Breshia's Room + Recent Happenings

January was a blur and now settling into a new schedule and routine--visions of yardage silk screening, more pillow silk screening printing, poster printing...getting new wholesale accounts--updating website--dreaming up new patterns and working on some outdoor fabric prints for a Chinese Manufacturer--QSTYLE. The line will be small at first and hopefully expand. The prints will be focused on the US Market--getting a fresh new line of prints out there for outdoor fabrics. I am also creating different colorways for existing prints they have currently...putting a fresh spin on them. They seemed to love my colorways in my prints and really have let me pull comps together with a very modern, but vintage inspired colorways that scream american and outdoor worlds. 

I am also been asked to license some new prints for SAVANNAH TAILS a brand new lux brand of dog collars + leashes and eventually accessories. I love the concept of this new line that will feature a few designers/artists like myself that will launch a few lines along with the other prints that they have chosen to work with for SPRING/SUMMER 2011. 

I have also been working on some new brand identities--a new architecture firm here in Portland and a beautiful brand for a existing shop, THE MUSTARD HOUSE that will have a fresh new look and feel---working on the website now. I will show and tell soon. Below are the first round of web home page comps that have not been approved. Pam is still pondering what look and feel she wants to go for. I personally love all of them but especially love the last one with the more layered look. The card will be a sweet dye cut that will also be a hang tag. What I love about Pam Haines is that her style is multi-faceted collaging the old with the new creating a shopping experience unlike anything I have seen. 

And because I love taking all my vintage finds, grandma gifts and all things sweet. I wanted to share Breshia's room. My lovely 6 year old that has a totally different room then Ary's obviously--her colors are soft and quiet, sweet with a touch of whimsy. Her room has evolved a lot since her toddler days but now as a big 6 year old we have collected a cottage vintage bed that was painted this amazing blue--with hand painted florals...I fell in love with this bed at a junk shop in Limington before B was even born. I brought it home and Maslen was totally in shock since it's obviously a bed for a little girl and NOT a baby ha ha. But somehow I convinced him it was one of a kind and we had to have it--(a speech I give often and I typically win out--and have the Mr. Flett load it in the truck!). 


So the bed came first and the rest followed. The old green wainscoting cupboard was a very dirty white or cream---it came from my moms finds collected for her antique shop that she was ready to part with. So I painted it apple green and pink inside just for fun--she loved it and I had a blast painting it. 


I added the white little dresser recently with a vintage mirror that I painted white along with the antique plates my grandmother gave me that she said her mother gave her. I am so so in love with them. They are very sweet and have the loveliest colors. They don't fit anywhere in my house since they are so so sweet but they seemed to scream Breshia so I hung the set on her wall. 

I found the other things--old ladder chair, floral oil painting and the cool vintage hair salon box all at random garage sales and junk shops. Her bedding is Liz Claiborne and I really  love the shabby chic linens that have extra deep pockets for her fat bed that have amazing details like the 6" ruffle edges.  The new framed prints of the kiddo pillows are hung over her bed as she requested and the pink DAISY THORN pillow to top it off for all her evening book reading. (Notice Ary picked the same print but in Orange--) I love her room...it's soothing and sweet but I am sure once she is a bit older she will find treasures of her own. For now I love her art work hung on the walls--(king and queen illustration of mas and i--gotta love that and of course I hung I LOVE MOM on the wall as well. I don't think this will last but it's amazing and great for now that she thinks we are the king and queen. Ary the other day asked if Daddy was my prince---and of course I said yes. Isn't this why we put things together--for the stories and soul it gives a room? 

YUMMY PHOTOS FROM A YUMMY LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY + AU / Erin Flett Comes out with NEW FLORAL PRINT!

 

Some lovely amazing images courtesy of Jodi Palmer  a great new photographer that came across the pillows online and asked to borrow for a shoot for a up and coming story in  La Petite Magazine . A Yummy Life Photography is a professional children's portrait studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah. A Yummy Life Design offers unique and modern templates for professional photographers. And I hope to do up some cool surface patterns + graphic designs for some up and coming templates so please stay tooned! Should be a lot of fun!


