If you live in Seattle I recommend you head out to visit the Curio Confections bake sale this Thursday and Friday evenings. This bake sale is put on by Maria Friedman who previously owned the (very missed) Curio Confections and she is providing a whole lot of goodies from her own kitchen so expect the offerings to be outstanding.

If you’d like to contribute something you can get in touch with Maria at curioconfections@gmail.com or 206-979-2442. More info can also be found on Facebook both here and here. See you there?

Yay! The book tour for Kelly Wilkinson’s book Weekend Handmade is coming to Seattle on Thursday, November 17th. The party will be at Dry Soda and it’s free. I’ll be there, you should come too!

Last weekend we escaped from our poor beaten up house and had a mid afternoon meal at the Skillet Street Food diner. They make bacon jam and started the business in an Airstream. I found a new favorite beer, Port Brewing Wipeout IPA. This also marks the first time I had been served beer in a jar.

This is a Fried Chicken Sandwich with “fennel seed crust, pickled and charred jalapeño aioli, kale, potato bread”. It’s even better than it sounds. And there is kale so it is good for you. No, it is. Be quiet.

That day we lucked into the booth in the corner and among our views of hipsters walking adorable dogs was this view of a hipster talking on the phone while perched on a fire hydrant. As Scott said, it was like we were in Portland.

Last weekend Scott and I rode our bicycles, Wheatley and GLaDOS respectively, along a few trails. We do not recommend the “Green to Cedar River Trail” as it is loose gravel and very difficult to bike on and especially because it’s all uphill on the way back. Whew. But we did pass this sign. Wait, I’ll get it in more detail for you:

Pit park! We found an actual pit being turned into a park! It made the whole ride worth it.

In September I’ll be speaking at School House Craft and I couldn’t be more excited. School House Craft will be three days, September 23rd, 24th and 25th, filled with classes on how to run and grow your creative business. It grew from a conference, CCE, held here in Seattle last year and that conference left me feeling very energized and inspired. If you are thinking of starting a small creative business or hoping to expand your current one I highly recommend this conference. You can find more about it, read about the teachers, classes, and join them on Facebook. Topics will span from marketing, branding, book publishing, photography. You can also have your shop reviewed to get some useful feedback.

I’ll be talking about Blogging 101 with Blair Peters, Wisecraft, and Molly Wizenberg, Orangette and I’m so flattered to be in such fantastic company. This is gonna be good. Come join us!

The other week I tried Mastica gelato at Fainting Goat here in Seattle. Mastica is, according to the menu, a tree resin from the Greek Aisle Kronos, and according to the Greek friend I happened to be there with it’s a traditional flavor. I expected it to taste like juniper or pine, or maybe to taste the way that pad of resin smells when a violinist resins their bow. But it wasn’t like any of those things. It was delicate and herbal and not too sweet. Sort of refreshing, very interesting. I’m so glad I didn’t go with the chocolate I had been thinking about on the way in.

Scott and I went on bike rides both Saturday and Sunday. It felt indulgent. Here is a list of what we saw:

• two weddings
• a game of cricket
• the sign shown above (which I had to investigate because all I can see is a pair of eyes with heavy eyebrows, as in: “be warned that we give disapproving looks to those who skateboard here”)
• many people tubing down a shady river on which was likely the hottest day of the year
• a cute hipster geek with skinny jeans wielding some serious camera equipment at a tiny bird
• a massive soccer meet
• a sign that said “No Trespassing – Private Trail” which we completely ignored didn’t see at all
• a guy on old school roller skates (he didn’t have a Walkman or a sweatband around his forehead, I checked)
• a bald eagle
• Mount Rainier and Mount Baker viewed with fields in the foreground and no cars in sight
• Redmond’s first school bell (which I almost broke trying to ring)
• a piece of large public art called “Portal II” (which I almost broke trying to climb on)
• a bronze sculpture of a woman sitting on an invisible chair (which I almost broke by attempting to sit on)
• a rather lovely other world that exists along bike trails just next to rivers hidden from the streets by fields and buildings

Whenever we find an empty circle shaped bit of path or parking lot we ride around and around, sometimes going opposite directions and having conversations in two or three word sections. (“Remember that time” “we were camping” “in Yosemite and” “we heard wolves howling” “and thought they” “might want to” “eat us?”) That’s my favorite part.

