...but only while we make ourselves all pretty again! The Lazy Oaf gang have moved out because we all need more space and Lady Luck Rules OK is going to take over the whole studio and shop...mwahahahaha! This means we'll have lots more room to design and make our new collections; pack all your orders; and Becky our new full time studio assistant can now have her very own desk! We will keep you all updated with the refurbishment, we have lots of exciting stuff planned and we hope to re-open again early August!

In the meantime, our website will be open as usual, and we'll be packing your orders as carefully and quickly as ever.

Lauren and I first met online a few years ago when she was working as a buyer for Fred Flare and then we bumped into each other at the Renegade Craft Fair a few weeks ago where I fell head over heels for her new label Snack Mountain.

Hey there Lauren! We've fallen for Snack Mountain, it's kinda crazy, what's the story?
Snack Mountain was first conceived as my senior art thesis project in college and has morphed into a small business/website where cute food people reign and you'll never go hungry. I am influenced by Japanese stationery, McDonalds happy meal toys. I am currently trying to finish up the sequel to the original Snack Mountain claymation movie, entitled "Snack Mansion" as well as develop new fun food-themed products!! Over the past year, I have become interested in the politics of the global food industry after reading some fascinating non-fiction books including "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and I have been looking for ways to incorporate these new issues into my characters/narratives. So a new direction for Snack Mountain products/animations is that they will still maintain the fun, humorous feel but will be boosted by a meaningful message behind the story. Hope you like it!! :)

Tell us a bit about the lady behind the scenes...
Well, I grew up in NYC and now live in Brooklyn and it is so lovely! Snack Mountain is not my full time gig but I think I'd be lost if it wasn't part of my life. I have always been obsessed with food and fun novelty items so merging the two as my creative outlet makes perfect sense to me. I love to cook, take pictures, ride my bike and collect things including vintage McDonalds drinking glasses, toys, stationery, and more. It's kinda rough though because I live in a small studio apartment. :)

Everything is handmade by you, any secrets you care to share about the process...
I am always into trying to conceive of new kinds of products for my snack inspired characters. For example, I started by sewing appliques of my characters onto tees/hoodies. Then I tried out making plush dolls which I loved because I have a huge plush collection! Next up, I started silk screening tees and tote bags. Then last year I launched a line of laser cut acrylic necklaces which was really exciting too! My newest product is a comic book and it was really fun to work with paper for a change. For the past couple of years I have had a studio space outside of my apartment but I am about to take a break from working in that space so that I can focus on some projects that I can only work on in my apartment.

Why Bananaman? We heard your Mom might have something to do with it...
Actually, I first conceived of Bananaman while I was sketching out new characters about three years ago and then I began setting him in different environments and found that he took on a personality of his own. My mom doesn't really like him as a character because she thinks he looks mean and angry. Her frustration about his character inspired me to write/design my new comic book "Who is Bananaman? (And why does he look so angry)" so that there was more background to his angry seeming demeanor.

What other characters might be getting the SM treatment in the future...
Well, I really enjoyed working on the comic book and I hope to continue to further develop the story behind the characters. Next up is likely to be a story between my relationship and the character Broccoli who I have a sort of love affair with....Stay tuned. I am also trying to finish the sequel to the original Snack Mountain animation where the food people characters go to an abandoned mansion and the unexpected happen...stay tuned for that too!!

What kinda girls should be rockin' the SM look this season?
Definitely snack-a-holics who love color and aren't afraid to wear something that might make people look twice or ask a bunch of questions.

You snapped up not 1, but 2 Sweetheart necklaces from our booth at the Renegade Craft Fair, tell us what you've been styling your new necklaces with...
Wow. I love those Sweetheart necklaces. I love to wear several necklaces at the same time to create a "story" or narrative. For example I like to wear my E.T. necklace along with a necklace with a bicycle charm on it to tell the story from the movie when E.T. rides off with Elliot. I think the Sweethearts will have to mingle with my other necklaces to develop their own love affair to appear on my neck. They are so charming, I'm sure they will make friends fast! Haha!!

Finally, any plans to bring the whole SM world to the UK...we'd love to have you!
I don't have any plans currently but I would definitely be down to bring the gang overseas to the UK!! I'd love to check out London again! I went there 7 years ago but sadly I didn't have a local buddy to show me the cool spots to go so I feel like I missed out on a lot of the hidden treasures I know are there.

Ahh, well if you ever visit again be sure to swing by Superette and we'll be sure to show you an ace time!

Who wants to check out the Snack Mountain swag? Click here!!!

We’re back in good ol’ blighty and when our plane landed yesterday it was pouring with rain which felt welcoming and homely in an odd way. The past 8 days are a bit of a blur as we worked and partied our spangly socks off. Here are the bits I can remember...

The 6 hour flight flew by as I played Tetris and watched Zodiac (Jake is cute) and Factory Girl (seeing shots of New York made me excited) we landed at JFK and caught a cab straight to our apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was lovely to see Pablo and Veronica again who run the converted warehouse but we didn’t hang around and spent the rest of the day wandering around the indie stores, cute cafes and ace record stores in Williamsburg where we met Dana the buyer from Mini Mini Market.

