Sweet Wearables and ... Hangables

We've been busy bee's. And here in Jersey the summertime weather has been an agoraphobics dream. When it's not restrictively hot, it's pouring rain and lightning bolts. So we've been locked inside, filling orders, creating new stuff, and praying that the lightning doesn't fry our hard working air conditioner. As for the aforementioned new stuff, we are super duper excited! As an artist your latest project should always feel like your best work yet. Of course you can't always expect this to be accurate. Art can't really be micro-managed. Just because you want to always be better doesn't mean that you can force it to be so. There's a bit of it that's out of your hands. A sort of invisible magic ingredient that you can't buy at the craft store. And then there's the issue of being in touch with the zeitgeist. Art works best when it's the right thing at the right time. Fashion designers know this better than anyone. They are absolute slaves to the zeitgeist. They have to see what's not yet there...well, they have too see what we'll all want to see a year from now. In fashion if you design for today then you may as well quit. You have to design for next year and the year after that. That concept has always been so thrilling to me. And if you try...if you tap into that secret source...if you read between the lines...You'll see it. You'll know exactly what the world should look like and WILL look like a year from now. For years fashion has been a private addiction of both me and Aaron. We'll go as far as to create entire fantasy clothing lines...fully illustrated scrapbooks with fabric swatches and all. But I'm getting off track. I really just wanted to talk about making new stuff. As an artist it's so very very important to keep things interesting. And not just interesting for the fans of your work but for yourself as well...It's equally as important. You need to feel an excitement...try your best to recreate that feeling you get when you just start dating someone great. That fluttery butterfly in the chest feeling. This of course is very hard to do because in the end it really is WORK. And it's just you at home doing your thing...the thing you always do. How interesting can you make it? A good method is to challenge yourself...work outside your comfort zone...out of your depth. Another way is to change your point of view...try to look at things with fresh eyes. Do what you normally wouldn't do.

For our new work we did a little of both. First, the jewelry. I know that jewelry making is a fairly common practice. Especially in the etsy world. On etsy, as far as jewelry goes, you can find pretty much anything you can possibly think of. Somebody out there is making it and they are doing a darn good job. The talent pool is deep and full of amazing swimmers. So, when we took the dive into jewelry making we never ever considered that we would be extraordinary. I'm much more humble than that. My motivation had to do with change, excitement, and challenge. I absolutely love handmade jewelry and I love our paintings. And I have to say, the thought of combining the two gave me a bit of chills. When I was putting together a purchase order of jewelry making supplies I got a little bit of that fluttery butterfly feeling in my chest. A simple act...buying the glass-like lacquer that seals my miniaturized artwork and makes it into a tiny jewel like pendant. This gave me chills! That's when I knew I was on the right track.
Also, it was about the collectors. I just knew that these would be things that friends of mine would like. I like to think that we've got similar tastes : ) So, that was it...I was making jewelry. And it turned out to be great fun. Definitely not one of those projects where one day you'll say" oh yeah sure, I gave that a try once..." This was more like "Wow! This is just the beginning! I've got a thousand more ideas that I can't wait to put into motion." It's hard to say what my favorite piece is so far. In general, jewelry is funny that way. It's a day to day thing. That's why we don't own just one necklace, one bracelet, one pair of earrings...every day you've got a new fave. So yeah...Everyday is a Holiday jewelry is here...Sweet Wearables. I'm hoping to provide a new fave or two for my fellow jewelry lovers out there!

So...there's working outside of your comfort zone...using new mediums...strange skills...doing new tricks while being an old dog. And then...there's the simple idea of changing your point of view...looking at something you look at every day but seeing it with fresh eyes. That's where our new Favorite Photos collection comes in. For these I didn't have to learn anything new...I could still rely on my old dog tricks. But what I did do is put to good use a resource that was sitting right under my nose all the while. I use photos as inspiration. In fact they are my number one source of inspiration. The content is ever changing but the medium is always the same. Whether they are tangible photos like tear sheets from magazines...or the stream Flickr favorites I stare at every day. I could not survive without photography. As a designer, as a decorator, as a collector ... photography is my skeleton key. It's a resource I simply can't live without. And I try not to be greedy. I hope to contribute to this medium at least a smidge. I do my best to create worthy vignettes and upload them to Flickr or right here on this blog. But I've always seen photos as a method of communication. A photo is the tool that I use to show you my artwork. Or it's simply reference material that I use to create my artwork. But then, late one night, ( it's always "late one night." ) I looked at it with new eyes. What if the photo was the artwork? Again, I'm well aware of the art of photography : ) ...but I mean personally. These vignettes I've put together over the years. These images I stare at day after day. Why should they be relegated to the reference section of the library? I realized that they're much more than that. Maybe the inspiration for the art is actually the art. And these are mine...I didn't find them...I generated them myself. Well, I stopped thinking about it and just did something about it. I selected a few faves and made them into properly sized prints, just like we do with our paintings...and then I mounted them to wooden plaques, just like we do with our paintings...handpainted the borders in corresponding colors, sealed them with a satin clear coat, distressed them, gave them an antique wash, and all the other stuff we do when we make our artwork. And presto!! I absolutely LOVE these! And I hope I'm not the only one who does. They're something totally fresh and yet they've been right here in my possession all along only in a different format.
So...there's my two latest tales from the world of art. As my eyes scan up the page that I just typed I realize that I use a whole lotta words to say just a little bit about my newest creative projects. But I hope some of you are on the same page with me. I hope to get across a little bit of the process. I see art as sharing. It's always a key ingredient and motivation for me. When I think about what I'm gonna make next...what I'm gonna put in my etsy shop. I'm never thinking about salable products. I'm thinking about this stuff that I love...these visuals...and how I can share them with other people like me. What's the best way to put these pretty things in the hands of others. And hopefully, when I do it right...this blog will be about the process of all that. No big secrets revealed. Just a glimpse into my personal artistic process.

