Thursday, July 31, 2008

Twenty Things - JennyJen 42

1. I love the sounds of birds and am constantly trying to imitate them.
2. I eat chocolate almost every day.
3. I hate to eat alone.
4. I absolutely detest mayonnaise.
5. I love to ride my bike fast down hills.
6. Since turning 40, I’ve ridden my bike down some insane hill or mountain on my birthday.
7. I always wanted to go to the Art Institute of Chicago for Graduate school.
8.I would love to eat lunch with Henry Rollins one day.
9.I have a memory of being small enough to hide in the milk box .
10. I get nervous when cooking for many people.
11. I have an attention span of a high school student.
12. I wish I was a painter when abstract expressionism was happening.
13. I hate using WORD to type documents.
14. I have a strange fascination with minimalism.
15. I once drove to Lake George in up state New York in the middle of the night.
16. I saw almost every hardcore punk rock band in the early eighties.
17. I loved making beanbags as a kid.
18. I had a very bad Mohawk that I gave myself when I was in college.
19. I could not imagine my life without my husband. He absolutely completes me. He is my best friend!
20. I really love getting dressed up!



Would you like to be featured? Email your twenty things (keep it clean, please!) to baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com. Be sure to include your name and URL.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Don't Forget our Summer Giveaway!

The biggest giveaway we've had yet! In honor of our BOB nod, we're postponing the drawing until August 29th, so if you haven't signed up for our mailing list, sign up now!

Work by BlockPartyPress, BowerboxPress, GreenStarStudio, JenMenkhaus, JennyJen42, JillPopowichDesigns, Miscelena, SpaTherapy, TheBrokenPlate, TigerLillyShop, VWStudios.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Baltimore Biz Ladies Series - this Thursday!

The Design*Sponge Biz Ladies meetups are designed to connect local women running their own design-based businesses. These free, informal meetups provide attendees with free advice and information on the following topics: marketing/PR, wholesale/retail, business/legal concerns and the realities of turning your passion into a full-time job.

baltimore biz ladies meetup
:
  • date: thursday, july 31st
  • time: 6:30pm- 8:30pm
  • baltimore rsvp: please send an email right here and put “baltimore rsvp” in the subject line
  • to bring: biz ladies meetups are a pot-luck affair so if you can, please bring a small snack with you or a drink (ie: a liter of soda or a bag of cookies)
See you there!

Monday, July 28, 2008

It Happened Kinda Like This...

I'm one of those saps who believes that everything happens for a reason. I know it's not the intellectual thing to think, but it's something I have to do if I'm gonna get through this life. The choices I've made along the way have helped, too. I know. But some people are meant to be your friends and some things are just meant to be.


BEST was a glimmer that none of us could put our fingers on. The organization it would take to form a street team was daunting and the timing was bad. I'm not quite sure if any of us were prepared to work even harder, to have our families wonder if our marbles hadn't gotten stuck in the floorboards somewhere. But we were drawn to each other. We had to do it.

I wrote this in my blog just before Christmas of last year, before any of us had met or imagined what we would work together to achieve...


I love fabric of different prints and textures layered and stitched together. This petite brooch from The Littlest Bean is so feminine without being frilly. It would look VERY sweet affixed to a baby girl's soft knit cap. Hmmmm. Maybe one day it will be! Find this brooch and a ton more at jenmenkhaus.etsy.com



A set of note cards from JennyJen 42 is the perfect gift for ANYONE. Really, we use up our coolest stationary fast in this house. Besides, it's just nice to get something in the mail that's not a bill or a forest's worth of junk. Hey, when you think about it, a gift of cards sends cheer all over the place! jennyjen42.etsy.com

And then came Leah. The tenacious CuriousZoo. Leah was not going to give up. Bad timing, be damned! This street team is forming! And we did. JenMenkhaus got us all in line. Her management and organizational skills were essential in our creation, and she still keeps us going strong. And growing. We have all worked so hard. And now, again, it's time to work even harder so we can live up to our Best of Baltimore title.


Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the collaboration between The Littlest Bean and Sweet Pepita turned out great! It's like these hats were meant to be.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

DIY At Home: Natural Hair Recipes For The Summer

Summer is truly a tough time for our hair, so today I bring you some at-home hair treatments to reveal the natural beauty of your hair. Your can find all ingredients at a health food market.


Hot Oil Treatment for Dry Hair
Use this intensive treatment twice a month to re-hydrate dry hair and prevent dandruff.
Ingredients

* 1/2 cup of dried rosemary leaves
* 1/2 cup olive oil

-Combine oil and rosemary in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until warm all the way through. Remove from heat and strain, to remove leaves from oil. Coat scalp and ends of hair with hot oil, then wrap in saran wrap and cover with towel to retain heat. Leave on 15 minutes. Wash twice to remove excess oil.

