Good News/Bad News

We will start with the good news:   Adonna and I had so much fun creating while she was in town again. We worked non-stop and into the wee hours of the night.  It is a good thing, too, because the John Burrough's show was a huge success! We are glad we had so many new creations to share, and it was rewarding to see so many of them quickly snatched up!  

Now for the bad news:  Saturday morning, as we were taking out the last box before heading off to the show, Adonna fell off our stairs and broke her arm.  CRAZY and soooo awful!  My husband came to the rescue and took Adonna to the hospital while I had to go and run the show by myself.  

Saturday night I came home so thrilled for the business and so sad for Adonna.

The doctors here said she would need to see an orthopedic surgeon within the week back home and gave her pain killers and wrapped her arm in a sling.  

She went home early Sat. morning (complete with wheel chair assistance) and will meet with a orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning.  Please say a prayer for her and her recovery.  Certainly not the way we would have liked our week to end.

We're thankful this holiday week to take a break and have Adonna rest, and we are thankful for our customers whose appreciation for our work remind us why we love what we do.

Back together again!

Adonna and her suitcase and purse packed full of old tiles flew in from Spokane on Monday for a week of creating!  This means burning the candle at both ends, laughter to the point of tears, and double the creations.   Here are some of the results from the wonderful tiles she flew in (and yes, she did have to explain herself to security):

Be sure to come see us at one of our upcoming shows to capitalize on some of these great one-of-a-kind gift ideas. 

John Burroughs Unique Boutique

Sat., Nov. 21 & Sun., Nov. 22, 2009

10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

755 S. Price Road, St. Louis, 63124

$5 admission fee

Ladue Chapel Nursery School Holiday Mart

9450 Clayton Road, St. Louis, 63124

Thursday, Dec. 3 from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Friday, Dec  4 from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

WINNER OF OUR "WHEN LIFE GOES BANANAS..." CONTEST

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first giveaway! It was fun to read the different outlets we all have for life's frustrations. I must say, that our cutter drama continued well into last week, but on the bright side, when it is all said and done,  Adonna will now have a cutter in Spokane as well.

You will also be happy to know that I quickly resorted to CREATING as my next frustration outlet. It was incredibly therapeutic creating new merchandise for our upcoming shows with our vintage materials! Here are a few results:

Ok, but without further delay.... The winner of the adorable monkey face wall graphic is Jamie from Savings in Style!   Congratulations!

Again, thanks to everyone for participating and keep following as we will have more giveaways soon to come!

Monkey Face/When life goes bananas...Contest

I have found myself in the midst of a very frustrating technical problem with our vinyl cutter. The cutter went out last Thurs. while cutting a wholesale order. Two overnight shipments, a motherboard, a power supply, and a power switch later, we now find ourselves awaiting yet another motherboard overnight shipment! I have seen parts to our cutter and learned things about the cutter I really never cared to know. Needless to say, frustrating! And all I can do is wait yet another day while orders sit and accumulate. So, feeling the need to distract myself, I was thinking through good frustration outlets. Eliminating several unproductive options and noting another cold, rainy day, I decided to put in some music and bake cookies. It's called chocolate-chip-cookie therapy!

Tell us your healthy-frustration-outlet suggestion and we will put your name in a drawing to receive a cute little monkey face graphic in honor of the inevitable times that we find things in life sometimes go bananas. (Please include your e-mail address, so we can e-mail you if you are the winner!)

This 9x9" monkey face will come in our brown matte finish vinyl with installation instructions. We will draw names for the giveaway on Mon., Nov. 9th (because we will be up and running by then, or have a brand new cutter!)

I love fall!

I love color, therefore, I love fall! The color combinations outside my window right now are phenomenal and inspiring. So... I find myself creating with color in mind. -Jan

Fun to create again!

It seems like we took most of the summer off from creating with Adonna's move and kids being home -- so I have truly enjoyed the past few weeks rediscovering all the vintage materials we have stored up in my basement.

I found this little clear flower-shaped "dish" we had collected somewhere and knew I could find a great use for it! And you can never go wrong with a vintage glass door knob! It is so much fun to recycle and reuse!
-Jan

Every Child is an Artist

I definitely have a little artist in our family and always want to encourage her amazing creativity. I love the idea of framing artwork, however, we have plaster walls and I can never narrow down which artwork to frame. So we began creating these versatile artwork hangers for people like me. So fun to create, reusing old molding and fun old fuses! -Jan