But anyway...speaking of my etsy shop! All this new stuff is in there now...so go check it out!

As I always do when writing a new blog entry, I just went back and re-read all the comments you guys posted on the previous entry. Thanks so so much for all the congrats about the NY Times feature! We were very surprised at the response we received from it. Even though our names were only included in the photo credits which were only visible via microscope...we were excited to see that people were resourceful and tracked us down through etsy. My gosh did we get a lot of emails!! Still trying to reply to them now.
As I stated above, it's now very hot here in Jersey. So you guys in Texas aren't alone anymore. I know you guys are in the hundred degree range and we're only in the 80's but if you felt the humidity here you'd jump right back on the plane. That is, if it's not delayed due to the lightning storms we seem to get every other day. It's been weird weather...absolutely terrible for the boardwalks and waterparks. Because even when the weather reports are wrong, which is like 70 percent of the time...people still cancel their plans based on them. I mean, there have been thunder storms but not half as many as they predict. Anyway, big thanks to you guys for all your well wishes! And hey Amy Bunny Rose Cottage....you better send it! Believe me, there is a girl sitting at her desk just Waiting for your piece to arrive! That's the way magazines work. They Need us! Send it! : )

Be Back Very Soon! xoxo, Jenny!

A quick little recap and some NEW eye candy!

Yesterday was the day. We finally had to pop the AC into the living room window. For about a month we've been turning on the bedroom air conditioner when we go in to sleep (as much for it's sound as for it's cooling qualities.) but it really hasn't been hot enough to warrant the installation of the living room AC. In the history of me and Aaron living together I bet this is the latest we've ever waited. Two factors come into play...first off, holy cow, it's been a mild year! And all over I believe...not just here in Jersey. (which apparently is a global warming symptom.) And second...our change of address. Being by the ocean is fantastic! It is automatically ten degrees cooler and the breezes are perpetual. So up 'til this point we've been getting by with open windows & ceiling fans and the many many paperweights that are required by crafters like us. ( I bet every crafter in the world can write a short story or two about the projects that have been ruined by a renegade breeze.) But finally, this week the triple H got us...Hazy, Hot, & Humid...and Aar had to wrestle the AC into the window. I'm bringing this up because I'm noticing that the change in atmosphere has been sorta dramatic...and it's more than the temp. With the windows shut we've lost the neighborhood sounds and the cacophony of birds right outside our windows. (and I say cacophony purposefully...I swear, our neighborhood birds are relentless...they almost don't even let you get a word in edgewise!) But yeah, the atmosphere...it's been only like 48 hours but already our creative habits have changed. I feel like we're sanding things faster and generally jumping around from project to project. I just stood up a few minutes ago and painted a whole pile of wooden things that have been sitting there waiting and raw for at least a couple of months... like shelves and frames and boxes etc... It's like you shut the windows, take control of your temperature, shut out the world a bit, and get to work. Not like we weren't already workin' 'round the clock but you know, it feels different, and different is ALWAYS good when you are self employed and working from home!
I wrote last entry that we were featured in the New York Times Magazine but at that point I didn't yet get my hands on the actual mag...I only saw the online version. Well, the next day Aaron went out and picked one up from one of the three 7-11's that are within five minutes from our home.(seriously...three of 'em in a five minute range!) Plain and simple, I love getting press! Mostly because I'm a big fan of magazines, and nothing is cooler than being featured in something that you were gonna go out and buy anyway. I remember a while back, years ago, we were featured in Woman's Day magazine. And it was a great feature. It was the very last page in the mag...a great head to toe pic of me and Aar standing there, posing like we knew what we were doing. Our first and last names were big and bold across the top. There were like five or six pics of our artwork and a brief but great interview. And the issue just so happened to hit the shelves the same month that we had opened our retail store of handpainted furniture. Needless to say, we were psyched! And the mag had insane circulation. It was in every store everywhere and usually it was displayed right up at the check-out registers. And since it was a special edition it was on the shelves for like three months! During those three months when me and Aar would go out grocery shopping we had a little ritual we liked to perform. While waiting on line with our cart full of groceries we'd pick up "our" issue of Woman's Day, flip it open to "our" page, and then put it back on the rack opened up like that. And then we'd of course laugh at ourselves for being such cheeseballs. We'd sometimes even pose like we were posed in the magazine and pretend like the people on line behind us would maybe put 2 and 2 together and say "hey honey look! those people in front of us are the people in the magazine!" Of course that didn't happen. And of course we weren't really being "those" people...we were just pretending to be "those" people. We were having our own private fun while the gettin' was good...and it had a three month shelf life! You can't beat that. But anyway, yeah, there's a peek into the dorky life of Jenny and Aaron...our idea of a good time! So, back to the present tense. The New York Times mag feature is great. It's a great publication and I'm proud to be part of that story. The Keep Calm poster phenomenon is such a cool thing. And the response has been shocking! Our presence in the story is so very tiny and yet the emails, inquiries, and etsy traffic have been so very abundant. Our actual names and Everyday is a Holiday are printed in the teeniest tiniest font along the inside margin but still, people are finding us. I consider myself a bit of a media sleuth...I can always track down the parties responsible for the artwork or products I'm admiring in a publication. I've always been a reader of the small print. I get psyched when others go to the trouble of seeking out little ole' us! So, another thanks to the NY Times and really big thanks to everyone that searched us out...and if you've come by to check out the blog for the first time, then welcome welcome welcome!!!

