Around here...

Even though I really love blogging, I'd be lying if I said it was easy to fall right back into it. Like so many other bloggers who temporarily or completely lapsed, I think I just got so used to sharing our little bits of life mostly on Instagram and Facebook. 

I love Instagram, but it is nothing like a blog. I have to get back into the swing of taking a bunch of pics throughout the day for the blog, and not just the one I might post on instagram. I have to share lots more behind the scenes stuff, more life, more of our process. That's the stuff I'd want to see on an artist's blog. How about you? 

The past week or so has been non stop work. Aaron has been non-stop cutting on the scroll saw. I posted the above pic on instagram and a friend was hoping that it was a pineapple on top of that stack. It's actually a potted succulent, but I was totally considering doing fruits and veggies! We do pizza, we do donuts, we do gemstones, and we love all those things. We also love fruits and veggies and eat a TON of them around here...so it could happen! ;)

A mix of pieces just prior to getting their edges painted. About two days after this pic was taken they all shipped out to their new homes! (Here you see the succulent that was mistaken for a pineapple)

This is a pic from yesterday, we were both packing up orders. We each took a stack of invoices and a bunch of pink tissue, got out the candy and the gold stars, blasted music, sipped smoothies, and  then had a huge pile of happy mail to take to the post office. 

So for years our workdays were all about cupcakes, and then it was macarons, and then donuts. And we are still making lots and lots of donuts. What's going to rule our lives next? 

Some of you old school blog readers and collectors may remember "Retro Baking Gal" from years ago! Well we brought her back and she is available as a 5x7 mini plaque! 

And if you are a Jersey shore local, you may remember our bra & pantie paintings from when we had a retail shop! Or maybe you saw them in a store near you! Those canvases were one of our best wholesale items. We shipped them to shops all over.

Really, it had been so many years since we made those canvases and we wanted to revisit the design but do them in a new format...as wooden diecut plaques instead of on canvas.

 LOVE how this set looks hanging! Would be so fab in a dressing room or girly bathroom! We hope to add a few more styles to the shop soon! Floral for sure! 

I was just talking about my love for vintage lady head vases and then a couple days later we spotted a super cute one at the OG Flea! She was similar to this gal that I've had for over 15 years. 

So I had mentioned previously that we moved our studio upstairs this winter since it was so crazy cold downstairs. Well here is a tiny peek at a fave corner of the room. It's still kinda empty in there, which is what we're going for in the studio...lots more room to work and spread out. We have a checklist of things that we still need to do, but we promise we will do a studio tour once it is finished! You may remember our little downstairs studio, well we still have that set up, but more for personal art & crafting, less for our day to day small biz art. 

Oh and if you are wondering...the "OK" planter is Oh Joy for Target.

 The "Do Your Best" flag is from Three Potato Four, and the abstract painting is by me.

Speaking of...I actually took this pic in the old studio. You can see my paper mache bunnies and things blurred in the background. 

Ummm how cute is this tiny porcelain chihuahua? My sweet friend Brandi  had read in my Ocean Grove flea market blog post how I was looking for porcelain chis, but had no luck finding any. Well this little cutie and two tiny puppies showed up in the mail!! I can't take it! So so cute! 

Brandi is an incredibly talented artist, and such a sweetheart! She and her husband are restoring an amazing old home in Savannah, and they painted the exterior pink!! It's so so beautiful! 

Well, as far as these little guys go...I definitely think a new collection has been born!! I need ALLLLL the tiny vintage porcelain chihuahuas now!! ha! 

I shared this on instagram a little while ago, but didn't share it here. A gal who knew I was a vintage ICE CREAM collector tagged me on Instagram letting me know that she had two of these up for sale! So of course I had to have it! It's the cutest vintage pamphlet. I think I might make a big print of the cover and frame it for our kitchen! 

And while we are talking Instagram...I LOVE this pic from @mrsjessicaroberts of her adorable little lady.

Our pieces look so happy hanging in her room! 

Lately we've been watching Preacher (on AMC). Yeah I know...we surround ourselves with all this bright cutesy stuff and we almost exclusively watch dark creepy stuff. 

I think it balances things. ha! 

Annnd I just feel like it is my duty to let you know how CRAAAZY GOOOD this Ben & Jerry's P.B. & Cookies Non-Dairy Ice cream is! Oh my worrrrd! 

As soon as we knew this stuff would be hitting stores we began stalking all of our local ice cream aisles. I can remember when I finally spotted it...I let out some really horrible, annoying sound. And I probably had a spring in my step for a good 30 mins. after.

