Note Worthy

Dearest Creative Cookie Readers:

Thank you for reading the Creative Cookie blog. When I started writing it nine months ago, I was clueless about the blogosphere and unsure if I could manage another “thing” to do. But the thought of blogging constantly nagged at me and I eventually gave in. I saw having a blog as a way to live my creative journey twice, once in reality and again through the words and images that you see here. Since the start of this blog, a blend of amazing events has occurred. An internship with Brooklyn-based designer C O Z B I, attending fashion week, more courses at NYU, and the list goes on and on.

So, what’s next with Creative Cookie? Drum roll please …Creative Cookie Beta is launching June 1st at: www.thecreativecookie.net. The beta version of the blog will continue to be my online journal slash place for me to publish what I find inspirational, resourceful, and beautiful. I also want to spend more time covering another interest that I have, philanthropy. My professional career has been in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. I have a deep interest in learning about what’s happening to promote the welfare of others. As Creative Cookie grows and explores the relationship that exists between creativity and causes I hope you will do two things: 1) share the past postings that you enjoyed most and 2) tell me about the artist, from the unsure to the established, who give from the heart to improve lives of others.

Thanks again for reading; it's truly a gift.

Shine on,

Lesley

Inspiring Event

Join us on Wednesday, October 8 from 6-9p at C O Z B I for a wine tasting and a look at the one-of-a kind fall collection of women and children’s clothing, accessories, and quilts—all made in Brooklyn. You’ll also have an opportunity to learn about the wonderful work of The BAG Fund, a Brooklyn based nonprofit, dedicated to helping artists create work and share it with the world.

It’ll be great to see your smiling face. In other words: come out, be inspired, learn about a great cause.

C O Z B I
 is located at: 530 Court St
 in Brooklyn 
(between Huntington
and W 9th St). Take the F or G to Smith & 9th St.

Cookie 1: A Little Spark is Born

If you’re like me you love a good street fair, the food, people watching, and cheap earrings are enough to keep a girl happy for a while. This past Sunday, my zany neighbor/creative partner, Jennifer, and I put ourselves on the other side of the table and decided to be a vendor at the Flatbush Frolic. The Flatbush Frolic is a street fair that’s been a part of Brooklyn’s history for 31 years.

As you know from my last entry, we made tote bags from fabrics that were going to be thrown away. The material that we used was a micro suede from Italy and we had about 20 different colors of it. There were no wrong combinations; we placed fuchsia on chocolate, camel with powder blue, slate grey coupled with crimson, olive against sienna—the colors all seemed to somehow resonate with one another. The bags were "green" without literally being green.

We ended up making 14 totes and we sold 4 (we picked two to keep for ourselves)! I think we could have sold more but we decided to price them at $25 because our friends said we’d be crazy to sell them for anything less, and we agreed. The reactions that we got from every visitor who came to our table were positive. One woman took our contact information because she’d like to consider placing them in a gift shop and another asked for our web address because she wanted to tell her friends about our products (web address? We just got an email account the night before). This made me very happy!

I learned so much from this experience and am amazed that we were able to take a pile of remnants and a vision to introduce something new. We had fun too—the work and the idea came together perfectly.






I’d like to give a really BIG thank you to Cozbi for taking the time to help us sew smart, Craig for giving Jennifer the fabrics, Leanne and Melinda for coming to the fair, and Kamau for sharing ideas and putting up with a messy “Studio W” during production.