just as great. Cheese, crackers, wine, good company, beautiful clothes to browse, lovely customers and friends. What more could you ask for!

The above photo was taken of Megan and I at the end of the night. Megan is wearing my Red Roses Scarflette in wool. And I’m wearing a version of the  Shades of Grey Scarf (charcoal shades are available in my store, the one in this photo will go in my store soon!). You can just barely see the classy store decor from these photos…including a wall of black and white damask curtains. Wish I had taken more photos! The store is very pretty and inviting.

A couple more photos from the night.

Besides being among great company for the night, I especially loved the opportunity to hear customer’s reactions as they tried on scarves. Having done mostly online sales up to this point, I often get very appreciative emails after customers receive their items in the mail (which is wonderful!) but hearing the  immediate reactions at the Art Crawl was so helpful. I learned more about my buyers and what they liked about each style. And so much more. That type of information is invaluable as I continue to tweak which colors, styles and lengths are most desired by you all. I also learned that I need to learn how to take compliments better! It was nice to hear so many flattering words about the scarves but I’m still that introvert artist who has a hard time with getting any attention directed my way. But I smiled and thanked and hoped that was enough.

All in all, a wonderful experience.

Thank you, Megan and Jenn, for being so hospitable. It was fun!

Ah! Sand castles. Shell collecting. Roasted marshmallows. Pancakes on a camp stove. Late night family games around a propane lattern. Even the ants and sandy tent. We had a great little vacation this past week.

Um, no. We can’t claim the sandcastle above . Ours was a bit more…well…rustic?

Seeing this photo…doesn’t it look like Jerusalem or something? hmm. It may have lacked in finesse but we tried to make up for that in size!

Our kids are back in school but its been hard for me to get back into that mode. I’m squeezing every last bit out of the summer! Hope you are enjoying it as well!

Can’t wait to share our latest junking finds…we were traveling so sharing will have to wait til this coming Monday!

It’s Monday! A great time to share thrifty finds from the week and weekend. Our best find this week? A near-new Schwinn bike my guy found at Goodwill!

Ah, I needed a bike. We had sold my mountain bike before moving from Colorado because with the kids little I just wasn’t riding it much. Now that they are both riding, I can’t keep up unless I feel like going for a real run. This bike will be great for our flat and smooth Greenway trail. Judging from the tires and the little nubbies that are still on them as well as the perfect leather on the seat and handles, it seems to have only been ridden once or twice.

I’m honestly a little hung up on the vintage-style and single speed as we live in the mountains and are more into mountain bike riding. Single speed and hills just don’t go together. So we’ll see…if it doesn’t work for the type of riding I’ll do it was such a steal at $60 that we can resell it and put the profits toward a bike that will work.

I love that about buying second-hand. Often we’ll see something that is valuable but we feel uncertain if it will work perfect for us. Knowing that we can resell it easily for more than we paid if it doesn’t end up fitting our needs makes it a quick decision to head to the check-out.

Any finds for you this week? Us treasure-hunters have to stick together! I’m linking up with Southern Hospitality and Apron Thrift Girl…both are blogs which share their finds on Mondays.

With two school days under our belt, I’m pleased to say the school year is off to a bright and fresh start. Just like these school-themed items I pulled together for an etsy treasury. Go here to view any and all of these great items.

It’s back to school time for us! The first day of school always has that exciting and fresh-start feeling. Both kiddos woke up early with huge smiles and eagerness. Our littlest is off to Kindergarten! I haven’t quite figured out how to feel about that notion. It’s a bit strange to be sitting here without a little buddy this morning. Thankfully both go to the school just two full days a week and work from home the other three. It’s a great schedule.

Since our shopping was a bit more special this week, we went “to the city” to buy polo shirts and lunch boxes. Getting out of the mountains is always a treat. Especially when “Target” is on the list of places to go. Can you believe we don’t have a Target? I could go on and on about that.

Anyway, we did stop by a couple second hand stores amidst our school shopping. I always need more cashmere and wool to make my pillows and scarves so anytime we are out, we squeeze in Goodwill if there is one close. I scored a lot of great cashmere colors which was great and much needed.

