Be the Change!

Hey Guys! Haley here, I wanted to put a quick update. :)


Young Blood is an amazing gallery and boutique and I know it has changed the lives of not only artists but the people who have interned/worked there.

Young Blood strives to help its community and show love to the people in it :)

I know that recently Young Blood has supported Atlanta's MondoHomo!
An amazing Homolovin festival for Atlanta to show the ultimate pride! MondoHomo has workshops, shows, and builds unity down in the dirty south. For more info for this years MondoHomo you can visit their facebook ! http://www.facebook.com/MondoATL

Another great community building showdown that is comin to down is the " Be the Change Youth Convergence". The Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition alongside the AFSC is putting on thsi convergence to promote peacemaking, sustainability, and radicalsharing. While honoring people of allbackgrounds and faiths the convergence strives todemonstrate a way of life that is an alternative to materialism, militarism and racism. For more information about the convergence you can go to the GPJC web site :
http://www.gpjc.org/more/index.cfm?Fuseaction=more_51864&section=more_51864

and here is the brochure :
http://gpjc.org/uploads/gpjc/BTC%20Promo%20Brochure.pdf

Jut wanna promote some great things going on :)


I will be from now on updating on Saturday so you then!


Haley

Good gawd allmighty, it's Spring tiiiiime!!!!!!!!

This has by far been one of the longest, most painful winters ever! I try and try to chin up and enjoy it but cold, snow and drizzling rain just ain't my thing! This is the first week in the high 70s and 80s. Atlanta's beloved trees are blooming and people are reclaiming their walks, bike rides,
and restaurant patios.

Some of my favorite Atlanta Spring things to do:
1. Eat Yoforia (and King of Pops popsicles are finally popping up around the city!)

2. Go to one of our many farmer's markets (went to Buford Hwy one last weekend!)

3. Drink on a patio! (Just saw someone drinking one of the locally famous grapefruit rosewater martinis next door at Cafe di Sol.

4. Gardening - time to put in your tomatoes, y'all!

5. Spring cleaning and purging - it's time to remove the
clutter from my life and that includes everything from the piles stacked up on my desk to the negatives nellies in my life - yep, I said it! Make my life better or get out the way!

6. Shop - The season's bright colored dresses, handbags, and jewelry are popping up everywhere I look and I want! I want!

And now, some of my favorite new designs in the shop for Spring!

Push Me Pull You Designs - We have tons of new prints, tee shirts, housewares and cards!

We have tons of new items rolling in for Spring. Come say hi and tell us what ya think!

xo,
Maggie

A blog post about blogging.

The more I add entries to this blog, and the more I read everyone's entries, I'm inspired to get back into blogging. I was reminded of my high school days (which wasn't really to long ago) So I did it, I started a new personal blog.

At first I didn't know what I was going to do with this thing. I have the tendency to start something and not see it through. When I was younger, and had more spare time, I would start sewing something and get busy or frustrated and drop the project all together. I want to work on my lack of drive. And I will! It's spring, I've got some growing to do!


Something that I think I definitely need to grow is my personal fashion. I've started following a few fashion blogs and sites.

I was reminded of a street fashion site Cycle Chic during our Cycle Through show, which was great, but if you're interested in fashion and bikes; check out Cycle Chic.


Cycle Through was fun and is done. Now this Saturday is the opening for Dennis McNett and John Reardon and I am not missing this show!

I personally wanna see Dennis McNett the man, coz he makes some crazy good prints.


I said he was crazy good,
Hope to see you Saturday :]

-Annette

ps my blog

This Saturday!!

Please come out this Saturday and welcome these artists to Atlanta -they will both be present!!
It's from 7-1o pm!!

"Borrowed Time" April 3-25
Opening Saturday April 3rd 7-10 pm
for "Borrowed Time " with NYC Artists Dennis McNett & John Reardon.

Reardon offers one-of-a-kind, brightly colored, “tattoo” style paintings and ink drawings with a style "permanently borrowed from mid 20th century tattoo flash... cut up and rearranged..."

He can be seen anywhere between Merlin’s Tattoo shop, a shop featured on the hit TV show “Miami Ink,” and Copenhagen, Denmark, where he lends his creative hand to Bright Side Tattoos. Patrons can also soak in the mind-blowing wood block prints of New York’s Dennis McNett. With works featured in The New York Times and Juxtapoz Magazine, McNett’s work is sure to impress even the most seasoned art connoisseur. He has created designs for Volcom, Anti-Hero skateboards, Vans and Addidas to name a few.

