Studio Tour

Enjoy a peek into my home studio this morning while its clean! This is were I screen print, hand paint laser goods, assemble, package and ship all your lost little things goodies. I like to surround myself with plants (nature), treasures from my collections and handmade art to inspire me in my designs. 

Lots of vintage luggage to store my displays and supplies!

I have a pretty large collection of minerals and rocks; souvenirs collected from travels. A few of my favorites reside around my studio.

Some inspirational art from Little Low Studio + Small Adventure and my original TX shop sign Kathyphantastic made me.

Details. Little collections of vintage hankies and bakers twine live in these tobacco containers. 

You can never have enough plants!

♥

February First Thursday

Holiday Happenings

I had an amazing weekend at Bricolage for Small Business Saturday! Thank you to everyone who came out and supported your local handmade community!

I have two more fabulous shows going on this weekend at Wintry Pop-up Shop in downtown Boise and the Boise Christmas Show at the Expo Center. 

THEN I'm off to CA for a week to visit Renegade LA and do some Christmas shopping before I settle down for a long holiday with the family. Look for my new 2015 wholesale catalog to be released before the new year thanks to my great friend from Picture me Pretty. I've also been working on some new designs I hope to feature this spring on Etsy.

Don't forget you can shop lost little things year round at some great local stores in Idaho and Texas. For a full list click HERE.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

ExtraOrdinary Things Start Small

Join myself, lost little things, and Bricolage for a special Small Business Saturday event downtown Boise. Etsy has partnered up with American Express to give small businesses a chance to win money towards a shop makeover with Rue Magazine by hosting a handmade truck show with a local Etsy artist.  We will have special Idaho and holiday themed gifts, food, crafts, photo booth, goodie bags and more!  

RSVP at Eventbrite HERE for a chance to win a door prize and help us win that shop makeover, then join us on Saturday, November 29th @ Bricolage, 418 S. 6th Street, Boise, Idaho.

Starting in 2010, the same year both Chelsea and I started our businesses, Small Business Saturday has helped celebrate what it is to be a small business.  By shopping small you help create jobs and boost the economy in your local community.

Idaho Bound...

The summer just flew by, now its fall already and I have a lot to catch you up on...

First, I failed at finishing my summer Pinterest project list. I'm still working on it and have several more projects and posts to update you all on later.  Part of the reason I failed was because I rediscovered the awesomeness of laser cutting and got terribly sidetracked making a new line of wood jewelry and accessories for the shop. I've started featuring a few of the new products in stores including Space Montrose and Cherry Tree Creative as well as Etsy. I'll have everything new up on my new site after we  move but more on that later. 

Second, we had another beautiful baby boy, Rory, in August.  He was a bit earlier then expected but he is happy and healthy.  His big brother adores him and we've all adjusted well, including the furry half of the family. You can see some adorable photos of Rory that our friend took at Nichols Pixels Photography on Facebook. 

Lastly, we have decided to move back home to Boise, Idaho. With baby #2 finally here we've decided we'd like to be closer to our families. I would like to continue expanding my business and my husband is looking to further his career which is difficult to do without more help and support from family and friends. We leave Texas the first of November before the worst of the winter weather starts in. It is going to be quite a change in weather and scenery that will take some getting used to. As much as I absolutely adore Idaho and the northwest I am not a fan of the cold. Snow, beautiful; cold and wind, brrrrrr! But we are terribly excited even though we will miss Austin and the sunshine dearly. I have made some great life long friends here and have had a blast being a part of Austin Craft Riot. 

So, as for my shop, I've cut everything back to a minimum on my website and Etsy. Once we get moved and settled in a couple weeks I will be updating my website with both new and old goodies. I will have three main sections in my shop; screen printed home goods, laser cut jewelry and accessories, and state themed gifts.  For the moment I intend to keep a few other fan favorites including bottle cap charm necklaces and game board clocks but as far as their future I'll have to see where they fit into the larger scheme of things. I started a catalog in the spring and will have new line sheets and updated wholesale information up as soon as possible. Any questions, requests or concerns can always be answered at lostlittlethings@gmail.com. 

As always, you can see more photos of the family, the shop and follow our big move on Instagram @Ilovelostlittlethings or on Tumblr at http://ilovelostlittlethings.tumblr.com.  

Time to get packing!

New 2013 Marketing!

After some intense photo shoots I'm loving my new photos and utilizing them wisely to make some spring web adds, marketing postcards and, for the first time ever, a wholesale catalog! I've taken more inspiration from my chalk art sign and updated my 2013 logo a bit to match the feeling of my overall look. You can find lots of fun photos on my Facebook page; postcards available at shows and I'll soon have a link to my catalog on my website but in the mean time you can email to request one. 

I'm a RAW Artist!

In March 2013 I was accepted and became a RAW Artist for Austin. RAW: Natural Born Artists is an independent organization of artists, for artists and by artists. Its a national organization currently operating in 54 cities across the US and Australia. In Austin they showcase artists every couple months at fabulous venues across town and of course, we all get featured profiles online with personal information, photos, videos and more.  I showcased at The Belmont in April and had a great time meeting other artists and fans outside of my normal circles. Below you can see my set up (loved the more industrial look) and a cute video made by a fan. Also, if you click on the poster you can check out my artists profile at Rawartists.com. 

