Oh, Much Appreciated!

And here is our 2nd new thank you note, Much Appreciated, she hails from Savannah, Georgia. This pattern is a "re-coloration" of this year's (May in fact) Savannah pattern. I love the pattern but just haven't been all that crazy about how the colors have printed in the past so I changed it to cream, a gold and a light grey-blue. I kind of love it now to be honest. I think she looks like a starlet.
The card was inspired by (other than Savannah) my dear Alston, who's last day was today :( Alston is from Georgia and we were talking about how sayings change through out the U.S. When she said people in Georgia say "Much Appreciated", I thought... "god I love that". I have a real thing for southern accents. I'm somewhat memorized by them (I'm also mesmerized by the accents of Southie - see the departed or gone baby gone - but just in a different way). I find Southern accents so charming and sweet. Miss Alston doesn't have much of an accent, but she does say y'all occasionally which I totally love.
I think this is going to be a really interesting thing to explore, the different ways people say things like thank you, happy birthday, congratulations and such in the U.S.
Well I am leaving you my darlings. The car is packed and I'm headed to New York for a week to show our goods at the Stationery Show. I'll be staying for the weekend at a hotel (I'm so looking forward to the bathrobes, cable tv, hbo and take out) sans Sasso and then at my dear Marie's place. I'm hoping to blog from the show so I can show you the process of setting up and the booths and our wares... I'm a bit nervous but more excited to meet so many ladies that I have been talking to online for the last couple years.
I just need to add this (WARNING: ANTM SPOILER)........
Ok, that was fair warning. I am so pumped that miss Whitney won. So so so pumped. It's nice to see a lady with a booty get some recognition. Plus she is gorgeous. Oh boy, what am I going to watch after Gossip Girl's Monday night finale... all my teenage shows will be over for the season. Ta-Ta

The Savannah Pattern

When I was visiting St Augustine with my mom for the first time we went on one of those trolley tours of the historic area. Now I admit that in Boston I tend to despise those trolleys. They are always blocking the street and you know how impatient we Boston drivers are. Anywho… the tour was actually pretty fun, and I saw a lot of Spanish moss in the trees. I was quite fascinated by it. It lives in relative harmony with the tree, not killing it but just slowing its growth rate and gives it that whole Southern Gothic feel that I love. It looks pretty cool close up, (though I just read on wikipedia that it houses bats, chiggers and snakes so I won’t be getting so close next time), and there seems to be a boatload of it in Savannah. When I saw the moss I knew I wanted to include it in the Savannah pattern.
It was the “don’t be fooled by the midnight and magnolias” quote from "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" that spurned me to research the Magnolia Grandiflora. It’s a beautiful flower with waxy dark green leaves and it reminds me of a lady in a white ballgown. I bet it smells heavenly too.
All this came together in the Savannah pattern: the magnolia, the squares, the Spanish moss, and Scarlett Johansson’s dress. The pattern is available in the new 2008 calendar, as a print and as a note card and you can check them all out at www.jhilldesign.com.
On a side note, each pattern I do starts to remind me of a member of my family or one of friends… this one always reminded me of my “little” sister Becky and today happens to be her birthday. So, Happy Birthday Becky!
Photos from top left: my Spanish moss in flordia, the Savannah notecard and a magnolia blossom by maedeans via flickr.

What's so cool about Savannah?

What am I going to do when I get to Savannah? Glad you asked, here are a few things from my list:
ShopSCAD: This is a unique gallery store that features only the work of faculty, staff, students and alumni of the Savannah College of Art + Design. What would I pick up? Well everything I could from Working Class Studio, (WCS is a product development venture of SCAD), including their melamine plates and note cards. Check out the ShopSCAD site for some great fine art finds too.
340 Bull Street view site here
Paris Market and Brocante: Their site's navigation, (boudoir, garden, powder room), is so intriguing, it makes you want to visit the actual store. They carry all things luxuriously European and they even have a patisserie on-site. The store looks amazing, like you could spend hours browsing all the treasures, check out their blog to see some more pictures and to find out what is going on in the shop. 36 West Broughton Street view site here
Mmmmmm....: After all that shopping I know I'd be famished, so I would take myself to lunch at Mrs. Wilkes. One of my favorite foods is fried chicken and I don’t remember having it since JBatt made it for me for my birthday 3 or so years ago. Well, Mrs. Wilkes has it on the menu every day along with collards, potatoes and more. Plus they change the menu daily (though that fried chicken stays!), only serve lunch and don’t take credit cards. Those places always great. 107 W. Jones St view site here
Something Old: I’d also need to get my historic fix by visiting Bonaventure Cemetery, the Mercer-Williams House, and the Telfair Art Museum. Maybe I’d go recite the girl scout promise, (which I still remember word for word), at Juliette Gordon Low’s birthplace too.
Well there are so many others places, I could ramble on for a while, but I'll wait until I get to Savannah to continue. ‘Til then check out Grace from Design*Sponges’s slide show of her trip to the historic area of Savannah and Holly from Decor8’s Savannah shopping guide.
Images from top left are: ShopSCAD window front, Mrs. Wilkes and her lovely spread, patisserie counter at the Paris Market and Brocante (how cute is that dress?), Bonaventure Cemetery from via CNN by Amanda Moulson.