"Surviving the fires that purged the earth from the mighty battles of
ancient kings and greed scorned gods, two lost souls discovered the
charred remains of fallen warriors still grappling the bloody severed
goat head of Baphomet, forever banished to the realm of the underworld.
Through the resurection of these once great warriors , the lost souls will
be chosen to reveal the history of the true battle of death between man and god."

Day trippin'...

Last week Maggie and I took a little day trip to Athens. It's a rare treat and it was the perfect time of year. Our mission was to drive up and pick up some bird houses for the shop made by Wing Ding Construction. And our special treat was to eat at The Grit-mmmm....



We had a couple other to do's on our check list as well:
1) Agora for antinque-in (by the way if you're looking for a designer bag they have a bunch you can even lease or pay on lay away-crazy crazy)
2) shopping on the square to look for new artists and get inspired but what others are doing.
3) ate some fro yo with almond,blueberries and Chocolate chips!
4) visit our friend and awesome artist David Hale's new tattoo shop and gallery
Anchor Tattoo & Gallery



We also stopped by Satisfactory Screen Printing to say hi and see what new designs they had been working on. They had a really amazing hand painted sign this old yocal from athens had painted for them.



yours truly
kelly

Flea Market Love

Who doesn't love flea markets right? I've been desperately needing a flea market fix as of late, so Sunday my good friend Rebecca and I ran away from Atlanta to this ahhhhmazing flea market in McDonough, armed of course with soy lattes and money we shouldn't spend but knew we were going to anyways. Basically, we were there for about four hours and barely got through the first two rooms. What really tied us up were about six or seven boxes of hundreds and hundreds of old photos... and yeah, we had to look at each one. BUT, they were totally inspiring. It always sparks my curiosity and gets my mind wandering when I can look at things and can have a little peek into other people's lives, what made them the happiest or saddest, and what obviously caught their attention enough to want to take a photograph of it.

Here's a couple of my favorites I snagged!

If I could teleport, I'd go back in time and explore this house. You can kinda see around the front of it and I'm loving that second story balcony.

No really, what's going on here?

Dream scenario.

So basically, it was a successful trip. Seeing all these old photos couldn't help but remind me of Steph Dowda and John Paul's show. Which by the way, we still have a few lockets up in the boutique that are for sale... as seen below. AND if y'all are interested, Steph can customize them.. set 'em up on a real good date with a locket lookin for some photo love. She's going to be doing one for me in the near future with my pets in it!!

Have a good one!:)
-Jen

Wowee wowee wow!!! Look at the video that Mark Tioxson made from this month's art show "Cycle Through", a biked-themed group show! SOPO organized a bike race that ended at Young Blood and made for good times!

Mark came out of the blue and generously offered to shoot the event for us. More of his pics are coming but he sent this teaser video today. Check out his website, LeahandMark.com, for gorgeous and heart-felt photography.

Speaking of bikes, I miss riding mine. Her name is Pinkie, she's a 1984 Cannondale, and we have been through a lot together! I bought her at a yard sale in the late nineties and she has stuck by me through college at GSU, 6 years living in the West End, 2 years in Grant Park, 6 months in Hawaii, 4 years in Kirkwood, 1.5 in Cabbagetown, and now East Lake! I quit riding when I went full-time with YB since I am always hauling big crap to work. Annnd it's now a 5 mile ride. I know! I'm being a wuss! Especially since every single time I've grumbled about riding, as soon as I take off I couldn't be happier. Guess I need to start exploring my new hood! Who wants to go for a bike ride in East Lake?

xo,
Maggie

Tit for Tat Pussy Cats!

Hey dudes , Haley here..up for another exciting run around on the good ole bloggarz!

