(Inside A Black Apple)

Renegade Countdown Pt. 4: Totes

And the last new thing to share (but certainly not least) are these new Dancing Bear totes:

  

I am so excited about these!

And we're excited to see everybody this weekend at Renegade:

 

Come visit and say hi! I'm pretty sure we're in booth #69.

We've brought loads of other things besides this new stuff I've been sneak-peekin'...dolls, fancy wearables, (almost) everything the Black Apple offers.

Renegade Countdown Pt. 3: Paintings

What do we have here?

Bunches o' little paintings!

(I just realized how awful this photo is - I was trying to get all these sneak-peeks together before we left, and I didn't do the best job with the photographs). In person, rest assured, these are crisp and lovely and bright!

I have a small collection of mini-paintings on 6"x8" wooden plaques that we're bringing to Renegade - the images are going to be used in an upcoming project and so the originals are up for grabs.

Renegade Countdown Pt. 2: Notebooks

Today, I've got a sneak peek at two new pocket notebook sets we'll debut this weekend at Renegade SF, the Sweet As Pie set:

  

And the Bunny, Bear, Bird set.

 

More and better photos of these sets soon!

Renegade Countdown Pt. 1: Pins

Since Renegade SF is getting really close, I thought I'd do some sneak-peeks of the new things I've been scheming up that I'll be debuting at the fair. There will be new things to see here every day til' Saturday!

First things first, a whole slew of new pinback button sets (including a new packaging style):

 

The big, super-deluxe button set debuting is the Midway pack:

 

Of course, all of these new odds + ends will be added to the shop when we're back, so don't worry if you're not going to happen to be in San Francisco this weekend!

Gentleman Black Bear

I've been working on a crop of dollies to take to Renegade SF, and among them is a new pattern:

A gentleman bear!
In dapper striped trousers, no less. He's a continuation in my sort of "imaginary vintage toy" designs.

Gentleman Black Bear   
Measures: Approx 13" tall
Made of: Nubby wool, striped cotton, wool felt, hand-painted face

These were actually the striped trousers I was attempting to photograph when it became woefully apparent that my old camera was dead.

Oh! Speaking of which, I now have a new camera, and it's pretty swell. It's a simple Canon Powershot Elph, and it is tiny and easy to use. And I must say, I'm almost a little freaked out by how great the strides have been in digital camera technology since I bought my last one circa 2007.
Egads! What a nice surprise.

Happy weekend to you!

Neat Things People are Up To

While I'm waiting to be camera-functional again, I thought I'd share a handful of cool things that have struck my fancy around ye olde internet lately.

 

- First up is Picture Book Report, an incredibly cool collective illustration project spearheaded by ringleader and general image-wizard Meg Hunt (who has created some really great Alice images, like the one above). Laura Park's Geek Love installments are a favorite, too (I'm also quite fond of her Mome contributions). 

 

 

-Next is "Forage", the new bow-tie project from those brilliant attention-to-detail-fanatics Something's Hiding In Here. You can see all of the work and care that has gone into the construction of every iota of the project, from fabric selection to packaging. Their pop-up shop will launch at Curiousity Shoppe in SF really soon and an explosion of sherbet-colored tie goodness will abound.

 

- Anja's new style of product photography for her beautiful Etsy vintage shop is incredible. It's so simple and fresh and perfect with the white backgrounds and the floaty grace the white space creates. The garments stand on their own remarkably well, especially since Anja has such an eye for interesting items. Her last photo setup was so good, too - she's got an amazing brain for that sort of thing. 

- My favorite printers are always up to something neat (plus they've got great taste), and now the Pinball folks have made a fantastic blog, BangBack. It's a fun, varied love letter to print, and features their own projects as well as lots and lots of other things (other people's projects, books, etc). The cute Portland bingo cards above are a clever project created by smarties Amy R. & Bishop Lennon 

Whew! Even in the sleepy Summer, people are always dazzling me!

RIP Camera

A pal forwarded the above photo to me a couple days ago (from Twisted Vintage, which, as I and the Blogspot disclaimer will warn you, is full of utterly scandalous pictures and is one of the weirdest and best found photo blogs I've seen). This poloroid is so crazy and great - it reminds of of the B's for some reason.

My little digital camera is officially dead (I think too many devil-may-care trips to the beach recently might've done her in). I'm excited about a new one, though, and the old one had a good run. Yesterday, I wanted to photograph a pair of tiny trousers I sewed for a gentleman-bear doll, which is one of a bunch of little things I'm cooking up for Renegade. The camera totally refused, and so I blame it for (partially) contributing to the general Summer-sleepiness of this blog right now.

This weekend looks like some sewing and reading and some other little work-tasks (but hopefully not too many).

Happy weekend to you!

World's Prettiest Gummi Bears

We got some really pretty candy at a big, lovely candy store at the beach. These gummi bears came in colors like light aqua and pink...I couldn't resist!

 

They were really tasty, too, so they have more than just good looks going for them.

The internet feels really sleepy to me right now - I think it might be on a Summer break with everybody else out and about and reading and lazing and playing. I'm working on some dolls and new products and things to debut at Renegade SF - which is coming up fast!

I'm also working on a couple secret projects that I'm keeping under my hat for now, but I'm really excited about everything behind-the-scenes. Other than that, I'm trying to take it just a little easier than I usually do (which doesn't come naturally) and lay off the work-aholism I often slip into. I keep reminding myself: if the Summer's not the time for a slower pace, when is?

Where the Forest Meets the Sea

We spent last Fourth-O'-July weekend at a beach house with friends. I'm still getting used to the differences between the Oregon coast and the hot, shell-covered Southern beaches of my childhood, but I really love the switch to these windy, cooler, rocky and forest-adjacent beaches.

 

We went to a cave-covered beach one afternoon, and it was so beautiful. There were excellent tide pools everywhere (I had been missing East Coast tide pools full of creatures)!

There were also these magical moss-doored (or carpeted) nooks and caves:

 

I couldn't help but thinking they might be portals to someplace else.

Our house was perched right on the edge of the forest, where it joins the sea (as seen in the above photo on the left). We had no internet, television, or phone reception, and I think by the time we left, our collective well-being was very high.

 

Even though it was really cold, it was such a wonderful holiday weekend...I kind of wish I was back there now.

Maybe I can find the other side of one of those mossy cave portals?

Midway Postcard Collection

 

The Midway Postcard sets are the largest ever (15 cards + envelopes!) and I just added them to the shop!

 

They are boxed up this time (rather than packaged in a sleeve as usual) because it's such a big set. They look very fancy that way! And the printing is wonderful - every single one is a beautiful, tiny reproduction of the painting it comes from.

I know a lot of folks have been waiting for these, and I'm happy they're assembled and ready to go now.

Hooray!

Bear + Friend, Part 2

Here is the finished pair I posted a snippet of last week - a birthday present for a darling little person. I couldn't decide between an animal doll and a girl-doll, so I made both.

They've got a bit of a red, white + blue theme going on, so I suppose they could be celebrating the birthday of my ol' home country this weekend, too. Happy (belated) Birthday, Lyddie - and Happy Birthday (in a few days), United States. And Happy Weekend, everybody!