A WEEK OF JEN HUANG

jen huang santorini-destination-wedding-photography

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving (or Thursday for our non-US friends)!  I enjoyed a simple + sweet one with my petite family, albeit I do have a pinched nerve in my back (it’s like a bad 70’s sitcom). As I am wont to do I am trying to look on the bright side of this situation, even though at first glance there doesn’t seem to be one.  I am going to reach and say that the bright side to this is being forced to take it slow (real slow) in the hustle +bustle and usual self-induced stress of the holidays I am reveling in all the little things-being able to sit, stand, hold my baby. Maybe it’s just what I needed, but I sure do hope this passes soon and never returns-ever!

Michelle and I have been working behind the scenes here per usual, brainstorming, coming up with big plans for the coming weeks and 2015 and of course wanting to bring you something that we would like to read ourselves and hope that means you would love it too! One of the ideas I threw out there was a week of artist Jen Huang (I am a fan), many of you may know her as a talented photographer but that’s just the tip of her iceberg, Jen is a true creative and business person, an individual that is truly admirable and someone that I find an inspiration and hope you will too. We are looking forward to sharing Jen’s interview (that she kindly answered even though she’s going to give birth any day now!), showcasing her work, discussing her inspirations and a giveaway!  We will be back later today, we can’t wait to share and hope you will join us!

photo by jen huang

P.S. Our friend Susan of Fleurishing is doing a week of giveaways (oh, la la!) the first is a Francophile gift guide giveaway and there’s a little itty bitty Besotted Brand token in there, you can visit here!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

PETIT PIPPIN

petit pippin collection

liam by petit pippin

I always have so much to be grateful for on a daily basis. When I was pregnant last year and near death, one of the only things that kept my spirits up was writing down my lists of gratitude. I couldn’t do it every day as there were days I could not even keep my head up, but just writing everything I could down and being able to go over it made me feel so much better and luckier than if I didn’t.  I unfortunately have not kept up the practice, but plan to start again today, any day is a good day to start, but of course this day our Thanksgiving is very apropos. I am always thankful for your visits and this community. I have met so many amazing, kind, warm and wildly creative people by having this space on the interwebs, one of them is Ez Pudewa. I have been a fan since day one of discovering her blog(she’s had a few under the Creature Comforts label), her writing was so honest and moving. With each new step in her life I was able to see her progression from a place that was less than ideal to a place filled with light + love, her daughter always being a driving force and motivation. I got the pleasure to meet Ez and her daughter Kaia in February of last year, it was on the heels of my deciding to finally give up trying to get pregnant (after years of disappointment), I was wistful that I would never be able to experience what was obviously an extremely close and loving mother/daughter bond that they shared. I don’t know if Ez & Kaia had sprinkled magical fairy dust on me that day but when I came home from my trip I found out that I was pregnant!  Grateful, yes indeed.

Ez & her daughter Kaia are continuing to spread fairy dust in their newest endeavor-Petit Pippin.  They of course explain it best:

“Petit Pippin is a reflection of our passion for beautifully crafted goods and our belief in embracing the everyday moments of childhood. The messy and the fun, the scraped knees and wind-tousled hair, whispered stories and boisterous laughter…every moment is precious and we love it all!”

Their collection of soft toys and art prints have already sold out twice since launching a few short weeks ago (upon this writing). I knew there would be a huge demand for their offerings, how could there not be? E. was gifted both an heirloom quality bear (Isabelle) and an art print (Firefly wishes) for her birthday and as unbelievable as this may seem (since Ez’s photographs and styling are aces) the products are a million times better in person! Every detail is attended to from the receipt of your Petit Pippin parcel, they are lovingly wrapped, almost too pretty to open, the art print is signed by the artist and looks as though it was a watercolor original, it is that good a quality of print. Isabelle the bear was an instant hit. E. hadn’t taken to any of her other soft toys, even though I have tried relentlessly to get her to, but the minute Isabelle was removed from the box, E.’s little fingers wrapped around Isabelle’s sinewy arms and she spent hours examining and taking in all her details. To be honest with you I hadn’t planned on actually allowing her to play with Isabelle, but I could not deny her and it looks as if their friendship will be a long and lasting one.

