Your very own friend in the jewelery business

Alison Trowbridge Cuff, originally uploaded by bhenrymartin.

Sometimes it isn’t what you know but WHO you know, especially in jewelery.

One of our very own highly skilled baristas, Alison Trowbridge, has been designing silver jewelery for 12 years and has come up with quite a few great pieces.

You can find her work at Fresh in Wedgewood and at Stacya Silverman and Associates here in Queen Anne.

If you want to buy direct, check out her pages at Etsy.com or talk to her when you come in and arrange a time to meet her at Muse or at her studio.

Christmas is really not that far away!

Vintage Seattle

Seattle from Queen Anne Hill, originally uploaded by azzurrolou.

What’s missing from this photo?

I love history and old buildings and architecture. While I was cruising around the internet for cool stuff to blog about I happened across a cool website called Vintage Seattle.

Blogger Jess Cliffe is clearly passionate about what he is presenting. Jess writes all about Seattle’s old and new buildings and land uses. He uses old photographs and post cards as well as newspaper clippings and ads.

I spent way too much time there looking around and I decided to just subscribe and catch up later.

Yearbook!

It is getting to be that time of year when our kids are heading back to school. My son Keiran will be heading back for his Sophomore year at Ballard High School. I always loved the first week of school. I loved getting new school supplies and seeing friends after a long summer. What I really liked was getting my photo taken for the yearbook because I would still be super tan from working as a lifeguard at the town pool all summer. When the yearbook was finally published at the end of school, I had lost the tan from summer and people would look at the photo and wonder who the heck the tan guy with bleached out hair was!

Now Kerian looks at my yearbook photos and laughs. I remind him that his Dad was once a very hip guy and was at the cutting edge of fashion and that my grandchild will one day look at his photos and get a huge laugh.

Ever wonder what you would have looked like in a different era?

How about the 80’s. (I hate to admit this but I actually had this haircut and this looks TOO much like what I actually looked like at one point.)

Maybe you want to know what you would look like as your Mom:

I got these at yearbookyourself.com

I challenge you to make some of yourself and send them to me. I’ll make a page and post them all.

revival

This past weekend Kelley and I took yet another trip to one of our favorite new stores. It happens to be owned and operated by a long time coffee customer of mine, Leah Steen.

Revival Home and Garden is a fantastic store in the ultra hip, but still gritty, Georgetown part of town.

Leah has a great sense of style and has been able to carve a niche out for herself in a city that has a lot of great home furnishing and decor stores by offering a great selection of items that are new and vintage that she restores.

Leah is always getting new stuff in and has a great selection of books to inspire you in your space.

Noguchi

Noguchi, originally uploaded by bhenrymartin.

I came across this one at Velocity Art and Design.

Designed by famed Japanese American sculpter, designer, and teacher Isamu Noguchi.

I love the luncheon plate/cup combo. Cool design and you have a place to put your cucumber sandwich or chocolate cake!

Simple business

Glasses, originally uploaded by bhenrymartin.

One of the things I learned about business from my mentors was to keep your managable costs as low as you can. Labor is first and often where you have the most control. Cost of goods sold (the stuff you sell) is the other.

Swedish designer Erik Schedin has taken that to it’s extreme by offering only 3 products: white sneakers, grey glasses (pictured above) and Pledge. Check out his website.

Yee Haw-Denver!

Denver | Denver Art Museum | Canyon Walk, originally uploaded by planckstudios.

You don’t know me for very long before you know that, for better or for worse, I am a Denver native. Sorry Seattle, the Seahawks 12th Man will always be a copy of someone else’s college team. Compared to the the Orange Crush, your team is always a nuisence that Denver has to beat to get to the playoffs, we don’t, and never have seen you as a ‘rival’.

Until it is acceptable for Judges to wear blue and silver robes to court on friday, like Denver Judges wear Orange robes on ‘Bronco Friday’ you will always be a second tier football town.

This year, we even get a shot at being a top tier political town, but will always be frontier cow-town.

This video was sent to me from my Dad. There is always some truth to the stereotype. With that, it is always important to laugh at your self; even if it is uncomfortable.

Boat Drinks! (if you know this reference, your drink is on me!)

Brent

Kool Kicks!

What colors do you like?

Call me a product of the west coast 70’s/80’s surfer and skater culture, but the old school VANS are the coolest sneaker ever made. Keep your Chuck Taylor’s, (sorry D-Rock and Pam), Nike-schmikey, Addidas- whatever!

These re-do’s of the original are designed by Nick Santora at Classickicks in NYC.

Vans asked and Nick delivered. Very cool.

I wonder if I know anyone going to New York soon?

Stay-cation

Fire in the Sky, originally uploaded by Jonathan Hanlon.

You hear the word ’stay-cation’ a lot these days and for good reason. Taking a trip by car, even though at this particular moment fuel prices seem to be coming down a slight amount, can be as much of the cost as the lodging when you get there.

One of our neighbors here on the west side of Queen Anne has a couple of guest homes that she lets out at very reasonable rates.

Are you out of room at your house but want to see your friends and/or family? Send your friends down the street to have a place of their own at one of these houses. When I travel I always want to experience daily life as a ‘local’, having a house to myself in a great area like Queen Anne is a dream vacation for a lot people. (We forget or just sometimes take it for granted because we get to live here all the time!)

Check them out here: Queen Anne Rentals

Dolly!

Dolly Parton, originally uploaded by astrycula.

Tonight Kelley and I are going with our dear friends and neighbors, Bryan and Sinclair, to the WaMu theater to see a living legend: Dolly Parton.

My Dad says, “I like both kinds of music, Country AND Western!” and Dolly is both, with a little of everything else mixed in for good measure. Growing up in Colorado, 56KLZ was the radio station that had music and 850KOA was the station with the Broncos on Sunday. There was no need for any other radio stations.

I also remember Saturday evenings watching Dolly on her own variety show. She would always start the show with ‘Love Is Like A Butterfly” and close the show with ‘I Will Always Love You’.

There are still some tickets left. I’ll report back about the show to anyone who wants to hear about it, and even to some who don’t want to hear about it. Have a great weekend!