Best of 2010

Seattle Sundries was nominated for Seattle Bride Magazine's "Best of 2010" in the "Most Creative Favors" category! We had a wonderful evening at the awards event meeting Seattle wedding movers and shakers like the great folks from EE Robbins, True Colors Events, Aria Style, Wave Link Music, Inc., Dani Weiss Photography and of course...the always wonderful, friends from Butler Valet. A great time was had by all!

Redmond Town Center

Come on over today to Redmond Town Center and enjoy the Saturday Market as well as the Sidewalk Sale and Craft Fair. I have a booth today from 10am-7pm and again tomorrow from noon-4pm. I'm in the mall area at booth #19...between The Body Shop and Bath and Body Works. Seriously. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. I could see that the employees of both chains were quaking in fear as I approached with all of my natural, biodegradable products. Smiles.

Éliane

I have lost a very good friend. Her name was Éliane.

We had been close for almost thirty years since our early time together in Idaho. She moved to Coeur d’Alene from New York City when we were young and made a strong impression on me from the start. The first words she ever spoke to me were actually “I hate you!” This had to do with the fact that we were polar opposites in almost every way and always valued and envied what the other person brought to the equation. She was exotic, big city, worldly, multi-lingual, outspoken and bold with black hair and lovely Latin looks. I was a fair skinned, Nordic ranch girl with a big family who kept my thoughts to myself much of the time and always made my decisions and acted in a cautious and studied way. We were like salt and sugar, Yin and Yang, Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder.

I remember once we went into Spokane to see an INXS concert together. After the concert (which was great, by the way), Éliane just HAD to get backstage to meet Michael Hutchence. She told me that she was going to figure out a way to do it, and I thought she was full of #$&%. I couldn’t imagine how a lowly high school student could talk her way backstage to rub elbows with one of the most popular bands of the time. I would never have dared. She did it…got his autograph, chatted, and I’m sure made an impression. There were many famous and interesting people that she got to meet over the years because she wasn’t afraid to ask. She was bold and forward, in a good way.

She was also a thoughtful and loyal friend. She never forgot a birthday or anniversary of mine, or anyone in my family. She liked to send little packages with things that she had set aside for us…sometimes odd things. Like the time that she sent a whole box full of magazines that she had picked up at a doctor’s office and gone through to dog ear the articles she thought I would be interested in. She’d send the kids Peeps and Lemonheads, Gore & Obama campaign pins for me, and miscellaneous other trinkets and treasures that she found for us all the time, like Post-It Notes from the Scottish Tourist Bureau or key rings with our initials. On my recent birthday she sent me 40 fresh tulips (her favorite flower) in a box, all the way from New York. She called to make sure they arrived safely and were put into water right away to keep them fresh. They did and they were. She paid attention to details.

Sometimes it could be exhausting to be her friend. I often felt like I should be reciprocating more with the little things…sending her care packages too, and just doing MORE. I mostly just tried to be there for her and listen when she needed someone to talk to, because she often did. For every vibrant life peak that Éliane had, there was also a valley. She could quickly become sullen and irritable and say things without thinking them through. When we were younger I poetically ascribed this to her fiery Latin nature, but as an adult I came to understand that it was really bouts of depression and mood swings that made her say and do some of the things she did. It made it hard for her to keep jobs for long, and to maintain healthy relationships with friends and much of her family…and to find someone to share her life with.

In the past few years she has been troubled a lot. She has moved many times, never quite feeling settled and good about where she was. I think now that it was a physical manifestation of how she felt inside. Nothing seemed to fit. She struggled to achieve the goals that she set for herself. Sometimes this was because she would self sabotage by not recognizing boundaries or having an effective social filter, but sometimes outside forces really did seem to conspire against her. She felt broken and unfixable.

I tried many times to get her to see herself as I did, full of great things to offer the world and hopeful prospects for her own future. She wanted to be a lawyer. She wanted to adopt a little girl from Columbia and be a mother someday. She wanted to have a home and family and mundane stability. She wanted to be the center of someone’s life. We talked and talked…she talked mostly. I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t have any magic words. I wish that I had been a better support in the past few months, that there had been more of my own reserves to devote to her, that I knew the right things to say and help fill the void she felt. But I didn’t. I hope she knows that she was important to me.

My prayers and these tangible memories go out into the ether for her. I loved her and will miss her dearly.

