Double Trouble this weekend!

While Jean is in SF this weekend, I'll be working the Seattle beat at the Urban Craft Uprising show this weekend! Jean is an old pro at working shows solo, but this is my first time, so come and keep me company!

I'll be towards the back by the food section - so don't miss me, and don't miss the homemade ice cream booth across the aisle!

R&L at Seattle UCU this weekend Dec 4/5th!

This holiday season, both  R&L goods and Ladies & Gentlemen Studio will be rockin' it at the winter Urban Craft Uprising show in Seattle this weekend!

Date: December 4th & 5th, Saturday & Sunday

Time: 11am-5pm

Where: Seattle Exhibition Hall

We'll have some new track jacket & hoodie designs & linen scarves with hand-printed Piano Nobile designs!

Check out this post on UCU to find out what we're looking forward to this holiday season.

Come by and see our new things and say hello!

R&L Goods + Wooly Bison Bags = Velouria Trunk Show-stopper!

This Thursday and Saturday - get a double dose of Fall's best! I'm not talking about a farmers market - I'm talking about the seasonally appropriate bounty to be found at our trunk shows this week!

You'll see our notebooks and wallets - featuring the lovely hand printed textiles of Piano Nobile. I don't want to ruin the surprise - but we're working on something that just might revolutionize the accessory world as we know it! Not to oversell it or anything - but... it's shaping up to be pretty nice. And we're hustling to finalize some new hoodies and track jackets!

Also:

Ingrid from Wooly Bison Bags has cooked up another glorious set of satchels and cases from repurposed wool. She transforms old coats, pants, and skirts into timeless accessories for you and your gear!

It's like a little sleeping bag!

Slumber Party!

Ah yes, the details:

Thursday 11/11/10  ~  5-8pm

Velouria on Capitol Hill

1521 Melrose Ave. 

In the Melrose Building next to Sonic Boom

AND

Saturday 11/13/10  ~  6-9pm

Velouria in Ballard

2205 NW Market St.

Also next to Sonic Boom ~ Part of the Ballard Art Walk

We'll be there - hitting the artichoke dip and sipping Rose-ay-hay! Hope to see you there!

This weekend in Seattle!

Come to Urban Craft Uprising this weekend at the Seattle Center! Swag bags, giveaways, and some great shopping!

We'll be on the left wall next to our buddies from Slow Loris T-shirts, and and aisle away from Wooly Bison Bags.

I can't tell you how much I love this show. The organizers are THE BEST, the shoppers are SO friendly, and there's something for everyone among all the vendors.

Hope to see you there!

Chikabird + Piano Nobile Line Debut this Weekend at UCU!

If anyone is around this weekend in Seattle, please come by and say hello and check out our exciting new line of notebooks and cardcases with Piano Nobile at the BIG holiday Urban Craft Uprising show!

December 5th & 6th, 2009
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Admission: FREE!

Isabelle and Nickolas of Piano Nobile runs a multi-faceted design studio where they could be described as professional designers and colalborators. Isabelle has a painting and printing background with a great sense of material, color, and texture. Nickolas on the other hand has an architecture background with mad building skills in all realms whether it be funiture, design build or a large scale printing table. I'm pretty sure he can build a pyramid.... I remember reading that in his resume somewhere....

Not only do they have the perfect print studio with their self-designed and welded textile printing set up, they're also just a short bike ride away from our studio in Ballard! It's almost too good to be true!
(and yes, convenience does matter...)

Did I mention that they have a dog named Bauhaus, and also owns a sweet vintage Vanagon and Volvo?
Can you stand it?!....I can barely keep my composure thinking about all their awesomeness.

So here it is! Our collaboration line with PN! Okay, so come to UCU to see all the goods in person! You can also go to our shop to check out the entire PN collaboration line.

LiT's Holiday Bazaar TODAY!

Isabelle of Piano Nobile will be doing a Holiday Bazaar at LiT Shades, Today Thursday November 19th, starting at 5pm with refreshments.

As you know, Chika & I have started a wonderful collaboration with Isabelle in creating some new printed notebooks and card cases since this summer. They will be available at the LiT shopl!
We're also currently working on some even more exciting stuff.....which we'll have to wait to share the full detail in a later post...so, stay tuned! I know....the anticipation...

1906 E Prospect St - Capitol Hill

Save 30% on gifts for the home byKaarskoker, La Rousse, LiT Shades and Piano Nobile

Store hours 10am - 8pm

Summer Urban Craft Uprising!

This weekend we'll be at the first Summer Urban Craft Uprising (UCU) indie craft show!

When: Aug 1st-2nd, Sat/Sun 11am-5pm

Where: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall (map)

What: Seattle's biggest indie craft show with a wide array of handmade goods, workshops, book signing, and more!

Why: Do you really need to ask? My answer to you is....why the hell not? it's gonna be 100+ degrees in Seattle this weekend (miserable!!), and why not come hang out inside at UCU to cool off and check out awesome stuff? You can do some shopping, meet some people, and then go back out to the giant dome fountain at the Seattle Center to have more fun! I think I might even do that during my lunch break. :D

We will have some new items like these wooden plant labels for your garden or plants! Every plant needs a friend just like all of us!
Another new exciting items we're gonna have are these notebooks we're debuting at UCU! These are made with LOVELY hand printed fabric by Isabelle of Piano Nobile. We recently befriended Isabelle and Nicholas and they're wonderful enough to print these fabric in time for us to sell at the show! I'm drooling over them myself....don't worry, I'll wipe off my drool.

