As in many cities, Portland’s home builders like to showcase their newest homes for a few weeks each summer. In Portland, it is called the Street of Dreams. I headed over there last week to check out one of the homes that was staged by Candace White, a local decorator.

She chose to place our Vineyard Canister Set and matching Super Post Set (Measuring Spoons and Cups all on one post) in the kitchen of the home that was called “Con Amore”.

We were honored to have our products in this lovely kitchen.  Check out the photos!

I couldn’t wait to go on the tour and see how everything looked.

I joined my daughter, Petrel, and her husband, Jacob, along with his wonderful parents.

I'm not really sure why I felt the need to pose with all of our products - I guess because I was so excited!

It was really nice to meet Candace, as well. She is the one who pulled everything together.

Who doesn’t love a good sale? Whenever I go to one of my favorite online stores, I can’t help but check out their sale section. I mean, who doesn’t love a deal?

Now that the end of summer is here, it is time to clear out some of the great pieces we have- and that is good news for you.  We just added several new items to our Studio Sale!  Although we have some regular visitors, we figure there might be more of you out there who like to shop a sale.

So…..for the next two weeks, we have a great offer! With any $75 purchase from our regular online store, you can pick a free gift from our Studio Sale (up to $20). All you have to do is add the Studio Sale item to your cart and use this coupon code: freestudio at the check-out and we will add it in FREE (or, if the Studio Sale item is over $20, the coupon will simply deduct $20 from it.

Here are some examples of our newest additions:

Pair of Pewter Cat Napkin Rings

Assorted Heart Gifts

Norse Measuring Spoons

Vineyard Salt Pot in Pistachio

Paint chip called "pewter"

Did you know Pewter is also a color?  It’s true!

When I’m out in the world doing some shopping and have to make a color choice  – the brown or the black one? the silver or the grey? - I always stop and give some extra thought when one of the color choices is the color “pewter”.

It may sound silly but I always think – that must have been made for me! After all, my life is pretty much defined by pewter.

Some people make clothing choices based on size, some people buy appliances based on consumer reviews, some people buy gifts based on their appearance…but I’m often a sucker for the one that’s called “pewter”!

Not only do I make my living by designing and selling pewter products, my license plate says PEWTER, I have an e-mail address that is “pewtermama”, and on and on it goes. Here are some PEWTER-colored things that caught my eye recently….

I can’t say I’m in a market for any of these items but if I were….these would probably be the items what I would choose!

Pewter Dot Diaper Bag

Pewter Gladiator Sandals - cute!

Luxury Eyeshadow

Kettle Chips - made in Oregon!

On the last Thursday of each month, we have a Crosby & Taylor team lunch. Carl, our master potter (as we call him!) pulled out the barbecue grill and we gathered round for a great summer lunch.

We had:

*2 kinds of Barbecued Chicken Skewers (teriyaki/lemon and garlic) with tzatsiki

*salad made with heirloom tomatoes, fresh corn (right off the cob), yellow peppers, and red onion

*lots of Kettle Potato Chips (because they are made just up the road and we love to support our local chip maker…in fact, you just MUST go their website – it is really too much fun!)

*strawberry lemonade and root-beer floats

Nancy’s husband, Matt, popped in along with their adorable baby, Evelyn. (Evelyn usually comes to work with Nancy but Matt was keeping her at home on Thursday.) Evelyn was pretty happy to buddy up to Tim’s son, Moses. Tim works from home but couldn’t pass up team barbecue!

Our guest of honor was Laura, who is a whiz at Search Engine Optimization, over at Out of the Box Marketing. All in all, it’s great to be able to sit around and have a lunch together. Hmm…what shall I make for the August lunch??

Fresh summer food

Barbecue Lunch

Evelyn and Moses