Hair Tonic for Oily Hair
Daily use removes oil buildup, promoting healthy shine, and leaving hair smelling as fresh as it looks!
Ingredients

* 1 quart distilled water
* 3 heaping tsp spearmint leaves

-Add spearmint to water over medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes. Cool and refrigerate in an airtight container. Use daily to rinse hair after shampooing. (You find distilled water in most supermarkets)

Cucumber Hair Drench

If you swim in a chlorinated pool try this treatment to keep chlorine damage to a minimum.

* 1 egg
* 1 eggshell's worth of olive oil
* 1 quarter of a peeled cucumber

-Blend the egg, olive oil and peeled cucumber. Spread evenly through your hair, leave on for 10 minutes, then thoroughly rinse. For the best results year-round, continue this treatment monthly.

And don't forget these important tips to keep your hair looking healthy:
  • Avoid using hair styling products with alcohol which dries out hair.
  • Excessive stress, smoking, not exercising and a poor diet are not healthy for your hair.
  • Don't leave the blowdryer in one spot for more than a few seconds, keep it moving.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Friday Finds- Travel Edition

On the Road again… this Friday’s finds features a travel theme with a touch of vintage, but all handmade and found on Etsy.


Camper Vessel by PaigeRussell


Right in the Groove by Blue Valentine Press


Happy Camper Necklace by Cupboard Scraps


Mexico City Map Journal by our own BEST member Bowerbox


The Highway is my Life by twoguitars

This week's Friday Finds was curated by JennyJen42

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Best Locally Made Crafts!


"Our hearts swell with B'more pride whenever we log onto The Baltimore Etsy Street Team's site, baltimore-etsy.blogspot.com. This is a compilation of all the local designers and crafters who have pages on Etsy, the popular online marketplace. The talent is awe-inspiring. Some of our faves: TheBrokenPlate takes vintage and contemporary dinnerware and gives it new life as a necklace or a ring. And vwstudios, where images on clay are created using a process that includes photography, painting and printmaking."

-from Baltimore Magazine's Best of Baltimore issue 2008

Yay, BEST! Thank you so much, Baltimore Magazine!

Twenty Things - Green Star Studio

1.) I'm allergic to hamsters.
2.) I've painted over 50 murals.
3.) I can knit in the dark (in fact, many Knitimals are knit in movie theaters)
4.) 80's music. Gotta have it.
5.) I have an unflinching (and possibly disconcerting) love of thrillers, horrors and scary, scary movies.
6.) I was kicked out of Pre-K for demanding additional crayons. They'd given me a single green crayon to color with.
7.) I own close to a 80 pairs of shoes, but almost only ever wear crocs or flip flops. Speaking of Crocs, I have 10 pairs.
8.) I grow my hair for "locks of love"; once it gets long enough, I snip it off and start over again
9.) I am terrified of & completely wigged out by monkeys. I can't look at them, hear them or be near one.
10.) I have been a judge in a fierce chocolate chip cookie bake off.
11.) speaking of chocolate chip cookies; I am the self proclaimed foremost authority on a good one & even keep a CCC journal (with over 50 entries).
12.) I smile at dogs I pass on the street.
13.) Pete's Dragon' & 'Popeye' are responsible for my continuing childhood obsession with New England.
14.) I can rarely eat an entire bunch of bananas before they go brown and squishy. But I still buy them.
15.) I used to have a sweet hairless guinea pig named Leopold Bloom.
16.) I really like watching rats in the city. I love pigeons too.
17.) I miss the lizards on the sidewalks in Miami (but that's ALL).
18.) I made the first Knitimal ever when I was bedridden with the worst flu I've ever had; and my fever broke as I sewed the final stitches.
19.) I want a pet pig... a big one, not a pot belly. His name will be Ulysses.
20.) I love Logic Puzzles & kick butt in Scrabble.

Would you like to be featured? Email your twenty things (keep it clean, please!) to baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com. Be sure to include your name and URL.

Just In Case You haven't Heard...

You can still hear the Marc Steiner Show on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 AM on WEAA 88.9 FM. Yeah, it's only once a week, and it's only an hour, but hey, so many of us are missing his show sorely. We'll take what we can get!


Check out the rest of the programming WEAA has to offer (Democracy Now! Yay!).

