Teal water, orange sand, and purple-trunked trees kept us company last weekend at Lake Shasta, just a three-hour drive north of Cathy Heck Studio West.  We left early to beat the traffic and made it to Shasta Dam by lunchtime on a clear 80 degree day for some impromptu Jack Links jerky and ginger ale.  Then, staking a claim at a nearby campsite, Fishing for Dummies in hand, we spent the day casting and re-casting every neon worm and 1980s-looking earring-like object in the all-inclusive bass fishing tackle box that came with my husband’s birthday fishing pole.  It is possible that more weight in nightcrawlers entered the lake than exited in fish form, but it was still fun, and relaxing, and out of the ordinary.

Here’s a sketch of the left-side of our site, unfortunately executed with only the brushes that could fit inside the mouth of a soda can, since I forgot to bring a container for water.  All the new luxuriously-wide wash brushes were feeling parched and neglected…

I wish I could share more about the city of Atlanta with you, but we really only saw it from the inside of the Rube Goldberg-like halls and tunnels that connected the complex that is AmericasMart.  So, here’s a view of Atlanta, Georgia from the perspective of two artists inside trade show land.

Due to record snowfalls and closed airports, there was some worry among the gift companies that the weather might affect sales, but by the time we arrived, sales were soaring, the halls were packed and buzzing, and showrooms were selling until midnight!  Little Robot, who is the main character of our new Baby Bots collection, was delighted to be featured in the front window of C.R. Gibson.  Normally, I would have worried that he would get a big head, but fortunately, he is humble and spent most of his time playing with puppybot and birdywhisk … and wooing customers.

Photos clockwise from below left:  1. Cathy with Sherrie McCulloch, Director of Infant Products for C.R. Gibson, who made it possible for our three new collections to make it from drawing board to showroom in a few short months. 2. Close-up of the front of the new baby book (you can place your baby’s name in the nifty nameplate).  3. The keepsake box with alphabet cards for personalizing.  We love this product.  4. Cathy signing brag books. It was fun to meet so many retailers, many of whom were moms and grandmoms with their own babies to brag about!  5. The Baby Bot Ceramic Coin Bank, which was definitely the hit product of the day. We just wanted to fill his tummy with coins and give him a hug.

Little Robot’s favorite part of Atlanta was that he was joining two more collections born in the studio, Alex and Emma.  Ellen masterminded these two great groups and the final pieces were gorgeous.  They appeal to parents who enjoy both contemporary and traditional styles. Here is Ellen in front of our twin collections.

The Alex and Emma products are printed on cloth with embroidered embellishments and ribbons, which add to the keepsake quality of the collections.  Alex, for boys, features traditional patterns in crisp blues and whites with accents of navy.  Dimensional insets add a high-end feel to the group, which we like to describe as handsome (in a baby way).  Below are photos showing the baby book and its interior, and two of our favorite pieces, the natty brag book and precious embroidered frame.

Emma, the sister collection, is all about tradition – with a twist.  The colors for this group bloom in preppy pinks and greens.  We wanted it to feel fresh and clean and fun, and it really does. Below is a photo of the book with its sweet interior, as well as photos of two of our favorite Emma pieces: the embroidered frame and the very popular photo clutch, which was a favorite new item at the show.

So, that is what we saw in Atlanta, Georgia.  If you are welcoming some precious new babies to your families, we hope you see some perfect ways to celebrate them in our new collections. We have also created coordinating nursery art for all three new collections (which you can find right here) so that you can spell your babies’ names or place their monograms right above their cribs.  It’s never too early to start learning the ABCs, especially when A is for An Adorable new baby.

Next stop on the magical baby collection tour:  Dallas Gift Show.  We’ll be at the C.R. Gibson showroom signing books on Friday, January 21 at 1:00.  See you there!

Not long after the Surtex extravaganza in the big city, my sweet husband and I took a four-day road trip from the Bay Area to Seattle and back.  This prophetic fortune from our favorite restaurant was discookied the day before, so we were feeling good about the adventures ahead – I don’t think we even checked the weather forecast until right before our 6am departure time.  “A SOGGY, YET ENJOYABLE VACATION IS AWAITING YOU” might have been more accurate…

Here are some pictures from the day we drove the scenic Columbia River Gorge.  It’s a segment of Historic Route US 30 that runs alongside I 84 and is dotted with waterfalls and waterspouts and water oozing from rock walls and blooming lime-green saturated sculptures of moss.  The first few are amazing, but there are so many that like watching fireworks, after awhile, we started getting picky; a brown sign would announce another approaching fall and we would crane our necks to see if this one was majestic enough to park the car.  Here is one for which we stopped to climb closer (left) and me (right), getting mist-soaked in an effort to record the moment, which lasted for about as long as it took to snap the picture.

Here are a few products that we put together for Surtex that would have come in very handy on the trip.

I guess that if you decide to live on the Northwest Coast, you need a great umbrella, impermeable shoes, and a bottle of Vitamin D.  The benefit is so much green that you feel if there were such a thing as Minpins, this is where they would live.

If you find yourself walking home through Chelsea in New York City after a long day of work, (like we did after our first day of Surtex) and you are certain that you deserve a little reward, (like we did) I would like to recommend Cocoa V on Ninth Avenue.  The only issue might be the length of time it could take to choose just one little something chocolate.  Neat and tidy rows of beautiful chocolates are displayed like jewelry, so making a decision seems a little bit like choosing between the diamond ring on the right and the sapphire bracelet to the left.

