Polka Dot Robot

MegPie Gets Older!

Greetings from sunny San Francisco! (No, really, it's magically sunny and gorgeous, today.)

The other robots and I have a lot in common. We’re all bike owners (thanks Vivs, for the push!), we all have an affinity for the adorable, we are cocktail enthusiasts (bar enthusiasts, really…), and we’re insanely gorgeous (sigh).

One thing we do not have in common…is age. I am the odd man out this year. While the other robots turn 30, I am turning a measly 26. Womp womp. It’s always been a tender spot for me, always feeling like the lil guy, always trying to keep up (and I know it’s kind of weird, as there is a tendency for women to lie about being younger than they are, while I usually round up…)

So today, I own and celebrate the 26^th year of my life with a list of accomplishments by other’s in their 26^th year:

 
- Benjamin Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard's Almanac, which was to play a large role in molding the diverse American character.

 
- Albert Einstein published five major research papers in a German physics jornal, fundamentally changing man's view of the universe and leading to such inventions as television and the atomic bomb.

 
- Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Chereshkova became the first woman to travel in space.

 
- Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, revolutionizing the economies of the United States and Britain.

 
-College dropout Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer.

-MegPie cures cancer! (tentative)

I found these at The Museum of Conceptual Art, where you can search your age for accomplishments.

I hope you all enjoy my birthday, and your own, whenever that may be!

Love, MegPie

Apartment Inspiration

When I first moved into my apartment with Kevin, I put some real effort into making it feel like a home, and then life got crazy. For a while I couldn't tell what it was that didn't feel homey about the place, until it hit me in one giant, frustrating, and overwhelming epiphany- everything in the apartment was his or mine. Nothing was really ours. So, I am now on an unstoppable push to not only turn this apartment into our apartment, but I am on the track to really design it.

So first thing's first- the living room. It's the biggest room in the apartment, the most likely space for a group of friends to gather, and, personally, the heart of the home. Growing up, it was where my family truly bonded, and I think that will be true for Kevin and I, too.

So, I dove head-first into an idea and I'm sticking to it!

Inspiration: Orange and Teal

I was originally inspired by the winebar near by apartment

And now I see this is the color scheme of the wedding season!

(Above photo by NicoleBDesigns)

And InspireInspire posted a few years back about this color scheme in the home (so I'm bringing it back!)

And you may remember I like to create my own art for my apartments (DIY post here) and I have found another AMAZING art project which I plan to start soon, using colors inspired above:

Thanks, Apartment Therapy.

Any color schemes you're inspired by, lately?

Love, MegPie

Little Fang by Alice Koswara

Last week I stumbled upon a wonderful exhibit of small paintings called Little Fang by artist Alice Koswara. Currently on view in Fabric8, an art gallery in San Francisco's Mission District, the exhibit chronicles a family tree of strange creatures and their female owners.

Here are a few of my favorites. So charming!

Check out Alice Koswara's Flickr for more wonderful paintings. And if you're in San Francisco, stop by Fabric8 to see Little Fang in person. If you're lucky, the Creme Brulee Cart will be parked right outside.

<3 Erin-bot

A Lovely Tea Party

A few weeks ago, my lovely lady friends took me out for high tea to celebrate my 30th birthday. We got dressed up and met at Lovejoy's Tea Room, an adorable place filled with doiles, mismatched china, antique furniture, and tiny delicious food. I was in heaven!

We had two kinds of tea, an assortment of sandwiches, scones, crumpets, sausage rolls, and fruit.

And just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, the hostess brought out these beautiful Petit Fours. The little green hat was my favorite.

I made a wish and quietly acknowledged the last 30 years and my wonderful friends. My day-to-day life is fast-paced and emotionally taxing; this milestone birthday caused me to reflect on the bigger picture, feel grateful for what I have, and slooow down...at least for a little while. ;)

After tea time, we went outside to take some outfit photos. It's not every day that the Robots (and Lisapie!) are all dressed up and in the same place.

Is there a grannie-tastic tea room in your city? Please share in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

<3 Erin

DIY: Restoring Glass and Brass (and class)

As I ran around from extra-curricular to extra-curricular, or laid in bed nursing a fever that has yet to go away (bleh), my boyfriend took on the first of what will be many restoration projects!