On another note, AU + Erin Flett is coming out this SPRING with Mrs. Robinson! The Bag collection did really well last season and they asked for a floral to help balance out the Worn Current + Island Edge I have been working, fine tuning this print for some time and finally received strike offs for color this past week! So it's getting me excited for SPRING! I am really excited for this floral print that is really vintage inspired hence the name Mrs. Robinson who is a famous character in THE GRADUATE 1967. 


I love this new blog about COLOR TRENDS in 2011 and I am happy that we are keeping the ORANGE + YELLOW and this lovely OLIVE GREEN! The GRAYS + NAVY will balance the color out and sure to continue to be the staples. LOVE LOVE this new print and it looks even more LOVELY in person and printed! ENJOY.

Happy New Year-2011 Calender now on SALE!

RURAL MODERN STYLE is colorful, contemporary painted hardwood furniture and home accessories FROM FURNITUREA out of Portland, Maine. A rural modern style is inspired by the traditional forms of rural Maine architecture and the decorative arts, re-imagined in a modern cast and imbued with a whimsical spirit. Custom designs and custom colors to order.

The company that would become Furniturea was started as a carpentry company in 1974 in Bridgton, a small town in rural western Maine. Brian Haddock, the 1st and for awhile the only employee, combined his formal design education and his interest in craft to found a carpentry company to repair and restore old houses. There were plenty of old houses that needed repair and restoration in rural western Maine. 

What I love the most about this line of furniture is the contemporary lines and colors that all are customizable for anyone who wants this fresh look in a unusual size or color--slight modifications and you have yourself a custom piece that literally sings a song to who ever walks by. As you know, details are everything to me and I love the kiln dried maple and birch hardwood and veneer harvested locally from the forests of New England and eastern Canada. Free of added formaldehyde and meet California’s 2009 clean air standards.

I have been so lucky to have FURNITUREA add my new line of pillows to this amazing space. I love love this style and hope to fill my house with it one piece at a time. I am so so inspired by these modern lines and shapes...amazing.

Attached are some photos of the store front that I happened to take the evening before MERRY MADNESS A Shop ‘til you drop event held downtown Portland Old Port!! Enjoy.

Year End

Hello and Happy Holidays! A quick post before the holiday break. Been a great year full of different opportunities and experiences. I loved my time at Maine Magazine & Maine Home Design Magazine + meeting so many wonderful people that are doing what I am doing---working at something that means everything to them and making a living at it. And of course all the people that came up to me during the few shows we attended that thanked me or mentioned how they love the pillow prints...I loved seeing people walk up to the pillows and smile. My heart melted. It was like a piece of my world was getting through the madness. So amazing how something can hopefully change a mood or bring joy to someone...color and texture can be amazing like that.

The girls are getting big fast and holding onto every moment! Pillows selling like mad and searching for another stitcher that will help us out--Loving adding new things to the existing line of home + kiddo prints---I also have 4 new designs I am excited to print that are multi colored bold abstracted flowers--one up per pillow. Simple but cool. So many ideas cooking--oh and Maslen and I are working on yardage now---so that I hope will be something that we will have come Spring/Summer! (Stacked Deco will be the first print we are trying..) Carol Bass who was the master mind behind MAINE COTTAGE FURNITURE And one more thing--AU's new print that I designed is coming out SUPER FAST for SPRING--We just approved the 3 new colorways. (LEMON DROP YELLOW/A SUPER CREAMY BLUE/ and super amazing ERIN OLIVE GREEN that will for sure be my favorite.  The new bag print will be on natural color nubby cotton fabric--(before they printed on white). Excited to see how this changes the look and feel and will be able to carry over to FALL nicely. I will post as soon as I can.

Freelance has been steady and always looking for great graphic design gigs that speak to me. Did a few websites this year and a lot of brand identities that I really loved...just excited to keep going and really take my work to new heights. 2011 will be about organizing the madness and streamlining things---fine tuning really. Life is crazy but lovely and I would not have it any other way. Very thankful to do what I love and be here in my studio. Life for me is bringing simplicity to our home and loving the girls...and showing them that dreams do come true everyday. 

