11.05.2010

how bizarre, how bazaar.

Come to the Meridian Middle School Holiday Craft Bazaar (or the MMSHCB, as it could be conveniently shortened to. just kidding) this weekend if you're in the Treasure Valley and needing an awesome handmade fix. I will have all of my goodies there along with other fun folks from Idaho Indie Works. Some of the other vendors you can expect to see are my awesome mom with Geneva Designs (she has rad new crayon/playing card rolls), Asia with her Sinfully Natural soaps (they are so cute!), Cara with LuLu and ChaCha (if I have a girl, I may just buy up all of her inventory) and Sean and Christina with their Great Custom Furniture (that I seriously gush over everytime I see it. It makes me wish that I were childsize so I could use it myself).

Also, I have made some killer new winter cycling caps and they will be there too! If you don't live in the Treasure Valley, you'll be able to check out my new hats once they hit my etsy... which could be in a few weeks considering the madness of craft fairs, moving apartments and going to Minnesota that I have in my very near future.

10.11.2010

Featured on PlanetGreen!

I had the joy of checking my email the other day and finding a message from the Etsy Marketing Team saying that they had submitted a photo of one of my hats for a handmade slideshow on PlanetGreen, a Discovery.com website. You can check out the awesome collection of handmade goodies HERE and see not only my hat, but also my lovely husband who's head it adorns.

In birthday news: my beautiful dog Lincoln turns three tomorrow. Unfortunately for her, all that this momentous occasion merits is maybe a can of dog food and an extra long walk. Three cheers for Lincoln!
And if it's not exciting enough that my dog is having a birthday... I have a new nephew! Welcome to the world, Miles Raymond Christensen!

10.03.2010

leaves are falling!

How is it already October 3rd? I love it! We walked the dogs to the market the other day and Lincoln loved crunching through the leaves almost as much as I did. October is such a fabulous month, made even more fabulous by the fact that we are taking a trip to Portland in two weeks - right in the middle of October.

Life has been busy in Boise. I sent my first wholesale order of hats and bike gear to our friends at Blue City Cycles in Chicago. Owen and Clare started this shop about a year ago and since I have not been able to check it out yet, if you're in Chicago you should go and support their Bridgeport bike shop!

In a similar vein, as soon as Bricolage (downtown Boise, Bannock and 8th - underneath Thomas Hammer) re-opens on November 12th, you and all you love will be able to purchase bellefourche hats from their awesome little shop. Jules and Chelsea have come up with a great collection of local goods to pair with their own handcrafted items to make an excellent shopping experience.

I have come up with a fun new winter hat design but, of course, I forgot to take a picture of one of the new hats before I mailed them all to Chicago. Silly me. Fortunately, this week should see a few more hats made and if you want to head down to Idaho Indie Works on First Thursday (this week, October 7, 5-9p) you can see what's new in the bellefourche inventory.

So I realize it's kind of annoying to post pictures like this but I'm just pretty proud. Baby is still growing growing growing and you can finally kind of tell!
and you can see my new haircut, too!


yup. it's right in there.
A sad thing that has developed in my life is this: my spouse has been enjoying graphic novels and comic books lately and I feel left out. I mean, why can't I enjoy them too? Why don't I like them? I'm the girl who has read nearly every Orson Scott Card book. I love Neil Gaiman. This should be right up my alley. Oh, DC Comics, why do you make me feel so inferior?

And current favorite song: "Dance Yrself Clean" by LCD Soundsystem. I have come up with a perfect dance for it and do this dance whenever able. I have tried to teach it to the dogs but they seem to have four left paws.

Next up in the sewing scene: Top tube protectors. Cute kitchen towels. A hat for my own head (what!). More winter hats. I'm trying to be a busy bee.

9.10.2010

The Surliest of Mermaids

This blog is an homage to my friend Emmy, of Surly Mermaid Fused Glass!

Why is Emmy so fine? you may ask, and I will reply How can I count the ways? So here is a brief list of reasons:

1. She makes amazing fused glass jewelry and sells it at incredibly afforable prices.
2. She is an excellent craft fair tent neighbor (she will even share raspberries and french fries with you!).
3. She is a generous jewelry gift giver (even gave me a necklace for my mom).
4. She runs a cool vintage/supply shop on Etsy.
5. She gave us like over $200 worth of baby gear for FREE!! Her little gal is almost two and has grown out of her Snugli and baby bathtub, etc, so Emmy thought we could use it.

