Obama '08

Thanks for visting Treatzone! We hope you'll stop by often to find: the latest things we love . . . quotes that inspire . . . and just what we're up to in general.

    With love + luck,
    Matthew & Sandy

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Just a quick post to let folks know that we added some archer patches to our etsy shop. Matthew has been getting so many complements on the one he has on his messenger bag that we decided to share the love. More soon!

Last week Matthew mentioned that he wanted to make some terrariums, and all of a sudden my flickr friends started posting their own terrariums left and right. There must be something in the air. The collection above is by Janick of Nea Jewelry and Wall Wear and the one below is by Jenna of Small Bird Handcrafted Jewelry. (Hmm, what is the connection betweem jewelry makers and terrariums?)

We should have our own little plant kingdoms to share soon. We just ordered some mushroom and apple shaped apothecary jars from (where else) ebay.

We love our Eames chair, but molded plastic is not the most comfortable material to sit on for long stretches of time. So today we made a seat cushion out of some green and white gingham we bought at a yard sale ages ago, and problem solved! We like the contrast of the orange and green, and luckily Bella approves too. (We're also trying to get back in the habit of using our sewing machine, which spent two years buried in a closet, and then for the last year was used mainly on paper projects.)

It's pretty nerdy, but last night we decided to kick off the holiday weekend by sharing a bottle of Lambrusco (our new favorite summer beverage), listening to records (new-to-us Jana Hunter and Devendra Banhart album), and drawing, just for fun. Matthew ended up hand-lettering a phrase from Bill Clinton's speech at the DNC the other night (above), and my drawing was inspired by the end papers of a book we got on ebay recently (below). Now I want to draw nothing but frames . . .

Okay, maybe this post title is a little melodramatic, since San Francisco typically gets its nicest weather in September or October. But just the same, we had an official farewell to summer up in Clearlake this weekend, where we rented a cabin with a group of friends. We swam, barbecued, and even rented a "delux patio boat", and are pretty beat after two days in the sun. It was great to get away though! (And our cabin had great nautical decor like the ship wallpaper below, which was icing on the cake!)

We just added a few button sets to our Etsy shop. They're made from vintage wrapping paper—a favorite material of the moment—as well as vintage sheet music. Each set is unique but there are three basic elements in each: one girl with a parasol, one snippet of music with text, and one yellow rose. We love how the sets end up sweet or sassy, flirty or dramatic, depending on which girl is paired up with which phrase.

Currently in the shop, we've got the sassy brunette with "maybe you", the demure redhead with "so true of you", and and the sweet blond with "moonlight". (And if you'd rather take a chance and have someone make the decision for you, Little Paper Planes has more sets available here.)

We've kind of been hoarding treats from ebay lately. The books above are the most recent delivery and may make their way into a print series or a collage—or maybe we'll leave them intact and just use them as inspiration. We've also been bidding on lots of vintage wrapping paper and romance comics from the 50s and 60s, which will also probably make their way into a Treatzone project in some way or other. (In fact, some of it already has.) There's just so much good stuff out there it's sometimes hard to know when to say when!

We just shipped out a wholesale order to the lovely Tracie of Broadway Paper, who found us through this blog post by the equally lovely Mary of Suffix Abuse. It's exciting to send a batch of our cards and notebooks all the way to Milwaukee, as well as see the list of shops with our treats grow!

So if you live in the area, we hope you'll stop by. I'm a little sad that I can't go myself, because it definitely looks like the kind of place where a paper junkie could spend hours.

Photo from the Broadway Paper website.

As always, we are working away here at Treatzone! We just added some new gocco prints to our etsy store: a series called Devotion on assorted vintage wrapping papers, and the Primary Education diptych above. They are a perfect fit for the new School Days Poppytalk Handmade Market we are participating in starting this Monday. We hope you'll visit our table!

Just a quick reminder that Matthew and Steve have an art opening tonight at Echo Curio in LA: RamblinWorker + Treatzone = Little Zero. It features the collaborative work behind their new t-shirt line, as well as their individual art. Sadly, I wasn't able to join them, so if you are in the area please stop by and wish them well for me!