just three more days!

in case you hadn't heard --- i'm having a moving (and birthday - now post-birthday) sale! it started last friday and it goes til the end of this friday. and then i move and i'll maybe be a little disorganized for a wee bit.
here's the mailer that i sent out:



(it's tiny text here, i know....)
if you didn't receive the mailer and you're thinking, "what, how did i not know about this?!?!" then perhaps you should click the box on the left hand column of this blog and join the mailing list! i promise not to bombard your inbox with a bunch of junk. i only send out big emails every few months, and really only if i've got something exciting to share - like a sale. wanna view the email? it's here.
anyways -- you've got three more days! pre-embroidered monogram towels are on sale, all in-stock kits are $1 off, select cross-stitch pieces are on sale (some have already gone, but there are still some really good ones, to be had!) and there are new goods in the shops that you might want to see. the sale is going on in both the etsy shop and the bigcartel shop.
please help spread the word if you can and if you'd like! i've got to move all of my stuff up three steep flights of steps, so anything that i can ship elsewhere before saturday would be a great help! (if you click here, you can twitter it or facebook it or forward it to a friend. hey thanks!)
thanks for your support! here's looking to many more exciting projects and products once i get settled into the new studio. i'll be sure to keep you updated with photos and stories! ciao 'til next week! (oh, and have a happy holiday weekend!)

clouds up (in the shops)

i got such wonderful feedback for my silver-lined clouds at renegade brooklyn this year and i heard over and over again, "you don't have these in your shop often, do you?" and it made me realize, darnit, i should be better at putting clouds in the shops!
so i did.

there's this lovely grouping - an instant collection:


and then, for those wanting to start out small there's this guy:


and this one:


and this one:


here's hoping that your weekend is full of blue skies and fluffy white clouds and pleasant surprises. xo.

sale time is coming!

in less than two weeks, i'm going to be moving into a beautiful new home and studio. (oh my goodness you don't even know how excited i am.) as i'm preparing for the move, i'm looking at all of my stuff, both personal and chez-sucre-chez, and i'm feeling a little overwhelmed, so i've decided it's time to have a sale, right?!

i'm going to be adding things and marking things down in the shops (both etsy and bigcartel) over the next few days/week, and then i'll send out a big email when it's all ready.


one category's all listed and ready to go, though, and i figured i should let you all know first, since these are one-of-a-kind (for the sale, anyway) items and when they go, they're gone; pre-embroidered towels are on sale! these are the towels that i've stitched up either as samples for my listing photos, or to send to magazines for photos, or as stock for craft fairs. they're all prewashed and dried and ironed and stitched and re-ironed and ready to go! click on over and see if your letter is there! (there are also a few surprises listed at the bottom.)

the zips

also new -- screen-printed zippy pouches!


i had them done up in two colors -- both with red printing but some on this gorgeous blue and some on my old favourite plain natural canvas. i'm thrilled with both versions!



i love how the ink is raised - making them look almost like actual stitches.


with these, too, matt did a great job with aligning the print. i gave him strips of fabric that i had precut from which i'd make the zippies. it was a breeze sewing them up because the prints were all in just the right place!


bravo!


these are up in the etsy shop. if you love them, go on and get one! (one customer at renegade brooklyn this past weekend was very excited to find that these fit a kindle with just a bit of room to spare. she'd found that most zippy pouches were too small - but these ones fit the bill, and they look a lot cooler than most of the kindle cases out there on the market.)

and, the week before renegade, i whipped up some other zippies and adorned them with some of the vintage trim from my slightly-too-out-of-control collection. several of them were sold at renegade, but these pretties are still with me. i'll be adding them to the shop as i get time:






happy wednesday!

something new

last week, i worked with friend of mine from grade school to come up with something new:


chez-sucre-chez designs screen-printed onto towels (and more, which you'll hear about later). yeehaw, this is exciting stuff!


i've been wanting to do this forever, but it's taken me until now to make it happen. and i'm so glad it's happened. i think i may be hooked. excited by the results of this first project, i want to print so many different designs onto so many things! i've got loads of ideas just waiting to happen!


