SHOPPE!

We picked up our lovely hand painted sign from the talented folks at New Bohemia Signs the other day, and we're sooooo excited! Wait until you see how amazing it looks on installed on the front of the building. We'll be posting lots more pics as we get closer to the opening, so stay tuned!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Thank goodness someone reminded us that our anniversary was coming up! (See what happens when things get really busy? I can't believe we BOTH forgot!) Yesterday marked our 3 year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated with a yummy dinner at Spork, one of our new neighborhood restaurants. Then we went to our new favorite video store, Lost Weekend, and rented Casino Royale. (Then we stayed up until 1 am working... but at least we took a little break, right?)

For those of you who want to see how we spent our September 24th three years ago, check out the pics on our friend Jessamyn's awesome photography site, jessamynharrisweddings.com. There is an entire page in the gallery dedicated to our true love log cabin jamboree!

Rit's it

Rit dye is one of those great craft products, like Mod Podge and Aleene's Tacky Glue, that is classic, cheap and multi-functional, and has awesome packaging that doesn't look like it has changed since the '70s.

Of course I've used Rit to dye fabric and yarn (and yes, even a tie-dyed shirt and over-dyed vintage slips back in the day), but it's fun to come up with other things to apply color to that aren't necessarily fiber-based. Back when I was working on Handmade Modern with Todd, we used Rit to stain some pieces of cork for a nightstand, which turned out great. And I've recently been playing around with staining pegboard and wood with it too. What else could we use this amazing dye for? A quick search on Flickr showed a few Blythe dolls with Rit-dyed hair, and the Rit website suggests using it to dye paper as well. The possibilities are endless!

Come one, come all!

It's official... our grand opening is two weeks from today! If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area the on the evening of Thursday, October 4th please stop by to say hello, check out the shoppe, and see some amazing art by our friend Shawn Creeden, whose show, Hollow Face, Hand Wing, will also be opening that night. And make sure to come by on Sunday the 7th at 2pm for what is bound to be an awesome and educational presentation about bats. Here is all the information- hope to see you there!!

The Curiosity Shoppe Grand Opening!
Thursday, October 4th 6-9 pm
Featuring Hollow Face, Hand Wing, new works in the gallery by Shawn Creeden on the subject of bats.

Plus: Join us for a free event featuring live bats, presented by the California Bat Conservation Fund and sponsored by the Curiosity Guild. Sunday, October 7th at 2 pm in the Shoppe.

855 Valencia Street
between 19th and 20th
San Francisco, CA
415-839-6404
www.curiosityshoppeonline.com

Fashion Show!

We are huge fans of Jack Spade, and were so excited when we heard about their recent Spring 2008 fashion show in Bryant Park. A smart, DIY happening that is totally up our alley. Watch it here. (Courtesy of one of our new favorite blogs, Hi + Low.)

THE golden record

Wow, it's been a long time! We've been busy, busy, busy getting ready for the opening of our store (more on that soon) and sadly, Smarts & Crafts isn't the only thing we've neglected (grocery shopping, anyone???) Anyway, I've had the idea to post about The Golden Record for a while now, and wouldn't you know it, those badass brainiacs over at Coudal Partners beat me to the punch. But I'm glad they did, because they found a great site that I somehow missed in my lame attempts at research.

Quick background: In 1977 NASA sent two Voyager spacecraft out into deep space. On those ships were 2 Golden Records chock full of information about our little green planet, the idea being that perhaps an alien life form might find the Voyagers, pop the records on their Hi-Fis and maybe come check us out. The discs include all kinds Earth-related ephemera: pictures, maps, diagrams, and an even an interstellar greeting from our very own President Jimmy Carter. Anyway, most interesting to me was that they also included audio recordings from Earth. Lots of them. Songs, languages, the sound of a mother kissing her baby, a heartbeat, nature noises...I just find the whole things so beautiful and wacky and optimistic and lovely. To get a nice sampling of what our extraterrestrial friends might find on the record click here.