the official tour shirt & poster :)

4.10.09, originally uploaded by artisart.

the 04-10-09 trip

so the trip i took over spring break was crazy fun, crazy silly, crazy exhausting, crazy beautiful, crazy lovely, crazy wonderful, crazy frustrating, crazy great, crazy connected! i flew into norfolk, virginia the prior wednesday before we left on saturday the 11th. the whole trip focused on a chuck berry song, "the promised land" - which talks about him leaving his hometown norfolk (our previous hometown too) & heading out for the promised land. listen here to the song. lots of folks have covered the song over the years, elvis does a great version, as does our neighbor, who sang & recorded a slower version for us which is awesome.

the gist of the "04-10-09 tour" was to go through all the cities he talks about in the song, which we did. also, some of our artist friends who went on the convoy reinterpreted the phone number he sings about in the song as a date, thus 04-10-09, the date we had to leave! the car which we drove, a green vw thing, was one of the artist's (anne who came along with us) father. he had it in his garage since forever ago and bequeathed it to the mister if he could fix it up, well of course he could fix that vw thing up! so, we drove that rattle trap, safari-esque jeep looking, metal extravaganza all across the united states! & it made it! & we froze, we laughed, we heated up, we saw beautiful things, we ate awesome food, we reconnected with absolutely fantastic people all along the way.

friends put us up in raleigh, atlanta, austin & paso robles. we camped the other times & we stayed in a hotel once. we outran a tornado & were gifted a double rainbow for it :) the photos are amazing - please look, see & read over at the 04-10-09 log that we kept along the way -- promised land tour there are videos, writings, and tons of photos as there were 4 official photographers in the group and several unofficial ones too. go have a gander if you feel so inclined!!

this week consists of my HUGE student art show i put on each year & that is a major endeavor. after the show thursday night, i motor down to l.a. for the 2 day unique l.a. show come see me - i'm sharing a booth with my friend christine haynes.

super duper busy, i'll post again after the week's craziness!!

04-10-09 absence

been roadtripping - thus, the extended absence - photos soon!

also, have my school wide art show this coming thursday the 30th (mucho work) + a show down in l.a. that following weekend. i'll post more about it soon.

hope all's well in the worlds of yours.
xxx.

all out *intern* search!!

hello fine friends!

i am conducting a search for an intern to help me out in the sprout studio headquarters. i am becoming overwhelmed with working full time & running a 5 year old business on the side!! i need some help!!

so, the job would consist of 3-5 hours every week or so (pretty flexible on hours) in the studio to help me with a myriad of very exciting things ;) i'm super flexible on when those hours could be filled as well - if i'm not around, my lovely mister is usually around too.

duties: stamping, gluing, organizing, shipping, stickering, packaging, cleaning, sewing (if you are a sewer of course, but you don't have to be), cutting things out & petting our dog dixie loo -- all whilst learning valuable small business knowledge, tips & tricks of the trade, & of course - listening to fabulous music, being subjected to chatter, and plied with gin & tonics (granted you are over 21 of course!), homemade food, because i love to cook, and the occasional sprout studio trade! what more could you ask for?! doesn't this sound insanely fun & thrilling? don't you want to come & be my intern? do you know of anyone who would love to be my intern?

now, you need to obviously be able to get yourself to the dogpatch neighborhood of san francisco semi-weekly. have to fill a class for college? looking for some sprout studio trade goodies? or, just hankering for a mean limey gin & tonic?!

please let me know - either via commenting here, or emailing me at sproutstudio AT mac.com!

i will love you forever. and that's a promise.

xxx.
*jenifer

design*sponge; turning downtimes into up!

