News and Noteworthy HappeningsHere's where you'll find news of events, new designs and products, and "lovely" observations.

A small business community has gathered today to spread the love to those impacted by COVID-19.  Each participating brand is offering a 1-day site-wide percentage discount of their choice and matching that percentage discount with donations to a COVID-19 charity of their choice.  Love Rocks Me is proud to participate by donating 15% of all Etsy shop sales today and will be donating 15% to the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine. You can click Carts4Hearts to shop all brands...

It’s been fun and games at Love Rocks Me developing these playing card decks in these best-selling designs.  But we’re serious about minimizing our impact on the environment! They’re made in New England with 100% post-consumer recycled paper and vegetable-based/VOC-free ink using 100% solar power.  Each deck is features a single design on the back of the cards with the classic suits on the inside.

Large mugs featuring Love Rocks Me® art have newly hatched this Spring! At 5 x 4.25 inches, these 15 oz. mugs are microwave safe, feature art on both sides, and are vibrantly printed in New Hampshire using 100% solar power. The first round of best-selling designs are ready to rock! A limited edition mug celebrating Maine’s Bicentennial is available and the Maine map mug displays ” ‘heart’ Maine ” vertically between the two maps. There’s also a variety of Cape...

Within the past month, I’ve had two different requests to expand this design into more products besides the note card and matted print.  Not only have I loved seeing it produced as a magnet and a sticker, but I’m thrilled to find others who realize the power in having an attitude of gratitude and are spreading the word by gifting these to many others (100 stickers in one sale)! I have absolutely come to learn that the more grateful we...

Limited edition Love Boat art will help protect Casco Bay! These one-of-a-kind mixed media pieces honor the beauty and joy of Maine’s Casco Bay where I’ve been boating, sailing, kayaking, and beach combing for over three decades. I’ve painted the sky and sea with acrylics on canvas and affixed the love rocks, sail stones, and painted mussel shell ‘birds’ with industrial cement. The tiny mussel shells were collected from the local docks hauled for the off-season. $10 from each sale...

So much to love about these candles! Love Rocks Me® has partnered with Sea Love Candles in Kennebunkport, Maine to create beautifully scented, hand poured, 100% pure candles. Featuring labels of my large, flat-lay artwork created with my collection of heart rocks, the exclusive coastal scent evokes summer breezes by the shore and contains the best of the best ingredients: – A blend of 100% pure soy wax from non-GMO USA soybeans combined with 100% pure coconut wax for a...

Love Rocks Me® artwork is now available on these beautiful, smooth, absorbent stone coasters and trivets from CoasterStone (made in the USA!).  This LOVEly and functional art absorbs moisture and won’t stick to your glass. A little larger than the standard size, each coaster is 4 1/4″ square and 1/4″ wide with a cork backing to protect furniture. The background color is a neutral ivory/bone shade which makes the art POP and coordinates with any decor. The trivets are 7″...

Yesterday’s afternoon walk with Winston turned out to be quite magical!  After romping around in the fresh foot of snow at Fort Williams Park, we had decided to go for a swing when we happily discovered someone had shoveled a nice path from the parking lot to the swing set. As we made it to the swing set, we found the path continued on to the base of the distant trees so we followed along only to find THIS at...

Wishing you a year filled with beautiful moments of peace, love, and joy. xoxo

When three New England businesses team up, great things can happen!  Introducing the Heart Rock Decorative Candle Collection designed exclusively for Beach Grass in Kennebunkport.  The premium scented candles are made by Aunt Sadie’s Candles in Vermont and have a burn time of about 70 hours.  Light up your life with love!  

It’s with great joy that I share the news that Love Rocks Me® has been awarded the Home-Based Business of the Year for Maine and New England by the SBA.  Here’s the press release: Augusta, Maine – Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced its annual award winners for 2016.  Ellen Thayer, Owner of Love Rocks Me® has been selected to receive the SBA Home-Based Business of the Year Award for Maine and New England.   This Award is presented...

Love Rocks Me® is pleased to introduce the following 20 new designs for 2016, available in cards as well as small and large prints.  For a close-up view, click the Designs link at the top of this website to navigate to a category where each thumbnail can be enlarged. Hummingbird:  LRM 156 Bunny:  LRM 158 (without caption) & LRM 158a with ‘Some bunny loves you’ Deer:  LRM 157 (without caption) & LRM 157a with ‘Love you deerly’   Bee:  LRM...

