Notice for locals! Many of my items can be found locally at The Shoppe’s at Farmer’s Hardware on King St in downtown Boone, NC! I’m having a special sale on all scarves there. Through Christmas, the scarves will all be 25% off. Lots of nice colors in both ruffle and rose styles.

If you haven’t quite completed your Christmas shopping yet, this would be a great time to buy for friends and family or for yourself! You will also find my market bags, hair flowers, and more!

Warmly,

Updating...

We’ve added a sale section to the site! A number of scarves and other items have been put on sale—many of which are nice neutrals tones. Great Christmas gifts!

Since I work with recycled wool and cashmere sweaters for all my products, I can’t be choosey in regards to what colors by supplier sends (I get 1000 pounds per shipment usually!) so that means lots of neutral scarves in blacks and tans and grays are made. Not a bad thing, as the neutrals are some of the best sellers. But because I have an overabundance, I thought I’d pass some savings on.  (And try to keep from having 100 black scarves left at the end of the season. ha!)

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas decorating and festivities!

Warmly,

Who is shopping this weekend? All I can think about is how much dark meat turkey I plan to pile on my plate tomorrow. Baby has been craving it for 3 full days now and I can’t wait!

I don’t do sales often but because I wanted to pass on a little savings to you for Thanksgiving and participate in a little of the “Black Friday” shopping frenzy, I’ve made a coupon code for you!

Type in GRAY (it is case sensitive so make sure you capitalize) and every item on this website with the word Gray in the product name will be discounted $5. Here are just a few of the gorgeous gray selections:

To get all the sale notices and future coupon codes, make sure to like my facebook page!

Also just up…the new batch of ruffle scarves. All the ruffle scarves currently listed are made of 100% cashmere. Very soft and beautiful but also eco friendly because I use only recycled materials.

Warmly,

Oooo, I’m predicting this baby to be a very girly girl if going by the “more nausea = girl” idea). Have you noticed I’ve gone missing a bit? It’s ok if you haven’t…though I may tear up in a very pregnant hormonal way if you told me. Seems I can cry at the drop of a hat these days. And gag at the most unpredictable moments as well. Ah, fun times. You have to keep a sense of humor during the first trimester as you get tossed around a good bit. Or you feel like tossing your cookies a good bit. And I’m not even in my first trimester anymore! Errr…nausea, please GO AWAY.

I’m sure you are sick of my woe-is-me ranting so I’ll get on to more fun things. Thanks for indulging me…a girl sometimes just needs a listening ear to feel better. I mentioned last week that I had a new batch of scarves that would be ready for purchase soon. Well, it’s finally all listed. Loads of colors! Hope you like them!

Warmly,

Yowsers. It’s been a tough few weeks! But I’m seeing the light at the end of the first-trimester tunnel. The constant nausea has been hard to deal with and I held down the couch most of the last 4 weeks. BUT at 10 weeks, I was thankful to be past the point I miscarried last time. And now at 12, I have the second trimester within sight! I couldn’t be happier about that. Most importantly, baby has a healthy heartbeat and is growing right on schedule.

HUGE thanks to my mother-in-law for flying in with her superwoman cape and running our household for us. I don’t know how we would have managed with me barely functioning. Not having to worry about laundry, cooking, cleaning or the kids’ schoolwork really took a weight off my shoulders while I was sick. Our children go to a university schedule Christian school where they are at school two full days per week and do school at home the other 3 days. Our home days are quite a challenge even when not pregnant so knowing that the kids were happily learning from my mother-in-law who is a veteran teacher was a huge blessing. And I believe spending time here was a blessing to her as well while she grieves. What a strong lady she is.

Not much else to say, except that I’ll be picking up where I left off a few weeks ago with work. Orders have shipped on schedule, of course, but I haven’t photographed and listed new products on the site for a while. Watch for that to happen soon. I’ve got a new round of rose scarves to add. I wish I had more modeled photos of them as the mannequins just don’t do justice. Taking a photo of myself in the mirror isn’t optimal either but at least it gives you an idea of how they look on. Unique yet classy. Disregard my dirty mirror!

