Happy Holidays

This is a short Happy Holiday post for our followers and readers.

 Before we leave for the January Atlanta show next Wednesday I hope to have Part II of Everything You Need to Know About Trade shows out to you.

Then when we get back I’ll have lots to show and tell about the show.

Savannah Afternoon mug

The Burton and Burton new Spring Showroom will be displaying my new Savannah Afternoon collection. I hope vendors and you will be as excited about it as I am.

The weather outside is frightful
But in here it’s so delightful

This is a good time to show off a few of our Christmas products.

Ho Ho Ho
Santa

This cute little pillow is a delightful needlepoint that our Friend Sonja made from our original whimsical Santa design.The original was a needlepoint stocking kit by Dimension.

I keep it out all year round! The design has also been a Christmas tote for Jean Marie Creations , a needle point kit and one of a set of Holiday Gift card Holders.

A New Yorkers dream

I grew up in the West Bronx which at that time still had lots of green trees and grass. But it wasn’t the country, and  I was always fantasizing about living in the country. For that reason I loved painting this woodland scene for Current. It was used on a number of their products including stationery and computer papers.

                                                            

Snowman and Friend

Holiday season as a child meant lots of snow, freezing cold fingers and toes, rosy cheeks, sleigh riding on our flexible flyers down the hill and the happy sounds of lots of kids making their snowmen. This memory inspired The Snowman and Friend design which originally was used as a holiday tote design for Jean Marie Designs,  and also as a card design.

Gingerbread Tree

My sister Pat and I always dreamed of having a tree like this. Although we celebrated Christmas and Hanukah my parents drew the line when it came to a tree. Painting this one gave me a lot of joy. Dennis created the design to fit it into so that it made a lovely little tableau. I was reminded of this yesterday when we did the annual tour of holiday store windows on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Tiffany Holiday window 2012

Saks window

Yesterday along with our good friends Barbara and John we enjoyed the holiday windows on upper Fifth Avenue. My two favorites for nostalgia were the lovely  Tree and Staircase in one of the Tiffany windows.The Tiffany displays were very small, approximately 15″ x 12″. My other favorite was this Saks window of a snowman and little boy with his dog. Of course the dogs tail wagged!

Sisters

The holidays are a time to share with those you love.Pat, my older sister, had me tagging along wherever she went, invited or not. That’s me on the left.

Christmas cookies

Holidays are a great time to enjoy all the goodies of the festive season That’s what insired me to paint these wonderful Christmas cookies for Woman’s Day magazine.

Pat

Brothers at holiday time Dennis and Fred Kendrick

Niece Briana and Aunty Andy

And best and most of all it’s a time to be with those you love. And have lots of fun.

Happy 2013

We hope you all had very happy holidays and wish you a wonderful New Year full of all good things.

Time to fulfill that resolution to become a follower of our blog.

warmly,

Andrea and Dennis

IN BETWEEN THE ATLANTA POSTS -The great cake baking caper

I did say at the start that among other things this blog would include events in our lives that impact on our work and creativity. Just what do we need to do to nurture that creativity? Inspiration can be drawn from many different  experiences.  Coincidentally, as I was thinking this I went to my friend Joana Miranda’s wonderful blog A Talent for Design, I found the idea of “make time to play” especially pertinent.

With fun on our minds and a significant birthday coming up for our tall, gray and handsome brother-in-law my sister Pat and I decided to bake the cake! I may add that this was the first time either of us had undertaken to decorate a birthday cake. We didn’t know what to expect except that this was an adventure. Explorers were we.

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Sister Witches

We came up with the idea of dressing as witches to make this all much more fun. Our wonderful witch hats came from Cracker Barrel!

We hoped that by chanting spells such as Double Double Toil and Trouble, Cauldron boil and caldron bubble…….and singing songs such as Witchcraft we could entice our niece and two nephews into the  kitchen to have some fun with us.

THE NEPHEWS JOSH AND ZACH

The wrapping of the cake from Tales of the Crypt

One by one they appeared in the kitchen at first to watch and then to take part in our fun. We trimmed, iced and decorated. We cut out leaves and made the grapes.

SUCCESS

The wrapping up of the cake to keep it fresh till the next day was its own ceremony. The cake was handled like gold.

Paper Tableware for Converting

The paper tableware  we used was one of my designs called Summer Berries.It was licensed to Creative Converting . In licensing as I mentioned every design can be licensed for many different kinds of products. This design was also recipe cards, memo pads and labels for The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Much  to our surprise when all was said and done everyone thought it was delicious  and gorgeous and oohed and aahed. Love went a long way in smoothing out the holes and bumps you might have noticed.

Moving forward we may even take a cake baking course either at the NY Cake and Baking Supplies. , or at a The Institute of Culinary Education.

Peony and Poppies from the Botanica collection

Botanica Lily collage

Back in my studio after the party I am finishing up my new floral designs. You may remember I wrote about them in the First Atlanta post. We put the finishing touches on them today. I am anticipating doing more in this collection including some coordinating designs.

Dennis has been hard at work also.

Pillow from the Everyday Dogs Collection

Every Day Dogs Design by Dennis

Christmas Dogs

The “Beware of the Dog’s” pillow is the start of Dennis’ new “Everyday Dogs” collection. A christmas version of this whimsical doggie design has also been licensed for fabric by Timeless Treasures. My next post will be Part 2 of the July Atlanta Show. I’ll showcase a few of the companies I met with in their showrooms and talk about setting appointments, scheduling, meeting and doing follow through.

As always remember that your comments are most welcome.