Some New Things

Oh boy, the weather yesterday was a little unexpected, no? It was here in southeastern Pennsylvania. It made the Art Star Holiday Market at Winterfest a bit of a challenge; apparently, we vendors all got an early enough start to be able to get there just fine, but by the time the event opened, it seems that most other folks were snowed in or had just decided to enjoy the snow day at home. So, we didn't get so much business, but we made the best of it! My little shop set-up was in a shipping container shared with Blackheart Letterpress and As the Crow Flies & Co, which was fortunate, because they were all really fine folk and we spent the day sipping hot boozy drinks, sharing conversation, and laughing good-humoredly at the foot upon foot of snow that fell and the absolute lack of shoppers. And then it took me three hours to drive home, when it's usually forty-five minutes. That was a little miserable. I almost missed Homeland!
Aaaanyways, the market is going on several more weekends this month, and I'll be there this coming Saturday, so if you want to check it out, plan on coming then! Hopefully, the weather will be better...

Most of my attention the past couple of weeks has been preparing for that market, and shipping out my orders just as quick as they come in, but here are some little things that have happened in between:

New colors of tea towels! You saw the orange back here in this post, and the violet I got in once last year and decided to restock it. The color is actually so much more pretty than I've been able to capture with my camera.
And now there's turquoise, too!


I've got some orders for monogram towels to stitch up today; I love sending these out into the world. They're truly one of my favourite things that I make and I stand behind them one-hundred percent. Using them in my own kitchen for years, I know they stand up wonderfully to use and abuse and I just think they make lovely gifts. Sorry, not trying to be a pushy sales woman, I sincerely do just love them!
But, um, if my sales pitch did get you thinking you'd like to give some for gifts this season, get those orders in! I'm super on-top-of-things this week, so current turn-around time is just two-four days, so there's plenty of time to have them delivered before Christmas! Direct link to listing here.

Other new little bits --
I have new retail packaging for my DIY x-stitch kits!

Orders from my shop and sales of my kits at craft fairs will still be in the little recycle-able plastic bags, but for retail shops, where shoppers are not seeing stitched samples of the kits, or even photos of them, I think they these new boxes and labels really make a difference. If you have any great shops in your area that sell hand-made goods and stuff like that, where you think my kits would be a good fit, would you be so kind as to email me the name and location of the shop? I'm working on getting them into more stores.

And, did you see my Doily kit in the gift guide of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living? Hooray hooray hooray! That is seriously my favourite publication so for me, to see one of my products on the printed pages of Living is kind of huge. I am sincerely grateful to the team over at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for all of the kindness and support they've shown chez-sucre-chez.

Since the publication, I've gotten several orders and a few emails asking if the Doily kit would be a good size to use as an ornament. Why yes! It is! The Doily kit/piece uses the same size hoop/frame as my ornament kits - perfect for tree trimming. Inspired by those emails, I styled the Doily all dressed up as an ornament:

(I took the pic with the Instagram camera app on my phone, I guess that's where that blur came from? Or maybe my lens was smudged... that was probably it, actually.)

In the Christmas spirit, I've been replenishing my supply of strawberry sachets for use as stocking stuffers:

Making these, working with the lavender, is soooo relaxing.

Oh! And I made up more carrots, so that I could fulfill some orders I'd gotten for my little plushie farm fruits/veggies sets, and while I was at it, I made some with little rattles in them! It was actually something a customer at Renegade Brooklyn had suggested, so I tried it out -- putting a little jingle-bell in with the stuffing, and the result is so sweet.

The rattles in this batch are really subtle - I chose the tiniest jingle bells, not wanting them to be a noisy racket, but I think once the stuffing is all around them, the sound really gets muffled. Next time, I'll go with slightly larger bells.

Also new -- I scored some sweet heart-print fabric and made bowl covers from it. They're my new favourite.


Time for me to jump off the computer! I've got lots of stitching to do and many little projects that I want to get to while we've still got this beautiful white light. Happy Monday to you all! xo.