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each year, the bike part art show is held to raise money for the best of causes, the neighborhood bike works in west philly. nbw does some pretty amazing things, including programs that give kids the opportunity to build their own bikes, learn how to properly maintain a bike and ride their bike safely in the city. this in and of itself is pretty fantastic, but what's even better is they provide programs like this free of charge, primarily to kids whose families probably wouldn't be able to afford such classes, much less provide a bike for their kids. it's valuable stuff, and neighborhood bike works is making it happen.
so what's this about a bike part art show? for the past seven years, the bike part art show has asked local artists to put together whatever assemblage of bike parts they'd like and donate their creation to the show. the working reading lamp made from bike forks (above) is one of the donated sculptures for this year. these art pieces are then auctioned off and all the proceeds go to nbw. a room full of art made from bike parts is a pretty fantastic thing.
this year, to make things even awesomer, my studio mate (who is the 2009 organizer) asked if i'd like to put together a bike themed boutique to happen the night of the auction event. i said absolutely i would, since i make and love bike themed craft, and wasn't sure anything i could donate, while valuable and hopefully desirable, was really auction-worthy. thus, the cash-and-carry boutique at the bike part art show was born.
in the past several days, i've contacted many amazing artists with bike themed work in their shops on etsy, and response has been overwhelmingly great. at this point, i wanted to open the invitation and a call for bike themed art and craft here. if you make (or would like to make and could submit by sept 4) bike themed art or craft or jewelry (or just about anything else) and would like to make a donation to the bike boutique, please email me! sara (at) girlscantell (dot) com. i'll fill you in on all the details.
because who doesn't like bikes?
so, in a way, i've stolen this post from my friend dave, who reposted a comment he left on this post from fred wilson. by and large, i agree with dave. but the more i thought about it, the more i realized there's an aspect to the etsy community that was left out of the discussion.
i wrote:
well, to comment on your comment...
i largely agree with your observations on etsy and amazon. the only thing i'd add is that etsy *does* have the etsy teams (and, yes, i'm biased, since teams were my baby).
i truly believe that, while they are comprised almost 100% of sellers, they are indeed little communities. i guess i should point out that my definition of community might be a group of people sharing information and interacting to accomplish goals that mutually benefit all involved. for example, just as my local neighborhood association is a community, active etsy teams that set goals and communicate well to accomplish them are little communities.
and some of the day to day things teams accomplish are really amazing - providing support or a sounding board for one another, sharing tips, tricks and ideas on products, or general promotion of their businesses as a group and so much more.
while they are primarily sellers that form the teams, sellers can sell lots of places these days, and the teams are a sticky quality of the site (and an overlooked one at that).
the only thing i'd add is that talking about etsy teams these days is like trying to catch a breeze in a jelly jar - etsy never fulfilled its promise to bring the teams onto the site (i tried, i really did). so they're this kind of nomadic, amazing swarm of people all over the web. which is, of course, wonderful in some ways. but really a shame in many other ways, because trying to track down information on, or heaven forbid see products from, can be a near impossible task.
when we both worked at etsy, dave and i often brainstormed (well, in hindsight, daydreamed) about all the amazing connection / compilation / spotlighting tools (think tumblr meets jared's beautiful flash wizardry) that could be used to capture the energy and amazingness of all the content that the teams have been putting out there. this kind of "interestingness" something the site is still sorely lacking, not because the content isn't there - as we all know, etsy has more amazing content than any of us realize - but because decisions have been made to focus on other things (rearranging the items in your shop comes to mind. ug.)
all in all, i feel like i'm opening old wounds thinking about what a disservice not having teams pages is to not only the teams, but to the site as a whole. if i didn't love etsy so much, i probably wouldn't care. i just think it's such an opportunity, and i wish it would get jumped on already.
yesterday i posted a little love note, and explained why i haven't been posting as often as i used to (or as i'd like) here. i thought about it a lot throughout the day, and came to a sudden realization. i'm not as worked up about things as i was.
for some reason, i guess i'm the kind of blogger who really needs to feel strongly about something in order to successfully write. something needs to jump out at me as glaringly needing to be said. or i need to be just so excited that i can't contain myself. or i need to have scratched my head about something long enough that i just can't not write about it. i'm just not one of those (amazing and superfun) bloggers who can just write anything worth reading about the day to day.
lately, things have been great! i've been doing a lot of work with my nose to the grindstone (well, and also riding my bike). nothing about being really productive and enjoying the process of printing makes me all worked up, i guess. that's a good thing, right?
