Art Is You (Stamford) recap

We are back from Art Is You (Stamford CT) and my goodness was it a GREAT time! Every time we do Art Is You we are once again reminded that it is just such an incredible event! Sallianne & Ellen (the founders of Art Is You) do an amazing job, the teaching faculty is so diverse and so talented, and everyone there is just so generous and kind and we are so honored to be a part of it all. We taught at Art Is You in Memphis back in May and were so excited to see all of our friends again, and to make new friends of course! We normally teach a few full day classes, but this time we opted for just one nighttime class, which is about half the time of our normal classes. So instead of the usual 6 hours, we had to design our project to fit into a 3 hour time frame. It was a Friday night class, and it worked out great! And then early on Saturday we set up our table at the vendor fair. 

For the vendor fair we made some cute little plaques and pins with my new favorite mantra. My take on the Saul Bass quote. 

I'd like to think I speak for us all…the lovers of cute and fun. Whether it is our art, paintings, art journals, aprons, our decor at home, or the outfits we wear. 

 We may add some of these cute talk bubble pins to the shop soon. 

We always like having some sweet favors for our students, and these cute aqua lollipops were perfect! I just stamped some quick little tags to tie to each one using our new cakes stamps.

Yep! They are in the shop and available for pre-order in case you'd like some of your own! 

One of our favorite things ever is when friends that had never heard of Art Is You, hear about it from us and decide to come! I was so so excited when my friend Lizzy aka The Connoisseur of Cute, messaged me on Facebook to say she wanted to take our class! She had never been to one of these events, and would be driving all the way from Rhode Island for it! She didn't even stay over…just drove there…made art...and drove back. That is so hardcore.

 It was just her birthday and I had found the most perfect gift for her. I was so excited that I'd be able to give it to her in person! We met through Instagram this past year and totally hit it off Instantly.

How adorable is she? She posted this pic on instagram earlier on Friday...all dressed and ready for Art Is You! Look at her Barbie and Midge suitcase! And the girl is brave for wearing white to a painting class! ha! 

My brother Walt drove us and dropped us off at the hotel...which was only an hour and a half drive. When we arrived we weren't in the lobby 2 minutes before the adorable and ridiculously fun Kim and Kiki ran into us! Kiki is queen of magical selfies! This pic was sparkling on Facebook within minutes! 

The Stamford Sheraton is pet friendly! How great is that?! So of course Lieutenant Dan came! Look at how tiny he looks on this big big bed! ha! You can see his little trail leading to his spot…it looks like tracks in snow. Doesn't he look like a tiny deer? Carlos stayed the weekend with his grandparents. 

And here he is in the morning without his bow tie…a little nudie! HA! 

The hotel had a great area for walking the pups. There was even a bag dispenser for picking up after them. 

And here we are just before leaving our hotel room to go down to teach our class Friday night. 

The class we were teaching was Ancestral Abstracts. Abstract/mixed media paintings incorporating old photos…or new if you prefer. 

Class was so much fun! Everyone jumped right in! Some gals were pros and some gals had never used some of the materials or mediums before. We provided a few portraits for the students to choose from but some brought their own ancestors or instant ancestors (flea market finds). How great is this dapper fellow in the top hat?

Lt. Dan couldn't get enough of Sandra and Liz's table. If he wasn't asking to be picked up, he was making a bed of a purse. Ha!

It was so great getting to walk around and see the canvases coming to life! And getting to chat with gals we had only known on online like Pamala. She is a sweetheart! 

And in the background I can spy Lizzy and Nancy…who are most likely talking about Rhode Island or handlebar mustaches…what a coincidence that they happen to sit next to each other and both hail from the same place and have a thing for manly facial adornments.

Everyone really knocked our socks off! The colors and unique textures they achieved using the knives were fantastic! 

One of our fave duos are the Totire's…Katie and Aleta. It was such a pleasure having them in class again! We had met them a few years back at Art Is You and have been fb friends. We love that they brought their own photos to use. This little guy is too adorable 

And here is again! Older and serving our country! 

A shot of Pamala, Aaron, and Francine working away.

And here is Lizzy working on a bright, colorful and fun canvas.

Lt. Dan napped most of the class in his "good boy bed". And yes his water bowl is a pink vintage melmac teacup. 

Here is an in progress shot of Maureen's beautiful piece. You may recognize this trio of friends. We used this photo in our book! In our "Sweet Spot Necklace" project! 

And here they are finished! Wow right?! All so unique!

Look at that texture! and color!

Francine's gal is on the left with the shimmering shoulder! That's german glass glitter embedded in the gel medium, which will eventually tarnish and have a fabulous look to it! 

I just love seeing them all together! What a great time we had! And we were pretty psyched that we all finished within the three hours! 

