(Inside A Black Apple)

Alphabet Pt. 2 (& 3, & 4)

 

Now that the last few prints of the limited edition alphabet is 100% spoken for, I'm unveiling the open-edition version in three pretty new colorways: Choose from Salmon pink, Goldenrod, or Acorn Brown!

The print measures 8"x10", with a white border for framing. This edition of the print comes on my regular paper, without corner rounding (that was the limited run red alphabet only!).

Pinkie, Brownie, and Goldie...Now in the shop!

You're the Lace in My Shoe

I was thinking, as I was eating a cold piece of birthday cake today for breakfast, that I should mention something. That is: it was my Black Apple co-worker,  sweetest of peas, good-est of eggs, tip of the toppermost fella's birthday yesterday.

And the longer I know him, the more I'm dazzled by him.

Oh, Miette!

While we were in San Francisco, we managed to steal away Monday afternoon to do a few little fun things before we drove back home. After all, we didn't want our whole impression of such a neat city to be derived from the inside of the Fort Mason Center and the interior of the SF Marriott!

The only place I suggested insisted we visit was the famous Miette patisserie. It has the same name as my little fur-person, and it seemed just as sweet. I was so happy that they were open on Monday (and we were met at the door by the lovely, gingham-clad manager who happened to know me from the blog!).

It's safe to say that our visit there made me incredibly, dorkily, sweet-things-ecstatic.

 

 The wrappings and foil and boxes and bags were almost too good. There were so many candies there I had never even seen! And then a few that I had, but only once or twice before, like those jewel-colored pansy chocolates on the scale below:

 

Here's our bag of goods! And a close-up of these beautiful, beautiful bee chocolate bars we brought home.

 

These are the two candies that we're really hoarding:

 

Seriously, we're both interested in proposing candy-marriage to them. I found the Napoleon sour candies online, so the hoarding can relax a little as far as those are concerned. But if anyone has a source for those incredible, so-rich-you-can-seriously-eat-one-for-dessert foil wrapped strawberries, feel free to send it on!

They're so beautiful, it's really a little heartbreaking to eat them right now.

The Jewels! (now with MONDAY PRE-SALE INFO)

* The Fancy Wearables Pre-sale listings are now up in the shop! *

 

    

I just added the Fancy Wearables collection to the shop, and already lots of things just flew away.

EDIT: They sold out so quickly - especially the lockets! There were 5 of each piece available in most cases, and they vanished so quickly - thank you so much! Lots of you have asked about them, or were so sad when one was nabbed from your cart, etc.

SO!

Because of the amazing response (I'm still so thrilled that they've been such a hit!) I'm going to begin taking pre-orders in the shop for 9 of the 10 pieces sold today (excepting the Onionhead brooch), starting on Monday. Here's the skinny: There will be a cap for total orders we can take for each piece (15 for lockets, 8 for brooches), but still - hopefully everyone who has their heart set on ordering a Fancy Wearable or two from this collection will have a chance to do so. I'll open up the pre-order listings on Monday, at around 11:00 am PST (2 pm Eastern). The pre-orders will close when the number of orders for the piece reaches its cap, or if the cap isn't reached for a particular piece, orders will close the next day, Tuesday, at the same time (11:00). After you complete your order, you can expect your lovely wearable to arrive in about 3-4 weeks. Feel free to email if you have any questions!

Also, after this round of pre-orders, we will retire this set of dandy jewels. This is both to keep them special, and so that we can scheme up somethin' new for you.

Up top, I just wanted to share these beautiful photos that Lori took of our little jewels...she's quite the master of the macro-photography!

Alpha-bits

So many of you have asked, I thought I should give a heads up - we have a tiny handful of Alphabet prints available in the shop from our Renegade reserves! 

All sold out now - but be on the lookout for a more standard-issue version of this to be making the rounds soon, at my usual price and on my usual paper. It'll be available in 3 different colors!

Excitement, I say.

Also, a bunch of folks asked about the exact time for the Fancy Wearables update tomorrow - and I'm thinkin' around 2-ish PST (5:00-ish Eastern). Just to give you a better idea of when they'll be up!

Renegade Dispatch

Hello, everyone! I'm about to bombard you with a bunch of photos of our little temporary Black Apple store at Renegade SF. I debuted quite a few new products there, as well, so those eagle-eyed among you might spot some!

My adorable helpers, and this spinning-rack for the prints that I was kind of crazily excited about:

 

Booth treats!

Dolls and things going into shopping bags:

...and dolls in their little trunk.

Plus Fancy Wearables!

It was such fun to meet so many of you in person, and take photos and chat (I chatted myself right into losing my voice by Sunday night)! I suppose I don't talk so much in my everyday life.

Dear Renegade,

Thanks for the memories. And that Michael Jackson commemorative cupcake.

love,
The Black Apple

*****Lots of you are asking about the jewels! They were such a hit at Renegade, and we sold out of every piece we brought! Buuut, luckily I kept some reserves at home just for my lovely online customers, and I'll be adding the rest of the collection to the shop on Friday afternoon. I'll have very limited numbers, but multiples of each piece.  Keep an eye out!*******

The Dolls Are In Their Steamer Trunk...

