Christmas Crafting here at Blackbird!

We will be hosting a Christmas crafting sesh here at Blackbird this Friday, December 17th at 11:00!
These little gems are what we will be making!  Christmas cookies, and cider will be offered as well.  We will read a sweet Christmas book to wrap it up.  Please come join us!  It's always fun, and you'll get to leave with a sweet little Christmas craft that your child makes, which has huge gift giving potential!

If you haven't seen the Advent calendar in awhile, come check it out!  It's getting more amazing everyday.

 Hope to see your faces on Friday!  If you want to attend the craft sesh, just RSVP by commenting on this post, or call down to the shop!  Happy Holidays!

Advent news

Our window got more heart, and a lot more birdy over the last two days with the opening of window number 8 and 9.

Only 15 more days until Christmas. Don't forget to stop in the store and get your special little ones some treats from Blackbird!

Advent Calendar: Day 7

Our window Advent Calendar is looking more and more like the fun place to be this Christmas with every unveiling. Today we have 7 windows open, in this big old windowful house! Check out how much light is startiung to come through, and what visions have sprung over the last few days:

On Day 4 we opened the tiny attic window to this little surprise

A couple of mice doing a festive little dance....Day five  revealed this friendly fellow:

And on Day 6, even more.....

Today we saw a lovely poinseta in the window to up the Christmas cheer

What will tomorrow bring? Stop by and find out. Happy Holidays!

Advent Calendar: Day # 6

Well, if you haven't checked out the Advent Calendar yet, you are missing out!  Today's image is lovely, lively and full of mischief.   Unfortunately, I am camera-less, so I couldn't take a picture.  If anyone wishes to come take a picture of it and send it to me, I'll post it!  How's that for making the customer do all the work? Besides, if I posted a picture of our Day #6, you wouldn't need to come see it for yourself! 

We have some lovely Christmas-y stuff in the shop for all your holiday needs.  Come on down to check them out. 

Also, we will be announcing our next craft sesh soon!  So stay tuned.

Blackbird Advent: Day 3

The little black cat is peeking through the #3 window this December 3rd.  She is pretty cute, and looks cozy all tucked up into the window. 

Tonight we are hosting a special first Friday extravaganza.  First of all, it is a Pajama Party, which means if you bring toothbrushes, you can party down until bedtime, brush the littles teeth, and transport their sleeping bodies from the carseat into their beds when you get home!  No crying, tired little bodies to try to stuff into pajamas after a long day. 

Also, if you are a fan of Andy Smetanka's enchanting silhouette designs (who isn't), then you really should come on down,  because he will be taking orders for custom sihouette NIGHT LIGHTS!  They are magical, and make a perfect Christmas present for anyone.  I plan to give grandma and grandpa silhouette nightlights of their grandkids!  I know, right?

Also, a musically inclined friend of ours, Andrew Hunt, will be seeing tunes for kids to sing and dance along with.  Festivities start at 5pm!

Happy December 3rd!

Our Advent Calendar: Watch our window every day until Christmas to see what lovely surprises will be revealed

Happy December!

I am very excited to blog about our amazing Christmas window display. We have created a giant advent calendar, mostly with the crafty talents of our resident artist, Andy Smetanka, but Joanna and I had a blast doing some brainstorming and cutting for this one too. We are hoping you will follow along with us to discover a new scene behind each window as we count down the days until Christmas!

On December 1 we opened up a window to reveal these rambunctious stair climbers

On December 2nd we found this behind the door!

Anyone want to guess what will be behind door number three tomorrow?


Stop by and check it out with us at our First Friday event from 5-8pm. It's a Pajama Party!  Come wearing your PJs, and if you forget, don't worry we will have some that we (hand)made here at the shop!  Also, sihouette artist, Andy Smetanka will be doing customized silhouette portraits of kids, to be put into night lights!  Dreamy Christmas present for just about anyone.  And live music by Andrew Hunt to get you and your kids singing and dancing! Refreshments will be provided.  Come one, come all!
Meanwhile, keep watching our window and counting down the fun surprises until Christmas!

Statriot

We've got some creative friends, and thankfully they keep us stocked with some of the coolest T-shirts around.  Who are they?  They are the fine folks at Statriot .  And, if you are wishing they made them in your size (adult), THEY DO!  In fact, they even have more of an adult selection than kids. You can check out their website , or you can find them at Betty's Divine.

 Here are the styles we currently have in the shop.

 

 This one is called Montanka, because Andy Smetanka, aka Big Papa, designed it. 