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Indie-pendent Business - Harbor News

I think this is one of those instances where a picture says a thousand words. Having lived in DC for quite some time, I had gotten used to my pick of magazines in any language I could want - something I had never found here in Baltimore. And then came Harbor News, and it's everything I dreamed and more. Any magazine a girl (or guy) could want, a sophisticated interior, and the best candy selection around. And don't even get me started on their awesome cards.

Stop by Harbor News at 1010 Aliceanna Street in Harbor East (which being an almost lifelong Baltimorean is really still Fell's Point to me.) They're open early, they're open late, and they've got everything.

W
e will feature an independent business twice monthly. If you'd like to suggest your favorite, please email us at baltimoreetsy (at) gmail (dot) com.

Saavy Print Shopping Part 2

This is the second installment of our print shopping tutorial from Bowerbox Press

An ETCHING or INTAGLIO print is pulled from a copper or zinc plate that has been etched. The plate is coated with an acid-resist, the image is scratched into the resist and the plate is submerged in acid. The image is bitten down into the surface of the copper. Ink is applied, and the plate is wiped clean- ink will remain only in the areas where the acid has etched the plate. The plate is run through a press with dampened paper, and the paper pulls the ink out of the plate. Often there will be an indented mark around the edge of the image area from the plate. Multiple plates can be printed, building up color and texture. CHINE-COLLE is a technique where a contrasting paper is applied between the plate and the paper, to add areas of interest. A DRYPOINT is similar to an etching, but the design is simply scratched into the plate (no acid is used.) It creates a fuzzier line.


Australian Magpie from the Dandenongs, Etching from Etchings by Bridget Farmer

A WOODCUT or LINOCUT is a relief print, made from a block of solid wood or a piece of linoleum. The image is carved into the block with sharp tools. White areas are removed, and the remaining raised surfaces are rolled with ink and printed. A REDUCTION cut is made by printing one color from a block, then carving back into the same block and printing successive colors. A reduction cannot be re-printed as the block is destroyed. Woodcuts can be printed by hand or in a press. A WOOD ENGRAVING is similar to a woodcut, but the image is carved into the endgrain of the wood, using different tools and resulting in very fine lines and detail.


Merman Original Linocut from Fiddlebones

Val Lucas is the owner of Bowerbox Press and is a printmaker working in woodcut, linocut and letterpress.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Still recovering...

043
check the 'tude... Jill, Jen, and Megan

Cute as always;)
Shannon looking sweet

And Alice
mini BEST

HOT!
Elisa looking hot

The Superstar
Juliet keeping cool

Night Shift @ Artscape - Baltimore Etsy Street Team
the "night shift" - Jill, Elisa, Jussara, Jen, and Allison

Artscape
I love this photo, because it's what my whole weekend felt like...

Click on any of the photos to see more, and we promise, we'll be back to normal soon. We're all nursing wicked "Artscape hangovers."

Monday, July 21, 2008

The End.

Artscape is over. It was great to meet so many new friends, and see so many old ones. Thanks so much to all of you who stopped by to say hello. We had so much fun, even though we were just a bit crazier than usual from the 100 degree heat, smoke from the barbeque, and the pounding rhythms of the DJ Culture booth. We'll see you again soon!

photo of hula-hooper on stilts by S@HDIST, who just happens to have an etsy shop

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Twenty Things - Artscape

ARTSCAPE 2007 BALTIMORE SATURDAY

Twenty things not to miss at Artscape, by jenmenkhaus
  1. Photo Booth (all weekend)
  2. Family Art Park (all weekend)
  3. Sizzling Salsa (Sat & Sun)
  4. Ric Royer and Friends (Sat 2pm)
  5. DJ Culture Stage (all weekend)
  6. Book Binding Demonstration (Sun)
  7. Baltimore Sculpture Project (ongoing)
  8. Fashion at Artscape (all weekend)
  9. Billie Holiday & Cab Calloway Vocal Competition (Sun)
  10. Hand-weaving demos by Shoshana Miller (tba)
  11. Mike Doughty (Sat 7pm)
  12. Dangerously Delicious Pies (all weekend)
  13. Art Car Show (all weekend)
  14. Penned Exhibit (all weekend)
  15. Glass-blowing demos by Baltimore Glass Works (tba)
  16. Exotic Hypnotic (all weekend)
  17. Organic Food Court (all weekend)
  18. Caleb Stine & The Brakemen (Sun 5:30)
  19. Joan Jett (Fri 8:30pm)
  20. Your BEST friends at DIY and the Artist Market!!!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Random Artscape Photo

kids on squirrel - revenge on revenge!

HoLy MoLy that's a big one!

