Another birthday week in the books.

Some magic was sprinkled on me in mid January of 1999 & 2002, causing these two share a birthday week.

Trevor & Nieves

Trevor was not happy about getting a baby sister for his birthday when he was 3 years old. But these days they are thick as thieves.

Custom pie and cake toppers were had and a ton of food. We’ll be introducing readymade and customizable toppers for whatever special occasion you have planned. Similar in style to the one pictured.

Up next on our celebration calendar is a slumber party for a couple of old girlfriends of mine and someone’s 40th birthday in March! 😁 I can only imagine what fun custom stuff we’ll come up with for those events.

Lasers and love - Thea

Let us help you organize this year!

Our home is always busy. So I have to stay organized with the daily things like the menu, grocery list and other things that need to get done. I've found the best place to organize that is the refrigerator. EVERYONE goes there daily. It's an easy place for eyes to land. If you recall my previous mention of creating the weekly menu chalkboard so I didn't have to explain what was for dinner that multiple times a day - one of my best ideas to date and we've revamped the font on those. But by popular demand we've created a companion Shopping List chalkboard as well as a multipurpose blank chalkboard for notes.

I hate scrambling for a piece of paper in the middle of cooking when I use the last bit of something and need to note it for a future grocery store trip. I'm already close to the refrigerator anyways so I just jot down what we need and snap a picture of my the list on my way out the door. No forgetting the paper in some mysterious place and if I do forget to take a photo of the list before I head out, I can ask someone at home to text a picture to me. I know that last bit isn't a scenario for everyone, but its super easy to train yourself to snap a picture before you head out. 

We chose a beautiful bold font for both the menu and shopping list boards. But you can get a totally blank board or have one customized with your own wording. They come with super strong magnets or strung with vegan leather cording to hang up if you're refrigerator isn't magnetic. 

I absolutely love mine and use them everyday. I've become a better shopper just from doing this little bit of organization for myself and family. I hope you will check them out. I plan to post a little video on our Instagram of how I use them. 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Back at it!

Hello! We haven't posted much aside from Instagram posts online because we became so busy in December. We basically woke up worked 18-20 hour days and repeated that cycle up until the Saturday before Christmas. We had our busiest online sales year to date. I believe we owe a lot of thanks to The Seattle Times Gift Guide feature that happened right before prime holiday shopping. Thank you again so much for your support. We're truly a mom and pop shop and depend on local support and word of mouth recommendations. 

2017 was a 50/50 year for us. Overall, much like many fellow makers, sales were slower than 2016. We scaled things back with in person shows. We did have a couple poor preforming shows, but that happens. On the flip side we did have the most profitable show to date too. A total 50/50 split. While it could've been better, it could have been worse too.

I'm a firm believer of the mantra "Keep moving forward". (Anyone familiar with Meet The Robinsons?) So that is what we are doing. New products are on the horizon (new coasters pictured below, just became available today.) I am taking my time to craft things and not letting "the rush" get to me. I know when I take my time, I love my designs more. And I like to like what I do and make. Doing this also allows me to focus on some important relationships. Not just John and I, but long time friends who are like family. Everyday is a gift and I want to fill my days with the people who are important to me. I had some self reflection moments over the past few weeks. This year I will be the age that my dad was when I was born. I always thought that was "SO old". But being almost that age myself, I feel so young still! My dad's health started to diminish when I was a young kid, which isn't too far off from where I am now and I have close friends battling the big "C" battle. Reflecting on that, it changes my mindset a bit and I really place value on my own health and my time and relationships with others. (Again, recommending Candy Chang's Ted Talk here.) I've actually been considering starting a vlog just to document meet ups with friends, to selfishly archive our time together. When you're friends with the same people for 35-25 years, we collectively turn into 15 year olds anywhere we are and its hilarious. Nothing makes me laugh harder than those times.

Even though a lot of the world seems unsavory at the moment, I have hope that many good days are in store for this year. So Happy New Year to you and may good days be on their way. For my friends who keep up with me here, I love you and you make me smile. 

Lasers and love - Thea 

South Lake Union Winter Market TOMORROW

Tomorrow in Seattle at Amazon's HQ - Van Vorst Plaza, Urban Craft Uprising is hosting the South Lake Union Winter Market. 10 am to 6pm. 

