Tug of War.

Original oil painting, Yes Versus No, by Secret Seed Art.

Well, I learned an important lesson this past week…for the fourth or fifth time. It’s a tough lesson to learn, which is probably why I’ve needed a few do-overs before fully trusting it as a reliable guiding principle, but this time, I think it finally stuck. Continue reading »

Take Two.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a good, long look in the mirror and an overwhelming urge came on. It’s time for an overhaul. My entire look, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, has slowly gathered cobwebs, and I can’t take it anymore. I’m staging my very own intervention, and the below discoveries are helping to inspire my much-needed makeover. Wish me luck!

It’s Never Too Late for a Fresh Start Bangle by ValleGirlDesigns. Continue reading »

Hip Parade

So, I’m gearing up to work the Fremont Fair & Solstice Parade this weekend. With so many naked cyclists around, I’m sure t-shirts will be in high demand. It’s actually been ages since my last parade. I tend to shy away from large public gatherings, and would easily pass up festivals and fireworks for a hot bath and a glossy magazine, preferable one with lots of gossip and pictures. Lame, I know. Well, maybe the Fremont Fair is just the thing to break me out of my shell.

To help set the mood for all this socializing and prepare me for the weekend ahead, I have collected a small handful of parade themed items that tickle my fancy.

Parade, a lovely original illustration by Multiple Personality. Continue reading »

Handmade with a Twist.

This past weekend, I was finally inspired to tear open a bag of lemons that has been sitting patiently in our refrigerator for over a month. And although they were looking a bit sad, I decided to make a fresh dressing from the juice and flavored pasta with the zest. Even this tiny bit of citrus was such a delightful change of pace for me, I felt compelled to pull together the below collection of lemony goodness as a reflection of my new found affection for the fruit.

Adorable Gussy lemon pouch by Maggie Whitley. Continue reading »

Boot Camp

I have decided to openly admit that I’m frightfully bad at maintaining a blog of any real substance anymore. This is what a 60 hour work week does to a girl’s writing skills I suppose. So, screw it. I have decided to overhaul the format of my Heavens to Etsy section. I will be adding daily findings and delightful things centered around a specific topic or subject. Today, it’s boots. Yay boots!

Original print by Volume 25 Continue reading »

I’d Like a Bread Sandwich, Please.

Clearly, I have tuned out the high-tech, fast-paced world of cyberspace much longer than a week. Suppose once I got over the withdrawl symptoms, the sting of falling out of contact faded into a distant memory. I’d love to say that I’ve been off skipping through grassy meadows and hanging out with unicorns over the course of this past month, but I’d be lying. In reality, I’ve been crunching numbers, printing wholesale orders, and generally sorting out how to grow my business, recover from an insane f***ing tax payment, and save for some ever-joyous dental work. Honestly, is solid food really that important to me? I’d be perfectly happy just gnawing on bread. Continue reading »

Your Shell is Showing.

                                                                                                                                      Ode to Lloyd Dobler by Elloh

“Just take this pen and write me.”                                                                                                                                                         -Diane Court, Say Anything

For a 32 year old, I’d say I’m pretty hip to technology. Give me a stylesheet, I can decode it. Insert some html on a webpage? I’m your girl. Process graphics, create vectors? Yeah, I’m pickin’ up what you’re puttin’ down. That said, I have an increasingly overwhelming sense that I can’t keep up. I have refused to join twitter, or engage in any manner of tweeting. Until two weeks ago, that is. And I’m starting to suspect it’s the last straw.

A tortoise by nature, I have crammed my hard, round shell into a ridiculous bunny suit. Joining Myspace, then Facebook, getting Skype, tending to photo albums on Flickr and Picasa, 4 different e-mail accounts, 4 online shops, a blog, succumbing to the Twitter tidal wave, and so on, and so on. I am drowning in status updates, text messages, links that continuously drag me here, there and everywhere. Well, my shell is busting through the seams, and I’m afraid safety pins aren’t gonna do the trick this time. Continue reading »

Muscle Memory

Thought This Would Be Easier by Michele Maule

Aside from a small handful of moments when I’ve been able to (miraculously) enjoy exercise, physical activity, by and large, remains a task to check off of my to-do list six times a week. I’ve grown to think of it the same way I think of brushing my teeth or washing my hair. It’s not up for debate. In order to be a healthy member of society and blend in, I have to do it.

And so, three mornings and three evenings each week, I strap on my well-worn, beloved sneakers and get down to business.  At times, physical goals such as weight loss, or fitting into a smaller size have motivated my rigorous schedule, but they never ultimately get me through a workout. In my opinion, a truly good workout will push you to a place where weight, size, or any other materialistic motivations cease to matter. It’s just you, a bunch of sweat, and a crucial decision. Keep going or throw in the towel? Continue reading »

Shove it, Zodiac.

Emerging from Troubled Days, by Christian Breitkreutz

Good gracious. Just shrugging my shoulders and saying “some weeks are worse than others” isn’t really cutting it for me at the moment. Why don’t we go with “some weeks blow a lot more than others?” I’m a Libra, so if you buy into the whole astrology thing, I should feel right at home with balance. Like dipping my toes into a nice, warm bath, right? Well, for the time being, balance is not my friend. Nay, dare I say it, balance is my enemy. I want the scales tipped in my favor, not level. Damn you, astrology (you can’t see it, but right now, I’m waving my fists at the sky)!

