Archive for the ‘Stuff’ Category
STUFF: Katie Daisy Farmhouse Prints
It’s that time of year where the windows are constantly open, including the front door, and the old farm house seems to fade into the background of fresh flowers, green grass, and overgrown trees. Evenings seem to slow down a bit and life’s burdens feel lighter.
We love how Katie Daisy encompasses all the joys of a country spring through her lovely illustrations.
Such a sweet reminder of just how wonderful this season is… even when it takes you four hours to mow the lawn! 
Purchase a Farmhouse Print from Katie’s shop and stop by her blog to see whats new.
From the Farm 
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STUFF: Alpaca Farm Fashion from Adrienne Antonson
Ok, ok so I know that spring is “here” and summer is on it’s way, but have you been in Oklahoma lately? It’s cold! My baby filled body doesn’t know if it needs to get ready for hibernation or bare feet on the grass.
And then I saw these felted alpaca hats… remember our Everyday Design post featuring the amazingly odd bugs made out of human hair? Well it seems that artist, Adrienne Antonson, is up to more great creative goodness. In between these fantastic felted alpaca hats and the chilly spring I kinda want too crawl back into my winter hole and curl up with a cup of tea (raspberry of course!) and a nice warm fire (comfy house shoes included).
From Farm to Fashion with Adrienne Antonson from Seattle magazine on Vimeo.
After watching this beautiful video about her farm inspired creations she seems like a reasonable person (not someone who would collect human hair and spend hours sculpting them into tiny bugs). And of course I can’t help but be completely intrigued and yet captured by Adrienne’s locally produced clothing line…
“Now, we’ve known that line as NuBe Seattle; but because Antonson has left her digs on Vashon to be closer to family in North Carolina, the line has been renamed State. As Antonson tours with her artwork, she’ll collaborate with other designers, artisans, and friends around the states (hence the name) and scour thrift stores and antique shops for gorgeous threads to put back into premium circulation.” - SeattleMet by Laura Cassidy
So here I am stuck in between winter and summer and enjoying the “cool” Oklahoma spring days for as long we have them! Adrienne I can’t wait to see what else you have up your “remaker” sleeves! Winter or summer I’m definitely figuring out a way to incorporate your wonderful pieces into my wardrobe!
From the (Oklahoma) Farm 
All images are from Adrienne Antonson’s Blog. Check it out!
STUFF: WWOOF – World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms
If you are someone looking for a real agricultural adventure away from the “main land” WWOOFing maybe just your thing! WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a volunteer organization that connects individuals with organic farmers from around the world! You can choose your location (as long as they have a spot open in the time frame you are available) and spend anywhere from a few weeks to several months helping an organic farm take on their daily tasks.
“WWOOF is a world wide network of organizations – We link volunteers with organic farmers, and help people share more sustainable ways of living.” – WWOOF Website
“WWOOF is an exchange - In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.” – WWOOF Website
“WWOOF organizations - link people who want to volunteer on organic farms or smallholdings with people who are looking for volunteer help.” - WWOOF Website
Our friend Chelsea spent a summer on an organic farm in Hawaii and shared some of her adventures in our series; Hawaiian Farm Girl. She learned all kinds of things but mainly enjoyed the hands on experience and falling in love with the land.
If you are interested in participating in WWOOFing please know it’s definitely not for the faint at heart! You have to be willing to do chores of all shapes and sizes including cleaning the chicken coop! Not everything is as flashy and pretty as planting seeds but it’s definitely a great experience to learn what it truly takes to run and organize a working farm.
Somethings to consider (from Chelsea’s experience):
CASH ON HAND: As a WWOOFer you are strictly a volunteer so your time is in trade for free lodging and food (whatever the farm grows). You’ll need to make sure you have saved up money to purchase your plane ticket to and from your location as well as any extra spending cash you might want to travel around the area you are saying in.
TRANSPORTATION: If you are wanting to do a lot of site seeing around the area of your farm location you’ll need to consider transportation. Chelsea had access to a car but it was shared among the other WWOOFer’s and it was only available certain days a week.
FRIENDS: Most WWOOFing farms are typically located outside of town and away from other people. You may want to talk a friend into sharing the experience with you so that you don’t get to lonely. Obviously there are other WWOOFers around but you don’t always know their personality types, if they will even speak the same language as you, and how long they plan on staying. You may like the idea of being secluded but others may want to bring a friend! 
FREE TIME: The farm Chelsea stayed at required each WWOOFer to work 5 hours a day. This may sound like a lot but chores where done quickly leaving a lot of free time to roam the land. Make sure you bring books to read or other things to help you occupy your time. Depending on if you have access to a car or not you maybe confined to the farm grounds a lot more than you would like. Also, don’t forget to ask about internet access, etc. Depending on the farm location access maybe sketchy and hard to keep in touch with family and friends (if you care to do that!).
EQUIPMENT: Find out what type of cooking equipment is available for the WWOOFers. Chelsea was able to take a isobutane/propane stove that was extremely lightweight and compact. It allowed her to fit a single pot, pan, or teakettle at a time to cook a number of things. Since you are typically confined to eating what the farm grows you may want more options when it comes to preparing the same foods over and over again.
