Emma Bean Designs

Emma Bean Designs is branding idea we developed to help differentiate some of our products and allow us to sell in competitor stores, without confusing the Nook & Cranny name.

Under the brand name of Emma Bean Designs we sell all our greeting cards, both photography and collage, as well as any crafted pet supplies and stuffed toys - everything that Emma Bean loves!

Many people ask who Emma Bean is and assumes it's either mom or me. Sometimes we fill them in, but most of the time, we leave it up to their imagination. Emma Bean is my dog and she is the inspiration behind these crafts. The things she loves best are the following: treats, stuffed toys, and exploring the world via car rides (or as she knows them by "dog rides"). Hence everything that Emma Bean Designs stands for.

The secret is out!

Craft Date

Mom and I are getting together tomorrow for another day of crafting. While we have been very diligent this season about getting things done, I still get anxious that it all won't be done before our grand re-opening of the store by June. I don't know where the time goes!! We are really refocusing our efforts this year to create a more shop-able store, to bring in gifts from outside crafters, and promote our store more. With this, comes more work, and it's only the two of us! Luckily we enjoy the work and even find more pleasure in delighting people with the atmosphere of our little shop and our unique crafts. While we LOVE to strategize and generate new craft ideas, we must FOCUS. Hopefully mom gets on task- she likes to go on craft tangents and will just begin to build something grand and the next thing you know, 3 hours have passed and nothing on the to-do list was crossed off. We joke that you can't pressure an artist into crafting when they're not in that frame of mind. This is true of mom! :) So long as we are both crafting, all of it will come together, even if it's in the last hour. Nothing like pressure to get your fingers crafting!!

Burlington Events Examiner: Vermont celebrates Champlain

Burlington Events Examiner: Vermont celebrates Champlain

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Burlington Events Examiner: Support your local Farmer's Market

Burlington Events Examiner: Support your local Farmer's Market

Posted using ShareThis

NEW SUPPLIES

We just posted these new supplies in our Etsy Shop, A Closet of Treasures.

If you are a scrapbooker, artist of altered art projects, love to keep art journals, this shop is for you. Be sure to heart our etsy shop so you can visit often, we post new items there on a regular basis.

If you like what you find there, drop us a line and let us know, or just drop us a line and let us know you visited.

FISHING TIME IS HERE!!!

Fishing time is here once again. Peter is getting ready to go get the big one!! The weather has to turn around a little bit or he'll be wearing his snowmobile suit.

Pete will cruise around this beautiful lake, Lake Champlain, here in Vermont. You can find Pete out cruising, generally on the head of Isle La Motte for hours until he reels in the big ones.

If you come to our beautiful island and look out onto the waters you may just spot him doing what he loves best, fishing in his Missy Jean, his boat that is!!

We will keep you posted, if he lands the big one we'll let you know.

HAPPY FISHING!!!

NOOK & CRANNY GIFT SHOP ISLE LA MOTTE VERMONT

Here is a picture of our staircase display in our store. Everyone who comes into the store just loves this display and ask where we came up with the idea. We're planning to open in early June, hope to see you then!

While you're here, you can take a scenic tour of the island and see some picturesque views of the Adirondack Mountains.

Nook & Cranny Gift Shop

467 West Shore Road

Isle LaMotte, VT 05463

Church Rummage Sale

It's beginning to be that time of year again, when churches and other organizations start having rummage and tag sales. There are even some yard sales posted in the classifieds. I just love this time of year! You can see it in thrift shoppers' eyes, the thrill of the hunt and the joy of finding a treasure, but most importantly, a treasure at a great deal!! I found a few good treasures at the rummage sale I attended today. I got there about 20 mins after they opened. I saw women walking out with large bags, that's when my heart started to beat with excitment and then anxiety that I should have come earlier and might have missed out on some good finds. I entered the church and found the sale to be small, but having a variety of goods (mostly clothes - unfortunately!). First searching through the games: no luck, then the household goods: no luck, linens: no luck, however I did score a cute frame, a halloween craft kit and a boyds bear. Not much for the supply store, but some great things I can repurpose for the craft store. Tomorrow is my first yard sale of the season. With cash in hand, I hope to find something grand!! Watch Out People - I'm shopping here!!

Celebrate Champlain

A long time ago, in fact, 400 years ago in 1609, Samuel de Champlain discovered Lake Champlain. This summer, Vermont is celebrating this event with many historical and cultural events around the region.

Being Isle LaMotte residents, this celebration is of particular importance to us. Isle LaMotte is the first spot in Lake Champlain that Samuel de Champlain visited, accompanied by other French explorers and a handful of Indians. It has been noted that Champlain said the island was covered with the most beautiful pines he had ever seen.

Please check out the site http://www.celebratechamplain.org/ for more information on the history of the lake and information on the exciting events taking place throughout the summer.

Stay tuned to learn about the event that Nook & Cranny is planning to host. We are just awaiting approval from the VT Tourism Department.

Shelburne Farms-Shelburne Museum

This is a building at Shelburne Farms, located in Shelburne Vermont.

Don't you wish you could live here. We have been told that a very wealthly family named the Webb's owned all the property, they were the builders and the idea behind the Shelburne Museum also in Shelburne.

This property is so beautiful, with rolling fields and lawns along side the shoreline of Lake Champlain. Can't say we had ever been here before!

This place was one stop on our list of places for our field trip. We were glad we found the place, we shall visit again when the weather gets warmer. The lambs in the pics live here.

More Baby Sheep, Twins

Here are twin baby sheep, enjoy!!

Baby Sheep are the cutest ever

Here is the baby sheep photo we promised, we hope you enjoy. We think this is a Hallmark moment!!

Farm Yard Field Trip

This year we will be opening the gift shop early to mid June. Yesterday we went on our field trip, we need fresh/new photos for our greeting cards for the shop. We love to take pic's of animals, they sell well in the shop. We searched the web to find farms in our local areas. We found a small farm that was on our list. We were greeted by a very pleasant lady that was more than willing to allow us to take photos of her animals. She brought us into her small barn, and much to our delight there were hours old baby sheep. Needless to say we got some awesome pics. We will post in a few days for you to see. We thank the lady for her time and kindness. We also went to some beautiful property, Shelburne Farms. There they had some roosters, rabbits, hens and more lambs. There we managed to get some awesome kodak moments. As my daughter calls them "a moment captured in time to never be seen in that way again" She loves pictures!

Blogging - It's Essential!!

Mom and I have been trying to figure out how to drive traffic to our online stores, http://www.aclosetoftreasures.etsy.com/ and http://www.nookcrannygifts.etsy.com/. It looks like social media is the way to go! We've been thinking that blogging is a key to this, as we have come across many other crafters who have had great success in their ETSY stores and much of the traffic comes from blog referrals. So here we are...finally blogging! Stay tuned for some fun information about our shop, online stores and the fun that we have finding treasures and crafting materials.