There's no place like home!

Hello, I am Susan Hashem, your host of the home and decorating department of Flutter! To start out I'll give you a little background on how I ended up working with Cindy the owner of this fabulous place called Flutter.

This is shall we say a sort of 6 degrees of separation story... After moving here (about 2 years ago), I was shopping on Mississippi with my family and good friend. Walking around the neighborhood we happened into this fantastic store, Flutter. The woman manning shop asks if she knows my friend, and then my husband says "hey I used to sell you stuff when you were at Dirty Jane's!". We had been living parallel lives of sorts in Seattle, moving out of there about the same time to pursue other avenues of existence and now again are living in Portland working on creative pursuits. I started bringing in pillows that I was making a few weeks later and the rest is history. It has been nothing but fun ever since. And I need fun.



After working in home design for 10 years, I mainly deal with beige. You know, stodgy home design projects. Most people are afraid of color, afraid of crazy patterns. I am not. I love nothing more than throwing together some wild combinations that in the end work out beautifully. Working with Cindy on projects really refreshes me and allows me to use my crazy talents. She throws some mishmash vintage fabrics she's collected and I put them together to make beautiful one off pillows and bedding. The past year and a half has been great, using old kimonos to make some amazing pillows, to the funky flower fabric that was used in Cindy's childhood bedroom made into a lovely coverlet.

We are starting to get fall together now with bright bold patterns and colors. Vintage embroidered pieces that are amazing, I am just trying to figure out what they will be when they grow up. I am also excited about a big project that we have brewing too. Custom iron drapery rods, custom drapery panels made of fabulous shantung silk with screened images on the edges, all of this work done locally. Also a line of silk pillows with fanciful images printed on them. These will be amazing when they are finished. I can't wait to see what happens....so stay tuned!