MERRY HOLIDAYS!!!

We're REALLY getting into the last-minute holiday mood now...

I decided to put together some Cozy Peppermint Hot Coco kits with marshmallow popsicles as the holiday treats to give to people.

Here's the list of materials for each kit:
1/2 pt mason canning jar
2 Tablespoon hot coco mix
1 teaspoon ground up peppermint candy cane
1 mini peppermint candy cane
1 marshmallow
1 wooden Popsicle stick
1 plastic bag
decorative paper
twine
tag

Here's the instruction to make the ultimate cozy and foamy hot chocolate drink!
STEP 1: Add a bag of hot coco mix, add heated milk or heat milk with coco mix in microwave (without lid!!)
STEP 2: Close lid tightly and shake vigrously for 30 seconds.
STEP 3: Open lid and enjoy with treats!

Feeling the Holiday Itch...not literally

Since I got such a late start in actually working on holiday things for ourselves, I felt like I still needed to do something fun for the holiday

...and with the little time that's left to send out already late holiday cards, wrapping presents and making treats, I decided to cheat a little by cutting up these SUPER addicting Stroop waffle cookies to make them more festive & cute lookin'!!....plus I get to eat the offcuts. :)

Just perfect!

Sending Our Piggies Out the Door!

FINALLY !! we're done with all the holiday orders!!

Now I can breath!! I feel like I've been holding my breath (and grinding my teeth) for the last month with all the production, managing of orders, packing & shipping, and craft shows we had to do for both L&G and R&L goods.

We've been more than happy with all the positive response of our piggies and servers and would love to thank all the wonderful people who supported us being our first holiday season!
Of course...not everything went as smooth as we wanted. Being our first time doing all this...especially in such hectic Holiday season...we definitely ran into some road bumps and had to learn some hard lessons during the process. I know there's always a learning curve to everything....but man, there were just so many small-seeming little things that we over-looked...(i.e. packing & shipping) that ended up being WAY more complicated and time consuming than we ever imagined.
With that said we're the MOST thankful to all our customers who have been MORE than understanding and patient with us!!

Knowing what I know now, we'll definitely be making some improvements for less errors to take place and ways to be more efficient.
One thing that we hope to stay the same is that we'd like to give the same amount TLC in making our goods, pack & ship all our piggies....

Where each piggy will have their limited edition number card.

...and they'll get wrapped up with their rag & chalk kit, which are individually bagged in a little cloth bag.

Then I wrap them up in these awesome textured kraft paper and make them look like a delicious-looking little piggy packages. :)

Of course, I'd like to add a little thank you note for every package to let you know how ever so thankful we are for your wonderful support.

Although taping up isn't my favorite task...but the fact that we get to use this awesome metal Italian tape dispenser from Kiosk, it makes it totally worth it. This was one the best souvenir we got from our summer trip to NY.

So thank you ALL again for your enthusiasm in our goods!! We couldn't have done all this without you! This has been a whirlwind, but very exciting holiday season....and now I'm gonna hit the hay and sleep for 2 days straight. :)

Couple More L&G Features!

Our L&G Superior Servers also got featured in December's holiday gift guide in Traditional Home Magazine!

This and Sunset's feature this month was totally amazing for L&G! And because of it, we've literally been working non-stop since Thanksgiving.....which totally feels like centuries ago! There were people who even recognized our goods from the features couple of weekends ago at UCU show!

In addition, L&G's Chalk Piggy Bank got featured in the Seattle City Arts magazine, too! This feature I actually didn't even know about! But thanks to Jenny from {Far4} I was able to get a copy of it before it was too late!

It's been fun seeing where we've been popping up without knowing....it's almost like a scavenger hunt..even MORE exciting! :)

LG Piggy on Daily Candy!

It's been a pretty crazy season for us...WAY beyond what we had ever expected. But what we really didn't expect was when lovely Jenny from {far4} forward this mention of our Chalk piggy bank on Daily Candy!

Thanks Jenny!!

Now back to me working crazy like a holiday elf!!

Hallelujah~

It's been a long time coming...but FINALLY....My new 13" Mac Book Pro baby!

To my previous powerbook that's been with me for 7.5 years...

Thank you for being there for me since college. Although you weren't always the most reliable or the fastest, you did always perform all the tasks I needed.
But I really didn't appreciate towards the end where you'd would only pick up the wireless signals whenever you feel like it....or when it got to the point where you just pinwheel like a little B as if i have all the time in the world.
With that said..we did have a good run didn't we....
You'll always hold a special place in my heart....

