Volunteers Needed!
If you’re interested at putting your crafty/do-gooder skills to work May 3 or May 4, Handmade Detroit is looking for volunteers to help out with Swap-O-Rama-Rama.
We will be teaching people of all ages how to sew and turn old clothing into something new! There are a dozen different tutorials (all are no-sew or basic sewing knowledge geared) that we will have around our tent for participants to use, but we need volunteers to help guide people through the process!
If you’ve got a lot of time or a little bit, one day or two, it doesn’t matter; we’d love for you to help out! If you’re a sewing queen, we’d love to have you come on out, but if you’re more of an overall helper or just want to part of the action, we can’t wait for you to help.
The Swap-O-Rama-Rama is from 10am-7-pm on Saturday May 3rd and from 10 am-5pm on Sunday May 4th. If you can help in any way, for any amount of time, please email me at bethany@rewarevintage.com or Lish at lish. dorset@gmail.com!
you know we’re just trying to get to the club and shake our asses
Josh and his brother get in a short session. I can’t wait to get out this year.
Josh:
f-you, we suck and we’re ok with it, but hey, at least we got off our asses and did something… thanks to lauren for shooting us…
Things I learned this weekend:
-Trying to cut little Michigans out of Astroturf is nearly impossible and will really dull a pair of scissors. It will also result in a big mess! So much for that Mitten Pin idea for Handmade Detroit…
-I need to go out more! I had a great time with Mary on Sunday night drinking at the WAB, catching up and joking about our lack of social lives.
-Transformers can catch on fire and make quite a lot of smoke! Just ask anyone at the Magic Stick on Friday night.
-And finally, every car has a little arrow next to the gas gauge to show you which side of your car your gas tank is on. Thanks Dan!
Die Bitch!
Hell yeah! I’ve been waiting for a couple weeks to post this. (One of these was a surprise for my buddy Fabrizio, and I had to keep it under wraps.)
Designer and all-around kick ass dude, Josh Weston, made me a pair of “Die Bitch!” skateboard decks. I’m not sure if the picture really gets across how totally awesome these decks turned out, but these are seriously the fucking coolest skateboards I’ve ever seen (and that’s coming from a guy that used to ride this!).
These will really help Team Die Bitch’s chances in the flatland competition at this year’s Lawn Sport Olympics. Thanks, man.
Springtime Love
The past week it really began to seem like spring here in Michigan, and Dan and I started talking about how great it would be to take bike rides around the neighborhood again. I was thinking of getting a new bike this year, since my bike needed quite a lot of work done to it. Fate brought a sale at the bike shop this weekend, and I crushed on this obnoxious green bike and the “Flat Foot Technology” (I call it “I can comfortably reach the ground”), internal gearing and the disc brakes. I envisioned me riding it to the post office each day to ship out orders and knew it needed to be mine! We brought it home and gave it a spin last night - it’s true love.
It’s going to be a great spring and summer!
Congratulations!
Just wanted to send our best wishes to Josh and Lauren, who got engaged Friday night. Congrats, kids!
Doggie Breakthrough!
So for a couple months now I’ve been giving Kona an occasional bath in our bathtub. Doesn’t sound difficult, right? Well it is when your dog has an abnormal fear of the bathroom! Every time she needs a bath, it is a long process of me trying to coax her into the bathroom with treats, finally ending in me chasing her down, picking her up and putting her in the tub and sustaining a number of scratches as she freaks out and tries to escape. After a couple minutes in the tub she realizes that everything is ok and calms down, but that first 30 minutes beforehand is very, very trying.
Today we had a breakthrough! She followed me into the bathroom after only a couple minutes of prodding, and for some reason I decided to climb into the tub myself and try to then coax her into climbing into the tub on her own. Imagine my astonishment (really, seriously I was astonished) when she actually put her front paws onto the rim of the tub and jumped into the bathtub! It was amazing, and I felt like she had some breakthrough in her insane fear of the bathroom.
When you work from home and the majority of your social interaction during the day is with your dog, the smallest things make you really excited. At least I’m not a crazy cat lady, though.
Handmade Detroit and Reware Vintage on Fox 2 News
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting with fellow Handmade Detroiter and blog writer Lish Dorset along with the organizers of the Green Street Fair to interview with Jason Carr of Fox 2 News here in Detroit!
