They say you can’t just a book by its cover. How true! Earlier this month Crosby & Taylor was the featured company at a trunk show at a really AWESOME gift shop just up the road in Salem, our state capitol.

But here is the crazy thing – this really special shop is inside an Ace Hardware Store – that’s right! You pull up front and you are sure you have the wrong address. But don’t judge this book by its cover!

Just head inside and here is what you will see…

Madrona Ace Hardware Gift Shop

This sweet place was selected Best Gift Shop last year by the Salem newspaper – and I can really see why!

Best of the Mid-Valley

Judy, buyer extraordinaire, myself, Denise - awesome sales rep

We are thrilled that our products will now be a part of their product mix and I was honored to be invited to participate in a trunk show.

If you are anywhere in Oregon you should definitely pull off I-5 (our only north-south freeway!) and head just slightly west to this Ace Hardware store.

If you enjoy shopping, you will thank me for sending  you there!

Crosby & Taylor beautifully displayed

You can find most anything on the internet these days but I hope you will remember to support YOUR INDEPENDENT RETAILER!

our Oregon Spirit model

After 10 long months, I am proud to say that we are officially licensed to make University of Oregon products!

We are licensed!

Check out our “Oregon  Spirit” line here where you can choose from :

jewelry, key chains, wine stoppers, light weight hooks, bowls and salad servers!

http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/university-of-oregon

The daughter of some of our oldest friends was our model and we are really happy with how the publicity shots turned out!

our Medium "Vintage O" necklace

"Vintage O" key chain

Classic O Necklace with extra charms

If you would just like our coupon code – slide to the bottom of this posting. If you would like the story….read on!

We used to import a great coffee canister and them embellish it with a pewter lid and a side-hanging scoop. And then, I woke up one day and decided we should be 100% American-made!

made in USA

No more imported canisters, I said. We can make our own!

And it’s true! We can – and we do! We have our own pottery studio and we make our own line of stoneware. It’s incredible. We have an awesome potter – one of our oldest friends – and when I want a new design, I cross the driveway – we discuss it – and within a few days – I have a new pot!

It's awesome working with Carl!

But, at the end of the day, I realize there are people who still really want a canister with a silicone gasket and a hinge-top lid. We just can’t make that ourselves. It costs more to make things in America and sometimes we just can’t compete! So, I hope you will feel that you can now have the best of both worlds…you have a choice!

You can choose from our 100% American-made pottery – with pewter embellishments

or our imported canister – with pewter embellishments!

Both of these have our artisan-made pewter and we think that both options are beautiful!

We are calling these new pieces our East to West Collection. The largest one holds a pound of coffee (or other food stuffs – like oatmeal, brown sugar, and such), the medium holds a half pound of coffee, and the very little one – so cute! – holds about 1/3 cup of specialty salts, spices, etc.

East to West Canisters

To celebrate the introduction of this Collection, we are offering them at 20% off through the end of May.

They can be seen here:

http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/ceramic-and-pewter-canisters-east-to-west-retail-new

Here is the coupon code that will save you 20%:

east2west

(And here is the fine print: This code is only good on retail pricing. If you are a wholesaler, we have 2 specials for you – please contact us about these!)

Our baby girl will celebrate her 19th birthday today – the first one away from home! Fortunately, she has a wonderful roommate at college who will play “mom” and decorate her dorm room and bring out the gifts – which I sent for her to secretly stash away – at just the right moment.

the youngest member of Crosby & Taylor

My husband and I raised 4 kids and are now empty-nesters. I have always been passionate about running our own business so it was our kids that kept me sane – and kept me from working all day everyday. I loved being a brownie leader and a soccer coach and all the other fun things I got to do as a mom. There are challenges with being self-employed but, of course, there are also benefits – like a flexible schedule. You can go to a school assembly and then make up for the lost work hours when the kids are sweetly sleeping.

Since this is the month of Mother’s Day, I would like to give a big shout-out to the moms everywhere – who juggle so many things – and who wear so many hats – and who don’t have flexible schedules – but still make it work!  I can truly say that being a mom was the best job I ever had – and still have! I love being a pewter smith but I hope my kids will say that I was always a mom first.

Happy Birthday, Rosella!

Nearly every day we get an inquiry from someone who loves his or her Measuring Spoons and/or Cups but has lost or damaged one of them. Please know that we have replacements available for most every set we have ever made!