So personally in my life I have hit a small rough patch...I blame it on the weather.
The whole lack of sunshine and vitamin d stuff. Anywho and I was thinking about what makes me feel better. Some prefer cozying up with a good book, others calling in sick at work and takin a day off. But me you ask? Well I love nature and animals. In the few days we have had decent sun shine I went crazy and bought all my favorite herbs. I painted pots teal and yellow and pink polka dots! I buried some of my crystals in the moist soil for a recharge. And last but not least,grabbed up my guinea pig Tyrel and squeezed him till he went limp. Being outside and breathing in that freshly tilled soil and sunshine does a body good. Animals as well have their own healing ability. If you dont believe me, read this article on pet therapy by someone I am sure is smart...http://www.sniksnak.com/therapy.html

That is why Young Blood has their very own little spirit guide Ms. Jolene. Jolene charms the pants of the young and old with her green eyes , soft black hair, and missing limb. She stretches and basks in the love of all who worship her. She is great to have around the shop as Young Blood's little mascot. Jolene comforts some with her animal charm and yet injurs some with her quick temper. Gotta love that little stank. Anyways , to comfort the souls of the ones reading. I am going to post kitty pictures. the end.

haley.

DEFinition of Hip Hop Book Signing Event

The Burn Unit busting some moves at YB

Bill Adler

Cey Adams (foreground) and Bill Adler Book Signing

Check out our pics from last Friday's DEFinition of Hip Hop book signing event on Flickr!

Many thanks to photographer John Crooms for sharing his images from that night!
You can visit his Photoblog to view them.

Photographer: John Crooms


Lucha Rodríguez also photographed the event. You can view her pics on YB's Flickr page.

Dodekpus Presents: Collective Conscious

Hey there, Annette here, did anyone see that double rainbow Sunday afternoon? It was gorgeous!! I got to share such a lovely thing with my buddies of Dodekapus.


(isn't that a sweet rainbow? look closely and you can see the 2nd one)
photo courtesy of Matt Jones

"Dodekapus (as in a 12 tentacled sea-creature) is an artist collective representing individuals from different media such as painters, sculptors, photographers, performance artists, fashion designers, videographers, lighting designers, writers, musicians, chefs, poets, dancers and multiple other artists of indiscriminate talents." The founding members, as well as most of the group, are students; and I was surprised I already knew a few people. Haley (another of the lovely YB bloggers) is also a part of the group.

I joined the group in February and was blown away by their vision, drive and energy.The group, with the kind help of WonderRoot, are on the way to becoming a Non profit organization.

April 9th starting at 8pm Dodekapus presents: Collective Conscious. (It's going to be insane!)
This event includes, but is not limited to;

-Music-
~Muet
~Sonen
~The Falcon Lords
~The Back Pockets
~ DJ Santiago Paramo

-Doodle Cat Bike Race-

-Performance Art-
-Visual 2d/3d art-
-On-site artistic creations-
-Community participation
-Dance/Movement-
-Body Painting-
-Video Projection-
-Characters/Costumes-
-Tasty Culinary Treats-
-Live Graffiti-
Much, much, much more!

Prepare for all 5 of your senses to be overwhelmed with the beautiful, the wonderful, the spectacular, and the fantastical creations by Atlanta's artists.

The event starts at 8:00 (with a $5 cover after 8:30) and goes on until 4am.

Visit Dodekapus.org for more information. Follow us as a fan on Facebook.

(sorry if that was long, I'm super excited about the show lol)

_Annette

For the love of the four legged

Well if there's one thing everybody knows about me it's that I love animals. It's been like that since I was a kid and got my first dog. She was a puppy I picked out of a mall pet shop. She was a poodle/terrier cross named Muppet. I always got upset when strangers met her and wanted to think I named her muffet. Muffet really? What kind of dumb name is that. Any way I guess she and all the misc cats we had running around the neighborhood started my obsession with the four legged. Even as a kid I understood the importance of spaying/neutering your pet and am still shocked when I meet people who have unaltered pets. It would take me a while to actually sit down and list all the dogs,cats,horses,gerbils,mice and fish that have been in my life but, I could list all of their names and tell you how wonderful each and every one of them were and are to me.

One thing I've always wanted to do with the piles of hairballs in the corners of my house is
have somebody make me a sweater out of my dogs fur. What an awesome way to recycle those pesky balls. Or I guess if you were a knitter you could have some one make your yarn and you could knit an extra layer of fur for your pet during those winter months.


ok ok looking at these people kind of makes me feel creepy so maybe just a mini felted version these folks will make of your pet.












horsie for me please!
A lot of our artists in our shop support animal rescue and donate portions of the sales of their
products to area shelters like La Familia Green, Sudstress and Monkey and Squirrel.