Here's Lt. Dan and daddy hanging in the lobby on Saturday. We had such an amazing time! Artsy people every way you turned...conversations in the elevators, getting coffees, everywhere you looked there were people making incredible art, catching up, and trading stories. If you've never been to an art retreat and have even the slightest interest…GO! Seriously! they are sorta life changing! 

This here is a gift from our other fave duo…The Gabels! Another mom and daughter. Brittany and Deb! We met Deb way back when we taught at The Creative connection in St. Paul, Minnesota! We told her all about Art Is You and now she and her awesome daughter Brittany are part of the Art Is... Family! They were in Memphis too! Both are total crack ups! Also generous, kind, and funny! You wouldn't believe the costumes they were in this weekend! I wish I had a pic! They really went all out! I'm cracking up right now thinking about it! This adorable necklace was a gift from them. It's hand sculpted and painted by Doreen Kassel. Doesn't it look so so much like our little Jack? Oh my gosh… all he's missing is the bit of orange. It melts my heart! I love it so so much! Oh it's quite big too! 

These tiny adorable handmade book pins were a gift from Aleta. She made one for me and one for Aaron. Using our scrapbook papers! This photo doesn't do them justice at all! Oh and ignore that paint covered thumb nail. I had been making lots of art! ha! And Katie baked us the most adorable and delicious sugar cookies…which we devoured as soon as we got up to our room…sorry no pic! ha!

Oh and this is funny…way back at one of our very first Art Is Yous, Katie and Aleta had taken an Art Journaling class with us and Aleta borrowed this paint brush. She has had it this whole time! Years! She was patiently waiting to return it to us! ha! And she presented it to us in it's very own chalice. We told her over and over that it was no big deal...to keep it. But nope...she brought it to us this Friday! So funny!

And Lizzy brought me the cutest gifts (ya know…because she's the Connoisseur of Cute). This vintage honey bunny soap on a rope, and sweet pink plastic nut cup! She knows me so well! So cute right?

And our sweet online friend Terry, who we met for the first time this weekend, gave us these cute pins she had made using vintage scrabble tiles. And yep...she made sure to add some pink and aqua glitter! 

I bought this these great old portraits from Kim and Kiki at the vendor fair. I can't wait to use them in some future projects! 

We had such a great time! It all went so fast! We wish we could have stayed longer, and maybe taken a class or two. We both vowed to do so next time! We've been saying it forever, and we have to make it happen! We'd love to take a class with Andrea DeMeng or Jodi Ohl. or Kecia. Oh geez…we'd wanna take everyone's class!! So hard to choose! 

There are so many more pics over on fb! Be sure to like the Art Is You page!

Thanks for catching up with us!

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!

Friday Favorites

Can you even handle the cuteness of this teeny tiny itty bitty adorable and delicious looking birthday cake?! And its not just any birthday cake…this also happens to be vegan! 

Capital City Bakery seriously takes vegan baking to the next level. I follow @capcitybakery on Instagram, and by doing so I'm nearly torturing myself :)…no matter what time of day, or what I'm busy doing at the moment, the second one of these yummy pics shows up on my screen, I'm pretty much done for! And I moan to myself…"Why oh why must Jersey be so far from Austin TX?!"

Seriously…look at that bakery case…all of that stuff is vegan! 

Kristen Davenport is the super sweet gal behind the award winning Capital City Bakery. She started out in 2010 baking custom cakes from home, then opened Austin's first all-vegan food trailer, and now she operates out of a super successful storefront location. All of the ingredients are 100% vegan, cholesterol-free, organic, and locally sourced…and their bakery boxes are made from recycled material. 

It's awesome when a business can make an amazing and super successful product all while 100% sticking to their ideals. Very inspiring. (and hunger pang inducing!) ;-)

Once again, I have to give credit to Instagram for introducing me to so many incredible artists and makers. What you see above is the work of Muncle Fred Art. They're like a florist who's flowers last forever. Their custom florals are all masterfully created with felt! They make them for weddings, anniversaries, parties, whatever... 

And I love seeing their studio photos…it looks just like it would at an actual florist…with florists buckets brimming with handmade blooms. You can follow Kayla on Instagram: @munclefredart

I gotta read this book! It's been on my wish list for a while. Besides loving Girls, and her film Tiny Furniture, I always love Lena Dunham in interviews. She cracks me up…she's so self aware but also doesn't get hung up on how she comes off. I love this blurb from her Amazon page…yeah, it's written by her dad. 