A little blurp from LIVEWORKPORLTLAND that sums it up nice I think. I love being apart of this amazing working community. CHEERS to you all and hope to connect soon. xo e

LiveWork Portland – CreativePortland.Me Profile: Designer Erin Flett

HOLIDAY PICNIC

Mas and I had an amazing weekend at the HOLIDAY PICNIC SHOW. Since it was our third show ever, we were excited to connect with such amazing creative souls. The amount of great work was incredible and hanging out next to ZETI for two days would brighten anyones spirits! (see me and ZETI below...) I have to say that connecting with other little kiddos with the pillows was amazing. Seeing how they loved the pillows and really gravitated toward the little critters made me smile. We sold quite a few large pillows as well and met some very cool people. We sold the barkcloth frames which was well received and sold a ton of paper posters as usual...and even my calender was printed in time for the last day. Please enjoy this collection of images I put together quickly. I hope to post about all the individual artists I met. So so many! Thank you all of you for making the last two shows a great start to a new year for studio e! xo e

Hello hello. Maslen and I had a great show at the SHOP-A-DO event held out SPACE GALLERY, 538 Congress Street, downtown Portland. It was held Friday and Saturday night and it was amazing. Maslen and I were blown away. Friday was wall to wall people buying everything from cashmere rope necklaces, (had to trade for one) handmade clothes, felted critters (these little owls that were amazing!) and fine art---AND so thankful to say a lot of PILLOWS, PAPER PRINTS + everything else we had for sale. Once I dig out I will post on some of these amazing souls I met! It was a whirl wind of amazing people and stories and time to connect with fellow mates that are doing the same thing Mas and I are doing---making handmade goods because we love it and because it's our passion. So amazing to connect with so many people that totally buy in to BUYING LOCAL! LOVE IT and thank you so much for stopping by, saying hello, telling a story and picking up something. 


Another amazing thing happened this week. I had some great wholesale orders that came in which is always amazing and fun, but a special call out to CITY BIRD who mentioned to me that a couple of my pillows are going to be shown on a set in Detroit 1-8-7 (a show on ABC set in Detroit). The set designers loved them and bought them to be used in a home that will be featured in January or February. GO DETROIT! So I will hopefully have more on that once I receive more information! 


Okay and the last thing that I wanted to post was a great feature on the LIVEWORKPORTLAND BLOG
They were nice enough to do a blurp on me for a new section of the website featuring local people living and working in the portland area. Loved it, honored and so thrilled to be apart of such a life changing organization. So please visit the site often and really get involved. The best way we can thrive here in Portland and Maine is to seriously buy local, support local businesses. I for one buy where it's most economical and makes sense for my family--but I have to say that buying from local farmers, shops and everything inbetween feels better and ultimately better for my family. So bit by bit, even if  it's more expensive for us, we are going to make more of an effort. WE have to. We owe it to this amazing state and community that we love so much!


PS. A little video from SHOP-A-DO that was super amazing: 

Shop-A-Do 2010 Time Lapse

vimeo.com

SPACE Gallery annual Shop-A-Do event December 3, 2010. Portland, Maine. Music by Alias from the title track off "Resurgam" http://space538.org/

Flett House Series- My bedroom

I was taking photos for a up and coming catalog for the pillows--and I wanted to share some images of my bedroom to go along with the FLETT HOUSE SERIES. The bedspread is from PotteryBarn and the Las Vegas style headboard and furniture is from a near by junk/antique store that I love in Limington, Maine called the "Chicken Coop." The masks I bought at a auction a year or so ago and everything else is found either from my mom's house that is full of antiques or from local junk shops. 

I am loving orange and gray these days as you can see--and I have always wanted light blue walls in my bedroom--which have always been a creamy yellow... I am totally in love with the black frames with metal flowers I found in a antique shop in Saco. I have thought about painting them but I do love how the gold meshes well with my bohemian bed. The lamps are from my grandmother that I want to redo at some point and the chandelier was given to me from my father, aunt and uncle when my grandfather passed. It came to me in a huge wooden crate all the way from Eaton Colorado. It was in the dining room of my grandfathers house and when he died it was going to be sold so they took it down for me and sent it to me. I guess my grandfather gave it to my grandmother as a birthday gift and now it lives with me in my bedroom. I am so thankful that it came all that way to Maine in one piece! 

