Saturday, January 19, 2008

Hey there!

The latest for Yellow Canoe:
I made these on Thursday.

They are slowly being added to the shop over the weekend.

So, some of you are asking how things are going since I'm not "working for the man" any longer.
Well, things are going okay. I'm having a wonderful time being able to work on new creations more often. Unfortunately, I'm still going to have to get a job part time soon. Very soon. Some things are happening with our old apartment that need to be taken care of, which are out of my control, and the only way to take care of the situation is to have more money. I'm not too thrilled with it all, but I am really hoping to be able to find a fun job. If I found something fun, I wouldn't mind working! I think the reason I hated working so much before is because I've worked in food service for the last 7 years. It's really one of the worst jobs ever. Which is why I was SO gung-ho about being done with it! But If I find something fun, like a neat little local retail shop that sells design oriented goods, then I will be fine.

Fingers crossed.

We'll see what happens, though. I *might* be able to pull things off since Yellow Canoe wares are making an appearance in more and more retail stores across the U.S.

That's all for now, friends!

Look for another update late this coming week.



Monday, January 14, 2008

Yellow Canoe is all settled in

Things are going well here the new Yellow Canoe studio.

Madison is really great, although I haven't been able to see as much as I'd like because I've been busy unpacking and creating.

We've been here for 18 days already, which is hard to believe. But then I look at everything I've gotten accomplished {for Yellow Canoe...not with life in general, haha} and it feels a little more real.

Over the past few days I have been contacting various boutiques about getting my wares in their shop. A list of "places to buy" will be coming shortly. So far I've been accepted into 5 stores. I currently have my items in one shop out in N.Y. called Birch. With a name like that, you know it has to be marvelous.

I am shipping items out to Philadelphia this week as well to a nifty little place called Vix Emporium.

Missouri, Wisconsin and California are all on the list as well. Shop names to come shortly, once everything is set in stone.

I took about a week and a half to two weeks off from Yellow Canoe, during the move and all. Whenever I do this, I usually get pretty anxious about things and feel a bit frazzled by the end. Some people read to get away. Others take bubble baths and sip wine {which doesn't sound all that bad, actually.}. Personally, I find that creating is my escape.

So I was finally able to get back in the swing of things about a week and a half ago. But before I could do that, I had to set up my new studio:
{It's nice having a little gallery of my creations because people now realize that I'm serious when I tell them that I make things. Oh, and it makes packaging orders so much easier.}

I am in my studio every day from about 7:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. I usually start the day off by making some coffee and breakfast and then I visit all my favorite design blogs, replying to emails and etsy convos, stopping in at flickr, etc. This usually lasts until about 9.

And then I'm ready to start the day.

I'm finally able to make things in bulk which is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time, but couldn't because I was limited with my space. But now I have a nice long table that spans about 10 feet, so it makes for a nice assembly line.


And it also provides a big enough area for me to make my newest creations, which are rather large {for me, anyway}
Yellow Canoe is proud to present a new line...

Block printed coat and scarf racks:



{Top: Sticks and Stones. Orange version coming this afternoon.}
{Bottom: Circles}

And here are the rest of the things I've made in the past week:

4 green and white key racks:

1 of each of these:

6 heart key racks. 1 "eight" piece. 4 gate key racks.

1 mountain piece.


Most are still available in the shop.

There are a few more things but my fingers are freezing and I've been working on this post for an hour now. So more next time!