My Toys

(left to right) aardman's shaun the sheep; lady & the tramp; the little mermaid; le petit prince; pixar's trademark bouncy ball; goofy; smee from captain hook.

I was dusting my bookshelf and forgot I had such a comprehensive collection of toys from my favorite... everything! Away in a box somewhere is my complete collection of The Incredibles McDonald's Happy Meal toys. I also have a Pixar lamp, a Where the Wild Things Are plush backpack, a Wallace & Gromit puzzle, a Ponyo paper wind-up toy, and a Wall-E tote bag. HUGE NERD.

And this is my small but meaningful elephant collection. The center guy is the first elephant I've ever sewn. He's what started it all! Then the other elephants are from either my or a friend's travels in Prague, India, Mexico, and Vietnam.

That's all. I just felt like sharing. I'm feeling like a kid today.

Starting Early This Year....

New Valentine's Day cards in progress!

Merry Christmas, Zachary

A mom messaged me on Etsy asking if I could sew a plush letter Z for her son. I wasn't taking orders for the rest of the year but I decided to make this special case my one exception. A couple days ago, she shared the letter Zachary wrote to Santa:

Dear Santa, I want a stuffed letter Z for Christmas. My name Zachary starts with a letter z. Z is for Zachary. I want a Z because it is a Ziggy Zaggy letter. Do you know I go to bed for Santa Claus to come and I make that zzzzzz sound? Love Zachary

Dawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww :)

The Z is on his way!

Renegade Craft Fair SF!

Hoorah hoorah! If find yourself in the Bay Area & still in need of presents this weekend, hop on over to Renegade Craft Fair at the Concourse Exhibition Center (620 7th St) in San Francisco!  This is the last fair of of my show season and I feel like this may be THE BIG ONE (lol). 

 I'll be sharing my booth (#45 upstairs) with Faheema of Unicorn Crafts again so get ready for a cute overload! My dear friends Small Adventure, Janie XY, Casa Murriguez, Homako, and many more will be out and selling their goodies. Show some love & give the gift of handmade! There will also be the usual DIY crafts, photobooth, DJ and food galore :)

I can't thank ya'll enough for the love this year. See you this weekend!

Unique LA!!

Wow what a wee(eeee!)kend! The best ever yet! As you can tell from the quiet of my blog, I've been busy preparing for the upcoming holiday fairs and Unique LA wiped me out clean! So much for being prepared ;) I debuted my arm/hand mufflers, and needless to say they were a cozy, warm hit.

 Dressed in denim & ready to vend! My dress is by my good friend & designer Jill Yee. Photo by Scott.

 

flustered vending. so many people & smiles!

 

Best photobooth set up ever. Happy holidays from {Paper & Type} & yours truly. I've always wanted a fro so I was pretty ecstatic to see it as a prop. And there's my muffler!

 

Kevin & I wish you happy holidays as well ;)

Kevin & I made our way to Figaro just down the street from his house to celebrate by candlelight & eating mussels. Nom nom.

Discover Paper also snapped some delightful photos of my stuff. Thank you to everyone who visited. I'm always happy to see new & old friends, and match faces with etsy usernames. See you next weekend at Renegade Craft Fair LA!

HARK! Holiday Art Show at Kaleid Gallery!!

Huzzah huzzah! My very last art show of the year & it's a good one. At least I like the pieces I contributed :) I usually sell prints and almost never the originals, so this is your destination if you want an original to give or have. More info below!

KALEID Gallery invites you to join us for our annual holiday art show & sale featuring 45 artists from KALEID as well as additional artists from the greater San Jose area. 

Original works of art at affordable prices perfect for gift giving!

Exhibit opens and sale begins with an Artists' Reception on First Friday, Dec. 2nd at 7pm and runs through Jan. 6, 2012.

The reception is part of the South FIRST FRIDAYS art walk in downtown San Jose. More info at http://www.SouthFirstFridays.com

Facebook RSVP

BLACK FRIDAY SALE on etsy!

WAHOO! It's the holiday of feasting and giving thanks, and because I can't share turkey with all of you, I'll share my gratitude in the form of giving... free shipping & a surprise gift!


No need to brace the winter brrrr. Stay indoors and visit my etsy shop for all your holiday needs from cards to holiday gifts and cuddly squishy plush friends to keep you company under blanket forts. The sale is for one day only so hurrrrrrry! :)

BIG HAPPY THANK YOU to YOU!

MARCEL THE SHELL IS BACK!!

Marcel is back! Ahhhhh... READ ON!

A morning bike ride to the shore

Patchwork Holiday Festival - Nov 13 in Culver City

Hello hello folks. I've been quiet in the blogging world because I've been running around between the Bay Area & Los Angeles, preparing for my FIVE craft fairs in FIVE weeks! INSANE! The first one is TODAY! My darling Kevin (aka the boy in Clink) will be handling all things Le Petit Elefant in my absence. I told him to wear a striped shirt to help break the ice a little ;)

So swing by! All the holiday goodies will be there, along with new elephants & narwhals sporting my newest fabric acquisitions.