With summer quickly approaching WWOOFing is a great hands on agriculture adventure! Not only does it teach you life skills but you’ll gain a better appreciation for the land and what it takes to grow your own food.
Visit WWOOFing today and find out how you can volunteer at an organic farm near you or across the globe!
From the Farm
STUFF: Farm Prints by Dolan Geiman
We’ve been following Dolan Geiman’s work for the past three years. He and his business partner, and wife, have been an example to us as small business owners trying to make a living while being creative. It’s been really fun watching Dolan’s work take shape and move from his original one-of-a-kind construction pieces to these petite 8″ x 8″ reproductions of original collages and illustrations printed directly onto poplar wood blocks.
STUFF: The Landscape of Growing Up Print
With spring quickly approaching we’ve been thinking and drawing out our landscaping plan for our summer garden. It’s actually coming along quite well (which we hope to share with you very soon), but I recently found this funny take on the idea of landscape drawings. I love how Emily McDowell can laugh (and has probably cried) through the ups and downs and realizations of growing up. There are times it can be exhausting but it’s truly about gaining strength in the journey and in the end knowing yourself a little better for it (“Mt. That Friend I Idolized Was Kind of an Asshole”).
People that Inspire Us: Susan with Freshly Picked
Freshly Picked from Team Thirteen on Vimeo.
“What you need to do is get clear about the life that you want. Then you need to re-focus your priorities until you can see that life and then you just run like hell at it! You just go for it!”- Susan Petersen with Freshly Picked
We couldn’t agree more!
From the Farm
GCD: Selling a Lifestyle or a Product?
We are excited to announce that we are officially working on a Look Book featuring our Green Couch Design Kitchen Line and Concrete Jewelry! The conceptual process is just getting started but we are already asking ourselves tons of questions as we figure out what are the key messages that we want to say about our products, our brand as a “lifestyle”, and/or both? If a picture is worth a 1,000 words then we had better make sure we have a clear vision about who we are and the type of visual messages we are sending our customers.
As we’ve been researching ideas for our Look Book we’ve noticed two different approaches toward selling a product:
1: Lifestyle Based Marketing: Imagery that forces customers to desire a product because of the way they feel when they are wearing that object or have that product a part of their life. When you aim your marketing toward a lifestyle approach you want potential customers to first fall in love with who you are and as a result purchase your products. With this type of imagery you are not just selling a piece of jewelry, you are selling a feeling based on the type of lifestyle your customers long to have.
Example: In this commercial you see the target audience is young adults and young families that are adventurous and want to “go” and “do”. They are not ok with sitting by and letting life pass by, instead they want to live life to the fullest. Ford focused it’s marketing efforts on the “feeling” their target market wants to have towards life (the problem) and how the Ford Explorer can help their customers accomplish that (the solution).
2: Product Based Marketing: Imagery that sells you a product by focusing on it’s features and services. Typically, this is for a product that is very specialized and more focused on the individual. Marketing efforts are narrowed into making one type of product and making it better than anyone else in your market. Customers purchase this type of product because it’s the best in the industry and it offers them something that your competition does not.
Married for 50 Years: Love Ever After Photography Project
This year for Valentines Day we decided instead of talking about ourselves we would share some love advice from the real “experts”. We’ve been following Lauren Fleishman’s Kickstarter Project called Love Ever After and we are completely smitten! Sharing stories of couples who have been married for 50+ years Lauren is capturing these couples through photographs and collecting fun quotes about how they met and their “secret” to finding and maintaining love.
Get ready to fall in love with some really adorable old people…
“Sometimes we think we love when we don’t love. A lot of people say they are in love but really we were young and we really didn’t know what love was all about. But afterward we found out what love was! Love is sharing with one another. Don’t care what you have you share what you have. And be willing to give. Another thing I tell people now is that you have to be able to bend a little bit. Yes, love is a powerful thing. If you know what it means.” – Theauther and Annie Love
“We’ve been married for 66 years. We met in high school when I was 16 years old and my wife was 15 years old. And we’ve gone through life together. The love we feel now is a different type of love. It is a mature love. In the beginning, of course, there was a sexual attraction but right now sex has very little to do with it.”- Moe and Tessie Rubenstein
“What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret and I don’t reveal my secrets!” - Ykov Shapirshteyn and Mariya Gostsinnaya
STUFF: YEAH!rentals Stop Motion Promo Video
YEAH!rentals from Son of Shark Pig on Vimeo.
This video makes us happy and although it’s very simple we’re pretty sure it took a lot more work than it shows! Today, push that idea… FURTHER!
From the Farm
video from Son of Shark Pig for YEAH!rentals
STUFF: A Sprawling Work Table
Over the past few weeks we’ve been moving rooms around in our little farm house. After two years of running our business in two separate rooms we’ve finally compacted everything into “one” lovely office. We are still working on the aesthetics but I’m LOVING the functionality of having everything in “one” room instead of split into two. With this new layout I can actually shut the door when Cale gets home along with the added “distractions” of having stacks of work lying around calling my name.
I truly love the new space but there’s still not room for the one thing I REALLY want… a GIANT conference table.
High class design in overalls. It's the simple life of a farm through the eyes of a couple of crazy designers. We call ourselves Green Couch Design and we are Bringing Design Home.
