market day /  by jen geigley


Once again, we had a fantastic Market Day.

I had a little visitor stop by to visit. These two helped out for a bit while I ran to a one-day-only yarn sale. (Priorities!) I was very happy for the help.

Thanks so all who came out to see us. We had a steady crowd all day, despite the heat.

Enjoyed seeing some of the local crafters that I've met over the past year or two.

And loved browsing through all of the art.

And yarn. I buy all my handspun from Mary (MaraJane) and she brought lots of awesome skeins to drool over.

I picked up these two along with the awesome little gocco-printed yarn notebook. I can't wait to start some new projects.

And I picked out a small painting by Bekah Ash.

And traded one of my paintings for 'Mail Girl' above by Cat Rocketship. I've had my eye on this one (it's painted on glass) for a long time. So it's kind of special.

All of the baby shoes are spoken for, but if you'd still like a pair, you can find some here. I will do a few custom orders (but then I may take a break – my fingers are kind of sore!)

I was thrilled to give six paintings new homes during Market Day. (I didn't expect to sell any!)

So that means there are still nine available. You can find the rest here. If you missed out on something you liked, let me know and I can paint another one for you. More to come...

an unveiling of sorts. /  by jen geigley


Okay, so I've been painting. Yes, painting.

Painting, drawing, painting. More painting. Drawing. Varnishing. And so on.

This is kind of what happens when a graphic designer paints. Graphic paintings. (Don't get me wrong – fine art is my first love and if I could make a living on that alone, I would.)

There is just something within that makes me want to make things that look like this. Outlines. Hard edges, and such. But I do love to paint. It sure is a nice break from the computer.

These paintings are based on a free dingbat font from Chank, a Minneapolis-based type house. A font called Crap*Magnet, by Mr. Walters. It was Bo's idea, actually. I asked Chank for permission before I started, and they told me to go for it.

I'm bringing this group of fifteen paintings with me to Market Day this Saturday, if you're interested in one or want to see them in person. (You can click the image above to see them up close.) After Market Day, I'll be listing any leftovers in my Etsy shop. And if you need more messy paint goodness, check out the latest Dare. All the girls did some crazy paint stuff this week! Another favorite person of mine did a little video of herself painting and it's just so cool to watch – check out Elsie doing her thing here.

Which brings me back to Market Day. If you're heading downtown to the Des Moines farmers' market this weekend, you should definitely stop by and see us.
WHEN: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. the last Saturday of every month from May through September, with additional dates in October and November.
WHERE: The Market Building, 118 S.E. Fourth St.
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: Market Street Media Foundry

I'm bringing the paintings, the birthday t-shirts and knitted baby shoes.

But this time, I have a pretty sweet deal for you.
** For every pair of my baby shoes that you purchase, I will donate a pair to charity. **
Just like TOMS; one for one. On a much, much smaller scale. :)

I will be donating some baby shoes locally to Blank Children's Hospital.

And more baby shoes will go to Craft Hope, which combines a love for crafting + the desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world. (Below are a couple of photos of a recent Craft Hope project that brought handmade dolls to orphans in Nicaragua.)


Pretty amazing, huh. So be sure to come out and visit Market Day this Saturday if you're in the area. If you're not from Des Moines and still want to help, I will list any leftover baby shoes from the craft show in my Etsy shop by Monday. (I will make as many as I can!)

scrap love. /  by jen geigley

My floor is covered with tiny scraps of paper lately and here's what I've been doing ...

An ode to Bo + Jen. (Next month is our 5th anniversary!) We both love this Weezer song. It reminds me of something I said while we were dating. I told him he'd be really stupid if he broke up with me because we were too perfect for each other. And later he told me that was the moment that he knew he loved me. (ha!)

An ode to ... ummm, what was I saying? What was that? Head in the clouds much? Yup.

I had to scrap this photo right away. I took this one a week or two ago when I was playing with Lo outside and letting her run around barefoot in her little sun dress.

And another recent photo. Rainbow pajamas and the crazy SpongeBob hat from Wal-Mart. That she picked out herself and wants to wear everywhere. The girl can accessorize. It's one of those 'sorry kid, it's going in the scrapbook' photos. The ones you want to really want to show the future prom date.

An all-smiles photo from the 4th of July. Perfect with the AC ice cream paper. Sure-fire way to get your two year old to smile? Tickle her.

These Beastie Boys lyrics get used a lot by crafty girls these days. But this page is all about my playlist that I listen to while I'm working on freelance stuff or knitting or messing with paper and glue. These activities always include B-Boys. Scrapping and knitting, rhyming and stealing.

