Cool Company: NoHo Hair Salon and their fight against Cancer

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

The NoHo Hair Salon will be offering purple spirit streaks starting today, May 1st in hopes to raise money for their Relay For Life team! NoHo Hair Salon proprietor and Master Colorist Robbie Wilson is generously supplying the spirit streak materials, and stylist Monica Paul will be donating her time to preform the applications.

Wondering what a spirit streak is? It’s an amethyst extension, made of 100% human hair. For a donation of $5 a streak is applied with a professional grade adhesive, which lasts one to two weeks. For a donation of $15 a streak is sewn in and can last one to two months.

I went in today and got an awesome haircut from the lovely Monica, as well as my first sewn in extension ever! The best part is (other than Monica, I adore her) was that I got to enter my donation straight to NoHo Hair Salon’s Relay for Life page, so I can guarantee you that your FULL donation is going straight to The American Cancer Society.

You can go into the salon or even just donate remotely here: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY12CA?pg=team&fr_id=37130&team_id=1163432  …. but why not have some fun if you live in the area?

 

 

A little background on the salon:

Robbie is one of the region’s most sought-after colorists and Monica is becoming the Art District’s favorite hair artist with an edge.

Visit their website here: http://nohohairsalon.com/
“Like” them on facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/NoHoHairSaon
Or just plain visit them in person here: 11049 Magnolia Blvd., Suite 200 (Ground floor), North Hollywood, CA 91601

 

Love,
Jodie

 

PS. I strongly encourage tipping ;)

Cool Company: ThredUP

Friday, April 20th, 2012

I’ve recently had the pleasure of working on a new project with the CEO/Co-founder, and the Directors of Content over at ThredUP. But don’t think I’m telling you about this company because I’m biased. It’s simply a great concept.

“Clothes don’t grow. Kids do.”

Every parent finds themselves with a ton of clothes their kid(s) have grown out of. ThredUP makes it possible to trade such items for ones in the size you currently need. Members bundle 15+ “new to you” items in a box, then log the contents online by size, brand, gender, and style. Other “thredders” can then purchase the box for $9, plus the cost of shipping, and must eventually contribute packages of their own. You can also join the Super Thredder Program and earn double cash back for every 3 or 4 star box you send when you list your box at the Super Thredder rate.

Go on, check them out. Can’t hurt.

Love,
Jodie

Whoa whoa whoa, we have a birthday in the family. {GIVEAWAY}

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

There are few people we are indebted to the way we are indebted to our friend Amanda. She has created our website and email graphics for years and has recently started dealing with all the design work that comes along with starting a foundation. Her work, LITERALLY, by virtue of her taste and skill, has improved the lives of thousands of kids.

So we wanted to have a little giveaway on Twitter to help her celebrate. AND we recently hit 4,000 followers and have been meaning to do a Twitter giveaway!

Let’s see how this goes. (:

The rule:

1. Tweet the following at her. “@studioame happy birthday! you are so {insert any adjective, make them different for every tweet & the funnier/weirder the better!}”. For example, when I finish this post I will tweet “@studioame happy birthday! you are so good at dancing!”

THE AWESOME BONUS: every. single. tweet. gives you $3 to our store. (At midnight we will DM you a code for your value per the tweets.)

(Max 10 tweets each, max 20 winners.)

So are you hearing this?!  The first 20 people to tweet some funny birthday wishes to a fun girl just walk away with some free barley & birch threads.

THAT is how we celebrate the day of birth of someone in the barley & birch family. (:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMANDA! You are so…. NEW YORK! (:

Make Sometime Monday: Office Supply Wall Art

Monday, November 21st, 2011

We will talk more about our love/appreciation/endless admiration and gratitude to our friend Amanda of AME Atelier in a blog post soon, but wanted to share two of her recent DIY Project posts for today’s ‘Make Something Monday!’

(Side note: Amanda is the brains behind everything from our e-blasts to our homepage graphics to our new foundation site… and more!)

Anyway, how pretty are these banners? Yes, she made it all with masking tape and paper.

What a fun idea to keep in your back pocket for the first snowday of the year. (We all know that you never expect it and that the little ones are going to be needing some projects to do!)

And this little guy? Masking tape and paper again.

Yes, I would be willing to bet that she is the only person you will ever find that can make such pretty things with tape & paperclips and then, in the same paragraph of her blog post, let you know what niche art form they are actually a nod to. Seriously.

Be sure to follow her blog for great and funny posts, videos, drawings, everything as she explores her newest home– Brooklyn!

Cool new company: True Hero Ties

Friday, November 11th, 2011

It’s no secret that I (Kyle) love my alma mater, DePauw University.

I love singing the praises of DePauw as a university,  but love even more when I get to sing about something that a young alumni is up to. And when it is something that gives back in a big way, I just about die of pride and happiness.

Such is the case today.

I am so proud to tell you about a new company started by fellow DePauw grads called True Hero Ties.

True Hero Ties was founded on a simple concept – donate 50% of every sale to U.S. veteran support organizations. Every tie purchase allows American consumers to easily give back to our veterans.