So in the words of Bob Barker "and always remember to spay or neuter your pet".

your animal pal,
Kelly

Studio Visit!

hello all! It's Jen (look out for my introduction later!) and my turn to post! and goodness, this post is looooong overdue! I went to NYC last year, and while I was there, I got to visit one of our lovely jewelry vendors here at YBG, Erica Weiner's, studio! For those who don't know me, I'm completely obsessed. I wear my silver mouse pelvis bone necklace everyday, religiously and about have a heart attack anytime I get an email from her showing me her new designs. Alright now it's picture time!


Alright so here is her section of one-of-a-kinds and new designs she's trying out.. pretty rad right? Of course I had to pick out some from here! Got myself a Herkimer Diamond Solitaire Ring (!!!), a necklace with a fossil on it for my mom, and another necklace with a piece of old pottery placed in a silver setting. I was immediantly drawn to the little blue and white pottery necklace I got, as it had a big ol ship painted on it.. and then when I got back to Atlanta, to my surprise, it also had the word "Bristol" above the ship.. which is the name of the dog I grew up with, rad right? Not only that, but she only had one Herkimer Ring made, and it fit my finger like a glove. I do believe it's destiny that I buy any/all of her jewelry.





She also had a little show room area where she had one of each of her designs on display.. and you could have guessed, they were displayed amazing.












Now this right here, she keeps all sorts of trinkets, clasps, and charms organized. It was a tiny little studio and I was so impressed how beautifully put together it was.







UMMMM so cute. This Erica's little Yorkie, named BUNNIE, who comes to work with her everyday. Shop pup!


oh, and Bunnie had a fresh haircut in this picture!









The lady herself! She was so sweet, friendly, and a perfect perfect host. I cannot wait to visit again!

Heeeeeere's Maggie!

I'm as exciting as Jay Leno...right? Maybe not Johnny Carson but Leno?? OOH! For you Conan fans, he's doing a tour to pay his employees who uprooted and moved before getting the shaft. I learned that at this month's ladies supper club. :) (See Kelly's post below. It was mmm mm good.)

I have modern sheds on the brain. Click here and maybe you'll feel where I'm coming from. I bought a house this year and need a place to store my motorcycle and gardening stuff reeeal bad, especially now that Sprang is spranging. I'm going to ask my
contractor to build one that looks like this (left) instead of the one he sent me a picture of with the quote, which looks like this (below) for the same amount of money.

Wish me luck.

At home, I love modern design (straight lines, poppy colors, geometric shapes) mixed with old-timey design (country, pretty, feminine, floral). It's a balance I aim to find and have a feeling it will take awhile to strike it. Fortunately, the journey is the most fun!

Young Blood Boutique is trying to find a balance too. It's a fun challenge, trying to put ourselves in others' shoes and what they like, not just what we like! There are a lot of influences out there: masculine, feminine, dark, light, heavy, contemporary, vintage, thoughtful, care-free, folky, punk rock, hip hop, adult, child-like...fortunately, I like them all!

When running a business they say it's important to know your exact target market. I always say, "Our target market includes creative professionals, students, and artists/creatives in their 20's through 40's." But really, I want to have something for everyone! I love it when Grandmas and Grandpas come in and appreciate an item if only because it's hand made with care. And we want you to be able to come in and find a gift for Grandma and Grandpa too! Be patient with us as we continue working towards this balance. Working on consignment makes it more difficult since a lot of the artists and designers we approach don't realize how awesome we are at book-keeping. :) (Props to Kelly and Jen for that!) Are there artists and designers you want to see in Young Blood? I want to know!

How do you doo doo?

Hello Young Blood Lovahs,
Haley here. The only blonde at young blood representin!
Wasn't is gorgeous outside today? I am so ready for spring I could burst.
I had to go out and buy new herbs for my garden. I am also very excited about a fairly new veggie co-op right here in metro Atl! They are called " Artichoke Bliss" and I hope other fellow atlantians will get involved. Here is the link to their facebook :

Speaking of spring I wish everyone would look up and appreciate the waxing crescent of a moon above us. Gods little toenail.

Sorry I am on a spring kick but I am totally stoked about the colors chosen for spring/summer fashion.
Pastels and Creams shine through and thank the goddess NO MORE BOHO!
Other trends are sheers, prints, and blazers. Tailored outfits are now in for men and women. I am seriously tickled pink.
Here is some inspiration !












I hope everyone has gotten a chance to check out the bike show. I am so inspired by the variety of unique vision of each eartist. Check back for all the other lovely ladies of the young blood :)
goodnight and sleep tight!

hal