Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Day!

This honestly doesn't really have anything to do with our design business, but the other day Madeline and I went to Half Moon Bay with some friends from church. Snapped off a few pictures for photography class, bought some pumpkins and had tons of fun. Madeline and I sped our way through all the booths and attractions they had set up downtown and became so incredibly inspired. I used to go to these types of events as a kid and think to myself, "I have to buy that. It's so unique and I need to have it" Now I walk around thinking to myself, "I can SOOO make that!" while inspecting almost every item making mental notes for later. Our original plan was to have a christmas boutique in my house for the holidays we we have settled on renting out booth space at a nearby craft fair or some sort of event, seeing that the cover fee is about the same amount we would spend on advertising and at a big event we are guarenteed a good flow of traffic. So we're just working on buisness plans, inventory and getting those STINKING business cards and then we will be on our way to actually starting this darn business already! Anyways, thanks to all the girls for such a fun day in Half Moon Bay it was awesome!

Etsy! Our own online store!

It's official! Today we opened our Etsy store. We haven't posted any items yet but our inventory is getting bigger and bigger everyday so anyday now we should officially be up and running. Don't know what Etsy is? According to their website,

"What is Etsy?
Our mission is to enable people to make a living making
things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.
Our vision is to build a new
economy and present a better choice:
Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade. "

It's kind of like a social network for crafters. It's a great place to buy, sell, admire and get inspired. The site is all about being friendly to the environment and living handmade. Essentially, it's like a storefront without paying any rent. So visit often to see what we have been making and what's new and up for sale. Thanks!

Few Of A Kind Design's Etsy Store!

What's a Christmas Boutique

Ok, I like to consider myself a pretty crafty and creative person. I love boutiquing, flea markets, arts festivals, museums, scrapbooking and countless of artsy stuff. But my mother brought something to my attention today that I have never heard of before in my life. A Christmas boutique. Apparently it's this awesome tradition that I have never heard of where you open your house to the public and have out various items for sale. The intention is to entice customers to come through and stock up on gifts for Christmas. Not only did my mother introduce me to this wonderful and profound tradition she suggested that Madeline and I give one a shot. Now, I know she is my mother and is basically obligated to love and adore my every move but I actually feel like she is starting to love our creative ideas and looking past the fact that I bring back a new piece of furniture to fix up every other day. Anyways, I sat doing the math in my head while feeling both flattered and incredibly overwhelmed. A Christmas boutique? I can only assume that means December, and it's already almost October. So Madeline, we have less than two months to put together an inventory that people would actually want to buy. Oh goodness!

I hope that by Christmas I'll be able to say that Mother really does know best.

Fabulous Cork Boards

My friend Jen and I have known each other since who knows when. We grew up together at LGCS. Although we have always been a year apart... so we've never really had the opportunity to really get to know each other. We've been going to church together, and just so happened to have a summer class together. Jen knew of my creative side and how I love refurbishing things, so she did hesitate asking for help refinishing and corking some beautiful frames... here's some pictures of the progress! I loved how they turned out in her cute purple room!

Road to Cricut

If you haven't heard of the Cricut yet than you obviously don't spend enough time browsing the paid programming available between 2 and 4 in the morning. Either way, the Cricut (correction the Cricut Expression) is an amazing tool that will simply our lives in more ways than we can even begin to fathom. It is a personal electronic cutting machine that can basically do anything. I guess this would count as giving away one of our crafting secrets but it's all paper crafting you could do with a razorblade, but in probably 1/100th of the time. This little diamond in the ruff has helped us to decide exactly where our next two whole paychecks will be going to. Prepare for an update. I'm sure we will be raving about it and posting project samples in no time.

Friendly Frames

I spent this summer sprucing up from frames as "for no reason" presents for some of my buddies and as of now I don't have any more that I plan to sell on etsy but who knows maybe later we will use these as inspiration for more frames. Enjoy!

Our 1st Big Budget "Venture"

UPDATE: Here are some pictures of the finally setup. It went pretty smoothly!

I decided to take the plunge and go to church with Madeline last sunday. The college age group at Venture Christian Church turned out to be pretty laid back and surprisingly welcoming. We didn't waste anytime volunteering our creative and decorative skills to the group. Before we knew it we were allotted a generous budget and set loose to plan and create "a warm, inviting and not too gurlie space for next sunday" Besides the Tea Party a few months back we haven't had a legit "gig" where somebody put their trust (and money) on our design abilities. We were floored to say the least.

We are looking to collect a versatile and reusable stock of base items that could last for a long time, all while on a budget. We are sticking mainly to glass items, brought in color with some fabrics, and attempted to warm up and light the space with the use of candles and lots of mirrors. We have ten tables and a stage to decorate! I know we have a weekend full of tons of sewing, painting and shopping ahead. I can't wait! We will post some pictures once we are finished! Two days and counting!

