Think outside the box

While having a retreat with friends, we were sharing recipes, vacation spots and the conversation led to choices of wine. Once everyone had come up with their "favorite", "the absolute best", the conversation landed on Cate. She decided to reveal her best tip known to date...The Black Box.

Founded in early 2003, Ryan Sproule decided wine in a box didn't have to be bad! They state their product is high end wine at everyday prices:

"Black Box Wines makes America's highest quality boxed wine. Our vintage dated wines come from the world's premier growing regions. Boxed wines from our winery are available in retail stores throughout the US. You can now enjoy excellent tasting wine in a box for about half the price you would pay for a bottled wine of the same quality. As an additional bonus, our 3 liter bag-in-box package protects your wine, keeping it fresh for at least 4 weeks after opening."

I can't wait to take this Chardonnay over to our neighbor's for dinner tonight!

As reminded on the The Black Box website:
Please drink responsibly.

Feeling the Cookie love!

Cookie Magazine has always been a personal favorite of ours. During the holidays season, they used La Plates for a super cute spread. Recently, they contacted us for some of our new designs. Be sure to checkout their Dailyfind. We have it bookmarked to keep up on the latest hip ideas, you should too!

Get hoppin'!

There are so many ways to celebrate holidays. In our family, we always had special plates for every occasion. One of my favorite traditions was to get out my great-grandmother's hand painted floral plates...we could only bring them out for Easter. Probably because my parents could only handle one fight a year of my brother and I yelling about which flower we wanted at our place. Sorry Matt, it sounds really stupid now. In your defense, I think you were only trying to claim the most masculine blue flowers.

This year, we found a way to bring this tradition to your table and no fights! You can put each child's name on their very own bunny plate! Checkout the recent additions from La Plates:

These are the Holiday Plates,
shown with Bunny on Turquoise & Hot Pink
Easter is April 12th, so be sure to order from www.laplates.com by the end of March!

Georgia on my mind...

Last week we made a quick trip down South and it was just what the doctor ordered! I am refreshed & inspired to be a better wife, mom & business woman. If you ever get a chance to stay in Savannah, I highly recommend it! I've been there a few times and always seem to have a fabulous time. I'm attaching photos & links to some of my favorite finds...we started our day at the Gryphon Tea Room, a delicious menu served in an amazing old pharmacy/soda shop. We crossed the street after lunch to ShopSCAD, I could have done major damage. They carry items from current & former SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) students, all wonderful!

Our hostess is one of the featured jewelry artists at ShopSCAD - love her stuff!

These cuffs were in a fabulous store called satchel. Their focus was on handbags, but they have a large assortment of leather accessories too.

I couldn't decide on my favorite room in The Paris Market - the perfect store to find home accessories or a hostess gift...I loved it all!

I didn't take any photos in BleuBelle Boutique, but it was a shopping experience I'll never forget. There is a jean guru at BleuBelle that takes one look at you, and brings the perfect jean to you - no joke, she got me in the first pair! They also sell second hand jeans, so those $250 jeans just got reasonable!

Bespoke Leather Goods

When I married my husband I had no idea the artistic talent on his side of the family. Over the last 7 years, my father-in-law has amazed me with his talent in creating custom leather goods. He has perfected his skills during his 35+ years in the craft...from Lawrence, Kansas to St. Crispin on the Country Club Plaza and now in his home office. He has studied with the best to make cowboy boots, his handbags are masterpieces and my favorite are his sandals. He would never brag about his talents, so I snuck into his "boot shop" with my camera phone to take these photos:

The old St. Crispin stamp

A collection of his beautiful sandals

A work in progress...he measures each client's feet and designs the sandals to their measurements and arches.

A variety of tools to create the custom leatherwork

A new addition to his talents - a stocking for the grandkids, priceless!

A photo of the artist from "back in the day" - I'm proud to call this talented man family!
Hopefully there will be a website to show off the bespoked leather goods in the near future - I'll keep you posted.

Quintuplets - wow!

Recently we were contacted to create a gift for a family welcoming quintuplets to their family...all I could think was, wow! The least La Plates could do was provide placemats for the "fab 5" and their big sis!

This really lit a fire under us to figure out a way to show our custom placemat designs online. We always offer them at trunk shows, but it's tough to show the endless possibilities online. Right now we are offering a Dots (side 1) & Stripes (side 2) combo. Be sure to check back soon, as we continue to add new designs and options.

Only one boy in the bunch and they picked one of my favorite names!!

Blogorama for Mabel

One of our favorite mompreneurs, Mabel's Labels, is posing the question, "What have been the rewards and benefits of participating in the blogging community?" I must admit, when I began this adventure in an internet business, I was a newbie to the blogging world. I quickly realized that bloggers were the link to entertaining/prep/mom/monogram junkies of America! I will never be able to properly thank the number of bloggers that have mentioned La Plates in their postings. Truly, they are what gave us our confidence to keep going in the beginning and what continue to give us happy boosts when they send us a link to a new posting.

A woman in my home town is a national phenomenon of a blogger...some of you surely read Mrs. Blandings. The first time I was introduced to her, I literally hugged her, as she was the first person to blog or write about La Plates - she was our first national PR! At that time, I mentioned to her that I had been thinking about starting a blog. She told me to go for it - and I did! Needless to say, I don't have the enormous following like Mrs. B, but it adds a personal touch to our website.

For anyone starting a business, do not underestimate the power of the blogging community - they are a powerful and fabulous crew!