Market Day /  by jen geigley

 
I have piles of these super soft chunky cowls ready to go to Market Day (stop by and see us today from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., more info here.) This is the last official Market Day of the season (except for the Black Friday holiday show next month!) So come out and get a jump start on your holiday shopping.

* Also. Check the Iowa Life section of the Des Moines Register tomorrow. You might see a familiar face.  :)

i can't even bring myself to delete the blurry ones... /  by jen geigley

Finally. Here's my photo diary of our most fantastical nyc weekend. I've spent the past few days trying to figure out exactly how to summarize the perfection.
 
I'm still a little bit sad about how fast the days flew by and missing these girls a crazy amount. 
It began with us three: Jamaica and Kristi flew back to nyc from California, then I hooked up with them a day later.
We did so many things and tackled that city like little warriors.
Coffee to warm up our insides (on the first chilly day.)
Admired the paint and the art on the buildings, the concrete ... everywhere.
Left no photobooth unturned.
I found out what a bodega is. Took walks with Chloe. And witnessed poop on a stoop.
We were consistently frustrated and annoyed by different trains that were out of service for the weekend. No matter where we were going, Canal Street was sucking us in. Even though Canal Street was never where we wanted to be. (We were also really good at talking so much that we kept missing our stops.)
On our master list (which Kristi so diligently maintained) were shops like Brooklyn Industries, Purl Soho, Greenwich Letterpress, A I Friedman, Lion Brand Yarn, Muji and more.
Sadly, it seemed that I could not get my yarn fix anywhere. Lion Brand was closed.
And so was Purl Soho. You can see here that they were locking up right as we got to the door. Apparently they close shop at 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Boo. I don't even have to explain how much this hurt my heart.
But Shake Shack totally made up for whatever yarn disappointment I experienced. Completely worth the wait. In the crazy long line. I had a delicious Shack burger and lemonade and they gave Jamaica 15 sheets of stickers. I love that place. (And want some right now.)
On Saturday night, we packed up overnight bags and met up with Vee at the Ace in Manhattan.
 We picked up some cupcakes at Crumbs to surprise her for her birthday.
Hit up the photobooth in the lobby, and then rested our weary feet and caught up on life a little bit.
In true slumber party form, we decided to crash a swanky party in the lobby of the Ace at 3 a.m. for a photobooth sesh in our pajamas. Which sounded like a great idea when we were up in our room on the 7th floor, but as we rode down the elevator and the dj's music got louder and louder and louder, we were like ... holy shit, we're about to cruise through this thing in our pajama pants. The smiles, the pointing ... haha!
The next morning, we set off for Brooklyn to meet up with yet another friend. Kara.
She is just as completely sweet and cool and wonderful to talk to as I knew she'd be. I wish we'd had more time to hang out together, but it was great to talk with her about her new life at school in the city and to finally see that face in real life (after many project collaborations and long emails back and forth!)
The last night of our trip was spent sharing dinner, having heart-to-hearts and dorking out over paper, fabric, little books and photos of Jamaica with long hair.
And before I knew it, Jamaica and I were sharing a cab to our respective airports. (Minus the Bon Iver this time.)
We're left with the memories. And 1,347 photos. I'm already wishing it was next time.

true stories /  by jen geigley

For the past few months, I feel like I've been neglecting the whole documenting and scrapbooking thing. Sometimes I just didn't have the time, and sometimes I struggled to find the words. I have piles of photos. Time is flying by. There's so much I want to say. (Have you ever felt that way?) Sometimes all it takes is a little push in the right direction and then everything else comes naturally. That's why I'm very excited to tell you about a new online class by one of my most favorite creative instructors, Shimelle Laine. It's called True Stories.

She explains it best: True Stories covers fifteen different ways to approach your story and commit it to paper. You can use these prompts as a scrapbooker and see your journaling evolve to something that will be a treasure to read. You can use the prompts as a blogger to make your entries feel like honest, unique and compelling tales. Or you can just use them in general as a collection of ways to add a bit more excitement to your writing if you’re feeling like you’re in a rut of writing the same way on every project.

True Stories is an online class that starts on the 25th of October, but it can be completed at any time. It lasts three weeks, with fifteen full-color PDF prompts delivered straight to your inbox, Mondays through Fridays. From the beginning, there is absolutely no way to ‘fall behind’ or ‘not finish’ because it’s not that kind of class. You can follow along by working on a prompt each day if you would like, but you can also keep the prompts as a reference for when they come in useful for your own scrapbooking, blogging or other story-telling needs. (You can find all of the class details here.)