 We tried all four flavors , as one should, and this one is OUR FAVE! It's ridiculous. And I truly do not think anyone would know it was non-dairy. So super creamy and rich! Made with Almond milk! It's non-GMO! All organic! Calorie free!...(ok, that last part is a lie.)

Sooooo, if you are vegan, lactose intolerant, or just really love good ice cream...You need to try it!  

Thanks so much again for reading!

I'll be back very soon!

Love from the Jersey Shore!

xo, Jenny...and Aaron

For the love of vintage ice cream ads

Recently I was asked if I was old fashioned. And on the surface I thought, "no way, I use an iPad and iPhone all day. I stream Netflix like every night" (but maybe Netflix is old fashioned, I'm not sure). And I don't really dress in a vintage way. I'm more of an all black/daily uniform kinda gal. 

But…when it comes to artistic/aesthetic inspiration for my home or my artwork…well then I'm definitely old fashioned. So much of what me and Aaron do creatively is rooted in the old, the vintage. Especially advertisements…usually from the 40s and 50s…like these ice cream ads. And we don't necessarily emulate what we see in the ads…we just connect with it. We naturally paint sorta in this fashion. Our color choices are time faded and a lot of times our imagery will look half photographic and half illustration. It's just our thing. I could go on for days with all the reasons. The nostalgia…the world when it was more simple…(not better…just simpler). And it's our age too. I feel like we connect with these images because our parents and grandparents once had.

So, about these posters…would you believe they were a gift?! Our friend Connie, who also refers to herself as our Aunt Connie, sent them to us!

To me, they're utter magic. This girl above sorta reminds me of an old-timey version of Kendall Jenner a bit. 

She seriously sent us a totally massive group to add to our collection!

I doubt they were ever hung, since the colors are still so vibrant. Something about that basic red block lettering gets me. 

We love them to bits! Connie is too sweet for words. When we opened the package we gasped. They're perfect. We're really so grateful to Connie for thinking of us, and for sending us these. We are inspired on so many levels! Anyone else collect vintage advertisements?

Thanks for reading. 

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi! 

Around here...

Today when taking the pups out for their morning walk we were teased with a glimpse of Spring. Well, at least temperature-wise it felt like Spring. But if you look around the neighborhood there is still plenty of snow lying around, and every inch of ground is a soggy mess. Just like the rest of you, we are so so done with winter. 

But we're not looking for much…we're not asking for absolutely perfect weather. We just want lower heating bills and maybe the ability to go on some sunny afternoon walks. Because it's not like we've got the time to go galavanting through the meadows anyway. We've got about fifteen projects going at all times. All we're asking for is the possibility of opening a window in the studio. ha!

So, speaking of projects…remember those itty bitty cakes I painted last week? Well, I found a place for them inside this tiny tin toy fridge. Pretty perfect.

What is it with tiny things? I love 'em! 

Prior to the cakes I used to keep this tiny vintage box of Lido Cream Biscuits in the fridge.

Now I think I'm gonna start a new collection of these! I want ALL of the mini cookie packages. 

Side note: I had posted a pic of this box on Instagram, and my friend Jessica aka @dearestdeer, said that her brain instantly registered the name Lido as the baby-talk version of Little. That's pretty funny.

And while we are talking cute packaging…I was digging through boxes looking for things for our upcoming Instagram sale, and found this Bon Bon box I had forgotten all about. Geez, even this motif on the inside of the box is darling! 

We've been painting lots of signs over here. The orders came all at once. Most likely our customers are just like us and have big decorating plans for this new year. And how awesome is it that we're part of their new decor?! 

Above is a pic of Aaron applying some antique wash to a custom color EAT sign. That's another awesome thing...we love to customize signs to fit a specific color scheme. 

Seriously, there is so much wood in our house right now. A big batch of signs and diecuts just shipped, and a bunch more will go tomorrow and Friday. It feel so so good sending these pieces off to new homes! 

Our Cookies sign is one of our favorites. We've been on a cookie kick lately.

This pic is from a couple days ago. Right outside the window there was nearly 8 inches of fresh snow, and inside we were wrapping up ice cream cone diecuts! 

This is one of the many projects we've got going. Over the weekend we put the first coat of our new dark dark grey paint on one area of the living room. As much as we adore our aqua, we are so ready for a change and we're really excited to decorate around the new dark backdrop. Our vintagey pastels are going to pop against the dramatic, almost black walls.

We really only had time to paint one little area. So I've been using this freshly painted corner as my little test spot for all of our bits of decor. Right away I slid this table into the new dark corner, and seeing our tarnished silver, glass, and aqua mercury glass, against the antique black (yes, that's technically what the wall color is…antique black) just felt so right! We are hoping to have time to do some more painting soon. 

