"love it" for july: FLOWIE

so flowie is one of our newest and favorite textile designers. she uses cotton and linen, or a blend of the 2, on which she screenprints by hand, her own designs.  she keeps work done on these textiles, on a local level, in the bay area where she lives. if you want to know MORE about yaling, go to yalinglou.com like we did. she is super talented and we just love her! not sure who found who but it is a match made! thanks yaling xo

interview with yaling of FLOWIE:

what was your first job and how did you end up designing textiles and creating bags and accessories?

I worked as an in-house graphic/web designer for a company in Taiwan. Then, I got married and moved back to the US. I love fashion and I love graphic design as well. So, I decided to go back to school to study textile design, which combines my both interests. While I was in school, I made myself many bags to carry my school supplies, and I received many compliments on my bags. After school, I decided to give it a try and launched Flowie.

what is your favorite piece/group/series in your work?

I love everything I designed and created. If I really have to pick one, it would be the one of new series I’m working on right now. It will be available by the end July. Hope you will love them, too!

who or what inspires you?

Most of my designs are inspired by people around me or a special event in my life. That’s why I named many of my prints after my friends. Movies are my other source of inspiration.

what three websites do you visit daily?

Design*Sponge, Dooce, Decor8

describe your ideal sunday.

Wake up and drink my morning coffee that my husband  has prepared for me. Take our dog out for a walk. Think about which color to paint our rooms (we just move into our first house). Drive to HomeDepot to buy paint supplies. Paint the wall. Take a break to watch Law and Order rerun on TV. Continue painting and decorating the house. Let our dog run in the backyard while I water the plants.

Cook a nice dinner. Go to bed early.

what do you see outside your studio windows?

Lots of trees and flowers.

the BIG news

okay, drumroll please. where is stuart copeland when you need him? (from the police, my young friends). the day to reveal the BIG NEWS has arrived, and you, kind reader, are the first to find out. i have not even been able to tell my lovely and most loyal employees/friends the news as it is after hours and they have left work or town, jumping back into their unique lives; one dancing, one writing, and one just landing in rome to teach. i myself am plopped happily in the country, in our airstream to be exact, writing about the BIG NEWS! .....we will be MOVING the store up the mall, east aways, as of, or before, september 1rst, 2008. our exact address will be 114 4rth st ne. for those of us who know the mall, that is up from 5 guys, down from daedalus bookstore on the corner, and next to novel. for those who don't, it is a hop, skip and a jump from my current location and still just right off the mall . the deal has been in the works for a bit but i just made the decision. while we will be sad to leave 2nd street nw, our home of almost 5 years, we are excited for the change and for the increase in size. don't worry, it will still be intimate and probably crowded. our hope is to offer more artists and goodies in general, including: new jewelry lines, t-shirts, more baby goods, more lamps, product, paper & card lines, accessories and whatever else will fit! we are so excited for the change. if you know my roadmap to now you know that i have enjoyed change all along. i started where pearl is now, moved to where elsie garden is now, opened a store on elliewood ave, and then opened the o'suzannah on 2nd street nw.

so there it is folks, the scoop, the skinny, in black and white, straight from the source. stay tuned for details regarding additional sale times, opening dates etc. one thing is for certain. we will be open in the new space on or before september 1rst 2008!

andiamo a roma!

in a little over a week i'm off to rome to help lead uva students through the hallowed halls of the vatican and the villa borghese. we'll wander down the via giulia (so very lovely...) and marvel at the scale of the colosseum. 