And this is an older page but I was looking through my things and it's still one of my favorites. Not only because my friend Erin is on it (along with the story of our would-be band name) but because I think it's such a great use of periods. And that black and white thought bubble background (American Crafts) is my favorite paper ever. I need to find some more because I want to use it on everything. Pretty much all of the papers you see on this post are American Crafts, by the way. :)

A little card with one of my favorite sayings on it. I say this to Lotus all of the time. I also sing 'My Little Buttercup' a lot. From 'The Three Amigos.' (Please tell me you know what I'm talking about. Otherwise this is just awkward.) Yup Toni, stole that from you.

A little 'hi' card. These buttons look like candy to me.

And it was time for a new mini book. I made this using a cover from one of those AC 6x6" books in the $1.99 bin. (I ripped the page protectors out and used binder rings + grommets.) Every page has song lyrics on it. Most inspirational, all favorites. If you want a closer look, you can see all of the pages better here. I keep a Word doc of lyrics I really like so I may to have to add more pages to this book soon. I think it may be a cool thing to give to Lo someday, since a lot of the words are about being independent and strong and keeping your chin up. Good stuff. :)

need something to do this summer? /  by jen geigley

Never fear. Because I have a some really great ideas to help you with that 'I'm bored and I don't know what to doooo....' feeling.

Here's my to-do list for the summer...

My first suggestion is an easy one. Do a Dare. I double dog dare you. Every Friday; something new. We've started a Flickr group, making it really easy to participate. Old Dares or new, we want to see what you're doing.

Today, we're doing our first ever Twit-Dare. Tweet-Dare. Whatever. On Twitter. If you're already following us, you've heard about it. If not you can see more here. Mine is above. (Click image to read some of my favorite tweets.) We think you should really take 10 minutes today and scrap a little something you've Twittered about. Or if you don't tweet, how about something you've blogged about? Hey, the words have already been written and all you have to do is find a photo. Super easy. Now get to it.

Now I want to share a few things that my ultra talented and creative friends are doing this summer. Starting off with Vee's ultra-cool ink, paint and layering mini-book workshop.

Kara's Music and Composition Journal: an Art Journaling Adventure 5 Day Class.

Kim's 'Going to a Happening' online travel journal class.

Rachel's 3-D Art Journaling boxed set. (She just listed the last bunch of these kits so now's the time to get one.)

Jamaica's Duly Notepad, which would make a very cute little place to record notes from your summer vacation.

Or check out her Tuesday Tutorial on extremely cool ways to bind little books on Ali's blog. I've been really inspired by her gorgeous photos alone.

*(photos above are from the girls' blogs/websites)

totally. /  by jen geigley


Yo, and happy 4th of July weekend to you. It's Friday, which means a new Dare is up. It's a throwback. We're re-doing old layouts (like, possibly really embarrassing ones) so come and check it out. (By the way, we have decided that we are bringing the eff back. To the Dares. A kick in the ass, if you will. Just so you know. If you want to stay in the know, add us on Twitter or Facebook. And most importantly, to share the Dares you've done, be sure hook up with us on Flickr.)

(photo cred)
And I'm back from a totally craftastically rad weekend in Tennessee. SIScon 09. I got the chance to hang out with a bunch of my online friends in real life. Girls I've looked up to, girls who are incredibly inspiring, girls who had me laughing for hours. We had slumber parties, we caused trouble, we stayed up really late, and oh yeah, we may have scrapped. I really can't sum it up any better than this.

(photo cred)

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See? Scrapbooking is cool. Really. I miss you girls.

what we've been up to (and a winner!) /  by jen geigley

We have a winner!
First off, thanks for all the sweetness on the last post. And the winner of the lovely yellow neckwarmer is... Toni! Email your mailing address to jgeigley [at!] gmail.com and I'll get it sent off to you ASAP.


And now a little Kansas City re-cap. Bo and I drove down for a date-night concert.

(credit)
The venue was KC's Uptown Theater.

Which is totally gorgeous inside.

We weren't huge fans of Rise Against but Rancid was fast and hard and loud and perfect. They could do no wrong.

They played so many of our faves and could have played all night.

We stood on the fringe of the pit, yelled out all the words and wished they would have been the headliners. Oh well. It really was a killer show. We were going to head to the Beaumont later to catch the Rancid after-party, but it got pretty late and we were still standing outside so we didn't end up going. Funny enough, the Aggrolites were playing there – we have a little extra love for them because they're one of the guest bands on our fave kid show, Yo Gabba Gabba. (Watch 'Banana' below.)
The Aggrolites - Banana (Yo Gabba Gabba!)


