I have this thing for bees. I love bumblebees because they remind me of awkward old men; they're cute and kind of clumsy, and that's meant in the most complementary sense. Honeybees provide sweetness (made from their spit no less!), are kind of fuzzy and remind me of Winnie the Pooh. Bees have a fantastic sense of direction, communicate by dancing, and pollinate the flowers every spring and summer. They're also essential for all kinds of agriculture, pollinating tons of fruits and veggies that are important for our health and economy. Their honey is delicious, and if you consume local honey it can help with some pollen allergies. My Native American roots have granted me immunity from pollen season, but my friends aren't so lucky and have discovered this yummy trick.


On the bee kick, check out our honeycomb necklaces from Stone and Honey, and our new ceramics by Megan Ramsey with bee designs on the bowls. (You'll just have to take my word for it on the bowls, but they're fantastic, promise.)



By the way, yellow jackets are not bees, they're technically in the wasp family, so don't let these aggressive, picnic ruining b****es spoil the goodness of their wonderful cousins.

Stay sweet, honeys!
(yes. yes I did.)

Steph

Yummm

Alright, so the beginning of every month (the first to be exact) we do inventory. As time consuming and troublesome as it is, it's what keeps all our checks and accounting perfecto. There's something that we do on this day religiously..which I think is what secretly keeps us motivated..

The breakfast of Doomsday: SUBLIME DONUTS.



Okay, excuse me. If you haven't tried Sublime, located off 10th street, you're truly missing out. The good thing about having a good sized group of ladies working here, is that we can get quite a few different flavors and do sharesies. You know, so we can all have a tiny bite of each one. Not to mention every single month there's new ones to try! Today was Mint Chocolate. And of course there's regulars we can't miss.. like the A-Town Cream, Chocolate Wildberry Fritter, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. My personal favorite is the Chocolate Mocha Cream one.. and anyone that knows me, can tell you I cannot lay off the coffee. Kamal Grant, you are a donut god.

And speaking of donuts...


We have a few of those cute as crap Fluffyco wallets left.. Come by and see em for yourself! Only twenty bones!

Enjoy this weather!
xo, jen

The art is hung and it kicks ASS!

Kenn, Steve, and Stenvik blew through the gallery like a contained tornado today, hung all their work and were outta here in a couple hours. These guys are seasoned pros and and it's time for all their hard work to pay off! Come out this Saturday and give them a hearty slap on the back for a job well done.

We'll get started at 7:00 and be here until at least 10:00. Buy them a drink (still rockin' the dollar beers after all these years) then consider buying a piece of incredible and affordable art work by some of Atlanta's most talented artists. Or sneak in on Thursday or Friday because I have a good feeling this work will sell fast - we just got a call from a customer in Connecticut! While you're out, walk down to Kibbee Gallery where they'll be showing the work of four artists in their show, "Sprout".

See you this Saturday! Maggles

April Showers

...bring May flowers! April showers are also currently drowning my tomato plants :(

My project and treat to myself for finishing up the semester is going to be revamping a bicycle that I rescued from an ignominious end at the dump. It needs a lot of work, and has a kind of heavy frame, but I stumbled upon it while taking out the recycling and it was love at first sight. Yellow is my favorite color by the way, I had been talking about trying to find a non-mountain bike to bring up to the city to ride to work. It even has a peeling old sticker on the frame that says "adopted". Tell me finding it wasn't fate!


Since I'm going to have to replace the tires, I might snag a pair of Beatrice Holiday's recycled tire earrings (we've got several styles at Young Blood) to keep with the spirit. They're super stylish and lightweight so they won't drag on your ears throughout the day like a lot of statement jewelry.

Keep dry all!

Stephanie

Simplicity

Last week I finally cleaned my apartment! Ok I lie. I didn't clean it up entirely. I just picked things up and organized.

I like cleaning because it can be very relaxing but at the same time it makes me sick. Dust gets in the air from all the moving around, my bathroom has a window that barely opens so whenever I use chemicals like bleach, it's hard to breathe and I start getting sick.

All the heavy duty glove wearing cleaning always reminds me of Mom from Dexter's lab.


So I'm getting prepared for some hardcore declutterizing! Since my next place is going to be smaller I'm trying to get space saving ideas and start changing my habits of accumulating clutter. Today I stumbled on a nice zen post with tips that will have you considering changing your routine in order to live in a less cluttered, organzied home.

The site, zenhabits.net, is full of great articles about getting into, well, zen habits. Another post I really liked was from Leo Babauta about 'Becoming an early riser.' This is something I've got to work on since I'm always oversleeping :[ I miss a lot of things I feel because of this.


Early mornings have looked very nice (I of course ignore this and continue sleeping) that it only makes sense to go on an early morning bike ride of walk. Normally when I've seen the sun rising it's been on an occasion that I'm on my way to bed.

