Every Man Needs a Good Hat!

The Sprout has decided he is a many of man hats, and while this is great coverage for his noggin, his style choices aren't always shall we say- stylin'? Enter Born To Love Clothing! Stylish infant and toddler fedoras and skate visor beanies! What I love best is that the line was started by a stay at home Mom, with help from a creative Dad, and all inspired by their son! Resulting in a hip entrepreneurial family business! My favorites are the black fedora and tan argyle visor. You can check out the entire line at Urban Baby Runway which coincidentally is a locally owned online boutique started by another stay at home Mom!

Disaster Relief

From now until Jan. 20th, Dandelion Blu will be donating 10% of all sales to The Red Cross's Haitian disaster relief effort.

A New Year, A New Dandelion!

Happy New Year Everyone! 2009 brought A Lot of changes for this here Dandelion. The biggest being of course was the debut of The Sprout! Now, I am not one to make resolutions, I feel like it's silly to try to enact a huge list of changes all on one day. So I prefer to think of them as goals for the new year. I try to reflect on the past year and then envision how I would like the next year to unfold, and what I can do to help it along. Obvioulsy I have several personal goals that involve The Sprout, and those also affect my little business here too. How I allocate my time is on the top of the list. So here are my goals for Dandelion Blu's 2010:

1. Be a more consistent blogger, promoter on facebook, etsy and twitter.
2. Strive to update my shop more frequently.
3. Keep better records of sales, time spent, where the money is going, etc.
4. Stream line my product line.
5. Update my wholesale catalog.

Hope you all have a happy and healthy start to the New Year!

Crafts & Kisses!

Looking for some handmade Valentines for your Valentine??? Head to D.C. on Sunday Feb. 8th and shop some of D.C.'s finest crafters. There will be a kissing booth, tons of handmade lovelies for your sweetheart and goodie bags for the first 50 shoppers! To preview the vendor list go here. I will be flying south to shop and help out my partner in craft this chickadee, hope to see you there!

I Heart Seattle!

As a treat to ourselves for surviving Bumbershoot, this chickadee and I took a little vacation and stayed in Seattle for 4 more days. We shipped the menfolk home (many, many thanks to our hubbies for supporting us and braving the "shoot" w/ us!) and headed out to explore. Now it may seem like all we did was eat, drink and shop, but we did some cultural things as well! We visited the Seattle Zoo and wandered through the rose garden, which was amazing and if I ever convinced mr. dandelion to move to Seattle, I'd work there as a rose caretaker. We went on the underground Seattle tour- while very interesting from a historical perspective, it wasn't too visually stimulating. My 2 favorite neighborhoods were Fremont and Ballard, again if we moved West, they'd be my first 2 choices to reside. My favorite grocery store was in Fremont. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's need to take note of the PCC Natural Market. We checked out the Fremont Troll under the freeway and had coffee at Light House Roasters, where Dave Matthews has been sighted. Enjoyed Belgian beers at Brouwer's and some of the best Thai I've had in years at Jai Thai. The vegetarian Crunchito roll at Chiso Sushi is delicious. In fact, I had the best vegetarian food in Seattle, it was a veggie dream! My favorites were Vegetarian Bistro and Cafe Flora. For breakfast we LOVED 14 Carrot Cafe, so much so we went twice, get the huevos rancheros! Grateful Breads has good coffee and even better pastries. Portage Bay Cafe serves locally grown and organic meals. Zeitgest Coffee had strong "drip" and good art on it's walls. As far as brew pubs, well we patronized quite a few. The most memorable ones being Elysian Brewing Company- we hit 2 locations, and their pumpkin beer is amazing. The People's Pub, The Hilltop Ale House, and McMenamins. I am sure I am forgetting a few there... Flowers in the U District was recommended as a great brew pub and veggie restaurant- but not so much. The "Bruschetta of the Day" consisted of some brie cheese slapped on to some rye bread with tomato sauce...
Shopping- sigh, where do I begin??? Seattle is fabulously dedicated to it's local and Indie artists, with whole stores dedicated to just that. Unfortunately I didn't get the names of all, but here goes a few of my favorites.
Bouncing Wall in Queen Anne, Monster Art & Clothing in Ballard, Red Delicious Seattle in Pike Place and Dandelion Botanical Company. Other fun places were Velouria in Ballard, and I got to peak in the window of The Pretty Parlor, we kept showing up after hours.
I am sure I am missing plenty but here's a good list for anyone headed west!