First we'll have to blast those big pink wall stripes with the electric sander so that they don't show through. It's not a fun job...but a necessary one. We have a long list of things we plan on tackling here at home...including refinishing our floors in the kitchen and dining area. Once we strip the floors we're going to coat them with a nearly black stain. I've been doing some late night pinning over on pinterest, trying to keep my ideas all in one place. 

Ok, I just wanted to pop in and share a little bit of our early-onset-Spring-fever. I bet many of you have got similar aspirations, and to-do lists a mile long. As the season progresses I hope to share some more projects in detail along the way. 

Thanks for reading!

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!

Ice Cream, Macarons, and a little make over

Weather is a HUGE deal for me and Aaron. Or I should say seasons are a huge deal. As soon as the temp warms up, and we can keep the windows open all day long, we both seem to come alive. We're instantly more productive, and we finally can find the time and energy to realize all of the ideas we had been storing up all winter (we do the opposite of those squirrels with their nuts). 

The past couple weeks have been paint filled and positive. On some days we could start a project from scratch in the morning and have it photographed and in the shop by early afternoon. That would never happen in January or February. For some reason, the birds chirping in the trees, and the sound of itty bitty kids gleefully screaming on the playground down the block, inspires us to create. Well that, and the sunshine...and not having to blow into our fists to warm our fingers up. It was a crappy winter...but so far it's been a glorious Spring. The requisite Jersey humidity has not yet kicked in...and for that we are super thankful. 

I guess we express our thanks by painting a whole lotta new stuff!

This Ice Cream pennant is our latest finished piece. Again, this is something I sketched up ages ago but could never find the time to bring to life. I'm a huge fan of vintage souvenir pennants. I loved going on class trips, or daytrips with my mom, or vacations with the whole family, and coming home with a pennant from whatever touristy place we had visited. 

So the idea for the Ice Cream pennant was to capture the feel of those souvenir pennants, but to celebrate a classic summertime treat instead of a tourist destination or sports team. We definitely root for Team Ice Cream. 

And yes...or I should say Yaaaaaaassssss! Macaron diecuts are finally here. We always wanted to paint a trio of 'em, so we started with the pink one that you see above, and told ourselves that we'd get around to doing the other two in maybe a few days or a week from now.

But as soon as we saw this one done, we said 'nope...we cannot wait.'

And so right away we painted an aqua w/ chocolate ganache version.

And pretty much before the paint was dry on the aqua one, we then did a chocolate/chocolate version. We love how they look up on our wall. Like giant flying macarons are coming in for a gentle landing. If UFOs looked like these I'd drive to Roswell tomorrow and wait in the desert with upraised arms. 

And by the way...if you're interested...all this stuff and more is now in the shop. And there is still time to take advantage of our 20% off sale. Just use code: PIZZAPARTY.

And somehow, I've even been able to find time for some little personal projects! I picked up this super adorable piece when we were at Art is...You in Tennessee. Our friend Lesley was at the vendor table directly next to ours, and she gave this to me for a steal. When I originally brought it home and looked at it with all my stuff, I considered keeping it as-is...unpainted. I really love the look of the old wood. As-is it looks exactly how it would look if you pulled it out of a dusty attic...and I'm all about the dusty attic thing. But then I put a pic on Instagram and asked what everybody else thought I should do with it. In my head I was pretty much 50/50 on whether or not I'd paint it. But an overwhelming number of friends said I should paint or do something else creative with it. So, I took the pro-painting response as a little boost, and over the past couple days I got it done. 

First off...that roof could never ever remain one solid color. Those squares were just screaming out to be "tile-ized". I love the random pattern of colors...varying shades of pink, some tan, some black. And little dollhouse-esque compartments like these lend themselves perfectly to collage backgrounds. I used some pages out a ledger from 1905!, some amazing little patches of vintage pink floral wallpaper, and a couple fave vintage photographs. Notice that I put the car pic where the garage would be!

 A hint on fitting your little squares of paper ephemera into their respective cubbies: always cut them a little small instead of trying to wedge them in there perfectly. In the end, a tiny space around the paper won't matter. And plus, after I sealed the whole piece with a clear coat and let it dry, I then brushed an antique wash (I actually call it a "dirt wash") into all the nooks and crannies. When the wash settles in around the outer edges of your collaged backgrounds it looks perfect.

I'm definitely happy that I painted it.

Ok, just wanted to stop in for a quick progress report. I still have to share all the pics and details from the Country Living Fair. I'll be back very soon. In the meantime, we hope the season is treating you guys well. If you need us, we'll probably be painting.

xo, Jenny...& Aaron