I can't live with out my vintage scarves or the antique mirror I found in Buxton with my mom--we stopped and picked it up for $20 bucks. The best deal ever. The vintage red chair was the first chair Maslen and I picked up at a garage sale when we moved to Maine. I want to redo it too but for now it is still in the horse hair red wool which wears like iron! Thanks for looking! e

New Kiddo Pillows + HOLIDAY INDIE CRAFT SHOWS

I have been working on coming out with new kiddo prints and finally here they are. I have had so much fun refining these little guys and finally able to start taking orders and hopefully have these out in full swing by some of the holiday shows I will be attending in November and December. 

HOLIDAY SHOWS I WILL BE ATTENDING:

NOVEMBER 13th

Mistletoe Boutique Welcome to our first annual Mistletoe Boutique! Please join us on Saturday, November 13 from 9:00-3:00 for food, libations and fabulous shopping featuring vendors with locally produced jewelry, stationery, gifts, handbags, pillows, home accessories and the Pampered Pooch area!

DECEMBER 3rd

SPACE GALLERY SHOW-A-DO! 

Come revel in handmade bliss with one of our most popular events: Shop-A-Do! Browse through an inspiring collection of local crafters’ goods including prints, handmade clothing, original artwork, books, t-shirts, cards and more! Grab a hot beverage, don a cozy sweater and come on down for some good old fashioned holiday cheer.

DECEMBER 11th-12th

2nd annual Picnic Holiday Sale will take place on Saturday, Dec 11, and Sunday, Dec 12! This juried indie craft fair will be held indoors at the Maine Irish Heritage Center at 34 Gray St and State St. The Sale will run from noon to 8pm on Saturday, and noon to 5pm on Sunday, admission is free. 

Just a quick preview of the small pillows: Please contact me for wholesale information and pre ordering. They should be ready to go into shows SPRING 2010 and sooner on my ETSY SHOP! Stay tooned!

Flett House Series-Ary's Room

I have had a lot of people ask how I live with the pillows..and I decided to start a series of THE FLETT HOUSE..which is a little glimpse of our little world here in Maine...
I am going to start with Aryana's room who just turned 3. She is now in her "big girl" bed that Maslen and I found at a local church sale before she was born. Picking up two for $30 was a steal and I dreamed of the girls sharing a room one day. But due to the small size of the girls rooms once we moved in, they are solo. A fresh coat of white paint and a little love and here it is. (Mas sanded and sanded and painted while Breshia art directed shouting out placing he missed.) Found vintage linens and comforter that I have held onto for years. I think the comforter was a goodwill find and the linens at a charming old lady's home in Buxton. The comforter is handmade by some amazing soul that totally caught my eye...clearly hand stitched when you look underneath. I knew Ary's room would be different then B's which is pastel pinks. 


Ary gravitates to hot pink and oranges and loves bold and graphic pictures and stories. Her fire in her eyes and the obsession with old books that she drags out of my studio inspired the room. A buttery yellow paint on the walls that is a little too bright during the day but something we have grown to love. Little Ary picked out the large Home Economics lithograph, 1952,  above her bed of little girls playing house---sewing and ironing and playing dolls. It's in rough shape but I am completely and thoroughly enamored by it. We were  junking and picked it up at a local shop her in Gorham at TINSEL BRIGHT She points out all the details, the doll, the dresser and the window, and does not let you forget the big scissors and thread bobbins. Ary is facinated with sewing from her Nana's influence and always asks, "how you do that nana?" Breshia says she will be a good driver because she has practices at Nana's...(foot of the sewing machine..) I laugh out loud and feel thankful my mom is teaching them...Little ary loves her room which is clearly with out a ton of toys. We keep the girl's rooms pretty clear and have made one of the other rooms a nice play room that is super sweet and deliciously all about art, playing and movies. Stay tooned for that. I was able to pick up the cutest mid century sofa that is super petite for that space in TINSEL BRIGHT as well over the Summer. Another steal of $99. I could not say no and envision redoing it someday in a Erin Flett print...The Erin Flett DAISY THORN in Mango Orange  is Ary's new favorite and goes well in this sea of colors. B loves the same print but in the soft pink. which feels totally different in her little room. You get to see her space next week. e