i worked with matt woods, of printworld in west berlin, new jersey. he and i went to grade school together and i have two very specific memories of him from that time. one, in sixth grade he had the same vans that i found in a dead stock store (magic shoes in nyc -- sadly missed) and have been rocking the past oh, six or seven years. (these ones). we sat next to each other in mister keeler's class and he drew a picture of me poorly attempting to skateboard and wrote "kimboarding" under it. i think i got mad. and the other memory is from when i was the only girl who rode in a car-full of boys to his 3rd or 4th grade birthday party and all of the boys in that car were going on and on about how they went into the old abandoned houses in town and saw things like cats eyeballs and rats in there. of course i was saying, "eeeeeeew!" the whole time, which only egged them on. boys.
aaanyways, i knew that matt now has his own screen-printing shop so i looked him up and we worked together to make this happen. he did an amazing job. of couse, being little miss do-every-thing-by-hand-by-myself, i was nervous as hell handing over control and money to someone else to do something for the chez-sucre-chez line. but i am THRILLED with the results. matt paid such attention to detail from the way he lined up the prints to the type of ink and process he used. thank you, matt. (need screenprinting and you're in this area? look him up here.)


they're in the shop - check 'em out!



soon, too, i'll be showing you the results of our other screen-printing project!

gettin' squirrelly

it's a new kit, featuring - squirrels!


squirrels sharing nuts! yes!
these new kits will be going with me to renegade, so if you're in the area, be sure to stop by booth 44 (right near the entrance at driggs and union) and get one! for those of you who are not local to nyc, i should be getting them into the shop next week. if i don't, and you're eager to get one, email me and remind me to make that happen. (i've got a big project for next week, so i may be a little distracted...) have a great weekend, all!

for a white wedding (shower)

my best friend, dana b, is getting married later this summer and i couldnt be more excited about it! last weekend we had her shower and i made this little head thing for her:


unfortunately, the photo that i took of HER wearing it turned out totally blown out so that you couldn't see the head piece at all! but i assure you, she looked tres jolie.
the inspiration came from two places:
one, from the work of the fabulous sue eggen of giant dwarf. she makes just the prettiest adornments for the head and hair. i have one of her rosette fascinators and i absolutely love it. i had an opportunity to stop by sue's studio a few weeks ago when i was in philadelphia on the hunt for some nice felt and i was positively inspired by all the magic that was happening in there. you should check out her work and her shop.
the other inspiration for this piece came from this project on the purl bee. i've been thinking about those white felt flowers ever since i saw this project many moons ago. i printed the templates out months ago --the same time that i made the little rose barrettes -- but i hadn't gotten around to finding a reason to make those lovely white flowers until last week when i wanted to make something special for dana.
hooray! project realized!

home grown 'matos

oops! i promised this post for tuesday and here i am, a day late. i swear it's only because there's so much exciting work happening behind the scenes! i'm gonna try to be better about posting about it for the rest of this week as i get ready for renegade.
anywaaaays, here's that new crop that i was telling you about:


tomatoes! i made them as practice/prep/pattern-working for ANOTHER project that i'm not gonna tell you about quite yet... but i had so much fun with the first few that i made that i decided to make a few extra. they'll go with me this coming weekend to renegade to sit alongside the strawberries and the mushrooms; it'll be like the chez-sucre-chez farm stand!

home again

old design, new color:


this one's going with me to renegade brooklyn next weekend. new york locals, i hope to see you there!
and i hope you all have a good weekend THIS weekend. see you back here on tuesday with a new crop of cuteness!

do it for dad

as i mention in the etsy listing, finding a father's day gift for my dad has almost never been easy. i see all of the cards and gifts that feature ties and golf accessories and just have to shake my head. that stuff is definitely NOT for my dad... my dad's more into tools and beer and mowing his immaculate lawn. but the thing is, he already has all of the tools, lawn things, and bar things that a guy could possibly need (except a riding mower, but chez-sucre-chez isn't bringing in enough cash just yet to allow that purchase...) . so, yes, father's day gifts are tough for me.
a couple of years ago, however, i embroidered a simple cotton hankie for him. it was nothing big, certainly, but it went over well. we spent the day together as a family and i gave him a simple little gift that i made myself. that's better than a riding mower, right?!
so, now i've put together kits for YOU to make an embroidered hankie for YOUR papa. they're in the etsy shop.. see the listing there for more photos and info. thanks! (and, by the way, these will be going with me to renegade brooklyn next week - stop by and get one just in time for father's day, which is the following weekend!)

just for one day...

another custom order completed:


it's flying off in the mail today to cross the country. thank you, susan, for being such a joy to work with!