From The Nest

Winter Wonderland

We woke up Sunday morning to look out and see this beautiful sight. The first winter snow storm had come and left us with almost a foot of snow on our doorstep. It is the soft, fluffy type of snow and it just looks so pretty. We didn't get the blizzard here or any of the wind, just lots and lots of snow, just in time to have a White Christmas.
This is our little house tucked in under a blanket of snow. I love this time of year! Everything looks so festive! You can just see our footprints sneaking down the side of the front steps...I didn't want to wreck the snowfall for the photo. I love how folks decorate their houses in New England for the holidays...lots of green pine boughs, ribbons and bows and lots twinkling lights....... the snow is just the finishing touch. We are ready for Santa Claus now. One of the delights of living in New England is the change of seasons 4 times a year. From the delight of a hot summer's day, hanging out on the boat on a sparkling blue ocean to the magnificent colors of the change to the fall foliage, then the green of the new grass and flowers as spring starts to awaken after the long winter months. I never have minded winter. It is all about being outside, skiing and skating and playing with the munchkins requires all sorts of outdoor activities from sledding to snowman building to throwing a few snowballs here and there.
So, with camera in hand, off we went for a long walk with the snow crunching under our booths as we enjoyed the picture postcard look of our neighborhood. It is always so peaceful after a snow storm. The air is so fresh and clean, it is so quiet and calming and so so pretty. So, wishing all of you a Happy Holiday and a prosperous and peaceful New Year... we will be happy tucked in under our pure white snow blanket, cozy and warm, celebrating the holiday season with our ever growing and wonderful family! peace to all, carol

My New "Reindeer Games" Licensed Product

  I thought you might like to take a peek at my newest licensed product "Reindeer Games" that will debut at the upcoming AtlantasMart in January 2010 for the manufacturer, One Hundred 80 degrees. Each reindeer is crafted out of wood and silk screened with a pair of polka dot or patterned snow boots and carrying some holiday items like a snowman or basket of gifts on their backs on top of a festive decorative blanket. Their wonderful antlers are all decked out with patterns as well, along with small wooden ornaments that hang and dangle. They are just too too cute...but, then there is even something more special to these colorful guys...I designed a tiny little drawer in the deer that can hold some holiday treasure, like a pair of diamond earrings, for example. The reindeers can stand alone or hang as an ornament on your Christmas tree, holding that special something close to their heart until Christmas day, when you can open the little drawer and see your present inside. How cute is that?
Here are a couple of the colorful reindeer so you can see them up close. You can notice the tiny drawers in the middle of the reindeer that can hold a little treasure.
This is the back view of the "Reindeer Games" display and reindeer that I also designed to be like a corral that the reindeers live in. It holds about 15 reindeer and makes it nice and easy for the retailer to know how to display the products in their stores since it comes with the assortment of reindeer that they purchase...so easy for them, looks great, and is fun and festive for their stores. The store owner can then replace the reindeers and restock the corral after others have sold. This was a fun and creative challenge to come up with not only the ornaments but to also think of creating the display for them and how it would look and how it would work. The challenge was to design something not too big so as not to take up too much shelf space in the store, yet would hold a nice assortment of the reindeer and display them well and that was cost effective! After several series of colored sketches and concepts, this is what I came up with and I am very happy with the final product. It not only looks good, it serves the purpose to display the reindeer in a small amount of space and keeps them together to create a home base for the deer in their corral. So, keep the "Reindeer Games" in mind when your shopping in Atlanta at the gift mart. Think how cute these would be in your shop and what a fun gift to give to a friend for the holidays...with or without the diamond earrings! best, carol

From Russia.....with love....and Santa

  I just love playing with felt...I think the colors are so much fun,they are so saturated and bold and you can do such cool things with the material. Here are 3 standing "pillows" I created. The first two are the iconic Matryoshka dolls from Russia that are so popular everywhere. The folk art designs are derived from ones that I saw when I was in Saint Petersburg a few years ago. I always take a sketch book with me so I jotted down anything that I thought was interesting as we traveled around. Those dolls are everywhere...the meaning of the word Matryoshka is "Mother" and inside the wooden dolls are 4 or 5 or even 6 graduated sizes of the largest doll, making an entire family. A fun toy for children to play with as they take them all apart and then try to put them all back in the correct order once again. In this case, a rich, folksy image that adds a touch of color to your room.
I made the front cutting up pieces of felt and layering them to create the face and beard and to build the image of Santa. The back of the pillow is a gorgeous crushed velvet making Santa look very rich indeed.
Here is the side view look to the Santa pillow where you can clearly see the velvet backing.
This is the larger Matryoshka doll. She is carrying a gift and highly decorated with pom pom trim and colorful folk images reminiscent of Russian Folk Art Design.
Here is the side view of the larger doll pillow.
The smaller Matryoshka doll pillow has that wonderful peacock blue dress and she is holding a folk art holiday tree. Her bright red babushka is decorated with holly leaves and berries. She is completely edged in white pom poms. Notice the detail on her face, the shadow and the expressive eyes.
Then I made a couple of regular pillow shapes where I actually cut out the colorful felt and glued the various shapes down on the black background. I think the bright colors just pop off the black background, making a dramatic look, colorful and fun.
And, this one is really the theme for the whole collecion..."Christmas is Family". I cut out the words out of the felt and glued them down on the black background. I love the tiny red pom pom edge trim...I special ordered that from a place in New York City, not always easy to find the small ones. Just sharing another collection with you for the holidays. Lots more coming this week so make sure to stop back each day. warm holiday wishes, carol

More Red and White Polka Dot Mushroom Love!