design*sponge interviewed some crafty indie biz ladies about turning down times during this recession into upturns - i was one of the 15 interviewed - take a peek -- there are some really fabulous ideas :)

me & dixie loo, redux

me & dixie loo, redux, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

just saying hey! it's been crazy busy - my very own march madness set in. i'm hoping april will slow up a wee bit. i just ushered ms loo dog & the mister out the door at 5 am this morning for the first leg of the promised land, 04-10-09 cross country trip. i'll be joining in on the rebound. if you wanna know where we'll be stopping leaving out of norfolk, va - listen to chuck berry's "promised land" song - we'll be swinging on through after the 10th of april!!

i have some photos to post soon - i need to upload them to flickr first! a very late rabbit indeed i am ;)

more soon.
xxx.

mati rose's HUGE sale!!

i'm having a HUGE sale, originally uploaded by matirose.

my lovely, gorgeous & super talented friend mati rose is having a great big HUGE print sale over at her etsy suspect shoppe seriously, her work is so wonderful. i own, mmmm....4 pieces now?! 2 originals & 2 prints. i am a lucky ducky girl i am.

you can be a lucky person too! head on over & check out her awesome sale. she is letting all her prints fly away home to you for $20 flat! what a great way to score some fab work by an equally fab lady.

check out a few of her goodies below. i LOVE her elephants!

wood blocks; mati rose work

wood block, originally uploaded by matirose.

Venezia Elephant; mati rose work

Venezia Elephant, originally uploaded by matirose.

speaking 1,000 languages; mati rose work

speaking 1,000 languages, originally uploaded by matirose.

good luck birds

good luck birds, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

cute new things over at my sprout studio etsy shop :) spring will be happy to be escorted in on a little good luck birdies back!

remember free shipping lasts till the end of march over there!!

xxx.

oh! ps - see this movie happy go lucky i just loved it! so, so good & fun!

vintage leaf bobbies

vintage leaf bobbies, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

wacky crafty hilarious video

leslie hall she was at the holiday felt club & she is one funny lady.

oh hello mr snail...

oh hello mr snail, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

...this cracked me up & made me feel utterly connected back again to this whole retrovore ideal i am aiming for. my friend sarah started a garden in her backyard last year & she is still harvesting all sorts of yummy cold weather greens. she shared some with me all wrapped up in a plastic grocery bag, i was digging through the bag looking for the kale & collards to put into my autumn soup (yum, yum, yum) & i pulled out this humongous piece of bok choy with a special little friend still hanging out on it.

i took him up to the loft deck & stuck him close to the window to take a photo & he was a super inquisitive snail -- stretched all out & trying to figure out where he was i think! i took a little video of him to doing his snail dance moves :) i let him loose outside my building in the bushes. i'm sure he'll find something equally yummy to munch on out there.

in other garden news, i went with shash & sarah on a chicken field trip!! check out shashtin's post & see me feeding the girls. it was super informative & helped me think in reality about what it might like to have a small brood of our own in a garden!

i'm still putzing around the sprout studio trying out some new things, working towards some art goals & generally making super slow progress. but that's okay, as i feel it all mixing around in there & it'll come out at some point.

lastly, we are planning a big ole cross country trip surround chuck berry's 'promised land' song for spring break. 04*10*09!!! more on that fest later :)

hope all is well.

xxx.

oh hello mr snail

oh hello mr snail, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

for the sprout studio birthday month

...for my 5 year old birthday month have yourself some FREE SHIPPING at my sprout studio ETSY shop!

happy happy to me, happy happy to you :) i have some treats that are not in my regular store over in my etsy shop, so pop on ovah and see if there are goodies you would like for some spring happies.

xxx.

since i'm a jenifer, albeit a one "n"ed one...

the jen11 show looks great; here's the commentary by the artist who got all those jen's together...it's obviously super interesting to me! :) go check it out!

More than a million of us were dubbed Jennifer within the span of just fifteen years. From a place of relative obscurity, the name grew on a wave of sudden and unprecedented popularity. We’re starting to learn that the effects of this phenomenon were not entirely trivial. Now as an adult, Jennifer has become targeted as the highly sought after demographic of Generation X. In the business press, we are actually known as The Jennifer Demographic or Jen-eration and are told that “focus should be almost entirely onJennifer right now as habits of all other segments pale in comparison to hers.”

