Cid Pear: Cid Pear Gift Certificates...

Cid Pear: Cid Pear Gift Certificates...: "Don't know what to get that special bride, mom-to-be or wonderful friend... then a gift certificate from the online Cid Pear store is just t..."

Cid Pear / new website

As you may know, I have a company called Cid Pear which has a creative philosophy of bringing beautiful tasteful papers and gifts to market. My stationery has been in the world for sometime now, and in fact it was my creative start to fabrics and so much more. So it's a first love along with the very many others I have... printing beautiful design on paper and then getting to personalize happy moments in life including baby announcements, bridal events and special birthdays and celebrations is so gratifying. Well, after many hours and months of preparation our new cidpear.com site is almost ready to launch. I am so very excited about it because it's pretty and fun and lovely to look through. Definitely an art statement with it's backgrounds, perfect imagery and the lovely stationery and products I have hand selected to bring to you. Including jewelry from my special friend Laurie Lenfestey of Bittersweet Designs. You will love love her stuff! Kids apparel from Biscuit & Poppet, and of course even some of my fabrics and sewing patterns from my studio! So watch, and subscribe for more detail. Cid Pear is definitely a lovely place to stop by!

The site launched next week so please stop by!

Artist: J Morgan Puett

Back in the early 90s I was introduced to an amazing clothing collection by a woman I'd never heard of, J. Morgan Puett. The clothes were extraordinarily free and beautiful in soft natural fibers including linen and washed silks... she'd dye everything too, so the colors were muted and earthy gorgeous. If you've met me, I am sort of ant-trend in my clothing.... I tend to wear loose long linen dresses with oxford boots, several layers of scarves and long necklaces... always a pearl or string of pearls.

Not a great pic of me but see the dress... I must see if I have another pic of this dress. 

I got many requests for this sewing pattern...

Anyway, so I fall in love with the J M P line and the next time I went to NY I had to stop in her, then Soho studio (then moved to Tribeca, which was a likely move because she is not what you'd call a 'commercial' artist and designer). Well, her studio was a dream for me. Within utilitarian rustic cement walls, she collects pieces of NY implements and artifacts ~ sort of a museum type retail experience, the store was accented with installation-inspired art. An amazing store, with hard cement counters and metal beams. The sewing machines were upstairs in a balcony overlooking the shop downstairs, and you could hear the low buzz of their work.

She had curtains outside of the shop and of course a beautiful metal shaped signature dress as her store sign. I was in heaven. She was not there unfortunately, but her staff were wonderful and wrapped my purchases in brown paper with a raw burlap string! Perfect.

Inspired I'd found a designer and clothing I absolutely loved... she decided to go 100% retail and not offer through my local fabulous shop her found her. Oh no... so every time I went to NY I took a b-line to the store and found my favorite delights. Eventually it was offered online and now can be offered on ebay....

A little history on J Morgan Puett ~ she received her Masters in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1985. From 1993-1997 she ran her business which she names as a multi-disciplinary project taking the  form of a small business in New York's SoHo, and other collaborative ventures with artists and designers; from 1998-2001 she collaborated on a New York-based experimental, retail-clothing manufacturing project. Her art has recently been shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery, New York; she is currently working on a collaborative project with Mark Dion for the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. (from the J Morgan Puett site).

In 1997 she actually moved to establish an artists' colony in Pennsylvania. It continues to evolve today. It's called Mildred's Lane on almost 100 acres, and is a modern take on simpler times. Everything is truly a simple way of life but she styles everything in her signature baroque alchemy. Silver, glassware, vintage fabrics, gorgeous luggage. Her fridge shelves are covered in old table cloths (the cold preserves them!) The main house is built from local wood and is amazing with a sleeping porch, hinged pop-up windows and slated wood walls feel as though you're in a treehouse!

Surrounding the house are small outbuildings were artists and writers can stay plus an old barn housing the petrified clothing archive. Mildred Miller by the way was the former owner of the property and she lived in an old 1830s house that still remains, she lived there until her death in 1986. Puett named the colony after her.

Puett's life by her own words 'is art'. Being is my practice - eating, making, building.'

She's against throwing anything away and resuses everything from her wool jacket wearing it upside down, her dressing room tent from a store, now hanging over the bed as a canopy, she readapts old things into new. A nightgown becomes a table cloth, flour sacks slip-cover the dining room chairs. Obviously a collector, she and her best friend 'Peabody' collect things all year round and then give them to eachother at Christmas time. In fact I was in her first store and along the back wall were these beautifully simple wrapped brown packages with string, all with her name on them. I asked what they were, and the ladies informed me 'Oh those are Peabody's gifts to her from his trips around the world!' Hmmm....

Puett cleans with delight. It takes her a week to clean the house and she loves doing it because she rearranges everything... forever emerging, unfinished....

