When in Bklyn..

I've loved the Fred Flare web store long time.

Always perfect for a gift (for me) and the home of all things neat and cute, I was naturally psyched to learn they opened a brick-and-mortar shop in Brooklyn. Of course, two trips to the Borough of Kings later and I still haven't actually made it in the door, but some handmade Valentines created by moi are in transit right now (pictured above).

Why? For a good cause!

All valentines will be sold online and in our new Brooklyn store for the super friendly price of ONLY $4 EACH and ALL the proceeds from the sales of these valentines will go directly to Elder Craftsmen, an NYC based organization that brings craft workshops to local senior citizens. Our last charity event raised $5K. Can we beat it? With your amazing creation in the mix, I know we can!

Check out the Flickr pool.

So buy buy buy starting the last week in January and be charitable to some NY senior artists and downright sweet to your Valentine.

Xmas Card of theYear

Kime Buzzelli is my hero.
Her art is just my absolute favorite. I think I found her etsy shop a year ago or so, or may have even caught an article online that linked me to the shop. I can't remember. All I know is I'm in love with all her gorgeous images. I want to be one of those girls, have those toys and clothes and awesome make-up & hair.

My fine art & costume design background serve me well with my children's clothing line, but trust me, 10-15 years ago, who Kime is now would have been the prototype of who I would have hoped to grow up to be. Make sense? Her work makes want to paint & draw again, which is the best result of admiration: inspiration.

She also has a super rad boutique in Echo Park called Show Pony. I'm telling ya, this mofo is living the dream.

Anyway, I am Kime's friend on Facebook and was lucky enough to make it onto her Christmas card list after gushing over an image of this year's card. Got it in the mail today. I can't tell you how happy it makes me.
A million thanks, Kime!


And thanks again to Kim Romero. She does sooo much for me & this time, I received amazing O'Button ornaments (you can see one to the right of Kime's card) and a leopard ring I admired from afar. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

On the left side over there, you can see a gingerbread girl ornament made by the talented hands of 4 year-old princess-in-training & Hannah Montana enthusiast, Amy Gruber. That also gets me completely giddy every time I catch a glimpse.

How am I ever gonna tear the tree down??