Terra Mia

The LASSes took a birthday field trip to Terra Mia, because the Grand Poobah was getting ancient. Terra Mia is a paint your own pottery shop in Noe Valley, and nestled amongst the yuppie falderal. The shop is clean, and there is an interesting variety of pieces to choose from. It's not exactly inexpensive, but they don't rush you, so you can take as much time as you want on your item.

Four of us got up early, fortified ourselves with caffeine and some pastry at La Boulange, while being terrorized by the locals. The good of LB would be nice glasses of lemon water and an arrangement of pickles and olives at 9am, the bad would be the screaming babes that want to have a $3 macarons for breakfast, while mom repeats everything to them in both English and French.

After pretentious bowls of coffee, they LASS did a quick tour through the farmers market, pondered the man blocking the sidewalk with the sign that asked people not block the sidewalk, and wondered if you were ever to old for irony. Eventually we made our way to Terra Mia, and were greeted by lady on duty that day, as well as a pair of Mommies that were rather vocal of the fear that their three year old daughter was going to mess up the Easter eggs they were working on.

Once we had out items, paint and table staked out, we started to have fun. Terra Mia has a nice selection of colors of paints, with a great display showing the baked colors and what they look like with one, two, or three layers. The brushes were all right, lacking anything with too fine of a tip, and the selection of stencils and stamps had a seen better days, but they really weren't useful on most items anyway. After about four hours, one bloody finger from a run in with a paper clip, and one more screaming mom (again fearing their child would mess up the project), we were done.

The following Tuesday, one of our LASSes went and picked up our finished items. It's always interesting to see how things turn out, because you really don't know until they're baked. We had some disappointment with some dimpled glazing and errant splotches of paint from other people's projects, ending up on our own. It's frustrating, because we all put a lot of effort into our work, but as you can see with a certain tea pot, if it weren't for the dimpling, no one would have believed it wasn't professional!

LASS Initiation

The Lass Ladies would like to announce our newest member: The Soprana.


For the initiation, we had her do all sorts of difficult acts, that we cannot publish here, to show just how crafty she is; but also we had her make a ton of Martha Stewart glittered card kits, that the Grand Poobah got for $2 a piece in a discount store. Two kinds of kits were found, the bird kit and a botanical kit.




The bird kit was the universal winner for the ladies, creating not only spectacularly easy crafting, but wonderful results. The botanical kit was bit harder, being that the cutouts are more intricate and a bit more prone to sticking to it's self and tearing, when you're trying to remove the sticky backing.



One great bonus for these, is that if you're a good glitter monger, as the Lassies are, you can use small amounts of the glitter the comes with it, to achieve the desired effect on the cards, and have almost full jars left over for other crafting! Martha has some really excellent colors, and a nice grade of glitter, so this a definite bonus.

The Ribbonerie

On a fabulous Friday afternoon, the ladies trekked to the Ribbonerie, a San Francisco ribbon store.

This little shop really is filled to the brim with ribbons and trims of all sorts.

Many items would work perfectly for boutonnieres, or other wedding items. Lass C also enjoyed petting the shop's resident pups.

Bell'occhio

The first official LASS outing took place at the lovely boutique of Bell'occhio in San Francisco. Lass L had come across their website in one of her wanderings, and once it was noted they were local to us, it was quickly decided by the LASS founders that we had to go there in person.

The shop is full of all sorts of wonderful things for "the person who has everything." However, it is particularly suited for "the crafter who has everything," due their carefully edited collection of ribbons, particolored twines, gorgeous scissors, and adorable collection of tiny note cards and interesting envelopes.

Beyond the craft, they have some jewelery pieces, oversize, fuzzy boxes shaped like various fruits, and random other pieces of whimsy like mouches and crowns for bees.

Lass K quickly spotted a basket of interesting little pins, and as if clandestine, there were three, amazing scissor and tape measure pins which the three of us scooped up without hesitation.

Now, I wish that I could share more photos of the inside of the shop, which had a lovely "shabby chic," by way of dilapidated french look, but the quirky lady behind the counter politely turned down my request to photograph the shop. Apparently there was a concern of people copying their interior, which is sad, but I'm sure a reality. Anyhow, there is an old photo here on yelp, that can give one the idea of the shop. It doesn't really do it justice though, as the current shop has much more merchandise and has been changed about a bit, to be a touch more appealing.

One thing I found shocking about the shop, was that it wasn't really that expensive. Sure there were a couple of pieces that would make your pocket book wince, several I had to pass on due to their unpractical nature, but there were plenty of items that were appropriately priced, giving one only a slight pause before deciding to buy.

I picked up six uniquely shaped envelopes for 99cents, and had a brief conversation with the shop keeper about how they were purchased in New York, on their travels, and that they were sad, that this was the last of them. It's those kinds of notes that make the item that much more cool, and remind you why funny boutiques often cost a wee bit more.

Lass L picked up a lovely pair of drop pearl earrings for her mother (lucky...) and was delighted to see the shop lived up to their advertisement that "nary a parcel leaves the shop without our snappy signature gift wrapping."

It was like a ritual, watching them write the pretty receipt with a bit of a flourish, placing a custom sticker on the box, carefully tying the red bow, and slipping it into a neat little white bag. You know when you hear "it's all in the details?" Well, that is certainly true here, and I personally would say that if you're a crafter, or a lover of teeny, cute boutiques, that you shouldn't hesitate to stop by. Being that the store is just a hop and a skip from Flax anyway, you're probably in the neighborhood!

Taking care when wrapping gifts...is a gift!

Gifts are so much more lovely when well presented. A little thoughtfulness in packaging goes a long way with the recipient. I know I'm always tickled when a special friend has re-purposed or done something out of the ordinary when packing a present.

The most utilitarian gifts are given pizazz when wrapping is done well.

What do the Lass' use?

♠ Lass L uses a Baby Lock ES1. She especially likes the embroidery function.
♠ Lass K uses a Style-Mate Singer. It has been the taskmaster!
♠ Lass C uses a Tiny Tailor that was given to her by Lass K.

Lasses K & L also have baby lock sergers.

First Outing

Friday, August 28, 2009 will mark the first gathering of LASS.

We will visit Bell'ochio in San Francisco.