Bumbershoot Re-cap Part 2

I was really happy to be so close to the Space Needle, it made a great backdrop for our booth I think.

While we were in a much quieter court, there was plenty of entertainment. There was a stage on the terrace above us that had great jazz one day, and live dj's on another. There even was a beer garden nearby so the chickadee and I could escape periodically when the hordes were just too much. Everyday we had front row seats to the water opera in the fountain- along with plenty of nude babies splashing. I had no idea that fountains were considered public pools in Seattle. The only really annoying aspect of our area was the "hula hoop guy." We couldn't tell if he was an actual juried Bumbershoot performer, but he and his card throwing trick and hula hooping with a tractor tire was tiresome after we saw his schtick for the 10th time.


One of my favorite spectacles was the aerial performance art group Strange Fruit. They are an Australian based group that fuses theatre, circus and dance- all elevated on flexible poles above the crowd. It was graceful, humorous and amazing. Now on to the other artists- no not Beck, Stone Temple Pilots, or Death Cab, I am talking about my people, the other indie designers. Despite a disappointing abundance of imported goods and cheap clothing from China, I did find some really talented crafters. One of my favorites being Flood Clothing. Upon entering the booth you were asked if the artist could "hat you." And that she did. Carefully choosing a handmade hat (from recycled t-shirts and other fabrics) she placed it at just the right sassy angle. Of course the chickadee and I eagerly snatched up 2. Another new friend with fun work is Sydney Designs. She takes vintage wallpaper and creates cute pendants and wall hangings. We traded and I now have a pretty little addition to my jewelry collection. I enjoyed being in the same quiet court as Kim of Kim Sun Designs, and greatly admired her hand tooled leather accessories. I am stocked up on Estrella soaps- the root beer is amazing! I wish I had treated myself to an Alchemy Goods bag, but I had to admit to myself that I do have an over abundance of bags. Alchemy created bags that were limited editions especially for Bumbershoot. They took the old promotional posters from previous years and recycled them into sturdy messenger and sling type bags. I also got a chance to stop into the etsy booth and drop off some cards and meet a few Seattle etsians. Stay tuned for a re-cap of the REAL shopping and experience- as the chickadee and I stepped out into the streets of Seattle.

Vendor List for Trunk Show!!

As promised, the vendor list for our first Trunk Show at Double Dutch! This Sunday in Hampden 11-5pm. Come for treats and drinks, shopping, and your chance to win a $50 Double Dutch gift certificate!

Beth Pohlman
Dandelion Blu
Elisa Shere Jewelry
JennyJen 42
Jill Popowich Designs
Spa Therapy
Sweet Pepita
The Broken Plate
TigerLilly Shop
Jen Menkhaus

Renegade Part Deux

Ok, so Sunday was %110 better then Saturday. The heat had broken, it wasn't AS humid, and the sun was peeking out. Buuuuuttt, there were a lot of vendors having to deal with the aftermath of Saturday's storms. I have to say that we escaped pretty much unscathed, and I really can't complain given the experience of others. Many vendor's tents collapsed under the weight of the rain, some blew away, others didn't have side walls to protect their merchandise from the horizontal rain. I saw one poor vendor on Sunday with a sign that read, "The Rain Ruined My Life Sale." The extent of my losses were a box of paper shopping bags, gift boxes, tissue and business cards. I did also loose all my signs and many earring cards, but faced with the prospect of loosing my actual work, I feel pretty lucky.
My other loyal assistant Cindy, and Rachel of Red Prairie Press inspecting the damage after the first of many storms Saturday.
Renegade during happier times...

