Triburban Crochet Project

So a few months ago, I had a great idea. I love to travel ad I love to crochet, so why not fuse the two together?



My idea is simple. I reach out to my friends and family who live all over the world and I ask them to create an item with me. We work together to come up with a product, color scheme, material, etc.

I then send it to them and they take pictures with the item. Those very pictures I then put in my store to display the new custom made item, now available for anyone who wants to purchase it.

The very image becomes a literal translation of what Triburban is and means.

I am so excited, I just sent out my first item to my friend Heather in Denver, CO!

Heather went with a neck warmer with tribal buttons. I really love how it came out. This item will be available in my Etsy shop shortly and in several different colors.

as always, I love custom orders! If you have an idea, please contact me via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook or my store. I would love to get creative with YOU!

When in Athens, GA...

At the last minute, I decided that a weekend adventure was in order. It seems as though I just can't manage to stay at home for more than one weekend in a row lately. I did stay home the previous weekend and was nearly bored to tears so I swore I would make something happen the following weekend.

Athens, GA is about a four hour drive northeast of Montgomery and you have to pass through Atlanta on the way. Because my car is from a time where the youth of today was a mere twinkle in their fathers' eyes, I made a decision when I got home. My car is not allowed to leave the city limits of Montgomery. In case the engine falls out or something begins to smoke.

I could have borrowed my room mate's 1991 Buick skylark and arrived like a pimp(read old person) in Athens, GA but I opted not to. Instead I decided to spoil myself and rent a car. That way I could pretend that I have a car from this century, even if it would just be for one weekend. I know, I am living a large and in charge lifestyle, somebody stop me!

I arrived in Athens after a nice comfy drive in "my" 2013 Chevrolet Impala, around 7 pm. It was great seeing my longtime friend and also meeting her boyfriend Patrick and super cute kitty Tweep. Since they live close to downtown, we walked to a local restaurant called DePalma's for some pizza.

Downtown Athens feels pretty large considering that the city only has about 100,000 people in it. The city owes most of the bustling activity to the University of Georgia (UGA) located downtown. There is definitely a very young population here. I felt ancient walking around the area.

Saturday was chill yet eventful. Danielle and I had breakfast at home, then hit up some yard sales. I found two really cool Haitian paintings at the first one and a bought a third one for Danielle, all for $5 bucks! Danielle found lots of things for the apartment and some clothes for herself.  We then came back to the house, hung out for a while, had some beer and home made pasta before heading out to a local craft show. Being a crafter myself, I must say that I admire people who participate in craft shows. I have not done it yet and perhaps I will in the future but it just seems like a lot of work for nothing. Many things were beautiful and wonderfully crafted, but I am just not going to buy a $40 mug to drink coffee out of. There is a thin line in the world of handmade between charging for craftsmanship and charging for crap. Some of the items were very ellaborate and took a long time to make I am sure, however it looked terrible. You just cannot expect people to pay outrageous prices for your time when the item is hideous. I was taking mental notes on what NOT to do if I ever decide to partake in an event like this.

DO NOT tell embarassing personal stories about your friends. It is awkward.I don't know you nor your friend and now, I won't know your products either because I walked away from the awkward.

DO NOT forget your business cards. Even if you don't have cards, print or write small notecards with your info so that people can get in touch with you or see more of the things you make and possibly buy them. It also helps if you have an etsy store, a website or even a facebook page where I can look at pictures. E-mailing you and randomly asking to buy something from you is odd. How will I know what I am ordering?

Moving along. After the craftshow we ran some errands around town. Since I had a car and Danielle does not, it only made sense to get some grocery shopping done while I was there. 7 hours later we were done and starving. Patrick suggested a Mexican restaurant that he had been to once before called Tlaloc. If you like authentic Mexican food i.e. not Chipotle, Taco Bell or Moe's, this is the place to go. We ordered a bunch of different combo plates and shared them between us. The customers are mostly Mexican but there was also a few groups of college kids dispersed in the restaurant. As a former resident of Colorado, I know my Mexican cuisine and this hit the spot. I would frequent this place often if I was living in Athens, GA.

Sunday was my travelling day but we had time for a quick brunch downtown at Nona's. It is a New Orleans inspired restaurants with a cool looking dinig area in the back and a bar/bistro area in the fron of the building. we sat in the window so that we had a view over the campous and the people walking by. I had the French Quarter Breakfast which included cheese grits, honey bacon, and three beignets. Three!! I really liked them....The bacon was very sweet, a bit too sweet for me especially since I had beignets too. Did i mention you get three of them?

After brunch it was time for me to head back to the Gump. I really did have a great time and it was great seeing my old friend. We are a little bit older, a bit wiser and if I may say so myself, a bit hotter. 30 is the new 20, I don't care what anyone says.

Road trip planning -Stand your ground

OK, I just had to come on here and rant a bit. A few weeks ago, I booked the airline tickets for me and my best friend to go on a roadtrip down the west coast. I'll fly out from Atlanta and she will get on in Denver on my connecting flight and we will end up in Seattle. On the way back we will do the same thing except in reverse and from San Diego.

So, a week after i booked everything, I get an e-mail from Frontier Airlines stating that my flights have changed and a  big link saying: "Click here if you accept the changes to your flight". Underneath it, in the smallest print they could find that was barely visible it said: "Call 1-800-xxx-xxxx for further assistance" or something like that. Obviously, I did not drink the Kool-Aid, I picked up the phone and called them.

The flight schedule from Denver had changed. Frontier Airlines therefore took the liberty to put me on a 6 am flight from San Diego while my friend was not leaving until 3 pm that same afternoon. Their afternoon flight to Atlanta from Denver no longer exists so they bumped my flight out of CA to 5 minutes past buttcrack of dawn. That was not going to work for me.

I explained to the lady that I did not mind spending the night in Denver and leaving for Atlanta the following afternoon. I personally thought this was very accomodating of me seeing how I did not book the flight that was now offered to me. I was working with the company, making their life easier. I thought.

The lady told me that normally they would not make those kind of changes without charging me extra. She did say that she would check and placed me on hold. I was getting ready to put on my grumpy customer face and play hardball. I figured if they wanted to charge me more, I would just cancel the entire return trip. I was just going to buy 2 new tickets with another airline and the joke would be on Frontier Airlines.
Luckily, the lady came back on the line and informed me that the ticket prices were equal and she rebooked my flight from San Diego back to the original departure time and gave me a overnight layover in Denver!
The moral of this story: always buy that little travel insurance that they offer at the bottom of the page when booking airline tickets online. Also, you don't always have to play hardball. :)