The 4th of July already seems like ages ago so I definitely will avoid going into great detail about our adventures. The evening started off on a not so good note but since I vow to keep the 4th of July as a stress free holiday I made sure to not let the bad news get me down for even a second. This was the bad news: when we arrived at Point Pleasant boardwalk we found out that the fireworks were unexpectedly postponed 'til the 5th....for no good reason...it was a clear night...families came in droves. The night time beach was FULL with people awaiting fireworks and you could feel the anticipation in the air. But nobody actually informed the masses that there would be no big explosions in the sky. We overheard some cops talking about the postponed fireworks...but instead of sulking about it, we jumped in the car and drove a half hour south to the next big boardwalk on the ocean. We got there just in time to view the fireworks from inside our car while we were parking!! But like I said, no big deal. We hung out at Seaside Heights boardwalk all night long...Aaron and Walt got all the boardwalk food that they had been craving for weeks. Waffles & ice cream, cheese steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, fried stuff galore...the trick to eating all the stuff you want is to walk around a lot and to stay there for many hours. By 4 am you will have had your fill. We played tons of Skee Ball in our favorite arcade. I think it's the only arcade on the boardwalk with the really old Skee Ball lanes, with the wooden balls. They also have a Flashback room with all of the old video games...Ms. Pacman, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, which of course made me think of the awesome documentary "King of Kong" if you haven't seen it...please watch it now! I guarantee that you will love it. Two nerdy guys competing for the Donkey Kong crown doesn't sound like cinematic gold but I assure you, it's riveting and examines all facets of the pursuit of one's dreams...the sweetness of victory...the agony of defeat...the drama of life. I promise...watch it. Anyway, back to our Seaside Heights experience... Have you ever seen one of those old west shooting galleries? I grew up with them. I've seen them many places and they're all the same set up...the piano player, the cow skull, the sewing machine, etc...anyway, when you shoot the targets your gun actually shoots a little beam of light and the beam of light is what activates the object to make it move...the piano player plays, the bird squaks, the harlot's skirt flips up, etc...welllll, here's a little trick...if you pull out your camera and take a picture with FLASH...guess what? Every single thing in the shooting gallery moves at once! It's this big loud pandemonium every time you snap a photo! Try it! It's soooo Fun! Only, eventually, the manager or owner of the place will come over and give you a big bad dirty look and shake his head "NO." and make you feel like a misbehaving third grader all over again! It was a good time. We have been working ridiculous hours...barely leaving home except for supplies and shipping...so getting out around all those people for all that good old fashioned fun was so refreshing. Truly a recharging experience. We came back home from our Independence Day, slept it off, and were ready to get back to work. Isn't that so American? In Europe they say they work hard in order to go on vacation. In America we go on vacation so that we can come back home and work hard.

