treasury love

my monogram tea towels have been getting some love lately on the etsy treasury lists - they've been in two in as many days!

they were here:


and here:




hooray! i feel good about these towels getting into holiday treasuries -- and i feel good about people who are shopping and ordering already; it makes the season so much easier for me, too!
i've also been contacted by etsy about a potential feature of these towels on HGTV, or the HGTV website... not sure if i'll hear more or not, but if i do, you'll be sure to know!

guided by voices

i finished up and shipped this piece the other day:


phew! that one was epic. at 8 x 10, i think it's one of the most involved pieces i've done to date; i'm quite happy with it. it was stitched up as a custom order for an anniversary gift. the lyrics are from a guided by voices song (i think!) and donna, the thoughtful wife, and i worked together to come up with the layout/design. hooray!

waiting to be framed

the piece on the left was inspired by my recent cross country trip, where i even drove through or past the hometown of mister woody guthrie (in okemah oklahoma). i was so excited when i thought of the idea that i was nearly crying. (but then, this happens to me a lot.) i played with a lot of different fonts and styles an ultimately, settled on this one... i like how it looks very print-inspired. (i dont like how it took days longer than making a print would have...) the font has a westernish, old-timey print look to it, i think; like work that came out of hatch show print, in nashville, which i didnt get to visit on this trip, as they were closed at 8am on sunday, when we were there. i've been before though and certainly recommend a visit if you find yourself in the area -- very inspiring.
then the red one is a little play with new borders, and the dylan quote is one i've been meaning to stitch up for ages (thanks to karen for the encouragement on that one).

halloween as the bat queen

skull muffins/misfits cakes were made:


i used this recipe; (it was PERFECT) and then after they were baked injected them with pumpkin cream cheese filling! SUper good.

mini pumpkin was carved:


and bat queen costume was successfully put together:


it was inspired by this image, which was thoughtfully sent to me by someone who knows my love of bats:


i cut a bunch of bat shapes out of felt, sewed floral wire into the tops of the wings, and basted them all over my $30 rodarte for target dress.


then i made myself a set of wings, put some bats in my hair and happily flew to the LACMA muse costume ball with great friends charles and hana. such a good halloween!

here

holy moley it's been a while since i've updated... sorry!
i took a real actual no-work vacation (it was fantastic!) and then it took me a few days to get back into the swing of things, and then i just got so busy that i couldn't take time to post. but lots of exciting things happened in those two weeks -- mentions on apartment therapy and daily candy, really cool custom jobs that i finished and sent out, upcoming shows, new work - i've got lots to show and tell and will do that sooner than later, i promise! stay tuned...

i get around

check out the photo below:


see anything familiar? this was on page 121 of october's good housekeeping magazine. one of my customers with a keen eye spotted the chez-sucre-chez card in the photo and wrote to tell me about it. when she wrote that she "noticed one of your tags on a lamp that they turned into a bulletin board," i didn't quite know what she meant. but then later that day i happened to have been near a barnes and noble shop, so i popped in and checked it out and then snapped the above photo. pretty cool, right? thanks for the heads up, kelly!
and now i'm off to pack up my car for a cross-country road trip! i probably won't be posting anything for another week or so but i will be taking plenty of photos and i will be checking in on the twitter from time to time. got any advice or recommendations for places to see/things to do? leaving tomorrow and still unsure of whether we're going to take the straight-across or the southern route -- i'm up for suggestions! leave comments or send me an email if you've got any tips for me! xo-kj

there is a light...

another custom-designed piece:


oh lala - i like it.
while i was working on it, i kept seeing it like one owl was telling the other owl, "take me out tonight (dammit)"

home of a different color

another custom-stitched piece ready to go out the door:


this was was stitched up for nicole, who's surprising her newly-married sister for her birthday. the blue was one of the colors that her sister used for her wedding and "home" was the last song of the night at the reception. what a thoughtful sis, eh?

going through customs

i've had a lot of custom orders lately, and i've spent the past couple of weeks busting through them.
here's one that i finished up this weekend:


not my usual color choice (it's pink with dark pink stitching), but i think it turned out well. i like how a custom request gets me to think outside of my comfort zone (although i do admit that i'm too much of an aesthetics snob to stray too far....).

jumble mumble

the letters are starting to pile up again:


nope. mosh wasnt the word i was trying to spell. but if you know my themes, you'll easily spot one of the intended words.
many more to go!

whoa, that's boss.*

i got an email today requesting that i stitch up another "show a little faith, there's magic in the night" piece.


this part of the story doesnt shock me too much -- i had just stitched up and mailed another one by request last week; that person had seen the original that i had done and posted on etsy (it sold pretty quickly...) and just asked me to make another.
the cool part of this story is that the woman making the request said that she saw the piece on a BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WEB (fan) SITE! hahahahahhaha! holy crap. i didnt know such things existed. but then i never really thought about it. then i checked and found the link (here)-- it's totally rad!


i love the way my piece looks up there on that site! and i love the title of the site! and then, when i clicked on it, i see that lots of people "like" and reblogged it. super sweet. (see for yourself here.) i wish i understood tumblr -- then maybe i could "like" it too....

