SALE NEWS

...sale will be marked down tomorrow!!!!!!!

and that's all i got to say at the moment.
come see how low we go!

papa

don't forget the pops in your life this sunday, june 21rst. we've got a few things he might like so stop on by, see our selection in the windows and perhaps grab a card.

this one is pretty snazzy but there are so many more....










happy father's day to my husband, the man who helped me make the sweetest boy i have ever known.

sale is going on now!!!!!!

alright so i promised to follow up with a list of just some of the steals to be found at o'suz's summer sale.

for the little people you love:
dwell pillows, hand puppets and finger puppets
beth mueller baby clothes and hat
baby blankets by speesees and bla bla
salvor fauna tees with lion, wolf or gorilla
puzzles from mudpuppy
abc wall art cards
flash cards by cavallini
1 girl 1 boy tees
speesees baby clothes
baby cards and kids birthday cards
1 holly aiken baby bag
puj baby slings in amy butler fabrics
organic style (book)
adorable bib embroidery kits
cute animal napkins perfect for a birthday party
french flash cards by cavallini
baby stamps
vilmain baby photo holders
and more...

for u and your friends:
hobo wallets in pink(3)
hobo cosmetic caeses in pink brown and black
hobo patent id cases in pink blue and black
a few jewels including some susan fleming letter charms
and 2 small things necklaces from the modern series
assorted cosmetic cases
2 styles of highway bags
linen flowie bags for summer
yoga mat bag by lotta jansdotter
rose, olive lavender, and lemon verbena soaps by
la compagnie de provence (super large bars $5!)
1 beautiful leather lodis briefcase (laptop case)
queen bee wallets
fluffy co. wallets and ipod cases
lotta jansdotter bags

paper:
good lord do we have some cards on sale for specific
occasions and lots of blank ones as well
letterpress galore (including letterpress coasters)
and some non- letterpress that's just sweet and cheap!
it is a veritable smorgasbord of paper lust in here
there is even a 25 cent bin of cards
wrapping paper rolls $1 and $2 a piece
lots of books for cooking, crafting, travel
and a few other cool titles of interest
lots of journals and a few address books and perpetual calendars
packs of cards and stationary
stamps stamps and more stamps
and some paperweights by vilmain.....

for the home:
french bull salad severs and canister sets
a few dryads frames and mirrors
a bunch of wool dash and albert rugs
beth mueller mugs, tumbers and large vases
pink and brown polka dot bowl sets
coir door mats
some select ashley g prints
some flowie table top and table top by simrin
one lamp by slip
a few beachy melamine plates
a cupcake cookie jar
5 dayle teacups (local ceramicist)
a bambooesque teapot and cups by tag
some super cheap decoupage
lotta jansdotter aprons with prints no longer available otherwise

i could go on and on, or did i? ..... but we just want you to know the sale is as good as ever and we love the way it turned out. it accessible, it's broken into sections that are easily shopped and there is so much good stuff. everything that is on sale is at least 50 percent off. we aren't fooling around.
so come stock up, we have shopping baskets ready to be filled.

we also emailed a notice of this sale so if you would like to get in on that type of notification please fill out the mailing list when you are in.
hope to see you this week!
xo
suz

sale is mere hours from beginning......

ok peoples, before i tuck myself in i want to tell you, faithful blog readers, that our BIG summer sale starts tomorrow (or is that today)!!!!!!! yes, we have been worker bees all day getting it good and ready and good and ready it is! please stay tuned for some specifics tomorrow as i am too pooped now to list them all. suffice to say for now, as you tuck yourselves in, or perhaps rub the sleep from your eyes, that it is a BIGGUN'!
hope to see you in there snarfin' up some goodies,
xo, suz

click click click...specials on lomography cameras!!!

this weekend charlottesville plays host to LOOK3 festival of the photograph. exhibitions are mounted, artist talks are given, parties are had, and photographs are snapped. it's always fun to see the festival goers traipsing around the mall with all manner of camera in tow, from tiny plastic toy cameras to polaroids to hasselblads. we have a few fun cameras in the shop from lomography, purveyors of classic (and unpredictable) analog cameras like the holga, diana, and the famous russian "spy camera," the lomo. in recent years lomography has introduced new cameras to their line up, and we currently have the fisheye and the colorsplash.
as you might expect, the fisheye gives all the photos you take a fishbowl appearance, like this photo borrowed from lomography's website:


i think you can imagine the insane cuteness potential here for photos of kids and pets. the other camera we have is the colorsplash, which comes with twelve different filters that make your photos super saturated, like this:

both of these cameras kick it old school and use 35mm film, which means you get lots of surprises when you pick your photos up. in celebration of the festival of the photograph, we're offering these cameras at 25% off for the month of june!!! wowee!!! (and don't forget that father's day is june 21!)

ok, so while we are on the subject of aaron, let me tell you a tidbit about her wedding.
she and moriah wed at about 4 pm saturday, june 6, at her friends' farm on garth road, aka horse country in these here parts. she was a most beautiful bride, on a most glorious day, marrying the love of her life, moriah goldman. i am guessing her planning and anticipation paid off when she said her chosen most sacred vows and he his. many of us were there as witnesses to this union, and i can say for myself it was the sweetest ceremony i had ever seen. i have known aaron since she met mo and have watched their love grow most abundantly, never bigger though, then when they made their way down that grassy aisle to spend just mere minutes together as husband and wife, before greeting their loved ones. here are some pics i snapped along the way.
enjoy the peek and let's all wish aaron and moriah a happy life together!

