Monday, November 10, 2008

The big event

Well, the Roslindale Open Studios event went well over the weekend. Unfortunately, I am a complete moron and I forgot to take a single picture.

Seriously. Who. am. I?

We attended the preview show on Friday and were able to show one of our pieces of work that was then displayed for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was a bit misty and gross out, but we had quite a few visitors and our new neighbors from two doors down showed up and introduced themselves which was really great.

Sunday was a beautiful day, so the traffic was pretty consistent throughout the day.

Both Sean (my friend the photographer [you can see his pictures here]) and I got some good feedback on our displays which was encouraging and many people took our business cards for future reference.

By the end of Saturday, I wondered if I would do the event again, but since Sunday was so great, I think I probably would.

Unfortunately, I didn't sell a single card...which was disappointing, but I think I know what the problem was. Most people don't really know what to do with one card...but if I had created a set of cards with four different images (like I had originally intended) I bet it would have gone over better.

Oh well...lesson learned. I think I might also try and have some other types of cards available next year...birthday, Christmas, Wedding, etc. so that there is more of a variety for people to look through.

In all, it was a great experience and I am glad I participated. Thanks to everyone for your support!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Roslindale Open Studios

This coming weekend I will be participating in the Open Studios event here in Roslindale, MA.


Below is some text about the event:


The Roslindale Arts Alliance announces that the 4th Annual Roslindale Open Studios will take place on Saturday November 8 and Sunday November 9, 2008 from 12-6 p.m.. This year 90 artists will be displaying and selling in 40 locations throughout Roslindale. Art mediums include: painting; photography, ceramics, jewelry, glass, printmaking, textiles, mixed media, sculpture, illustration, paper, furniture and music.

Unique to Roslindale Open Studios, 27 artists will open up their home studios and 11 local businesses will be hosting artists. On Friday November 7 at 6:30 p.m. there will be a “Preview Reception” of home studio and business artists at the Longfellow School, 885 South Street. This event is free and open to the public.

Group locations this year will be at the Rogerson’s Communities’ Roslindale House, 120 Poplar Street, the City of Boston Centers for Youth and Families’ Roslindale Community Center, 6 Cummins Highway and the Boston School of Modern Language, 814 South Street. A complete list of artists, locations and accessibility are available on the web site at
www.roslindaleopenstudios.org.

I am super excited to open up my home studio and participate in this event. Our home is a short walk (about 10 minutes) from the square in Roslindale Village. There will be other artists showing from their studios near where we are as well, so that should entice people to head out in our direction. Additionally, my friend Sean, who is a phenomenal photographer, will be showing at our home...AND we will have cookies :)

I seem to be the only person showing my type of work: primarily paper, which bodes well. I plan on displaying my portfolio of work and then I also made these fun holiday cards to sell individually. I hand silk-screened them and then embossed and inked some holiday details on them...since we theoretically are 'in the season'.



If you are in the area, we would love for you to stop by!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

wanna do me a favor?

i headed over to amanda's blog over at the blissful bride the other day and spotted a post on a favor contest...


...over at darcy miller's the bride's guide blog...



...the contest is actually being hosted on the martha stewart website...


...anyway, all that is to say that i went over to the martha stewart site and uploaded the pictures of the favors i hand-made for our wedding last september...

...and now, if you so choose, you can go and vote for me :) unfortunately you have to sign up on the martha stewart website in order to vote. BUT you can opt to not receive ANY newsletters if you so choose OR you can pick and choose to receive things that you might actually find helpful...like other offers and contests and fun projects on every thing from halloween crafts to what to make for dinner.

i signed up under the moniker 'mzflounder' since that is who i was prior to opening my business. to see the actual post with my favors on it you can go here: http://url2it.com/jne.

in the upper right corner of the martha stewart site, you can opt to sign in and if you click on that it will let you sign up. once you have signed up, come back here and click on the link to go to my page again and then you can click on the stars at the bottom of the page and 'rate me'.

alternatively, if you just go to the site and look at the picture, it at least records how many people have looked at my favor.

thanks all! no worries if you don't want to do this...i just figured every little bit would help.

--miriam

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

it's opinion poll time

i am participating in the roslindale open studios in november and i thought i would make some cards showcasing some of our fine little village.

below are two sets of pictures, let me know which ones you think will look better on a set of four note cards. (click to enlarge)

option a:






option b:






Saturday, October 11, 2008

sweet thing

i had a wonderful time this week assembling a hostess treats groom's cake for Alanna.