Few Of A Kind Design Explained

Finding a name:
· After making jokes and project suggestions for a few months we saw our silly little dream turning into something more serious we actually wanted to attempt. We know that every business has to start from the very bottom and why not start taking baby steps now and decide if it is something that we really could do, or even something we wanted to do.
· We knew we didn’t want to start doing anything without an official name to open accounts and hopefully create a following or fan base.

Couch Refurbishing Take II

So yesterday began part two of our chapter on couch destruction and hopefully reconstruction someday. It's officially time for school to start so no we will not be done with this "summer project" but the end of summer. Let's just shoot for finishing it before it starts to pour rain since the couch is now living outside. Kristine came over to my dad's and we spent an exhausting day tearing out hundreds of nails and staples from the frame of the couch. It's absolutely not as easy as it looks. But now that this step is done Madeline's dad is going to help with the stability of the couch and someday soon we can get some upholstery fabric and give this baby a face lift!!

Inspirational Antique Fair

While sitting down at my aunts house last weekend, she thought I'd be interested in going to an antique fair in San Juan Bautista that happens every year the first weekend in August. So, My aunt, Mother, Kristine and I headed out early Saturday morning to attend this eye opening event. Only to discover when we got there that the antique fair wasnt on Saturday......It was on Sunday. So, we cruised around the shops and got a chance of what to expect on Sunday we acctually attended the antique fair on the correct day. We also met a very kind old lady who owned one of the shops down there called Attic Angels. After we told her we were interested in running one of our own stores one day, she did not hesitate to give us business tips. Which was very kind of her. On Sunday, we cruised around for some inspiratonal ideas. It was definitely a very fun and sucessful outing that we hope to attend years to come!

Couch Refurbishing Take I

After many hours of prowling about Craigslist we came across this fabulously irristiable antique couch and matching chair. We have been wanting to take on a big refurbishing project and instantly set our hearts on ripping apart this couch. Even though we both still live in small rooms at our parents houses and the furniture set cost a small fortune, we didn't hesitate to head downtown and pick up this amazing couch from it's fairly stingy former owner who wouldn't let it go for a penny less than the posted price. After spending an afternoon carting this couch around and then visciously trying to shove it into Madeline's room through doorway we had to remove the hinges from we quickly realized you don't tear couches apart indoors. So after a few days and some minor destruction of the dusty underlying cross supports that caused our allergies to act up, back out the door the couch went. Part Two should be posted sometime soon we are determined to finish this project by the end of the summer before school starts back up!

A Very Special Birthday Present

Ever since my dear friend Karissa re-decorated her room, her lampshade always stood out to me as something that needed a little bit of sprucing up. I decided assign myself that job. With many hours of cutting and sewing on these little flowers. I think her shade was a sucess! I neatly placed her lampshade back on her lamp before she came home from vacation. Also included for her birthday were some fabulous handmade hair clips! They were kind of experimental but I think they turned out to be a pretty popular item. Since all of her friends are asking us to start making them for their birthdays also! I figured making hair clips like those would be another great thing to start producing. So keep an eye out for items like that soon!!

Meet Madeline

I am AWESOME!!! :)

Meet Kristine

“Our”t History

How Kristine And Madeline Met

Well let's see, this is an interesting story. Because neither of us even remember it. Madeline and I became close friends around the second year of high school at Presentation and to be frank, neither of us can remember why it was just sort of natural, we became friends and that was that. No problems no fights no drama and we've just been great buddies ever since. In high school we had tons of classes together and were in the same mentoring group for all four years so naturally we just met one day and started building a friendship from there. We seemed to run in different circles between art, clubs and student activities and had different core groups of friends but somehow remained close throughout high school and until today, over three years later. I don't think that either of us can pinpoint when we met because it feels like we had been friends since day one. I really can't remember a time at Presentation where Madeline wasn't my friend.

How We Work Together..... And Stay Civil
Kristine and are both insanely creative and incredibly artistic. Those are the obvious ways in which we are alike but I cannot even begin to list the ways we are different. We have completely different tastes, in everything! Scrapbooking, photography styles, fabric choices, hair styles, and especially shoes! But it’s perfect because between the two of us our ideas cover the majority of most art and design concepts. We are both relentless neat freaks and have the common trait of being what we like to call "Old Women In Training". Most kids our age spend their time living it up in the bar scene but we are the type that will go to bed early on a Friday night to get up early on Saturday for flea markets, garage sales and antique fairs. We’re coupon clipping, dumpster diving, bargain hunting, craigslist browsing twenty something’s. We’re always there to lend a hand, a fresh view point and keep crazy concept designs on track. With the two of us, it’s a never ending pattern of learning and teaching new and innovative ideas to one other. I also like to think that we are pretty great at letting each other down easy when an idea of project we came up with is a total atroscity. We know how to work with each other without wanting to kill each other.... it's that the core of any business partnership? :)

Bottom Line

We are both unique, original, artistic and incredibly inspired. We work well together and have a shared passion for visual arts and we want to share that passion with others.

Let's Call It A Spontaneous Start