We Love a Good Quote

Made this quote using the Rhonna Designs iphone app and Instagram.  The background is a photo I took of a recent art project. The swatch of paint was still drying and the brushstrokes really stood out because it was in that in-between stage and it  just looked so rich, so I snapped a photo!  Now with the instagram editing, it kind of looks like one of those popular chalkboard backgrounds!   I'm sure I'll be using this background again!

You can follow us on instagram here if you're interested!   If you're a puppy lover, you'll get a kick out of all the pics of our new, 7 week old mini goldendoodle, Mabel!  We're all in love with her and she's a good little girl!

Summer Gift Market Time

The Atlanta and Dallas gift markets have ended, but still yet to come is the Denver and Las Vegas markets!

We are not personally attending any markets this summer because we've been hard at work creating for some exciting NEW opportunities for 2014!  We just wrapped up the creating portion and got 2 large boxes in the mail on Monday and boy did it feel gooooood (and a little scary) to send it out into the world!

We hope that retailers are checking out our brand new alphabet collection and ordering our new Christmas line for the upcoming holiday season at the summer markets!  It never ceases to amaze us and we hope we never forget how blessed we are that out of the bazillions of incredible choices that retailers have, they somehow choose us.  We are truly thankful!

It only drives us a teensy bit nuts to see our facebook feeds light up with other people's market photos and stories - so we are always overjoyed when someone takes the time to share photos with us! 

Here are some photos of our "This Thing Called Family" display in Atlanta:

Our new alphabet collection features individual letter tiles, photo frames and words-of-welcome plaques that can be combined to create your own unique message!

Mama Winger's skinny abc's are new! They come in 3 different themes:  home, family and spiritual.

This photo is currently featured on the DEMDACO facebook page!

Here are some more ideas on how our new alphabet program can be used to create a personalized message in your home:

You can find out more about the story behind how this collection came to be by going here.

If YOU are a retailer attending the remaining markets in Denver or Las Vegas, we'd LOVE it if you'd snap a photo of TTCF in the DEMDACO showroom!  You are welcome to upload photos directly to our facebook wall!  Extra brownie points if YOU are in the photo too, because YOU are what has made TTCF a success!  :-)

*Check out Gabby's Gifts online store!  They now carry the letter tiles, word plaques and frames to create your own wall!  

We Love a Good Quote

It's not that anything particularly "trying" is happening around here - but I ran across this quote the other day and loved the wording, so I wrote it down in my quote journal.  

It's fun to fiddle around with the all of the fun photo editing apps for iPhone.  It's like a little creative exercise you can do anywhere! I made myself  a variety of "backgrounds" by snapping pics of different scrapbook paper patterns.  This quote was made by using the new app by Rhonna Designs and Instagram.

Here's what I came up with---

If you love this quote, pin it!

DEMDACO Look Book for Summer Markets!

If you are a retailer heading to any of the summer gift markets this month in Atlanta, Las Vegas or Denver, be sure to check out DEMDACO's latest Look Book video to see what all's new.  We still can't believe we get to be amongst such amazingly talented artists.  Aren't they all amazing?!  It's always a joy to see all of their newest designs!

You can find out more about our new summer alphabet collection for "This Thing Called Family"  from this earlier blog post.

We also have a really fun new Christmas line and a collection of mom rules too that have been a big hit! So be sure to check those out as well!

Happy Fourth Of July!

May all you Wingers out there have a great day full of family, fun and fireworks!

Do you have any Fourth of July traditions beyond the usual?  Please share!

One year I was FORCED to do sparkler dances.  Some of us were more enthusiastic than others....

"Parade of Homes" Art

Right around the time of the Iowa Arts Fest our town also has its annual Parade of Homes.

We have a friend Kimberlee who, along with her husband, is one half of the Design/Builder team of Rocca Custom Homes.  Kimberlee used to own a gift shop/custom framing business where we sold our originals.  Now they're having a blast designing, building and putting their creative and engineering talents to good use in their beautiful homes!

Kimberlee asked Green Girl if she'd be willing to do some special artwork to decorate their parade home. Of course Laura was all over it!

Here's what she came up with:

God's Top Ten aka the Ten Commandments

For the mudroom:

Kids' Bathroom:

You would NOT BELIEVE how many people came up to us at the Iowa Arts Fest and said they'd seen the parade home and loved the artwork!  I have a feeling Laura will be doing some special order versions of these from all of the publicity! We owe Kimberlee a big thanks for the exposure -  talking us up and handing out our business cards!  It was a great opportunity!

What Is It You Want To Do "Someday?!"

We are obsessed with words and quotes - you've probably already figured that out about us.

Here's a great message I just came across and spent a little time making it into a graphic by using the A Beautiful Mess app on my iphone.  So fun to play around with!

I thought I'd start sharing quotes more often with ya'll so today I took some 'background' photos of patterned paper and solid swatches of paint that would make good backgrounds to add layers of words and doodles on top.

Here's my first attempt:

Let me know if you're interested in more details on how I made this on my phone.
For now, enjoy the message!  ....or resent the message if you're a procrastinator like me.

What is it you say you'll do "someday?"

Feel free to pin it!