Jody Lyons designs for the girl at the party who’s dancing on the tabletops… and for the girl who stays at home to read her book instead. Half-introvert half-extrovert herself, the Brooklyn-based jewelry maker channels a full spectrum of moods into her stunning earrings and necklaces. She combines found objects and vintage pieces with beads and stones inspired by bold ethnic palates. She began designing as a means of replacing her favorite jewelry after it was stolen in the summer of 1983. When she rocked her creations on the streets of Brooklyn, she turned the heads of shopkeepers, who told her she just had to start selling them. I called Jody at her studio to chat about her methods, inspiration and styling tips for timid fashionistas.

A lot of your pieces incorporate up-cycled vintage materials. Do you consider yourself an environmentalist? Definitely. That’s a big part of why I love old stuff. I could get a lot more volume if I used things that were manufactured today, but I feel like we throw away so much. Why not try to reuse it and make something interesting? It’s also our office policy to recycle whatever we can. We’re really very conscious that way.

Why do you think people are so crazy for vintage stuff these days?  With all this new technology coming into our lives, I think we like to ground ourselves in something familiar. I do use vintage, but the biggest challenge for me is to make something that looks new.

What has been your most unusual source for materials so far?  I’ve used perfume bottle top crystals, Mahjong tiles, Poker chips.

Do you have a vision when you begin or do you arrive at the final product more experimentally?  I have to feel committed to at least one of the components; have some idea of how it would work. But other than that I don’t have a clear vision at all. When I found African beads I knew I wanted to work them in with other components to bridge the gap from what they are to something more interesting. If you saw my design desk you’d be like, “Oh my God.” It’s this mash up of 5,000 components from all over the place.

Is that kind of chaos necessary for inspiration?  For me it is necessary. I do have color-coded drawers for my materials.

What advice would you give to a woman who wanted to wear one of your more exotic pieces but didn’t think she could pull it off?  Don’t let it wear you. Make sure it’s indulging you instead of taking over. If it’s a big piece, don’t wear a ton of other things with it. I think statement earrings and necklaces can be really striking with black. But it’s really about a mood. It’s about choosing a persona. How loudly do you want your presence to be heard?

Joli Jewelry is available in store only.  Prices range from $35 – $115.

- Andrea O. Bullard

As someone who does not especially enjoy cycling, I cracked the cover of Bike Snob prepared to have my feathers ruffled. I imagined its author, anonymous blogger BikeSnobNYC, would take great pains to elevate cycling to a spiritual practice full of subtleties inaccessible to all but an elite few.

In fact, he does exactly the opposite. For starters, his definition of “cyclist” is extremely inclusive. To qualify, a person need only: a) ride a bike even when they don’t have to, and b) value the act of cycling above the tools it requires. As a self-proclaimed “selfish person” he actually discourages elitism, arguing that the mainstreaming of cycling is a good thing because it draws greater attention to the needs of practitioners like himself. Better traffic laws, bike lanes and parking will make the world a better place for him.

With an almost manic enthusiasm, he illustrates what he believes to be the life-changing potential of cycling in a colorful, comical, non-technical way. Using hilarious analogies, he lampoons the very people I imagined he would deify: people who believe bikes have souls, technicians who think bike fittings require lasers, and people “who interview bike shops like they’re daycare centers” before dropping their ride off for repairs. “Babying a bike is like getting a washing machine and liking it so much you never use it and instead just build a second laundry room,” he writes.

But my favorite chapter by far is “Velo-Taxonomy,” in which the author divides cyclists into ten distinct types based on their attire, philosophy and equipment preferences. Among them are the trendy yet oblivious “Beautiful Godzilla,” the iconoclastic “Contraption Captain,” and the universally respected “Lone Wolf.” He then goes on to explain why other bikers hate each subset. Beautiful Godzillas, for example, should be dead but aren’t, despite their tendency to ride into oncoming traffic while talking on their cell phones. After reading this chapter I felt inspired to scour the streets of Pittsburgh for one of each type, something like a budding ornithologist who travels to Yellowstone to bird watch for the first time.

If there was one passage that almost convinced me to get off my couch and buy a bike it was this:

“Any cyclist will tell you that one of the things they value most about cycling is what it does for their heads. It cleans out the clutter. Cycling allows for reflection. It simultaneously offers time to mull over problems and to escape those problems. It’s both meditative and contemplative. Whether you’re weaving through traffic or climbing a long country road, the effect is the same. Your body is working and your mind is working. And when those two things start working in concert, other aspects of life can start falling into place too.”