We also have a new round of the fabulous cashmere ruffle scarves (black, red and gray this time). As well as a new round of pillows. Watch for those to appear over the course of the next few days. The scarves (both the rose and ruffle style) have proven to be a great hit for Christmas gifts. If it goes like the last couple years, we’ll sell out of the popular colors by early December. And out of all of them by Christmas, so you might want to order early. The inventory is limited again this year.

I hope you are having a wonderful fall!! As much as I love summer, it is exciting to be near scarf-wearing season.

Warmly,

It is an exciting time here! Some of you noticed that rose scarves started appearing in the scarf sections of my online store yesterday. Monumentous! Is that a word?

I’m pleased to share the first round of 2011-2012 rose scarves. Like the past few years, these are my very own design (I hope you won’t be fooled by my imitators as I work so hard to be original!). Each is made with recycled wool and/or cashmere sweater knits. I water felt each knit in very hot water to make them nicely stable, smooth, and soft. So the scarves are not only made of very high quality fabrics but are also eco-friendly. These photos show the scarflette length which is designed to stay criss-crossed at the neck. Like modeled by dorky me here. Also available are a traditional medium length which hits at the natural waist. And a long length (scroll to the bottom of the page) which hits below the hip. The long length is especially nice wrapped around like a cowl.

In late winter, sewing machines in houses around my county begin to whir and buzz with the sounds of producing the next seasons rose scarves. These are made locally by women in the North Carolina high country. It takes all year to make enough inventory for the next fall/winter. And “enough” really isn’t the right word as we’ve sold out each year. For 2011, I made some production changes so that we have higher quantities of them for this season so hopefully more of you will be able to enjoy your very own. And some for Christmas gifts as well!

We work so hard all year that it seems this day just can’t get here soon enough. The fruits of our labor! In the shop, you’ll find a large number of styles in each size category. I still have a number of the scarflette length to add and hope to have that done by tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Warmly,

One thing I love most about this little cottage industry is that women in my community can cut and sew for me for a little extra income. Though I do create a few of the products (mostly prototypes and custom orders) I can’t keep up with it all myself so I have one main seamstress and a number that work under her. They are all a huge help to me. I could not do it without them and I hope the income is a help to them in return.

I especially love to hear when the seamstresses are using the funds for specific purposes. A few examples:

One seamstress uses the $ to help send her daughter through college. Another mentioned music lessons for her children. And another has had adoption on her heart for the past couple years. Which brings me to the point of this post. Hannah (who sews rose scarves), along with her husband Arthur and three beautiful children, are welcoming an addition to their family. They are nearing the end of the adoption process of little Joshua from Russia.

A beautiful video:

Bring Him Home from Arthur Rasco on Vimeo.

Read more about their adoption adventure on their site: www.rasbebe.com

As part of the final push to raise funds, they have an online auction going from their blog (you just post a comment to bid on each item). Click here to view the auction (and then hit the previous button to view all three pages of items). I’ve donated a large 20″ gray pillow, a jade green cashmere scarf and a set of three hair flowers (pink, red, cream). If you’ve been looking at any of these items, bidding on their site would be a great way to purchase and have the money go towards a great purpose.

Warmly,

Wow was last week ever a load. I won’t bore you with the details (and yes, they are boring) but let’s just say I was ready for the weekend! Yes, sirree, bob. When the weekend came, we piled the kids and our new Golden puppy, Samson, in the car to get some sun-therapy. So nice. The beauty of the outdoors tends to put things into perspective for me. So this is what is on my desktop today…culling/editing photos of our first real walk with Samson.

A nice passerby even offered to take our photo. Amazing how many people talk to you when you have a dog…isn’t that fun?

What’s on your desktop today?

On a business note, so many buyers were asking so I added a scarf gift wrapping option to the site. Includes: box, ribbon/twine tie, upgraded shipping for protection and a handmade rose gift topper coordinated to your scarf.

Goodness, I’m impressed by all you Christmas shoppers. Your making me think I had better get started! lol.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

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!