Oh Miss Scarlett...

As mentioned my Elles, Vogues, Luckys and the occasional InStyle, (as Shaniqua understands I don't read that magazine regularly... too big and too hard to follow), always end up sliced to pieces in my sketchbook. I'll be inspired by the color, the texture, the jewels etc...
So... Miss Scarlett Johansson had been sitting in my sketchbook, (I have one where i save clippings for later and one where do the sketches for the patterns), since she walked into the 2006 Venice Film Festival in that AMAZING vintage creamy yellow gown topped off with the perfect red lipstick.
Honestly when I saw it I just though "Savannah". I also thought, "I need to run out and buy ANOTHER tube of red lipstick immediately... that will sit in my bag barely used".
I'll confess, getting the color right on the Savannah print was very tricky. Especially for the 2008 Calendar. It's hard to do something functional, like the calendar, in really pale colors. Doesn't work out so well. So I couldn't match the colors to Scarlett's dress exactly, but I hope I got the feel of it across.
Check out the print here and the new calendar here.

"The Book"

"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", (henceforth to be called MGGE), was my first introduction to Savannah that I can remember. It was written by John Berendt and spent 216 weeks on the NYT best seller list; then in 1997 Clint Eastwood made it into a movie. MGGE has become so iconic that Savannah locals simply refer to it as "the book". First I saw MGGE the movie, (in college my roommate Erin worked at a video store so I saw almost every movie released in the late 90's), and then I read the book. I loved that I could see Savannah's drooping trees, old mansions and Lady Chablis in the movie, but the book is absolutely amazing (there is a reason that they give MGGE tours in Savannah to this day). In the end I suggest you see/read both of them, but in the book is always better.
One passage from MGGE that truly inspired the Savannah print is on page 28, "The streets were lined with townhouses of brick and stucco, handsome old buildings with high front stoops and shuttered windows. I entered a square that had flowering shrubs and a monument at the center. A few blocks farther on, there was another square. Up ahead, I could see a third on line with this one, and a fourth beyond that. To the left and right, there were two more squares. There were squares in every direction. I counted eight of them. Ten. Fourteen. Or was it twelve? 'There are exactly twenty-one squares,' an elderly lady told me..."
"the thing I like best about the squares, " Miss Harty said, "is that cars can't cut through the middle; they must go around them. So traffic is obliged to flow at a very leisurely pace. The squares are our little oases of tranquility."
How great is that? It took a little bit of design ingenuity to get 21 squares in the background of the Savannah print. The other inspiration is on page 10, "You mustn't be taken in by the moonlight and magnolias."
But I want to be taken in Mr. Williams! I want to see the bird girl statue and the guy that walks a "ghost dog" and see the man with the flies on strings and visit Bonaventure cemetery and see where Jim Williams shot Danny Hansford, (though apparently when you take a tour of that house and ask about the murder they get a bit peeved).
For now I may just have to make myself a mint julep and reread "the book" again.

Savannah, Georgia

Oh, Savannah.... I've been imagining you since I read "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" years ago. I remember the book talking about the magnolias and the moonlight and that just seemed magical. My mom moved to St Augustine, Florida last summer and while visiting I got a little taste of old southern houses surrounded by old trees covered by old Spanish moss. "Oh I bet this is what Savannah looks like, even better though", I thought. I'm a northern Yankee who is obsessed by thoughts of mint juleps on the porch, that deep southern drawl, and things moving at a slooooooowwww pace.
The colors for the Savannah print were inspired by an amazing vintage silk gown that Miss Scarlett Johansson wore while attending the 2006 Venice Film Festival. It was a beautiful cream and yellow dress and it reminded me of Savannah.
I have actually tried to get to Savannah twice so far. Each time in the end the trip is canceled, so she eludes me still. I'll just have to keep imagining my vacation there...