Filled with "Love and Syrup" Polka Dot Pancake is sure to Delight!

While Christmas shopping for my cousin Dana, I stumbled upon the ladies at POLKA DOT PANCAKE. As soon as my son saw the 'Lego Chunky Charm Bracelet' he knew Aunt Dana would LOVE it! “Besides,” he said, “if she gets bored in her school, she could just play with it.” *melt* Little did he know, she truly would! After a smooth transaction, with AMAZING customer service, prices, communication, and VERY speedy shipping, I had to know more about Polka Dot Pancake. I contacted them and they agreed to an interview and FREE SHIPPING if a buyer mentions they saw the review @4BabyAndMom in the note to seller at checkout!!





From my own research, I see that the both of you are "teachers by day and crafters by night"- When do you find the time to put together your awesome products? Sometimes we wonder where we get the time too! We both love to create things so much that it feels unnatural to go a day without doing it. We do as much as possible in the evenings after school and on the weekends. There have been many nights that we've met in the middle (we live about 45 minutes apart) for dinner and visits to Hobby Lobby and the thrift store. Our favorites are long weekends and Saturdays when we can get together, try out our new ideas and see what we come up with.


How did Callie and Brandi meet? We met in college at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. We were both really active in the Baptist Campus Ministries, and that's where we met. Brandi was friends with Callie's future husband Chad, and we have an awesome group of mutual friends from college. The first thing Callie remembers about Brandi is that she "loves pizza, hardcore!" The first thing Brandi remembers about Callie is her t-shirt that says: "I♥Carbs." We were a match made in heaven!


How long have you been working with each other? We have been friends for over 4 years, but it wasn't until we both took a clothing construction class together in the spring of 2006 that we learned how crafty the other was. We started hanging out and making Día de los muertos jewelry and visiting the craft store for hours at a time together not long after that. We officially launched Polka Dot Pancake in July of 2008.

Do you wear your own jewelry? We love to wear our own jewelry! That's the way that we make most of our connections! As teachers, our students really notice our colorful stuff, especially Callie's high schoolers. In fact, they often comment, "Mrs. Wells, did you make your jewelry today?" It's always exciting to respond to a compliment on your jewelry with, "Thanks. I made it."


Where did the name 'Polka Dot Pancake' come from? We toyed with the idea of going into the crafty business together for years before we took the plunge. On our way home from our annual beach trip with our awesome group of friends, we started throwing around ideas. When it came to what we would call ourselves, we started throwing out any idea that came to mind. We talked about how much we love polka dots and polka-dotted things in general, and we also talked about how much we love food. We were thinking out loud, "Polka Dot.... Polka Dot..." when Brandi shouted "Polka Dot Pancake!!!" It just felt right, and we knew that's who we were.


What is your inspiration behind your art? We're inspired by all kinds of things. Etsy is a great source of inspiration because we are exposed to so many incredible artists there. We're inspired by the books we read and the music we listen to. We're also inspired by our friends. We have made many pieces with a certain person's favorites and style in mind. And we get inspired just from browsing the aisles of the thrift store. There is definitely something inspiring about seeing the potential beauty in an object someone else thinks is worthless. We really feel like we've been given a gift, like it's something inside of us that has to come out. Sometimes it comes out in a pair of lego earrings, sometimes it comes out in a painting; you just never know!

Which piece is your favorite? Wow! What a tough question! The first thing that popped in both our minds is our Heigh-Ho Happy Garden Gnome earrings! We sold them already, and it really hurt to see them go! We'll just have to make more... Actually some of absolute favorites are pieces that we made and loved so much that we had to keep. Brandi has a bracelet with tile charms from old romance novels that she couldn't bear to part with. Callie has a junk bracelet with random dangly things: a Barbie shoe, a tiny can of soda, an orange hairbrush, a hot pink teddy, and all kinds of funny things.




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So there you have it, an inside look into Callie and Brandi, the talent behind POLKA DOT PANCAKE. I think their style is very retro, meets punk rock, meets the 80’s, meets… well, finish my sentence, go check them out, and let me know your favorite piece, because Callie & Brandi have generously offered one 4BabyandMom reader a chance to win a Lego Chunky Charm Bracelet, valued at $18.00. Thanks Polka Dot Pancake! Shoppers, don't forget, free shipping if you mention you saw this review at checkout!!

For Extra entries in this Give Away:

(leave a new comment for each that you do)

• Tweet about this Contest and let me know
  
• Blog about this Give away & link it back to this site
• E-mail this blog contest to at least 10 of your closest friends & cc me at 4BabyAndMom [at] gmail [dot] com
• Follow me, or if you are already a follower, refer a friend to follow this blog

Winner will be chosen by random, Sunday, 12/14/08, and announced Monday the 15th.