As you can see above the fair was packed Sunday. The DJ was spinning, Mr. Softie was selling treats, people were laughing and smiling, and genuinely seemed interested in my work. Don't get me wrong, I did well sale wise, but it wasn't what I expected. I did twice the amount of business last year at Crafty Bastards in one day. This was NY, I thought people loved to shop here! Maybe it was the increase in my pricing- but I sold several of my highest priced pieces right off the bat. Or maybe it was the extreme heat and weather of Saturday, and people just weren't risking coming out again. Or maybe it's dead summer and people aren't thinking of buying gifts yet. Or maybe, as my Dad lovingly pointed out, it's the economy and people don't need to buy jewelry right now. Or maybe NY isn't my "market" and people just didn't like my work. Who knows, but it is leaving me feeling nervous about my future, and wondering if I didn't just make a very silly decision- what's that you ask???? I'll talk about that at later date....
Enough with the negative though. I do have to say that I was blown away by the level of craft, sophistication and creativity of every single vendor there. I was humbled to have been included and even a little star struck. There was a great balance of vendors and merchandise, there was no one overwhelming media that stuck out. I can honestly say that I think there was something there for everyone. I was a little sad that I didn't get to see Lotta Jansdotter, a personal hero of mine! I suspect that she packed up when the terrifying storms rolled in and then didn't return on Sunday. I was incredibly happy to be neighbors with fellow Baltimoreans Rachel and Phil of Red Prairie Press- they are the nicest people and do one hell of a business. I think I must have one of each of their t-shirt designs by now. My other neighbor was the lovely Catherine of Reiter8. She uses recycled sailboat sails and re-purposes them into messenger bags, totes and beach bags. They are "uni-sex" and have a great graphic quality to them- plus they are very durable and a green craft. Some of my other Renegade favorites were Orangyporangy, I got a great skirt that I am wearing right now. I also loved meeting and purchasing from The Candy Thief, her hair pieces remind me of those that Flappers wore in the 20's. I got a beautiful resin necklace from Fern Works, they made the trip all the way out from Oregon. I had to bring my ever patient husband back a gift, and Seibei's "Make Me A Sandwich" monster shirt was calling his name. Of course I got a new scrub from Biggs and Featherbelle, I covet their products. There was no way Cindy and I could pass up the singing pickle t's from Wheelhouse Pickles, and they were giving out free samples of their fabulous pickles as well. I wanted to get some cards from Mean Cards, to send to friends and be, well, mean! But my favorite the "some may call you an enabler, I call you a friend" card was sold out. I'll have to catch them at Crafty Bastards in 2 weeks. So despite, the torrential rain, wind, dangerous lightning, flooding, and slow sales, it was still an incredible experience for me and if anything, I learned a lot from. I hope to be back next year with a vengeance....

Art Star Re-cap Day 2

Things I learned on Sunday:

1. Weather makes all the difference for an outside show. Although, I did have many loyal buyers brave the rain/wind/tornadoes on Saturday.

2. Bring lot's of tape.
3. Sunshine makes everyone in a better mood.
4. Megan Auman herself, her work and display are wonderful to see in person! I finally made a decision and got this piece.

5. I already knew this, but Beth Pohlman is way cool. We traded work, yay!

6. The husband and wife team of Super Maggie! are some of the nicest people I've met. I got this and that.
I can't wait to see them again at Renegade in 2 weeks.

7. Make friends with your booth neighbors so they can tie your tent down, catch your merchandise as it is flying away, and their husband's can open beers for you with their lighters. Thanks Erica Ebert Press!
I bought one of her prints, it's gorgeous!

8. Bunny Butt Apothecary's Pomegranate Sage whipped body cream is delicious...

9. The organizers of Art Star do a fantastic job, even in the face of lighting, tornadoes, hail, and I am sure some unhappy vendors and performers. I hope to participate next year!!!

10. My friend and assistant Kelly, is still the most awesome person I know for putting up with all that went on this weekend.

Putting the Charm into Charm City

There is a renaissance of sorts happening in North East Baltimore, particularly in the Lauraville area. This Saturday I ventured up the street to check out the grand opening of several new businesses in the 4300 block of Harford Rd. Already revitalized by the likes of Red Canoe coffee and book shop, The Chameleon Cafe and Zeke's Coffee, this area is further establishing itself as a shopping destination with the new businesses.

My first stop was Studio C, opened by our very own B.E.S.T. Member Constance of Vibrant Earth Jewels. Tucked up on the second floor of Red Canoe, the shop is a sunny display of handmade jewelry and gifts. I quickly snatched up some dangling earrings made from vintage chandelier crystals.


Next I ventured into Spinster Yarns and Fibers, a must stop for anyone who knits, crochets, or works with fibers. It is a haven of cubbies filled with rainbow colored yarns and wools in every shade imaginable. They also have an impressive book selection and other fiber supplies. In addition to their wonderful stock, they are also offering classes. Go to www.spinsteryarnsandfibers.com for more info.