In Memory of Éliane

tulip photo courtesy of Vera Kratochvil

The Market Arms

Today my new favorite drinking, dining and socializing establishment opens for business at 11:30am. The Market Arms in Ballard is owned by the same folks that have mastered the fine art of the British sports pub for the past 15 years at Fremont's George and Dragon Pub. We used to live a stone's throw from the George and Dragon in my early Seattle life. I actually remember when it changed over from the Midget Tavern to the George and Dragon...I was hugely relieved, as the Midget was a pretty dive-y place with a very rough and colorful clientele. I used to love going to Quiz Night at the George. My husband still goes regularly with a group of guy friends to get their butts kicked in the quiz challenge. Oh sorry...did I type that out loud?

And now we have our OWN place in Ballard, on the direct bus line from our house. It's like DOOR to DOOR service! I feel like the old Norse gods are smiling down on me today.

We are also lucky enough to be friends with the wonderful owners. Kids are worth having, if for no other reason than they make friends...and then you get to become friends with your kids' friends' parents. We've met some of the greatest people that way.

Even though it's brand new, I have a strong suspicion that the Market Arms is going to become a Ballard institution. There is already a strong bond formed between some of the old guard Norwegians of Ballard and this new English crew. I love it. I can't wait to see what the t-shirts are going to look like (hmmm John?).

It's also just a really nice space to hang out in: lots of windows and light, mixed with lots of wood and warmth. A great deal of care and attention to detail was taken during the build-out. The table bases were brought in from England, the bar was custom made for the space, large screen TVs are easily viewable from every seat in the house, and the signs in the bathroom were attached to the wall with magical screws so that they can't be nicked from the place too easily.

Oh yeah, and the food is great. It's pub food: bangers and mash, fish and chips, shepherd's pie, cheeseburgers, etc. But it's Seattle pub food...that is to say, our expectations here are for above average food, and the Market Arms more than delivers. I got to taste a bunch of different dishes, and they were all excellent. The hamburger was to die for. Hamburger Harry's next door is going to be hurtin'. And they have an amazing beverage selection, obviously. And a very friendly, experienced and enthusiastic staff. And they're going to have Quiz Night on Wednesdays. And the bathrooms are nice. And you can play pool and darts. And they have outdoor seating on the front patio and off the back with a view of the fishing boats and water.

AND they're open just in time to start showing all of the 2010 World Cup matches (which begin this Friday). If you are a soccer fan, you may have already peed your pants with excitement. If you're not a soccer follower and fan of all the roudy World Cup revelry, remember to come back in another month or two when the windows are all open, the sun (or moon?) is shining off of the water, the folks at the table next to you have a relaxed card game going, you can hold a pint of beer in your hand...and settle in for the long, lovely haul.

Local Honey Buzz

I am very happy to announce that Seattle Sundries is now using honey (and soon beeswax) produced by neighborhood bees and gathered by the Ballard Bee Company..."Keeping the Bee in Ballard."

The very friendly and accommodating owners of Ballard Bee Co. (Corky Luster and Karen Percelle) place hives all around Ballard, which means the honey collected is a true reflection of our neighborhood and the " diverse plants that thrive in our local gardens and parks." They supply select local restaurants and grocers with the raw honey that they harvest.

The city of Seattle allows a maximum of four hives per lot in city limits, so Ballard Bee Co. has set up "hosting" relationships with neighborhood residents who are willing to have hives placed on their property, and be maintained by BBC. I'm considering getting on the waiting list for hives to be placed at our house. BBC also rents hives and does consultation work for folks interested in learning beekeeping themselves. It's awesome!

To read more about the Ballard Bee Company, visit their website and read the interview done on MyBallard.com. Good stuff!!

photo courtesy of the Ballard Bee Co. website

Scents and Sensibility

A potential customer emailed me this morning asking about the scent of my soaps and needing more description before she could choose. That's the downside of selling online...the sniff test is important. The only issue with smell is that it's so subjective. I don't know how many times I've had two people (husband/wife, mother/daughter, BFFs) walk up to my booth at a fair where one picks up a soap, smells it and swoons in delight, then hands it to the other person to sniff and gets a rodent-like expression in return. People's opinions about smell differ widely. For this reason, I have hesitated to include too much of a scent description with each of my soaps. I don't want people to get them in the mail and say "Hey! That's not what it's supposed to smell like!" However, I completely understand this customer's need to know..so, here's MY opinion of what each of my soaps smells like:

Backwoods~strong pine overtones with a lighter, fresh citrus underneath.

