Missy – The Goods

Gift Guides

Tour de Style

May 19, 2010

In honor of bike week, we rounded up some of our favorite gifts for cycling enthusiasts. Happy biking!

Starting at the top, from left to right: If Mode bike, $2200; recycled bike chain frame, $32; bear and cow seat covers, $20; map of the world water bottle, $18; recycled bike tube Night Out card case, $15; recycled bike chain bottle opener, $9 ; bicycle tie, $35 ; recycled bike gear clock, $76 ; recycled bike tire belt, $30 ; NYC skyline leg bands for biking, $22; walk and ride organic cotton babysuits, $25; recycled bike chain bowl, $63.50; recycled bike tube Queen Anne wallet, $58 ; Strida bike, $800; recycled bike chain lizard keyring, $18.

The Uncommon Life

Happy Bike Week!

May 18, 2010

So this is a little belated…but Happy Bike Week everyone!

For those of you who don’t know, May is national bike month and May 17-21 is Bike-to-Work
Week with Friday, May 21 being the big hurrah – Bike-to-Work Day!

Stay tuned this week for more posts about cycling…until now here are some resources and fun stuff about cycling:

Check out the League of American Bicyclists they have a lot of great news articles and blog posts, as well a tool to help you find bike resources (clubs, leagues, shops, etc.) in your area.

Ride the City is another super useful site that helps you find the best urban biking route, ranging from direct, safe and safer. Available for New York, Chicago, DC Metro, Austin, Louisville, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto.

And now for some fun stuff…

Matt, Al and Meredith battle it on The Today Show in this year’s commuter challenge: bike vs. subway vs. car.

And of course, how to make a smoothie using a human-powered bike blender!

Do you bike to work? Are you going to try biking to work this week? Let us know! And if you have any other cool cycling websites or tips to share, please do so in the comments section. Happy Biking!

Maker Stories

Congrats to artist Tammy Smith!

May 18, 2010

Just wanted to give a big shout-out to artist Tammy Smith who recently won Best in Show at the New Orleans Jazz Festival art fair!

Tammy joined the UncommonGoods artist team in the fall of 2009 – with her signature treasure boxes inspired by old-fashioned circuses and abandoned carnivals.

Tammy won the “best in show” award for her entire body of work which consisted of mixed media wall art and wire sculptures that teeter between joyful and eerie. In addition to showing her work, Tammy was also in a demo tent, and spent several hours a day showing people how she makes her wire sculptures. Very cool!

A little about the festival: The New Orleans Jazz Festival art fair is a national juried art fair that is
held every year in NOLA. This 10-day cultural festival not only consists of artists and craftspeople from all over the world, but also thousands of cooks and musicians serving up delicious Louisiana cuisine and world-renowned music. The show has three art areas: Congo Square, featuring mostly African American artists, Louisiana Marketplace, which features local artists, and the Contemporary Crafts area, which features artists from all over the country. Tammy participated in the Contemporary Crafts group with a focus on 3D mixed media.

Congrats Tammy!

The Uncommon Life

The Recycling Bin: May Day Baskets

April 28, 2010

This is the perfect project for people who are too lazy to take out their recycling, but not too lazy to do arts and crafts (i.e. me). For whatever reason, I never feel the need to take out the recycling until there are at least four cans and a couple bottles that I have set on the floor next to the bin. I agree, it’s ridiculous and disgusting, but if I took out the recycling … I wouldn’t have been able to do this cool May Day basket project.

Let’s begin!

First, go to your recycling bin and survey the scene. Tin cans work well, as do the bottom half of plastic bottles, and milk or juice cartons. I didn’t have any small glass jars – but those would be a good option too. Anything that held a liquid before is a good choice since you will putting flowers and water in it.

Now comes the gross part. If you are like me, you didn’t properly rinse out all of your containers before putting them in the bin … so you’re going to have to give everything a good rinse and scrub. Nobody wants a May Day basket that has dried tomato sauce on it!

For bottles and cartons, you will need to peel off any labels and cut off the top half to make a proper container ……… this is me waiting for you to cut the bottles in half …….. be careful – nobody wants a May Day basket with dried blood on it!

