Carpe Diem

This being new years eve and all, I've been thinking a lot about resolutions.
My list seems to get longer and longer the more I dwell on it. Though I don't recall making an exact resolution for 2008, there was one goal I set out to do that proved much more challenging than I'd originally anticipated. Being the eldest of 20 cousins, I decided this was the year I would not only recognize all of their birthdays, but also give the gift of a personalized pair of Enchanted Royals! I gave my cousins the option of choosing a design from our collection, or to imagine their own unique design that I would recreate.

My darling cousin Claire, who is now a freshman at Eastern University, was the first to design her own pair and asked for a sunset over the ocean, with the words "carpe diem" painted on the heels. I was so moved by her vision and overall outlook on life, and find it fitting to post as we ring in the new year.

While I am still a few pairs shy of completing my goal for 2008, I am encouraged by the idea to simply make the best of the present moment. To recognize the positive rather than dwell on the negative. Looking back over the past year, I am so very proud of the many strides Dara and I have made with our little business. While we bid adieu to the great oh-eight, there is much to anticipate in what will surely be a divine oh-nine, yes?

Seize the day, indeed!
Much love & a very happy new year,

Haley

Wooden Animal Parade

Click here for a holiday song by Chris and Dara. Have a great New Year!

Blissful times

Hope everyone is having a great end-of-the-holiday-season. I've had a few days of much-needed catch up with some of my favorite east coast dwellers; I can't believe how much I'd missed them.
Tonight, I stumbled upon the gorgeous photography of "Mrs. French" of Blissful Images via the blog of sfgirlbybay. Her photographs can be found on her flickr pages as well as her Etsy store. I can't begin to decide what to purchase for the walls of my future apartment! (dun dun dun, impending move.....)

-Dara

Coast to Coast

Home in snowy New Jersey, where I rapidly threw together a rush order for my dearest Lisa; Christmas gifts for her nieces and nephew. A pair of robots in love onesies for a pair of twins- a boy and a girl- (pics forthcoming of the babies in their new gear, Lisa promises!) and a pair of heart jewel sneaks for her 8 year old niece, whose birthstone is a ruby (which spawned the idea that the heart jewel would be a great birthstone gift for a little girl- who says the jewel has to be red??). Met up with miss Lisa last night to give her the goods along with a robots in love tote for her adorable self... So nice to be on this coast! Hope you're having a snowy and awesome holiday.
-Dara

Our Story

We made three music videos last spring to introduce our line and spin the tale of our Enchanted characters in a fun and beautiful way. The songs are by Warm Air Telegraph, a music project Dara and her man friend Chris were doing at the time. (Chris is now the bass player for a really amazing bluegrass/folk indie band based in L.A. called Son Ark...love.) The lovely Carol directed, Haley edited, and each and every actor in the videos are good friends of ours who ran around the hills of Santa Barbara in crazy costumes purely out of the goodness of their hearts! Not to mention our amazing directors of photography; Katie, Lana and Katie, our dear friend Sarah who baked tons of psychedelic neon cupcakes and the awesome Ryan who created some sets that were not to be believed. We love these videos and we hope you do too!

Enchanted Royals Fashion Series from Haley Thompson on Vimeo.

Holiday Adventures

Last New Years, we went on a challenging and rewarding hut trip just outside Aspen with our best buds Josh and Carol, along with some of Haley's family and Colorado friends. Check out the 10th Mountain Division Hut Association of Colorado website to find out what they're all about. For Haley, Carol, Josh and I, coming out of our decidedly urban lifestyles here at sea level in Los Angeles, our excursion was definitely an eye opener to all the natural beauty we had been missing over the last few years. Carol actually gave a really beautiful account of the experience in her blog last year shortly after it happened.
Wishing you beautiful adventures of your own this holiday season!
Coming soon- organic recycled cotton totes printed with a new painting inspired by the Aspen trees that surrounded us on our hike.

Have an Enchanted holiday!!

The website is finally completed! There are a few itsy bitsy kinks to work out, but we are thrilled. Perhaps the most exciting part is our new fully functioning webstore, and all the new products therein. Our organic, recycled cotton Robots in Love totes and our organic cotton Lady Keyhole tees have gone through the screen printing process, and between those and our heart jewel tee, we are armed and ready with a full array of products to catapult us into the holiday season. All tees and totes are $25!

Happy Holidays.......

In the distance is the forging of a fleeting glimpse....

We've been having a ton of fun getting our new site together. Things have been coming together more beautifully than we could have ever dreamed; in no small part thanks to the fabulous photography of our dear friend (and director of our music videos) Carol Fahey, not to mention Andrew of BloodSweatFear who made everything happen for us!


We're about ready to take a first step into the future of Enchanted Royals, with heaps of new screenprints of our paintings on organic tees and totes. Some are designs that can be found on our shoes that represent characters, and there will be new, stand-alone designs as well.


Literally can't wait to show you!

Welcome!

Oh hey, welcome to our Enchanted Blog! This is the official blog for Enchanted Royals; the sneaker, t shirt and tote bag line that features hand-drawn designs, each showcasing the personality of a different character in our storybook land! Here you will find news, updates, and general inspiring and amazing things that we, Princess Cupcake(Haley) and the Duchess of the Black Forest(Dara), would like to share with you. Look forward to some colorful, fun times.........