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Brooke's Books Publishing |
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| Designer's Name: Brooke Nolan | |
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Location: Cleveland, TN
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Your “Spirit Angels” have been very popular and, like many of your designs, come with embellishments and perforated paper. Can you comment on this series as far as what it means to you and what makes these angels so attractive to stitchers?
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What are some of your non-needlework hobbies or interests?
Honestly, between being a full-time mom to our four sons and managing Brooke’s Books, I think any interest I once had in other hobbies has been beaten right out of me. I do enjoy getting out for dinner and a movie with my darling husband and I’m a bit of a filmophile. I’ve been bitten by the Harry Potter bug…Can’t wait for the final book next month. I’m also addicted to knitting and hope to do a lot more traveling with my family in the near future.
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Could you share a little about your family and how they are supportive of your cross-stitch designing career? My family is my everything. They are all full partners in Brooke’s Books and have worked tirelessly to make this little business a success. My infinitely patient and long suffering husband, John, is our bookkeeper, IT guy and my personal cheerleader. Number one son, Clint, has abandoned us for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville but broke the record for pulling floss during the first couple of years. Number two son, Matthew, is our go-to guy who keeps the loose ends tied up so we don’t trip over them. He gets the banking, shipping, and other errands done everyday while also attending college. Number three son, Daniel (10), has single handedly opened over one million zip lock bags, or so he says…and number four son, Jack (7) entertains us all by being cute. My brother has even gotten in on the act by doing most of our third shift manufacturing. But my personal hero and the real reason we have filled any orders at all since 2003 is my darling mom. She manages manufacturing and has been a great inspiration to me with her example of heart and tenacity during good and bad times. So, is my family supportive of my designing career? A little…
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New From Brooke's Books Publishing... Spirit Of Needlework Angels An exciting quartet of needlework angels are available from Brooke's Books! The series features angels for crochet, quilting, cross-stitch, and knitting and each comes with perforated paper, beads, beading and tapestry needles, and graph. Each design measures approximately 5" x 7". The floss is not included. Suggested retail price is only $10.00 each. |
Another successful series of yours is the “Sunshine Line” series. Can you give us a little insight into how you came up with this unique design idea and do you have more in the works? I honestly can’t remember exactly how I came up with the Sunshine Lines. I think it was an idea that evolved from my love of stitching detailed ornaments or “charms” on perforated paper for embellishing cards and making pins. I wanted to design birth samplers for my boys that featured baby clothes and I must’ve seen the mini clothespins in a store somewhere and the two ideas came together in my imagination as Sunshine Lines. I do plan on designing Sunshine Lines for spring and summer babies to complete the Seasonal Baby Sunshine Line collection. I’m also really tempted to do SL’s for Santa, Wanda the Witch, and the Easter Bunny.
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I’m sure many of us would love to take a peek at your work environment! Would you describe your design studio...that is, what sort of tools, gadgets, machines, software, etc might be found? Many of you might want to take a peek but I would strongly recommend against it…or at least know that it’s at your own peril. My studio is honestly a disaster that is overdue for a makeover. We started Brooke’s Books as we moved into this home but business moved so quickly that I never got a chance to take down the dark manly wallpaper with matching golf themed border. Don’t get me wrong, golf is a noble pursuit but if I have to stare at burgundy and navy plaid for too much longer…I’m not sure what I’ll do. Let’s just say that re-organizing and re-decorating my office is high on the To Do List for 2008. Being originally from San Jose, California, John and I are suckers for high tech tools and gadgets, the most important being our network of eight computers. (Sounds crazy but we do use them all.) To design, I use and highly recommend EasyGrapher Pro by Davis Computer Services, Inc. This is wonderful software for publishers needing to export charts into other publishing software. And speaking of publications…We do all of our printing now with the Xerox 8550 printer through the Xerox Free Color Printers Program and have saved hundreds of dollars a year by switching from offset to in-house printing. I sound like an ad for Xerox but I would highly recommend this program to designers and publishers.
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How long have you been designing professionally and why did you start designing? My background is in illustration and graphic design. I worked as a freelance illustrator for Better Homes & Gardens and Chilton Publishing when my big boys were little and during that time a friend got me hooked on cross stitch. Pretty soon I started experimenting with designing by applying my own drawings to graph paper and it was love at first sight. My first published design was A Tribute To Mothers, by Craftways / BH&G in 1992. I freelanced off and on until 2003 when Brooke’s Books Publishing was born. I recently started freelancing again because evidently I need more deadlines in my life. I’m designing all of the Secret Needle Night designs this year with Mona Bost and Lindy Legener of The Silver Needle and I’m currently designing a sampler for the beautiful Gift Of Stitching magazine due out in September.
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Do you feel the cross-stitch industry is headed in the right direction or could we be doing more to attract new stitchers to our craft? This is a great question and one that I don’t have the answer for…I think every industry can always be doing something better but I look around at all the talented designers and wonderful shop owners and stitchers and I’m not sure that re-inventing the wheel is the right approach either. While there are many many super talented designers already out there, it would be fun to see more contemporary designers enter the market also. I think there are design ideas that haven’t been tried yet and trends that haven’t been followed and maybe some of them would attract new groups of stitchers.
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You have a very nice and informative website. How valuable a tool is this for marketing your designs and what methods do you use to get the word out about new releases? The internet is an extremely valuable marketing tool, especially for new designers who may find barriers to entering the market in more traditional ways. The industry has shrunk dramatically in the past few years but the stitchers are still out there and a lot of them are surfing the web to find what they want. Our web site has given us the opportunity to be seen by many stitchers and shop owners who otherwise would not know about us. I use a Yahoo! Announce Only Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brookesbookscrossstitchfreebies/) to let stitchers know when new releases are available in shops and I also design Freebies for this group about once every two months and these have proven to be an advertising bonanza. The current complimentary design is the “Stitcher’s Alphabet”, a sampler of 26 letter blocks celebrating the needle arts. I also have a so-called blog. (http://brookesbooksblog.typepad.com/bbb/) There aren’t too many entries yet but I’m never short of big plans for it.
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What are a few things you like about living in Cleveland, TN? We are relatively new transplants to Cleveland and have found it to be a welcoming little city located very near Chattanooga, in the southeastern corner of the state. I’m head over heels for Tennessee. We’re in the foothills of the beautiful Appalachians and are very near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and Dollywood. We’re only an hour and a half from Atlanta and about the same from Nashville so I can get my “Big City” fix when I need it. It’s a wonderful place to raise a family and to call home.
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Would you indulge us with a favorite recipe from the Nolan kitchen? Well, I used to be a good cook before I became a designer. Right now it’s a lot of fish sticks, peanut butter and veggie platters at our house. I know…I’m ashamed. But after picking the kids’ brains for an old favorite they reminded me of Monterey Casserole. This is a good one for summer…and it’s vegetarian to boot. Sorry…I don’t have the exact measurements any more so you’ll have to eyeball it to your liking. In a large rectangular casserole pan layer the following: Your favorite cooked rice…I usually season it a little with salt and pepper and dot it with a little butter. 2 or 3 zucchini - sliced thin & cooked 2 small cans of diced green chilis 2 tomatoes - sliced thin Mix 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of ground oregano into 16 oz. of sour cream and pour over the top of the casserole. Then layer a large bag of shredded Monterey Jack cheese over the top. (I also have substituted Mozzarella to reduce the fat.) Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Thank you, Hoffman Distributing Company for this great opportunity to be interviewed for Friday Features!!!
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