If this is snobbery, it’s a snobbery I think most people would want a part of, or, at the very least, enjoy reading about.

Available online and in store.

- Andrea O. Bullard

Apparently, there are a lot of photographers who also love coffee. Our first batch of Into Focus mugs sold in a flash, most often to people who intended to give them as gifts to camera wielding caffeine addicts. It’s also our best-selling web item to date.

In case you haven’t figured it out, “into focus” is a pun that refers to both the stimulating effects of caffeine and the function of a camera lens, which the mug’s design mimics.

Even if you’re not into photography, using Into Focus is bound to inspire additional puns, and really, who doesn’t love a good pun? Imagine handing the coffee-filled lens to a zombified co-worker as he stares motionless at his computer. “Hey man, snap out of it,” you’ll say. You can bring it to the next party you attend, fill it with an ounce of vodka, take a mug shot. The other guests will be reeling with laugher.

You get the idea.

The Into Focus mug is just $14.95. Pick it up at our store in Pittsburgh or order it online. Feel free to leave a comment with your best caffeine/camera puns.

- Andrea O. Bullard

Solomon Crocodile is a simple story about a lonesome creature looking for a good time in a dull place: a swamp populated by stodgy hippos, storks and dragonflies who regard him as a nuisance. He “splats and slops through the mud,” “shakes the bushes,” and otherwise disrupts the placid morning with his boisterous cries for attention.

A lot of toddlers can probably relate. You want somebody to build a pillow fort with you but everyone tall enough to help seems absorbed in vague, adult tasks and sends you away to suffer the pangs of boredom alone in your bedroom. Such is Solomon’s fate. (At least until he meets a potential accomplice. We won’t spoil the ending by telling you who.)

Beyond its resonant story, the most remarkable aspect of the book is its surprisingly sophisticated visual style. Author/illustrator Catherine Rayner creates a sense of playful chaos with her mixed media paintings, bringing the mischievous crocodile to life in splotches and swirls of watercolor, ink and acrylic. Apparently, she spends hours at a time studying animals in motion, which explains her success at capturing Solomon’s antics.

One of the most beautiful illustrations in the book stretches across two pages and catches the crocodile as he “splats and slops through the mud” (a phrase that seems made for Rayner’s aesthetic), launching slumbering frogs and flecks of rainbow-colored sediment into the air. Regardless of your age, this and many other visual moments are too splendid not to be experienced over and over again.

Solomon Crocodile is available in store and online.

-Andrea O. Bullard

You’re out for an early evening bike ride when it suddenly strikes you that tomorrow is your cousin’s 30^th birthday. At this point you can either throw on your brakes and pedal like the wind to the nearest card store (which is several miles away and probably about to close), or accept the slight shame of sending a greeting several days late. Let’s face it: neither of these options is all that appealing.

If you stock up on blank inside cards at the beginning of the year, you’ll avoid the panic that accompanies such realizations. Instead, you’ll calmly sift through your stash and select the card that best suits the occasion and recipient. You’ll always have what you need because a blank card’s meaning is ambiguous, charged only by what you choose to write inside. They work for saying thanks, sorry, bon voyage, happy anniversary, good luck, congratulations, and pretty much any other sentiment that’s commonly carried via USPS.

Check out some of our favorites below, some of which you can buy at our online store.  All are available in store.

-Andrea O. Bullard

Whenever you buy a candle, you accept its transience. Eventually it will lose its shape and, once the wick has burned to the base, its fragrance, at which point you’ll probably throw it out and replace it with another candle.

But a Skeem candle, in a way, never dies. Because, even after you’ve burned through its wick, you’re left with its beautifully embellished glass exterior. Scrape out the remaining wax and the candle becomes an entirely new object with many potential functions.

We’ve got clutter. Who doesn’t, right? Our particular brand consists of receipts, packaging, catalogues, rubber bands, posters from events gone by, emptied earring stands, packing slips, post-it reminders and extra merchandise. But lately we’ve been TRAFing, and our clutter is starting to dwindle.

What is TRAFing you ask? It reduces the process of eliminating visual noise to just four letters:

T R A F

which stand for:

Toss

Refer

Act

File

It works like this:

Toss- Dispose of the item. Throw those broken Christmas ornaments that you’ve been meaning to fix (but realistically will never get around to fixing because you don’t have the time and you didn’t much like them anyways) in the trash. Brutality feels great when it comes to clutter.

