front yard boutique

if you live in the seattle area, this saturday and sunday a bunch of my lady friends will be hold the 2nd Annual Front Yard Boutique. What is this you might ask? Well....it isn't your regular yard sale. it's more like an outdoor, slightly used boutique.

It's fall an I know your wardrobe need a bit of excitement. There are bunch of us contributing to the merchandise so there will be a variety of sizes and styles.

Music, Drinks (first ones free!), dog petting zoo and bake sale are among the other things besides shopping you will find to enjoy.

Location: Ballard on the south east corner of 32nd and 62nd see our yelp posting

Here are some shots from last year. (new location and bigger this year)

some hubby love

my hubby has been taking some really great photos lately and i wanted to share a few with you. theses are from a walk we took around our neighborhood here in seattle in august. click them to enlarge to really see them. enjoy.

word to know: Giclee

The Definition : Giclee (zhee-klay) - The French word "giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt". The Term : The term "giclee print" connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction. more...

giclee prints available on etsy:

these are fabulous. i love the depth of the cherry blossoms and the quite focus of the centered bird on strips.

hadley hutton

good lesson here.

constant dreamer


this concept of a strong print coupled with a silhouette is really lovely. it's a wonderful way to re-enforce the expressed emotion of a piece or a way to express completely contrasting ideas of feelings.

margin


the beautiful side of winter
elle moss photography

search

i love google photo search. today i typed in "vintage dress yard sale" (i had a good reason) and I got these great results

so many fun photos and links to great blogs. i don't know about you but i find it difficult to keep up with all to great blogs that are out there. when i start going through my list of must reads it can take me hours to fully enjoy them and everytime i visit site i learn of another few good links. what is a girl to do? read more!

so here are i found through this google search. if you don't already read them you might want to check them out. oh, but please keep reading mine:)

freckle wonder

fashion is spinach

good crafternoon

under construction

she's a betty

fresh vintage

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...

it is friday. how did your week go? did you get everything done. did you stay organized? did you save time for fun?
i found this cute idea for organizing your week at Uncommon Goods, but i think you could make your own.

happy friday everyone! hope you have a wonderful weekend.

our website loves martinis

so have you noticed the trend of business websites adding blogs to their sites? what do you think about this? is it a movement to convince us that there are real people behind these online products or at least give us the impression that real human desires are defining the direction of the site not just a corporate, money making machine calling the shots. or just a new way to inform customers of products and features?

I guess we are supposed to feel like we could influence the site by leaving comments and interacting with the authors and other members of the site. Or maybe we are supposed to like the voices behind the blogs so much that we choose their products over another. Or maybe it's all about the current trend of creating community whereever and whenever it can be created.

I haven't fully flushed out what I think about this and I'm sure that there are many different flavors to this new method of marketing? communicating? community creation? Some of these blogs must be written by professional writers hired to project a specific image and some are probably the real deal.

Microsoft has a blog called Zune Insider described as " Music, culture and the inside scoop from Cesar Menendez a Microsoft employee working on Zune-Microsoft's new music project" and Yahoo has the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog "Our new blog connects you to the people and products that can help you make sense of the ever-changing world of online marketing, and offers a community forum for sharing news, tips and strategies." and I stumbled into the Evite blog yesterday. Each of these seems to have a different angle. What do you think? All I know is I feel like i must be slightly on guard when reading "blogs" these days. what their angle? who are they?

I must say I did find something i like on the Evite blog. S'more martinis! I don't care if they are trying to influence me a medium that I have a natural trust of due to the years of exposure to independent forms of this medium. This is a wonderful fall beverage. Can you see it. Me and all my friends dressed in a coordinating fall pallet of fleece, corduroy and velvet (possibly plaid). Sitting around a beautiful fire pit with the sun setting over a horizon of fall colored leaves. my golden retriever at my feet as i pass out this wonderful drink in antique glasses.

S'more Martinis

blocks and bunnies

i made two of bags of blocks last week. the material is vintage baby room curtains and inside is a set of simple wooden blocks. blocks had to be my favorite toy when i was 3-5 years old. there is just so much possibility.
no one bought them at the flea market. but i bet they will be a hit closer to christmas.

PRFM recap

So I did it. I had my very first show and it was super fun and very successful. I sold about 30 items mostly my vintage delights but I did sell one set of my reupholstered stools to a very lovely couple (thanks guys. i hope you love them)

I received a lot of compliments on my style which felt really great because i have a rule that i only collect and sell items that i love.

There was a nice presence from the Etsy Rain girls both at booths and shopping and it was wonderful to meet everyone.

Looks like the Punk Rock Flea Market will happen again the first week of December so if you missed it you have another chance.

