As the shop preps to open, tons of great stuff is pouring into the shop--including an excellent batch of handbags by meticulous handbag creator Melanie Chabre aka Bagsbymelanie, out of New Ipswich.
Melanie's bags are all about careful craftsmanship, clean lines--and fantastic fabrics.
Things have been rolling right along with the set-up of the Speakeasy Boutique. But a funny thing has happened...I've got all these boxes of GREAT stuff arriving daily, and I'm not even kidding! I need more time to get the space 'right', with all of the wonderful new merchandise in it's new home at the Boutique. It's like getting a fantastic 3-D collage in order.
So the opening day of the Speakeasy Boutique has been moved to Friday, March 7, 2008, in order to facilitate increased fabulousness. If you'd like to come by though for a cup of tea with muchacha K to celebrate Leap Year, on the 29th? By all means! Drop me a note :)
...with the Speakeasy Boutique opening next week, I'm working away on getting the space properly arranged. Next step: painting and hingeing together these tall screen displays. A deep berry color and magical golden hinges will complete the look...
...these are a perpetual must have in the world of muchacha K. I personally own five and a gorgeous batch of them is currently featured here at the Speakeasy Boutique. They're the meticulous hand-work of Corinna Buchholz of Portland Oregon, who also happens to be a creator of awesomely vintage digital collage sheets.
The rings come in a variety of sizes, colors, stones, and are a large, chunky kind of beautiful. Questions about sizes and styles are welcome...
I've been working to ready the Speakeasy Boutique for its February 29th opening, but no matter how great the space was starting to look, there was a small problem: a really ugly, ancient lighting fixture, coming straight out of the wall. It is clearly a relic from the VERY old days. The building was built in 1874, so there's a lot of decades that could have spawned it.
Often times, older fixtures in older buildings are desirable, if not beautiful details, like the wooden mouldings around my doorways and windows in the studio. But this lighting fixture...I guess I should have posted a picture, but trust me, it's ugly...it's like it sprouted, Alien-style, straight out of the wall, and it's got parts missing, and it won't light up, even with a modern light bulb. It had to go...but couldn't be removed from the wall without damaging the wall, and I wasn't up for that project.
So I headed to the Mecca of simple solutions, IKEA--if you're going to participate in our capitalist culture of consumption, you may as well do your necessary acquiring at a store that recycles, and utilizes renewable resources, right?
Anyway, without further ado, here's the simple, attractive solution:
This is one of my favorite websites...truly. This tells you something about my design-geekiness that I have a favorite website that is nothing but a collection of color palettes: Color Lovers . This week I am consulting the magical palettes as I finish painting the studio shop, the Speakeasy Boutique. Here is the palette I've created for the Boutique:
For those who DON'T know, the muchacha K Speakeasy Boutique is opening at the end of the month, featuring not only the work of muchacha K, but of other New England artists as well.
It's official! The city has said yes to the Speakeasy Boutique! Updates to come! Wooooohooooooooooooo!
This is a modification of one of my classic patterns. I love making a small change like this, because even a small change can make a dramatic difference. Plus, when you're making a modification to a pattern, you "know" what it's going to look like, but you don't really "KNOW" what it's going to look like until it's done...well this one's done, and I think it's worked out nicely.
I have begun painting the signs for the Speakeasy Boutique! Sweet...will post them again when they're finished. 
I can't even believe it, but I got my hands on a fabric that I thought I would never see again...the Viva Bollywood! It's quite spectacular, holy cow! I've got a small stash again and have it loaded into the muchacha K online fabric gallery.
Yes, here at muchacha K, we do tons of custom orders...and for that very purpose, we have a delicious assortment of fabrics posted in our online fabric gallery. It's a fabric addicts dream...well, it's MY fabric addicts dream. This here is the most recent addition to the collection...
...it's got a fabulous alien pod kind of thing going on...printed on rich cotton...yum...!
One of the most popular requests I get here at the studio, is for custom clutches, usually for wedding parties. This week I'm knee deep in custom clutch orders, but had a spare minute to post some that are one-of-a-kind. The red one, "Roxy" is brand new. Back to the ironing board...
Last Fall, muchacha K handmade got its first official work studio. I was looking for something smaller, a little less lovely, really, a heated hovel would have been fine as long as there was enough room for my sewing machines. However, when I started looking for spaces, I saw this space, and the possibilities instantly hit me. Plus, the natural light at that particular time of day was gorgeous. It didn't matter that is was way too big, or that the landlord had
piled a ton of crap in the front room. I had to have it.
Instead, I ignored that thought for about two months. I worked in the basement, surrounded by tubs and tubs of fabric. But the thought nagged in the back of my brain. I called the landlord, signed the lease, and muchacha K handmade studios was born. As you can see in the pics, things have gotten much prettier...but we're not done yet. The Speakeasy Boutique opens in February 2008, featuring unique regional artisan handcrafts.
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