Next stop was Rock Candy, dangerously close to home, for someone like me with a raging sweet tooth. They carry organic and gourmet chocolates, funky items like candy bacon and Legos, great gifts, bulk favorites like gummi bears and worms- but by far the most exciting is the small movie theater in the back, complete with concession stand. Currently the theater is available by reservation, check out their site, www.rockcandybaltimore.com for show times, chocolate tasting events, and new items. Also be sure to stop into Bediboo, a unique children's clothing boutique, for hip urban tots and their Mamas. Another business I am keeping an eye on is Beth's DIY Workshop. Beth will teaching classes on using power tools, basic plumbing repairs, and simple carpentry. The workshop will have benches, tools, a DIY library, and will be available to rent open hours for customers to work on projects. What a great resource and congratulations to all the new business owners!

DC Craft Mafia Report

My "famillia" who stuck it out with me throughout the very long day. Thanks gals!!!!


Earring tree o' plenty



Enameled pendants on display

Hair pins and some new enamels

All in all I had a very good day- I had no idea what to expect since it was only my second show, and after the unbelievable success I had at Crafty Bastards- I knew there would be no comparison. I got to hang out all day with my good friends who so graciously helped me hawk my wares, thanks guys! Check out my friend's new blog, this chickadee, she is working her fingers to the bone creating home goods and other goodies. I also got to shop some of my favorite vendors, something I didn't get to do at Crafty since it was a hectic non stop buying bonanza! I got soaps and other delicious goods from Biggs and Featherbelle. Some new silk screened T's from one of my all time faves Red Prairie Press. And I salivated over Megan Auman's welded steel jewelry. I got the chance to meet and chat with Patch Ink as well as Brookadelphia. And my sales were nothing to sneeze at as well! I felt like it was a good flow of action, I was neither mobbed nor deserted, and I actually got to talk to my customers this time! The venue was a bit odd though, it seemed to be in a residential area of Bethesda, so that may have impeded a lot of foot traffic. It appeared to be a ballroom type rental, complete with the wall o' mirrors for a a more "spacious" feel, drunkenly spinning disco ball, and the ever present drop ceiling. I felt like I should have my camera, and be frantically trying to "find the bride." But that was my former life... shudder. Plus, I had several people email me afterwards saying they couldn't find it, so I don't know if that effected anything. Also, we were sort of crammed in there like sardines and had to construct elaborate "passage ways" to get out from behind our tables. Luckily we were neighbors with the lovely, talented, and oh so patient Palace of Varied Industries and Scarves by Helen, so we could be chummy but actually be able to leave our area! I think the vendors were immensely talented and there seemed to be a good mix- Lot's of jewelry, but hey, that's a given! I look forward to future events by The DC Craft Mafia! Cheers!

Pledge to Buy Handmade

Take the Handmade Holiday Pledge! I did! Support artists and their blood, sweat, tears, and immensely creative talents buy shopping indie designers, artists, crafters, etsy, etc. And just think, those hand stitched, organic cotton plushy toys won't be on the latest recall list....

Awesomized!

I went to the Crafty Bastards vendor party and info session last night and got to meet several great artists, as well as the organizers of the fair. I am a little nervous of the estimated 20,000 attendants- but I'm in, and for what it's worth, that apparently was the hard part. I thought I had enough work for the show, but clearly after speaking with a few other vendors, I am wayyyyy behind in that department. We toured the area, and had a question and answer period. It sounds like it's going to be an awesome day! I am particuarly excited to be near sponsors The Dog Spot, and the Cake Love booth. I was delighted to meet Blugrn, Scenic Artisian, GoshDarnKnit and Rebound Designs. All artists I've admired! There is going to be music, burlesque, food, puppets, break dancing, and of course the blood, sweat, and tears of 100 indie designers. So If my blog is a little neglected for the next two weeks, now you know why....

Hope to see you there!

Back to School Etsy Finds

So tomorrow it's back to school for me, and to alleviate my utter despair at having to get up at 6am, wear something other then flip flops, and actually ummmm, work, I thought I'd post some back to school finds from etsy. Like these beautiful notebooks from Color Me Bella. Need a great tote bag to haul around all your books? Check out this cute one. Or maybe a messenger bag is what you need? I like this one by Sugar Lust. Don't forget your pencil case, grab it up from Cascade Lemonade. And while your there snag a new re-usable lunch bag too, school lunch always disappoints anyways! And you'll need a calendar to mark down all those important dates. Check this one out, with a page designed by yours truly! I think I got Oct. 11th, which is my wedding anniversary. If you are artistically inclined, maybe a new portfolio is what you need? Or a bulletin board for over your desk? New mouse pad? Oh, I almost forgot, new school shoes! Ok, I'm starting to feel a little better now...