photo by www.coryryan.com

I’m hosting the official Hope & Glory Pastry launch party at Bows + Arrows/Spartan at 215 South Lamar Blvd. this Saturday, June 12th. The event will be from Noon to 4PM. There will be loads of pastries for you to sample (free!!) and drinks to wash it all down with (free!!) and uh-mazing shopping if you desire (not free, but worth every penny!!).

photo by www.coryryan.com

I’d love to have you there to try my pastries and celebrate this exciting time with me. So please, come out and bring your friends. This party is open to the public!

However, I’ve not had the opportunity to formally introduce myself. I’m Jesse, formerly the designer for Amet & Sasha. After years of wanting to toss my sewing machine aside for flour and my KitchenAid, I finally took the leap. In 2007 I unchained myself from my Singer and started to plan for the future. First I started a little blog, then I quit my job, moved to San Francisco and went to pastry school. I came home and got myself a cooking gig here. And finally, I moved on from that to start my own pastry company, Hope & Glory Pastry.

photo by www.jodyhorton.com

I’m pretty excited about this endeavor. I’ve launched with five pastries which I’m currently selling around Austin. Brown butter and sea salt make the shortbread rich and deliciously haunting. Praline candy and fleur de sel top meltingly rich polvorones. Rugelach are spiked with a smoky chipotle kick. The infamous Magic Bar features honey and pecans atop a salty sweet sable breton crust, all drizzled with 70% El Rey chocolate. And finally, the gluten-free Meringue Épice steers clear of the mundane, combining nuts, coconut and meringue with cumin, coriander and black pepper for a sweet that teases the tastebuds with seductive savory elements. A bonus is that all of the pastries use local farm-raised eggs, organic pecans and honey.

photo by www.jodyhorton.com

Not in Austin? No worries! I’m on Etsy.

Keep your eyes peeled for info about my official launch party and tasting. It’s open to the public and I’d love to have you there!

Many of you may have already heard… one of our fellow mafiosas, the founder of the San Antonio Craft Mafia, Katherine Brown, is fighting glioblastoma, in layman’s speak that’s stage 4 brain cancer. The San Antonio group has been touched deeply by her illness and are holding a benefit for Kat and her children. Please help in any way you can. Have friends in San Antonio? Please tell them about the the event. Have a blog? Feel free to repost.

For more information about Kat and her illness you can read articles in the San Antonio Express News and The Handmade News.

One of my new projects is a food blog. It’s just a wee baby of a blog, but if you like to eat, which I’m pretty sure is almost all everyone, then maybe just maybe you’ll like my wee baby of a blog.

But this is not why I’m writing. I’m writing because this month I’m taking part in a wonderful cause. It’s a fundraising effort for a school lunch program in Lesotho. What’s in it for you?? Amazing prizes. No, seriously… good good stuff. So please visit me and see how you can win some great food-related prizes while helping with a fantastic cause.

If you have a blog and would like to help me tell the world about the raffle please do. There are SO many food bloggers out there donating to the cause. I’m donating a huge box of amazing brownies. Other people are donating things like Le Crueset products, cookbooks, classes…. so many great things.

I hope your holidays are warm, cheery and full of many many tasty treats!

A NEW LOCATION
Yep – we’ve moved again! Stitch 2007 will be held right downtown at the Austin Convention Center at 500 E. Cesar Chavez Street. This new location is much larger than last year which means that this year we’re bringing you about 100 vendor booths and some amazing sponsor booths. The Convention Center serves food too so you can stay and shop for hours and not worry about any gnawing hunger distracting you from the fun. We’ll have some of Austin’s best DJs spinning, the Super Sonic Soul Squad will be dancing again… and I’ve heard something about a double dutch team performing??? For real. You’ll want to be there all night because we’re capping off the evening with a runway show featuring about 20 of the best designers we could find. We’ve got folks flying in from around the country to show so you won’t want to miss it.

YOU SAY IT’S GONNA BE AWESOME, BUT PROVE IT
Okay – we will prove it! Go here and check out our booth and runway line-up. Now would we lie to you??? Our sponsor booths are not to be missed either. We’ve got a make and take booth again from Duncan Paints, Carlo Rossi and Jug Simple will be there with their fantastic furniture and much much more, the ladies from the Indie Craft Documentary will be there (and we’re showing a new preview of the upcoming film, featuring your favorite crafting superstars!), Simplicity will be there with their new Built by Wendy pattern line, Etsy’s making an appearance…. and too much more to mention. Oh but wait…. I will mention the….

RAFFLE AND STITCH GRANT
The Stitch grant is making it’s second appearance this year. We’re hunting down two very deserving Stitch participants to win one cash grant and one grant in the form on crafting supplies from a host of sponsors including Dremel and Babylock. Are you participating in Stitch and think you deserve this grant? Well check it out here.
How do we plan on raising this grant money you ask?? Well holding a majorly kick-ass raffle. We’ll be raffling off prizes from many of our vendors and runway designers as well as several Babylock sewing machines (these babies are top of the line!) and other prizes from local businesses. In the past we’ve raffled off prizes such as spa gift certificates, dinners for two and skydiving lessons… so this you will not want to miss.
If you would like to donate raffle prizes, grant prizes or money that will go directly to the grant winner please email info@stitchaustin.com. Your donation will be welcomed with open arms and you’ll receive a special thank you in our program.

TICKETS!!
Oh – of course – tickets! Tickets will be on sale at our website a few weeks prior to the show or you can purchase them at the door. We’ll send out a note once they’re available for sale. In the meantime just know, we did sell out last year so even if you do purchase tickets online, plan to arrive early. Plus, we’ve got goodie bags donated by our vendors and stuffed to the brim with treats from our participants and sponsors for the first 500 folks through the door. You wouldn’t want to miss that, now would you.

I CAN’T ATTEND BUT I STILL WANT TO PARTICIPATE!
No problem – we love sponsors. We get to chat you up in our program, stuff your things in our goodie bags and more. To read all about it go here. As mentioned above, we also would love to add your products to the raffle or grant prize in exchange for a thank you in the program. Let us know: info@stitchaustin.com.

VOLUNTEERS ANYONE? ANYONE?
We already have a ton of volunteers signed up but we could use a ton more since this show is going to be huge. To volunteer for set-up or helping out during the show please contact info@stitchaustin.com and we’ll fill you in.

In the meantime – thank you all again for all the support…. and a big thank you to all of our sponsors, some of whom are Carlo Rossi, Duncan Paints, Babylock, Bust and 31 Corn Lane.

See you at Stitch!!
xoxo
Jesse, Jennifer, Karly and Tina

After 5 wonderful years I’m closing up shop and looking forward to a big career change. I am SO excited so in honor of this (AND to celebrate the fact that I got married last week) I’m having a huge huge clean out the closet and get rid of the fabric sale.

So on one hand there’s the studio sale which are all one-offs, so once it’s gone it’s gone!! And on the other hand everything in the shop is marked down. Now once I sell out of a fabric it is gone forever. So if you want something please grab it fast because I’m seriously not making more. The shop will officially close on August 16…. so you have about 2 weeks!

All orders will be filled when I return from my honeymoon in the last week of August. I’m sorry for the delay, but it’ll be worth it!!

Thank you so so much for being such terrific customers. I feel so lucky – you’ve made the last 5 years wonderful!!

xox jesse