After 4 longs years in Polk county I’ve finally relocated back to Orlando. The move back is bittersweet. I’ve grown quite fond of many of my new friends but the move was necessary. I’m hoping being back in Orlando will open up a few doors that were recently closed because of our previous location. Orlando has many outdoor markets and festivals as well as a growing indie community. My plan is to rediscover Orlando from an artist’s perspective instead of the huge commercial city that I know. I’ve already gone out and explored a few shops and galleries that I will be writing about soon.

On the flip side Darrington is just 3 months shy of completing his MBA. I’m so proud! He’s interning with a cool organization called Real Men Outdoors. They are a non profit that mentors at risk youth and takes them on outdoor adventures. They took us camping back in March. I had a blast and can’t wait to go again. They go on regular monthly outings so we’ll be posting photos as we go along.

And last but not least I have sneak peekage of Antisparkle’s Fall Collection. I really believe this will be our best collection yet. It will include tees, hoodies and a few bags made from custom designed fabric. Also I’m working on getting an actual photographer to shoot everything. Excitement I tell ya!

Right now I’m working on sewing, sewing and sewing. I’ve been creating small bags using fabric I have stashed in the back of my closet. Hopefully this will keep me busy until my custom designed fabric arrives. I’m impatient. I did a test run of fabric from spoonflower. I ordered a yard of twill/ upholstery weight fabric. I used it to create a cross body bag.

This is a bit of a prototype. I want to add additional pockets and space for your keys, ipod, cellphone, etc. I was very happy with how the fabric turned out so I’m hooked on designing my own.

I don’t want to get all nerdy on you and make you do math. But I wanted to provide a few statistical reasons shopping indie makes sense.

It’s beautiful that independent companies are fueled by passion and love. I’m always inspired by the successes and triumphs of other small business people because we work really hard for those achievements. However stories and good feeling aren’t always enough to produce the necessary capital to stay in business. We need cold hard facts about how small businesses are shaping our economy. Here are a few stats that demonstrate the importance of supporting small businesses.

• 95.4% of businesses have fewer that ten employees
• 49% of the business in the U.S are home based
• Only .07% of businesses are large businesses defined by having 500 or more employees

Amazing isn’t it? Imagine the damage it would cause if these businesses bagan disappearing. These businesses are adding jobs to your local economy, they pay state sales tax and they provide additional purchasing/ service options.

I’m really just trying to drive home the point that supporting small businesses, handmade, artists and your local community shops is essential as we work to rebuild a stronger economy. Shop indie it’s the economical thing to do.

Stats were taken from Microbusiness Strategies.

I just wanted to express my excitement over the new hem tags that arrived Friday. Effective immediately all shirts will be tagged with the Antisparkle star logo.

This collection only has a few pieces so it’s more of a mini collection. The collection consists of 2 tanks, a shirt, 2 necklaces styles, earrings and a tote. I’m sitting on one other idea but I may wait to produce it.

The collection is now available in the Antisparkle shop. Go take a look. What is your favorite piece?

After much doodling, brainstorming and messing around in illustrator I came up with something. You may have already noticed him.

Meet Supernova (I call him Nova for short) he’s the Antisparkle star.

Meet Ace. He is the youngest astronaut to ever pilot Nasa’s super secret Rocket X.

After lift off Ace begins to relax into his 7th space flight to the moon, when suddenly mission control buzzs in with an emergency announcement. The new intern mixed up Ace’s flight coordinates with those of an unmanned space probe. Instead of sending Ace to the moon he is being sent to an unknown destination.

Poor Ace! What is he going to do?

Find out next week.

P.S. If you like Ace you can download him as a wallpaper.