Let's Keep it Fresh

I clearly have been enjoying my summer and have not been working on our blog, Litsy Letters. Well summer has been fantastic but, is rapidly coming to an end and it is time to start thinking about kids going back to school and getting myself back to work. It is the time of year when everything is “fresh” and new, a new classroom, new school supplies and at Litsy new artwork.

I get this feeling of excitement when school starts for the kids, I too get to start new projects and for me that means focusing on Litsy Designs. It is time for Litsy to get “fresh”, to paint new designs and to come up with new ways to look at some of our favorite designs. I ask myself, what should we paint and how can we take a favorite design and make it new again?

I do not have to look far for an answer to the second question. One of my favorite Litsy Designs plaques is “black and white swirls”. I love it, for its classic floral design and the simplicity of its colors, it can fit easily in any decor and can say anything. I decided I liked this plaque so much that I wanted one for my house, but I wanted it on a canvas. I love how it turned out! On canvas, the color seems even more crisp and the solid black edge really makes a statement. It is larger than the plaque, which is another reason why it is so appealing to me. The question then was, what should I paint on it and where should I hang it?

I tried to remember what our clever customers have asked us to paint on their “black and white swirls” plaque and I remembered; a family name (to hang by the front door), a monogram (for a college dorm room), a brides new last name with the date of her wedding (Jones…est. 2009), the word “laundry” (to label a door in the house that is often mistaken for the bathroom by her guests), and “give thanks” (a mother trying to remind her family of a very simple message). All are great ideas and even some new ways to decorate your home with Litsy plaques. I decide to paint “be thankful” and hang it on my kitchen wall. It looks perfect! It could easily have gone in my dining room, but I loved the way the black and white popped off my red walls.

As for the first question, “what can we paint”? Based on a suggestion from one of our facebook fans, Lisa has already started with a darling lion named Roy (short for Royal). She is also working on a fancy fish and a very happy whale. I have started a rocket ship and a bold floral design that with any luck will be as popular as the “black and white swirls”.

Litsy Designs is focusing on staying “fresh”, by creating new designs and coming up with new ways to display your Litsy plaques or canvases. We want our customers to have plenty of new plaque and canvas choices this fall and going into the holiday season. Be sure to visit the website often to check for new designs. We have just started selling our original hand-painted canvases on our website, there will be just one for each new design, so if you love it be sure to buy it. Most will be available as giclee reproductions and offered in a variety of sizes.

Patsy

Inspiration

Inspiration…it is easy to find this time of year. Everywhere I look, I see it, and better yet feel it in all the good things that are happening right in front of me. School is coming to an end, and we finally get to let go of the schedules and just breathe. Summertime is full of hot days and endless sun. Days filled with laughter and smiles. What can be more inspiring than seeing the sun on our kids bright carefree faces as they bask in the warmth and glow of a perfect summer day.

The sun, yellow, a great color for this time of year. I have already seen so many beautiful yellow things; it is obvious that it is a color of the season this year. A lovely yellow bud vase, a simple find from Anthropologie, filled with my favorite early summer flower, the peony. At the local nursery, I try to envision my flower pots… do I want them all one color with a variety of flowers or do I pick some wonderful combination of different flowers and colors, one we would want to paint, pinks and oranges or yellows and whites and a hint of bright green?

I have these great yellow sunflower pillows from Pottery Barn on my porch rockers. I love to sit on my front porch with a tall glass of lemonade and rock as the day turns to night and the kids wait to catch firefly bugs. Oh how we love those tiny flashes of light… summertime.

We will spend endless days at the pool where the water is sparkling blue. I love to see what patterns and colors are on the kids’ swimsuits or even on one of those great giant beach towels. What will inspire us? I did see a yellow polka dot bikini at Old Navy while I was searching for suits for my kids. The suit made me smile. Although I loved it for its color and nostalgia, I am not sure my 13 year old would have appreciated wearing it as much as I would have loved to see her in it.