A couple entries ago I showed some pics of our new cake and cupcake peg racks that were inspired but the oh so sweet spread in a recent Romantic Homes magazine. Well, in addition to the peg racks we also did a brand new painting that was inspired by the spread. Only, at post time it wasn't yet ready to be photographed. So here it is now...our Ballerina Cupcakes! Of course, we own a whole bunch of those classic ballerina cupcake toppers and we've probably had a dozen working sketches of these cupcakes over the past few years...but you know how it is...too many cupcakes, too little time. Well, we finally put paint to canvas. And we made sure to paint it so that it'll fit a variety of formats...8 x 10 plaque, 5 x 7 plaque, matted prints in 11 x 14, 8 x 10, and 5 x 7. And the plaques look fantastic with a metallic gold rim to match the tiny bit of gold on the ballerinas. We love this painting!

We also have a some additions to our line of vintage inspired die-cuts. A jumbo soft serve ice cream cone, a big pale seafoam Summer green stand mixer, and our pin up girls, also known as our "baking beauties". All the die cuts are big, just like the kind you'd find behind the counter at Woolworth, an old fashioned ice cream parlor, soda fountain, etc... We were also experimenting with a really really big ice cream cone...I'll let you know if we're ready to offer that. In general, man oh man do we need to paint more ice cream. I love the imagery so so much! Just looking at Aaron's gigantic Waffles & Ice Cream on the 4th of July was so inspiring! I really hope to find the time. I promise though, no matter what, more die cuts are on the way!

Ok, bloggeroos! Once again I've talked your ears off. I'm thinking about putting a movie on. Me and Aaron go out for a walk every single night unless it's pouring rain but tonight, even though the satellite picture showed no sign of rain, I think we're skipping the walk. It's so humid that you can literally See the air in front of you. It's absurd. Well, thanks so so much again for reading! Keep cool. xoxo, Jenny

Keep Calm And Enjoy The Holiday!!!! ; )

It's the 4th of July! Definitely a favorite holiday of mine. It's a pressure free holiday for us. We LOOOOOVE getting together with family and gift giving and all the rest but sometimes it can get you stressed. First, there is the dividing of time between two families, mine and Aaron's...and then, you know, you just get stressed. But the 4th is different. It's a No-Show holiday. You maybe eat some barbeque if you get the chance and you go see some fireworks. We're at the Jersey shore...where the towns are clustered together all along the ocean...lots and lots of municipalities and all of 'em have their own fireworks display. So we've got a ton to choose from...the key is to go where there is a convenient escape plan for locals once the show is all over. We used to live and have a store in Red Bank, which is the biggest hub around here. The Fireworks there are HUGE. The NYC radio stations broadcast from there and people come from all over the state. But even when it was our native land...even when we'd close up shop for the night on the 4th and we could just walk outside and see the fireworks....we still wanted to be as far from there as possible. Because just to drive out of there afterwards would take you three hours!!
So for years our favorite place to go for the festivities is a boardwalk town called Point Pleasant (sidenote to dedicated bloggers: This summer, Jennifer Hayslip, of the blog : sweet eye candy creations and of the great state of Georgia, will be spending some vacation time in Point Pleasant NJ!! It's such a small world...we plan to meet up!) It's one of our favorite Jersey Shore spots and it has some escape routes that only locals would know of. And plus, unlike Red Bank, it's on the Atlantic Ocean. When watching fireworks it is ideal to have your feet planted in beach sand...it heightens the experience...the sand between the toes, the rumble and hiss of the nighttime waves upon the shore, the smell of salt in the air, the bells and buzzers of the distant arcades, the roar of a far off rollercoaster and the cheers of the crowd, and forget it...the smell of warm funnel cakes...Nothing like it! My dear little brother Walt is down dogsitting for my sister Missy while she's in California, so it'll be me, Aar, and Walt once again. He's always with us on the 4th. I hope all of you are doing something super fun. I equate the 4th with the ocean, the beach and the boardwalk but I could imagine some completely different slices of Americana when I think of all the places you guys are from. The mountain lakes, the sprawling expanses of farm land, the big city fireworks extravaganzas and the small town traditions and parades. It's a wonderful holiday. Even if you use it just to do yard work and to fix up your house...maybe paint your kitchen. Use the term "Independence" Day very loosely. It's Your day.

Here's some very cool news! We are in this weeks issue of the New York Times Magazine! Namely, our Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake print. They put together a fabulous article about the phenomenon of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster from WWII era England... about how it's been recently resurrected as a piece of nostalgic art and how artists all over have offered their personal take on it. They called us up and said they loved our version and they'd like to feature it! How awesome is that?! Here's the link to the online version. And if you subscribe to the NYT magazine, it's in there today but in the stores I believe it's available with the Sunday edition! We are so very psyched that they contacted us because the Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake thing was totally our original idea but recently there have been a couple imitators doing a near carbon copy of it. So it's great validation to be featured in the press as the original creators of it. Thanks New York Times!!

Pop over to the shop for your own Keep Calm And Have A Cupcake! :)

Again, I wish everyone a super Fun and Happy July 4th!!! xoxo, Jenny