Cashmere and wool is a given and I could share those finds every week, but that would be boring! it is much more fun to have other things to share here. We had been diligently watching for a third fan. Being in the mountains, our temps are cool enough not to need air conditioning. But we do need that extra bit of help to get the cool air in…especially in the evening when the kids rooms get stuffy and they are trying to go to sleep. Just knowing that a used fan would turn up if we had a little patience, we decided to wait a few weeks before purchasing one at the big box stores.

I’m glad we waited!  Vintage fans are so much cooler than anything we could have found new in town. Jeff scored this one killing time with the kids while I was in school orientation meetings. I love the color! And it is a powerful little thing for just $3!

And coincidentally, a matching find. During our trip to the city last weekend, I made a beeline for this blouse/jacket as I walked into a goodwill. I still have the Anthropologie catalog from when this jacket came out (it’s from a few years ago). Happy day when you find anthro at goodwill. It is waiting in my studio for one of the hook and eye’s to be tightened but with that done, and a cleaning, it will be great for fall!

What about you? Any frugal finds this past week? I’ll be linking up with a couple blogs (here and here) that share frugal finds on Monday’s.

Ah! Finally got back to the original idea which inspired my ruffle rose scarves.

Last year about this time, while playing around with felted wool scraps, I began this blanket idea. And finished just one row. When I realized what a wonderful scarf that one row made, I kept going with the scarves (made and sold 400!) but never went back to creating the original throw blanket idea.

But here it is finally! Making this intricate blanket was time consuming but the outcome was well worth it. Seeing that navy is replacing blacks and browns as a updated neutral, I chose all navy tones. Intermixing them made for a wonderfully eclectic throw.

Size: 60″ x 30″

Fabric: recycled sweaters which I felt in very hot water. These are all 100% wool and wool blends which have a 80% or higher wool content. So…very little synthetic fiber!

Available in my etsy shop.

And if you hadn’t seen them yet…the first round of 2010’s scarves are ready here on this website. Click the links at the upper left to view all sorts of colors and lengths.

Happy Wednesday!

Now and then I remember to stop and smell the roses. The  kids and I grabbed my camera to walk around the yard snapping photos along the way. Yesterday’s walk:

Sweet Claudia is well! Thinner, but well. Amazing. 1 of 9 lives used up?

1 of 5 heavily laden apple trees.

The reason we headed out on our walk today. My sweet girl planted surprise seeds at the edge of our vegetable garden. Though it was quickly apparent over the past couple months what they were, I feigned surprise this morning to see that they turned into giant sunflowers.

Creation is mind-bogglingly amazing.

Hard to believe it is August! We have just a couple weeks left before school starts and I need to get a move on in order to finish up our new home-work area for the kids. They go to an alternative scheduled school where they are home more than at school. Sort of in between “normal” schooling and home schooling. We love it!

My “Thrift Share Monday” find is school-related and though not from a thrift, it did save us $80. thrifty to be sure!

In our new school work space (which is part of our newly finished basement which I shared a bit about here) is a long wall perfect for a large map. I had it narrowed down to this wall map from Ikea and this one from National Geographic. With shipping to include on the NG one, they came to about the same price but I still couldn’t pull the trigger easily on either one. I’m guess I’m just spoiled by the cheaper prices at thrift stores! $150 was a lot to swallow. That is until we found one in the As-Is section of Ikea for 50% off! I was pumped. The guy helping in that section  mentioned that there was nothing wrong with it except for damage to the box. He was right, the map itself was still sealed in the cardboard tube. Score!

Jeff hung it this weekend…bonus that is is stretched on a frame rather than glued to the wall like the NG map. We couldn’t be more excited to be able to point out locations while we do school work with the kids in a few weeks!

How about you? Any thrifty finds to share? I’m linking up with Apron Thrift Girl and Southern Hospitality’s weekly shares and you can too!

Well, people have asked if and when scarves will be available for this fall/winter. And I’ve been teasing with photos here and there.

Happy to say the first round is available!

Click the links to the left for scarflette (30-31″), medium (48″) or long (55″ and up).

In coming weeks, I’ll share photos of how versatile these are…seriously, I don’t just say that because I designed them. Dressed up or dressed down, there is a scarf in the bunch for any style you are after! And if there’s not, contact me and I’ll make you one.