So all that to say, if you ever see Surly Mermaid Fused Glass at a craft event in Boise, go and buy some sweet jewelry from her and say that bellefourche sent you!

8.30.2010

Pretty sure I'm happy here

Moving across the country is always a roller coaster (at least for me it is). It seems like on a daily basis I vacillate between feeling excited about the new possibilities ahead of me, to feeling lonely and confused as to why we decided to leave what we knew was comfortable.

But this weekend, I decided that I'm pretty sure I'm happy here.

The spouse and I set up my first booth (yay! hooray!) at The Big Le Boise craft fair on Saturday and I was pretty nervous. From past experience in Chicago and Minneapolis, the crafting community can be pretty competitive and somewhat petty so you never really know what you're getting yourself into. Boise, on the other hand, rocked my world.

From what I've seen with the crafting community in Boise, there is a definite sense of comraderie and encouragement and basically, it made me not feel like an idiot on Saturday.

All that said, the day went well despite insane winds and less browsers than I had hoped for.

The husband just walked in the door. Can you imagine ever getting eaten by a river beaver? They have terrible teeth and I'm glad he was not nabbed into their clutches as he biked home. The greenbelt can be a dangerous place with all of that herbivorous fauna lurking in the shadows.

8.18.2010

An Unforgiving Shoulder

After years of wearing a messenger bag and working espresso bars I have managed to develop a pinched nerve in my left shoulder. For the most part it doesn't hurt but these last few weeks my messenger bag (and even backpacks!) have been killing my shoulder whenever I bike. Combining that with the general discomfort of being pregnant, bike commuting is getting less and less fun right now. Fortunately, my husband rocks. On a lazy night last week we biked to the coop to pick up some deli dinner and he said he would just bring his big backpack and that I should forgo a bag in order to give my shoulder a break. Well hallelujah! I forgot how fun and freeing it can be to bike without a backpack! I felt like a kid just zipping along with no plans or expectations since I didn't have anything weighing me down. Sometimes I think I get too encumbered with "getting the most" out of my bike commuting that I turn biking into drudgery and forget how fun it can be to just go for a bike ride without any real agenda.

And also: three cheers for the Boise Coop's potato samosas and sour cream chicken enchiladas!

Thanks to: Damien, for asking me to save his favorite tshirt which then gave me inspiration for my newest project - Upcycled Graphic T's! This inspiration also gave me a reason to enlist husband to come to 99cent day at Savers and became an impromptu date of interpreting old family reunion and high school band tshirts. And because the husband is so awesome, he managed to find me a wicked version of this tshirt:

Admittedly, I was way too selfish to want to use this shirt to sell. Sorry!

And the last update: due to unreasonable amounts of zucchini thrust upon us (seriously people, learn your lesson. Stop growing zucchini! It is a vicious monster that will take over your garden and turn you into strange versions of yourselves that cause you to go around forcing these little summer squash onto your unsuspecting acquaintances) I have been going through quite a bout of baking chocolate chip zucchini bread. My dear spouse has been giving me a hard time for eating most of it myself and not leaving much for him. My dog, Lincoln, must have heard his complaints. To even the score, she decided to gobble down nearly an entire loaf herself. Lucky dog - it's a good thing I love you or else you would be out on the streets!

8.10.2010

a beginning

New blog. Fairly new town. Business back up and running. Husband starts grad school tomorrow. Lots of beginnings. Excited? Oh yes.

First venture in Boise crafting: setting up a table at Idaho Indie Works downtown for First Thursday. There were lots of lookers but not many buyers. But I met some people so that's a plus! Also, check out the new bellefourche banner that I made the morning of the event and hung over my table. I know, it's awesome!
yes that is an awesome wagon/carriage thing behind me!
Next event: Boise Weekly's Craft Bastards Block Party, August 28th! At Sixth and Broad from 10am - 10pm Boise Weekly is having bands, a Vespa giveaway, a bloody mary contest and, of course, awesome crafty booths. I know a few other vendors who will be there and it should be a lot of crazy cool stuff for sale.

First on my agenda for sewing tomorrow: dog bowties. Lincoln and Wanda need to spruce up their wardrobes and I can't think of any way that is more hilarious to do it.