Manatea in KIKI Magazine

So, one of my recent design items has been making the rounds and getting a lot of notice lately. It’s a little tea infuser called Manatea, and yes! It is shaped like a manatee and hangs out in your tea cup while brewing the leaves. He recently showed up in the Oct/Nov. 2013 issue of KIKI Magazine. That made me happy, because not only was it my girls who discovered it while reading, but KIKI is such  great magazine! I am glad to have the shout-out in a mag that that I really respect!

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(Note: Perpetual Kid is a great online retail shop that carries many of my Fred/design items. Check it out if you’re interested!)

Let’s play catch up, shall we?

Did you have an awesome summer? Didja?

I have been having a good amount of fun coupled with a lot of work, both in and out of the studio. So, I let my blog languish a bit for summer. Now is the time to bring it up to speed as we go into FALL!

Going back a couple of months, I don’t think I ever showed you this fabulous new book called lllustrating Children’s Picture Books:

It’s by my friends Steve Withrow and Lesley Breen Withrow, and I was most happy to contribute a couple of articles to it. This one is about writing and illustrating board books, which is truly one of my favorite subjects:

This page is about the “other” markets you can pursue with your children’s art. If there’s one thing I do know a lot about, it’s “other” markets! This encompasses toys, fabrics, magazines, and stuff like that.

Let’s see… what else? Ah, I have been illustrating almost monthly for Highlights High Five, mainly little snippets of recipe ingredients.

I am continuing to create the Newport Creamery children’s menus. The current one is summer-themed and has Newport’s Cliff Walk on the cover. Next time you’re there, go ahead and ask for the kid’s menu!

I haven’t managed to update my website in a while (it’s on the list), so for now I will show you a few of my recently designed Fred items, now available at a store near YOU! Keep your eyes open for:

Salt ‘n’ Pants! Oh, how happy it makes me to see this one on the market! The little guy is salt, and his pants are pepper. I know it’s weird, but I’ve been trying to get it made for a couple of years now. Huzzah! Hooray for pants!

Another item I am glad to see out there is the Candy Stash. It’s a zip-up wallet shaped like those candy buttons stuck on paper. Mmmm, paper…and candy!

Fresh into the world is the Desk Daisy– a little potted plant that has 3 stems full of paper clip “petals”, held in place by magnets. Perky, huh?

Also new to the market are Chewdrivers…little interchangeable tool handles that can be fitted with a knife, fork, and spoon. This one was challenging to figure out, but it came out well and works like a charm.

Last but not least, I spent a good part of summer ferrying kids to and from the Swamp Meadow Summer Children’s Theatre. They did a very fun musical called “Olivia”, which was something like a female “Oliver” but with all new songs, and a totally different plot. Anyhoo, I did the art that was used for the playbills, t-shirts, and media stuff.

That’s all for now… we now return you to your regularly scheduled blog posts!

RISDworks

Check out the current front page of the RISDworks website!
Calf and Half was in the December issue of Oprah’s O at Home Magazine, in which they put a link to RISDworks. That’s the Rhode Island School of Design’s museum shop that features alumni-designed products.

I took a whole batch of pictures of the newly opened Chace Center (where you will find the shop)… I’ll definitely try to get those up here soon!

FRED Goes Global

Boston Global, that is. There is an article in today’s Boston Globe about the delightful company I work at, FRED.

For those of you who have wondered, yes, Fred is a real guy, and this is what he looks like (albeit slightly loonier looking in this photo than in real life. Slightly.)

I was not at the office the day they did the article, but they did call out a couple of my products: a mention of Dust Bunny, and a photo of Calf and Half.

But wait…what’s that? Zoom in a little…

Holy cow! I’M FAMOUS!
Haha…I didn’t notice I was technically in there the first couple of times I saw this.
I promise not to let my new-found fame change me.

You can read the real article here, which has been freely and wantonly stolen from the Fred site. Huzzah!

Holy Cow…A New Product!

I have a new Fall 2008 product out via the FRED company (where I have been on staff for lo these almost-17 years).
I do think it came out nicely if I do say so myself.
It’s a little double-walled glass creamer called Calf and Half:

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This little product has been receiving a lot of blog love. Here are some of the blogs I have found it on:

NotCot

DustBowl

WooHome

GizmoBlog

Liqurious

TrendsNow

Thanks for the luv!
If anyone sees this item out in the world, do give a holler!

New Stuff Sightings in Mystic

Mystic, Connecticut is a great town that’s close enough to us that we can visit it often. And we do.I found some of my stuff on a recent outing there:

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 Bank Square Books is a sweeet little independent bookstore- I love them, because they HAVE MY BOOK! They put it with the pop-ups alongside the Sabuda/Reinhart ones. Hmmm, interesting choice. I usually find it in the baby/toddler section (if I find it at all)!

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Here’s a cute little shop in Olde Mystic Village called Hammen Home. Love the yellow paint and blue trim! It’s an extremely cool, bright shop, and I’m NOT just saying that because they have a bunch of my products there:

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Next to the Smart Cookies you can see some intriguing little Japanese collectibles that I couldn’t resist- ReMent (?) puts them out- the series I bought contained the world’s cutest, bitsiest, retro-ist tea sets ever!

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MAN, that’s cute! I put this set on my perpetually Irish shelf. It matched the leprechauns.

Spotted at Mystic Aquarium: a healthy dose of Snack Attacks!

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Thanks again for the exposure, Mystic- we’ll be back! 

Magazine Roundup!

Some of my products have shown up in some rawther nice magazines lately:

Holy cow, Cool Jewels was in Oprah’s O At Home Winter 2007 magazine!

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And check out the February 2008 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine- they featured two of my items this month:

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You can see some of the development sketches for these items on my Giftware Page on my website.
You can also visit the FRED blog and see lots more product sightings…woohoo!