I have mentioned my "love affair" before on this blog with "amanitamuscaria"...the fabulous red and white polka dotted mushroom. The Captain and I first discovered them walking in the woods in Finland and were amazed at how beautiful they were. Sheer Perfection and that color red...to die for! Imagine a woodland scene in the fall. It is getting colder and all the leaves are off the trees and most everything is in a brown hue and there you spot them, peeking up under some pine needles, these oh so bright, red and white beauties. I told you this is what the reindeer love to eat to sustain themselves during the winter, so they are very beneficial for the health and happiness of the reindeer. But, you simply cannot imagine walking through the woods and seeing dozens of these poking up out the brown soil, happy and red just like a cartoon or something. It's hard to believe that they are real. So, I love them. I have worked them into all sorts of designs, in my home, around the house, made them out of clay, felt, paper, you name it. I cannot get enough of them. The red and white polka dotted mushroom is just the cutest thing ever... just another example of the wonderful gifts we receive from Mother Nature.
in my designs....
made out of clay
more clay polka dotties....
couldn't resist making one to hold a little candle...
rows of mushroom love...and health and happiness
in little boxes for gifts...
felted mushrooms in my living room....
on the silver tray in the dining room...
more artwork....
tucked into a little clay pot with some pine cones....
of course I had to add the bluebird of happiness sitting on top of the double mushrooms...
and there is more...I just updated a few of my website pages and have added this now iconic image to my home page...as an embellishment..lots of red is good...most important color in marketing...people love red...the color of love and the heart...it is all good and oh yes, it is also the color of Christmas...see how this all ties in...so of course...I am thinking the forest at Christmas, the elves and the gnomes...
celebrating the season....with lots of darling red and white polka dot mushrooms! Happy Holidays, Carol

More Peking Handicraft samples

A few more of the new licensed "Girlfriends on Vacation" collection with Peking Handicraft just arrived in time for the upcoming AtlantasMart in January. These two colorful embroidered towels have a cooking theme. One says "Did you say cook?" When wearing a crown and holding a wand, I never ever cook!" with a fun babe wearing a bikini, crown and holding her wand. The other says " Cook, excuse me?" "high maintenance babe waiting for nails to dry"...I mean HELLO! fun...this entire collection will debut in just a few weeks in Atlanta. I will be there exhibiting at the License and Design show, Building 2, floor 3. Hope to see you there! best, carol

Gingerbread Perfection

  One of my talented girls lives here in Marblehead. We call Amy the "good daughter" since she returned from Santa Fe to live in town and raise her family here, which of course we love. She is an extraordinary chef and just designed and baked this Nativity out of gingerbread to enter in the annual Gingerbread House contest sponsored by the Marblehead Family Fund and the Marblehead Historical Society. Over 100 gingerbread houses will be on display at the historic Lee Mansion in downtown Marblehead during the Christmas Walk this coming weekend. Folks can "bid" on their favorite design buy purchasing raffle tickets, the money collected from the tickets then going to support the Marblehead Family fund. It is a festive occasion and lots of fun to see what everyone makes. I was completely blown away by Amy's Nativity made completely out of gingerbread and other edible items like shredded wheat and pretzels. The design is just so clean and clever. Check out the Angel Gabriel flying on a dowel that Amy drilled into the wooden base so she would be up above looking down on the family. The colors are so magnificent, like stain glass, rich and saturated. The sheer perfection of the design is just so impressive when you think that it is food and it is all edible! It was a ton of work, took her days to make and bake the gingerbread, cut out and paint the individual pieces and assemble it all together, not to mention the research and original design of it all. All for a very worthwhile cause. Gingerbread Perfection.......... by a simply amazingly talented daughter! you can tell I am so proud! She should have been a designer! best, carol

More Product Samples

  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I did all the cooking and the decorating and the Captain chopped all the vegetables, Mom made the apple pie and Amy made the brie en croute. It was all divine! I am trying to get through the photos of the puppet show to post sometime. The second annual "Mayflower Voyage" munchkin's puppet show was adorable and the kids loved making the puppets and learning more about the Pilgrims. In the meantime, more samples have arrived of my licensed stickers and gift tags for the Current Catalog that coordinate with the gift wrap I showed to you back in early fall. They came out great and arrived just in time for holiday wrapping. My adorable penguins wearing all sorts of cute hats, little skaters and little sledders enjoying the winter time fun...all just festive, colorful and fun! Extremely busy with work, preparing for the upcoming Atlanta License and Design show and holiday shopping. Everyone wants everything at once it seems and this is a busy time of year to begin with so it makes it extra crazy. More products coming into the studio this week so lots to post and some exciting news to share soon! best, carol

The Pilgrims, the Indians, the first Thanksgiving....