Patchwork
Nov. 13, Sunday
11am-5pm
Helms Bakery (Venice & National Blvd)

2012 Calendar Assembly

A behind the scenes look at the production!

My Canon printer + Victoria's Canon printer = speeeeeedy production

We used my printer to print on the kraft bags. So so pretty.

Trimming & collating station.

2012 Calendar by Le Petit Elefant + Paper and Type IS HERE!!

We decided to try a different approach & theme while keeping all the good parts of last year's calendar... This 2nd collaborative calendar is seasonal, correspondence-themed, monochromatic & of course, perforated for your art-keeping pleasure. We sold out last year so get 'em while you can! :)


Find them here: Etsy / Modern Mouse / Flockshop / Sweet Breams / Renegade Craft Fair LA & SF / Patchwork / Unique LA

Spike Jonze: Mourir Auprès de Toi

Spike Jonze: Mourir Auprès de Toi on Nowness.com.

This stop-motion short is amazing (with some humorous skeleton boning [HA!]).
You can read Mr. Jonze's interview about the short on nowness.com. Thanks for sending, kb :)


I'm on an animation kick because I went to the Animation Show of Shows last
night and will probably go again tonight (NERRRRRD! :). I highly recommend!

Google is so cool today

Happy 100th birthday, Mary Blair. You've certainly inspired me.

RegrETSY: How to avoid a terrible Etsy transaction

I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with an etsy shop seller who didn't share my views of customer service.  I feel like you should always do what you can to make the customer happy. A happy customer is a returning customer. An unhappy customer, like me, will never shop there again and share the terrible experience on the internet :)

However, instead of turning this into a rant, I'm divulging so that you can perhaps learn along with me. There were mistakes made on both ends, and lots to take away. So, here's what happened (or if you don't want to read this part, just scroll to the bottom):

I purchased two washi tapes. I noted the positive reviews and didn't bother looking at her shop policies (my 1st mistake!).

Then, two weeks later:

Nothing. One month comes around...

4 days later...

 She replies!!

Good: saying sorry, repeating shop policy
Not-so-good: essentially bribing me with half of what I paid for in exchange for keeping me quiet. If it's in your ability to send me something, you do it in hopes that I'll be happy & comment: "package was lost but seller had great service and set new ones immediately!" Do not offer a tape as part of a condition.

At this point, I was pretty upset:

Her reply:

And that's that. It was indeed a loss on both ends. We both did our part in escalating the situation. I feel like if she didn't add the 'agree to not leave negative or neutral feedback' bit things may have concluded better. And I could have been nicer and more understanding in my replies.

So! What I learned:

• DO: immediately reply to customers/sellers
• DO: read store policies and feedback
• DO: always apologize if something goes awry, even if it isn't your fault
• DO: try your hardest to make your customers happy (offer discount, free shipping, an extra something)
• DO: make exceptions to help them.

When I did my training at Modern Mouse, a significant chunk was spent refining how to approach and work with customers. This included reading a reaaaaally enlightening excerpt from Zingerman's Guide to Giving Great Service, which outlines 5 basic steps to handling customer complaints:

1. Acknowledge the customer's complaint.
2. Sincerely apologize.
3. Take action to make things right for the guest.
4. Thank the customer for complaining.
5. Write it up. 

Of course, not everyone sees customer service like this. I haven't always been the best with it, but the regretsy experience has taught me a lot. Hopefully it will show in future orders!

To end this post, here are some fun facts Eleen (Modern Mouse's owner) pointed out in our customer service guidelines:

• Research indicates that customers who complain are likely to continue doing business with your company if they feel that they were treated properly.
• It's estimated that as many as 90% of customers who perceive themselves as having been wronged never complain, they just take their business elsewhere.
• Are they worth it? So, angry, complaining customers care enough to talk to you, and have not yet decided to take their business to the competition. They are customers worth saving.
• You can learn more from the difficult customer than you could ever learn from your most loyal customers. Difficult customers tell you where it hurts.
• Research has shown that just a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to 25% to 100% growth in profits.

Have a peek!

new card in progress!

Vacation in NYC, part 2

So another reason why I visited NYC was to celebrate Daniel Nayeri's latest young adult book, Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow. He's also an editor at Clarion, as well as an aspiring international spy and former pastry chef. His wife (she is the SWEETEST!) and I were wearing nearly matching Anthropologie dress too ;)

My painting's the blue one!

Kevin using the in-gallery telephone booth.

Union Square doodling.

A little Fat Cat Scrabble fun with the folks.

My boop trying so hard to make up for my suckiness at pool. It's genetic. My sister & I played the longest, worst game of pool against each other. It's safe to say we both lost because our friend made us stop.

Kevin + Lassen & Hennig's Ugly

JENS!! You have my heart.

My sister & I carved pumpkins for the first time EVER!

FREE chinatown ice cream factory ice cream! Thanks Scout Mob! :)

Jim Henson exhibit at AMMI, Queens

Fish's Eddy!

Clink for customers!

 

Daniel & Kimmi met over a cup of coffee.

And this is a soon-to-be-married couple's story of how they fell in love... in Clink form!