We were featured!

Today Etsy sent me this notice; "I've got some great news from the Etsy Marketing team. We've been working closely with Parenting.com on a special feature with your attached item from Etsy. We are happy to let you know this item has been selected and is appearing in a Parentingslideshow all about personalized nursery decor right here: http://www.parenting.com/gallery/Baby/Cute-Personalized-Nursery-Decor"  We are so excited that our custom name plate/coat rack was chosen to be featured! How cool is that! Please take a moment and check it out! There are 13 other shops that were chosen along with ours and they have some really cute things too! So, if you know someone who is looking for a unique shower gift, birthday gift, or just because gift, please pass on this web link! Here are a couple more similar signs we offer!

A Cute Couple

This cute little couple was designed as a custom order for a customer on our Etsy store (See our ad on the side bar). She wanted two pieces for her daughter’s room that would complement the colors she already had on the walls, as well as, pieces that would grow with her daughter through the years. These two pieces are sure to become beautiful heirlooms, that she can pass down to her children as well.

The bookshelf was a piece that I actually picked up at my local AC Moore. With a store coupon, it only cost us half the original amount. It has two deep buckets on the front to store toys also, which makes it a more versatile piece for a  child’s room. The color palette is one that I use often. I love these colors together. Brown is the new black, I think, and it’s the warmer choice of the two (but I still think black is a very powerful color). The browns, pinks, and greens, complement each other perfectly and the brown makes it not so "bubblegummish". This particular brown was actually off the “Oops!” rack at LOWES and I love the way it looks like melted chocolate. Whenever I open the can, it’s all I think of! It’s as if you want to drudge a juicy strawberry right through it! I really think the yummy feeling that it evokes transfers to the pieces I put it on. This shelf and end table are no different.

Mom also wanted “Believe, Create, Imagine” on her pieces, to remind her daughter to always think beyond herself. Although in recent years these words seem to appear everywhere, I still think they are very strong in meaning. They are three words I aspire to daily, and found it great that this mother wanted to pass that ideology onto her daughter.

A Peace Offering

Every piece I do has a story behind it, and this piece is know exception. The story of this piece started many years ago; about 30 years ago to be exact. I was a pretty good kid. I stayed out of trouble (for the most part, those of you who know me, ssshhhhh!) I had good grades, and I was friendly with everyone.

There was this little girl who rode my bus home every day and a lot of people picked on her. She was quiet and quirky, and for whatever reason everyone picked on her. I thought if everyone was doing it than so should I, after all I was cool too! So one day, I got on the bus and started in…a few minutes into it, she started to cry, and I felt awful. I sat down in my seat and vowed to never make fun of anyone again. It didn’t make me feel cool it made me feel like an idiot. I never apologized to her and life went on.

There were so many times over the years that I thought of her though. Anytime someone was bullied, or picked on, I thought of her and how sad she must have been and how cruel I had been. Especially when it was my own children who were being bullied, her plight took on a whole new meaning.

One day I was on Face Book and her name popped up, you know the statement, “So and so is friends with so and so, would you like to friend her too?” I felt so convicted to write her and apologize for my stupid 13 year old behavior, but was afraid she’d either tell me to screw off or think, “Who is this crazy person”, so I put it off. For weeks it weighed on my conscience, and after talking it over with a mutual friend (someone who knew us both) I decided to go for it. I needed to rid myself of this guilt, plus I wanted her to know that what I did was not right, it was not acceptable, and I took responsibility for my own stupidity. I wrote her a long letter, to which she did not respond, she just “friended” me and I whole heartedly accepted. I knew she had forgiven me and I felt humbled.

A month or so later she asked me if I would take her small kitchen telephone stand and turn it into something creative! Once again I was humbled, and honored that she would ask me to do a piece for her home.

So, I drafted up 2 separate drawings and she combined certain elements of both and together we created a beautiful focal point for her home.

I used a crackle finish on the sides, painted two wood embellishments to match the design in her kitchen tiles, and then glued them over the crackled finish. The kitchen and family room were in close proximity so we had to incorporate colors from both rooms to make it a cohesive piece that worked with both color palettes. She opted to have a uniformed stripe going down the front and I decided to have vines and berries adorn the legs.

I’m so delighted that this story had a happy ending. I’m so glad she could look past the elementary school antics and forgive me. And I am so pleased at the way this piece turned out.