Tuesday: Clutches & Lemonade Happy Hour

Join us tomorrow, June 30th as we feature clutches and wristlets. Check out our newsletter here for all of information about the event.

Click here to see all of the events and specials more than 70 Ballard businesses are offering this week.

Everyone Loves a Scavenger Hut

We donated these 1.25" buttons to the Loyal Heights Block Watch, a local community group. They gave them out to scavenger hunt participants.

Water Bottles Can Be Fun

We're now carrying a terrific line of stainless steel 24 ounce water bottles, just in time for hot summer days. Here are two of my favorite designs, the monkey and peacock. $16.50 each.

Button Thursday: Golden Flowers

Vintage Brass Floral Button, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

I can't show you the clutch that features this button as the gift has yet to be given to the lucky bridesmaid.

I couldn't resist showing you the beautiful button and a glimpse of the fabrics.

I, Robot

Designed for kids, these robot product are equally appealling to playful adults. Above, magnetic robot action figures.
Who could resist Robot-themed Post-it notes? Available now in our shop.

Images courtesy of Galison.

Bridesmaid Wristlet in Orange and Navy

Our customer was a bride who chose navy blue dresses for her attendants. They planned to wear orange shoes and carry orange and white flowers.

I love this fresh and unexpected color combination. It is one part preppy, one part retro, and entirely pretty.

Window Signs

We hope to see you tomorrow night! View the digital invite here.

One of My Mom's Paintings

Image copyright Sharon Dwyer Buzard

My mother is a fine artist who specializes in acrylic and watercolor painting. She does portraits, botanical images, and decorative fine arts. My favorites have always been her building paintings, particularly the storefronts.

Recently, she sent me this photo of one of her circa 1980s images to scan and put on a custom checkbook cover. I love the image so much, I thought I'd share it with you here. You can click on the painting to see more detail of the brushwork and fine detail.

The buildings are in Rochester, NY, my hometown.

Maps, Crayons, and Bubble Machines

Photo courtesy of Chauvet.

Here's my latest update for you on all sorts of goings on:

I've been working on the Tuesdays In Ballard task force on our summer long campaign and we have cool things planned. Our much-needed Ballard map is now available online here and soon we'll have glossy, free maps in the shop.

Here's the invite to my first event, which is next Tuesday. I hope you'll stop by to say hello.

I bought a bubble machine in honor of all things inner child. We'll fire it up for the first time on the 23rd!

I've set up a Facebook fan page for Tuesdays In Ballard, so join up here. 71 businesses have gotten involved for the summer campaign so it's going to be wacky and wonderful!

Crayola Colors

I'm working on some planning promotional materials for our summer Tuesday Happy Hours. Yesterday I bought a big batch of crayons for our first event (June 23rd). I'd forgotten how much they smell like childhood - waxy and comforting. Plus, they're so much fun to photograph!

I'll be sending my first event announcement tomorrow. There's still time to sign up to be on this mailing list here:

Sign up for our Tuesdays Events Newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bC6s

Vintage Sewing Pattern

Click the image to enlarge.

Miranda Loves Summertime

A customer recently designed this lovely floral print Miranda bag. The fabric has several shades of blue and aqua, along with pops of red, yellow, terra cotta and black. The glossy white trim adds an extra summery touch.

Penguin Party at the Space Needle

The Woodland Park Zoo Penguins on the March project kicked off this morning at the Space Needle with a festive party. There's my penguin Dorothy Parker, right, giving directions to visitors.

The group of penguin artworks was quite impressive. I enjoyed seeing the variety of interpretations of the project.

There was a huge turnout of artists, art lovers, and tourists who came to go up to the top of the Needle, and were surprised to see an unexpected penguin fiesta.

A local painter worked on a large penguin piece while the crowd watched.

If you want to see the penguins before they head out to the neighborhoods, you can go to the Greenwood Artwalk tonight. There is more information here.

Button Thursday: Multi-color Ornate Plastic

Vintage Plastic Buttons on Cardboard, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

Once upon a time, thrifty people kept even the most humble buttons. As blouses, jackets and dresses wore out, women trimmed off the fasteners and saved them in jars, drawers, and cookie tins.

Here's a mishmash of pretty plastic buttons that I bought at an antique mall recently. Someone stitched each button onto a piece of cardboard with waxed twine, saving the little treasures for rainy days.

How I wish I could know what garments the buttons adorned, who wore the clothes, and where the outfits traveled.

More Pictures of Dorothy Parker Penguin

Jeff and I dropped off the penguin this afternoon, and it felt great to have the project complete and the send her into the world. Please excuse the rough quality of these pictures. I took them in a hurry at Jeff's shop before delivering the black and white bird.

Although the design I came up with is simple and clean, it took quite a long time to accomplish the effect.

Of course, I had to make her a little patent leather purse to complete the look. (Here's a pic I found on Flickr that shows a bunch of penguins - see if you can find my bird.)

Since I'm a fabric girl, I had to figure out a way to use cloth, while making it rain, sun, and wind-proof. (The penguins will be outside for about a month. The white chest of the penguin is layered in ivory lace, while the body is black polka dot chiffon.

Jeff built a maple base which I decoupaged with sewing pattern paper. You can't quite see the pearlized finish on the pink base in the photo, but it shimmers in person.

Thank you Jeff for helping me with priming, finishing, and designing this penguin. I am a lucky girl to be married to a guy who thinks it's perfectly normal to pull a near all-nighter adhering squares of bias cut chiffon to a plastic toy.

Meet Dorothy Parker Penguin

I finally finished the penguin for the Woodland Park Zoo's Penguins on the March project.

I named her Dorothy Parker since she's art deco inspired, glamorous, and possesses a secretive, biting wit.

Here is a picture of the penguin in the initial priming phase.

Read more about the project in Seattle Magazine here.

Sign Up for Summer Fun

Ashley and I went out for coffee last week and planned our summer-long Tuesday Get Happy Hours. We have some fun, free activities, specials, product launches and make and take projects to share with you, our lovely customers.

We'll stay open late each Tuesday to take advantage of the long Seattle summer nights. Our plans dovetail with the Tuesdays In Ballard marketing campaign.

I've set up a separate e-newsletter list for those of you who would like the inside scoop on the Laura Bee Designs events all summer long. I'm keeping this list separate from our normal monthly mailing list, since the Tuesdays info will go out once a week for twelve weeks.

Sign up for our Tuesdays Events Newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bC6s

Some Yellow Bits

Call it lemon, button, sunflower, or daffodil, yellow is a bright happy color.

We used the color on our latest sew-in tags. The gray background with yellow accents reminds me of our Seattle climate. You may remember that we change our tag colors for every batch of 2000. (I wrote about our tags way back in 2006 here.)

Since we started our punch card file in February, the golden stacks have grown steadily larger as our customers sign up.

Button Thursday: Brass Patina

Padlock Button, originally uploaded by Laura Bee Seattle.

For Summer Presents

Our new summer gift wrap is sure to look great with our pink pastry boxes.

Here's something you may not know: Gift wrap is always quick and free at our shop.