We vended at this show and UCU's main event last year. It was quite the workout and we had no idea what we were getting into. An outdoor show in the winter? INSANE. However, I've been vending with UCU since the very beginning of the show and I have a lot of faith in the organizers. It was cold, but it was as pleasant as it could be. We had a lot of fun, action and visits from friends that didn't attend the main UCU show and many Amazon employees that were excited to do indie shopping on campus. Currently the Facebook event page for the show has a crazy amount of people interested in it. Perhaps you're one of them? We do hope to see you there! 

We're closing out our show season with this show. We've had a roller coaster of a show year. Some really good and some...meh. It comes with this line of work / lifestyle. 

If you're not a show shopper (or not local to Seattle), we're shipping daily - more like twice a day and I even have the kids running to do drop offs too. We're doing our absolute best to get things out to you ASAP.

Lasers and love - Thea 

Custom Wedding Pie Toppers

Mmmmm...pie! Wedding pie at that. We recently were commissioned to whip up some Art Deco styled pie toppers for a wedding in New York. 

Engraved maple wood treated with food grade oil at the stems and painted with gold acrylic at the top. Beautiful, reusable and much better than plastic. We had a short turnaround time but we worked our magic! A fun little custom project for a late fall wedding. 

I mean, c'mon... look at the flavors of the pies. How decadent! Each pie clearly deserved a beautiful topper.

Have an upcoming wedding and need some cake - cupcake - or pie toppers that aren't made from gross plastic? Shoot us a message and let's see if we can work something out! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Host/Hostess Gift Guide via The Seattle Times

And we just thought A LOT of people wanted chalkboards these past few days.

Our little Washington State chalkboards were featured in The Seattle Times Local finds and fun gifts for your holiday host or hostess gift guide. 

Not gonna lie, they are pretty great gifts. We actually use ours for note taking and list making.

Hello and Thank You!!! to those of you who discovered us through that guide. We will have handfuls of these chalkboards at our last show of the year, this Friday at Urban Craft Uprising's South Lake Union Winter Market at Amazon HQ. So you can come grab one in person and check out some other goodies we make.

Hopefully everyone has had a good start to December. We have quite a few winter birthdays in our family so we're looking forward to a streak of celebrations! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

Black Friday - to - Cyber Monday Sale!

The photo says it all! 

We're jumping on the bandwagon of Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales! 

Receive 20% off orders over $15.00 by entering coupon code :20%OFF at checkout. (Not valid on custom orders.) The sale runs from November 24-27, 2017.

Lasers and love (and lots of gratitude) - Thea & John 

Free Shipping Week!!!

A little Friday afternoon quickie!

Get free shipping on all domestic orders of $25.00+ from now through 11/19/17!

Use coupon code: EARLYBIRD at checkout in our shop!

We're also having the same sale in our Etsy shop - no coupon code needed! 

Happy Friday everyone!

Lasers and love - Thea

Affordable Custom Ornaments From Our Family To Yours

Hello!!! We hope you had an excellent Halloween! We had a nice Halloween at home. If you follow us on Instagram, you saw our laser engraved pumpkin of 2017. Our beloved "puppy" Baberham Lincoln isn't too great with little kids, so we set out our big bowl of candy and watched the trick or treaters through the window. We did dress up a little bit for our around town activities for the day.

When that calendar flips over, many immediately get into the Christmas spirit. I have friends that have already put up their Christmas tree! (Whoa!) Thanksgiving is the biggest holiday of the year for our family. We look forward to having a few days at home together, eating, having a movie marathon and then putting up the tree together. 

As a maker, we start creating for the holiday season as early as August. So much planning goes into store holiday displays and events, we get orders from our wholesale accounts in the summer because of that. 

We got onto the holiday ornament game early this year and while we will still have some old favorites, we are also introducing some new ones too. The first one is an affordable customized ornament with one of our most popular designs, the Family Of Trees. At $12 a pop, you can add your annual ornament to your collection affordably. 

We're producing these twice a week and shipping daily. I'll have a post dedicated to shipping deadlines soon but here's the two big deadlines:

International Christmas shipping deadline : November 12, 2017
Domestic Christmas shipping deadline: December 18, 2017

We're excited about this customizable option on this ornament. Last year we turned down many requests for personalization because of time and set up.  Let us know what you think! 

Lasers and love - Thea 

We Have A Giveaway Over On Instagram!

For those who aren't following us on Instagram, now might be the time to consider following us there. We're planning on hosting a few giveways from now through the holiday season. Wouldn't it be nice to score a gift for someone on your list or for yourself???