They currently support the following organizations:
Wounded Warrior Project
Homes for Our Troops
Military Order of the Purple Heart
Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund

We at barley & birch think any company that is premised upon using their profits to improve the lives of others is fantastic. I (Kyle) love that True Hero Ties gives to groups supporting veterans as they return from overseas and face countless obstacles and challenges back at home. It seriously warms my heart.

These guys make me proud to have gone to DePauw with them. (:

To celebrate Veterans Day, you should head on over to learn about their company, background, and mission. Oh, and order a tie. It will make you feel great. (:

Love,
Kyle

Cool idea: Desgn.it

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

(amazing event recap put together by the talented folks at mico-documentaries.)

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to speak at Desgn.it, an event in San Francisco focused on bringing nonprofits and socially focused businesses together with incredibly talented designers. The concept of the event was that the nonprofits would be able to have access to supremely talented designers for some decided upon deliverable, ranging from a new web layout to a new logo to various collateral. For a nonprofit focused on using whatever budget they have to improve the world, spending time and money on designing their communication materials is, naturally, not a huge priority. To have a fresh set of (super talented) eyes on their nonprofit and brand identity is priceless. It also gave designers in the Bay Area a chance to connect with the do gooders around them and spend a Saturday giving back. Architecture for Humanity so kindly lent their wonderful office space to the event. (I was seriously drooling over their great space. You can see it in the video and photos below.)

Desgn.it was organized by Matt & Gopika of Elefint Designs, a fantastic marketing and design firm focused on serving companies and organizations working to improve the world.

And… it was SO AWESOME. Seriously. This blog post will not ever do this event justice.

The event kicked off with the heads of the nonprofits and companies meeting with their assigned design team to discuss their projects. They then broke off to hear talks on design as the designers worked away on the decided upon projects.

I was honored to be one of the speakers and I was a little starstruck when I heard that the other speaker was the incredible Robert Brunner of Ammunition. He flipped quite casually to the last few slides of his incredible, brilliant, and inspiring presentation, which were photos of him celebrating the success of Dr.Dre’s ‘Beats’ headphones with Dr.Dre (which he worked on). The next photo was him and Lady Gaga I believe (with whom he also worked.) It was unreal. I think I sat there with an open jaw most of the time.

After Robert’s talk, the design teams and nonprofits touched base with their design teams. I had a chance to walk around and the buzz of the room was seriously indescribable. The designers were excited about the causes they were helping and the heads of the nonprofits were beaming over the work that had already been done. It was seriously so cool to observe the energy and excitement.

After the break, I was up. Gulp. Basically, I spoke about how paying attention to design had helped barley & birch and how we envisioned it working for the barley & birch foundation, and how it already had! It was incredible to share our story and our successes with those that are doing tremendous work all over the world. I crossed my fingers and hoped that I had offered enough insight to help them. I was thrilled when I was approached by everyone afterwards who offered extremely kind words about our work, our goals, and my little talk. I think I got choked up at one point actually.

I walked out of Desgn.it feeling so recharged and inspired to work harder to do bigger things.

What an incredible idea on the part of Elefint Designs though, right? The idea of getting a group of people together to create some really incredible work for some great causes is so simple and brilliant and created a lot of good in one morning in San Francisco. The connections and atmosphere were just completely unforgettable.

It. Was. Awesome.

And yes, I am the dorky looking one in a flannel and huge glasses in the video. Sigh.

(:
Kyle

Project DOG {GIVEAWAY}

Friday, November 4th, 2011

We have long meant to post about our friend Kira of Nuena Photography. While a longer post is still in order, I (Kyle) will share just a bit about her before I talk about her most recent project that we are SO excited about and thrilled to share with you all.

In the past few years, I have met many extraordinarily talented, smart people. 99% of them use their talents 9am-5pm and call it a day. 1% of them will work tirelessly to use their skillset and general giftedness for good. Kira is that person. One look at her portfolio and you can see how talented of a photographer she is. What you do not see is that Kira then also visits shelters all over the Bay Area to photograph animals looking for homes, particularly longtime shelter residents. The updated and stunning photos often lead to these pets being adopted. In fact, she took these pictures of my beloved Oreo which led to me hearing of him and adopting him from the fantastic Berkeley Humane.

Needless to say, I was a fan of Kira before I saw her photos of Oreo. After I learned more about her, I was in love with what she did, her dedication to service, and her tireless work ethic. And after I met her?  She quickly transitioned into a position as basically my hero. She is amazing. (Example: see these recent photos she took for the Muttville Rescue, which finds homes for senior pets to live out their last years in life. These photos melt me, as I can feel Kira’s heart of gold coming through from behind the lense.)

Anyway, Kira will soon release her first book, Project Dog.

Project Dog started with the mission of finding the 170 AKC recognized breeds as purebreds and then finding a rescue/adopted counterpart in the same breed. Kira called for submissions and the result was incredible! If you check out the website, you will find tons and tons of submissions from all over the country. You could seriously spend hours reading them.

