Yep, we really had hoped to be blogging on a super regular basis by now, but the hours and days and weeks seem to have slipped by. And this time we're trying to change things...blog some more projects right away, recipes, home stuff, work stuff, play stuff...
Because lately it's been nothing but work work worrrrrrrrrk. That blink of an eye that some people call Springtime barely got noticed over here in the Everyday is a Holiday universe. Our big break in the day is when we sit out on the deck, drink lemon water, and feed nuts to our favorite squirrel early in the AM.
You guys figured that we partied hard, and you figured right! lolz
In our current day-to-day we've mainly been working very hard on shop orders.
And the good thing about doing the same things over and over like you see in the pic above, and doing it in your own home, is that you can listen to music as loud as possible...we're loving everything off of the new Portugal. The Man record.
Or we listen to endless health/food/environmental documentaries...What the Health on Netflix is great. In an easily digestible way it covers just about everything having to do with the benefits of switching to a plant based diet.
And we also will just listen to every single NutritionFacts video over and over.
Dr. Greger throws so much knowledge at you in less than 3 minutes most of the time, so re-listening is key. You can even learn how to test your body's alkalinity by peeing into a cup of purple cabbage water. It's fun for the whole family!! ha!
You may have noticed that I keep saying that we listen to documentaries and videos, and not watch them. But I guess if you look at the above and below pics it's obvious why we can't watch. Our eyeballs are kinda occupied. We always tell ourselves that we'll rewatch everything to get the visual effect as well, but it never happens. We've got about a 30 minute window right before we fall asleep to squeeze in half of a show like House of Cards or Bloodline. Who am I kidding? I fall asleep about 15 minutes in most times and have to restart the episode the next night.
One thing we recently did to get our creativity moving forward was set aside a mandatory slice of time each week to work on new pieces. Do you guys make sure to do this?...if you're a creative person, heck even if you're not...it's a good thing to do with any type of work.
Do the thing that you have to do to stay afloat, but also make sure to do the thing that will set up your next few months. It's hard sometimes to break away from the grind, but it's super necessary.
And we do have some great paintings in the works that'll be plaques very soon!
And much like what you see here, they're going to be mini plaques.
And speaking of...the mini plaques were a big step in the right direction.
Our signature items have always been oversized: giant cupcakes, giant donuts, giant ice cream cones...
And then one day, inspired by the very limited wall space in our studio, we got the idea to do some of our most popular pieces but in much smaller sizes. We also have so many friends who live a lot like us...collecting lots of stuff from lots of artists, and it gets hard when one piece of art takes up three feet of wall space.
And beyond the practicality of making smaller pieces, we just love how they look, and also how they feel. Once they're all painted and clear coated they're almost chubby feeling if that makes any sense. And yes, we totally get that our mini pink macaron is still a GIANT macaron in real life.
We've always worked in a production line style since we usually get multiple orders for single pieces, but with our minis, just like with our ornaments around the holidays, it's kinda exciting to see all of the work spaces in our studio covered in rows of Sprinkles, and Ice Cream Cones, and Boxes of Donuts.
There's definitely something to be said for injecting new life into your work without having to overhaul everything.
Though we have to admit...it would also be pretty awesome to overhaul everything! Well not every single thing, but we do want to change our focus for at least a little while.
We have been dying to paint signs...big signs, little signs, medium signs. We used to do so many signs in years past but ever since our hand cut plaques took off we've kinda put that part of our creativity on pause.
This recent custom job was really fun and we realized how much we miss doing hand painted lettering.
The three Jumbo Cupcakes and these two signs will hang in a Cupcake/Ice Cream shop in Florida.
One of the best things ever would be to visit all of the bakeries and shops that we've done signage for. Of course we'd like to visit the actual homes of our collectors, (I mean...if they want us there. We'd def bring snacks! haha!)
but checking out retail spaces seems a bit more accessible...and less stalker-y.
Jeez, it's already summer and nearly Independence Day. And this year we're so happy that we planned ahead. We wanted to design a piece that was perfect for the holiday but that also worked for all summer long. We love classics, nostalgia, Americana, and fun treats, and Bomb Pops pretty much have it all.
And apparently there are lots of Bomb Pop fans out there besides us. We're working all this weekend getting the last ones done so that they can ship over the next few days in time for the 4th. And we'll be able to squeeze in a few more for any last minute shoppers who grab them before Monday. They're in the shop now!
We'll be going over to my brother's house again this year, and everyone will be there. I'll make sure to recap the day here on the blog.
But we'll post a bunch before that, and I promise that'll it'll be less work and more play. Hopefully some food, possibly a project or two. We just really wanted to get back on here and start blogging on a regular basis. Oh, and I just remembered that we overhauled the look and navigation of the blog. We hope you like it!
And we hope your summer is off to a great start!
We'll see you again soon!
Love from the Jersey Shore,
xo Jenny & Aaron
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