We had to hit up a local Vespa shop that we happened to drive right past. Which was near this great graffiti wall.

(I loved the Star Wars dudes. You can't see Chewie or R2D2 here but they were rad.) And of course, we stopped at the Plaza so I could take a quick look around Anthro, U.O's, Paper Source and a few other stores.

We also stayed at the same hotel as Great White. We think. This would be based solely on the fact that we saw a brochure for a Great White show in the hotel lobby. It's very hard to tell for sure, because if you look up band photos, you'll find that the lineup has changed twenty times since the 80s. But we're pretty sure it was them. We crossed paths with a blonde rocker (maybe Michael Lardie) and his blonde wifey/girlfriend three times in the hallway. We saw the whole band in the lobby checking in. And again the next morning at the complimentary breakfast. Where we started making jokes about the danishes looking once bitten, twice shy. So that was fun.

And now we're back home with this little cutie. Who's been rocking this t-shirt so nicely.

In moped/scooter news, Bo finally got the '78 Kromag Pinto2 running.

So we've been driving our neighbors crazy by riding it through the back yard.

Actually, it's just me that rides it in the back yard.

Because I don't have a motorcycle license.

(Do I need one?)

scrap, 100,000 hits and a GIVEAWAY /  by jen geigley


First off, I had fun with a few projects this week. New Dare is up today – go check it! (And if you want to make walnut pesto, here is the recipe I use.)

At the Creative Type, we took inspo from t-shirts to make our pages. (I used this one from Veer.)

Had to document my almost-getting-inked experience.

And today at Work Your Soul, I posted some ideas for using vinyl records and album covers. First, I wanted to jot down a few thoughts about growing up on Led Zeppelin. My dad was very rock and roll and some of my first memories are dancing around the living room to his Led Zeppelin and Queen records.

And then, I definitely wanted to get my daughter's current favorite songs down on paper. (For a two year old, she has very specific favorites that range from punk to metal to indie music!) I saw this awesome children's record at a thrift store about a year ago and the cover made the perfect background for this playlist. (Aren't those illustrations seriously the best?!)

And now for the GIVEAWAY!

Last night while I was sleeping, the hits on this blog hit 100,000. Wow. I never thought that anyone would read this thing. Thank you for coming along with me and sitting through my crafty ramblings, odes to motherhood, random heavy metal and punk concert musings, and so on. I have met so many cool people in this online world, and I love you guys.

Just leave a comment on this post and I will pick one lucky person on Monday night who will get this hand-knit-by-moi asymmetrical neck warmer. The yarn color is called 'citron.' It's mostly yellow with a green tint to it. Just in case the photo doesn't show that very well...

And yeah, I am aware that it is June and that this might be a strange thing to offer up in the middle of the summer. But yeah, I'm hoping you can make good use of it in the fall. Thanks again, blog friends!

the tattoo. /  by jen geigley


Last night, I went into Skin Kitchen to finally get the tattoo that I've been wanting to get for about two years. When we picked out Lotus' name, I was quite sure it would lead to a lotus tattoo and I'd been dead set on getting it ever since.

Walking into the shop, I was 100% sure about this tattoo. I have a decent sized tattoo on my back, so I knew what I was getting myself into and knew what it would feel like. I was prepared with images and colors and designs that I really, really liked. I had drawn designs on my arm at home with a Sharpie, to see what it might look like. I wanted a big ass tattoo on my arm. I was ready. I had thought this over a billion times.

And this is what chickening out looks like. I saw the drawing and for the first time, totally felt unsure about going through with it. And let me just tell you, this is weird for me – I'm normally not like that at all. A bunch of things flew through my head and I sat there for a few minutes, talked with Bo (who was previously the biggest skeptic and had tried to talk me out of this.) But he said, 'Are you crazy? You've been wanting this forever. You know you'll like it when it's done.' Stepped outside, thought some more, went to the restroom, thought some more. Talked to my awesomely sweet tattoo artist, sat back down in the chair and said 'let's do it.'

Then I jumped up again out of the chair right before she put on the peroxide, went outside once more with Bo, and came back in and told her I couldn't do it. Something wasn't right, I didn't feel like I should go through with it; last night just wasn't the night. Trust me, I felt pretty bad about walking out of there, and even though I'm probably a tattoo artist's worst nightmare, they were extremely kind and understanding. So I came home with a pen drawing on my arm and a chance to think about it. Maybe someday I'll go back. But I woke up this morning knowing that I made the right decision.