I first met Jamie Iacoli at photographer Charlie Schuck‘s O B J E C T party in December which he held in his loft on Capitol Hill. Around that time I’d seen a couple of blog posts about Iacoli & McAllister‘s design aesthetic, speaking to their thoughtfully crafted made-in-the-USA pieces. One of the spaces curated at Schuck’s O B J E C T party was done by Jamie. She had used necklaces that she and her partner, Brian McAllister, designed to create an intricate wall hanging as part of the show. Amazing. I wish I had a photo! Ultimately, Jamie is an Adventurer and that’s why we love her. She’s highly creative, hilarious, smart, thoughtful, and has the best legs I’ve ever seen. True.

 

Our process is one part exploration, one part learning curve, one part affection, one part sheer strife, and one part caffeine. We also really like to travel and sleep. – About us, Iacoli & McAllister.

 

1. What skill do you want to learn?
I just bought a loom from Justine Ashbee, she’s going to teach me to weave. (At least she’d better.)

2. Food & drink you don’t want to live without?
I can’t live with out raw kale salads, toasted almonds, hearty bread, and kombucha.

3. The scariest thing you can think of?
Oh I don’t like to think about scary things.  Can’t even try, I have enough anxiety as it is…

4. Your favorite party supply?
It used to be booze, but that is changing – I’m growing up.  I’d have to say amazing conversations, followed quickly by yummy food.

5. Your favorite book of the moment?
I’m actually trying to start a book club, I want to read some South American magical realists (in the vein of Gabriel Garcia Marquez) as well as Jean Cocteau.

6. Describe your dream party place.
Lobster BBQ on the beach with bonfires, with adorable cabins and hot tubs nearby.

7. What is the evil version of you like?
Running low on sugar (food) and no caffeine, that’s the evil version of me. Watch OUT.

8. What gives you confidence?
Sunshine.

9. Name four essential elements of a good party.
Food, booze, friends, and magic.

10. What do you appreciate most about a party host?
Taking my coat and planning enough to have someone else make drinks so they can mingle.

11. Favorite adventure supply?
Credit card.

12. Describe the best party you ever attended.
My last birthday was pretty fun.  I had 30+ of my closest friends over to my tiny apartment.  I infused tequila with jalapeños, there was a youtube DJ playing really bad (but awesome) old school hip hop, dancing ensued. Everyone was blind wasted by midnight.  After saying goodnight to everyone I walked, on my lips, to my sofa and proceeded to puke in my shoe.

13. Hotel room or campsite?
HOTEL ROOM. Any day. I mean I like nature and all, it’s just at the end of the day I’m just looking for some modern conveniences.

14. Do you have a style icon?
Lauren Hutton, Francoise Hardy, Jane Birkin, Sofia Loren (!!!), Ann Bancroft (circa The Graduate) just off the top of my head.

15. Where is your next adventure destination?
We have a few in the cards, we’re going to rent a house somewhere on the coast.  Small gathering of 8-12 friends, food, hot tubs, two hand touch tag etc. We’re also going to fly to AZ in late summer (when we aren’t going to die of heat strokes) rent a car and drive around AZ and NM for two weeks.  It’s going to be our spiritual journey and it’s going to be magical.

16. If you could teach a class about anything in the world ever, what would you teach?
Quantum Physics for sure.  If I was going to be able to teach that class it would mean that I understood it, which would be AMAZE-balls.

17. What is your motto?
When I was younger and more cynical it was “That and a dollar will get me a hot dog…”

18. What is your spirit animal?
The phoenix! (Do mythical creatures count?)

Local adventurer, Greg Flores, one of America’s leading designers, has created not only one poster, but a series of posters commemorating a very important new part of the local landscape, Lake Union Park! Get in touch with us a for a special copy that you can take home to frame. That is all for now, I will let the poster do the talking. This particular poster celebrates Seattle and Lake Union Park’s Maritime Heritage. We are excited to partner with tons of Maritime enthusiats in South Lake Union including the Center for Wooden Boats, Virginia V, United Indians of All Tribes and many many more. For more info about the event click here.

Thanks for having me back on this delightfully hot DIY day here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. In honor of the recent passing of the most Patriotic of all holidays, I thought I might dedicate this post to all things FLAG.  Indubitably becoming a regular on the DIY wedding scene, flags are one of the easiest, least expensive and most varied ways to deck out any number of soirees. Check out these examples on one of my regular stops for wedding inspiration, the lovely Once Wed . And here are a few I’ve created for parties in the past.

This is a strand of simple felt triangles, all cut the same size, sewn together (either by machine or hand) until the desired length is reached. I love how simple, geometric and modern these are.  Felt is a wonder fabric- so easy to work  with and looks surprisingly great in any season.

Here is another very simple strand I made for my parents 40th anniversary party last summer. I know there a bit hard to see here, but I used a variety of scrap fabric in blues, greens and yellows. They are cut in various shapes and sizes- rectangles, triangles, squares and flowers- and then sewn with invisible thread in a random order.  The only trick with using most patterned cotton fabric is that you will need to cut two sides for each piece and lay them back-to-back so that the flags look colorful from every angle.

These mini flags are so simple to create and can be used in adorning nearly everything! I mean just look at how they make this simple jar look fabulous! I made these with thick gross grain ribbon (so they would not fray when cut), a glue stick and small dowels I stumbled across in the baking aisle at my local grocery store. I am envisioning these in cupcakes or sticking a few in a pot of blooming succulents. They would also make great drink stirrers (perhaps with a longer, thinner dowel) or even stuck in the lawn as aisle runners (again, a longer dowel and perhaps wider ribbon might work best).

