i love you, yellow kitchens /  by jen geigley

As of late, Bo and I have been obsessively collecting photos of kitchens. And I have always felt that a kitchen should be yellow.
This color obsession also stems from this cafe from our hotel in L.A. that was solid yellow. I'm talking yellow, like a lemondrop.
(found here)
(from IKEA)
(found here)
We've been talking about kitchen renovation plans for a few months now, and our goal is to combine gray, stainless and a big splash of yellow in an interesting way. So imagine my glee when I ventured to IKEA with a couple of girlfriends two weeks ago and discovered that their yellow AKURUM cabinet doors were being discontinued and were on sale for $10 each, any size! I was practically jumping up and down, and giddily scooped up a few doors to get us going. We have a lot more planning to do, but I'm thinking that these yellow beauties sitting right here in our house will get us inspired to go forth and conquer this project once and for all. (I'm awfully stoked.)

Domestica /  by jen geigley

I have a very cool friend named Chrissy Jensen, and I have always admired her taste. She's one of those people who is always knows where you can find the best fabric, handmade goods, furniture, art or whatever in the world you happen to need. I was so excited when she opened up her own shop here in Des Moines (called Domestica) a few months ago ... I knew it would be so good. And it is.
Lo and I stopped in last week, and Chrissy's super awesome son even entertained her with his Star Wars lego guys while I chatted and shopped. (He's such a nice kid!)
Just a few of the things I spotted while I was there. Meremade wood inlays and super rad prints, posters and wall art of all kinds.
Jonathan Adler salt and pepper shakers and dog.
This clock by Vector Cloud was killing me with coolness.
And lovely tea towels! I think I need to go back and pick up the bold pink floral one.
Xenia Taler tiles, Methane Studios gig posters, and screenprinted band posters from Sparga – Envy Corps, Jolie Holland, Why Make Clocks, Elf Power, Andrew Bird and more.
June Craft's Mabel dolls, long dogs and pillows. Leather cuff bracelets from Fisticuffs Chicago, and Anna Joyce hoodies, tea towels, pillows and aprons.
Gorgeous modern orange, burgundy, red and pink pillow covers. Like ... woah.
Necklaces by Of Matter.
Insanely cool embroidered brooches from the UK and vintage flower rings.
Jonathan Adler cat, giraffe, boot and more (not pictured ... sorry!)
Postcards from Rar Rar Press and felt finger puppets from AbbeyChristine (Ira Glass and Steve Zissou.)
Oh yeah ... Chrissy even has a couple of these IKEA Maskros lamps for sale. (Look how pretty during the day and insanely awesome at night!)
Ready to visit? You can find Domestica at 321 East Walnut Street in the East Village here in Des Moines, Iowa. (It's definitely worth a stop.)

hi. /  by jen geigley

(poster by dearcolleen)
Hi there. It's Wednesday, which means it's also Dare day. New one is up right now! (I know ... we've been on a roll lately.)
Dare 165 = use a photo as your background. Or cheat, like I did, and use 20 little photos as your background. And then swear at your printer because it ran out of ink and made blue/purple streaks across your photos that you have used for your background. Whatever; it doesn't matter. Because look at these pretty faces! Ahhh, these pics make me grin every time I look at them. This is what happens when you stay in L.A. with two of your most excellent friends at a fabulous hotel that has a photo booth in the lobby. (Hello, girls ... I miss you!)

kiddo craft /  by jen geigley

This summer, we've spent plenty of time poolside and playing in the dirt, but sometimes you need a fun and easy craft (while enjoying a little time in the AC.)
If you've seen my kid around town the past couple of weeks, you've seen her wearing one of these perler bead necklaces. Lo and I made a bunch of these together, and she loves picking out a new one to wear every day.
After several store clerks, moms, and strangers in the grocery store started asking where we got them or how we made them, I decided to do a quick d.i.y. right here in case you wanted to make some, too!
We used multi-colored elastic cord to make bracelets and a few small necklaces, and some thicker lacing cord (almost like hemp) for the longer necklaces. The 'plastic' elastic/stretch cord pictured above is definitely the easiest for little hands to use, and my three-year-old had no problem stringing the beads by herself. You can find cord like this at Michaels, JoAnns or Wal-Mart.
Then, obviously, you need some beads! We mixed a couple of packs of perler beads with some larger, more sparkley beads that we mixed and matched. For necklaces that will fit over your child's head, cut a piece of cord about 20" to 22" long, and for bracelets, just measure your child's wrist.
Disclaimer: Obviously, you should only attempt beading projects with children who are old enough to know that they shouldn't put beads in their mouth. Even older kids can be unpredictable, so it's always a good idea to supervise when they're around small objects that could potentially be choking hazards. Same thing with necklaces – don't let your child nap or play unsupervised if you're worried that a necklace could become wrapped around their neck. (Okay, PSA over!)
Beading is a great project for kids to work on their counting skills, playing with new color combinations, and to practice making patterns. (We had a ton of fun making little perler bead 'friendship bracelets' ... top left in the pic above.)
Here's what ours ended up looking like (click the photo above to see it larger) ... hope you will have some fun with these, too!