Moving into an old building in San Francisco has many perks. In the case of our apartment, we've got beautiful molding, hardwood floors, and glass door knobs...which, when we moved in, looked like this:

 
Clearly, this was a speed-paint job from long ago. Really, I think the hinges bore the brunt of it:

Lucky for me, my boyfriend is pretty good at tearing things apart and putting them back together easily, but this is something anybody can do with the right tools and some help from the internet...and that cure-all we've all come to know and love: Baking Soda.

The BF removed the knob, hinges, screws, and mechanisms from the door. He set them aside, and made his concoction. In a medium sized sauce pan (you may need a bigger pan, depending on how much you intend to restore) he filled it half way with water, and poured in the baking soda until the liquid was opaque. He put it on a burner and waited for it to boil. Once it started boiling, he added the door accessories. They sat in the boiling Soda-Water for two hours, though I don't think it needs that much. After two hours, he removed the pan from the heat and let it cool, so he could handle the metal. After rinsing and rubbing with a sponge, this was the outcome!!!:

We're excited to get the newly exposed brass back on the door, and see it pop. One door down, five more to go!

I'm also looking forward to this event coming up in my new 'hood:

Lower Haight April Fools' Scavenger Hunt

They're mixing in an art walk with some competition. Love it! (Though it will be impossible to rival Erin's B-Day hunt...)

Off to take some Sudafed! Wish me luck!

Love, MegPie

Recent Projects- and Black Friday Sale Reminder!

Hi Robots!

As it often occurs before the holidays, I've had a ton of projects to work on!

As it often occurs when I have a ton of projects to work on for other people, I've been distracted by a project for myself!   

One of the things I like about my neighborhood, is that people will often put unwanted items out on the street.  Normally this means I'm looking at a hideous old couch or some wierd looking sweaters, but sometimes it means I walk home with a new bookshelf! The good thing is that nothing hangs around for long, and so the streets don't look too cluttered.

So, just the other day, one of my neighbors put out a huge collection of old slides! They seem to be a combo of a european vacation (lots of old stone churches), a winter ski trip, and some summer vacation stills:

(Boomer is, as usual, wondering why I'm doing something other than playing with him)

So here's the plan: I'm going to string them together into a grid using dental floss (the strongest stuff on earth!) and then hang them in the window like it's stained glass! Fingers crossed that it looks amazing!

Meanwhile, here are the projects I've been working on for the Holidays:

Hudson the Harrowing

and the first of some fingerless gloves for my Grandma:

Meanwhile- I'm so ecited for PDR's Black Friday Sale!  This Friday, November 26 - Sunday, November 28th!  Everything is 20% off!!!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving Robots!

<3

Laurel

Oh My Robots! Shop update TOMORROW!

The Robots had a great time this weekend doing a photo shoot at one of our favorite buildings in San Francisco- the Atlas Stair Building Co.

Image Credit: RadioNicole

They used to make spiral staircases there- now it's a residence- I'm so jealous! The photo shoot was super fun: we were leaping about and posing in our cute products entertaining the neighborhood.  There were a lot of people out and about as it was a sunny Saturday, we even met some firemen that invited us to a block party down the street (hee hee).

But, back to the most important news! SHOP UPDATE!!! Tomorrow morning Polkadotrobot.com will be filled with new knit and crocheted items, and new monsters!  You already saw a few of our new products in our Indie Mart post, here are 3 of the new monsters for you to meet:

This is Johnny Scotland, Richie the Ravenous, and Billy the Biter!

Special thanks to Kara, Erin's little sister who modeled for us.  Kara- here's a High-Five in thanks!

We can't wait for you guys to see our new stuff! Stay tuned til tomorrow!

<3

The Robots

 

Living and Knitting in San Francisco

In the last few days, I have seen some crazy things in San Francisco!

1. A parade of cyclists (critical mass!) dressed in costumes for Halloween.

Photos by Steve Rhodes

2. A mob of San Francisco Giants fans celebrating the team's World Series victory! The honking and screaming kept me awake until 2 am this morning -- good thing I had a lot of knitting to do.

Photos by saucemeisterq

3. Voters lined up at the polls. (This isn't a crazy event -- I just wanted to remind everyone to vote today!)

4. And lastly, piles and piles of yarn to be made into Polka Dot Robot goods for Indie Mart on Sunday, November 7th. In the photos below, you can see my and Vivianna's knit pieces for Beau Geste Mittens and various animal hats.

