Last spring I went with my daughters to a fun fair/market at a farm in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was called the Goat Hill Fair. My girls loved looking at and buying the upcycled creations. Their favorite was jewelry made out of found and purchased objects. We...
Here at Simon+Kabuki we’ve just finalized our holiday designs. We usually finish up our holiday stationery designs for some clients in May, but others are due in July and August. Above is just a small sampling of the many cards we did this year. There were well over...
Ready to throw one last shindig for the summer? It’s still hot out and most kids have not started fall sports weekends yet. Plan an easy get together for your kids friends by picking a Friday after school. You can throw hamburgers and hot dogs on the BBQ, along...
This summer I got most of my kids back to school supplies early. Lots of glues sticks, colored pencils, folders, binders and paper. I usually take them with me so they can pick some fun stuff out or we go online and order some personalized items. We have lots of...
We just couldn’t help ourselves. We had to do a collection with puppies and kittens and we threw some birds in there as well. We had our daughter’s and all of their stuffed animals in mind when designing this happy collection. We wanted to use a fun mix of...
Is it just me or does summer break keep getting shorter? My youngest starts high school tomorrow, which is a little hard to take. I mean, he’s my baby for chrissake. And my second one is off to college next weekend- a whole state away! And my oldest is starting...
As you can probably tell from our lack of blog posts we’ve either been really busy or really lazy. I’m going with busy. Oddly we spend our time from May-July designing for Christmas. We’ve recently completed about 100 new Christmas cards for various...
I decided to have my coffee outside early this morning. My backyard is absolutely glorious with blooms right now and I don’t spend enough time enjoying it. So I sat down for about 30 seconds and noticed that some plants are crowding others and I needed to do a...
We’re doing a swim party at my house for Independence Day and here’s what’s going down: I’m making white chocolate dipped strawberries with blue sugar, it’s super easy! I found an easy recipe at barbarabakes.com. Barbara likes edible...
It’s been a while since I posted. My computer has had some serious problems and has been in the shop at Apple all week. I get to pick it up today from the Apple store lets hope it works! Its been very hard bouncing to other computers. Luckily everything was...
We’ve been super busy around here! Designing lots of Christmas cards, dishes, cell phone cases, fabric, etc. I took Friday off to take a quick trip to Lake Tahoe. I love Tahoe, the lake and mountains are beautiful, especially in the summer. I had tons of work to...
Many years ago, I sat next to a cool grandma on a plane trip. She told me she was going to pick up her grandson and take him on his 13th birthday trip… to Africa for a safari. Grandma and Grandpa take each of their grandchildren for an adventure anywhere in the...
This weekend we’ll be celebrating all the dads in our family by having a barbeque. We pretty much barbeque and swim all summer long but we like to pretend that we are getting together only for this special occasion. It’s nice to cook outside on hot days...
We are busy preparing some new collections for the Licensing Expo in Vegas next week. Our agent Jewel Branding will have lot’s of fab new stuff so swing by her booth and check it out. One of the fun new collections we are working on is all about shoes. What...
Father’s Day is fast approaching and it is time to think about what to get your dad or spouse. My dad has everything he needs so it is always difficult (a pain in the ass!) to think up something clever and fun. You could always do a fun outing together. My dad...
While in NYC for the Stationery Show/Surtex, I lucked out and found myself outside of ABC Carpet and Home store. The storefront was vintagey-cool and the window displays were works of art. I spent a couple of hours soaking in the one-of-a-kind home decor collections...
Yesterday after my two daughter’s soccer games, we headed to the Goat Hill Farm Fair. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and the drive on Highway 17 was gorgeous! My daughter’s complained the whole time about wanting to go home but once they got there...
So dreamy… Grey or gray is an achromatic or neutral color. The first recorded use of grey as a color name in the English language was in AD 700. Grey is the British, Canadian, Australian, Irish, New Zealand and South African spelling, although gray remained in...
Over the last couple of months we’ve been pulling double duty here at Simon+Kabuki. On the one hand we’ve been designing and finalizing new collections to showcase at SURTEX. This year S+K does not have a booth but our agent will be there with a large...
Target has a great new concept that they just launched. They’ve taken items from some popular stores and have curated and collected them for Target shoppers into The Shop. Much like their designer lines that they carry now, these items are available online and...
Maurice Bernard Sendak – June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012 Growing up my favorite book was Where the Wild Things Are. I still have my original copy, slightly beaten, read many times and loved tremendously. I felt like I was Max or at least his tag-along friend on a...
Hopefully by now most of us have planned out our Mother’s Day brunch, lunch or dinner and have the gift all wrapped and ready to go. Unfortunately I am not most of us! I still have to figure out what to get for my mom who has everything. The brunch part is a...
When I was in college I thought I would be getting a degree in photography. Along the way I learned that my real interest was graphic design, thanks to an astute photography teacher who noticed I always combined words with my photos. I don’t have as much time...
But he turned out okay. I love photo announcements with baby/senior pics… Whether you have a middle schooler graduating and you’re just having the fam over for a small celebration or you’re hosting a college grad party with a big crowd, there are...
Every year I struggle with ideas for Mother’s Day gifts. My mom has everything she needs and wants so it is always hard to come up with something unique that I know she will use or treasure. Some easy ideas are to just spend time with your mom. Plan on taking...
