Kick Off Your Shoes

Hi — I'm Christine Lambden, the hands (and the fuzzy slippers) behind Cozy Toes Studios.

I spent a long career in a world of rules and systems — the kind of work where everything has to be documented, defensible, and exactly right. I was good at it. But somewhere along the way I started to miss the other kind of making, the kind with no rulebook, where a crooked line is allowed to stay crooked and the only real deadline is when the cocoa goes cold.

So I made room for it. Cozy Toes Studios is what happened next: a small studio where I draw, write, print, glue, and bind the sorts of things I want for myself and can’t find. Books soft enough to hug. Journals that ask gentle questions and don't mind if you answer them out of order. Books, notepads, prints, and mugs — many of them created to share a bit of art I made that I hope you like as much as I do.

I work slowly and on purpose. I like heavy paper, pretty fabric, a good tall stack of books, and the idea that creating should feel like the softest part of your day rather than one more thing to be graded on. Nothing here is meant to be precious or perfect. It's meant to be used — written in, colored on, dog-eared, handed to someone you love.

If that sounds like your kind of cozy, I'm glad you're here. Kick off your shoes and stay a while.

— Christine

A woman with long blonde hair, wearing a teal dress, silver earrings, and a necklace, smiling in an indoor setting.

Keeping my promise to identify every use of AI on this site and in my artwork, this is an AI-enhanced photo. I’m a little more wrinkled and the space behind me isn’t really blurry at all.

The book covers and contents are all original hand-drawn art.

A colorfully illustrated book cover titled "The Case of the Missing ZZZs" features a background of bookshelves filled with multicolored books, along with illustrations of closed books, a mug, pillows, and a bed, all digitally drawn in a simplistic, cartoon style.

Why?

If we accidentally make something that is commercially successful, that’s fantastic, but…

Why do we sell what we sell and they way we sell it? Why are some products on Etsy and others on Amazon?

After 40 years in various tech companies doing various tech jobs, the founder of Cozy Toes Studios has promised herself and those who join us that there will be…

  • No quarterly sales or production goals. Goals are for people on the way up. We’re up.

  • No design deadlines. It happens when it happens.

  • Unlimited praise and encouragement and extremely limited input only on request.

Costs are calculated to include materials, advertising, shipping, selling, and taxes. Everything else is profit. Profit goes to the creator.

Time is not calculated in the cost. Our time is priceless, so there’s no point. Plus, we believe that tracking time associated with creativity is a quick way to stifle creativity.

Cozy Toes Studios is not a business, but we do hope you’ll buy something.