Hope you had a wonderful and equally eventful weekend!

<3 Erin-bot

IndieMart Sneak Peak: MegPie Edition

Erin and I attended one of our weekly Nerd Nights last night, and worked on projects for IndieMart (Next Sunday, AHHHHH!) I thought I'd tease you all, a lil bit, and show you some sneak peaks of what you will see at IndieMart (or our IndieMart blog post, for all of you out of towners....)

Sneak Peak #1!:

 

Sneak Peak #2!:

 
 
And Sneak Peak #3!:

 

Any surprise I'm making something with buttons?

Sorry I can't give you more, but I signed a very strict contract, and if I break it, Vivs gets my first born...

I guess you'll just have to come to IndieMart!

Love, MegPie

Halloween costume DIY

Hi Robots!

As halloween is quicky approaching (eep!) I've taken some time off making monsters for Indie Mart and am working on Erin's and my own Halloween costumes- I'm not telling you what they are yet! Stay tuned for a Halloween-themed My Weekend In Photos next week!

But, it reminded me of 2 years ago when I tackled a pretty good DIY costume for my boyfriend and myself and I thought I'd share:

Matador and Bull:

We bought some rediculous outfits: My boyfriend got some Hideous track pants with a gold stripe and a gloriously ugly shirt, we found a bolero jacket and I made a red cape for him to taunt me with. Mine was a vintage halter neck dress with a Huge skirt:

 The part I'm most proud about was making the hats!  You can see Andy's matador hat close up on the left in the photo above.  Matador hats normally look like this->

I made Andy's out of a black baseball hat with the bill cut off.  Then I cut the stiff front part out of 2 trucker hats, glued them to the sides and covered them in black felt.  Voila and Ole!

My Bull hat was also super exciting to make.  I bought a standard Viking hat at a costume store for about $8.  I devided the space on the hat into 6 parts, like the slices on a pizza, and cut out large rounded triangles out of faux fur,  I glued them down, cutting them around the horns for an exact fit:

Then came the challenge of making the face.  I had planned on making a bull muzzle on my own and stuffing it.  But another of my friends was working on a project of his own- he was making a fuzzy tail for his Wizard of Oz Lion out of the long arms of a stuffed monkey.  Don't worry, the monkey was bought for $1 at a thrift store and wasn't anyone's dear toy!  I was helping him with the arms, when I saw that the monkey had the perfect-sized muzzle to go on my Bull Hat! So I grabbed the scissors and did some surgery ;) I sewed my new-ly created muzzle on my bull, added some felt nostrils and some googly eyes, and ta dah!

Andy and I had SO much fun chasing each other around that night! (I managed to skewer him a few times!)

In case you were wondering what happened to the poor dismantled monkey, we've kept him around! We've christened him Barf Monkey, because he can't seem to keep his stuffing inside him:

He holds a special place in our hearts, and has proved to be a hilarious friend and dog toy.

Happy Almost Halloween Robots! What are you going to be this year?

<3

Laurel

Indie Mart on Sunday, November 7: Join Us!

Mark your calendars! The ladies of Polka Dot Robot will have a table at Indie Mart on Sunday, November 7, 2010! This design and DIY street festival is super duper fun. If you're in or near the Bay Area, we hope you'll come by and say hello!

Indie Mart is a street festival in San Francisco that includes over 100 different vendors -- DIY/handmade, art and silk screening, vintage, vinyl, bbq and baked goods, and more. There are workshops (including terrariums! and screen printing! and heavy metal aerobics!), live bands and DJs, and a photobooth.

This will be our third Indie Mart show (see photos from November 2009 and June 2010) -- we can't wait!

As always, we'll have BRAND NEW Polka Dot Robot items for sale (not available on our site) -- including monster hoodies, headbands, animal hats, cozies, and more!

All goods sold at Indie Mart will be discounted -- up to 50% off -- so don't miss it!

The Indie-Mart Street Fair
Sunday November 7, 2010
VENDORS: Noon - 6 pm
AFTER PARTY & BANDS: 6 - 9 pm
Thee Parkside- 17th st & all down Wisconsin
ALL AGES (21+ to booze it up)
$3 suggested donation

We hope to see you there!

<3 Erin, Vivs, Laurel, and Megpie

Weekend in photos and Videos:Golden Gate Bridge

On Sunday morning at 7:30 my friend Stuff (his nickname) went for a bike ride across Golden Gate Bridge.

