Lately I’ve been receiving a few inquiries regarding the perceived “slow down” at LAMA. Some of you have been wondering why new products haven’t been added in a while and why newsletters with fun promotions and shop update information haven’t been going out. So I thought I would take some time today to address the faq’s that have been coming in.

The good news is… well, fortunately it’s pretty much all good news! Contrary to the outward appearance of a shop “slow down,” behind the scenes here at LAMA, we’re in the process of embarking on a really cool new journey to create a better LAMA for so many more to enjoy! I’m not quite ready (just yet) to release all the info of the new project, but I will say that it’s everything I hoped LAMA would eventually evolve into, and will give me the opportunity to fulfill LAMA’s mission on a level that I dreamed of years ago when I was running all over South America bursting with excitement. In short, it’s going to be AWESOME! I really feel that deep down and it puts a smile on my face every time I think about it.

However, there is always some downtime to current project while other endeavors are being pursued, and this is what customers and visitors to the site are seeing. My blog posts have gotten quite infrequent and yes, newsletters have not gone out, updates have not been made to the shop, etc. So what’s been going on? It’s simply a matter of resources at this point. With most small businesses, the owner is the largest and most valuable resource. Being that I’m only one person, I have to make some tough decisions sometimes on where to focus my time and attention. With LAMA, I’m looking toward the future and spending a lot of my time developing the things that will come. It just makes the most sense to me. Sadly, this means that the current site won’t be able to change and evolve too much in the present, BUT, the future is looking pretty great and I hope everyone who loves LAMA now will happily sit tight until we throw out what’s next. I promise… it’ll be worth the wait!

Until then, LAMA will be pulling in a few new things here and there (so keep your eyes open) and I’ll be doing my best to keep everyone informed about lots of cool new Latin design. In fact, I recently did an interview with one of the amazing designers we work with that I’ll be posting that interview on Wednesday. I had a great time learning a lot about Julieta Racket of Nido and I’m sure you will too!

Thank you to everyone for your patience and continues patronage during this transitional time! Lots of LAMA love to you all!

A HUGE thank you to Oh Joy! for the wonderful mention on your blog today. I couldn’t be more excited about this! Check out the post here.

Check out the travel accessories featured here at LAMA!

Happy 2010 everyone! It’s so great to be back and slowly (but surely) getting into the swing of things again. I hope Santa brought everyone exactly what they wanted for Christmas… a big high five to Santa if that something happened to be from LAMA! I hope everything was delivered on-time. We certainly did our best this year and it seemed to go pretty smoothly. Yay for experience!

This year I had no idea what I wanted for Christmas. I generally have a big list with price ranges, favorites and links/directions to everything. This year I can honestly say that there was very little I felt I needed and even less I actually wanted. I think I was just overly tired and feeling like nothing could possibly top a little rest and relaxation. To my delight, despite my request for nothing, my friends and family came through in a BIG way. It was so touching to know that my loved ones know me so well and were able to get me the best gifts I never knew I wanted. One of those amazing gifts came from my very own family and was a collective effort between my big brothers and my parents. Here’s what they got me:

Entitled “We Are All Kings” by Los Angeles based artist Amanda Visell, this print spoke to me in a very obvious way. I actually teared up a little when I opened it. It’s so amazing to know how proud and supportive my family is of what I do and what I love. It’s something I will keep in mind as I enter into a new year with LAMA.

Thank you to all of our wonderful customers for making 2009 a great year! A big thank you to all the amazing bloggers out there who have been so kind and have written so many beautiful things about LAMA. I can’t wait to show everyone this year what LAMA has cooking.

Need to have your gift wrapped? Just ask! We would love to make your special purchase look like the gorgeous gift it is. Want to send a special message along with it? Yup! We’ll do that too! Happy Holidays!

I bet you didn’t know we had so many fantastic, environmentally friendly products! Check out some of our favorites below. The eco-conscience individual in your life will love these great gifts!

Just released on the LAMA site today is the beautiful work of Buenos Aires based designer Pablo Ferraro. Pablo is the creator and owner of KOM, a fantastic company dedicated to creating environmentally friendly products with local manufacturers. KOM specializes in designing children’s clothing, homeware and accessories and has collaborated in the past with two of our favorite LAMA designers, Irana Douer and Sopa de Principe! It has been a pleasure to work with Pablo on bringing some of his fantastic products to the US for the very first time and we can’t wait to make more of his products available in the upcoming months. Recently I asked Pablo a few questions about his work. Below is what he had to say about his design process, his love of color and his future with KOM. Enjoy!

Designer Pablo Ferraro

LAMA: Can you tell me about your design process? I absolutely love your prints and your color selection! Do you design the patterns yourself?

Pablo: When it comes to the prints and KOMs design process: yes, I design the prints and chose the colours myself. I think that colour selection is probably the one thing I enjoy the most. Of course I love prints, but when I find myself with all the different pantone options, with tiny papercuts from magazines and thinking about how to match and combine colours I have a really great time.

A collection of original prints by Pablo

LAMA: I understand you are very dedicated to creating environmentally friendly products. Can you tell us about this?