Cold winter days are the perfect time to clean out my photo archives from the previous summer (and there are hundreds!).  Equally as fun as leaving love rocks displays for others to discover on the islands is stumbling upon what those before me have created.  Here are the top three from Casco Bay islands that I had to share.  May they also bring you warm summer memories! on Cliff Island   on Cow Island on Vaill Island  

While the coldest months are upon us, I wish you the time to slow down enough to appreciate the unexpected moments of love that are all around.

I’ve always envisioned my love rocks designs appearing on more than paper products and thanks to Society6, my vision is now an awesome reality!  Society6.com enables hundreds of thousands of artists from around the world to have their artwork printed on clothing, tech products, and accessories for the home. I’ve recently began creating designs specifically for these products and will continue to expand over the coming weeks, but I wanted to spread the word sooner rather than later as they...

My recent harvest couldn’t be beat! What joy to unearth a heart-shaped beet during one of my last harvests of the season.  And then there was the loving grapefruit segment and potato chip I discovered within the last few weeks – more common, but much appreciated nonetheless!

Ahhhh…summer in Maine – how sweet it is.  During my vacation, I found 80+ love rocks and spent time decorating our rental cottage with them along with creating wild flower arrangements.  I hope you’re finding the time to relax and enjoy – and capture photographs to reminisce when the winter winds whip!

Maybe it’s from the years of collecting heart rocks that my eye is trained to see that shape, but I see hearts everywhere and usually in the most unexpected places – in the crease of the shower curtain, in a glob of dried gum on the pavement, in a crunched up napkin in the road.  I thought these three sightings which occurred in the past week were worth capturing and sharing!  In order, they are:  sock fuzz on my closet...

I had picked up this PostQuote from Beach Grass in Kennebunkport  a while ago and it has definitely rubbed off on me.  Throughout this white and wild winter, when the snowing got tough, the tough got creative!  I photograph outdoors, so it was challenging at times, but I’ve spent the better part of these last couple of months avoiding cabin fever by creating animals and insects with my love rocks.  Check out what’s new here! Now I’m counting the days...

It’s been an epic winter of snow and cold in Maine, but there have been signs of love in the snow these last few days – the coolest of which was hanging off Winston’s face!  I’ve always known he was a snow-lover!

This Sunday night, the town of Kennebunkport, Maine will paint the town red with thousands of red lights as they celebrate the most romantic month of the year in hopes to be considered New England’s Most Romantic Town.  Love Rocks Me® has done our part by creating this custom card and print for our favorite shop in Dock Square, Beach Grass!  The store has fun-loving touches throughout, such as the whale spouting hearts.  Check out all of the wonderful displays...

I’m often asked if I have any tips for finding love rocks and I always answer the same way:  First step, get a dog!  Whether on a beach, in a park, or on a hiking trail, you’ll be out there making discoveries thanks to your four-legged friend.  I have my bestest boy Winston (a Westie) to thank for most of my vast collection.  And since his adventures are photographed as much as my love rocks, 7 years ago I started...

These five new holiday cards have been created for this season of love, light, and celebration.  All are available on my Etsy shop and in select stores.  Wishing all a joyous holiday season!  Warmly, Ellen  

Winston and I made a special card rack delivery today to a Maine campground after my own heart!  The lovely Elaine Talevi has the Sea Vu campground in Wells just brimming with love.  There are two heart-shaped pools with heart rocks scattered in the cement all around, a heart rock garden with a heart bird bath, and a heart-shaped container fill with heart-shaped rocks given to her by those who know she loves love rocks!  Winston had a ball picking...

There’s a good reason that cobwebs have been growing in Love Rocks Me’s blog – I’ve been crazy busy launching 16 new designs and designing a new trade show booth – not to mention sewing 21 protective covers for every panel in the booth to keep them in good shape during transport (yikes!).  But I’m happy to have received first place for Best Booth at the recent New England Made wholesale show out of about 250 exhibitors.  Maine’s Governor, Paul...

There’s a whole lot of happy in these love rocks (and it’s a sneak peak at one of the new designs coming your way this spring)! Wishing you love and happiness on this Valentine’s Day!