Bitchin" Kitchen~spicy cinnamon leaf. This is different than cinnamon stick, which most people are familiar with. Often customers think that it smells more like nutmeg than cinnamon.

Buck Naked~completely, truly unscented.

Cowpoke~fresh herbal with a little woodsy thrown in. The eucalyptus lemon and the lemon essential oils are the most dominant scent, but there's a noticeable undertone of cedarwood as well.

Fish Tale~anise, spicy black licorice. I've also added tea tree to this soap because it tones down and rounds out the smell of the anise, but it's got a very dominant black licorice smell.

Gardeners Gold~fresh citrus with floral undertones. You quickly notice the grapefruit smell in this soap, but the overall smell is really more fresh floral. Lavender and geranium are not very sweet flowers (like rose or jasmine), so I would put it in a more herbal/fresh category of floral.

Gender Neutral~sweet with spicy undertones. This soap smells like root beer. The dominant scent is vanilla, but the sweet birch essential oil (which is like wintergreen) adds a distinctive spice.

Hard Working Hand~ fresh and slightly herbal spiciness. This one's a little hard to categorize. It's not a heavy scent at all...mostly fresh and light herbal.

Haute Goat~unscented, but the goat's milk has a natural sweetness to it that comes through in the soap. Someone with a good sense of smell would notice it, but others might not. If you put it right next to the Buck Naked, you could definitely smell the sweetness.

Highland Fling~sweet like brown sugar, but not in a cloying way. The honey gets a bit caramelized during the soapmaking process, and combines with the natural sweetness of the beeswax. Love it.

Lap of Luxury~minty with citrus undertones. The dominant smell is spearmint, which is a more sweet herbal scent than peppermint. Tangerine lightens the mint smell and gives it more depth.

Lavender Lover~straight-up, high quality lavender essential oil. Good stuff.

Manly Man~musky and smokey with fresh citrus undertones. This is probably the hardest one to describe. Clary sage has a very herbal smell and vetiver is quite smokey on its own. I add lime to lighten and give complexity to both of those oils. Many people who smell this soap say that it reminds them of their grandfather or some older gentleman. Clary sage and vetiver were both commonly used in men's products a couple generations ago.

Naughty Nellie~floral, with herbal undertones. This has a sweet, slightly herbal floral smell, with some extra hoppiness from the ale that the soap is made with.

Rejuvenation~heavy, sweet floral. I would call this one almost Victorian in its smell. Very girlie.

Road Trip~patchouli, but lighter...not the heavy hippie smell often associated with that essential oil. I add orange to soften the sometimes overwhelming scent of patchouli. Often customers will smell this soap and say "I usually don't like patchouli, but this is really nice!"

Sasquatch~ woodsy and herbal. Cedarwood and tea tree are both very distinctive smells...one person described them as smelling like shoe polish. The lemon essential oil lightens and freshens the scent. This soap always makes me think of mossy bark, and being in the forest.

Smooth Shave~ fresh with herbal undertones. Coriander and cilantro are the same plant. Think of cilantro salad with a citrus dressing.

Summer Slacker~ sage and lavender with a fresh kick of light citrus. This soap has a dominant herbal smell. If you like sage, you'll love this. It reminds me of summer...hence the name.


Hope that helps!!

4-H Field Trip

We took a great 4-H field trip recently to the University of Washington Greenhouse and Insect Lab. We got to see poisonous frogs, carnivorous plants & the worlds biggest seed. Here it is. It comes from a palm. Crazy.

We reviewed how plants reproduce using pollination. We talked about what a fruit is. We saw lily pads big enough to hold small children.

We saw lots and lots of incredibly gorgeous plants. It almost made me want to keep all of my orchids instead of giving them away because I forget to water them. Maybe.

Here is a picture of the kids getting to touch a Venus Fly Trap to make it close. We got to watch as our guide fed a little squirming caterpillar to the plant. The kids loved that part!

After seeing all of the plants in the greenhouse, we went to the Insect Lab and learned about research being done on giant moths and how they fly. We got to watch a moth flying in a wind tunnel where scientists study their shape and aerodynamics in the hopes of applying what they learn to robotics and engineering. Very cool. A soon-to-be moth...

This was a wriggling pupae that we got to hold. Apparently, one researcher made a mold of one of these and now periodically fills the mold with chocolate...which he then leaves out on the counters in the lab for people to munch on during the day. Hee hee. I like a good sense of humor.

Thanks University of Washington scientists!!! We had a great time!