"marveling" is pretty much a state of being in rome. wowee.

it's pretty hard to complain when you're studying michelangelo, raphael, and caravaggio everyday, especially when there's gelato from giolitti at the end of the day. (and paper stores galore!)

how one "experiences" the sistine chapel these days. 

shh, don't tell anyone i snapped a photo.

still, it's hard to leave o'suz for a month -- i miss the peeps and the goods! lucky for me, a little bit of o'suz travels to roma.  let's take a tour of my daily tote.

despite being the poster child for "directionally challenged," i've spent enough time in rome to avoid getting too terribly lost.  regardless, i never leave the apartment without my moleskine rome city notebook.  these relatively new pocket-sized notebooks are a departure from the traditional guidebook -- you won't find directions or dining suggestions;  instead, a series of pages for you to fill with notes about your favorite parts of the city as you learn its landscape. never fear, one classic guidebook feature remains -- a serious map of the city, divided over many pages, with important landmarks indicated.  one of my favorite parts about moleskine city guides is that they keep the street names and landmarks in the native language of your destination.  it's never a bad thing to know that what we call the "tiber" is to italians the "tevere." perfect for a more exploratory approach to the city, and a lot lighter than my old eyewitness travel guide! 

moleskine city notebook, dwell travel case with fluffy co passport wallet, and city walks rome deck. 

also featured is my pal, andiamo, who will be a regular guest blogger in the coming weeks.

i'll also be stuffing my burt's bees lip balm, sunscreen, and various other items into my new dwell travel case. i love the transportation motifs and the fun colors, and of equal importance is how functional this petite pouch is. laminated on the outside, lined in the inside, and equipped with additional interior and exterior pockets, this is my kind of travel pouch. (and there's a larger size good for shampoo, conditioner, etc.)

super sleek and a model of organization  -- highway messenger bag

all of these goods (along with my hobo wallet, saltygal ipod cozy, fluffy co passport cover -- oh my gosh, is everything i own from o'suzannah!?!?!) will be toted daily in my spankin' new highway bag.  i've traveled a good bit in europe and have never found the perfect bag for daily use -- they're always either too big or too small, not secure enough, not durable enough, etc. but now, perfection has arrived in the form of this sleek, multi-tasking messenger.  yay for functional, attractive design! this bag has seven pockets of varying sizes so that you always know what's where; it lies flat on the body and can be worn across the chest as an added safety precaution.  it's pretty much awesome, in every way.

this is just a tiny bit of the o'suz love i'll be taking with me to roma.  stay tuned for my next post, where i'll fill you in about the little bits of italy (and paris, you francophiles you) that can be found at the shop! ciao for now, j

weekend report

so the first 3 days of the annual summer sale have come and gone, and what a whirlwind they were. the store was jammin' busy selling lots of sale and greeting lots of new faces here for the festival of the photo. the sale will go on as long as there is sale to be had, so come on in and grab some good xmas gifties early or some treats you didn't know you needed for yourself. there is jewelry, aprons, candles and soaps, books, lots of stationery packs, journals and pads, decoupage, baby goodies, single cards galore and much, much more.

also, stay tuned for some VERY BIG NEWS from o'suzannah, coming soon.

xo suz

the news on the street...

alrighty then, as promised, this blog is here to tell you the news and the news is that our BIG SUMMER SALE is about to begin. gadzooks, i know it's early but with gas prices the way they are and the heat index already breaking records, i say why not? we will begin the SALE friday the 13th, yup, your lucky day. the sale will be more contained than usual but will take on a life of its own with each passing day. we have tons to go in the sale, but we just don't have tons of room so we will put it out gradually. this means we hope to see all of you SALE lovers frequently. we open at 11am on friday and don't forget we open at 10am on saturdays, so try to get by and see the loot. we can't wait to see you!!!!

don't forget your papa!

a quick reminder that this sunday, june 15, is father's day! o'suz might not be the first place you think of when shopping for the men in your life, but we've got a boatload of cards, books, and even some gadgetry. stop by for a little treat, and wish your pops a happy day!

ode to summer

my parents at the beach in 1972.
note the handmade quality of the outfits

and the overflowing ashtray. gotta love the 70's.

this photo is always in a frame i love it so much.

