The Troll are coming

This photo was taken last June, when I launched the Midsummer collection down at Arts Market. BergTroll had a big impact, just hanging out down in Leslieville!

This year so far has been crazy, and I'm behind on getting this years Midsummer collection going. But this current situation has forced me to plan out my lines better so nothing will be late - which means I'm literally working on Midsummer and Christmas at the SAME TIME. What the hell??????

But I'm excited, because both lines are going to be AWESOME. The trolls are making a second appearance this year, because honestly, they didn't get the attention they truly deserved last year. And they're pissed.... have you ever seen a pissed off troll? It is so not pretty.

So stay cool little peeps, June 1st is damn close. You'll have to come by the Toronto Etsy Street Teams' Springtime Marketplace to be the first to check out the 2013 Midsummer collection (and of coarse all the other goodies we'll have at the show - more on that in a later post).

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Stationery love UK style

Last week was National Stationery Week over in the UK. A celebration of written communication, with the purpose of trying to inspire the nation to pick up a pen and get writing, especially the younger generation who are caught up in the distractions of online and phone chatting. I didn't find out until a couple of days in (to which I have to admit I was kinda embarrassed - how did I NOT know about this!) but I was so excited when I did. I first caught wind when my super fun Holly Goose stationery set was featured on 2 UK blogs, one right after the other. Both were featuring some amazing stationery, to show people that writing letters is so much more fun than just writing between the lines on boring old lined paper.

As a confessed stationery addict, I'm always spreading the love for hand-writen letters so I'm all over the idea of a whole week devoted to stationery. I'm all inspired... I think we start this over here in Canada. We've got some amazing designers up here but Canucks seem to have lost their urge to write to each other. And you know that makes me sad..... so I'm just going to have to step up and do something about it! Let's get writing Canada!

Thanks to both RedOnline and MissMagpieDesigns for the stationery love you showed thunderpeep during your Stationery week! Head on over to their sites to check out some of their awesome.

MissMagpieDesigns has some super cute bird illustrations....

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A Pretty Poppytalk LookBook

I've been a big fan of the Poppytalk blog for awhile now and was finally able to become a part of their marketplace last fall and it's been such a warm and encouraging experience. If you're looking to find some unique finds from all across the globe, this is definitely a marketplace to check out and keep an eye on as vendors change up every couple of months --->> click here for shopping FUN
The creatives over at Poppytalk put together the loveliest of LookBooks curated from their marketplace vendors and the latest one features some great ideas for Mothers Day! Have a looksy at all the pretty things you can buy for Mom, and if you're looking for a Mothers Day card I have a couple listed in the shop now.

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Uppercase Magazine

Don't know it? You SHOULD. It's an amazing magazine for the creatively minded. Filled with stories and interviews and inspiration and I might add, incredibly well designed. Oh yeah, and they're Canadian.
Uppercase just released their 17th issue, which was a special Stationery Issue, featuring 50 amazing small to large scale stationery design companies. And guess who was included. Yeah, thunderpeep designs was!

Another totally awesome feature, a scratch 'n sniff cover. No KIDDING. I LOVED collecting stickers when I was (not that much) younger and the scratch and sniff smurf ones where my absolute favourites. Yes, I was a pretty big smurf fan....
You can follow the Uppercase blog here (I highly recommend adding them to your bloglovin list!) and if you want to order a copy of the magazine (or order a subscription) you can do that here

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time flies when you're having.... fun?

Well, it's been kind of a gong show over here in thunderpeep-land. Some good, some bad, all of just nuts. There are many times in my day to day where I wish I could just go back to kindergarten, when all I had to worry about was.... sandbox or paint station, sandbox or paint station???!!!
The One of a Kind show was a huge blur. After all that prep, it went by unbelievably fast. Poof. Done. Over. Now what?
It was the most unreal 5 days. Long days, but luckily I was surrounded by some super fun and super inspiring ladies who kept the long, long days filled with giggles and chats and bathroom breaks. I'm going to feature each one of them in posts soon (no really I promise;)
What did I learn over those 5 crazy days? I learned one thing I already suspected. I am beyond awkward in most social settings, but trying to be a salesperson in the midst of that awkwardness is 10 times more difficult. I had a really hard time finding my groove in terms of potential customers. And you have to get out of your comfort zone in a place like the One of a Kind show, where shoppers are under constant push and pull from all of the amazing talent at each booth. I found, like most shows, I get a lot of people spying one of the more popular cards and bursting out in giggles, and these are the customers that are the easiest to approach. So I made sure those cards were the first things people saw when passing my booth. Find your "in" and work it.
I also learned that less is more. Yes, it's no secret I'm a fan of white space and minimalist design, but when it comes to my lines I need to learn to scale it back and maybe focus more on some collections instead of a ton of single cards. In the words of the wise Pam of LureArts "it's time to up your game". So I've been taking the past few weeks since the show to absorb everything I learned and to just relax and focus on the creative side of the business (hence the radio silence) and really clean up thunderpeep. It's been hard to keep the balance in the lead up to the show and I think I got lost in all the chaos. It's been hard to climb out of that.

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