View Larger Map

 

 

 

Summer in the City

Today actually feels like summer, even! I love September in the city...and just September in general. Out here, the weather turns into a golden sunny goodness, back home in Minnesota, the leaves are changing and people are stocking up on firewood (which mainly stays in the garage where chipmunks live until the thaw...aww.)

I especially love this season for what is IN season:

Heirloom Tomatoes...gahhhhhh

 
 Photo by Mariemariemarie

And for events like THIS: 

http://foragesf.com/market/

The Underground Farmer's Market. SF is such a foodie town, and this is such a foodie event. :) My parents are in town, but I'll just bring them along!

Hope you all have gorgeous weekends!

Love, MegPie

My Weekend in Photos: Friends in town!

This weekend Erin and I were visited by our lovely friends from San Diego and New York and took a pile of silly photos with them all across San Francisco!

We had a long wait outside the restaurant and spent some time being ridiculous:

I love photos of people jumping, mostly because they always turn out like this:

We enjoy being strong ladies:

We went to Beauty Bar where you can get a manicure and a cocktail, but mostly it's just fun dancing. They have some old-style hair drying chairs turned into lighting fixtures and we found a great way to pose in them- Here's Erin:

And our friend Linsay:

The next day we went to the Bettie Page store and tried on some dresses. Here's Erin in the dress Blair made famous in Gossip Girl!

I hope you had a great weekend!

<3 Laurel

Renegade San Francisco, 2010

Last weekend at Renegade was so much fun. I got to hangout and meet so many amazing people. I am a little sad because only four of my photos came out, the rest are blurry.

For most of Saturday, I got to hangout with Lehua and CAL. We met up super early for breakfast at my favorite morning spot Boogaloos

after breakfast we headed over to Renegade 

(last 4 photos from Lehua)

This is me trying to figure out what is going on with my camera.

(Chelsea photo)

Saturday night I got to have dinner with the most amazing group of ladies! Emma, Shawni, Liz, Chelsea and, Elsie went to Bin 38 for some good food and wine.

(Elsie's Photo)

On Sunday I got to hangout for most of the day with my friends Elsie and Emma. It was so nice to catch up and visit with them.

(Twinkie Chan's photo)

( CAL's photo)

Twinkie Chan's booth was really amazing!

(Elsie's photos)

I had a really great weekend! I want all my new friends to come back to San Francisco already!!!!

 

I wish that I could show you more amazing things that I bought at Renegade, but the only thing I bought was Uppercase magazines. I bought four of them and I got a free journal :) They are really beautiful and inspiring, but I wish spent my money on other things.  

This was my first Renegade and even though we did not have a booth, I had a great time :)

Cafe Time

We have been spending a lot of time at cafes working on new things for PDR. As you can see from the video I work really, really hard ;)

Don't forget to checkout Laurels post below.

Renegade San Francisco

The 3rd Annual Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco on July 31 + August 1, from 11am – 7pm each day at the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion!

Always FREE-TO-ATTEND – the Bay’s favorite craft, art, design and DIY spectacular will feature over 225 of today’s finest indie-craft talents from all over the nation, craft-workshops , entertainment + other features!

I am super excited about Renegade this weekend because I get to meet up with some of my favorite bloggers and crafters.  If you are in the area and would like to meet-up I will be there Saturday for most of the day.

I will see you for sure... Elsie, Twinkie Chan, Liz, CAL, Lehua

xoxo,

Vivs

Indie Mart Photos

We are a little late getting these photos posted, but here are some of the Indie Mart photos.

 

You can see the rest of the photos here

Summer in the City

San Francisco wants everyone to believe that this is the place to be in the Summer...and despite the fog, wind, and completely Un-Summerly temperature, it is! Summer in the City is something I look forward to for many reasons, and one of which is:

This is such a cool festival. The opera, symphony, and ballet all make appearances, and this year, closing the festival, is:

 
They Might Be Giants! (That brings me way back...)

If you are living in SF, or coming to visit, make sure to check out any of the Stern Grove performances. They're outdoor, free, and basically super awesome.

I am also looking forward to a photo shoot with the PDR girls coming up! Yay for getting pretty!

Thanks for reading.

Love, MegPie

Video of San Francisco 1905

and 2005