The Market

Tomorrow we'll be at the Young Designer's Market in Soho. It's on Mulberry between Prince and Houston, open from 11:00 until 7:00. It will be our first time selling at this venue so we hope it goes well!

Lock made some lasercut bits and pieces last weekend and we spent most of the day staining, sanding, glueing and finishing the items for necklaces and pins. They are pretty awesome. Here's a sneak peek of the preparation process:

And here are some of the finished necklaces:

I really like the scalloped edge necklaces. Hopefully these do well, because we have so many other ideas of things to make!

Now--time to finish packing the suitcase. Last time we forgot some important items, so we made a list of things to remember to bring to a show (you know, like a mirror, or tape). Hopefully this time we'll have everything. Luckily, the jewelry is all packed:

And we're ready for tomorrow!

Coffee Scrub How To

This is my favorite coffee scrub. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

You will need:

ingredients

-espresso ground coffee (The finer the grind is, the less abrasive the final product)

-coconut oil

-honey

-vitamin e (optional)

tools

-a measuring cup

-measuring spoons

-stirring spoon

-3 2oz containers (I got mine at the Container Store)

1. Measure out 4 Tablespoons of coconut oil

I microwaved it for about 20 seconds--coconut oil is soft, but solid at room temperature. You want it to be liquid enough so that you can mix in the coffee grounds, but you don't want it to be too hot.

2. Add in 2 Teaspoons of honey

Honey does great things for the skin--it has natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties and it's used in many health care products from lozenges to face masks.

3. Then add in 18 Tablespoons of coffee

I know it sounds like a lot but it's just over 1 cup of grounds. I use Cafe Bustelo because it's what we drink here, and it's finely ground. You can use a coarser grind, but keep in mind it will be a coarser scrub.

4. You can also add 1-2 capsules of vitamin E at this time if you have it

Vitamin E is used in many skin care products as it protects cell membranes from oxidation. It protects against free radicals (hence the anti oxidation) and is generally considered to be 'good for you.'

It looks like mud, but it smells oh so good

5. Spoon it into your containers

And there you have it. Your very own fancy homemade bath and body product!

It's so easy to make--and really hard to screw up. The ratios are somewhat adjustable; you want the coffee to be saturated by the oil, but not dripping. My ratio is 9:2:1/3 (coffee:oil:honey) But you can change it per your tastes. You can also add ingredients like vanilla or almond extract, orange oil, or any other scent that mixes well with the strong coffee.

This recipe will fill 3 2oz jars, but it's pretty easy to make more or less if you roughly follow the ratio.

The scrub exfoliates better than any I've bought in a store and it leaves your skin feeling super smooth. It also makes a great gift!

teapot collection

Yesterday we went to the MOMA and saw the bauhaus show. It gave a much better insight on the purpose and goal of the Bauhaus than anything I learned in art history classes. But what I loved were the metalwork pieces by Marianne Brandt. She became head of the metals workshop at the Bauhaus in 1929 and her work is fabulous:

She creates beautiful forms out of a very few shapes:

Oh. . . and the teapot. The shapes are all so simple. Circles and right angles--but look what they do when they come together.

And then we got to see this set by Nikolai Suetin:

He was a Russian Suprematist, which is part of that early twentieth century avant garde rebellion against any form of decorative flourish. This set is upstairs with the German expressionists. (I don't know why).

But I do love this teacup:

And the teapot:

This plate--and look at the other teacup in the corner.

And, while I'm on the subject of fabulous tea sets:

I. Want. This.

It's from Paint Chip Diaries' etsy shop and it's fabulous.

aliens, robots and ray guns

Clockwise from top:

Orbit Girl Necklace by marmar

Robot Pendant by Roadkill

Flash Gordon Lamp by CreativePal

Retro Ray Gun by Buildersstudio

Robot Attack Shirt by rainbowswirlz

Who doesn't want to be a space adventurer? Battling aliens and robots with cool ray guns. . . These are some of my favorites from Etsy lately. And the ray guns are seriously the coolest. Whenever I see a reference to Flash Gordon it makes me think of the Foundation series. I don't know what Isaac Asimov has in common with Flash, except that they both take place in Space--but I always imagine that people in the galactic dark ages had to battle it out with totally awesome retro-style ray guns--like the ones Flash Gordon used. OK, I do understand that I am leaning slightly to the nerdy side of things. . . but come on--those things are pretty neat.

photoshoot!

Lock knitted up a storm yesterday at the market, so we had a photoshoot today!

Check out our awesome neckwear:

We'll be posting it all to Etsy in the near future so check back soon!

Another Selling Day

We had a table at the Brooklyn Indie Market again--We did better today than we did last week, which was definitely a positive sign, especially since we had a lot more jewelry competition this time around--and it was all really beautiful. Hopefully we'll be able to have some more selling days in the coming December/Holiday Season. We seem to have sold a lot of items that were meant to be gifts today.

There was one woman who was looking for a gift to give to her sister. She was with her two teenage children who were obviously bored out of their minds. She kept trying on cowl after cowl, talking to her kids about which one their aunt would like best. "Do you think she would like the chartreuse? Is this one too big? How about this one?" She would try one on, look at it in the mirror, try on another, adjust it, and move onto yet another. I think she must have tested out most of the ones we had on display. Her children kept saying "mom! let's go" and finally she was about to leave without buying anything--until a short taupe cowl with a stone button caught her eye, and she just had to try it on. I watched her daughter roll her eyes--and the lady said "Oh--Why didn't you tell me you had this color! I think I may buy this one for myself." She turns to her kids and says "do you think your aunt would be upset if I bought this for myself?" So she bought herself an awesome knitted neck warmer (and made her kids happy by moving on). It reminded me of being a teenager. And was hilarious.

We've also been updating our etsy and flickr sites. So go check them out!

In the Beginning

We've been getting everything ready for our grand soft opening. Yes; it's been going on for a little while now. There are about 5 items on etsy and we're ever so slowly adding more. Each item takes a long time--between the taking the photos, choosing the five best and writing the item description, I feel like I'm on a rate of about one item an hour (or more). It's taking for-ev-er. But! It's actually happening, and that's exciting.

Last Saturday (yes, Halloween) we purchased a table at the Brooklyn Indie Market. According to the other vendors it was slow, but we still made out pretty well. The set-up time was 9:00 and we were there by 8:57--neither one of us ever gets to places early! And there was no one there--even after we were let in there wasn't another vendor until about 9:45. For a while, we were afraid we'd be the only people there and that would definitely be pitiful. But, we weren't so we'll be there again next Sunday--November 7. Please, stop by!