Alanna's husband (as of today) saw a hostess cake and was really hoping to convince Alanna to have one just like it as their wedding cake. somewhere along the way, she was able to convince him to go more traditional for the wedding, but as a surprise, she had me make a hostess cake to use as a groom's cake at their rehearsal dinner last night.

this is the perfect example of the DIY Rescue services I offer. Alanna could have made this on her own, but was traveling from DC to boston and knew she couldn't travel that far with the cake. so we figured out the cost of materials and the time for production and a solution was made!

below is the original inspiration picture.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Invitation Inspiration, cont.

Ok, so I have had some time (actually, LOTS of time...I went away for the weekend) to dream up an invitation suite based on the three pictures I picked as my inspiration the other day.



The goal with this design was to evoke the classic simplicity of the venue while still retaining a sense of spontaneity and fun edge.

With that in mind, I kept the text of the invitation very classic in both layout and font, with the only embellishment being the names of the couple in script. (Another option to keep this portion of the invitation even more organic would be to hire a Calligrapher to write the names and then use the digital image of the names instead of a 'canned font'.)

The 4x6" invitation would be letter-pressed on thick, dye-free cotton paper which would then be layered on top of a gray linen fabric swatch which (in turn) would then be layered onto a piece of 5x7" thin wood veneer stationary. The entire piece would be wrapped together with a naturally dyed, gray, cotton grosgrain ribbon.

Click on image to enlarge

The best part about this design is how adaptable it is to a wide range of budgets. If you want to go all out, you can opt for letterpress, you can screen print the reception information onto the linen and then you can digitally print the map onto the wood stationary.

If you are looking for something a bit more inexpensive, you could opt for digital printing the invitation on natural paper and only use the linen and the wood veneer as layering pieces rather than printing on them directly.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

baby invites for susan

i've had a blast the past few weeks designing and making these super-cute baby shower invitations for susan.

she doesn't know if she's expecting a boy or a girl, but with the dainty blue polka dots and stiched detail, i think the overall design works either way.

each shower invitation was delivered in a chocolate brown envelope with a white-'stitched' butterfly detail hand drawn on the back of the envelope.



here's a close up of the butterfly detail:

inside, was a custom fabric pouch with a satin ribbon bow:


the stitching detail continues throughout the invitation, both susan's name and the border detail carry the theme:




these invites were very fun to make, especially considering how 'new' i am to the sewing world and considering how many amazingly adorable fabrics there are out there, the possibilities are endless!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

invitation inspiration

if i were to choose the one thing about my business that i love the most, it is the opportunity to take the ideas a couple has about their event and translate them into an invitation suite that conveys the spirit of the event using just some paper, ink and a lot of imagination.

usually, i suggest to my clients that they try to come up with an inspiration board so we can figure out the exact mood that they want their suite to convey.

so, for fun, i pulled some pictures together from the amazing Jose Villa Photography* in southern, california to use as inspiration for an invitation suite.




i truly love the casual and elegant feel these pictures evoke and i am looking forward to creating a suite that will combine the rustic elements of the natural setting with an elegant and refined tone.

once i figure out a couple of design ideas i will post them here and allow you all to choose which one goes into production.

who's in with me?

*all images are the property of jose villa and should not be reproduced without permission or without crediting the source

Thursday, September 18, 2008

today is the day...

...that we go from this:



to this:


and i will finally be able to bake things without having to reset the thermostat every 5 minutes. yay!!

ooo...much better:

more martha

once the show was done taping, we were allowed to start taking pictures again. after each segment, martha has a picture taken with the guest from that segment. then they use it all over the place...i know i have seen the pictures both on her website and in her magazine as well.





a shot of bee taking a picture of martha.



next we watched martha do a spot for the armed services.


they kept us in the audience as they taped a segment on taste-testing hot dogs. martha and some other guy tasted two tables full of hot dogs and were taped the whole time. now they will go and edit the footage into a 3-4 minute blurb to be broadcast on the sept. 23 show.







after the show we headed to the shake shack in madison square park for yummy shakes and burgers.




i had a caramel shake that was out. of. this. world.

i also indulged in a 'double stack' which is a yummy burger with a deep fried portobello mushroom stuffed with cheese on top...and yes, it did hurt me.



we all also shared cheese fries...yum!!



we all said goodbye and headed our separate ways...on my way back to the place i was staying i spotted this fun establishment featuring my maiden name...so of course i had to take a picture :)




it was a really fun day and especially great to see all my bee friends.