JUNE: school lets out and summer vacation, for some, begins and what better place to go than the ocean, the lake, the river or even the backyard, for that matter. just outside, if at all possible, before it is so hot we all we want to be in ac and take a nap (i may have spoken to soon as we we are under a heat advisory this weekend). i am a beach gal at heart but live surrounded by mountains and trees, go figure, in a log home estimated at well over 200 years old with no watering holes of any kind in sight. needless to say my beach house does live but only in my dreams at this point, so in the summer i try to be beachy wherever possible, enjoying my many years of collected shells and photos all over the house. i love to transform my living room into a watery beach palette with aquas, greens, grays and whites (the sofa cover from ikea gets switched to white much to my huband's disbelief and terror). my rug of choice lately has been an angela adams number that i believe, sad to say, is discontinued. it's super long shag with a wavy pattern that goes by the name of "spike," and it brightens up our log living room like no other could. (we sell angela's cotton rugs if you want the next best thing to her wool ones.) oh and how i love pillows. i have a closet full, almost all from my days of retail, and switch them out constantly. many of the them are sea inspired, so these definitely make an appearance in the summer months. i especially love my linen cushions by dermond peterson. she does corals and various shells, seahorses, octopi, crabs, and fish. i love them so much i have given them as gifts to my mom and staff. we can all attest to how cool they are. she also puts these images on napkins, guest towels and cocktail napkins, all of which we sell at o'suz.

cushions by dermond peterson, snail decoupage by macbeth ,

books all from o'suz, adrienne jennings photograph lamp
(no longer made) from o'suz years ago.

cushions by dermond peterson,

conch shell from belize (contraband, don't tell)
red's first sun suit and wrv beach t-shirt.

and lastly i scatter beachy photos in dryads frames all around. we have sold dryads for eons and though i tend to like them all (that's why i sell them), i do have some favs, and here they arecontaining old and new beach snapshots.


wherever you are i hope you are beatin' the heat by the watering hole of your choice, or in the ac takin' a nap! xo, suz.

love it...susan fleming!

it's no surprise that one of the most exciting parts of daily life at o'suzannah is a visit from ups, and one of the smallest yet sweetest parcels that arrives is the work of jewelry artist susan fleming. susan makes two collections at the moment, one called the paper collection, which is full of lovely necklaces and earrings that are sterling silver with carefully chosen details of japanese chiyogami paper. her other collection, called "semi-precious," is a series of organic shapes in delicately hammered silver and gold, often accented by tiny diamonds inlaid in the metal. all of us o'suz girls own a piece (or two) of susan's work, and we were excited to get a peak into her creative process and life in bozeman, montana. check out susan's interview below!

triple circle chiyogami choker

what was your first job and how did you end up making jewelry?

i first fell in love with jewelry making in high school. i took the three courses that they offered and then completed an independent study in my fourth year. after attending a small private liberal arts college and majoring in political and environmental science, i headed to mt. desert island off the coast of maine. it was there that i realized my love for jewelry making had not dissipated, and i apprenticed with nationally recognized jeweler sam shaw in his beautiful studio/gallery space. while there i honed my jewelry making skills, and i remained with him for seven years, gaining much metalsmithing and gallery experience.

single teardrop chiyogami earrings

what is your favorite piece/group/series in your work?

because it was the chiyogami paper that inspired the paper collection, i think i am drawn to some of the larger pieces because you can see more of the patterns. the chiyogami papers are so beautiful and often so intricately patterned which is why i am so drawn to them. i also like the pieces that integrate multiple papers as i enjoy playing around with the colors and patterns to make interesting combinations. as far as the semi precious collection goes, i really like the mixed silver and gold pieces that are layered as i think they take on a sculptural look. i also like the subtlety of the pieces with small diamonds.

triple teardrop drop necklace in silver and gold

who or what inspires you?

i think ray and charles eames most inspire me. the scope and range of their work amazes me - their architecture, furniture, films, textiles, etc. their talent was as endless as their projects.

describe your ideal sunday.

there are many perfect mornings to be had, but i do have a few favorites. one would be waking up to my husband doug's famous buttermilk pancakes with warm maple syrup and fresh squeezed o.j. followed by a hike in the bridger mountains with our golden retriever, pema.

triple disc silver earrings...light as a feather!

what do you see outside your studio windows?

our studio is located in a renovated multi-use new deal era brick school building. we are on the second floor and look out onto the tree lined streets of bozeman's historical district.

the only thing that makes us sad about this post is that our photos just can't do these delicate little jewels justice -- you'll just have to come see susan's work in person!