Vespertine Chapel, open today from 1-2!

I took a little break this afternoon to be the marriage officiant (yes, I am official, thanks to Universal Ministries dot com!) for one of my oldest friends(Hannah) and her love, (and my new friend, Link). It was great! I wept as per usual when speaking in public, and I think I might have surprised Hannah with how much thought I put into my speech. I found a lovely poem by Nikki Giovanni that really reminded me of them. The lovely witnesses were Jeremy, Josie, and Jasper! (ooo, triple J's, that's got to be good luck!)



Earlier this winter I was given the task of reworking Hannah's old wedding ring into two new rings for them, it was very fun, and I think it turned out pretty well (if I do say so myself!).

The Little Deer are Back!

I love doing holiday windows... so much fun! I especially like when I get to combine tiny tinsel trees, tiny flocked deer, and tiny strawberry shortcake(!). These little deer are having a feast in the light of the Eiffel Tower which a lovely customer gave me and I stuffed with purple lights.

Jewelry Frames

Oh yes, my parents have been very busy this holiday season! This is our newest collaboration, earring holders. Re-purposed Barnwood (and my old maple futon frame, first piece of furniture I ever bought, right here!) along with super cool drawer pulls for hanging necklaces or bracelets or rings on. They are filled with strong screen that allows you to hook many many pairs of earrings onto. Best of all, you get to see what earrings you have, rather than sorting through dishes or jewelry boxes.

BUST Holiday Craftacular 2009 - NY | craftacular

NYC here I come! Mom and I leave this Saturday for the big city. I am so honored, thrilled, and totally nervous to be participating in this amazing event. There are so many awesome vendors, I really hope I get the chance to look around. This week I will be living in my back room at Vespertine making things. I already had a hand cramp that caused me to throw an egg across my kitchen because I couldn't grasp it like I normally do!


BUST Holiday Craftacular 2009 - NY | craftacular

new hairpin color

Some exciting news this past week: I was accepted into the Bust Craftacular in NYC on Dec 6th!!!!!!! Wow! More about this later. I am so excited, and nervous...... But, I digress.. This little post is about some new flower hairpins I've been working on.. This color combination was so yummy to me, I had to take a photo.. Lovely teal, fuchsia tulle, crisp white, with berry colored beads in the center! It looked really good on my tray too...

Ad in Pinestraw Magazine

Yes, I'm so pleased with my photoshop classes! I'm showing off again, this time an ad I got invited to submit to the lovely Pinestraw magazine in a special Pittsboro Promo section. I can't even begin to say how exciting it was when she showed me the measurements, etc. to know that I could make something myself to fit!

basket of kitties

The other week I was having a conversation with my mom about something unrelated to crafting...like, banking, or something... and all of a sudden this image popped into my mind of a fleecy kitty that was filled with rice to be a heating pillow and new product for Vespertine.

This weekend we collaborated with mom sewing up the inner muslin bag filled with rice and lavender and I ransacked her polar-fleece supply to make the outer kitty shape.

When you microwave them for 3-5 minutes they produce a really moist heat that is wonderful for sore muscles and cramps. I can also see myself curling up with one some cold evening to keep warm, or draping across my cold feet..... Delightful!

new washi paper mini-magnets (with real packaging!)

The objects here are very very exciting to me because they represent two things: 1. my new mini button machine arrived and I've been cranking out one inch buttons and magnets and 2. this is my third week of Photoshop class with the lovely Emma Skurnick and I was able to put an image that I drew together with some text to make a label for these sets of Mini-Magnets.


This is my current store window that I am most proud of! Hot Pink everywhere with a lovely garland of butterfly stamps on baker's twine~ very fun to make, and i have several for sale at the shop.

new soap label

Welcome to my first foray into "outsourcing"! I commissioned these fabulous letterpress labels from the guys at Blue Barn House in Asheville, NC to replace my handwritten and goccoed label for Hannah's goatsmilk soaps.

I had a fantasy of saying to them "okay, I'd like an art nouveau style decoration, nature themed, with art nouveau style font saying this" and they would then email me something fabulous in a week. What happened was I was informed that that would cost $600 and that if I drew the design myself it would only be $100 for them to stick the font in. (sigh) However, it actually came out really well (I think) and I do actually still really like having a hand in the label.

I'm hoping they will be more legible and we won't get anyone else at a festival saying "Soup?" or "What is this?"; or, after they take a bit of a soap sample saying "Oh, this isn't for eating?". Granted, I don't think my handwritten label was responsible for *all* of that...