We got to demonstrate a number of “green crafts” for Jason including a T shirt tote bag, another bag made from newspapers (which we will be making to sell at the Green Street fair as well), and my record notebooks! Other green items from fellow Handmade Detroiters, local, and nationwide companies were also promoted, and the whole thing was a lot of fun and very exciting!
It aired tonight locally in Detroit and was also broadcasted nationwide to Fox affiliates. For those of you coming to the site and blog for the first time - Welcome! For our “regulars” who may have missed it - check the story out here!
What you miss in the online version is news anchor Huel Perkins asking the audience to please not cut up their old records after the segment. We’ll have to try to get a copy of that, too.
Thanks so much to Jason Carr for making a terrific segment for us and making the whole process fun. And for inspiring me to listen to Frank Sinatra all day!
High Five
So, last year I redesigned my buddy Fabrizio’s website. He kept insisting on paying me something, but I always refused because, you know, we’re close friends. It’s been almost a year since I finished the site and I assumed that I had convinced him that no payment was necessary. Then, last night, he shows up at my house and drops this on me:
He commissioned an artist to paint a picture of me riding a 24-karat gold jet ski. Let me say that again. In payment for a website, HE COMMISSIONED AN ARTIST TO PAINT A PICTURE OF ME RIDING A FUCKING GOLD JETSKI!
I’m still totally speechless. It’s so awesome that I almost didn’t link to this. Thanks, buddy.
Things learned while sanding trim
One: Our kitchen was painted lavender, then pink, then mint green, then olive green, then beige, then white.
Two: I hate sanding trim.
Blowout Fun!
The Metrotimes Blowout was such a blast! Wednesday was the opening night in the Majestic Complex, and Baar Bazaar was there to sell and celebrate! The vendors were awesome, the crowd was phenomenal, and the bands were super entertaining! Fox 2 news covered the evening and Dan took lots of pictures while I was slinging drinks.
Thursday was Handmade Detroit at the K of C lounge in Hamtramck. I had a great time hanging out with the HD girls and watching the bands! I was especially impressed with Aran Ruth.
Thanks so much to Eve Doster and the Metrotimes for inviting Baar Bazaar and Handmade Detroit to be part of the Blowout!!!!
Winter’s Best Soup
One of my favorite things about winter is making my absolute favorite soup. Now this soup is not the type of soup you should be having for lunch when you are on a diet. Zuppa Tuscana soup is hearty, heavy and chock full of lots of calories (especially my version). This is a man’s soup and it is a great, comforting meal on a cold winter night. Give it a try and you’ll be hooked!
It’s also easy to double, freezes great, and especially filling and tasty with garlic bread for dipping.
Read the rest of this entry »
Eclipse
You can go anywhere to find high quality video or photos of the 02/08 lunar eclipse. This is the only place that you can hear all of the ridiculous conversations the dudes and I were having while I was taping this rare celestial event.
Eclipse from Dan Nixon on Vimeo.
It always turns into conversations about guns at some point, right?
Excited doesn’t even begin to cover it
[youtube]cQ60n9DiAEM[/youtube]
I will fistfight you to be first in line.
Someone hand me a Kleenex, please
Yesterday, Dan and I went to JC Penney to buy some new Levi’s for him. I would just like to thank JC Penney for rubbing salt in my “turning 30 this year” wound and making me feel a twinge older.
Near the Levi’s section in the store was a “vintage t-shirt” section for teenagers (I could really go off on another tangent here about how stores like this are confusing the average joe about the meaning of the word vintage here, but I won’t). I took a look at the T shirts, just to see what is being reprinted now. There was the usual ACDC shirt, a Black Sabbath shirt, a kind of cool RUN DMC shirt…and then I saw the Pink Floyd shirt. I don’t have issues with reprint Pink Floyd T shirts in general - but this particular reprint was from the Division Bell tour.
I WENT TO THAT TOUR!!!!!! I had a T shirt that I bought at that concert!!! And some designer at JC Penney thought that the Division Bell tour was long enough ago that it actually warranted a reprint “vintage T shirt”. I was in complete shock and suddenly felt very, very old picturing teenagers out there in the world wearing this T shirt, thinking that it was cool and nostalgic.
Seriously. Uck.