And we're all headed to Renegade!

See you soon!

Fancy Wearables Peek

I just couldn't keep these under my hat any longer, and we're going to unveil 'em at Renegade, so here's a little peek at the new Black Apple wearables collection!

 

They're a collaboration between the amazing Jewelry-elf Lori and myself, and it was so fun to dream up the pieces with her! And her craftsmanship is so incredible - we almost fell out of our chairs when they arrived.

Here are the little be-labeled boxes they are each nestled in:

I don't like the word "jewelry" so much - and I've no idea why, but I prefer "jewels". Or, you know, "Fancy Wearables".

More and better photos and details when we return from SF! 

EDIT: Lots of you are asking, and I wanted to reassure you that we will have a very limited amount of each piece available in the shop when we return. Thanks so much for all of your kind words - I was so hoping that you'd love these like we do. xoxo

Future Dresses From Old Calicos

Even though my favorite fabric lady was nowhere to be seen at the Summer Antiques-fest (#453 on the list of things I love about living in Portland), I did bring home this pretty little stack of vintage floral fabrics.

They're becoming dresses for dolls today! Back to the ironing board.

Little Somethings

I find myself frequently picking up little gifts here and there for my sweet pea, or sending a cute jar of licorice to my mom, or giving a brown bag full of cookies to a friend. And I never seem have the perfect thing to include with these little exchanges - so I schemed up this little package!

 

 Filled with silhouettes of little gals and fellas - each with a squirrel or bird friend, these are, to me,  just the ticket.

 

In each package is: approx. 10 ft. of candy-striped twine, and 18 tags/enclosures (3 each of the 6 different designs):
-3 each of Girl, 3 each of Boy in Robin's Egg/Tomato colorway, Deep Blue/Olive Green, and Classic Cream/Warm Black

My favorite detail of all is that the set comes packaged up in a hand-printed kraft envelope. And our supervisor made sure that they are all just right!

Available in the shop now. Happy Monday!

Bill(s) of Sale

Here are my cheeky receipts that we're bringing to Renegade...I'm not sure if I'm more excited that we're finally able to accept credit cards, or that we'll have these to give our customers!

I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about these cards.

All the show preparation has made me such a nerd about the details...so much so that when I was putting together the "Button Man" display earlier today, I announced to Josiah that I felt "drunk on nerd-ahol".

I think that's a pretty accurate description of the way I've been feeling about all Black Apple official business stuff lately...thanks for letting me share it here.

Do You Know The Button Man?

We are getting so, so excited for Renegade SF! We just got word that The Black Apple will be next-door-neighbors to both these pals and on the other side, Etsy...so, good neighbors all around. And we've booked our hotel + we're importing some excellent help. It's going to be a great weekend! I haven't done a craft show in over a year, so I'm nerding out about this one big time.

As much as I love the expansive nature of the internet, and having an online store, the chance to have a little "real-life" shop for two days is really thrilling. This is probably why I've been dreaming about display stuff for weeks! Here's a little sign/display that I schemed up to house pinback buttons:

I made it from a piece of ephemera (I think it was a man-in-the-moon game box graphic) and I took all of the original text out and filled it with places for buttons. He's a little scary, but (I think) mostly neat.

I'm planning to have tons of stuff that is either one-of-a-kind, or is brand new and will make its debut at the fair. I've been cutting + sewing all this weekend, for the fair and for Oddfellow's. So far, this will be the new/one-of-a-kind things we'll have in San Francisco (in addition to the prints + paper goods you know and love): Dolls, Zipper Pouches, Brand-new Large Sketchbooks in TWO cover designs, Fancy Wearables (ie: lovely jewelry), Totes, New Button Packs, etc.

We hope that you'll come out to visit us - I'm looking forward to meeting lots of Californians.

Happy Monday & See you soon!

Summer-tastic

I'm not 100% sure what we're doing for the 4th of July...will I reprise my "People I'm happy are United Statesian" cupcakes from last year? Only time will tell. I'm actually in kind of a cookie-phase, so I might be sticking little flags in a batch of good ol' chocolate chip.

In the last week or so, we've been doing so much unusually Summer-y and festive stuff (like more than one amusement park in the course of one weekend), courtesy of Lucy B., ambassador-to-local-amusements. One of our favorite friends is moving to California, so we packed in some exciting hangouts - mini-golf, some arcading, a few picnics, and  a trip to this place, which was a highlight of 2009 for me. You can see Lucy + Ryan's photos of that enchanted day here. 

However you fellow USA-ers decide to spend your Independence Day, I hope it is happy and involves at least a sparkler or two. I'm considering  just sitting out on the porch and reading the writings of Thomas Jefferson aloud to Josiah and a pitcher of lemonade or a few beers, and call it night. That sounds like the perfect 4th to me.