Kira eventually further challenged herself to find all of the breeds in just the San Francisco Bay Area.

(this is the recently released cover of the book!)

I recently had a chance to see a sneak peek of the book and, as a resident of the Bay Area, was gushing on every single page. Not only were there adorably photographed dogs in gorgeous color and size, but they were all in incredible iconic places in the Bay Area.

Oh wait, and whats even cooler is that the owners of the dogs told their dog’s bio and story on their page as well. So after looking at the pictures, you can read about the dogs’ stories and lives.

I truly could not stop squealing as she went through the pages with me.

As a child, I loved the books that had pictures of different breeds of dogs, horses, etc. and would have just been ecstatic to get such a cool, big book with all the breeds, but in real life and with their stories!

I am so excited about Project Dog that I pre-ordered one for nearly every dog-lover I know. (:

And of course I bought an extra one (or two or three depending on how many entries we get) to give away to the barley & birch blog readers! Kira has kindly agreed to sign the copies for the winners as well!

Contest Details:

  • Enter by commenting with your dogs name/breed or your favorite dog breed.
  • Extra entries:
    • (1 entry) tweet about the project, book, or contest using @barleyandbirch and @projectdog (and tell us you did below in the comments)
    • (1 entry) like Project Dog on Facebook (and tell us you did below in the comments)
    • (10 entries) spend an hour volunteering at a local animal shelter or donate $10 (and tell us you did below in the comments)
  • Ends Friday, November 11th at Midnight EST.

Good luck! Happy Friday!
Kyle

P.S. I am honored and thrilled to tell you that my beloved rescue dog Oreo is featured in the book. See his page layout below. (:

Make Something Monday: DIY Felt Jellyfish

Monday, April 11th, 2011

We saw this on the awesome Ohdeardrea blog and knew that we had to share. The full tutorial is here. (:

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Supplies:
1. Felt,
2. Embroidery thread for stitching
3. Several cut pieces of embroidery threads in different colors and lengths
4. Scissors
5. Needle
6. Stuffing
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Steps:
1. Cut felt to shape your jellyfish. A pac man ghost looking friend should be good. Tie a knot at one end of threaded needle and pull through the corner of one side.

2. Match the other piece of felt to the back, hiding the knot in between.

3. Overcast stitch up and around jellyfish coming back to the bottom. Once at bottom do not pull thread all the way through.

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Step 4: Take two pieces of embroidery thread (whatever length and colors you prefer) and tie a knot in loop.
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5. Pull needle and thread bringing the knot tight to the bottom of the jellyfish body.
6. Repeat over &over again along bottom. Be careful not to tangle strings.
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7. Once you are about 75% along the bottom, fill jellyfish body with stuffing.
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8. Continue stitching and adding ‘tentacles’. Once at the end: tie a knot leaving the thread to dangle. Cut off excess. Tada!
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9. Bring friends.
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Meet our friends: Peter Rabbit Organics {GIVEAWAY!}

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011


We are SO excited to announce a super fun contest/giveaway with our friends Peter Rabbit Organics!

If you don’t know Peter Rabbit Organics, they create amazing snack pouches filled with fruit and veggie blends. We especially love how similar their inspiration to start their company is to ours.

They saw a gap in the market for a responsible, healthy, high quality product and went into business to give parents that choice.

“We started Peter Rabbit Organics for the simple reason that we found it hard to find healthy snacks with no added salt or sugar.  We wanted to ensure what we (and our children) eat contained no artificial ingredient and always tastes delicious.”

Oh and did we mention that the pouches are completely DELICIOUS? Children and adults love them. (We are speaking from experience. A fight nearly broke out in our office for them.)

Well, good news, now you can win some delicious pouches AND some barley&birch threads in a fun contest we are having over on Twitter!

Details:

The Prizes
Peter Rabbit Organics- 2 24-pouch packs (4 of each of the 6 flavors)
barley & birch- 2 $25 gift cards

The Rules
1. Follow Peter Rabbit Organics & barley&birch on Twitter.

2.  To enter to win the Peter Rabbits Organics, tweet to @barleyandbirch the answer to the question, “Where would YOU take your Peter Rabbit Organics pouch?”

3. To enter to with barley & birch, tweet to @PR_Organics the answer to the question, “What would you use your barley & birch gift card on?”

4. Tweets must use the tag #probandb to be counted. (One entry per tweet. Limit three per person per day per contest.)

5. Contest ends Friday, April 8th at 3pm Pacific Time.

6. We will draw 4 winners at random and announce them Monday, April 11th!

UPDATE:

Congratulations to our winners!

Winners of the $25 barley&birch gift card:

  • @kierbadu
  • @cookwith5kids

Winners of the 24-pouch packs from Peter Rabbit Organics:

  • @sarahmama
  • @susanlanai

Email hey@barleyandbirch.com to receive information on how to redeem your prizes!

Little Alouette & barley&birch

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Our friends at Little Alouette have our amazing collaboration up in their online store with short sleeved pieces!

Go check it up and snatch up a little gift set for the loved tots in your life. (: