Available: $69

With the new shop, the new website and store launch (coming soon), new before & after shots, loads of new designs, and b & i being featured on a national television show—Model Latina NYC: Season 3 (airs on August 2nd)—there’s so much to tell!

Deep breath, people.

Let’s start with a glimpse into just a *few* of the new designs I’ve been cranking out:

These are still part of the collaboration between Isaac and me; we continue to sell many, but we keep adding new designs and we’re adding these to our online shops very soon!  If you see any that you want to snatch up, feel free to email me and put in a request.

And introducing, the STUDS:

More to come, my friends.  So much more…

***Song of the Moment: Flourescent Half Dome, by the Dirty Projectors***

]]> http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/studs-the-photo-project/feed/ 2 http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/this-weekend-shop-hours-and-danish-doors/ http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/this-weekend-shop-hours-and-danish-doors/#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 23:54:50 +0000 betsy http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/?p=2003

Hi, friends!!  Dag Nabbit (channeling the grandaddy), I’ve missed you guys!!

I wanted to let you know that we’ll be in the shop this weekend!  We’ve had so many shows this month that I know several shoppers have popped by on Saturday only to find an empty shop.  But…NO MORE…well, at least for this weekend and next.  We’ll be here from noon to at least 4 tomorrow.

The shop is still on the up and up.  We plan on having a grand opening by the end of the summer (shwew!).  Little by little, my friends.  This weekend, we’re planning on finishing the miscellaneous drawer front counter wrap and the sliding door!  My design friends were in town last weekend and we took some huge steps forward.  We’ve been running with this white on white on white theme with rustic wood to offset it all.  Courtney called it Scandinavian.  When she said the words, my heart melted.  Some of my most favorite people in the world live there (or near there).

Come by and see us sweating through it all this weekend, say hello, drink a glass of wine, and shop your little hearts out.

big huge love.

-betsy

This one is available exclusively at Thea’s Interiors, vintage living, unless someone hasn’t already snatched it up!

Isaac and I plan on listing our new collaboration in our online shops soon.  Yowzers.  Also, I think I about owe you a new OOTD.  Look out for it all some time this week.

In the meantime, skip the song of the moment and go get the whole album; it’s off the heeeeezy.  wildly inspiring.  gets my fingers moving.

***Song of the Moment: Tightrope, by Janelle Monae***

It’s supposed to be gorgeous here this weekend.  I NEED the sun.  should be perfect.

Have beautiful weekends!

xo~betsy

***Song of the Moment: Weeks of Rain, by Hauschka***

Me, Kim Werker, and Kari Chapin (author of The Handmade Marketplace) at Etsy in Brooklyn, NY.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I am offering a special discount through Tuesday, April 20th.  Just enter “Taxes Shmaxes” into the comment box when checking out for a 20% discount on ALL ITEMS!!  After that, you can do one of two things:

a) wait for a revised invoice BEFORE you pay.  It will appear in your email inbox, click it, then pay.

OR

b) go ahead and pay and we’ll refund your discount money right away!

maybe you wanna celebrate by eating chocolate bacon??

or maybe by treating yourself to a new Peruvian Opal necklace, full of light and spring. Free shipping too!!

We work with an awesome woman who specializes in the complicated numbers from musicians, artists, indie boutiques, etc.  She has done a stellar job with our taxes; she’s affordable, fair, and fun (and who can say that about their tax person)!  I recommend her to everyone I know.

I hope you all have a lovely, beautiful, sunny, inspired weekend.  I plan on it!

***Song of the Moment: Plastis Wafers, by Of Montreal***

My sweet sis-in-law gave us 4 deliveries of fresh veggies, fresh eggs, fresh bread, fresh cheese and whatever other fresh goodness local Hood River Organic farm wanted to share with us.  I was GIDDY with excitement over this generous Christmas gift.  Every two weeks when the leafy-green box arrived, I practically knocked the deliveryman over when I jumped on him with jumbled gibberish non-sentence-forming enthusiasm.  We did things with vegetables we’d never done before.  ummmm…yeah.   This is totally PG, people.  Check out the sexy geometry.

root vegetable baked fries.  parsnip fries.  what?  yes, I said, parsnip fries.  root vegetable gibberish so satisfying yum.

crispy mushroomness pods.

beat filled beet bombastic bellies

What the!?  What IS it?  anything that looks this cool MUST be good for the soul.  a little food art dance in my belly.

What??  This is what:  I love veggies and fresh pregnant men!!

A big ol’ fresh Friday to you all.

~betsy

***Song of the Moment: Tonight , by Lovers***

]]> http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/things-that-are-cool-on-friday-fresh-vegetables-and-pregnant-men/feed/ 2 http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/random-pop-color-i-could-eat/ http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/random-pop-color-i-could-eat/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:43:39 +0000 betsy http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/?p=1714 Sunday was spontaneity at its finest.