mostly. so while i plan on continuing to keep doing what i'm doing in terms of making and printing and selling and things, i'm also making a promise to you, little bloggity, to check in on my google reader a little more frequently. there's always something good going on there to stir up some thoughts or get really excited about. yay!
ps. if you want to swap google reader information, i love marking articles to share there, and i'd love to see what you're sharing, as well. shoot me a line if you're interested and we'll figure it out. xo!
hi! i feel like it's been a while since i've written anything here. i'd like to use the excuse everyone's been using these days and say it's because i've been cheating on my lovely little blog with that slut, twitter, but that honestly isn't the case. i've all but neglected things there, too. the truth of the matter is i've been avoiding the internet almost in its entirety (gasp!) for the past few weeks (one might say even months, and that wouldn't be a horrible exaggeration).
yes, dear readers, i've been doing real life things. like screenprinting, making new diagrams (remember those? when i used to have new designs? how fun that was?), riding my bike (i admit i've been doing quite a bit of that - we've just had perfect bike riding weather in philadephia this month), baking (i know too many people with july birthdays, to be frank), enjoying seasonal beers (those darn birthdays again, i swear it), making plans, working on the bike part art show (woot!) and getting ready for all the good things that will happen next.
so brace yourselves, dear readers. for lots of big news in the next couple of weeks! and things! and if you miss my rambly jibjabbering and haven't yet taken the plunge to follow me on twitter, you might try that to satisfy your everyday sara girlscantell needs. and you can always sign up to receive my e-love-letters (you can rest assured it's spam free, as i need to go onto the internet to spam you, and honestly i'd rather go for a bike ride).
this is all to say that there's still lots happening! and i promise i'll be better about keeping you up to date. there are so many new designs i have to share, so check back every few days!
i couldn't be more ecstatic to finally present to you: girlscantell.com!
i'll still be giving my trusty typepad blog here (aka blog.girlscantell.com) lots and lots of love, but now you'll also have a central place to find everything you could ever want to know about girlscantell. good things like where to find girlscantell near you (and if there isn't a place near you to buy some girlscantell, feel free to suggest one!), all the girlscantell diagrams in one place (whoa!), and lots more. the handy suggest a diagram tool is now better than ever there, too!
since this is pretty exciting to me, i figured i'd celebrate by giving away free stuff. (giving things away is always fun, right?) so the 25th person to twitter about the new girlscantell.com (with #girlscantell) will win a free set of hand printed girlscantell coasters of their choosing. so get to posting and suggesting and clicking away.
for those wondering, i put the site together with squarespace.com. it was pretty easy, once i got the knack of it, really. my blog is hosted by the lovely and terrific people at typepad. squarespace does offer the option of a blog-type page (but i like the community at typepad - these people looooove blogs!), along with lots of other different page configurations and templates. i think the two are really great services and i'm happy with the usability of both. i'd wanted to make a smoother incorporation of all the places to find girlscantell information on the web for quite some time now, and this all seemed like the best solution, especially since incorporating pretty little widgets was also really easy.
but enough nuts and bolts...
yay! xo!
(photo by james w. simmons)
it's the fourth fourth of july that i find myself in philadelphia. there are lots of fun things (did you know they actually ring the liberty bell once a year?) that happen here on this weekend every year (well, when everything isn't rained out), but there's been a moment each year that i get a little nostalgic for my favorite place to spend the fourth, monticello.
in case you're not a giant thomas jefferson nerd (i am, i admit it), monticello is the home that TJ designed for himself, just outside of charlottesville. each year, they have a naturalization / citizenship ceremony, with an amazing speaker who isn't a native-born american but chose to become american. it's pretty moving, (even if you're not usually a super patriotic person). during my time as a tour guide there (i told you i was a jefferson nerd), i got to see im pei and frank mccourt speak, and both were pretty amazing. it just kind of felt how i think the fourth of july is supposed to feel.
no matter how or where you're celebrating this weekend, enjoy! xo!
lately i've been thinking a lot about how much i really, really like philly.
gophila.com, our tourism board, recently put out a really cute new series of ads for the city,
and the whole thing almost makes me wish i didn't live here, so that i
could come and visit and it would all be new and even more amazing
again. i'd been thinking a lot about the two sides to every city (then
i read this article, which is basically about exactly that feeling but in boston - although i'm not about to hop onto any duck boat tours anytime soon.) i think some of my goals for the summer will be to stop putting off all the things i love doing when the weather's nice here.
so what are these things i love doing here in the summer?