Pablo: KOM uses 100% cotton that has not been treated with bleaches or chemicals that negatively effect the environment. All of our prints are done by hand to ensure the quality of our colors and the softness of our fabrics. At KOM, we choose to work with local manufacturers because we believe maintaining a close relationship with the different processes of production guarantees the commitment towards our project.

Fiesta Flags (Pink and Purple)

Fiesta Flags (Green and Blue)

Fiesta Flags at LAMA

LAMA: What are you working on now?

Pablo: Now i am working on my website (which hopefully will be up and running within a month). There you will be able to see some side projects I have with architects and people who work in decoration and home furnishing. The great thing about those projects is that basically you do everything custom made for a specific client and user, which makes it very very special, and you can play around with the colours you choose depending on the room, the piece of furniture, etc.

A peek inside Pablo’s studio

Thanks so much Pablo! We can’t wait to see what you do in the future! To check out Pablo’s products at LAMA, click here and here.

If you happen to be fortunate enough to be in Buenos Aires this weekend, I highly recommend checking out the Sustentable Diseño y Ecología Festival 09.

Here’s a brief description about this very cool event: Sustainable Design is an organization that seeks to work in activities and initiatives that cross the activity of design with environmental awareness. The group stems from the interest of its founders on issues related to ecology and responsible lifestyle with environmental issues they believe will become the most important trend of consumption and lifestyle in the coming years.

Located in the stunning Jardin Botanico Carlos Thays, this event, which is free and open to the public, “aims to disseminate sustainable sustainable design strategies implemented by designers and organizations, and in turn link to designers, marketers and producers to promote the development and discussion of responsible practices in the design.” I’m personally excited that this event will feature LAMA designers Vacavaliente and Violraviol. How I wish I could trade in my Fall Oakland weekend for a Summer weekend in Buenos Aires filled with amazing designers and the coolest sustainable products in Argentina. Maybe next year. In the meantime, I’ll just admire these photos from last year’s event:

I just want to give a special thank you to the very kind and talented Lizette Greco who was sweet enough to contact me and let me know about this event. Thank you Lizette!

Yesterday I was saddened to learn about the demise of yet another Shelter Magazine. The latest victim? Another personal favorite of mine, Metropolitan Home. This is the ninth major shelter magazine to fold in the past two years. The first eight being Domino (still not over this loss), House and Garden, Southern Accents, Cottage Living , InStyle Home, Blueprint (why?!), O at Home, and Country Home. It is with a heavy heart I bid Metropolitan Home a farewell. Adios Metropolitan Home!

Aside from my personal feelings of sadness at seeing one magazine fold after another, and knowing how many talented and creative people suddenly find themselves without a job, I’m also a bit concerned about what this means for small retail shops like LAMA. I know for myself and many other shop owners I have spoken to, nothing gives us greater joy or feelings of excitement as seeing a mention of our store or a product featured in print. I attribute much of LAMA’s success last holiday season to a mention we were fortunate enough to receive in Lucky Magazine. It gave LAMA the opportunity to be seen by countless numbers of readers and resulted in sales that have sustained us throughout this turbulent year. So what happens now when our chances of being seen by a new audience of shoppers are being significantly cut every few months? What do we do now? How do we continue to bring new shoppers to our sites? The answer may lie with the emergence of online publications like Lonny Magazine.

I found Lonny Magazine’s mission statement to be quite hopeful. “In a time when shelter publications are turning their last pages… Our mission is to reopen the doors to accessible design.” I was blown away with Lonny’s premiere issue. The stunning photography and design tips were everything that I loved about Domino. In addition to the wonderful articles, I was able to discover a bunch of new stores and websites that I have now added to my favorites folder. I can’t exactly throw a copy of Lonny in my bag and head to the park for some afternoon reading, but I can still read about interesting individuals and their gorgeous spaces, find inspiration and advice on decorating, and discover the best shops around.

While nothing will ever replace the pleasure I derive from sitting down with a great magazine in my hands, Lonny is truly the next best thing. As a lover of independent shops and boutiques, and an advocate of shopping off the beaten path, I look forward to reading about Lonny magazines sources for unique and beautiful objects. I feel some comfort in knowing that small shop owners still have an opportunity for exposure through new publications like Lonny.

After repeatedly writing “create flickr page” on every to do list since early 2008, I’m happy to report that I can finally cross that particular task off my list. (*applause* *cheering* *whistling*) I think part of me realized that it was going to be an enormous undertaking, (seeing as how I suffer from extreme camera happiness), but I could never have imagined what I was taking on. It’s taken me a full work day to sort through and post about half of my photos. I haven’t even started adding titles and captions! On the upside, it’s actually been pretty fun to go through my LAMA journey again. It’s kind of like going through an old yearbook.

I can’t wait to finish up this enormous project with new photo sets with travel pictures (divided by country), blog post photos (I try to take my own pictures when I can), cutting room floor photos (you would be surprised at how many pictures you can snap during the course of one photo shoot. I think out-takes are interesting), Miles the shop dog (cutest dog ever), etc. I can’t wait to finish uploading and organizing so I can add titles and captions! Oh no, I think Flickr might just be my new obsession. Click here to view LAMA on Flickr. Be sure to check back! There’s so much more to come…