Coffee.  Lady Bug.  Salvaged wood.  Record store.  Astral Weeks.  Rega Turntable.  Surprise-a-friend Sunday.  Saint Cupcake.

Dakota and the Humane Society.  Swedish meatballs.  New sheets, high thread count, mm.  Pictures in toy bins.  Colanders.  Frozen yogurt.  TJs and free coffee.  Good talks and reading.  Scrabble.

Silence.

I feel like I could live in these perfect creations by the inimitable Betsy Walton.   The colors and their combinations astound me.  I own a favorite shirt by the artist which was a gift from W (I think he purchased it at Crafty Wonderland…I’ll be there again for the spring show).  I didn’t put it all together until I started seeing her work more and more around town… and finally I realized she is in some of the sweet stores I also sell in.  It’s official:

I am smitten.  (Plus, she has a great first name…)

so, like me,  take this color and get through your Mondays!   ~betsy

***Song of the Moment:  Sweet Thing, by Van Morrison***

It comes out of that place of being slightly uncomfortable, but once it’s there, it just goes wild…

there it is.

and then it sort of takes off.

and once it’s going…

…it would be MORE awkward to turn it off…

…so we let it play out.

and see where it takes us…

The best is when we figure we can take a stab at those ridiculously unbecoming model poses.

hmmm…  it’s the face.  if the face is wrong, it throws the whole thing off.  The expression is key.  Look how I NAIL it in these last few pics.

yes.  if you hesitate, you’re in trouble.  it’s all about follow through, folks.  and then you’re smooth sailing—picking berries at prom.

Boots:  Portland Outdoor Store.

Textured Tights:  Nordstrom.

Vintage navy blue slip:  Folly.

Ocean Dress: Stewart & Brown.

Cowboy Shirt: Vintage shop in NY.

Glasses: Amy Sacks.

Sassy Hoops: betsy & iya.

I hope you all have colorful and productive Wednesdays in your own ridiculously awkwardly awesome model poses!  (If you choose to do any, please please take a pic and send it my way.)

***Song of the Moment: About Face, by Grizzly Bear***

It turns out that my Old Turns New line is super popular; I never even had the chance to add most of them to my online shop.  I have nearly sold out of the pieces I created for the Junk to Funk show and subsequent holiday events.  Radish was a HUGE champion of that work during the holidays and after…and I’m so thrilled by it all.  This line has shocked me out of ANYTHING ordinary—and i LOVE it.  I can’t wait to make more.

In the spirit of sustainability, I’d like to introduce two folks whose work embodies that idea.   Two folks who truly inspire me and who I’d like to collaborate with one day:

1) Isaac B. Watson and his amazing Focal Length Designs.I WILL own one of his rad cuffs one day.  I am awed by his creative, agile mind and his infectous, positive attitude.  Every time I see him, he makes me feel happy.  Isaac and I have already been cooking up some steamy yum ideas together.  (Remember that men’s jewelry line I mentioned…???)

speaking of collaboration…check out the amazing project he’s working on with Etsy and local art school PNCA:  I Heart Art, Portland.  I’m sad that I won’t be able to make the opening meet ‘n’ greet on February 26th, (because I’ll be at the OLYMPICS..what!?)…but YOU should definitely go!

2) Lindsay Jo from Maple XO.

For 5 years, Lindsay Jo (a super betty skateboarder), has transformed old, otherwise useless, skateboards into fine fine pieces of jewelry.  I looooove the bangles she makes!  We sat next to each other at the Radish Underground event, where we were making custom jewelry for Valentine’s Day and well…we sort of…fell in love (in a fellow-crafy-jewelry-maker-on-valentine’s kind of way).

I’m so excited about the possibility of working with these two geniuses one day.  I’ll definitely let you know when the magical meetings occur.

In the meantime…Happy Tuesday!

***Song of the Moment: The House with Two Front Doors, by The Finches***

]]> http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/the-workshop-collaborations/feed/ 3 http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/radish-underground-tonight/ http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/radish-underground-tonight/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:10:30 +0000 betsy http://www.betsyandiya.com/blog/?p=1610 I’ve been cooking up some awesome new blog structure for you, so you might want to come back here more often.  Expect it to begin NEXT WEEK.  I’ll post the schedule sometime this weekend.  Yay!  I’m really ready to get back into this.

In the mean time, you can catch me here:

Radish Undergound February 12, 2010 event

I’ll be on location, making custom Shameless Love necklaces (amid other great designer company) for customers who come by Radish Underground tonight between 5-9 pm.  It will be a BLAST.

Have beautiful weekends if I don’t see you tonight!  And, why not…HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY to you all.

xo~betsy

***Song of the Moment: July Flame, by Laura Veirs*** (a Portland gal)