Also, my new way of wrapping affords more smelling room on the ends and also uses less paper, and is a more streamlined process. Very exciting!

empty bowls

Vespertine is hosting the silent auction items for the CORA Food Pantry "Empty Bowls" fundraiser. It will be a fabulous event held on First Sunday October 4th from 12-4 at the Courthouse Circle. Buy a ticket for $15 and have your pick of a beautiful handmade bowl donated by a local artist, then get it filled with delicious stew or veggie chili made by the Heads Up Therapeutic Riding program volunteers. Feed the needy and help little children develop better motor and communication skills (and a love of horses too, I bet!)~ can't get much better! And, stop by Vespertine to bid on Julia Kennedy's fabulous painting Empty Bowl #2 or my sterling silver handformed "empty bowl and spoon" necklace with vintage German glass. My colors were inspired by Julia's painting, it is really beautiful!

luxury soap

Hannah pulled a new trick out of her bag while making this batch! She stuck little sparkly glycerin stars into the goatsmilk soap to create a really magical "Three Kings" bar. It has Frankincense, Myrrh, and now, Gold (mica powder that is). I sliced them nice and thick and each one has a star and other golden shapes floating throughout.

New things around the Shop:

This window was fun to put together, wood fired sushi platter from local girl Lara Okeefe with ring and button canapes and Moonspoons~new product coming soon!

New flavor of gauzy hairpins with gold highlights and Japanese seed beads made with real gold.

These colors look so amazing on the dark chain.... mmmmmmm lovely!

what's for lunch take 2!

Boy, what a day! So, I got a new camera (Nikon D60 if anyone is curious) and I was so excited to have it and to have my little japanese miniature foods.. I was snapping away and coming up with terrible pictures... about the time I figured out I had my exposure and flash compensation reversed and sorted that out, one of my lights just lept off the table and broke. It's always something... I went home and stayed up very late waiting for guests to check in who didn't show up, but, I read almost all my manual! Gee, that was a little complain-y but I think I got it all out.

Today is a new day and I am armed with a new light stand bulb and an extra clip light that I have affixed at an alarming angle to my hanging ceiling light. I present you with: Miso soup.

I'm going to have my second cup of coffee now and work on my depth of field a bit more........

what's for lunch?

Well, I actually had fabulous moussaka from Angelina's.... but aren't these little Japanese miniatures amazing? Look at the translucence on that roe in the cone sushi! I luckily stumbled upon someone on etsy selling these cuties, and have now tracked down the company. They come in little boxes and you don't know what meal you are getting 'til you open it up! Too Cool, and they are coming to Vespertine soon!

Two Years at 64 Hillsboro Street!

Here's a little trip down Memory Lane as I celebrate 2 years at my current location! When I started renting my Hillsboro Street space, I had a limited amount of time to haul my stuff from my old space to the new one, which was full of paneling and phone lines, and get Open before I hemorrhaged any more money. I also had the added hurdle of having the current space full of office furniture that the old tenants left when they took their investors' money and moved to South America (I'm totally not joking there), and the AC Unit did not work. And it was August.

I'd like to take this moment to give a very heartfelt shout-out to my dear friends Marc and Cynthia who hauled all the furniture away, painted, raised lights, hung arches, and answered my call of "Heeeeelllllppppp!"
Love you guys.

Marc wanted to hang himself he was so hot. Note the two-tone shirt created by sweat.

Cynthia, also hot and sweaty, watches Marc on a ladder while he probably is giving orders for our next task. Note the furniture everywhere and the hideous spicy mustard colored trim that was everywhere too...

And look at me now: http://www.jessicabenton.com/stories/vespertine/
*lovely "after" photos by Jessica Benton

fun with lobsters

i may have neglected to mention that i got to go on a wonderful trip to Maine this summer with my good buddy Hannah and her son Jasper to visit some of their family. Aunt Jane and Uncle Steve made us special Lobster Dinner. we had a loooot of fun eating it. i took this photo and just this week printed up some copies of it.. i think i will make some friendship/thinking of you cards out of it for the shop! yes!

Featured Artist at the Arts Incubator in Siler City!

This week I was asked to be a Featured Artist down at the Siler city Arts Incubator! Very exciting! I worked so hard getting some silversmithed pieces together.. Between two days of that and tying pirate plug rigs for my father my thumbs were unbelievably sore! Last night was the lovely 3rd Friday Art Walk~ shops and galleries open, live music out in a wonderful courtyard, and a beautiful night on top of everything!