Here is the link to our replacements: http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/replacements

Furthermore, if you have one of our Spoons or Cups and it has not held up – due to no fault of your own (such as scooping very hard brown sugar or such!) – then we will repair it or replace it, free of charge. (Our only fee is $5.50 for return shipping and handling.) Your American-made pewter pieces from us should last a lifetime and beyond!

This is the one year anniversary of our Made for Mothers Collection! (We are proud to think that there are many wonderful women out there who will be unwrapping some pieces from this collection in just a couple of weeks. This Collection is really special to me since it was inspired by our own loyal customers and followers! We asked for names that you use for your own mothers and grandmothers.

The replies were really fun and it was hard to narrow down the selection. But, we could only fit so many names on a spoon!

Detail of Made for Mothers Collection pattern

Those people, whose suggestions were used, received a free set of Measuring Spoons from us! (We hope they are enjoying them!)

We came up with a set of Measuring Spoons, Measuring Cups, Spoon Rest, and Double-ended Measuring Spoons. On the backs of the Spoons and Cups, you will find the suggested names. On the front, we spelled out this message:  “A mother’s love cannot be measured.”

Made for Mothers Measuring Spoons

Made for Mothers Measuring Cups

Some people have asked us what our “Double-ended” Measuring Spoons are for. We think they are a great starter gift for someone who has just begun to collect our products. The smaller one retails for $25 and the larger one for $29. Alternatively, they are a nice add-on gift for someone who already has our Measuring Spoons. After all, it’s always nice to have an extra teaspoon – one for dry and one for liquid ingredients – when you are in the middle of a complicated recipe.

Here is where all of these products can be seen our our site:

Measuring Cups: http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/mother-cups-pewter-post-retail

Measuring Spoons: http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/zms15pp-retail

Spoon Rest: p://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/mother-spoon-rest-retail

Double-ended Measuring Spoons: http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/double-ended-measuring-spoons-retail

I was pretty excited to see these statistics in our local paper today:

Made in USA!

We do realize that it costs more to buy products made in the USA so this is why we try to keep our online Studio Sale well-stocked. We also sent out a great coupon last week via e-mail. Contact us if you didn’t get yours. (We would NEVER share your contact info with anyone else.)

Last week I took a short vacation with our youngest daughter. For the first time – since I have owned a laptop – I stayed unplugged for the whole trip! I had never realized how great this could be. I love my job – I love working on our website – writing blogs – writing product descriptions – the whole package! But I now see that it is also useful to step away for a bit and come back refreshed. If you don’t believe me, you should try it!

Vacation - unplugged!

It’s crazy the things you do on vacation – like eat ice cream at odd times of the day…wear little shells around your neck…and pick up random books at Barnes & Noble! Although neither of us are big astrology fans, we couldn’t help but pick up a couple of little books to read about our sign.

We started browsing through them at lunch and, before we knew it, we were speechless. These books so accurately described each of us – one Sagittarius and one Taurus. We could hardly eat our lunch – especially when we saw this page in my book…

When we hit this page, we were pretty  much speechless! I may have been on vacation – but I am never very far from thinking about pewter!

Late last night an order came in from a customer in Seattle who put this in the comments:

“I trust that these are still made in Oregon. If they’re made in China, please cancel my order.”

Needless to say, I promptly answered this morning with a resounding YES! We still make

all of our pewter products right here in Eugene – 26 years and going strong!

We provide health care coverage, flexible hours, a pension plan, and paid vacation days for our employees.

Our staff is hard-working and dedicated and all of us here are always appreciative of your business.

We know that it costs more to keep your dollars in America and we thank this Seattle customer for

taking the time to ask.

We did some spring cleaning this week and found all kinds of treasures to list on our online Studio Sale! If you have never visited it, you might want to stop in….just copy this link:     http://www.crosbyandtaylor.com/new    paste it in – and you will be flying right there! We try to make the prices really reasonable! And, remember, we always offer free shipping on orders of $50 or more.

We have multiples of some of the items. But mostly, they are one-of-a-kinds. Some get grabbed up pretty quickly. In fact, in between the time that I drafted this posting on Friday night – and tonight, when I am ready to post it – two of the items I wanted to show have already been taken! Oops! I guess I better showcase some of my other favorites…

Here are some of my favorites that we just posted:

Bird Measuring Spoons on a Vintage Wall Hanger

Bird Measuring Cups on a 2-part Vintage Wall Hanger

Vineyard Gifts

Fleur de Lys Garlic and Salt Pot Pair