“This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks they understand the experience of being a young woman in our culture. I thought I knew the author rather well, and I found many (not altogether welcome) surprises.”—Carroll Dunham

I've been loving following along with my friend Brandi and her husband while they transform their new home. Well, it's new to them, but old to this earth. I was amazed at how quickly it progressed from the first photo to the second. It was so aged and worn and damaged…but they saw the potential and transformed it into this gleaming pink doll house. These pics don't even begin to show how impressive and huge it is. Their Instagram is @paintedrabbit. 

 Lieutenant Dan is responsible for making us crazy for bow ties around here. This one by Riot Bow Ties is actually 3D printed! How cool is that? Yes…it's made of Nylon plastic that's printed using 3D animation software. And it's a real deal wearable bow tie. I'm loving how creepy cute it is…perfect for the Halloween season.

Ok, I never include anything of mine in Friday Favorites…mainly because I like my Friday Faves to feature things out there that move and inspire me. But these are certainly a worthy exception…and I'm just as excited about them as if I came across them in some other artist's shop. 

Let me just say...I am In LOVE with our new stamps! Yep! We have stamps! 

They're long overdue! I know. So many of you had asked if we'd have stamps anytime soon. And the answer was always "yes, definitely…but we have yet to find the time to get that ball rolling"

Well…the ball finally started rolling. Our samples arrived today and you can see that I didn't waste a moment. I grabbed some little white round tags and stamped away…just to check the quality…and I'm so very pleased. The details are fantastic! They contain every single nuance of our drawings! 

We will be adding them to the shop tomorrow as pre-orders. So that means we will begin shipping once they come in…we are thinking they'll ship out to everyone by early November. 

We are starting out with two sets. One is a sweet little collection of cakes and tiny rose clusters. And the other is Allie & Amy with talk bubbles and cupcakes.

I can't wait to show you more! And I cannot wait to see them used by you talented stampers and crafters! If you guys are really into them, we have plans for lots more stamps in the near future! We can maybe even pull off some Christmas stamps sets if we hurry! 

More details on the stamps tomorrow…but I just had to share a tiny peek today!

Thanks so much again for reading! 

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi! 

Around here...

Hey, Happy October! It's my fave month! And for a bunch of reasons. I love the temperature, the cool breezes…I love layering on the clothing. And it's my Birthday month! Growing up, I often had Halloween themed birthday parties. Halloween birthday cakes, decorative bats hanging from the ceiling along side pink balloons. 

I better start making plans for my b-day. It's just a couple weeks away. I'm thinking that we might go into NYC for the day and finish it off with an amazing dinner.

I'm also pretty darn excited for Art Is You! It's next week! One week from today we will be up in Connecticut surrounded by the Art Is Family! Old friends and new! We'll be teaching a Friday night class and we'll have a table at the market on Saturday. So this is going to be one of those crazy weeks. We're sure to be running around like lunatics. 

And once we get back home we will begin our Holiday Hustle! We'll launch headlong into gearing up for the holiday season. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's first take a moment to acknowledge the holiday that is closest by at the moment. We just added our classic Haunted House cake wood mounted prints to the shop! It's an 8 x 10 plaque, and comes ready to hang! And yes…you can use code: EATMORECAKE for 20% off! 

I'm such a big fan of creepy cute! And sometimes all it takes is a small gathering of vintage wallpaper being danced upon by spider confetti.

 The other day while some diecuts were drying, I took a little bit of time to organize things in the studio. While I was going through all of my favorite vintage tags, cards, and other vintage ephemera, I was once again reminded of how much I love making and collecting them. Totally one of my all time fave "leisure time activities". Some of this stuff goes back to my early days of blogging… and all of those fun swaps we used to do here in blogland! 

I snapped this pic the other day because I love the look of the diffused late afternoon sunlight on the east side of the house. This is one of two black chalkboard walls in our kitchen. And of course those are faux cakes (though every single time we've had cable guys and the like inside our house they always assume the cakes are real…and they ask things like "When does the party start?").

  Oh and you may remember those shadow boxes that you can see peeking in on the left and right. I love how they look on the black wall. They're so cute and pretty with their scalloped frames and candy colors, and set against the black the contrast is just perfect. 

And look who got a new bow tie! Dapper Dan! ; )

This is pretty much the daily scene around here. Diecuts galore! This here is the step when we trace the shapes of our prints onto our boards. We do our best to waste as little wood as possible. After this step we then cut them all out on the scroll saw and sand them super smooth before mounting the prints.

And even after the prints are mounted there is still plenty of work to be done. Each one gets lots of hand painted details and highlights, and the edges are painted to carry the design over so that they're three dimensional art pieces. 

It's a lot of work, but we love it. We are looking forward to the holiday season like you wouldn't believe. We cannot wait to slide back into busy busy elf mode. 