If you live in Seattle and are curious about the rides: This weekend we took the Sammamish River Trail from Marymoor Park in Redmond to Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville, where we had lunch and beer, and back. This is a highly recommended trip and wasn’t too long. If you time it right you can take one of their beer tours and have lunch, and possibly more beer. The next day we took the Cedar River Trail, where we recommend parking in the lot just east of and sort of beneath 405. The trail northward through Renton and to the water at the bottom of Lake Washington is walk-only most of the way (a lovely walk though!) and if you bike the streets you’ll need to cross some busy intersections and it’s not fun at all. So park in that lot and head south-ish and there is a really lovely bit through a wooded section and then the trail is sandwiched between the river and Maple Valley Highway. It wasn’t the most interesting out there but it wasn’t crowded, had plenty of places to stop, and had straight enough sections that you could build up some speed and let your mind wander. The King County Bicycling Guidemap has been really useful, but do look for warnings on trail pages, the Green River Trail is currently closed to bicycle traffic which happily we noticed before we went all the way out there.

Last month I took a picture of the Space Needle from the Columbia Tower Observation Deck (also shown below). Last night I happened to find myself on top of the Space Needle, so I took a picture of the Columbia Tower to compare. They both seem tiny from these vantage points. Hello tiny self way over there!

We went to Urban Craft Uprising on Saturday and on the way I discovered that there was no memory card in my camera, so I didn’t get to take any pictures. But I did find a bunch of businesses that I liked:

Morse code necklaces by Coatt. (Secret messages!)

Posters by Row Boat Press, this Night Flight diptych is also glow in the dark.

Simple jewelry by Foamy Wader. I bought myself these in silver, they are delightfully light weight.

Really fun bias tape from Polly Danger.

Gorgeous enameled jewelry by Alisha Louise, you get to chose your color for each piece. I have my eye on this pull-though necklace.

These chiffon earrings from Muchodesign, she had a whole tree of them and they were delightfully flitty. Is that a word?

An LED Sewing Kit from Sternlab which was sold by the lovely Moxie, who offers this Needle Felted Coin Cell Battery Pack tutorial so you can create your own glowy pendant.

Jewelry by Dottyspeck. I have some earrings similar to this design that I picked up from the CakeSpy Shop and adore them.

See also: I listed businesses I went to see there in a previous post. Love them all.

Urban Craft Uprising is this weekend here in Seattle! They are stuffed full of my favorite vendors, here are just a few:

• CakeSpy, paintings, cards, cute stuff
• Crystalyn Kae, fabulous handbags
• Devout Dolls, wonderfully strange dolls
• Erin MacLeod, snap together skirts (I have a skirt of hers and it gets more compliments than any of my other clothes)
• Ex Libris Anonymous, blank journals bound from old book covers
• Idolatre, perfectly different clothing
• Jill Bliss, paper and fabric goods printed with her lovely designs
• Matthew Porter Art, childrens books, illustrations and goods (he made the poster you see above)
• My Paper Crane, adorable and fun plush goods
• Sam Trout, screenprinted t-shirts and sweatshirts
• Schmancy, handmade pins and pouches
• Slow Loris, t-shirts and silkscreens with distinctive designs
• Texture Clothing, comfy, flattering cothing (my purple shirt is from Texture)
• This Charming Candy, lollipops in deliciously grown up flavors
• Yarnia, custom DIY yarns

There are so many vendors this time around that I have not heard of, and lots of them are foods (ice cream! cake pops! preserves! gluten-free treats!).

update: See which businesses I found and loved at the show.

Last month we went to the Georgetown Carnival here in Seattle. There was a giant community Jenga game set up and I managed to be there to watch it fall twice.

It’s not well known but one of the best views in Seattle is from the Observation Deck of the Columbia Tower (one of our skyscrapers). To get there you take a bank of elevators up to one floor and transfer over to another bank of elevators and, hold on, what do you find as you’re walking past? A Starbucks! A Starbucks with a pretty great view.

Above is one of the first views that greets you from the Observation Deck. I’ve circled the Space Needle in orange to show you how tiny it seems from the Columbia Tower. See? Cute.