I am hoping that the future holds a series of books for Petit Pippin (E. as I know they would be filled with magic). I am really looking forward to following Ez and Kaia’s journey and celebrating their inevitable huge success.  I hope that years from now our kids will remember their Petit Pippin filled childhood memories and that they pass on their Petit Pippin friends to their own children, but for now this Tom Robbin’s quote keeps playing in my head-

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood”. Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker

I think Petit Pippin is for everyone that wants to capture and hold onto a little childhood magic. May your day be filled to the brim with magic, joy and reasons to be grateful. I know I am so thankful for you!

P.S. Of course all the soft toys are sold out (why would they not be? They are so flippin’ delightful!) you can still get the art prints, use the coupon code besotted10 to get 10% off until November 28, 2014! Happy Thanksgiving my US friends and the happiest of Thursday’s to everyone else!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

Besotted Winner!

besotted blog winner

We have a winner, it was near impossible to choose, everyone had such heartfelt answers, as always we wish that everyone could have won. We chose Theresa Meacham!

I think the quality I’ve had most or, at the very least, had since I was a child is a love for stories. I hope that counts as a quality! But ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always desired to know the story behind how a person got to where he or she is. I’m fascinated by the paths of people’s life that makes each of us meaningful in unique ways.

Thank you all for joining in and playing along, I have put up a 50% off the most popular item in the shop–the monogram stamps! They make great gifts (for friends, family and of course yourself!) We will be here all week for you and can’t wait to share more of what we will be up to. One of the things on my to-do list is working on our Foto Rx project, I used three of the (insert top secret blanks here) for the image above (which was initially a pretty poorly shot image, hey it happens!) and I am getting super excited for us to be able to launch them for you to use. Don’t worry if you have no idea of what I am talking about right now, you will soon and I can hardly wait!

P.S. I am probably one of the world’s worse traditional wrappers, it’s so easy to make a gift pretty even with non-paper wrapping skills. I used Besotted Brand twine, glitter bells from the craft store, and what would otherwise be scrap cardstock for the tag (a circle punch and of course a Besotted Brand stamp), super easy!

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

Under $25 Hostess Gift Guide

Under $25 Hostess Gifts via Besotted Blog

This week (and throughout this holiday season) we are going to help you sort through the myriad of options for gifts (and gift guides) you are sure to be inundated with.  We know price doesn’t always equate to quality and we will be making a concerted effort to find items that are budget friendly, beautiful and useful, of course there may be some luxe items thrown in if you do decide to splurge. We will be as balanced as possible in our guides and try to show you options in our Finer + Find posts just in case you do get your heart set on something that’s a splurge and it doesn’t make sense or is not feasible right now you can satiate that desire for a similar item.

Since Thanksgiving is the usual marker of holiday season and party invites should abound we have taken on the host/hostess gift, a token of your appreciation for their hospitality and efforts. If you’ve ever thrown a dinner party, you know how much work it takes to create a memorable evening. Here are a few good gift ideas to let that host/hostess know their efforts are very much appreciated!

fig. 01 | fig. 02 | fig.03 | fig. 04 | fig. 05 | fig. 06

P.S. Feel free to chime + chip in if you have a great host/hostess gift that is your go to, we always love to hear your great ideas!

 

Besotted Brand $100 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

north pole besotted blog

Every year it seems the holidays come sooner and sooner. We will now forever mark the beginning of the holiday season with my daughter E.’s birthday and go full tilt into our merry & bright from there. It’s super important to me that her birthday doesn’t get lost amongst the holiday stupor as so many of my November birthday friends have lamented to me. To help celebrate E.’s birthday and to get you ready for the yuletide season we would love to do a giveaway to help you make a dent in your gift list or help add to your seasonal craft arsenal, or whatever you want to do with a $100 USD Besotted Brand gift certificate!

As always when we do our bestowals (as we like to call our giveaway’s) we will pose a question and have you answer in the comments, we will choose one winner by Tuesday, November 24, 2014.

I mentioned that E. has what seems to be an innate sense of humor…

What quality do you think you were born with? or What quality have you had since you were a kid?

We can’t wait to hear your answers! If you don’t feel you have a special quality, don’t fret, pin the image or tweet the link to this post and you will be entered. Good luck!

photo by tristan b.

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. She lives in sunny Seattle with her handsome husband, wonderful baby girl and two pups. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.