Fabulous Flame Smoothed Upcycled Glasses

I was so thrilled to look out my door last First Sunday and see Leslie Fesperman with a table of these glasses set up across the street! I was even more thrilled when she brought them in yesterday for me to stock my Sellers cabinet with wonderful sets of tumblers from Corona, Boylan, olive green, and lovely brown bottles (among others).

Leslie cuts them and then moves them through her glassworking flame to make the rim of the glasses smooth and wonderful to drink from.

They are truly recycled and earth friendly and I can't wait to go to the recycling center!

Sad Passing

Thinking of Rosie the Goat~ Hannah's lovely milk goat (whose milk and love are in each bar of Anole Nook Soaps) died suddenly on Wednesday. Wonderful that animals can become such a part of our lives, how great to have that opportunity, and how greatly Rosie will be missed.

Kid's Toys at Angelina's Kitchen

This is one of my favorite commissions: handmade kid's toys for Pittsboro's newest place to get awesome food, Angelina's Kitchen. I have been making buttons that say "my FALAFEL is bigger than your falafel" (Angelina came up with that!) and little origami goldfish on strings and a pole. How totally summery. I also made origami cranes on a pole, but the fish seem to be more popular!

Perhaps best of all though, is that when I drop these off around say, lunchtime, Angelina trades me for amazing food: today I had greek-style green beans, falafel, and baklava frozen yogurt.......mmmmm.

resting on laurels

i have been admiring this amazing chain for some time... i finally bought some (plus two other neat ones by the same designer) and when i put it together with the grey opaline crystals... it was so lovely i started drooling.

available in a single as a pendant on blackened chain too~ very cool.

they make a great muted swishy sound because the metal is matte.. wonderful!

fortune cookie mirrors

I have a nearly lifelong collection of fortunes from fortune cookies that i kept in a neat little box for the longest time. i'm bringing some of them out and immortalizing them in pocket mirrors and fridge magnets. too fun! these are some of my favorites~

a spot of beauty for the weekend

happy friday! I just ordered several prints from my new favorite etsy artist an very good blogger Jennifer Morris. Her colors and composition make me so happy, I can't wait to see them in person~

Museum Trip and Flowers

Yesterday my mom and my uncle Dwight and I piled into the station wagon for a good ole summer road trip! it was lovely. grapes, cookies, and crackers in hand, we went to Columbia South Carolina to see a special exhibit from "Turner to Cezanne" that highlighted some works from the museum in Wales that were collected by two sisters. it was absolutely lovely, the best being this Van Gogh that we had actually never seen yet, what a treat!

Posted above are this weeks flower delivery with incredible yellow flowers that remind me of all the rape seed we saw when we went to Germany so many years ago. the land was absolutely yellow everywhere as we flew over...

Photo Shoot with Jessica Benton

I am so pleased to post a selection of my photo shoot with Jessica! She arrived here at 6 to start shooting. Armed with coffee and all her awesome cameras and equipment (which I was just thrilled to see, i love neat tools!) she worked her way through the shop.

If you go to my Facebook site for the store Vespertine~Crafted Beauty you can see them in a walking tour format. Or better yet, come on by and check out the new arrangement!

http://www.jessicabenton.com/stories/vespertine/

Siglinda Scarpa Spring Studio Show

This was the final weekend of Siglinda Scarpa's Spring Show. Siglinda shows her lovely organic work in her home gardens.
Tables of fanciful dinnerware are set up in the yard.
A few stunning teapots
Graceful grape arbor with guineas that came running for food~very fun to watch.
Table full of cups, pitchers, and saucers.
Under a beautiful arbor~so pretty! Siglinda also runs the Goathouse Cat Refuge. Mom and i played a game of counting how many kitties we saw running around. If you are in Pittsboro and get a chance to visit her studio, don't pass it up! For more info, click here.

yellow house lables

spent this evening dusting off my lino cutting tools and carving out this little stamp for my mom's pocketbook and bag making business.


the name is from the cheerful color her sewing area is painted, and also from a van Gogh painting that hangs there.

limoncello

four years ago this week, i was walking with some of my lovely family through Venice and Murano. by the time we got to Murano we were delirious with all the beauty. what a fantastic city. i dream weekly about going back, and when i found these beads at the Original Ornament, i thought instantly of the bottle of cream limoncello i bought. it is so lovely, and i was enamoured with the thought of a lemon liquour. unfortunately, it tastes a little strange. but, these earrings do not and they are super cool, so i think!