Shimelle has invited me to share my spin on storytelling, so if you sign up, you'll see a little something I've created for the class.   :)

And as a little treat for you, I'm giving away one class pass to True Stories. Just leave a comment to enter (and email address if you don't have a blogger/typepad account that links back to you) and I'll pick a random winner on Thursday, October 21st.

I can't wait to read your true stories.

the WINNER! /  by jen geigley












The winner of four tickets to Yo Gabba Gabba! Live in Kansas City is ... Mariam!!! Email me at jgeigley [at!] gmail [dot] com and I'll give you all of the ticket and show info.

Thanks so much to everyone who played along!

daresx4 /  by jen geigley

My dearest Dares ... it's been awhile. I played catch-up one night this week and busted out these babies. (I didn't want to skip out on any of these. They're too good. And seeing everything the other girls made had me jonesing for my paper and glue.) Here's Dare 168, soundtrack to a memory. This one was easy, because I knew I had to find a place to write down all of the songs Lo has been memorizing and belting out while we're in the car. The list is long!
And Dare 168 was such a good jumping-off point that I did another quick page. Kind of by accident. This one was the result of this Polaroid falling out of one of my boxes and directly into my lap. When I saw who was in this pic, I felt a little bit sad. Which to me is usually a sign that you probably shouldn't just shove the pic back into the box. I scanned a copy of the Pola and wrote down some lyrics that had been in my head. 'my fingertips are holding onto the cracks in the foundation. And I know I should let go, but I can't.' I've been saving this sheet of paper for a long time because it reminds me of how the tile looked in that first trailer house that we lived in, the same place where this pic was taken. I remember the tile really well because I think I crawled on that floor a lot. And the trim reminds me of something from one of my mom's dresses that I saw in an old photo once. And it also makes me think of the Berggren Swedish folk art patterns. A little bit. Not the prettiest page, but these little things do a lot for me.
And on to Dare 170, which was Jamaica's swap Dare: Scrap what you WEAR. This girl is amazing. And her paper collection is equally amazing. She put together a bunch of super great papers + letterpress and sent out little packets to each of us Effers, plus several extra participants. We all used what she sent to make stuff like this.

And finally, Dare 170. Where I stand. I had this photo from Renegade Chicago, which I figured would work great for this. I slapped some craziness down and just started writing. Doesn't always make sense, but that's kind of the point sometimes. Let it flow. (I've been knitting so much lately that I had kind of forgotten how much I've been wanting to get shit down on paper. So this felt pretty good to me. If it's been awhile for you, too, I say give it a go. It might feel good for you, too.) 

daresx4 /  by jen geigley

My dearest Dares ... it's been awhile. I played catch-up one night this week and busted out these babies. (I didn't want to skip out on any of these. They're too good. And seeing everything the other girls made had me jonesing for my paper and glue.) Here's Dare 168, soundtrack to a memory. This one was easy, because I knew I had to find a place to write down all of the songs Lo has been memorizing and belting out while we're in the car. The list is long!
And Dare 168 was such a good jumping-off point that I did another quick page. Kind of by accident. This one was the result of this Polaroid falling out of one of my boxes and directly into my lap. When I saw who was in this pic, I felt a little bit sad. Which to me is usually a sign that you probably shouldn't just shove the pic back into the box. I scanned a copy of the Pola and wrote down some lyrics that had been in my head. 'my fingertips are holding onto the cracks in the foundation. And I know I should let go, but I can't.' I've been saving this sheet of paper for a long time because it reminds me of how the tile looked in that first trailer house that we lived in, the same place where this pic was taken. I remember the tile really well because I think I crawled on that floor a lot. And the trim reminds me of something from one of my mom's dresses that I saw in an old photo once. And it also makes me think of the Berggren Swedish folk art patterns. A little bit. Not the prettiest page, but these little things do a lot for me.
And on to Dare 170, which was Jamaica's swap Dare: Scrap what you WEAR. This girl is amazing. And her paper collection is equally amazing. She put together a bunch of super great papers + letterpress and sent out little packets to each of us Effers, plus several extra participants. We all used what she sent to make stuff like this.

And finally, Dare 170. Where I stand. I had this photo from Renegade Chicago, which I figured would work great for this. I slapped some craziness down and just started writing. Doesn't always make sense, but that's kind of the point sometimes. Let it flow. (I've been knitting so much lately that I had kind of forgotten how much I've been wanting to get shit down on paper. So this felt pretty good to me. If it's been awhile for you, too, I say give it a go. It might feel good for you, too.)