How did I get so bitter about my birth sign? Well, allow me to recap just the latest example of this unfortunate balance I speak of.  In an economy as crappy as the current one, I managed to pull the strongest month of online sales for Blackbird Tees out of who knows where. It was a glorious benchmark moment for me, especially after hemorrhaging money at the close of 2008 on renovations and startup expenses for my new boutique. Continue reading »

Upwelling

For some strange reason, this is one of the few scientific terms I actually remember from my middle school Earth Science classes.  Why, you ask, did this word stick?  Who the hell knows? But for those of you that don’t remember this term from the good old days of Bunsen burners and test tubes, I’ll give you a wee refresher:

Upwelling: the movement of nutrient rich water from the dark depths up towards the surface.  There are several different variations of upwelling, but this natural occurrence is usually related to surface winds.

Perhaps stranger than the fact that I’ve had this term zip-locked in my brain for two decades is the fact that it comes to mind almost weekly these days.  As I look around at the ripple effect of the economic crisis, witnessing the slow filtration into every facet of people’s lives, the process of upwelling takes shape on land.  The surface winds of a very real widespread struggle dislodge the foundations we all rely on, and we scramble to hold onto what little remains available…or affordable.  Boutiques are closing in every corner of Seattle.  Friends are either feeling grateful for their once shitty jobs, while others are counting the days until they get axed.  For some of them, that day was yesterday. Continue reading »

Et Tu, Douche Bag?

I suppose this type of question sort of answers itself.  Assuming someone is a douche bag, would you really ever expect much out of them?  Probably not.  Well, and you probably wouldn’t be terribly surprised when they inevitable turn on you.  At least, a reasonable person would draw these conclusions–reasonable being the operative word here.  But for the sake of argument, what if these were not the inevitable conclusions…or even the most popular? In my late teens/early twenties, reasonable was a word you associated with old losers and people that never got laid.  And I certainly wasn’t trying to befriend anyone in either of those demographics.  So, I proudly opted for stupidity instead. Continue reading »

Heavens to Etsy

I’ve mentioned in several of my blog entries that the process of building a business can be a lonely one.  And while that may be true, I’m also increasingly aware that you’re never going through the motions entirely alone.  Sometimes, if you can just manage to look up from your own narrow dirt path, you realize that there’s literally hundreds of people off in the distance attempting the very same climb.  For whatever reason, this fleeting sense of camaraderie can provide a little dose of encouragement to keep trekking.

Well, for me, this much needed jolt came in the form of Etsy.  For those of you that don’t know, Etsy is basically like Ebay, but for kick-ass craftspeople, and it is sooo much more fun to browse.   At this point, I can easily lose 2-3 hours a day just poking around the different shops and discovering all kinds of magical creations.  It has completely renewed my faith in people and their ability to be original. Continue reading »

What the Flock?

Well, I’m happy to announce that after nearly a year in business, Blackbird Tees has opened it’s first shop in the Seattle area.  It is, perhaps, the tiniest shop in all the land, but a shop all the same, and we’ve decided to call her Flock.  You can find the full collection of our illustrated apparel here, along with lots of other unique hand-crafted items. **Check out our latest write up in the August issue of Seattle magazine here!

Flock
7305 Linden Avenue N
Seattle, WA 98103
206-792-9445                                                                                                                                                                                                 For directions, click here.

Hours:
Wednesday-Saturday: 12-6pm
Come visit us on Sundays @ The Fremont Market (April-October)

In addition to our hand-printed apparel, we also carry handmade jewelry by Ruby’s Gems, Percraftination, and Crystal Fosnaugh, home decor from Half Pint Salvage, accessories from The Crafty Devils, Sophie Marie, and Hello Robertson, soaps from MyBirch, as well as cards and collectibles from Snarky Cards & Nowvember.

You’ve Got the Right Schtick, Baby.

So, for this weeks installment of the Trust Your Blackbird series, I decided to interview Leslie Pierson, owner of Retrofitted Designs, a product design house out of Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Among her many fantastic creations is a line of laptop skins which are offered under the name Schtickers. But Leslie isn’t just a savvy business owner with an interesting story to tell, she has also been my mentor throughout the development of Blackbird Tees. For that reason, this will be less of a formal Q & A, and more a personal toast of sorts.

As we’ve worked together over the last year and a half, Leslie has been kind enough to share some tales from her unique, and somewhat adventurous road to fulfillment. Not only did she travel the world teaching English for 8 years, taking time out for a casual trek up Mt. Everest, she also worked for a dot-com company and later for a group of consultants here in Seattle. Despite making a decent living and enjoying the luxury of a flexible schedule, the corporate world grew to be an increasingly stifling environment, and it would be a casual cup of coffee with a friend that would eventually offer an exit strategy. Continue reading »

This Little Piggy Went to Market.

Anyone watching the news or listening to the radio this summer probably heard about the release of a new book, Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip—Confessions of a Cynical Waiter. Anthony Bourdain described it as a front-of-the-house Kitchen Confidential, and from what I’ve heard, it certainly sounds like just the kind of book that service industry veterans like myself can rejoice in. In all my years as a waitress and barista, my co-workers and I got so much satisfaction from those rare opportunities to retaliate against obnoxious customers.

This may seem childish and petty to some, but if you have ever waited on people, you can appreciate these small victories and perhaps even see them as part of a necessary system of checks and balances. But I digress. My point here is not to relish in the new-found doubts that diners and coffee drinkers will now harbor thanks to this book. In fact, in some strange way, the seemingly never-ending influx of entitled customers often provide the entertainment, adventure, and absurdity characteristic of the service industry. The one thing I miss terribly is the camaraderie that results from facing this common enemy. So much humor surfaces in kitchens, behind counters, and in stock rooms, and all precisely because the public can be so ridiculous. Continue reading »