fantasy luv spectacular

there’s a cool event taking place tonight at space 15 twenty in LA, the location of one of our newest free people stores.  they’re having a special “valentine’s fantasy luv spectacular” with a pop-up shop and a performance by sister act pearl harbor. really mellowed out, warm and fuzzy pop – perfect music as you browse for last minute gifts for your sweetie…

images.

back to work…

technically we didn’t actually have a snow day yesterday- there were a brave few who ventured out, despite blizzard warnings, and came to work for a couple of hours! but by mid afternoon everyone had been sent home.  when we came in this morning, this snowman was outside one of the navy yard buildings welcoming everyone back :)

a day in the life

we thought it would be fun to give you a little glimpse into the world of some of our fp girls, so to start out, we followed one of our designers for a week! we watched as she designed a garment from start to finish, had some of her designs tested out on a fit model and presented concepts and finished items to our design team. i can’t show you too much yet, but here’s a preview of what you’ll see in the video (coming soon)! stay tuned!

DSC_0592 crop

IMG_0259

DSC_0614

DSC_0618

DSC_0638

DSC_0659

special wednes-diy guest blog post!

not too long ago some friends from work told me about the site nice package, and ever since i’ve been hooked…they use very simple, pretty materials to create packaging ideas that are so unique and creative.  i was on their site recently and saw they had a new product – an inspiration kit called “i left my heart in paris.” i thought it was so cute – and they were nice enough to put together a guest blog post about where they draw their inspiration, just in time for valentine’s day! please welcome the lovely ez and marichelle!

Hi everyone!  We are Ez and Marichelle, the fun-loving duo behind the creative packaging line Nice Package.  We’re so excited that we were invited here today to share a little bit about what went into one of our newest products: I Left My Heart in Paris.

In one of our brainstorming sessions last month we started talking about Inspiration Kits and how great it would be to make up mini collections that include bits and pieces of our favorite things to inspire our customer’s creative projects.  We both adore Paris, Air Mail envelopes, love letters, and vintage inspired ephemera and decided to group all these ideas into our first limited edition kit: I Left My Heart in Paris.

We like to think of our DIY Inspiration Kits as the perfect go-to sources for an instant pick-me-up.  The creative possibilities with our kits are as limitless as your imagination.  We used ours for Valentine cards, gift tags, and scrapbook pages.

Some ideas:
kit-paris-2

kit-paris-3

kit-paris-4

paris-extra-II

Come visit us on our site for more great products, and be sure to check out our blog for some fabulous freebies and DIY projects.
xo Ez + Marichelle

eiffel tower image source.

thanks so much ladies!!!

bonnarooooooo

this year’s bonnaroo lineup is being announced today…starting at noon today, they began revealing one artist at a time every 5 minutes on their myspace page.  pretty annoying actually…anyway it is going on right now if you want to check it out here.  so far, among the performers they’ve announced are the avett brothers, weezer, phoenix, the xx, ok go, jay z, theivery corporation, jimmy cliff and the flaming lips performing “dark side of the moon” with stardeath and white dwarfs.

i know it’s not over yet but i’ll admit, with the exception of jimmy cliff (which is rad), i’m a little disappointed.  maybe because i was at the second bonnaroo when the headliners were neil young, widespread panic and the dead.  it seems like each year it gets a little more mainstream.  what do you guys think?

on a more positive note, i love this photo shoot by dan martensen that was taken at bonnaroo ’08 (i was there that year, too)! as i mentioned yesterday, martensen shot our new february catalog, and our team was very inspired by this photo shoot – i can see why!

dm1

dm2

dm4

dm5

dm6

dm10

dm7

dm14

source.

survey & giveaway!!

guess what everyone?! we want to give away another one of these adorable little coin purses! i love the colors in this one…it’s so cute.  want it? just click HERE and fill out the quick survey about our blog*.  make sure you fill out the whole thing and enter your email address so that we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner! we will randomly select a survey participant in one week as the winner.

thanks and we look forward to hearing your opinions!!

*please note- due to legal reasons, this contest is only open to US residents.

house in the country

dan martensen is the photographer who shot our new february catalog, and his home in upstate new york was recently photographed for the selby – words can not express how much i love his home! i want a place like this one day…lots of wood and oriental carpts, and a fireplace that i can fill with candles…

9_21_09_DanShannan09510

9_21_09_DanShannan09540

9_21_09_DanShannan09516

9_21_09_DanShannan09533

9_21_09_DanShannan09525

9_21_09_DanShannan09530

check out more photos of his and model shannan click’s amazing home here.

and stay tuned for a post later today about our new february catalog and the inspiration behind it!

eggs with love

how cute is this for a valentine’s day breakfast?!

instructions:

heat up a pan with a little bit of oil. set your cooker to a low heat or you will burn the eggs. place your heart shaped cookie cutter in to the center of the pan, with the smooth side down or you might end up scratching the pan.

crack an egg and pour it in to the center of the cookie cutter. a bit of egg will probably slip under the cutter so hold it down to ensure that most of it doesn’t.

use a spatula to remove any excess egg from the outside of the cookie cutter. remove the cookie cutter and let the egg cook for a few more seconds before removing it with the spatula.

you can use this same method for heart-shaped pancakes too!

source.

winter wonderland…

i am in awe of these sculptures…the timing is also pretty appropriate, seeing as we’re expecting a bit of snow here in the northeast this weekend…

they’re from the sapporo snow festival, an annual event in japan that attracts about two million people who come to see incredible snow statues and sculptures like these.  this year’s snow festival actually starts today and lasts through thursday february 11.

page0_blog_entry68_1

IMAG0091

sapporo-snow-festival-1

SapporoSnowFestival152

2254748878_a32076c7c1

these snowmen were made by festival-goers, who tied messages of good luck around their necks.