For those of you who can wake up early; Young Blood has been having yoga classes every Monday, Wednesday and Fridays in our gallery space. If you're an early riser you should come by!


Even Kitties do yoga.

LOVE ANNETTE

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

This weekend it rained like crazy here down south and lucky for me I had just gotten some of my garden in the ground. I had a big problem with the lovely little ratties in my hood eating my tomatoes last year so... I came up with a new plan this year and they better watch out for Mr. Owlie and the screening that's gonna cut their little lips!

And to bring in with the theme of spring Kibbee Gallery is having an opening this saturday with one of our dear friends Julia Kubica and since they are so close you can walk from our opening, "Disaster Planning" to theirs! ha ha and I guess to bring it all around I was doing some "disaster planning" of my own with those rat proofing tomato cages.

"Sprout" is a drawing based exhibition that embodies the combination of organic imagery and delicate line work. Four artists: Kelly Cloninger, Katherine Gaddy, Julia Kubica and Pam Rogers create works on and with paper that explore landscape and environment, using botanical motifs to make the connection between self and nature. "

7-10 this Saturday night!!

This awesome plant decor, made from recycled soda/beer cans, from Sloth Craft encourages all your bulbies to come out and these great tees from Happy Family will show your garden how much you love them-and we have them right here at YB!



xo
Kelly
** ps: Look at this awesome photo shoot we did with Scott Lowden last Friday!!**

Free Stuff? Yup!

Hello all! It's Jen on here today. Thought I'd drop a line to tell everyone about a free shirt giveaway we're having! Travis, of B.Yourself Blog, in order to promote his new brand, hooked us up with a ton of different styles of free shirts! Ladies AND gents! (What's better than free? Right?) It's hard to find stuff that's actually free with no strings attached... but we got it here! So stop by, grab a free tee! No purchase necessary.

Here's one of his lady tee designs!


Other news, SUPER excited about these new letterpress necklaces we got in yesterday made by GwenDelicious. Definitely rocking the J one right now. Come by and check them out! No better way of saying "I Love You" to yourself then having some personalized jewelry. :)




And no worries! If we don't have your initial, that's something we can order right away!

Hope to see everyone at the Inman Park Festival on Saturday! I'll be working RLand's booth so don't be a stranger and come say hi!

xo, jen

Lucha wins $10K * Mad Clout blog!

We are popping with proudness for our intern, Lucha Rodriguez! She is this year's winner of $10,000 and an art show at The Swan Coach House Gallery, awarded by a local organization that chooses an emerging artist of the year. Kelly is on the board and recommended Lucha as a candidate. The Forward Arts Foundation Foundation goes through a long and exacting elimination process; candidates are expected to be able to speak about their work and present an impressive body of work to board members at a studio vist.

Lucha is a hard-working artist who talks the talk and walks the walk. She was also one of the Savannah College of Art and Design students recently chosen to fly to the new Hong Kong SCAD to create an installation of her work! She is so deserving and we are so happy for her.

Kelly and I were talking yesterday about how Georgia legislators are currently considering a TOTAL cut of ALL funding for the arts in our state. Here is this small circle of women who founded the Forward Arts Foundation and who can come up with $10,000 a year for an Atlanta artist, yet THE STATE OF GEORGIA doesn't want to provide any assistance at all??? Give me a freaking break.

Lucha Rodriguez - is she cute or what?




MAD LOVINS FOR MAD CLOUT!

Local Bboys and maestros of all things fonky, MadClout, has a new blog and I'm here to tell you about it!

MadClout.com is an online hip hop archive devoted to the preservation and longevity of the culture. Documenting aerosol art and style writing around the world, Team Clout consists of Bboys and Bgirls, aerosol artists, DJs, MCs, Hip Hop aficionados!

I recently went to a MadClout event and was super thrilled to see tons of confident, young kids having a great time and breaking it down on the flo! Mendez was the ring leader and provided a super dope yet family friendly atmosphere. Keep up the good work, my man-dez! (Sorry...)

Follow the blog to stay updated on future art shows, break dance competitions and graff events.

A couple photos I took at the event:

Mad love to my familia of friends til next time,
Maggie

Late Update

Recently school has been getting pretty hectic, finals are soon upon us. I'm going to make this a very short entry, I've got so much work to still do.

I've been taking a studio lighting class this semester at school and I've learned so much that it's been spilling out of my head. Here's what I've been working on. It's suppose to be high contrast lighting and editing. But I think I failed at it :( (I tried uploading the image but it won't work)


I really can't wait until the summer comes around. I'm moving out of my current place, which I'm really excited about. I've gotten used to living without roommates and, to keep things cheap, I'll be moving in with a rommie. As soon as finals are through I'm going through all my stuff, giving some away, selling some and donating the rest. Maybe I'll do a yard sell! (It's such a summer thing!)