Some of the delicacies are so pretty that one might be hesitant to actually eat them, so we chose the Pretzel Clusters … not that they were ugly, they just weren’t quite as intricately decorated.  (Due to their deliciousness they are not pictured above.)  They were excellent–the perfect blend of sweet and salty.
Not only are the chocolates lovely, the staff is lovelier.  And if you need an excuse to appease your guilt for eating sweets too close to dinnertime, you can be content knowing that Cocoa V is the first 100% vegan, organic and fair trade chocolate shoppe in the city!  And, if reading this little post is making your mouth water for chocolate, you can also buy these gorgeous confectioneries from their online shoppe here.
Here I am below in my chocolate coat choosing a chocolate snack. Bon Chocolat!

On 4th street, not far from some excellent and eclectic shopping, past a few pothole-ridden intersections and a warehouse or two, shines this little beauty of a storefront: Color and Loom.  A persistent ten-foot rainbow in the concrete jungle, this family-owned Berkeley find is fun to pass when driving through some dreary neighborhoods and has a lot to offer if you are interested in customizing your home textiles.

Inside, ladders line the walls with samples of hand woven and embroidered fabrics – designed by the couple who own the shop, Laura and Kiran Singh, and manufactured in India.  Both partners have backgrounds in textile design and weaving and the sample fabrics are pleasingly displayed.

Though there is not much to buy if you are not interested in getting new drapes or a duvet, it’s still fun to look around thinking, “If I had an amazingly cool house with which I could do anything, which of these…”

In her early years, my sister Jules had an incredible gift for finding those tiny little hidden objects in the pages of I Spy books. I was more of a Little House on the Prairie girl myself, but I remember spending many hours with Jules looking through those spreads of things – so many things – and wondering, where on earth did the people who made these books find all that stuff?

Well, they definitely could have found them at Creative Reuse a Goodwill-like donation and purchase shop on Telegraph in Oakland, where you can donate your old art materials and get a great deal on…well…stuff.

Yes, boxes and baskets and bins of shells, corks, bottles, crayons, caps, candles, stoppers, beakers, and anything else that might have been donated by someone who – for whatever reason – had a few extra boxes of, say, cards that say “this product is organic.”

I went down there hoping to pick up a stockpile of backing cardboard, but I think that Creative Reuse is a place you have to go without any hopes or expectations – like a garage sale, really.  Because you may not find your cardboard, but you will certainly stand there wondering, “What could I possibly do with ten pounds of corks and an old cassette box?”

Any ideas?

I promised I’d get back to it, so here’s my ode to Stonemountain & Daughter, the cozy little fabric store on Shattuck in Berkeley, CA.

Nowhere else can you find an entire shelf of cotton organized by the theme “mushrooms.”  Though it may not have the quantity of your local Jo-Ann store, Stonemountain and Daughter carries a tastefully selected assortment of high-quality fabrics with a sophisticated (and yet still fun) design sense. You can find all the Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, and Moda, as well as Japanese fabrics, batiks, and African fabric. This is definitely the place to be if you are in search of quilting materials. It is also the place to go if you are interested in taking a sewing or knitting class, as they have group classes scheduled frequently in their upstairs sewing/sale room.

Worth stopping by, even if you just want to be inspired by the color-coded bolts and yards of patterns.

In the Bay Area?  Need some Fresh Opo, Bitter Melon, or Sinqua? Never heard of Opo, Bitter Melon, or Sinqua?  It matters not! Pacific East Mall has everything the East Asian ex-pat might need to make a dinner of comfort food, and everything the corn-fed American might need to liven up the palate (or, in our case, to make enough sushi for ten people for the price of two.)

This enormous mall in the heart of the east bay has restaurants with menus written only in Chinese, a tea shop, a Japanese candy shop, a manga shop, and several herbal pharmacies. The grocery store inside, Ranch 99 Market, sells a lot of vegetables I have yet to try, preserved duck eggs, bean paste bread rolls, but no coffee (lots of tea though). Definitely worth the trip if you are in the mood to spice things up in the kitchen, or just want to stock up on moon cakes.

During our “vacation” to Austin, we finally had a chance to try out some of the great trailer food popping up in town … mostly south of the river.  Our first stop was Mighty Cone, on South Congress which was mighty good!  I had been hearing about it for awhile, because it is run by Hudson’s on the Bend, a great restaurant way out near Lake Travis.  Much closer, and much cheaper, this little trailer offers a short and sweet menu with the same interesting blend of flavors.  The cone of choice was the Hot ‘N Crunchy Chicken Avocado cone. The chicken and avocado are covered in a crunchy shell of almonds-sesame seeds-corn flakes-chili flakes-and-sugar, wrapped in a flour tortilla and then topped with mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce.  That’s a lot of flavor in one cone!  It was lip-smacking good!

The picnic area provides shady umbrellas and the tables have special cone holders built in.  Very handy.  Above right: this little pistol-packin’ mama just happened to stroll by our table with her pretend six-shooter ready to take on thievin’ outlaws.  We were definitely in Texas.

I BARTed into the city a few days ago to meet with some artists who are participating in the San Francisco Open Studios with me this month, and I arrived just early enough to make a quick stop by Britex Frabrics – a four-story color-coded Mecca for San Francisco’s textilephiles. The place was packed at 5pm, and the people were nearly as colorful as the bolts; I saw two blue goatees. How often can I say that? and I live in Berkeley…

Here are a few saturated images for you: (from left clockwise) the shelved solids on the first floor of Britex, some silks on sale, a window display on Britex’s first floor (oh so Anthropologie), and of course, while it’s on the mind, the S.F. Anthropologie (I love the open, two-level plan).

Many thanks to Louisa Stegmann for making this a destination point! (We passed by together a few weeks ago when it was closed, and Louisa, with her costume-designer past, already knew of the wonders within.)

Britex, by the way, seems to be the place if you want to do something amazing with cloth: costumes, tailored suits, wedding dresses, etc… If you’re in the Bay Area and are leaning more towards the softy, quilty, homey experience I would recommend Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics…but that’s another post!