I wanted to start Thank you LOTUS BLEU Home Decor & Interior Design for your amazing first order--”Erin” pillows going to San Francisco! Thanks Ben Ray, (West Coast Rep) for this amazing HUGE order! Mas and I are so excited! VERY excited to get the line in San Francisco, California! Please check them out. I have been obsessing over this shop. They have everything I have ever swooned over and more that I have just discovered. So please, if you are in the area and love loads of color and style--stop by, buy a pillow and support a gal that whole heartedly loves to design things that speak directly to your soul and make your home more alive.
Another fantastic shop, this one on this side of the US map, HOME CHIC, A Fresh; Hip Home Decor shop to funkify your home with beautiful, unusual and functional pieces. Located on Chautauqua Lake, in Mayville, NY. My new New England rep, the very sweet and amazing Bonnie Woods our of Duxbury MA, just sold a great first order to NANTUCKET LOOMS which was established in 1968 as a weaving studio producing high-quality textile fabrics. Until it became a private enterprise, the looms were under the direction of the Nantucket Historical Trust and fabrics created there were used for the renovation of the historic Jared Coffin House. Co. Now it is an amazing retail shop that is full of local artists and has amazing interior design services.
Oh My! I am FREAKING OUT OVER THESE PICS that just came in. Nathalie Weston, (amazing interior designer in Hong Kong) just sent me some final images of the little girls room she designed for the daughter of shop owner: SIDEWALK in Gough Street in Soho, Hong Kong. She contacted me to do this 20" Hot Pink BUNNY BOO! Which I of course fell in love with! (the girls fought over the first few so we printed and made up a few more for them!) Nathalie is super amazing and great to work with AND has exceptional taste and style and recently featured in ELLE DECOR HONG KONG. A few pics of her home. Scroll down to see the ELLE Cover and the following images of are her amazing home. She mentioned that this space below will also be in ELLE DECOR and so that would be insane--so I hope to post those at some point in the near future.
New England Home as well as Fresh Style Magazine have contacted me. New England Home just featured me this past Friday on Friday Favorites 4/22/2011 and also in the magazine come out this Summer.
Fresh Style Magazine interviewed me for a up and coming blurp. I gave them a ton of pillows and they shot them and not sure what they will use for what but hope they send me spreads of the completed magazine to show you! The design concept behind this brand new mag is to feature new and up and coming designers--a lot of it hand made--really apart of this ETSY movement we are seeing. It's amazing how many etsy web links you see in magazines and shopping design blogs that all stalk etsy designers and feature all the cool and new things people are dreaming up. This alone is exciting for all of us just starting out trying to get our things out into the world so people all over can enjoy them. I thank ETSY so much for letting it be easy for all of us to do amazing things. I hope this new movement will keep more jobs and wares here in the US. We'll see.
The last set of images is Mas (amazing beautiful husband) AKA-silk screener-printer--and all around manager of all things that I tend to not be good at ha ha. Printing a series of prints for LOTUS among some others. New colors are Robins Egg Blue in the Daisy Thorn print as well as expanding the ASHLEY PINE into my famous funky green and brown. (Mustard Pea/Black Coffee). And I am thinking of only doing BUNNY BOO in Hot Pink instead of the light pink but will do both until my inventory is done. I love the GIGI the KITTEN in light pink...seems to be a great combination with the rest of the little critters. And you also see the famous MR. NUT in Orange..which of course I love, (orange is my all time favorite color).
It seems as if Spring has finally hit Maine. The snow is gone and rain has set in. Here at the Flett house we are digging in the dirt a little or maybe I should say a lot..I am working on a crushed granite patio edged with recycled granite pavers from the streets of the OLD PORT here in Portland, Maine. They are like bricks only bigger and super cool. I have managed to collect a 4-5 tons in the past few years lining every inch of my perennial beds out front. But I was missing a space to hang out while the kids played--and having a huge plot of grass to play with I decided we could do a little less mowing--so I am in the process of digging out the grass and creating the shape of the patio. I will post before and after shots when completed which I pray will be this week. My grandmother gave me a sweet iron table with two little chairs that will be perfect. They sit out front now--just begging to be put somewhere cool. I want to tackle the 4 acres behind us too--ha ha but I will leave that to the big boys with chain saws. (Just a little cutting here and there so we can actually see the paths better would be amazing..)
I am about to start working with ACORN, designing the SPRING 2012 Catalog as well as art directing some great new photoshoots..so I will post those as they happen. Should be so fun and I couldn't be more happier working with such an amazing company. I am finishing up the prints for SAVANNAH TAILS
I have also been working on a round pillow sample--so excited about it as well as simplifying the line and mixing it up a bit in the FALL. Not sure where all this will take me but I am excited to start designing again for my own pillows. Mas and I have our first large screen and continuing to practice doing yardage. I am challenged by the cost of the ground fabric and how much I need to do some things that I feel would be super cool. What you ask? Shower curtains for starters, duvets, hmmm. A bark cloth duvet would be the ultimate lux set up I think. But I will start reupholstering all these antique chairs I have. I have a new one to pick up at the goodwill that is a gem in the rough that I am sure Mas will roll his eyes at--kinda rough but it's shape is spectacular. Receiving a few inquiries via ETSY and some local interior designers..so I know this avenue will be something I will really focus on in the coming year.
The girls are amazing and growing like weeds. We had a recent photoshoot with WINKY LEWIS. She is super lovely and if you ever have a chance to work with her, please go for it! She captured the girls in such a light that makes my heart sing. I will post those soon..but I wanted to give DESIGN*SPONGE first peek since they asked to feature me in the SNEAK PEAK some Monday in the near future. I am a HUGE HUGE FAN and of course said YES--PLEASE PLEASE! Felt a tad of anxiety since our home is modest--and of course we all feel like our own stuff is cool or speaks to us or to others about who we are--but always interesting when someone looks at your space to see if it makes some visual cut--which to me was a little painful waiting..but Winky did it up and really captured the best little nooks and places in our house that I feel really tell our story here in Maine. I think that is what a home is, everyone's little story--and how we live with our things we collect over the years tells something about us that is unique, sweet and wonderful. I love junk as you know, so cutting through that and editing down to the bare minimum has always been a challenge for me. But with out all this STUFF and things and memories and thoughts and life...my work would be mindless, heartless and mean nothing--so in theory, all of this and my work is a reflection of my heart and how I live-- or how we live as a family. Anyway, Winky was devine. And the images speak for themselves.
I will close for now, sorry for the gush. I have not written in a while and with so much happening day to day, nice to reflect for a moment and really get a handle on what has happened in the last few weeks and what is happening now. Having a family and doing freelance design work, textile work...pillows...all of it...gets a little nuts around here to say the least but like I always say to Maslen..I wouldn't have it any other way and I think the girls thrive on all of the "doing" around here--"or what B says--"doing what we love"--
Happy Easter Everyone. xo e