Market Revival Weekend

April 12-14th was a fabulous weekend at Market Revival, a handmade, vintage and farmers market put on by Revival: Furniture, Gifts & Vintage in Bee Caves. The event takes place a couple times a year typically in the fall and spring. There was a great article posted in the Austin Statesman HERE that included a shout out to my shop and a bio of the shop owners Tara & David.  I shared a co-op booth with these lovely ladies from Austin Craft Riot...

Tara of Austin Antlers, April of Crescent City Couture, and Casey of Fartsy Arts

Revival has tons of beautiful goodies for your home both vintage and repurposed; outdoor fun for kids; beautiful succulent planters and cacti; candles, lotions, other wonderful gifts and more! 

Hamlet, the friendly Revival potbelly pig, lives outback the store in this adorable trailer...

Saturday night at the market brought music by Jenna Paulette and band...

Me, my booth and some beautiful goods from my booth partners...

My Obsession with Chalkboards Never Ends

The title of this post says it all! Chalkboard art has been in trend for the last year or so but I can't get enough. My talented friend Kathy of Kathyphantastic made my adorable shop sign last fall and I get compliments at every show. So, I decided to take my obsession to another level and make goodies for my shop. Well myself, then my shop. :)  I sought out some of my favorite quotes, tried to come up with a few myself and after narrowing it down I started with three quotes that center around love, crafting and adventure. 

After spending hours seeking out and downloading fun fonts, dingbats and graphics I started in on some basic typography that would fit in with my hoop wall art collection.  Several variations later I came up with three styles I liked the best and settled on them for my new spring collection. And here they are...

The inspiration for these designs came from chalk art but I wanted to take it to the next level and make something that was my own variation of the hand written art form. Since I already screen print it made sense to take that route. I started with some darker fabrics in 9" hoops to mimic the look of chalk art in a new, exciting way. So far they are a hit! 

Because of the recent band on single use bags in Austin I also decided to take a shot at tote bags as an option for my customers. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. 

Here are a couple samples of how you can mix and match my current collection with the new quotes to make fun, personalized sets of wall art for your home. 

I hope to add more quotes and screen print designs to my collection every year. I have a few more favorites already set aside for such an occasion. For now I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!  As always, please feel free to email me at lostlittlethings@gmail.com for questions about my products. 

I'm in LOVE...

New to my shop this spring! Mini Instagram postcards featuring my own photography! Two sizes available; 2" minis for gifts and 4x4" squares for sending love notes via mail.  The four inch square cards also double as a gift because they make great mini prints for framing. Currently they are only available in person, at shows but I hope to have sets up online by this summer. The collection features lots of Austin/TX themed souvenir cards and many of my nature themed photography. More designs to come soon!

Behind the Scenes...

Working on new 2013 product photos for the website and marketing.  

My trick, sunshine! ...and patience. :)

Blue Genie Art Bazaar

I had so much fun at Blue Genie last year I was very grateful to get in again this year but with my own eight foot space. I tried to set up a fun space that reflects my shop's personality. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Shop my booth and many other amazing artists the entire month of December up until 10pm Christmas Eve. Details in the flyer below!

Chicago Renegade Road Trip!

Well shockingly I got into Chicago Renegade this September so my friend Casey and I decided to road trip it 1/2 way across the US in my "new to me" mini van. It was quite the adventure but well worth it!  

We saw a lot of these along the way...

After realizing one of my doors wasn't locking properly (with thousands $ of merch in the back) we took a much needed break in St. Louis on day two of driving. Crab cakes and local beer at Broadway Oyster Bar were a delicious treat. 

Two and a half days of driving we finally hit Chicago a day before Renegade. We rented an apartment near Albany Park on the north side of town. The neighborhood was lovely and there were lots of fun places to eat and shop second hand treasures. Our roommate Oliver (the owners adorable cat we begged her to leave) was quite the character and the apartment even had a little piece of Texas on the mantel. 

One of our first tourist stops included Millenium Park with The Cloud (aka the bean) and famous Crown Fountain. It was a gorgeous view of downtown and the weather was perfect.

Chicago Renegade was fun and CRAZY busy all weekend! I of course loved how my booth turned out, sharing again with my partner in crime GemJunkie. I was surprised how many Austinites we ran into outside of the few vendors who had taken the trip too.  People who were moving to Austin, people who had just moved from, and those just visiting on a random week. I ended up moving my chalk sign to the front of the booth because people wanted to take pictures with it. Made my day.

We spent the last day of our trip just running around town being tourists. A quick stop to the Shedd Aquarium was a beautiful view of Lake Michigan and cityscape. We didn't make it to the Navy Pier but you can see it in the background below. 

The "must do" tourist attraction on my list was to visit the Skydeck in the old Sears building (now Willis Tower), the tallest building in the world.  At 103 floors up my nerves kicked in as I finally found the courage to step out onto the floating glass floor. I'm terrified of heights! I couldn't even look down to take this picture but it was an experience I will never forget. 

We ended the long weekend with some famous Chicago style pizza at Gino's East and got ready for the two  long days of driving back to Austin. 

Other then a visit to the Little Rock in Arkansas, some late night drinks, bbq and an overnight stay in Memphis for my birthday, we hauled butt back to Austin. It was a fun trip but a long one and we both missed our babies. :)