Look at this smart looking Tee!

And the perfect Missoula T-shirt.  Don't you think?  

We are fully stocked in all these styles, and they make awesome gifts.  Plus, they are local, which is cool.

Thanksgiving Craft Party

Despite the onset of frigid temperatures, we had a blast making place mats, reading books, and eating cookies at our Thanksgiving craft party yesterday...

 The place mats turned out amazing!

And fun was had by all...
We will do it again in December, so stay posted!

Thanksgiving Craft Sesh!

                                      
We had such a good time at our last craftsesh, we decided to have another!  So, this Friday, November 19, we will be hosting a Thanksgiving themed get together.  We plan to make Thanksgiving placemats, eat cookies, and read a good book.

We hope you will be inspired to join us.  If so, please RSVP by commenting to this post, or call us at the shop at 543-2899. 

Also, we have some new books in the store.  These are sure to please all the youngsters in your life. 

       

Hello November...

We let our skeletons out to walk the streets for The Day Of The Dead parade, one of our favorite Missoula events. They managed to cuten up this classic look quite a bit, I think.

On that note, one of the things we LOVE about being in Missoula is all of the wonderful opportunities to celebrate our community and our kids. We are happy to be hosting an event of this kind right here, tonight, at Blackbird for the November First Friday art walk.

Tonight we celebrate with art by the students of Primrose Montessori and our very own in house artists, Andy Smetanka and Eric Pederson ( Asa, the white skeleton's, dad and grandpa!)

 The students at Primrose Montessori School have been inspired by Vasily Kandinsky, the father of abstract painting.  I must say, these preschoolers have done an amazing job with their multi-media interpretations of his paintings. And they look amazing on our walls.
Also...

Andy Smetanka has teamed up with his father-in-law, Eric Pedersen and will be showing their brilliant nightlights!  These will be one-of-a-kind nightlights with Smetanka silhouette designs, framed in a small hand-crafted (by Eric Pedersen) wooden box.  They would sure make a nice Christmas gift for any little or big person. 


So please bring your family and join us, and help us celebrate these artists, eat snacks, drink juice and or wine, and be merry.  Tonight from 5-8pm. We hope to see you tonight, but we know you are busy..the artist's work will be hanging all month, so stop by later if you can't make it tonight.

Thank you, October....

November is here already, and we are excited for another fun month as we head into the season of Holiday fever. We had such a great time at our October Halloween craft session, that we are cooking up another one to celebrate Thanksgiving and the month of November, we will announce the dates and times for that soon! Speaking of giving thanks, we are always feeling like we have a ton to be thankful for around here at Blackbird, so I want to give a shout out to all of the things that made our October special!

First off, we added two new racks to our used section, and we are pleased as punch with the way it has been growing. Thank you all for bringing us your special used items, and perusing this section like mad! We love it! It is currently stocked full of gently used Zutano, Patagonia, Columbia, Hanna Andersson, Tea Collection, Kate Quinn, Speesees and more!

We are also tickled about the new local items that have arrived recently ....like these cozy boots from Starry Knight designs, our favorite soft soled shoes ever, and they are hand-made in Corvallis MT!...Or these brand new appliqued knot hats, a perfect small baby gift from one of our favorite local designers, Nici Holt Cline. We are also in love with these adorable and stylish handmade bibs from locals, Moody Milkcow designs! 

....What else are we thankful for?

Our favorite trick or treaters, of course! We hope you had a happy Halloween and a super fun October with your favorite trick or treaters too!

Just in case you were wondering...

Batman made an appearance at Blackbird today.  He wanted to make sure we truly had a great Fall selection in our store, like we claim.

He made the rounds, critiquing everything he saw.  Here are some of the things he really liked.

This ultra warm fleece sleep sack.  He really appreciated the fact that this cozy little number would keep sleeping babies warm all night.

He was also really into this pumpkin face that his friend made at our Halloween crafting sesh, we had here at Blackbird last week.

 

Being a great supporter of locally made products, he really loved these leather booties, made by Starry Knight Designs.  Starry Knight is based in Corvallis, MT.  

This Day of The Dead poster was a real hit with Batman.  He plans to be there for the parade, just in case any funny business goes down.

He is really into sensible footwear.  These new styles of Livie and Luca really caught his eye.

The only real crime he could accuse us of was not having a line of merino wool undergarments for chilly winter days.  So, we are on the search for such said items.  Any leads from our trusty customers???  We'd love to hear what you have found.