Win Some Crafty Stuff!!!

No not here! One of our very good customers and supporters of PURSuE Your Art! Changeable art purse, Sarah Moore, is hosting the game on her blog. http://stampstars.blogspot.com/

So here is the game; you will find seven "sneak peak" pictures of door prize and goodie bag donations for the Big Splitcoaststamper event being hosted by Sarah ..... All you have to do is name seven wonderful companies who donated! (Hint..Hint)

Good luck to all who participate!

Four friends each make a PURSuE Your Art masterpiece!

All four art purses

Tamara's Mona Lisa purse

Front view of Mona Lisa Purse

Alice's Monet purse

Front view

Shelley's Georgia O'Keeffe's purseBack view of purse

Susan's art sculpture purse

Mary and I met Tamara over a year ago through an on-line Yahoo Artist Trading Card group. I had made a post to the group looking for women in the Milwaukee area who would be interested in being part of a focus group for our purse. Tamara was the first to respond and from our initial meeting the three of us have been friends ever since. She’s not only become a friend, but also one of our biggest supporters…… Always promoting our purse business to her many artist groups or passing out our business cards to anyone who comments on her ever-changing art purse.

Tamara works with three women who also have a passion for arts and crafts. Together they decided they would stay after work along with Leonardo De Vinci, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe and art sculpture inspirations for an evening of creative purse designing.

These four artistically talented women thought it would be enriching to have an art purse theme party. Inspired by one of Tamara’s many rubber stamps, they were in agreement to use this powerful quote somewhere in their purse design: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of every day life.” Each would also choose a famous artist they admired to portray in their purse. Like the marriage of a fine wine and great dinner, the quotation and artist focus enhanced each other. What a beautiful blend!

A unanimous vote for our two-pocket style purse by the group turned out to be the perfect choice and pocket size to depict their much-adored famous artist. Three hours of laughter, supply sharing, gluing, cutting and stamping produced four amazing handbag masterpieces!

Each purse is as unique as the person who created it. Monet inspired Alice. Susan’s trip to a San Antonio art sculpture museum sparked her creativity. Shelley’s admiration for Georgia O’Keeffe reflects that in her purse and Tamara’s love for the Mona Lisa is a wonderful tribute to Da Vinci.

Awesome work, ladies! Thank you so much for sharing your story and pictures with us. To show them our appreciation, we gave them each a set of complimentary replacement panels and pocket cards to create yet another look for their purse. Tamara told me they are already thinking of a “new” theme for their changeable art purses.

Feel free to send us your story and photos. We love hearing about friends gathering for a “girls night out, purse making party!” You and your group could receive a set of replacement panels and pocket cards too!



Please visit our Website to purchase your purse today!
www.PURSuEYourArt.com

Country Living 2007 Event

Mary used the Country Living Desk Calendar to find photos to

design two purses for our pitch your product opportunity.

Our Easy Cropper tool helped Mary to crop the photos
to insure a perfect fit for our eight pocket purse.

Mary had to decide which photo would make the cut!
Each photo in the Desk Calendar was a piece of art.

The inside flap on the front of our eight pocket purse
can hold five more photos.


Simple, yet so elegant! The front view of our eight pocket purse.

The beautiful back view of our eight pocket purse.

Mary added an antique Abalone button to the photo.
Our high quality vinyl "gives," so there is

room for three-dimensional trinkets and mementos.

Mary hot glued an adornment to the bottom

flap of our two pocket purse.

Mary captures the true essence of Country Living.
The back view of our two pocket purse.

With our purses meticulously packed in the trunk of Mary’s car, we headed off to Chicago bright and early Saturday morning, 5:45 a.m. to be exact! We were excited and fearless as we made our way to the Chicago Marriott Hotel for the second annual Country Living magazine's Women entrepreneurs: A Celebration of Creativity.

