I'm Back!

Hi there!

Wow I haven't been around for such a long time.

I got a new job and I've also been working on lots of consignment and wholesale orders. I'm finally finished with 4 different orders though, so I can start listing on Etsy again and hopefully keep up with the blog a little better.

Yellow Canoe wares are currently available here:

Birch Handmade- Catskills, NY
Vix Emporium- Philadelphia, PA
Moss- Savannah, Georgia
MoCo Market- Madison, Wisconsin
Cut + Paste, an awesome independent online shop (items should be available shortly)

So now I would like to get into a couple shops on the East coast then I'll be set!

{wholesale order for Cut + Paste}



What's coming for Yellow Canoe this spring:

+New vertical version of the coat racks (I'm excited about these!)
+More key racks

And for the summer:

+Block printed window panels

Also, Yellow Canoe will be featured Somerset Home 2008, which is a magazine. More info on that soon!

Thanks for stopping by, there will be more photos in the next post.

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.

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!

Shop the sale through the 24th here.

+++

So, something REALLY strange happened. The last post I made on here just kind of vanished. It was up for about 8 days or so, and I came last night to see if there were any new comments and it's gone. So odd. I checked everywhere for it, not like there are many places it could be. I never deleted it so who knows where it went. Blogger ate it, I guess.

{New Stuff}

Hello friends!

I haven't been able to create too many new things this past week...it's because of me being stupid and relisting items on etsy that I didn't have ready but could "easily" reproduce. That was dumb...of course, almost everything I sold in the past week was one of the things that still had to be made. It sounded good at the time, since it's all paint and block prints rather than one of a kind items...but I will NEVER do that again! SO time consuming, and honestly, I have a lot more fun coming out with new things rather than duplicates...kind of like these:

{Most are still available in the shop!}

Larva

Water Bug

Here's the big one I told you about last week! 8" x 18".

A mini one, for those who like mini things...

A new design, inspired by iron gates!

Things to come:

+My fabric has not arrived yet, so the pillows and other things will be pushed back.
+I hope to release another new design tomorrow, and one more next week. One is Moroccan inspired and the other one is Scandinavian inspired.
+Coat and scarf racks to come! I'm working on a custom one right now, I hope to show you by Monday!
+New illustration jewelry racks coming by Friday, hopefully.

+++

In other news:

I'm having a contest! Here are the details: Yellow Canoe has sold 62 items to date. How many items do you think will be sold by midnight EST, December 31? Leave your guess in the comment section, along with your email address if you'd like to play along! The person who guesses the exact number will win a mini key rack/jewelry holder in their choice of pattern and colors. (Mini racks measure about 4"x5.5").

PLEASE READ THE RULES:
Your guess must be submitted by Tuesday, December 18.
You must leave your email address.
Only one guess per person, please.
Read the comments before yours to make sure you don't guess the same number as somebody else!
Have fun!

++++++
Okay, that is all. Time to clean up my shipping station...WOW is it ever messy!
Take care, don't forget to guess a number!

:: New Stuff ::

I've been busy here at Yellow Canoe...
Many of the pieces are still available.

A small key rack, for those of you who like all things small:

Custom order:Block printed journal:

Small piece...

Flip books...

A small key/jewelry rack:

Lookout for new things to come by mid-January:

+ Larger pieces. I'm currently working on 2 that measure 8" x 18".
+ Coat and scarf racks- I'm looking forward to these!
+ Block printed pillows.
+ Affordable silk screen prints.

::21 more days until Yellow Canoe relocates to Madison, WI::

Fabrics

Thanks for all of your votes on flickr, through emails, and on the blog about fabric colors.

These are the 5 fabrics I chose to start with for the upcoming block printed pillows.

I hope to release my first design by December 11, but no promises because I'm moving to a new city on December 26 so I've been a busy bee.

I'm also working on a consignment order to be shipped out to Birch in New York.

19 Packages are being shipped today as well, so if you've purchased anything within the past week, you will see it soon.

Today is the day...the big day...that I tell me "real job" that I'm leaving in two weeks.

Two short weeks until I am self employed.

Thank you everybody who helped make this possible, I couldn't do it without you.

Yellow Canoe featured on CasaSugar!

I just got a convo on etsy telling me that I'm featured on CasaSugar! How cool!

Read the full article here.

New items coming soon!

As some of you may know, the next "big thing" for Yellow Canoe is going to be block printed pillows, place mats, table runners and eventually curtains.

Right now I'm trying to get opinions on fabric colors.The above image is a screen shot of some of my favorites.

I'm really digging the "cappuccino" color and the "majolica blue" color. These 2 are definite.

The cappuccino color is going to be block printed in yellow ink.
The majolica blue is going to feature 2 different colors- white and light blue.

Any thoughts or suggestions are very much appreciated! I would like to order 3-5 colors by Friday in anticipation of releasing new products between December 6-9.

Thanks for your comments, I will take all of them into much consideration!

Lots of new stuff!

I've been quite busy getting Yellow Canoe ready for the holiday season.

Most of my days are filled with new creations, although I did take some time off after a recent show I did. (The show went terribly...not many buyers at all. I only sold one thing, but I suppose that's alright. It's the experience that counts, right?)

Anway, I've been meaning to tell you for over a week now...I'm sure you've all heard about the lovely Sia from Sia Grafica. If you haven't you should check out her blog, she has some really great stuff! It's one of those "eye candy" blogs. Well, she was kind enough to interview me and post it on her blog! It's mainly about Yellow Canoe, but there are some other questions as well. I love the way she put it together with all the photos. I told her to feel free to use any images she wanted, and she really went to town! (Thanks, Sia!). So since I didn't tell you when I should have, you all missed out on the 10% off discount that was going on. I feel badly about it so I'm still offering the discount until November 27th. BUT in order to get the new price, PLEASE tell me that you read about it on my Yellow Canoe blog in the "message to seller" box via Etsy, and then wait for a revised invoice. **This offer excludes shipping**.

Alright, onto item photos...

So I told you I've been busy, here is about half of what I've made since I finished my little break last week...

Most are still available.

These are part of the new "Raw" series. This is a shot before I added the hooks...
They are $20 each; much more affordable than the other jewelry/key racks.

The only illustrated key rack I've made yet...I plan on making more like this, though!

This was a custom order.

I don't have much green in my shop, so I added a couple green things last week...

Okay. That's all for now. You can go visit my Operation Paper Cut blog to see what else is going on around here!

What I've been up to...

These are just a few things I've made over the past 3 weeks...

About half have sold as of today, but many are still available in the shop.