Here are some photos. The full set can be found here.

check out mister Rudi. he was the star of the show.all the pretty little things. click to enlarge.

The paint by numbers went late in the day which surprised me because it was so lovely.
Fabric and Games! Drink like a Champ! Everyone touched but did not buy. they even came with a free beer! so if you would like to purchase these they are still available.

rudi shot

army pants purse

i made a little purse this week. isn't it cute? it will be available for purchase at the Flea Market on Saturday.

i like the way all you see is the flowers from the front

motel art

motels seem to be the hottest venue for art installations these days. this weekend you can find art in portland at the 2007 Affair at the Jupiter Hotel and many of Seattles finest can be found at Aqua Art Miami during the Art Basel Miami Beach in December. But guess what Seattlelites, on Friday a motel very close to home will be invaded by artists for one night only.

The Bridge Motel, the one just off the aurora bridge exit to Fremont is being torn down. Such a shame because it is a wonderful landmark, i love how it contributes to the landscape of a city fast becoming a townhouse farm. But before it is torn down Motel #1 will be happening on Friday form 5-midnight.

.. For one night, its last night of existence, the Bridge Motel will be dressed up and called to shine and dance ... Numerous installation/performance artists have been given full rein the week prior, to transform each dilapidated pocket into whatever they could imagine. The opening evening will reveal the Bridge's final blossom before its inevitable razing. And to top it off, every inch of the motel will be crawling with performance artists, injecting the animation and energy of truly ephemeral art."

There is no way I am going to miss this, I've lived close to this motel most of my time in seattle and it had been the topic of many "i wonder what's going on in there" thoughts." From the look of these flicker photos, just what you might think is what's going on in there.

Should be cool. I'll give you a full report next week.

Switch plates = instant design

Light switch plates are one of my favorite decorating tools that I always forget about. They take about two minutes to install but the effect on the room is great. They are a wonderful way to make a design impact on a rental that you aren't allowed to paint or put wall paper up.

If you are moving someone into a dorm room or their first apartment this month these would make a great gift and be something they can take with them as they move from apartment to apartment over the next few years.

Here's a few that I like from etsy.

mosaico

brightcolorart

glassfairy

robot candy

Anthropologie has this lovely one on sale, regularly $24 now just $7.95 !
or better yet make your own.

Coffee can light switch plates
Old Tie Upholstered plates

p.s.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. my hubby took me out of town to Sleeping Lady an amazing retreat center in Leavenworth, WA. I will post some photos later this week and maybe of a video of Rudi in the river which is priceless. Let's start a great week everyone!

what blogs you reading?

This is the first of what i hope will be many installments of "What blogs you reading?" where I will report on the 4 blogs that various interesting people are reading.

Our first subject is Lauren from Seattle Washington and editor of the blog Seattle Graffiti.

I will first say that Lauren has started this segment off in the right spirit, she reported *honestly* the blogs she reads most often and did not edit her answers out of what she thought might make her seem cooler or by what she thought you'll would like to hear. Bravo Lauren.

Here they are in no particular order:

Stereogum - music blog. no surprise this woman is all about music. don't even try to play the band name game with her. you will loose.

Slog- The Stranger's Blog - local weekly paper takes it to the web. very seattle. very opinionated. great place to keep your finger on the pulse of this area. smart yet hip choice.

Pink is the New Blog - now this is where she let's her gossip junkie flag fly high.

PerezHilton.com - hey VH1 is giving him a tv show, there has to be substance here right? just kidding he's pretty funny. come on you perez fans, let's see you come out from the closet. if you don't come out yourself he might just do it for you.

lauren

i'm going out of town for a few days, so i'll leave you with these links to entertain yourself until i'm back. have a great weekend everyone.

whatdoyathink

check this out....do you know what it is?
it's a seesaw! what a wonderful sleek design for a classic toy. i wonder if it's big enough for me? if you have a kid i think that you must buy this. it's only $50

thanks for the tip notcot.

simple, natural

Artist Courtney Skott work in furniture design is absolutely wonderful. She uses materials that project a handmade natural feel but the pieces I have seen also have a clean modern aesthetic.

These days I have been working on figuring out how to gracefully combine my desire to represent the beautiful patterns and colors of nature in a clean, bright, crisp way. Courtney's work is going into my inspiration file.

i wish these stool were available to purchase. don't you?


and this bed placed in a room with the perfect color green wall, a cream colored shag rug and a good stereo system would be heaven. it's very reminiscent of an exhibit i saw at bumbershoot this past weekend, Nooks: If You Lived Here You'd Be Home by Now, by Instant Coffee