  One hundred and two Pilgrims traveled for 66 days aboard the Mayflower ship that was about 113 feet long from England to the new world in America. Two babies were born on the ship during the journey. The first one was born as the ship crossed the Atlanta and was named Oceanus. The second baby was born when they reached the harbor and named Peregrine.
They weren't a very stylish or happy group... for the most part they wore dark clothing with white collars, struggled with poor sanitary conditions on board ship, were sea sick most of the time and just uncomfortable, scared, hungry and wishing they would get to land real soon.
They arrived in Plymouth in November of 1620 and landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock. The rock was there back then, but it did not have the date 1620 chiseled into the front of it like it does today. It was also a lot larger than it is today since for years it was just sitting there and people chiseled little pieces off the rock for souvenirs. Now it is encased in a marble enclosure so it cannot be tampered with.
This is a great sign in Plymouth announcing that this is the place that the Pilgrims landed, but that was not there when the Pilgrims arrived in 1620 either.
The Samoset Indians were there back in 1620 when the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth and they helped them learn how to plant corn and hunt and survive the cold New England Winters.
The Indians were definitely more stylish than the Pilgrims. Check out this Samoset Indian headdress, marvel at the design and the flourish with which he styled his hair with feathers. I am sure the Pilgrims were just amazed to see this when they landed!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Make sure to take a moment to remember the Pilgrims, their long voyage here to America and the friendly local Indians who taught them how to survive. People helping people, what a simple concept yet so compelling. And, of course, to give thanks for your family and all that you have. best, carol

A Cup of Tea

What is it about a cup of tea? It just represents a little respite from the hectic daily life we all have these days...you know, you stop and take a breath, relax, sip on the warm tea and just enjoy taking a break. I am a tea snob. I admit it. After having the pleasure of experiencing afternoon tea with the Captain at a number of well known tea places on our travels, such as the Ritz in London and Paris, The Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC, it is hard not to be that way. All the fun little sandwiches that accompany the tea, cut so perfectly by hand, just bite size. Wonderful Earl Grey tea or a special blend made by the Ritz or the Empress Hotel, served so elegantly by a waiter in a tuxedo calling you Madam and wrapping your tea pot with a hot white napkin. At the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, they even give you a special tin of their famous house blend tea to take with you when you leave as a memento of your experience there. Oh and that divine clotted cream and lemon curd, cucumber sandwiches and chocolate covered strawberries, pastry shells fill with yummy fillings.... what's not to love? When I was growing up, my British Nana would always stop each afternoon to have a cup of tea ....a proper cup of tea that she brewed in a beautiful tea pot that she brought from England. I have always loved the memories of that time when I was little. Sitting with her in the late afternoon, having jam on scones she had made, sipping warm tea with milk ( is there any other way to drink tea?) I don't know, there was just always something so civilized about it, even as a young girl, I remember how it seemed like a celebration of sorts, having a tea party with those beautiful bone china tea cups with all the wonderful designs of flowers and hearts that she had collected, fancy desserts on lovely scalloped plates with doilies and just enjoying the afternoon with my Nana, talking, laughing, sipping tea together. Funny how those thoughts and memories stay with you through out your life. And, as an artist, they have also influenced my work, my themes and my creations. So stop some afternoon and have a cup of tea, take the time to enjoy the day and sip away, chat, nibble at some treats, take that deep breath and feel the warmness from a cup of tea in a beautiful china tea cup with someone you love. It is a wonderful experience! enjoy! carol

another Sneak Peek....

"Enchanted Forest" is my new Christmas line for Kurt Adler. It's snowing in the forest, Christmas is coming and all the little animals are decked out and getting ready for this festive season. I designed over 60 ornaments for this group. The feeling of the collection is lots of birch bark and sparkles, cute little forest animals poking here and there, birds in nests, twigs and snowflakes with seasonal messages, elves playing in a little band, darling dwarf houses and much more. These are 3 of the sparkly birch baskets with twigs and animals wearing their holiday best!
More animals come to the festivities with a hungry beaver, a sweet hedgehog, a clever raccoon and a happy squirrel bringing candy canes and gifts and holly to the party.
Then the bear gang arrives with their honey pot full, lots of fish from a recent fishing trip and a "fresh cut" holiday tree to decorate. I hope you will visit the Kurt Adler Showroom in Atlanta during the AmericasMart in January to see this charming new group from the Carol Eldridge Design Studio. best, carol