West Seattle Art Walk

I'll be participating in the West Seattle Art Walk this evening. That link brings you to their website which lists all the venues and artists participating this month. The artist list rotates each month, so it's a fun way to see new artists.

I'll be at The Kenney, a retirement community, at 7125 Fauntleroy Way SW, near the Fauntlerory/Lincoln Park area. It runs from 6pm-9pm in the main lobby, open to everyone. There will be another jewelry artist there, a painting exhibit of one of the residents, and a live band too.

I'll have the spring products and a bunch of Valentine cards, ribbons and packaging to make up little sweetheart gift sets. Sounds like a fun evening!

Spring Newsletter 2011

I know it doesn't feel like spring is on its way this week. But it's time for the spring newsletter anyway. Maybe it will chase away a little of the winter blahs that we're feeling. Here in Seattle, even though we aren't struggling with all the massive snow and storms that most of the country is facing, I think we all have a little winter fatigue and can't wait for a little warmer, sunnier, happier weather. So here's the latest news - all of it on the website right now:


SPRING 2011

Oh how we wait anxiously and impatiently for Spring to arrive! I imagine Winter as a stark canvas with only dark structural lines for the horizon, tree limbs and jagged rocks. As Spring slowly tiptoes in, each sun break is a paintbrush stroke of color. First a few small sprouts and a sprinkling of pink buds, then a couple of bold swatches of green grass, building into more swirls and dots of blooms and blossoms, until all of a sudden the canvas is lushly alive and brilliantly colored, so much beauty to behold.

As I stare out the window to the mud pit that was once the back yard, I can see the first tiny signs that Spring is sneaking in. There are fuzzy little tips on the magnolia and the tiniest of green tips poking out of the dirt. Proud stalks of hellebore flowers are rising out of the cold ground. And after months of darkness and grey skies, there are warm peek-a-boo sun spots on the back window sill for a cat to curl up in and dream of summer.


SPRING SEASONAL SOAPS

To celebrate the season of love, flowers, and new beginnings, I’ve cooked up a few new soap fragrances. For me, Spring scents are inherently light, green, fresh or flowery. After months of dead leaves and barren trees, the whiff of blossoms in the breeze is a breath of fresh air. Pretty flowers, flouncy skirts, tip-toeing through the tulips – that’s Spring!

White Lilac – A runaway hit when I introduced it two years ago, it’s a repeat again this year due to all the fan requests. Potent and absolutely true to its name, it’s a gorgeous lilac fragrance. Sophisticated, elegant, lushly floral in a creamy white bar.

Spring Rain – Spring rains are lighter and fresher than Fall or Winter rains. They dance in the new green leaves and splash around the blooming flowers. This fragrance is lightly floral but not too sweet with a bit of jasmine and gardenia added to a bright, clean, rain scent. Pretty pink petal-colored, it’s perfectly lovely.

Orange Ginger Mint – For those who like a little scrub with their rub-a-dub-dub, I’ve cooked up a poppy seed scrubber soap for spring. It’s happy and energizing, with a blend of sweet orange, a pinch of ginger, and three types of mint. A soft cantaloupe melon color, the poppy seeds give it a light textured feel for gentle exfoliation and a wake-up massage. (100% natural).

Sunshine Citrus - This is a soft lemon scent, with a squeeze of grapefruit and mandarin orange to boost the citrus. It’s light and clean with a subtle fruitiness, perfect for brightening the Winter drearies. (100% natural)


LILAC GARDEN AROMATIC SPRAY

New and improved! The Lilac Garden scent that I’ve had for years has always been so good, such a true duplication of actual lilac blooms. I could not have believed that a better one existed. But last fall I came across a new lilac fragrance that absolutely knocks your socks off. There is some indescribable, magical something in this new fragrance – you feel as if you have your nose buried deep in a just-blossomed bouquet of lilacs. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold up in the soap-making process. In the spray, however, it’s just heavenly gorgeous. Spritz this stuff around the house and there is no question that spring has arrived . . . with bells on! (4 oz bottle, $ 6.00 each)


VALENTINE’S DAY GUILT-FREE TREATS

There’s plenty of time to order gifts for your favorite sweeties. Bath goodies are the perfect thing for those of us with healthy New Year’s resolutions. And I’ve got sweet pink polka-dot organza bags, charming heart-patterned ribbons, and vintage postcards to dress up just a single bar or a whole basket full of treats. Check out the web site to see some of my ideas, or give me a call to rustle up your own.


SPRING SHOWS

It’s still a tad early to announce a big show schedule for spring. Deadlines are still in the works with notifications and contracts to be determined later this month. But here are the few that are on the calendar right now. Please check the website (under “Show Schedule”) for the latest information.

March 17 – 19
Vasa Park Spring Craft Show, Vasa Park, Bellevue
Thurs-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 10am-6pm

March 26 – 28
Best of the Northwest, Hangar 30, Magnuson Park, Seattle
Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm

April 15 – 17
27th Annual Tulip Festival Street Fair, downtown Mt Vernon
Friday and Sat 10-6, Sunday 10-5

May 4 – 6
Mother’s Day Gift Sale, Group Health Central shop space
108 - 15th Ave E, Capitol Hill, Seattle
Wed-Fri 9am-4pm

May 4 - 7
Hilltop Craft, Antique & Garden Show
NW Arts Center, 9825 NE 24th St
Bellevue (Clyde Hill)
Wed - Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-5pm

May 21 – 22
University District Street Fair
Sat 10-7, Sun 10-6

Sweat the Small Stuff

Details. That's what I'm trying to control this week. Getting all the little stuff right. I'm up to my eyeballs in getting the spring newsletter and accompanying email newsletter, blog post and all the website updates all done at the same time. It's due out tomorrow.

My camera broke yesterday. Well, that's not exactly true. It's never worked right since I bought it last October. It's intermittant though. It seems to work just fine whenever I'm on vacation or taking pictures of fun stuff. It always goes haywire whenever I'm taking product photos and trying to do something important under deadline. Yesterday the sun here was so bright and gorgeous that I wanted to re-do all kinds of photos, plus the new spring stuff. I got about 4 photos in, and then nothing would upload. All the files are corrupted and cannot be edited, exported or viewed. So much frustration. I thought my head would explode. I lost hours of time and still don't have even the few photos I really, really needed. I'm going to borrow a camera today and try to do the last couple under dark, cloudy skies. Who knows when we'll get great light again. And the camera is on it's way to the fixer-folks. Which I have every confidence that they won't find anything wrong with. It just hates to do close-ups of soap. Which is weird because it takes beautiful close-ups of cocktails, beautiful dinner plates and my toes in flip-flops on the sand. Who knows.

This is such a great quote: "Getting noticed in a meaningful way is less about the grand gesture and more about the small, thoughtful things we do every day. There's often a pay-it-forward beauty to going that extra inch . . .Too often in our elbows-out world, it's assumed that being considerate and being competitive are mutually exclusive. The opposite is true."

- Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval in The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All The Difference (Broadway)