Three 'Grams: Starting Off Strong

Wow. It's been quite awhile since I picked up my proverbial pen and added a little love to the HCH blog. Things have been busy to say the least, and my holiday season stretched just a tad longer than I had originally anticipated it would. After visiting family in Pennsylvania and Florida, we returned home to San Francisco just in time for a giant New Year's Eve party with some college friends. The next few days included a trip to Tahoe, lots of cooking with pals, a jaunt up to Muir Woods and Tomales Bay Oyster Company, and a New Year's Eve reboot party.

The icing on top of my magnificent holiday was meeting Dita Von Teese at Dark Garden while she was promoting her new Von Follies lingerie line. I sent the burlesque legend a box of HCH lingerie last year and we talked a bit about Honey Cooler Handmade. No big deal, right?

I hope your holidays were just as wonderful! To see more of the past few weeks' craziness (including partying with The Bachelor's dashing Juan Pablo - no kidding!), be sure you're following HCH on Instagram!

An impossibly cozy view from our cabin in North Lake Tahoe.

New Year's Eve (take two) at the DNA Lounge

Chatting lingerie with Dita Von Teese

Still Shopping? Give the Gift of the Snowy HCH Cotillion Collection!

It's almost Christmas, which means if you're anything like me, you're still shopping. Lucky for you, a few pieces from the new Honey Cooler Handmade collection are ready to ship, including the Cotillion Chemise and Cotillion Knickers in sizes Small, Medium and Large!

Cotillion Chemise

Both are sewn from an impossibly soft cotton blend Dotted Swiss with sheer Point d'Esprit panels. The delicate corset detailing is a sweet, unfussy nod to the HCH Ribbon Corset.

Cotillion Knickers

You can shop for both pieces on Etsy or BigCartel, but hurry! The cutoff for US Christmas deliveries is tonight - place your order by midnight and get it time for Christmas!

Black Friday Sale!

Thanksgiving is upon us, which means food, friends, family and fun. It also means that Black Friday is tomorrow and the HCH Etsy shop is your perfect holiday shopping destination if you're looking for a deal!

Margot Deco Camisole, Adrienne Papillon Knickers

Through December 1, score 20% off any ready-to-ship item in the shop by entering coupon code EARLYBIRD2013 upon checkout.

Happy Thanksgiving from Honey Cooler Handmade!

Corset Trunk Show at Dollhouse Bettie, December 5th 2013

The past year has been a really wonderful one for HCH, thanks in no small part to my ongoing collaborations with San Francisco lingerie powerhouse Dollhouse Bettie. I've been fortunate enough to sell my Ribbon Corsets in their lovely shop, as well as make pieces for their Deja Vu Dessous line, and now we are collaborating on an exciting trunk show just in time for the holiday shopping rush!

Join us for bubbly and shopping galore. If that's not enough to tempt you, Dollhouse Bettie will be among the first to debut pieces from my new Deco line. I'll have a bunch of Ribbon Corsets in a rainbow of colors on hand - they make the ultimate luxury gift for you or your significant other.

Be sure to RSVP here and we look forward to seeing you there!

A Little Tease...

The new collection drops next week on Big Cartel. I am so excited to share my hard work with all of you!

Three 'Grams: Color of the Year

I've been so busy lately that blogging has taken a major backseat for me, but don't think for a second it means that things are all quiet here in my neck of the woods. I'm working hard to launch the first cohesive and official HCH Collection in the next two weeks. I've spent the better part of the last few months drafting, draping, fitting, sewing, organizing and doing all the other grunt work entailed in apparel design. From costing to hand grading, I've had my hands in dozens of different pots and I've loved all of it! There's so much on the horizon, so for now I wanted to take a quiet moment to throw out a Three 'Grams post.

Emerald was Pantone's color of the year and my recent Instagram shots have seemed to fit the trend pretty well. 

Our Hitchcockian room at The Burlington Hotel in Port Costa

Ribbon Corsets in progress for my trunk show with Dollhouse Bettie

 Chicken soup that helped fix this week's wicked cold

Three 'Grams: Happiness Is...

What a month. Actually, what a last-few-months.

Working on developing my collection as a one-woman show has proven quite the task: fun, challenging, exhausting, exhilarating. My big official lookbook shoot was this past Sunday and I can say with no hesitation that it was a perfect marriage of talent once again. My photographer Antonette Streeter is literally my aesthetic soulmate and made the whole shoot an absolute dream. Stylist Dominique Guillen, hair and makeup artist Rebecca Taff, model Alexis Hutt and videographer Tim Prestoza made up a pretty exquisite team. As we began to sneak peeks of the photos and video in progress, each of us found ourselves shaking our heads in amazement. The initial raw images are so exciting that I was almost in tears when I first saw them - though that could also be a symptom of the inevitable emotional exhaustion that comes after a project of this magnitude!

In the week gearing up for the shoot, I made sure I had a bit of fun to temper the stress. A potluck and an afternoon full of drinks at my favorite watering hole ensured that the weekend would go smoothly. And smoothly it went. Take a peek at what made me happy this week - and while you're at it, hit up my Instagram page to see even more sneak peeks into Sunday's shoot. You won't be disappointed.

Potluck setup

Alexis is a neo-pinup at Sunday's shoot

Trick Dog's phenomenal cocktails remove all symptoms of stress,

especially when paired with girly pow-wow time.