If I make some money I'm going to treat myself to something nice from Young Blood. Yesterday we received a lot of things from Happy Family. We now have a lot of their messenger bags. [I've got my eyes set on the Diana Camera bag!} I like Happy Family because they've got nice, clean designs that are affordable.


LOVE
Annette

Please help support ART in GA!

I've gotten this flood of emails lately about the Georgia House of Representatives
eliminating Georgia Funds for the Arts/Georgia Council for the Arts and it saddens
me to see that our own State isn't going to be able to support any of our wonderful
non-profit arts organizations or offer grants to artists or money for arts in education-
I wanted to post some information so if you felt you could do anything to
speak out now’s your chance!

This weekend these are the ways to make sure your Senator considers your opinion. As a state agency, GCA staff can not lobby. They need your help to stay alive!

• Have all staff and Board members of your organization contact their Senator individually.
• Send an e-mail to your mailing list with a sample message that people can cut and paste into their own e-mail. Include a specific example of the impact your organization has on your community or a program that may be cut if funding is eliminated.
• Put a sample e-mail and the link to locate representatives on your website or Facebook page.
• Contact media in your area. If they need more information, ask them to contact GCA's Public Relations Manager Jhai James at 404.685.2784 or jjames@gaarts.org.
• Anyone who knows a Senator should reach out and make direct contact.
• Pass along your concerns to people who are not in the arts industry, but who are impacted by program reductions, such as a Convention & Visitor's Bureau, Main Street Program, local restaurants, schools, senior centers, etc. Ask these people to also contact their Senator.

Inform the audience before a performance this weekend; include an insert in your organization programs, brochures and other collateral that explains the budget process and how to contact the Senate.

Here are two reasons members of the House may have voted to kill
Georgia Council for the Arts.

First, the Georgia House of Representatives explained their reason for eliminating GCA during the reading of the budget bill; the Georgia Arts Alliance was cited. The bill creating this organization passed in 2008. It will be an organization working towards statewide success in arts education. However,

• Unless Georgia has a vigorous and statewide nonprofit arts industry, there are no organizations to provide arts education or arts-in-education (contracting to schools) programming.
• There are no state funds attached to the Georgia Arts Alliance; if there were, the organization still would not provide support to our state's nonprofit arts industry.

Second, some state Representatives are excited about HB 1049, the enabling legislation for a local option sales tax (LOST) to support the arts. While HB 1049 could greatly benefits arts organizations in the state's metropolitan centers, it does not replace GCA for these reasons:

• Most counties do not have sufficient sales tax revenues that would allow
• this LOST to replace GCA's grant awards.
• Most counties do not have enough nonprofit arts organizations to meet
• the threshold for their County Commission to pass this LOST
• Rural and small counties across Georgia have lots of needs, the arts are but one.
• Implementation of this bill requires a county-wide referendum, a costly process for our state's smaller and rural counties.

There WILL BE AN ARTISTIC rally on Monday at 1:00 from the Rialto to the capital. I invite you to join artists of Georgia and share your performances. Spread the word.

Please sign the "Save Georgia Council for the Arts!" petition!

The mission of Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) is access to the arts for all Georgians.

As a state agency, GCA provides this access through the award of highly competitive grants that fund arts programming.

In response to the current economy, GCA has amended it mission to read:

access to the arts for all Georgians with the primary responsibility to

the state's nonprofit arts industry.

I was also lucky enough this weekend to be part of a committee who actually gets to award an emerging artist in

Atlanta a grant to create work for a solo show and it made me feel so grateful to these group of people who

offer this grant up to emerging artists in this community to further their vision -So if you ladies are reading this

then you know who you are and I thank you so much for your generosity in supporting the Atlanta Arts!

Also while poking around on Design Sponge this weekend I discovered this yummy recipe and FYI you can find lots of

designers and artists from Young Blood on there and have a sneek peak into their lives! Like this peak into Eleanor Grosh's home!

And if you aren't on a porch already then whip some of this up and invite some folks over for porch sippin' (seeing
that we're in the bible belt if you don't already have wine/tequila in your house you'll have to wait till tomorrow)

Ingredients:

1 bottle of red wine (we prefer to use Sarloos and Sons red)

1 cup of tequila (we prefer to use 1800 Silver)

1/2 a cup of orange juice (living in such an organic

environment we only drink organic orange juice from

New Frontiers in Solvang, CA)

1/2 a cup of brown organic sugar

1/4 cup of fresh squeezed organic lime juice

1 sliced organic red apple (and other fruit if you desire – raspberries, watermelon, oranges, mangos, etc)

Mixology:

In a pitcher mix ingredients in this specific order. Add ice to chill.

The longer it sits in the pitcher the more flavorful it will be.

Using a little lime juice, give the glasses a nice brown-sugar rim and then serve and enjoy!

and for another inspiraton we have lots of prints! Here's a little vision on what your bedroom could look like!!