devo!!! /  by jen geigley

This is how our family spent our Saturday night...
Watching the one and only Devo play on the Walnut Street bridge downtown.
Everyone knows their 80's hit 'Whip It.' But these guys are true legends, new-wave pioneers, and it was a real thrill to see them live.
Their music stands the test of time and they definitely made the old sound new again. (And I loved the costume changes, blue energy domes and stage antics.)
Little Lo actually knows lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh well ... he hosts a drawing segment on her favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba (similar to Bill Cosby's picture pages, if you remember those) and so she kept waving to him when he walked to our side of the stage.
She absolutely loved the music and begged us not to go home.
I have to admit, it was really cool to see Mark in real life. He's composed musical scores for all sorts of video games, television shows like PeeWee's Playhouse, and most notably for several Wes Anderson films.
Such and interesting and talented guy. (Here are some more pics from the show.)
And then, in another weird somewhat Yo Gabba Gabba-related encounter, I got to hang for a bit with this glittery and gem-tastic lady.Leslie Hall! (Yes, again.) She and her art were featured at the Iowa Artists 2010 Gallery Talk at the Des Moines Art Center, so we had to go check her out.

And with that, I'll leave you with a little 'Whip It.' It's not too late. To whip it good.

enjoy the silence. /  by jen geigley

Hi there ... I'm just drowning in my yarn a bit. (Don't worry – I'm just fine.) It might be a little bit quiet around here (and by here, I mean the blog) because I seriously need to get some work done. Internet avoidance is key. But I do have some fun things to share soon. I'm getting crazy with spray paint (hopefully this afternoon) to get things ready for the Renegade booth. And I have knit a bunch of scarves in the past week that I'll take pics of sooner or later. ('Til then ... have a good weekend.)

i can't sleep /  by jen geigley

[+]
I've had way too many sleepless nights lately. Do you go through phases like that? Every so often, I have a couple of months of insomnia. I just can't sleep. I can't help but stay up until 2:30 or 3:00 or 4:00 am even on nights before my early run at 5:30. Sometimes I can grab a quick afternoon nap (and for some reason, it's easier to fall asleep for a bit in the afternoon.) Otherwise, I'm surviving on caffeine. But I've kind of learned to embrace the lack of sleep. It gives me more thinking time. Brainstorming time. Reflection time. (Knitting time...?)

alright, it's cool ... 80/35 (part two...) /  by jen geigley

Day two, 80/35. Our fam headed downtown at noon to catch the first band of the day, Dawes. (We love Dawes, and got to see them last year on their Daytrotter tour. In a barn.) But anyway, the first thing I'll think of when I remember this year's festival was running into so many friends. We hung out with and caught up with so many friends over the weekend, old and new. It was so great to see everybody!
As soon as we got there, we saw Erin and Brian and their daughter, Stella, who is good pals with Lo.
The girls got to hang for a bit (dodging the rain and eating granola bars) before the show.
And here's Dawes. Which ended up being one of our most favorite performances of the whole festival. They were pretty much amazing.
The girls loved Dawes, too ... maybe because each of their dads play a lot of these songs for them at home. It was a good time.
Next, we braved more rain and went to the main stage to check out Avi Buffalo. (Then it started to rain harder, so we went home for a little break!)
We dropped off little Lotus with the grandparents and then came back to see The Cool Kids. They had some seriously heavy beats going on and they sounded so good. (They're from Chicago and have opened for M.I.A. Loved them.)
Did I mention the rain? We did survive a lot of it throughout the day but it had mostly tapered off that evening. This rainbow (right before The Heavy went onstage) was our reward for making it through the day!
The last band to go on that night was Modest Mouse, and the whole crowd was super stoked. (I have to admit that Bo and I haven't listened to them much ... blame it on our heavy-metal ways. But we really did enjoy them. I'm a big fan of this song in particular.

Hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend – our family is totally spent and we're just looking forward to having a lazy day around the house and chilling out. (Have a good one!)