New Messenger on Etsy

Since the start of fall I've had a few requests to get some messenger bags up on Etsy. I've had other fish to fry. BUT. As a peace offering, I listed one there for you today. It's a large, with plenty of room for whatever it is you people need to carry around. And just in time too, with the weather here in the Midwest really starting to hit the fan, as they say. This bag is a perfect all-weather commuter...the recycled plastic material combined with the bag's fold-over flap design keeps out the wind, rain, snow, sleet, and what-have-you.

Plus: I upgraded the strap material to a heavyweight polyester seatbelt webbing that's stronger, more durable, and super abrasion-resistant. Other notable features include velcro flap closure, bright whites and yellows to keep you extra visible, interior pouch pocket for your keys and phone, AND use of actual caution tape harvested from the very first VeloCX cylcocross race hosted by Minneapolis' own Behind Bars Cycling Team. Just a little piece of history folks.

Get the details, get the bag, HERE.

Video Break

It might be a few years old, but I've had this (Cornerstone Productions) video on my brain all week for some reason. Oh yeah, maybe because IT'S AWESOME. Check:

I Heart my Bicycle

This morning my boys and I walked out the front door just in time to see their bus pulling away from the stop. We're a one (drivable) car family at the moment, and that one drivable car was already somewhere in Northeast Minneapolis by then. Not cool. But we happen to be having the most amazing fall ever, and it was already in the mid-sixties, so after a lot of complaining about the poor bus driver, we all got our bikes and rode the four miles to their school.

Yes, they were late to school, but it's not possible to stress out while pedaling through sunny neighborhood streets with the leaves falling around you. Generally I'm not a fan of the fall, since it means summer's over and winter's next, but this was a pretty awesome morning. And every time I get on my bike I think the same thought: I love you bike!

I also love my small messenger bag. It's the perfect size for holding what I need--lock, water bottle, sweatshirt, keys and phone, etc--without feeling like I'm towing a VW. Sometimes big is good, like if I'm headed to the grocery store or carrying a package to the P.O. But I like to travel light when it's possible, and this was a perfect morning for it.

Face Cozy + Stag Satchel

Not that long ago my sister had a birthday, and I made her some stuff. My sister is awesome, and I'm really bad at birthdays, so I wanted to make this one totally great. First, I got this crazy thought to embroider her face onto a beer cozy. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, but in its idea-form inside of my brain, it really looked rad, so I tried. As it turns out: vacation photo + iron-on transfer pencil + hot pink wool fabric = sweet face cozy. As for the benefits of having your own face on a beer cozy, well, those are pretty much endless.

After I finished that, I kind of wanted to stitch something else. I'd picked up this herringbone wool fabric at a yard sale for like a quarter, and I kept looking at it sitting there on my work table. So the night before cake day, I cut out and quilted the body of a bag, and embroidered the flap with the antler design my sister really liked from my MN Love series.

And then on cake day I made an enormous slab of chocolate cake layered with peanut butter mousse and covered in dark chocolate ganache. Done!