limited hours this saturday!

our lovely aaron is getting hitched this saturday, june 6, so the shop will be closing at 2:30 so that we can all be there to celebrate! we will be here sunday, 12-5, as usual, and hope to see you then. 

june love it...fluffyco!

this month we're so excited to feature fluffyco on the blog as our june love it! we've been carrying san francisco-based fluffy for a few years now, and it's been neato to watch the line expand and branch out in new directions. the fluffyco booth is always one of my favorites at the new york gift show because i know there will be awesome new goodies to scoop up! we started out featuring their range of screenprinted naugahyde wallets, checkbooks, and ipod cases. we love all of their animals and nature-inspired designs, and they're made even better by fluffyco's commitment to keeping their production as local as possible and using earth-friendly materials. here are a few of our favorite mini wallets, perfect for guys or girls. all of us o'suz girls have at least one.

since we moved to our new space in august, we also started carrying fluffyco's tshirts for the ladies. we can't keep this snazzy owlie shirt in the shop:


and these are two new ones we got in april:



also back in april we ordered a few of these amazing belts. they are handmade in oklahoma city, and each one is distressed differently. since we are lovers of all things owl, we snagged the owls and another one with a forest silhouette.

last but not least, we love us some little fluffy for little ones. we're waiting for red to grow into his already substantial collection of little fluffy tshirts, stay tuned for future cuteness on that front. and who doesn't want to sport the teddybear picnic? we have it in yellow and gray in the shop -- i only wish it came in my size!


now, onto the good stuff. fluffyco founder paulina berczynski answered our probing questions and sent us lots of awesome photos, including the portrait below, which was titled 'evil twin'! thanks, paulina, for giving us this sneak peek into the world of fluffyco!


what was your first job and how did you end up working in design for accessories and home goodies?

My first job was working at Sbarro pizza as a cashier when I was 14. Actually I was 12 and they fired me because I was underage. At 14 I got a very similar job at Sizzler.

I had always loved drawing and the visual arts, and discovered Andy Warhol in high school, when I was a total art nerd and would spend lunch checking out different art and artists in the library every day. I am one of those lucky people who always pretty much knew what I was into. I applied to this super hardcore university on the East Coast (Carnegie Mellon) for both Fine Art and Design. My mom, who has always been totally comfortable opening my mail, let me know I got into both and asked which direction I wanted to go, and I decided right then to go for design so I could make a living.

I realized at school that A. I never wanted a corporate job and B. that I had a serious problem with being told what to do- which basically means, start your own business. I did freelance design work for over 7 years, interspersed with stints in advertising. I worked on some amazing projects (Puma, Thrasher Magazine, and Lucky Strike were highlights), but I always burned out- I knew I wanted to do my own designs, on my terms.

So I ended up moving to Seattle where my best friend was living, to start a housewares business together, called TruckStop Ink. We both put in $50 to start and began by making wooden magnets and wall art using transfer printing, selling them at craft fairs, then in local stores. We taught ourselves how to screen-print in the kitchen and the business was pretty steady, but we both kept our day jobs. The first time we came back from a fair with $300 we were flipping out. When we brought home $1000, we could barely believe it.

Long story short, about a year into it I decided to go out on my own. I was working in advertising at the time, and managed to save up close to $60K to start my own gig. I moved back to San Francisco, where I had lived years before and always knew I would come back to forever, and started FluffyCo in late 2004.

trees billfold from fluffyco's new(ish) eco canvas group

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

I think each new season is the best, so my favorites are always changing. Right now, I am seriously loving the Premium Tee line (especially the Gators), and the eco wallets. I have a wood one and it’s pretty great. I’m also cooking up a ton of new housewares stuff for Fall 09 and Spring 10, so I’m pretty preoccupied with all those ideas. (ed. note: egad, we can't wait to see!)

who or what inspires you?

I am inspired by San Francisco’s vibrant youth and music culture, street art from all over the world, and what other indie designers are doing most of all. That and the urge to run the business with a sustainable, low-key approach– FluffyCo uses American manufacturing whenever possible, to keep our local communities strong. That’s a big one over here.

one of paulina's new poster designs, which she plans to post guerrilla style in europe

what three websites do you visit daily?

Right now I’m doing some more art-nerd stuff in Poland, so I can’t live without my Facebook. Other than that, I do an insane amount of train-of-thought web searches. Today I was checking out sustainable messenger bags at Reload and Freitag, sourcing US makers of truck tarp scraps and recycled vinyl, clicking around different screen printers’ poster sites, and trying to find vintage European toy posters like the Moomins, Babar the elephant and Barbapapa all over the place. Yesterday it was mirrors, organic fabrics, fashion designers and cold rolled steel.

describe your ideal sunday.

Wake up really late, brush teeth and get back into bed. Daydream in bed with my husband for like an hour, eventually convince him to make me an omelet. Do something active outside (ideally with or near plants), spend time relaxing with friends, eat something delicious for dinner and watch a movie at home or go out to a show.

a view into the fluffyco studio

what do you see outside your studio windows?

A cool old brick building, a leafy tree, the SF landmark Twin Peaks, plus (extra bonus) some sky.