*("that's boss" is a saying my old pal roger rudd used to say a lot... he probably still does say it a lot. that roger rudd is a pretty swell fellow. he once shipped a bicycle all the way from seattle washington to my home in pennsylvania for me - because he saw it and knew i would love it and that it was actually small enough for little miss short legs to ride properly. what a guy!)

foraging for mushrooms...

... at terrain.


after the success of our collaboration on my strawberry sachets, my contacts at terrain proposed that i develop a mushroom sachet for the fall season. the site on which terrain, the shop (and cafe, and landscaping services) sits was once an old mushroom farm/house. pretty cool, eh? see photos of the beautiful site here and, if you're in the area, you really should visit. if you're not in the area, you can see my mushrooms in the shop here (but i think they look a lot better in person...).

oh california

i've had several orders for this piece in the past couple of weeks:


interesting, interesting indeed i do believe.
anyways - i really liked this color request. (good idea, pollie!)
and now i am sooooo close to being caught up on all my orders and ready to jump into a new piece or two. hopefully i'll be posting again sooner than later...

looking back, looking forward

remember these?




i've been thinking of them often lately. i think it may be time to start stitching up letters again to make up some more photos like this...
sorry for the lack of posts lately. it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and since i've been back on the west coast, i've just been stitching my little fingers off to catch up with the orders i've gotten since the design sponge post. phew!
also, though, i read (devoured) "extrememly loud and incredibly close" on my way back west and in the two or three days afterwards and it's kinda wrecked me! i couldnt put it down until it was finished and now it's weighing heavy in my heart... i love a story that can touch me like that but dang, i wish my heart werent so easily affected.
it's a bright and sunny day here in los angeles, though, and i'm feeling ready to get back into the normal swing of productivity!

family time

stitched this up for my sister and her husband:


it's their motto.

then four year old bella begged me to teach her to stitch -- all i did was thread the needle and show her how to go through the holes - she did this all by herself:


so awesome!

her drawings blow my mind.
these are the ones she's done on the chalkboard at the end of the hall over the past two days. the first is nani (my mama):


and this one is grand-nan (my grandmother):


wow.

unalone

this one just sold:


i stitched it up last week or so and didnt get around to posting it. i had seen the quote/line on some blog (i cannot for the life of me remember which; i'm sorry!) a few weeks back and it stuck in my head. i thought it'd make a good little piece. i'm happy with the colors -- so loving that platinum colored aida cloth these days! anyways, now it's off on its way to missouri; hooray!

piggies at market

last week i sent another batch of piggy totes to terrain and now they're being sold both at the brick and mortar store and online. (there they are, on the front page of the shop site!)


hooray! (want one? get it here.)
mmm, that photo of the tomatoes is making me super-psyched for my trip back east in just a few days...

soaking it up

super huge thanks to design*sponge for posting about my new work yesterday!


i woke up at 7am to find my phone a-buzzing with emails and orders and tweets and immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the computer to find all the hubub. wow! it's a great little boost in busy-ness; i've got lots of stitching to do! see the full post here.

max and the bears

i've just completed my first specially commissioned piece for a nursery:


i'm thrilled with it.
thank you, stacy and devin, for giving me the opportunity to stitch up such a sweet piece. they came up with the concept, (a little tweak on a line from "where the wild things are") and we worked together on the colors. this photo is pretty dark -- the stitching is blueish grey on a background of a light buttery yellowy ivory.
so sweet. i should have waited to get better photos, but i was just so excited to share this one that i couldnt wait for better light!

a rare moment of proud contentment

i must admit, i am feeling REALLY good about my etsy shop right about now. they've changed the shop layout/design a bit and i've been working my behind off to get new items stitched up, photographed, and listed in the shop. this is the first in a long time that i can say i'm pretty darned psyched on how my shop is looking. check it out -- it looks like two etsy treasuries:



so, if i can just figure out how to get back to getting noticed -- i havent done any PR/marketing work in a looooong time, i may be starting to get chez-sucre-chez back on track!
please take a look for yourself (here), and if you've got any advice for getting my shop some more traffic (or, well, say, you want to blog about it or something like that...) please let me know!

show a little faith...

