And the Winner is......!

Little Gift Giving Chicks Print @ LiPeony

A number was randomly generated and the winner is...

Pesky Cat Designs!

CONGRATULATIONS! Thank you to everyone that participated and here's a 25% off coupon to my art store LiPeony. Just input the coupon code IHEARTNYC . I hope everyone have an awesome holidays and even though we may be frantic with the shopping, gift giving, partying, planning etc... remember to take some time out and relax!

Until next time... live, love and relaaaaaaaaaax!

Chibi's NYC Contest!

Green Tea Cup Spa @ LiPeony

Who else is stressed over the holidays and need a nice pick me up? Or if you're going to be visiting NYC soon then here's a little contest for you guys! I've made a mini prize of the new Chibi's Guide to NYC Eats (a limited run of a mini illustrated zine with info on some of my favorite eats in the city, also includes spaces for note taking) also a "Choose Your Three 5 x 7 Prints" from LiPeony I recently brought an extra spa voucher to Townhouse Spa in New York City and I thought it would be a great little prize for a contest! It's for a mani/pedi and also massage or facial and worth $300 (of course tip is not included so you still have to tip them) This expires October 25th 2011. I'll be sending everything in one package to the winner.

For the Chibi Luvs NYC Giveaway:
1. Mini Chibi Food zine
2. Three 5 x 7 Prints of your choosing
3. A single spa voucher to Townhouse Spa (expires 10/25/11 for mani/pedi and facial or massage)

To Enter leave a post here with your name and email (some way I can contact you) and the THREE prints you would like from my store LiPeony. On December 14, 2010 I'll randomly pull a name out. Happy Holidays to all!

Until next time... spread the cheer around...

Sneak Peek

Sneak Peek to Chibi's Mini Guide to NYC Yummies!

I'm extremely excited to give you a sneak peek of a mini food guide of my favorite places in New York City. It's going to be a couple of pages of illustrated goodness with restaurant addresses and small tips on some of my favorite eateries. I'm planning on making it about wallet sized with some blank pages for note taking and stuffs. The one above is for my "Ramen" page and I'm trying my hardest to finish some for Brooklyn Flea this Sunday that I will be vending at. I'm also planning to give a copy or two away for the upcoming NYC Giveaway I will be introducing hopefully this weekend or at the very least early next week. So keep an eye out for it!

Until next time... live, love and eat tons of good food!

DIY Flowers for Wedding? Hmm?

For a wedding for about 300 people and about 34-36 tables my friend decided to go though the DIY flower centerpiece arrangements. It took about 8-9 hours to create a bouquet of 15 roses (salmon and light pink color) for 30 odd tables. Though for the first few hours it was just two people making it but it sure got a whole lot quicker when five people were bunching them up. If you're going though the DIY route you better have time set up for:

1. re-hydrating flowers ( can take up to 12 hours)
2. make sure you have enough buckets and room to store them.
3. good pair of gloves and shears etc (if you need to de-thorn them)
(not all roses are created equal- the salmon colored one had bigger but fewer thorns compared to the pale pink one)
4. Watch or print out some DIY tutorials on how to arrange flowers.
5. great slaves... I mean friends to help you out.

All in all the flowers (600-700 roses) and four bridesmaid bouquets, 1 bridal bouquet and a throwaway bouquet (all premade) and vases roughly came out to under 2k. They were ordered from Grower's Box (For some reason they don't deliver on Mondays but the flowers did arrive earlier then expected by Fedex. They have instructions and I think they also provide some tools to help cut the flowers. The flowers were fairly fresh and looked nice) . Another similar site is Fiftyflowers. The vases the flowers were put in were at a dollar a piece came from Dollar Tree (They can ship it to the store to be picked up and let me opened and inspect every single vase before I left the store).

It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun as we all rushed to make everything ready for the wedding that turned out to be an awesome time!

On a side not I'll be vending at the Brooklyn Flea this Sunday so if you're in the neighborhood stop on by! Also I'll be announcing a new contest sometime this week and it's going to be a doozy!

Until next time... have an awesome day!

Quick Peep for Fall

Deer Girl and Her Bird Friends @ LiPeony

It's been a while since I updated and it's been busy busy! I've been helping my friend and her wedding this Thanksgiving and it's drawing mighty close! I'll have photos of the DIY things I did with help from my buddies. I'm in the middle of making tiny personalized tags for the chopstick favors and just finished creating the "money box" where people stuff monetary gifts for the couple. Wrapping fabric around a box is hard then it looks!

The uniqueness of this wedding is that its a blend of a traditional Chinese and white wedding. This is my first time as a bridesmaid it's definitely an eye opener on traditions and the actual cost and time that goes into it. There's the traditional tea ceremony where teas are exchanged with both sides of the family as a sign of respect and union. The banquet is usually around 8 different dishes (8 in Chinese sounds similar to the word "good luck") and each dish has it's own significance. For details this site explains what each dish represents Chinese Banquet. I hope to take some awesome pictures if I'm not too busy to running around.