Perfect Close

wow, perfect close tonight! first time ever for my store, probably. unlike my days at Urban Outfitters' perfect close (tags hidden, stacks of shirts perfectly straight) i spent the past two days sprucing up Vespertine for a photo shoot with my buddy Jessica Benton. we traded some ceramic business card holders for a press kit of photos! i am so totally excited. we are meeting very early to get it with the lights glowing in the front window and then work our way through the store.

with the help of my parents i moved furniture allll around, lifted my lovely white branch, painted a new branch for the middle room, hung new lights, vacuumed, oiled my beautiful buffet, lined everything up, and shoved a LOT of little things in drawers!!!!

will post my new photos as soon as i get a chance, and try to come by and see the store while it is clean!

Vespertine at the Haw River Festival 2009

Haw River Fest 2009

On the hottest day we have had so far this year (nearly 90, whew) Hannah and I schlepped our soaps, jewelry, some small ceramics, cards, and gauze hairpins to the lovely Haw River Festival. Celebrating it's 20th year this year, the Festival is a low key celebration of the river in Bynum (a lovely place anyday). A Historic bridge (now pedestrian only) crosses the river, bands play, vendors set up, the Ruritans cook hotdogs, and kids get to paint Clyde Jones Critters with leftover wall paint. Hannah's son Jasper (and my Vespertine protege) painted a penguin for me~fabulous!

Twitter??

Hey everyone, not that anyone wants to know any more of the little things i'm thinking about or doing, but i just started a Twitter account.. it's kinda fun. makes me feel important... esp. cuz i already have 2 followers! wow. so, if you want to get in on the action, check out
http://twitter.com/VespertineCafe

the beautiful spring weather we have been having is very conducive to making pretty things! i got out a bag of fabric i've had since my first trip to san francisco many years ago, and finally did something super cool with it. when i singed the edges very gently, i got wonderful little petals that layered so beautifully.

the one on the far left is a water lily brooch which i'm wearing now (prototype development!) and the rest i think i will sew onto little bobby pins for wearing in the hair.

Nothing says spring like wisteria! well, maybe daffodils. and tulips. and red bud trees..... we have had a rainy spring so far and it has done wonders in producing huge swaths of purple along the roads and all through town. it is heavenly~and i have been told it is tasty in salads! i'll try it and report back....

Paris Photos!!!!!

oh my goodness... i have just returned from an amazingly lovely trip to Paris to visit my dear friends Ariel and Derek. i soaked up wonderful food, beautiful art, and sweet flowering plants the whole trip. i am also full of inspiration for new things to make for Vespertine~ stay tuned!

paris trip 2009-day one

My first full day in Paris wandering around looking at well manicured trees and eating at a fondue resturant!

paris trip 2009--Pere Lachaise Cemetary

Luckily for me, Derek's friends Brian and Melissa wanted to go to the Pere LaChaise Cemetary on Sunday. I say luckily because I was of the mindset of "oh, who wants to see Jim Morrison's grave?", and i would not have ended up going.. However, it was sooooo much more than that, and I am sooooo glad they wanted to go. it was so amazing, and huge! we only saw a little bit of it, and my brain got overloaded with seeing all the beautiful sepulcres and tombs. it was fabulous! thanks brian and melissa~

paris trip 2009--wandering around with Ariel

Wandering around with Ariel on a brisk and sunny day--with Panini in hand! fabulous~

paris trip 2009--Musee D'Orsay

the wonderful Musee D'Orsay~i felt terribly guilty Mom wasn't there to enjoy it with me!

paris trip 2009--L'Orangerie et le Musee d'Arts Decoratifs

design overload~that's really all i can say....

paris trip 2009--Notre Dame

Notre Dame--killed my legs! but then i spent the day wandering around and going to an amazing sewing notions shop where i spoke in French to a wonderful shopkeeper who helped me select buttons and ribbons that will be showing up in new Vespertine products

paris trip 2009--Chartres

Train trip out of town with Ariel to beautiful Chartres

paris trip 2009--Giverny with Ariel

another wonderful train trip out to Giverny--Monet's home and garden..... beyond beautiful and peaceful....siiiggghhh

paris trip 2009--#30 Rue Poissy

Ariel and Derek's neat apartment