...there's magic in the night.


my good friend dana had this as her quote or whatever on myspace or facebook for the longest time - and i loved that. then, the other night as i was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, this song (thunder road, bruce springsteen - just in case you didnt know...) came on the radio and i got it in my head that i needed to stitch it. so i came right home and plotted out the pattern. and then stitched it. ta-da! i did it more just kinda for the heck of it, rather than as something that i wanted for myself. so i went ahead and listed it in my etsy shop. if you want it - go on and get it!

holla day

it's a happy day when i find that chez-sucre-chez has gotten a sweet little write up somewhere on the web, like this one, from the folks over at holiday matinee:


they were there at renegade L.A. this year and their booth caught my eye - on sunday morning as i was walking back in to set up. there was nothing even in their booth at that time but a single banner, or flyer, or some signage that said something awesome and amazing and positive (something along the lines of "if you see something cool, tell someone RIGHT NOW"). later in the day i met dave and got to hear about what they do; i was quite impressed with their wit and their smarts and their mission to promote good things that good people are doing. i think you should check them out - click here to do that. and while you are there, you can see the full post {and give it a little facebook thumbs up, and twitter it - please!} here.)

things in my kitchen...

...that make me happy:


my nesting doll measuring cups - a very thoughtful gift from a couple of very sweet friends (they're made by fred and friends - i've talked about products made by that company before here), and my cut-by-me papercut from a pattern sold by elsita (see the other one i did and find link to the item in her shop here.)
and today, figs and lavender that i harvested from the yard this morning:


also in my kitchen making me happy: my dutch heart tea towel by sara smedley, my crocheted pot holder by emily sparks (which i bought at renegade L.A.), and my borrowed kitchen aid mixer (mine didnt make the trip out here...) i attempted to get all three of those last items into a photo, but there was just too much going on in that shot and i couldnt get it right....
i hope you are all having a happy day. xo.

kind of like a fred perry, for your wall

here's a grouping of new pieces:


well, the white one isnt so new -- i did that one a few weeks ago...


but the other two are. i stitched them up over the past couple of days.
i had seen these old wreath-like motifs in antique pattern books. usually they have a monogram or word in the middle of them, but i was interested in doing them on their own. they definitely remind me of the fred perry logo - and i like that; makes me think of the days that my friends and i all rocked those shirts and looked so dang cool.



all three are listed in my etsy shop!

new work (and some not so new...)

i'm working on photographing and listing my newest work today. this is the part of the process that always seems to take the longest and to be the most frustrating... hopefully i'll be sharing the links sooner than later!

mogollon love

this latest piece was inspired by my good friends francisco and monica, the amazing creative genius behind nyc design company mogollon. see the inspiration here.

happy morning

breakfast is served:


i am so loving the fig tree outside my door.
(and this little tulip plate i scored at a thrift shop!)

mushaboom

you may remember a hint of this project a way several months back; it's been a long time in the making but today, i sent 36 pretty pink mushrooms out in the mail on their way to terrain.


making them was kinda fun - as it was an item that i had never done before. i enjoyed the challenge of figuring out a pattern, and then putting the idea together and playing with fabrics in different prints and colors. (this post here has the original prototypes)
fulfilling the order was a bit more labor-intensive than i had anticipated, but i enjoyed working out the process and systems to make the job easier. (i felt like a chemist using my specially purchased funnel to fill the stalks with a lavender (for scent) and rice (for weight) mixture.


the idea was theirs, the design, construction, and labeling mine, and they are orchestrating the beautiful packaging.


i can't wait to see how these look in the shop! i just sent them out, so it may still take a couple of weeks, but if you happen to stop in sometime after that, keep an eye out for these little guys and let me know what you think!

caught it

last night i happened to have logged on to etsy and saw one of my items on the front page:


hooray! i never catch that stuff when it happens -- it's pretty cool.

making the cut

this is making me really excited:


i bought myself a little present from one of my very favourite etsy shops. elsita makes some of the most beautiful papercuts i have ever seen. i love her series based on classic fairy tales and when i saw that she put out a do-it-yourself package of four little papercut patterns that includes peter rabbit, little red riding hood, alice and wonderland and pinoccio, i was psyched. i'd always wanted to buy one of her pieces, but now to be able to purchase her designs and do it myself?! brilliant!

red and blue and white and butterflies and heart and arrows

i like this little collection together:


the reel around the fountain piece is being mailed out tomorrow morning, but the rest are mine for now....
you'll be seeing more of those hearts and arrows in the coming weeks...
have a good weekend, all! i'm heading down to huntington beach to see some surfing. (what is california doing to me?!)

piggy goes to market

in yet ANOTHER way.
my butcher-cut piggy totes are now being sold at terrain.


hooray!
i brought a few of these with me to LA renegade and heard over and over again, "oh, that's so mean." i know. hey - i've been vegetarian for nearly twenty years. and i just finished reading jonathan safran foer's "eating animals" oh man, it's brutal; nothing i didnt know but really, people -- factory farming is bad news - really bad news. dont eat that stuff. but go on ahead and buy the tote. it's a conversation starter; get people thinking and talking about where our food comes from.