Until then here's a little deer and fall inspired print. It took a couple hours of tweaking and putting it down and picking it up until I was satisfied! I hope everyone is having an awesome autumn!

Until next time... eat them turkey and be thankful =)

Crafts in Chelsea Wrap Up

Last Saturday I vended at Crafts in Chelsea which is a joint fundraiser between the NewNewTeam and P.S. 11. Needless to say it was a huge success! The school raised about $8,000 and imagine all the extra programs this will provide! That day was also unbelievably WINDY! There was reported 50mph gusts and I definitely do not doubt that. I was sharing a space with Linda from PurtyBird and in the midst of our stuff getting blown over, displays falling, items strewn to the wind we had a lot of frustrated fun. This was my first time really in a weather situation I found it very funny because I feel there's just so much I can do and I should just try to find the humor in the situation. Linda was the funniest and most awesome share. She was extremely helpful and very cool to talk to!

Fortunately around 12:30 we got moved to another space down on the street and it was a godsend. The wind was just a breeze, there was sunlight and it was warm. For some reason our first spot was this vortex of wind that never stopped. My display still needs a lot of work. I managed to buy some 5 x 7 binder sleeves and those are totally awesome. It makes it so much easier for people to flip though and look at my prints. They were also protected and didn't fly off thanks to the wind. I will have to buy more.That day I was surprised that many people brought prints. I ran out of my Animal Trio because people wanted to buy them for their nursery or for a baby shower.

People also brought my pins. I had taped them to my big orange box to prevent them from being blown away and that actually made it easier to browse and choose a pin. Maybe it was because of the extremely bright orange-red fabric of the box but it caught a lot of people's eyes. Also people love love bright colors. All my orange goldfish pins were sold along with my red panda pins.

Another thing I notice is that even though it's somewhat close to Christmas (maybe?) most of the people who brought stuff from me brought it for themselves. I guess it's present buying time isn't really here yet. Though I've been very busy doing custom orders which I looooove doing! So if you want some custom print (I've been doing families and weddings a lot) just pop a convo to me at LiPeony.

I also brought some awesome things at the fair too but that's for another post =D

Here's Linda from PurtyBird with her awesome felt monsters and scrabble tiled necklaces and glass tile magnets. People really liked buying small ticket items but when they did they usually brought more then one.

Here's a victory pose at the end of the fair of me and Linda! WE SURVIVED!

Here are some tips for surviving windy craft fair day (gleaned from NewNewTeam)!

1. If you are going to bring a tent bring some study weights to weight it down and also weigh down your table (s). (A lot of people bring in empty plastic cartons and fill it with water when they get to the fair)
2. Try not to put sides to the tent because it'll act like a sail and your tent can hurt someone.
3. Or better yet don't even bring a tent if you can help it.
   
4. Have lots of tape and clamps!
5. Find out the weather beforehand!
6. Have your displays laid flat (clamped securely if possible).
7. Have a container for you biz cards. You don't want those to fly away.
8. Remember if things get too hairy... breathe... you'll recall this day and laugh =)
   

Due to the success of my felt pins... I'll be bringing them back to my shop later this week =)

Until next time... don't get bloooooownnnn awaaaaaay!

Outer Space and Earth Adventures

Astronaut Chibi Girl and Bunnies @ LiPeony

Everyone was wondering what the "3,2,1 Blast Off" teaser by the Etsy Twitter was talking about. Apparently in celebration of the space program NASA and Etsy have teamed up for a CRAFT CONTEST! Basically creating an original work dedicated/inspired by space, stars, astronauts, spaceships and all that outer space goodness! The above little print is what I've sent in. This print was first drawn about a year ago but never got around to finishing it. While working on it yesterday I realized that I had to rework it from scratch as my technique evolved. You know what? I think it came out looking great =D .

The grand prize is a trip to see a real life space shuttle launch! Now that is super cool! Also your art is aboard the space shuttle too... I think. Double cool! I encourage everyone to participate as it's fun and really... I'm sure everyone has dreamed about being an astronaut at least once.. On earthly adventures. Tomorrow is going to be my first and probably last craft fair for this year at Crafts In Chelsea unless I muster something for December. November is going to be full of helping my friend prepare for her wedding! Its on 21st street between 8th and 9th avenue. Though I heard the weather is going to be mighty windy... le sigh. Good thing I've managed to buy 5 x 7 binder sleeves for my prints. I'm planning to put them into two binders so people can flip though them like a book as opposed to just laying them flat in piles which I've always done. I'm also in the process of making a banner out of felt and embroidery thread. I'll take some pictures of it when it is done. I'll be selling mostly 5 x 7 prints, frames, rest of my felt pins and cards. Hope me luck tomorrow!

Until next time... to outer space and BEYOND!