Most of us have some desire to feel unique, as though we have some authentic expression that is exclusively our own. So when the culture spins out the next trend based on you and your name, it is difficult to make sense of what is genuine. Maybe one truth that my Jen-eration makes visible is the simple reminder that we act collectively, often without even knowing it. Done with the right spirit, this can sometimes be the only way to act.

The exhibition was born from both a serious curiosity and a simple novelty. Have members of this Jen-eration unknowingly grown into a common artistic sensibility? Have they become creators of culture in their own particular way? The following show can be understood as a unique experiment or as commentary, by Jennifer on Jennifer. She began with the fashion of a name and now moves through a rather complex life, always shaping and being shaped by her culture.

—Jennifer Khoshbin

sprout studio is FIVE!

good luck birds - ms apple cheeks, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

sprout studio turns FIVE this month - sweet, ole march - with promises of spring...it's a good month to turn five in :)

i can hardly believe it's been five years already. it's amazing the amount of information i have acquired about running my own business.......the friends i have met - some so dear to me now.....the fits & starts of crazy tax processing.......the heartaches, the achievements, the excitements, the sweet notes from customers, the burnt out dry creative nothingness to the pop of new ideas forming & brewing in my mind........the crazy long chats to business friends about the woes of wholesaling, to the anger of copy catters, to the joy of holding some hard earned dollars at the end of a craft show day.......the frustrations, the tears, the smiles, the hugs from people alllll over this country that i've sold my goods too.......the hot as ass weather i've stood in to pimp my wares & the windy, insane cold that i've bared to hang out & hope for a sale. the thrill of finding sales in my inbox at the end of the day to the long days of no sales were this recession has made us all scared. to the peeps that wish me well, to customers who are now friends, to comments on my blog, to that happy sunshiney compliment about someone being boosted by something that *i've* made....sweet, sweet, and more sweet.

but mostly, i am proud of me. i am proud i've stuck it out this long & i am ferociously in debt to many people...

i owe so much to so many folks that have helped me along the way. first to my number one mister -- i would never, ever, ever be where i am without his constant support. from building me craft show signage (hello sprout cloud), to photographing my goodies exquisitely to bearing long, boring hours of editing, cropping, and uploading my stuff to my web site. the emotional support, the physical support, and the mental cheering are priceless to me. so i thank him from the bottom of my heart, to the top of my heart and everywhere in between. (thanks dear blog readers for letting me do that here!)

& i thank YOU - readers of this little ole blog that is so much more than just sprout studio news. it's my world & you've helped it to grow. thank you so much!

i've having big sales over at my site & special discounts for all you awesome folks. if you want the secret code, leave me your email & i'll pass it along spit spot to hook yourself up with some spring goodness.

thank you, thank you, thank you.

& happy birthday sprout studio...five looks good on you ;)

xxx.

new goodies at my site!

cream & ruby red vintage bobbies, originally uploaded by sproutgirl74.

lots of spring goodies are slowing appearing over at sprout studio this week! new vintage hair bobbies, new dangly cocktail earrings, & new itty bitty post pretties! go peek if you are itching for a bit of spring time :)

hope you all have grand weekends; mine is a busy social one for sure!

xxx.

antony & the johnsons

wow. i was pretty enthralled last night at their show. i have more than a huge crush on antony it's more like...i want to go inside & look around & sit in that presence of his for awhile. i was pretty enraptured last night. rare is the musician/singer that evokes instant tears, and he is one. his music & voice are powerful, beautiful, evocative, wondrous & elegant. the show hall was super terrific too (mason center) -- and his band? impeccable. so, so fantastic. if you get the opportunity, go see him - you will not regret it. & if you don't have his music, go get some right now. right. this. instant.

i was so content last night to absorb him up. it was a killer evening.