Weird jet lagged sleep and up at 6am. Took the subway over to Manhattan and spent the day in Greenwich Village shopping and buying a few last minute things for our stall at the Renegade Craft Fair tomorrow. We stopped by the Magnolia Bakery (made famous in Sex and the City) which sell the most divine homemade cupcakes *yum yum* they tasted gooooooood. Back over to Brooklyn and at 7 we went to the “Meet and Greet” Renegade party hosted by Venus Magazine and 31 Corn Lane. The E-vite had lured us early with the talk of a free Fred Flare shopper for the first 50 guests. Bagged. Amy from 31 Corn Lane was a wonderful host as she showed us how to self serve the keg and we ate more cake. Next up we were supposed to go to Etsy’s 2nd anniversary party, but hey we’d been up since 6am so we had a quick night cap in a local bar Bembe.

Up at 7am, we raced around packing all our swag and stall garb into market bags and walked to MacCarren Park, stopping for a baked eggs brekky on the way. WOW what a venue - McCarren Park Pool built in 1936 was one of the largest public pools in the world unfortunately now it sits vacant and deteriorating but locals are trying to revive it by holding events like this to raise money. Hurrah! Our gazebo was set up in our spot, we quickly made friends with our neighbours and it was time to get to work stringing together bunting and displaying all the goodies. The day zoomed by in a frenzy of buying customers in a sweltering heat that when the heavens opened at 4.30pm and it poured for 15 minutes we were kinda releived! That evening Amy from 31 Corn Lane invited us out to her boyf’s gallery and then dinner at Relish - an upmarket diner in a 1950s shiny silver trailer. Mmm big burgers and beer...

The fair opened at 11am and as well as selling our wares I made it out from behind the table so I could shop too! I snapped up a blunicorn monster from Jenny Harada, a hotdog and banana plushies from My Paper Crane, some totes and tees from Pinecone and Chickadee as pressies and I placed wholesale orders with 2 more vendors (but that’s a best kept secret for now). I wanted to buy a pile of stuff from Fred Flare too but for some odd reason they didn’t show up on day two...oh well. I met a fan of LLROK called Sammy Jo - she went crazy and bought loadsa stuff and then invited me over to her booth where I bought a super cute necklace from her 80s jewellery label Sammylicious. That night we went over to Amy’s house for a BBQ, what a lovely home filled with knick knacks - that girl has more owls than me including the owl clock I’ve been trying to win on eBay for like a year!

With the fair over we took our remaining stock over to Mini Mini Market so Dana could place her order and then we had a very important meeting in Manhattan that afternoon which was exciting. That evening we watched an open air screening of the Woody Allen film Annie Hall in Bryant Park. It was totally buzzing and when the sun went down the skyscrapers around us were a sight to behold and we had a real New York moment. Awesome.

We headed out early and caught the Staten Island Ferry for free so we could see the Statue of Liberty up close. It was the only peice of touristy sightseeing we could squeeze in but well worth it! We then stalked up and down the wholesale district for the whole day until our arms were piled high with deadstock, materials, findings, buttons and beads stopping every few blocks for Lemonade Iced Tea. My my. I felt crispy with sunburn. It was our first sensible early night as the next day we had to be up 5am...

Today we were off on an adventure, we’d received a tip off about a huge warehouse full of deadstock which was a 3 hour train journey out of town. We were tired and the train fare was expensive but we had to take a chance...boy was it worth it. The family who run it were so sweet to us and made sure we got see all the kinda things we’d be interested in. “You gotta see it to believe it” is their motto! We had a real deal Mexican lunch in the local town and then headed home with bags full o’ cuteness.

Time to go home! We’re exhausted, but it’s been such fun! We did one last swoop around Williamsburg taking photos and eating lunch. The plane journey home was a delayed drag and seeing London again made me happy to be back. Everyone we met was sooo lovely and welcoming, thanks guys, it’s been a truly remarkable trip and we hope to be back again some day soon. One final special shout-out goes to Miss Amy Sperber - thanks for EVERYTHING!

I can't believe it's June already and this month is extra exciting because on the 16th and 17th we'll be selling our wonderful wares at the Renegade Craft Fair in New York! Woo hoo! Sam and I visited the fair back in 2005 and had such a blast we promised ourselves we'd return one day and have a booth all of our very own. So we've kept our word and in 2 weeks time we'll be setting up in booth 74 opposite the sassy sisters from 31 Corn Lane and just around the corner from the cool cats at Fred Flare - we can't wait to meet y'all...! We're taking all the best sellers from our website plus some exciting new hearty crafty danglers which we're keeping under wraps for now...

The fair is massive this year with over 200 vendors exhibiting including 2 of my fave plush creators: Jenny Harada and My Paper Crane. I'll definitely be treating myself to an army of strange but cute creatures. We fly out on the 14th and stay for a week so we get time to do some trashy touristy stuff and of course swoop the amazing Manhattan wholesale district to pick up a bunch of unusual supplies. We'll also take oodles of photos and post them on the blog on our return...in the meantime here are some photos from last year's Renegade -

I'm so excited!!!