Tomorrow is going to be a super full day. Just thinking about it makes me kinda dizzy. I have a feeling that pretty soon I'm going to blink, and when I re-open my eyes it will already be time to drive up to Connecticut! 

Thanks bunches for popping in!! Hope you guys had a great week!

xo Jenny…and Aaron says hi!

Doll Eyes NY SS15 Fashion Show

To some of you these two gals may be very familiar faces. But for any of you guys who are not yet acquainted, I am so thrilled to introduce you to this super talented and inspiring duo. Meet Elena Kanagy-Loux and Stella Rose Saint Clair, the designers of the experimental fashion brand Doll Eyes. 

I've been an admirer of Stella Rose for years (she's on the left in the pale blue skirt). I can't really pinpoint where or when I first discovered her, but bits and pieces of her style often popped up on my radar. I'm positive that she made it into my Friday Faves here on the blog a few times over the years. And more recently, probably close to a year ago, I became friends with Elena (wearing all pink on the right) on Instagram. We definitely share similar aesthetic tastes in collecting, fashion, and decor…lots of pretty pastels, fabulous vintage, and a look that starts out classic but is then whimsically appropriated into a very unique personal style. I promise that you'll fall in love with Elena's Instagram feed…you can follow her at: @erenanaomi

And if you want to learn more about Stella Rose, I highly recommend this fantastic article in the Seattle Times that tells the tale of how she was literally discovered right on the street in NYC, and from there she was prepared to meet every new and amazing opportunity with hard work and confidence in her own personal style. She's a very inspiring gal. 

Ok, so this is where the paths of Doll Eyes and Everyday is a Holiday converge. It was just Fashion Week in NYC. Ever since me and Aaron met, New York City has been a very special place for us as a couple. We spent a whole lot of the formative years of our artistic career there…shopping, exploring, eating, absorbing…we have so many exciting stories that can be traced back to our years when we were under the tutelage of New York City. Fall Fashion Week especially was always a magical time for us. (note: it's in the Fall, but the collections that are debuting are Spring and Summer wear.) I'm a Fall baby and lover of all things Autumn, so when Fashion Week would hit I always made it into an event. Aaron and I were always in the city during Fall Fashion Week. 

So, just a few weeks ago my fabulous Instagram friend Elena contacted me and asked if me and Aaron would be interested in creating some of our cake diecuts to be used in the Doll Eyes fashion show. She made reference to the above pic of that fab heart shaped cake, and said that the collection would be in the spirit of that cake image, and that our diecuts seemed like the perfect fit. I agreed immediately! 

We had a full plate at the time...lots of orders to make, pack, and ship. But when something special like this comes along, you make time for it. Having the chance to collaborate with other artists that you love is one of the main reasons for being an artist in the first place! :)

Here's the thing…we didn't have any of these cake designs finished yet. Let me give you a little bit of behind-the-scenes info about me and Aaron…we have about a million yet-to-be-completed designs and collections here at Everyday is a Holiday headquarters. You wouldn't believe how many fab designs we have just waiting in the wings. We simply don't have enough time to bring them to fruition. We do what we can, when we can…it doesn't really stress us out too much…but it would be awesome if we could pause the rest of the world for about a month while we went bananas getting all of these half done designs all the way done. 

Cakes for Doll Eyes needed to be fancier, more decorative…lots of piping, pretty color, and piped roses. Right away we decided that we could include one of the pieces from our Gilded Sweetness collection. And we especially wanted to give them a tiered cake like the one above…the kind of cake that a scantily clad gorgeous gal would jump out of. So over a couple of late nights we painted that one and a couple others from scratch. We worked hard right up to the 25th hour, and then overnighted them all to Doll Eyes in New York.  

The gals were sweet enough to invite us to the show, but there was no way we could take the time away to attend. As I said above, we were swamped, and after making these cakes we had a lot of catching up to do. 

But fortunately, there was a live stream of the show. We were able to sit at the worktable in our studio and see our artwork grace the stage alongside the latest Doll Eyes fashion collection! It was sooooo fun! Just look at their set up. They didn't go with a traditional runway…instead they had set up a sweets table and backdrop, and the models came out from either side and circled the table. Some of them danced, some showed off their contortionist skills…and the girly French soundtrack was perfect. Many of the models strutted out holding baguettes and tearing of bits to nibble as they posed about the stage.

It was such an honor to contribute our artwork to this amazing show. We absolutely love the style of Elena and Stella Rose, and it's so cool that they thought of us when they were designing the look of their show. Like I said above, getting the chance to collaborate with artists that we hold in such high regard, is one of the best things about being an artist.   

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you love Doll Eyes and the two fabulous gals behind the brand. Make sure to keep up with what they're up to on Instagram: @dolleyesny…they're always inspiring!

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!