Here is the proof of the Starbucks. It’s free to get up to it, by the way.

To get to the observation deck you take the bank of elevators in the North Lobby to the 40th floor, pass by that Starbucks, then take those elevators to the 73rd floor. Follow the signs to the left. It’s about $5 per person to get in and then you find yourself looking down at the Space Needle, which is pretty cool. The views are nearly 360 degrees and on a clear day you can see all the surroundings mountains. It’s far cheaper than the Space Needle, involves a whole lot less waiting and zero souvenir photographs. (The Space Needle, though, does have glass elevators and a rotating restaurant.) It’s one of my favorite places to bring visitors. And not just to show off that yes we really do have Starbucks everywhere.

update: Not too long after this I found myself taking a picture of the Columbia Tower from the top of the Space Needle for comparison.

Earlier this month Product Body offered a discount code and a few people had some trouble, so she’s fixed it up and extended the deadline through the end of June. Enter NOTMARTHA15 for 15% off when you’re checking out. Valid for everything on the site except the Scrub of the Month club, use as often as you’d like.

I’ll also mention that School House Craft is still offering 20% off for any ticket combination to the conference. Enter notmartha when you buy your tickets. This will be good up until the event (in September!).

And finally there is a pretty neat thing happening here in Seattle this Thursdsay, June 16th:

Moveable Type coming to Seattle’s Central District!
June 16th, 5-8pm
at Miss Cline Press shop
2370 East Cherry (cherry & 23rd ave)

Join us for a printing party to welcome the Moveable Type national tour on its first stop in Seattle.

Moveable Type is a mobile print shop built into the back of an old delivery truck. The truck is owned by Kyle Durrie, the proprietor of Power and Light Press in Portland, Oregon. Kyle is starting a 9+ month tour across North America. The idea is to combine her two passions of traveling and printing. Now, the truck is ready and the adventure is just beginning. Her first stop in Seattle will be in the heart of Central District at Miss Cline Press shop.

During her trip, Kyle will be visiting schools, art spaces, city parks, music and arts festivals, craft shows, parties, and anywhere else that has an interest in learning about printing the old fashioned way.

Moveable Type will be setting up its mobile print shop outside Miss Cline Press on Thursday, June 16th for an evening of printing demos, studio/truck tours, and tall tales about life on the road. This event is free and open to the public, and participants can expect to get their hands dirty and make a few prints to take home with them.

A priceless opportunity! Hope to see you there.

More info and tour dates:
www.type-truck.com
www.missclinepress.com

Welcome to Day #2 of my website’s birthday month of giveaways! There is a bit more information here.

I’m very pleased to have a One Day pass to the School House Craft conference happening here in Seattle Sept. 23rd to the 25th to give to a lucky somebody. School House Craft grew from the Conference for Creative Entrepreneurs that happened here last summer, and which was amazing and packed full of hard learned helpful information from small business owners. It’s happening in the Phinney Neighborhood Center here, a charming community space in an old school which happens to be a favorite spot for a lot of the locals. More about the conference:

School House Craft is a dynamic new three day conference for people wanting to gain the skills to run a successful creative small business.

Are you considering staring your own business or do you already own your own business that focuses on craft, art or design? Do you have a shop on etsy, sell to shops and galleries, sell at craft fairs or want to start a new venture turning your passion into a business? If the answer is yes this is the conference for you!

Do you have or want to set up a craft business and can you get yourself to Seattle in September? This is for you! To enter please leave a comment with this post, you have until Wednesday, May 4th at 10 a.m. PST to enter, the fine print applies. If you’d like please answer this question: If you could spend your days doing any craft at all what would it be? I’ll go first: After my recent work on the Papier-Mache Easter Eggs I think I would love to spend all day creating delicate pinatas while surrounded by colorful and cheerful tissue papers. OK, good luck everybody! Closed, thanks so much to all who entered! #48 is our winner and she’s been contacted.

A nationwide Bakesale for Japan is being held and here in Seattle it will be at the Cakespy Shop. They are currently looking for “bakers, artists, volunteers, and lots and lots of customers”, if you think you can help see more details and get in touch here. See you there!