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New soap wrappings, kind of French, sort of New but tried & true. We have a lot of soap wrapping go on around here and will continue with the wrapping and manufacturing until the holidays. It's production time at Bittersweet! Do you like the new wrap?
Tones of sandy ecru wrapped soap, along with candy colored hues everywhere you look, corner to corner. Fennel & Lavender, my favorite Nouveau Savon...
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
I'll be using this chalk board at the French Market. It reads, "Welcome to Bittersweet."
The studio is full of frocks and sassafras. I am absolutely mad about this fabric from Sandi Henderson, just wild mad! It reminds me of a fabric I remember seeing at my Grandmother's house, I believe on a vintage tablecloth.
Sorry about the cloudy pictures. The lighting in the studio is about the worst it gets.
Soap wrapping day, all day, whew!
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
Iv'e been on the lookout for a display piece to house my business cards and postcards. This is what I found on a recent vintage market search. The old wooden shoe form has slits that are perfect for holding my paper items, and at $2 bucks how could I resist?
We are experiencing another round of super nice weather. Usually it's hot and humid, it's not, once again, cool and Fall like, loving that! Rain is coming and I'm going to sew some Frocks..
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
I want to show you the pretty little skirt I made for this table. The table, another personal shopper piece from my friend Kim, she picked it up at a garage sale for ten bucks. I painted it antique white and skirted it with muslin and vintage trim. The table will fit right in with the rest of my merchandising items and house the most important sales tool, my cash register!
I stapled the muslin onto the wood table, making pleats every two inches or so, and then hot glued the vintage trim to cover the staples. I'm quite pleased with the results and now I have storage space under the table, yeah!
While taking a picture of the newly skirted table I couldn't help but share this corner of the studio with you. After sitting the dress form in front of the old wooden bench that sits in the studio, I noticed the red & pink and how much I really like the two colors together, obviously from the picture above you can tell that, right?
I'm going to hang the white unbrella's from the rafters at the September Market Show, "Visions of Paris."
Still have those wonderful flea market finds to show & tell with you, stay tuned, you won't want to miss my latest display item. The new display thingy, can't tell you what it is! It's tried and true, very brocante indeed!
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than none)
I began picking the hydrangeas from the garden. Their colorful dried blooms have more color than I've ever seen before from years past cuttings. Shades of rich mauve, sage greens, star-flower blues, pink violets, and creams. Those colored hydrangea blooms inspired me to choose the same colors while preparing for the upcoming show.
I'm preparing my mock displays so that I can plan ahead for the shows. Since I make everything that I sell, placement planning is a must, otherwise I'll not have enough room for merchandising. I'm such a obsessive compulsive stickler when it comes to merchandising my hand-mad-es's , love doing it! It's fun to play around with these displays.
That picture shows the new display piece my friend Kim picked up for me. Isn't it the perfect display piece? It has vintage wallpaper lining the back of the shelves.
I have lot's of new stuff to share, like, the table I painted and skirted with muslin and vintage trim, a couple of really cool flea market finds, and some new creations that will be making their debut at the upcoming shows.
Order shipped and it feels as though I'm catching up. Just in time for the holiday manufacturing rush and all the deadlines!
Cookbook, almost finished, only twenty more recipes to add and then off to the publisher, just in time!
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
Our weather is like heaven, perfect! Is the answer really blowin in the wind? I sometime can relate to that old Peter, Paul, and Mary folk song. I turned off the air and opened the windows and I'm totally digging the north wind that's blowing on me as I type. A little taste of what's to come and it's getting me excited!
I'm excited about the new cookbook, and the big show, and the new soap I made today,,,,calling it "Lavender Forest", and these because they will soon be in demand at Bittersweet, heat pillows. You remember don't you? I'm making some with flannel jackets so they will be warm and toasty to snuggle with on a cool Autumn night while watching Food Network and checking out new recipes, I think Fall was partly created for discovering new soul satisfying comfort recipes. Of course you will get a really, really good selection of those favorite soul comfort food recipes in that book I'm publishing.
I am also loving the new fabrics that are available nowadays, yep, love those too!
My brother is building me a new computer and I'll be getting it sometime next week. I can't tell you what a lucky girl I am to have such a smart brother that knows how to build a computer. Yes, I can, I'm LUCKY! THANKS MARK!!! He owns his own shop too! Since I have began the design work and building web sites I need an upgrade, the PC, yep PC! It's six years old, time to get a new one! I dread the part of transferring all my data over the new computer, but it has to be done, doesn't it?
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
Soooo busy around here lately. Back to school day today, then I've been wrapping soap most of the day since 6 a.m. and really tired of wrapping but thankful that I have soap to wrap and that my little business has been able to sustain during these difficult economic times. I've been painting too.
My friend Kim picked me up a couple of display pieces for the upcoming shows and they got a fresh coat of antique white. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a friend that looks out for pieces of furniture she knows you would like and then stores the pieces in her garage for an extended period of time. Thank you Kim!
The house looks like a mad crafter lives here. Aprons hanging in the living room as well as fabric draped over furniture, patterns everywhere, dining room, same I'm afraid, and the kitchen counter is filled with bit's & piece's of soap wrappings that cover the entire space. Production time at Bittersweet! The Studio, well, we won't even go there!! That's why I'm upstairs..
Anyway..
I wanted to show you a picture of the twig ladder Lennis built for me. I love it! It's not a very good picture because I took it during the rain storm, but I think you can get a pretty good look. I told Lennis he should make these and sell them. They are so cool and talk about GREEN, creating a display piece like this doesn't get any greener!
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
I've been playing around with new soap packaging. The Fennel & Lavender soap fits right in these cowgirl designed labels. This cowgirl is a shoot em up real wild west cowgirl! She's not afraid of anything! She's still gentle and sweet, and soft around the edges just the way a real cowgirl should be.
These prototypes will be tested at the upcoming show.
Oh I can't wait to show you the twig ladder Lennis built for me to display my Sassafras Aprons.
I bet that cowgirl likes sassafras root-beer!
Enjoy caring and sharing days.
Happily,
Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)
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