The event would start at noon but we had an 8:15 a.m. check-in time for a special opportunity to pitch our product. We had been accepted to show our PURSuE Your Art! Changeable art purse, to a panel of Country Living magazine editors. This was to earn a chance of being featured in a future issue of their magazine.

Luckily, a few wrong turns trying to find the entrance to the hotel didn’t hinder our promptness as we arrived on the fifth floor to sign in. We were immediately directed into a large room along with 15 of the 75 other women who were also given this incredible chance.

Mary and I were briefed on what to expect when we'd meet with the judges. We were told we would have exactly three minutes to demonstrate and talk about our changeable art purse, and would have an allotted two minutes for them to ask us questions. We were informed there would be a person in the back of the room with a stopwatch! Okay, no pressure there! We are than ushered into the hallway to wait our turn.

The moment we entered the room we were put at ease by the two female judges with their warm smiles and genuine enthusiasm. We started to give them our best rehearsed spiel, but their excitement about our purse was so contagious that Mary and I forgot about our script and just spoke from the heart. They asked us great questions and sincerely wanted to know “everything” about the why and how of our purse. A tap on the shoulder and the look on the time-keepers face made us aware of our one minute overage!

We might have earned some brownie points for the purses Mary designed for our presentation. I don’t believe anyone else thought to use the beautiful art work and photos from the Country Living desk calendar that we received free for registering early. As you can see from the photos, our purses portray creativity, beauty and warmth of home life. Mary captured the very essence of Country Living.

We left the room feeling proud of our purse designs and the hard work we have accomplished over the past year. It could be at least three months before we find out if our purse will be the “chosen” product for Country Living magazine.

The entire event was more than we had anticipated. The keynote speaker was Barbara Baekgaard, co-founder of Vera Bradley Designs, an internationally recognized company that designs and manufactures luggage, handbags and accessories. Nancy Soriana, Editor-in-Chief of Country Living Magazine, was the moderator for the afternoon’s program. She led a panel discussion with seven successful women entrepreneurs who turned their passion into paychecks, and were featured in their March issue. Mary and I had the pleasure to meet some of these amazing women during the wine & cheese reception. We even had our picture taken with Nancy!

We were inspired, informed and entertained the entire day. Mary and I felt truly blessed and grateful for this wonderful opportunity to not only show off our purses but to be able to meet and network with creative and successful women from all over the United States.

Please visit our web site http://www.pursueyourart.com/

Happy 16th Birthday Jessie

It's my daughter Jessie's 16th birthday today! My baby girl! As every mother asks, "where did the years go?" She is a beautiful, artistic and easy-going young women. As an infant she was the perfect textbook baby, which was such a blessing and a relief from her colicky, twin brother's three and a half years earlier.

Jessie was born to be an artist, she is always creating something! I feel at times she is Mary's daughter, not mine! She loves to draw, paint, color (yes, she asked for a new box of crayola crayons for Christmas) make jewelry and just recently designed and sewed her first skirt without a pattern! She is taking advantage of all the art-related classed offered at her high School. Photography, drawing and ceramic classes fill her busy schedule.

I'm not ready to look ahead and imagine not seeing her sunny smile here in our home as she prepares to make plans for herself beyond high school. I'll just enjoy her age, take it one day at a time and stay in the moment. That's all a mother can do.

A Horse Photo Purse in memory of my dad

This photo reminds me of my dad's horse

Chocolate, and her new foal .

This print came from my horse calendar.

Jessie used chalks to make the photo "pop"

Dad with his new born foal

Dad and I on my wedding day

It’s my dad’s birthday today. He would be eighty years old! Eighty? Where have the years gone? I can’t even imagine what he would look like. Would his black wavy hair be gray by now? Would he still be riding horses? Would he still be a volunteer at the Ranch, a place where he enjoyed helping mentally challenged men learn to care for and ride horses? Would he still enjoy going to parades with his kids and eighteen grandchildren? Would he still take pleasure in going to the lake on a hot Sunday in summer?