Give us a follow to learn more and see our ridiculous videos!

Lasers and love - Thea 

Calling All Game Lovers!!!

We have some exciting news!!! We decided after a big accumulation of ideas and tester products, that we needed to house all of our gaming geekery in one exclusive spot. Thus Game After Game Home was born! 

You'll find some familiar items that have been our main shop, as well as new items with more to come!

If you've been a fan of our gaming & geek themed items here, be sure to check us out on Instagram, Facebook and Etsy!

On the horizon is some brand spanking new 6 by 6 items! Keep your eyes peeled for them!

Lasers and love - Thea 

Plant Stands

Our plant stands were created out of necessity for me. You can read about the creation of our plant stands here in this post. Basically, I needed coasters for our plants.

Surprisingly, they've been an overwhelming hit. They were originally only available in maple wood. But we ended up adding walnut wood to the mix too. They came unassembled ready for your hands to put them together. However, we had some feedback about it being difficult for some to assemble. I've had trouble with a few myself with that final push down. So we decided to offer them fully assembled ready to use right out of the box.  

Large Maple and small walnut plant stands.

Now fully assembled means no work for you and they are easier to gift! As always, we truly appreciate the feedback and love that these have been so well received!

Small walnut wood plant stand - or display stand as seen above.

Lasers and love - Thea 

Bring on the Fall!

I love fall. It's my favorite season. Things cooling down (sorry midwest friends who are still in the heat), warm drinks in the cool morning, hearty soups in the crockpot, and the autumn color all around. I'm all about that Hygge life. 

BRING IT ON!

I've been a bit homebound these days too. My eldest daughter has been borrowing my car for work while she saves up for one for herself. She's a recent university grad, so she's about to start paying back her student loans. So I've been getting a lot of work done during the day and have started to roll out the festive decor. Small perk of having everything delivered!

We'll be getting a head start on holiday projects and offering customizable gifts! As well as a few new items, like this As You Wish stand up sign. Fun fact today is the 30th anniversary of the Princess Bride! 

How about you? Are you sad to see summer go or excited for fall and winter? Also, do you have a favorite soup you love to make? I love to collect soup recipes.

Lasers and love - Thea 

Local Roots at Molbak's in Woodinville 9/23/17

For the very first time ever...we're vending in our hometown! This Saturday we will be vending at Molbak's garden + home right here in Woodinville. (Molbak's is an incredible nursery, home and garden store if you've never been.)

A little blurb about the event:

Sept. 23, 10am-2pm

A Celebration of Northwest Food, Art and Music

Join us for a store-wide celebration - a day of food, fun, art and music featuring some of the best from the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy local flavor from Seattle’s favorite food trucks, and sample tasty Northwest treats from sweet, to savory, and everything in between. Wander through our glass pumpkin patch from the Tacoma Glassblowing Studio and browse gifts from Puget Sound artists, jewelers and sculptors -- all set to music by Seattle’s own Sunshine Junkies. 

We're super excited!!! We will have our PNW Lifer - Happy Places series, our extremely popular plant stands and to honor our area - Wine Me signs! 

So if you're local and have been wanting to see our products in person but don't want to make the big trek out to Seattle. Saturday is your chance to see us in person right here on the Eastside!

Hope to see you there!

Lasers and love - Thea 

We're in Chicago!

D'oh! I failed to hit "post" before we headed east! 

But we are here in Chicago! Today you can catch us in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago at the Renegade Craft Fair From 11-7! We're in booth #284 near the beer! Day one was incredible and we sold out of a few things! So today we're going to put most of what we have left on sale! 

For more updates please follow us on Instagram! @6by6arts

Lasers and love - Thea

Labor Day Weekend Sale!

Well hello there! Happy first day of September! We've had a jammed packed summer and we're already focusing on the holiday season. We're finalizing our holiday show lineup in the next few weeks and we'll share that information as soon as we can. 

As a pre holiday season thank you, we're having a 50% off sale on selected products!!!

Our sale runs from September 1 - 5, 2017.  Grab those deals while you can!

Have an excellent holiday weekend!

Lasers and love - Thea

Anacortes Arts Festival - August 4-6, 2017

Hi!!!! I know most of you keep up with us through our Instagram (I post there almost daily!) we're in Anacortes this weekend for the Anacortes Arts Festival. 