Ice Cream… we will eat it often and perhaps even have an ice cream sundae party. Sundaes made in the perfect bowls, Lisa found these bowls at Anthropologie, and they are the perfect size for a sundae topped with a cherry (perfect for cereal and pasta as well). She has two of every fun color - her children love them - so much more exciting than her old white ones.

As for Litsy Designs, it may have been for less than 30 seconds, but I saw them. Three Litsy canvases on Grey’s Anatomy during the season finale, and guess what, they were a yellow duck, a green frog on a yellow background and a dinosaur painted orange with yellow spots. In a moment meant to inspire two doctors, they passed quickly by the canvases and into the children’s ward. We still remember with great pride the day we were called and asked to paint those canvases. When I see them hanging on the set, I am always filled with a sense of excitement, similar to the one my children have right now as they can hardly wait for the first day of summer.

Patsy

Sometimes we find ourselves doing the strangest things, something completely out of our comfort zone...that is what Litsy Letters is for me. Litsy Letters is our company's new blog and this is the first post from Litsy Designs.

Four years ago, out of a passion for art and a desire "to do something" more with our lives, Lisa and I started our company Litsy Designs. It is a web-based store that sells personalized children’s name plaques and canvas art for children's rooms and spaces. Out of the same desire to be creative comes a personal passion to design, not only name plaques and canvases, but also living spaces. So, when Litsy Designs bought an ad in a local publication, “Premier Baby and Child”, and in return the magazine offered to feature a bedroom with our unique art, we were given our first opportunity to design a bedroom and display our artwork.

My daughter, Maddie (12 at the time) and I had been working on her bedroom, so her room was an easy choice to feature in the magazine. She was ready for a change in her space (tweens want to change their rooms as often as they do their clothes). She was getting older and felt like her room was “babyish” she wanted a bedroom that was a bit “cooler”. New walls and new bedding were her demands and I was happy to take on this project. I love to create “spaces”, yet she was determined to leave her mark on it. She picked the paint color, a fabulous shade of green, called “Dancing Green” from Sherwin Williams, I highly recommend, not only for a tween, but for any baby nursery, girl’s room or even a boy’s room (it would be fantastic for a jungle themed room). She picked bedding from Pottery Barn Kids along with a chair and accessories from Pottery Barn Teen, and of course the walls were to be covered in our favorite Litsy Designs canvases.

Painted in that lovely shade of green, the room was now a perfect backdrop to display our work. A favorite painting of both Lisa and I, the “Dream Big” canvas (the “Imagine” canvas would have worked just as well), seemed just right to hang over her bed and what great inspiration for an “almost teen”. We then needed “something” for over her desk where there was a blank “canvas” so to say, and so I created a monogram canvas just for her, something to look up at during a break in her studies. She now has a beautiful room and a fresh space to call her own.

Maddie is now 13 and is still very happy in her room and only when the newest Pottery Barn Teen catalog hits the mailbox do I hear any rumblings of, “Oh this bedding would be great in my room”. I realize that we will most likely end up changing the bedding one more time. I know too that in the near future, I will also be creating new designs for a Litsy line for teenage girls.

As for the magazine story, we showed the readers, the perfect audience, new moms, how to take your child’s space from nursery to little girls room in an article we called “Room to Grow” a perfect title for what we had created. The vision was simple as we played with what was on the walls, changing out a birth announcement and name plaques and canvases to create both a serene space for the baby and a “cool” spot for a growing girl to rest her head.

Litsy Letters is one of many new things we are doing at Litsy Designs this spring. We delved into the world of Facebook, and would love for you to become a fan. When you become a fan of Litsy Designs, you will be entered in a contest to win a $200 gift certificate. Encourage your friends and family to become fans too. Also, check out our store specials and get coupon codes from our Facebook page.

Getting this blog going took far longer than I ever imagined. In the future, Litsy Letters will of course cover the latest and greatest news from our company, but we are going to also let you know what inspires us; what we find or see while searching for inspiration for our designs and spaces. It may be a great paint color, a beautiful shoe or dress, some fantastic bedding, towels, a throw, a pillow, a book, stationery, or even a quote. We will share with you these great finds that make us smile, and we will also let you know where you can buy them.

Patsy