We'll also have tons of other items marked down, too! I mean, who doesn't like to brag about how good of a deal they got, right?AND our dear and super talented friend, Ingrid will be selling her awesome bags at our booth as well! I'm totally excited to see what she'll be bringing!

So lot of exciting things...so come by to check out our stuff and say hello!!..... and while your at it bring us some ice cone or treat, too! :D

Hope to see you there!

Stalking the Interwebs: The Village Mews

The rabbit hole of the blogosphere can lead you all over the world, and sometimes it leads you to... yourself! And your friends, and your friends of friends, and your favorite things, and your own neighborhood!

That's where I found myself after an interview on the Design Sponge guest blog led me to google Chelsea Green's blog - The Village Mews. The Village Mews focuses on art and design in the Pacific NW - what's going on, who's doing what - with occasional mentions to other noteworthy happenings happening elsewhere.

I tend to use my blogroll as a way of mentally acquiring design and imagery from far away or long ago. One of my pitfalls is allowing the vastness of great works out there make me feel more wistful than inspired - "The Australia design scene is so cool.... So-and-so's already doing that thing I was thinking of doing.... I wish I lived in Brazil/Tokyo/Copenhagen/Cape Town.... How is that guy selling so much of THAT thing?.... I wish it was the 60's...." All very milk-toast thinking and certainly not productive.

So it was both exciting and encouraging to scroll down the Village Mews and see a lot of people and projects to which we are directly or indirectly connected, some work I'd seen online but didn't know was local, plenty of work that was news to me, and ourselves! In addition to reminding me of all the strong work in Seattle and nearby, it reminded me to not get discouraged by the vastness - but to focus on what I do in the pond I'm in.

Chelsea started The Village Mews in hopes of luring her NYC friends out for a visit. Once Summer starts, I'm sure she'll be hosting non-stop.

Under the Magnifying Glass: Ladies&Gentlemen, Iacoli&McAllister, Join: Design Seattle, Nicholas Kamuda, Justine Ashbee, Cairo

Green Festival in Seattle!

March 28 & 29, 2009
Seattle, WA (March 2009): Green Festival, the fastest growing green consumer event in the country, returns to Seattle for the second year on March 28 & 29, 2009. The Washington State Convention and Trade Center provides the space for the festival to take its platform and bring the most cutting-edge people, ideas, and organizations on the green scene to Seattle residents and the surrounding community. Co-hosted by the city of Seattle, the 2009 Green Festival will introduce sustainable options for a transitioning economy, growing consumer consciousness, and evolving environmental policy. This year, the Green Festival will have specialized programming to address the current state of the economy with extensive discussions and information on the growing sector of green jobs.'

The Green Festival is taking place at the Seattle Convention center this weekend. It's gonna be huge! It cost $15 to get in for the day, but if you rider your bike, carpool, or take the bus, you can get in for $10. Obama will be proud of you! :D

Jean

Good stuff in the air...

Not just the cherry blossoms starting up in Seattle, or the trips ahead of us in the next month, or our recent return from Hawaii (aloha, and don't hate me, mahalo).

I'm talking about great efforts made by some local folks trying to help out fellow indie biz owners in Seattle!

Jean and I attended a great workshop last night all about how to use blogging in an effective way to help and promote your business - and it got me fired up! See? An entry!

Kristen from Schmancy and Megan from Not Martha gave a talk about the dos and don'ts and good habits of good bloggers as part of an ongoing meet up/networking/workshop series in Seattle. I think it's so great that they have the desire and energy to help create this platform in our city. It's called the Grassroots Business Association, and I'm hooked! A big thank you to Kristen and Megan, and the Association for their efforts!

News!

We moved! To a great neighborhood in Seattle called Ballard. There's more to it than that - Jean and I, plus our steady fellas, bought a duplex together. Some say crazy, I say GENIUS!

We'll be trying to keep up a home improvement blog at http://www.thirtythirtytwo.blogspot.com/ - so far we've just posted an intro entry, with plenty of links to pics. Oh boy!

Now our studio is in the garage/basement of the new place. A little colder, a little less natural light, but it feels pretty cool to pay ourselves rent, and you can't beat the commute. Actually, I think I need to come up with a routine that forces me to leave the house regularly. Morning jogs to the beach? Unlikely. Afternoon walks to my favorite coffee shop? Very likely. Jean and I are highly motivated by treats, so the nearby world class pastry shop will offer some deserved (and not so deserved) rewards.

Hostess with the mostess!

Is that still cute? Let's pretend it still is, and move onto more interesting topics.

Such as: Herman Yu's studio opening party! Where the most interesting folks in Seattle design and beyond mingled with... us? What a space! What a spread! As you can see in the pics, Herman's new studio feels like the waiting room to heaven. Flooded with light, open and airy, homemade Vietnamese food, and a sweet loft. I swear the egg roll and mango salad platters kept refilling themselves.

We're lucky enough to know Herman through her incredible work and locational coincidences (she and my fella were studio neighbors). We've Wii bowled together! A really cool lady, who's so warm and generous (and modest!), and great fun to chat with. I won't embarass her by gushing about her work, I'll just say she creates the most beautiful images you will ever see in your life. That's all.