Stop by The Metro Gallery this Thursday and check out one very big new painting, (25.5 x 11.6 feet) by artist Alison Spain. I had a chance to photograph Alison in action and am excited to see the evolution of this gigantic work!


The opening is tomorrow, Thursday the 17th @ 7pm.
The Metro Gallery is located at 1700 North Charles Street in Baltimore.

Post written by JenyGwen

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

the best & B.E.S.T of Artscape


image by: greenstarstudio

In just a few days the LARGEST free public arts festival in the Nation will take this city by storm. And storms are, by nature, very large, very powerful and filled with performing monkeys and fried food. Oh wait, no... storms are overwhelming, that's what I meant to say. In this, Artscape's 27th year, the festival promises to be even larger, both in size and scope. With so much going on, it's hard to know where to start, what to see and just what to buy!

I love the art exhibitions that are curated for Artscape each year--- I'm particularly jazzed about "Penned"; in the Pinkard Gallery, Bunting Center.

An exhibition of pen and/or marker drawings including photographs of the pens used to make them. The more than 100 drawings in this exhibition cover a broad range of pens from the generic ball point to the traditional rapid-o-graph and feather quill to the modern array of jell and artists’ pens. It just sounds fun!

If you're coming to Artscape with your kids, you've got to go to the Family Art Park; over a dozen local museums & organizations on hand, great art projects and hands on activities for the young and young at heart. (stop by the Walters Art Museum tent and tell them Dana sent you!)

Naturally you'll want to stop by the B.E.S.T table over in the new D.I.Y. section; there's going to be a lot of great work there AND the chance to win an amazing collection of fabulousness in our upcoming giveaway. Speaking of giveaways... while you're there, pick up a greenstarstudio "goodie bag" filled with discounts & coupons, and then make your way over to the Artist's Market to put those coupons to good use!

The Artist's Market occupies almost all of Mt. Royal Avenue, from Maryland Ave north. It'll be crowded, but it'll be worth it. As you wind your way toward North Avenue, you should definitely check out daphne olive (booth # E096), who I love as much for her jewelry as i do her dismissal of capital letters. I was given one of her resin necklaces a few years ago and i just think it's fabulous. They're like soft, calming little pieces of neo-plasticism for your neck. This is daphne's first year in Artscape , but she owns a store in D.C. and if her booth is anything like her shop, we're in for a treat.

A little farther along, you'll find fellow B.E.S.Ter Liz Mathews of Liz Mathews Jewelry Design, in booth E137. I love the little stories they tell... and you can always get me with a good piece of bird jewelry!



Another MUST SEE is my buddy Erika Rubel of Had Matter; Erika takes all sorts of vintage and reclaimed wonder and turns them into keyholders with shelves, clocks and mail holders.



Two years ago, everyone we knew got Erika's work for Christmas. It's that good. She's in booth E158, just one "gang tent" (big tents that cover about 5 individual booths) away from me, so stop in and see Erika, then keep on walking until you find me!

greenstarstudio will be in booth E163 (near the Fox Building & Brown Center on MICA's campus) , but you'll likely see it well before you're close enough to read the booth numbers. Each year i try to spruce up my digs and make the space just a little more welcoming and bright. greenstarstudio is all about 'art you can live with', so you'll find most of the work in situ, acting both functional and decorative. There will, as always, be tons of new Knitimals, decorative boxes and frames, and original framed illustrations; new this year: the eco-friendly Recyclimals, brand new coloring books, knitimal soap, coffee cup cozies, decals, magnets, pins, stickers and more! (check out my blog for more info & savings!).

There's a lot to see and do... and eat, at Artscape and luckily, you've got three days to do it! Artscape is open Friday & Saturday 12-10pm, and Sunday 12-8pm, rain or shine. So, make sure you visit the B.E.S.T table and get your coupon pack; grab a strawberry smoothie and some hand cut fries, and make your way up Mt. Royal Avenue! Hope to see you there.

Monday, July 14, 2008

summer giveaway!

Here's a sneak peak at the biggest giveaway we've had yet! The drawing will take place august 5th, so if you haven't signed up for our mailing list, sign up now or stop by our booth at Artscape this weekend to see everything in person.

Work by BlockPartyPress, BowerboxPress, GreenStarStudio, JenMenkhaus, JennyJen42, JillPopowichDesigns, Miscelena, SpaTherapy, TheBrokenPlate, TigerLillyShop, VWStudios.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by doubledutch yesterday! We all had a blast. A special thanks to Megan and Lesley, and congratulations to Alicia for winning the $50 gift certificate. We'd love to see a photo of the good stuff you get!