Such a random place for us to be you might think. But actually Anacortes is my second hometown! My mom has lived in Anacortes most of my life and it's really not far from my real hometown of Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island. In all my years of being a maker, this is the very first time that I will be vending near home! 

We are located near the brewery (It's like the event coordinators know me!) in booth number 311C - in the center! The festival runs Friday 10am to 7pm - Saturday 10am to 6pm and Sunday 10 am to 5pm! Come beat the mainland heat in the much cooler temps on Fidalgo Island!

We're bringing clearance items AND our keychains! We actually will have keychains on hand!!!

To top everything else off, our daughters oldest Jina & the Blonde (Nieves) will be taking charge and taking on the family business by vending at Magnolia Summerfest's UCU Maker's Market in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle! It's Seafair Weekend! You know you'll be out about so be sure to see our girls at Summerfest! 

Lasers and love - Thea and the 6 by 6 Family!

As we're getting ready for our summer show tour that begins next weekend, we've got a couple new products coming out. First is a walnut version of our very popular plant stands. I had no idea how popular these were going to be! I really needed them for our home. I got tired of rotating my plants that were competing for the sun on my windowsill and I was especially tired of having to clean up "water rings" after watering my plants. 

They've really been super handy and I totally love them. I also really love (LOVE) the look of walnut wood. So duh, had to whip up a batch of these in walnut. 

What do you think? How do you feel about darker woods? Light wood is always fresh and clean looking but there's something sexy about the darker wood grain. There's a woodworker's joke in there somewhere. :)

In other news, if you subscribe to our newsletter, you were privy to a free shipping coupon code that expires tomorrow at 11:59pm Pacific!!! Thanks to all of you who took advantage of that coupon and to those who aren't subscribers...I'll pass along the deal to you too! (But I would love it if you'd consider subscribing! 

Enjoy FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25.00 from now until June 16, 2017. (Domestic orders only.) Use coupon code: WESTCOASTSUMMER upon checkout.

More from me soon! Like next week!!! We have to live through a few busy days! Father's Day, a graduation, a graduation party, a Freshman formal dance.... 

Lasers & Love -Thea 

425 Business Magazine June 2017

We're starting off June 2017 with a little press. We recently had that honor of being interviewed at our home studio for a day. We were asked questions, did a little show and tell about our process and had a few pictures taken by 425 Business Magazine. 425 is our local area code and the publication focuses on businesses in our area. Everything from big international software companies that you've probably heard of to us!

The photographer and journalist that came to our home were absolutely amazing. It is always a little strange to invite customers, press and the like to our home to see how we run our company. It is our home after all and we do have a Dr. Seuss mural on our "office" wall. We also had the pleasure of creating items for the cover. The creative artists at the magazine created a beautiful layout. 

You can read more about us in the current issue available at newsstands right now. The article will be available online later this month and we'll be sure to share it with you all then.

Lasers and love - Thea

2017 Summer Show Tour!!!

Hey, hey, hey...we will be out and about this summer! 

First show of the season will be on June 24th -25th at the  Urban Craft Uprising's Summer Show at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. 6 by 6 will be booth sharing with Thea Starr - totally weird to talk about myself in the third person. 11am to 5pm both days. 

Next up in early July we'll be hitting the road and heading south to Los Angeles for the 9th annual Renegade Craft Fair LA! 

It's an outdoor show held at the Los Angeles State Historic Park on July 8 – July 9, 2017 11 am to 6pm both days. 

Los Angeles State Historic Park

1245 N Spring St, Los Angeles, California 90012

Next up in August we'll be in my hometown area at the Anacortes Arts Festival!

Another outdoor show in the very cute town of Anacortes. My mom worked at Island Hospital for almost 20 years so I got to spend a lot of time in Anacortes when I was younger.

The Arts Festival is a three day event.

Held right smack dab in the middle of town on Commerical Avenue.

August 4, 5 & 6, 2017 Friday 10am - 7pm Saturday 10am - 6pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm.

Lastly, another outdoor show, we'll be at Magnolia Summerfest in association with Urban Craft Uprising. 

Held at the West Magnolia Playfield (South) on August 5th & 6th, 2017 (Seafair Weekend!).

9am to 5pm both days. 

So, mark your calendars! Create lists for those who need gifts or lists of stuff that you want and come see us in person. We'll have new products and clearance items too. Our adult children will be present at a couple of the shows helping out, so it will truly be a 6 by 6 Arts family production.

Lasers and Love - Thea