So, what do you think? Are you a Flag Fan? While I haven’t yet figured out how to incorporate them into our wedding, there is no doubt that some sort of flag fantastic-ness (Yes, I know it’s not a word. But it should be!) will make an apperance.  Happy Flag Making!

What a lovely day for crafting, no? My name is Joana and I am thrilled to be joining the clever and talented roster of bloggers here at the Adventure School! I am a bride to be on a quest to create a homemade wedding. Every Friday I will be here sharing my triumphs and defeats (yep, all you fellow crafters out there know about those) to inspire and delight you.  So, without further ado…

Save the Dates 101. Yay!

My partner in all things non-criminal (aka the husband to be) and I wanted to use our Save the Dates to give our guests a little sneak peak into our wedding. Most notably, the unique location- a real live working Alpaca Ranch! But how and with what would we craft these silly little cards left me a bit stumped at first.  So what did I do? I turned to the world wide web for some instant inspiration.  Once I stumbled upon beauties like these , these and these, and took a visit to a local fabric store, we were set to begin. I won’t bore you with all the little steps (please comment if you’d like me to write up a “how to” and send it to you), but here are the results:

Stamping & Drinking- a VERY important component to DIY is to always include a favorite bevy.

We designed a stamp with all of our info & had it made by these guys. Then we carefully hand stamped mail tags and added a gold string (pictured below) for some added glitz.

The fiancé drew an alpaca, scanned the image and used our home printer to print onto  transfer paper. Next I  ironed the image onto canvas (aka the Mr. T of fabrics) and sewed each one to its own little burlap pocket.

The back of each pocket had a different vintage floral fabric.  Fun!

And that’s it.  What do you think? We like them and we didn’t receive any hate mail after sending them out, so I guess they were a hit (or at least okay). See you all next week! And Happy Crafting!

Yesterday, we did some really good goal setting here in adventure land. I think this is crucial. Not all people operate best with concrete goals, but I definitely do. I was hoping that everyone on Team Adventure would ride the wave of goal setting and boy howdy, did they ever. We had to start the meeting with everyone in shades because the awesomeness of all of our future projects was emanating off of everyone so intensely, it was blinding. I tried to take a picture of myself but I couldn’t, TOO BRIGHT! Other than goal setting, we had another great week at The Adventure School, Misha made lasagna and cookies! Jordan brought in a fish that he caught. And everyone else was doing their thing with considerable amounts of grace AND swagger. A deadly combo, and by deadly, I mean awesome. We’re gearing up for a pretty bangin’ July followed by a year or century more of delicately crafted radness. We hope you can join us on all of our fun adventures. We will be all around the town and all around the world and fully buzzword compliant.

This week marks designer Greg Flores’ first week in the office and he is already hard at work on feats of visual bravery. Look out for exciting new offerings in Adventure Design and Products. Besides the usual picnics, parties, cotton candy and beach time, this summer is all about getting the word out about The Adventure School, I wanted to tell you in case you didn’t know, that we are actively seeking new clients of all kinds. Corporate appreciation fetes, weddings, branding, experiential marketing . . . we can do a lot of things . . . so tell everyone where to find us, like look for us in the internet and we are also in the International District, sometimes we are in airplanes or cars, trains, boats. Sometimes you might see us a Highland Games or skeet shooting. You and all your pals should come adventure with us and we will have a party any time.

See you soon! Maybe I will see you tonight at On the Boards? Friend of Adventure, Mike Pham, is performing all weekend at the NW New Works Festival. Not to be missed.

SOCCER PRACTICE from Helsinki Syndrome on Vimeo.

This weekend was especially manly.

Molvar and Nora came to visit. They are cool.

we partied

and then they left for Bellingham.

That’s when the real MANVENTURE began.

Four of us tough dudes met in the grocery store parking lot.

We drove to a secret place in the mountains

and with a flick of the wrist

we were sporting

and everything was magical and fun.

Tennis, like shooting skeet, is fun and manly. SO IS TYPING IN ALL CAPS. MANVENTURE is for women too.

NEXT WEEK ON MANVENTURE:

ROBOCOP FANFICTION

The title of this blog is “MANVENTURE™”. This blog is all things manly. This is my blog.

Today was my first day in The Adventure School office! I had basil seed drink from Isaac Cohen, and also met Karen O’Connor (she’s cool).

BLOG!

What skill do you want to learn?

I want to be able to jump and have the jump rope go under me twice and then land and be able to keep
jumping rope.

Food and drink you don’t want to live without?

Pilot bread and Gatorade.

The scariest thing you can think of?

It has nothing to do with partying, that’s for sure.

Your favorite party supply?

Birdman.

Your favorite book of the moment?

Gmail.

Describe your dream party place.

Washington.

What is the evil version of you like?

Ashton Kutcher.

What gives you confidence?

Rebar and Jessica.

Name four essential elements of a good party.

Plan. Prepare. Protect. Party.

What do you appreciate most about a party host?

That they are hosting a party.

Favorite adventure supply?

Nick Ziakin.

Describe the best party you ever attended.

A high school party in a llama field had a heart to heart corner set up for me.

Hotel room or campsite?

Campsite.

Do you have a style icon?

Yes.

Where is your next adventure destination?

The land of sleep.

If you could teach a class about anything in the world ever, what
would you teach?

Whittling.

Your motto?

We gon’ chase it till we can’t chase it no more, so you might as well eat this food.

What is your spirit animal? Internet quiz sez Wolverine.