 Some of her pics from Cottage Industry, see more at her site HERE

Christmas Ornaments

Isn't she sweet! I have had the absolute pleasure to design a series of ornaments for Dept 56, and I recently received the 3-dimensional sculpts from Dept 56, and of course I had to repaint everything because I am a maniac... and they were just not quite there yet! The sculpts were incredible and the detail is spectacular... I am thrilled! From Believe Bunny to One Man Band bunny, Santa Bear and of course an amazing snowman with birds on his hat and in his arms... what fun. The collection is called CRUMPETS... and yes, you guessed the theme.. a forest filled with little creatures full of character all dressed up to dress up their snowman. The patterned glass ball, onion shape and teardrop ornaments are beautifully done and I can't wait to share more with you.
These are launching at market this January for Christmas 2011... and if you're visiting Atlanta and Dallas visit the Dept 56 showrooms because we're working on an amazing exhibit...I will no doubt be there to see my little creatures come to life....

BLOG TOUR GIVE AWAY

Just visit the blogs listed below comment and you will have a chance to win the book, fabric 4 yards of multi prints, 2 boxes of stationery and 2 sewing patterns for kids... oh lalala....
Kisses, hope you win!

Blog Tour and a few freeby projects available

To celebrate the release of Sew Tina! Lark Crafts is
throwing a little eparty! And you get the goods: three free projects, a chance to win a copy of the book (and other treasures), and a months worth of Tina – welcome to the first stop on her official blog tour!
Read on for the blog tour schedule!
Sew Tina! Blog Tour:
9/24 Lark Crafts.com
9/27 A La Mode Fabric
9/29 Quilters Buzz
10/1 Sew Baby
10/4 Sew Chic
10/6 Sew Mama Sew
10/8 Hazelnuts
10/11 Mama’s Pocketbook
10/13 House on Hill Road
10/15 WhipUp
10/18 Quilt Dad
10/20 HodgePodgeFarm
10/22 Pink Chalk Studios
10/25 Fat Quarterly Blog
10/27 The Jolly Jabber
I am so thrilled with these wonderful blogs hosting the blog tour! At each stop, you’ll hear from me (of course!) and get plenty of chances to enter to win the book.Visit Lark, they will keep you posted on all the fun happenings. Also, see the three free projects to get you in the mood.
HERE

Lottie Da Baby - by Amy Routh

Meet the work of Amy Routh... she crafted her own business from her passion to create.... This lady, is so fabulous.... A physical store providing a unique shopping experience... I can tell Amy is a woman of passion, loves her family and loves life in full color and texture....

She uses many fabrics in her designs, but I discovered some of mine and thought you'd enjoy seeing her work. She's so savvy with an additional online presence on etsy.... a lovely etsy store 

....I  adore everything she makes.

All items are 'handmade with love' in her little shop in Columbus Ohio, called, you guessed it

LOTTIE DA... cute cute... And she has a blog lottiedababy.com so check in and thanks Amy for being such an inspiration and creative genius... 

Favorite quote from Amy's profile....

"I decided to create my own opportunity and make my dream a reality!"

~~

Q&A: Sew What’s Up, Tina?

Q&A: Sew What’s Up, Tina?

Kids Clothes Week Challenge / ElsieMarley.com

I stumbled upon this sweet blog called ElsieMarley and Meg the blogger has a kids clothing challenge this month... follow the link and find this lovely idea...  Basically for one week you spend an hour a day making clothing for a kid with the objective to finish the garment by the end of the week. How superb! I was just contemplating time and how we must make time for the things we love. And how to nurture our creative self... well this is one idea to awaken the creativity in all of us. And I challenge you to this challenge... email me if you are and we'll ship you some fabric and a sewing pattern... remember to tell us your kids age... we have sewing patterns for infant to about 7 or 8.... see on the tina site.

Meg congrats, love the blog and love the idea it's so wonderful.

elsiemarley.com

My favorite book as a kid

I was asked a question today, 'What is my favorite children's book?" Of course I have several, and illustration is key to me.... however reading to my young children is always been a fun past time and sometimes the art doesn't have to be fabulous for the message can be more powerful!
Anyhow, my favorite book as a kid was Miss. Z the dark young lady by Angela Carter.... I have been on the search for a long time, and today I re-looked and guess what? Found it... used but still there! I can't wait to read it to my daughter who I think will enjoy it too. I'm remembering the fabulous watercolor art by Eros Keith... an award winning artist and author.  He also illustrated several other books but another by Angela Carter called I think The Donkey Prince which I should search for too.
Speaking of Angela Carter, she was an unusual woman who seemed to live at large and loved diversity, radical feminism and was curious about everything and everyone! An English woman who ran away from life in the late 1960's for Hong Kong... And returned a 'different woman'... and wrote and remarried and lived life out loud!
Thought I'd share... maybe Miss. Z, the dark young lady will be an inspiration for my next fabric collection.... parrots and unicorns anyone?