Now comes the fun part – decorating! I have decided to use this super-cool decorative masking tape. This stuff is great. It comes in all these wonderful patterns and colors, so you can create a lot of different looks when you have several rolls. I started with a few simple patterns and then went on to do layered designs.

The Uncommon Life

I’m on Cloud 9

April 26, 2010

In third grade, I was the last person to pick a topic for the science fair. While my classmates got the more glamorous projects – lizards! exploding volcanoes! mold & bacteria! – I got clouds. Clouds! Can you believe it? My project consisted of me going outside taking pictures of the sky and taping them onto a sky blue poster board. I was virtually ignored at the science fair, “Please!!!! Let me tell you about cirrus clouds!!!” “No thanks, going to see the lizards.”

If only I had had these cute paper clouds back in third grade – nobody would have been able to resist my report!

These happy, little (and, if memory serves me right, cumulus) clouds were leftover from our recent catalog, and since it would be a crime to throw a cloud away, they now live up in the atmosphere of the creative studio.

They make me smile whenever I come into work – I just find them so darn cute! And not only do they make lovely office decor, but they also would look darling in a kid’s room or (on a smaller scale) above a crib in place of a mobile.

Want to make your own paper clouds? It’s easy!

Continue Reading…

The Uncommon Life

Trust Us, We Wear Lab Coats

April 23, 2010

We don’t know about you, but we have a serious lack of the scientific method in our lives these days. You know, the 5-step format to doing experiments often executed with the help of an awesome composition notebook, a lab partner you were generally repulsed by, and a pair of giant embarrassing goggles that left an outline on your face for at least another class period. Come to think of it, were not quite sure why we suddenly have such fond feelings for the scientific method … maybe we just wanted an excuse to test some of our favorite products, and the scientific method just made it seem more official. And that’s how we came up with The Gift Lab: a company-wide operation that calls upon all Ugooders to conduct rigorous tests and research on select products, report on their findings and lead to breakthroughs in the often frustrating and puzzling field of gifts.

So in the name of science, gifts and dangerously high levels of fun, let the labbing begin!

The Uncommon Life

Our “Paper” Catalog

April 22, 2010

Before we started on our most recent catalog, we all got together and decided that we wanted something fresh! something new! something different! And that’s when it hit us like a lightning bolt from a paper cloud: “Let’s make everything out of paper!”

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Isn’t the catalog always made of paper?” And, yes, you would be right, the catalog is always made of paper. But beyond the pages, we wanted to incorporate paper as a unifying theme throughout the book. The catalog was divided into six chapters, all of which feature sets made entirely out of paper, paste and paint. We started with six, but we liked them so much, that we decided to up the ante to 12 (“How about a cover?” “Sure it only takes two days to make!”). These paper worlds vary from the size of a book (the cover) to the size of a real-life living room complete with paper couch. In all of the scenes the only thing that isn’t made out of paper is the product.

The Uncommon Life

The Little Blog That Could

April 21, 2010

I never thought this day would come.

Ever since I started working at UncommonGoods three years ago, whispers of a blog have echoed through the hallways of UG. We would have meetings about this so-called blog, brainstorm for ideas, and, then, just like that, we would decide to do something else instead.

And so, the idea of the blog was filed away. Put into a notebook for safekeeping. It became a recurring idea, showing its face every six months or so, and then disappearing once again into the background.

Right on schedule, the blog came up again in a meeting this past January. Except this time it was in a power point presentation – so you know we meant business! But besides our fancy presentation, there was something else that was different. With the help of Facebook and Twitter, UncommonGoods was no longer about us, it was about all of you. Our customers don’t just shop with us; they are our friends, our fans, the people we talk to everyday, and the people who help shape who we are as a company.

We see this blog as just one more way to break down the barriers between company and customer. A way to share our ideas and inspirations with each other. A way to have a conversation and ask each other questions. A way to learn more about our artists, designers, and, of course, our customers.

So without further ado, I am excited to introduce the UncommonGoods blog! Turns out, all we needed to start a blog – was you:)

Newer Posts

Archives