Just returned from a mile-long hike in the woods and even though the temps were in the mid teens, these three sightings stopped me in my tracks and just had to be shared:  a snow-covered piece of bark, a partially revealed rock, and a small clearing in the snow.  Today, love happened in threes!  Feeling blessed!

Many years ago I was introduced this wonderful poem entitled, ‘Maine‘ by Lester Melcher Hart, which was published in 1919: You’re just a rugged, homespun state perched on the nation’s edge –         A stretch of woods, of fields and lakes, of ocean-pounded ledge. But rugged deeds and rugged men you’ve nurtured for your own;             much good the world has harvested from broadcast seeds you’ve sown. And so, we love you, rugged State; we love your smiling skies;                    we love you...

Peace, love, joy, and snowflakes inspired my first six holiday designs!  Available in stores carrying Love Rocks Me™ cards and online in my Etsy store.

I’ve recently returned from my first (and by no means last) visit to Ireland where I have family roots in counties Kerry and Cavan.  It was a challenge driving 900 miles on the opposite side of the road in an SUV with my mom and three sisters, but what a wonderful, beautiful, and truly magical place!  While I didn’t have time to look for love rocks, four love rocks managed to find me and one found my sister (yes, I...

Each spring I look forward to learning what my fellow Master Gardener and friend Layne Gregory of Lincoln Farm Studio is growing from seed.  Layne’s healthy, organic seedlings provide a wonderful bounty by late summer.  I always love to try new heirloom tomato varieties which this year included Martha Washington, Mortgage Lifter, and Jasper Hybrid Cherry’s, but by far, the German Orange Strawberry was the standout this year.  These heart-shaped beauties were a treat for the eye as well as...

It’s always a pleasure when someone requests a custom Love Rocks Me™ design or caption for their special occasion.  The Sampsons in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina asked for a custom caption on an 8×10″ seahorse print matted to 11×14″ to be used as an alternative to the traditional wedding guestbook.  At the reception, their guests signed the matte and they now have the framed print hanging in their home along with the lovely sentiments from their wedding guests.  Warmest wishes...

Love Rocks Me™ is now bi-coastal!  Our first shop in California is now sharing the love:  ‘Presenting the Soap Opera’ on Prospect Street in downtown La Jolla sells luxury bath & body products, gifts, and these new Love Rocks Me™ prints.

Beach Grass in Kennebunkport’s Dock Square sells all things coastal – including Love Rocks Me™ cards and prints!  We’re thrilled to be featured in their June advertisement in Maine Magazine where they’re celebrating 10 years in business.  Stop in and get your coastal fix or buy the perfect beach gift online here:  Beach Grass, Kennebunkport.

Love Rocks Me™ is proud to have been accepted into the Maine Made – America’s Best organization.  A tradition of excellence passed down for generations, “Maine Made” is recognized worldwide as a term for quality and integrity.  You can learn more on their website and also view the other quality Maine businesses who have this endorsement here:  Maine Made – America’s Best.

Congratulations to DAMetals who won first place for best new exhibitor booth at the New England Made Wholesale Giftware & Specialty Food Show. Love Rocks Me™ was proud to receive an Honorable Mention in this category which is sponsored by the Maine Small Business and Development Centers. It was a very successful show; stay tuned for news of more stores ‘sharing the love’ in the coming months!

The New England Made Giftware & Specialty Food Show is a juried, wholesale buyers show featuring 250+ manufacturers of unique, quality New England made products including home décor, pottery, apparel, accessories, jewelry, toys & games, candles, books, cards & prints, glassware, bath & body products, furniture, spices, candy, sauces, gourmet mixes, baked goods and other specialty food items. Each year the show attracts over 2,500 national and international buyers who expect the highest quality New England made products. This year,...

Jewelry made from beach stones has become more and more popular, but Kyle from Heart to Heart Design Studio on Cape Cod uses her collection of love rocks to make lovely and whimsical jewelry and accessories.  Aren’t these necklaces beautiful?  Here’s the direct link to Kyle’s shop where you can see all of her creations:  Heart to Heart Design Studio

It may be early March, but in Maine, winter hangs tough.  Thankfully we’re still often reminded of the beauty surrounding us in the most unexpected places.   As I recently discovered on a walk, even in the snow and ice of these long winters we can still find a little love.