Now come to mama my sweet Mac Book pro!
I'm stoked that I'll get things done twice as fast and will have as much fun as this lady...for another 7.5 years hopefully!

UCU wrap up!

We had so much fun at Seattle UCU last weekend - L&G's first time at the event. Thanks to all that came by to say hello and shop!!

Here are some images of the show in review.

creature paws salt and pepper shakers. A little morbid...but I think a lot of people got a kick out of it. There were a lot of cute sound making whenever people picked it up... :)

Jean's new necklace collection with hand-casted ceramic gems.

Terrariums and terrarium ornaments. We're thrilled that the ornaments & the ornament kits sold out!! Tis the Season!

Daily affirmation mirrors - vintage mirror trays with positive expressions. "Go Get Him Tiger" was the run away favorite!

Superior servers including mixed vintage flatware and ladles not available online (yet!)

It was so great to plan our own little "store" out of (free) wood vegetable crates from the ID and craft paper.

We also really liked being able to include some new and old products for the first time and see people being excited about them! Thank you all for coming!!

Thrifty Find...Vintage Tapistry Rug

Our latest thrift find....a cool handmade rug of unknown origin...
We found this in a thrift store outside of LA for only $6!

The real color was supposed to be dark indigo...but sun faded to this purple, which I LOVE even more!!
It makes me happy to see all these lovely colors & patterns every time I get home or leave the house.

Wish I knew more about it....Does anyone have any insight about what type of rug this is?

I Need....

Awesome button up shirt by Cosmic Wonder Light Source at Stand Up Comedy....
I REALLY need to go to SUC next time I'm in Portland!! That and Nationale....

Another UCU. Come visit!

Live from UCU

New at UCU

(top secret low-res phone pic...sorry for the bad quality)

UCU Sunday exclusive! Jean's new necklaces with hand-casted ceramic gems, available in a wonderful set of finish options. We have six only for today, so come early and be one of the lucky purchasers!

Spending some quality time...with our piggies

We decided to put a personal touch to our Chalk-It-To-Me Piggies where each piggy is marked with a limited edition number with our 14k gold pen. (I'm kidding, there's no gold in it...so don't go sending the piggy away to trade for money...)
We like the idea to make them limited edition and that after this first 100 of them, we'll udpate the piggy with something else...to keep things exciting for everyone including us!

MORE at UCU!!

I'm also SUPER excited to have some terrarium ornaments & kits at UCU this weekend.
We did this for our Brite Terrarium Wonderland Workshop couple weeks ago, and figure this is also a good opportunity to share what we created!
These will be available at our L&G booth with ornaments already made, and also the kits for the DIY peeps out there.The workshop was a collaboration between our friend Nicholas Nyland where he did the lovely illustrations and I designed the kits!

Each kit comes with:
Instruction, ornament ball, ribbon, soil, activated charcoal, various moss types, and a surprise white animal figurine.
Once I started making them, I just couldn't stop!! It was like putting together a miniature world...or more like a miniature WONDERLAND...
The great things about these ornaments is that you can keep them up beyond the holiday season especially for someone like me who never get around to do much holiday stuff! Who really has time to put up lights in & outside of the house, decorate trees, go gift shopping, wrap the gifts, send out Christmas cards, AND bake holiday treats?...I supposet that's the majority of people, huh? :P

With the little time we have to do all the fun holiday activities that most people gets to do...my little terrarium ornament is a nice little added festivity in our boxes-stacked-and-shipping-supplies-filled house!

L&G Sneak Preview for UCU!

L&G is gearing up for this weekend's UCU show. We're totally excited (and delirious from lack of sleep) since this will be our first time showing all our own things. We've been having fun figuring out our displays and and playing shop!

Besides our staple Chalk Piggy Bank & Superior Servers, we're also preparing lots of other exciting things! Some vintage finds, some holiday goods, and one-offs that we'll all be debuting this weekend!
We're taking this opportunity to try new things by making limited runs and see how they go!

Here are some photos of what we'll have

We're playing around with some small slip cast things....
like these ceramic gems...and these salt & pepper creature paws.
Vintage MINI Superior Servers....which is pretty much regular flatware...calling it mini just sounds cuter.

Vintage repurposed Daily Affirmation Mirrors.
And remember this?? I did a guest post on Poppytalk back in 2008. Besides this "Booh-Yah!" doilie, there will be other ones, too!
Vintage wallpaper ornaments & gift tags on wood.
Phew!! Didn't expect the list to be this long!!
I think that's it?.....oh how can I forget....there will be some treats, too at our booth if you come by!!