My dad passed away at the age of 62. Too young. That’s what family, friends and co-workers said at his funeral. Too young? When is it too young to pass away? Is there ever a good age to loose the Patriarch of a family?

I’ve been meditating all week on what kind of man my father was. It’s not easy to sum up his life in a few short paragraphs.

He never liked his first name of Vernon, so to all who knew and loved him, he was Fitz, Uncle Fitz or Grandpa Fitzy.

My dad was a man that put God first, family second and horses third! He went to church every Sunday and would kneel every night by the side of his bed to pray. He loved and served his country proudly. I have his saddle from World War II; he was with the First Cavalry Division. He was also proud of his Irish heritage; traditional St. Patrick’s day decorations, food and green beverages were part of our lives. All of us were given beautiful Irish names…I received the best one!

My father and mother raised eight children, five boys and three girls while fulfilling his dream of being self-employed. He had dropped out of school at the age of sixteen, yet he was a self-taught mechanic, which came in handy when his equipment needed repair. He owned a backhoe, bulldozer, dump truck and a trailer for hauling.
He could fix just about anything with his hands and we all counted on him to be the amazing appliance repairman, plumber and electrician. There may have been spare parts left over when he was finished, but that never bothered him!

He was a man who taught me how to work hard and always do my best. My father never missed a day of work. After years of being self-employed, he took a job with a company that offered him paid sick days, yet he would have never thought to use them.

The arrival of my little sister, number eight, happened two weeks before my parents 26th wedding anniversary. The oldest child had just celebrated his 25th birthday! Wow! Just when he thought Easy Street was right around the corner, here comes more years of parent-teacher conferences!

My dad passed away when my sister Patti, was fourteen, yet at the same time he was Grandpa Fitzy to twelve grandchildren! It always makes me laugh when I reflect on this. My shy dad would blush and shake his head when his friends and family would tease him about his “belated” fatherhood, but I think deep down he enjoyed the ribbing and was quite proud of that accomplishment.

I can only remember one time seeing my dad cry. It was at my brother Tim’s funeral. A sense less murder, he was only 29! Yet my dad never blamed or showed his anger at the accused. Instead, both my dad and mother showed us how to forgive and go on. That God, love and family will get you through anything.

My dad never had the chance to meet my daughter Jessie or hold her in his arms like he did my twin boys. He would love her free spirit and zest for life. I will continue to share stories and pictures with my children and to let them know what an amazing man my dad truly was.

Happy 80th Birthday Dad,
Love,
Erin Rose Fitzsimmons-Mueller

Please visit our web site to order your PURSuE Your Art! Changeable art purse http://www.pursueyourart.com/

Mary & I are getting for the Country Living Event

Mary & I are heading to Chicago for the 2nd annual Country Living magazine Women Entrepreneurs: a celebration of creativity event. It will take place on Saturday, March 10th at the Chicago Marriott Hotel.
The program will be hosted by Country Living Editor-in-Chief Nancy Soriano. The half-day seminar series promises to inspire, inform, and entertain us.

The exciting news is our PURSuE Your Art! Changeable art purse, has been accepted for the Country Living Magazine's Pitch your Product program. We will have a 5-minute time slot to show and demonstrate our changeable art purse to a panel of judges, made up of Country Living editors and special guest entrepreneurs. This is for an opportunity to have our product featured in a future issue of their magazine.

Wish us luck!

Mary has been diligently creating purses for us to use during our pitch time. The vintage art purse that is pictured in this article, Mary created yesterday. We both love this purse, just not sure if we will choose to take her along along to Chicago. .....

What do you think?

Mary said this purse design was soooo easy! Here are her instructions: Cover the panels with paper, rip up some more papers, cover, add two images, two buttons and one rhinestone! What a gorgeous looking purse Mary.

Please visit our web site for more ideas and to order your PURSuE Your Art! Changeable art purse. www.PursueYourArt.com