Refer- Pass the item along to someone who needs it or is better equipped to deal with it. Give the too-small sweater to your niece. Take your damaged iPod to the Apple Store.

Act- Make that phone call, send that e-mail, buy that gift, do it, do it, do it.

File- Return the item to its proper place. Put the socks in the sock drawer, put the movie on the movie shelf, put the loose recipe in the recipe folder. If you don’t have a recipe folder, make one.

We’ve made it our goal to TRAF as much as possible in 2012, especially in our back room where clutter tends to accumulate quickly.  It’s working out pretty well for us. Realizing that you have only four options for eliminating any given stray item, makes even the most immense stacks and piles seem manageable. And, if you think about it, shouldn’t the solution to clutter be just as clutter-free as you want your workspace to be?

-Andrea O. Bullard

Our holiday tree is hard to miss. Made of sassy silver tinsel, dripping with hot pink owls and clay grenades, it has become the hub of Divertido stocking stuffers. Spread beneath its branches, you’ll find piles of small treasures, destined to become those tantalizing lumps and bumps inside the family stockings.

Often when we ask customers who on their list is hardest to shop for, they answer with: “my dad, definitely.” So we’ll start there. If he likes gadgets, he’ll love our pocket cutlery. Much like a Swiss Army knife, its components fold out into a functional fork, knife and spoon. We also have festive Kabuki-inspired bottle openers that will lend an Asian twist to his New Year’s Eve. If he’s an old fashioned guy, why not drop a chic tube of pre-sharpened HB pencils into his stocking? He’ll appreciate the anachronism.

For the foodie in the family, we have reusable chopsticks that unscrew and fit into a slender pouch for easy storage and packing. Because a passion for General Tso’s is not always accompanied by an understanding of chopsticks, we’ve got training sets too, that include instructions on proper technique.

Travel junkies will love our Tyvek maps of New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The paper-thin plastic is rip-resistant, waterproof and nigh indestructible. Rather than having to flatten and fold, travelers can stuff the maps into a backpack for fun and practical navigation.

Of course we’re brimming with creative kids stuff. Bike bells painted like turtles, ladybugs and speedometers abound. Choose from among six different sets of sticker books that let kids dapple blank surfaces with fairies, robots, and outer space creatures, or captivate them with a box of tiny nesting dolls, the smallest of which is no bigger than a kidney bean. We also have sets of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets that will transform bedroom ceilings into microcosms of the night sky. They come packaged in funky star-shaped tins.

Take a spin around the store and you’re bound to turn up even more nifty items to fill stockings to the brim.

-Andrea O. Bullard

Kicking off your holiday shopping doesn’t have to involve a 3AM campout at Wal-Mart or a trek through the packed food courts and glossy sameness of the mall. This year, you’ve got a delicious alternative: The 2011 Lawrenceville Joy of Cookies Cookie Tour.

From Thursday December 1st to Sunday December 4th, each of the 34 participating businesses will serve free samples of different cookies baked by Heaven’s Scent and Perk Me Up Coffee House. Hit every stop on the tour and you’ll get to try over thirty new cookies. Should you happen to fall in love with a particular variety, you can request a recipe card and bake as many as you’d like at home.

The tour is a terrific way to immerse yourself in Lawrenceville’s small business community as you hunt for unique gifts to give your friends and family. The event grew from what began as an open house at Jay Design Soaps & Gifts in 1997, expanding each year, until, in 2000, participating businesses began offering free cookie samples to attendees.

Hours vary from location to location, but Divertido will open from 10AM to 8PM on Thursday and Friday, 10AM to 6PM on Saturday, and 11AM to 5PM on Sunday. On Saturday a trolley will run the length of the tour.

We’ve got great stocking stuffers galore for your friends and family.

We hope to see you there!

Join us for a happy hour Sip & Sale!
Time: 6:00 PM-8:30 PM
Location: 3600 Block of Butler Street, Lower Lawrenceville

Divertido, T’s Upholstery, pageboy salon & boutique, Espresso a Mano and Pavement will be hosting another awesome block party this coming Friday. Each business will feature refreshments and offer sales on many of their items.

Spend $20 or more at Divertido, and you can enter to win Gherkin…he’s one handsome Friend or Foe.

Franktuary and Los Cabos food trucks will be dishing out delicious eats. Expect a few surprises, too.

We hope to see you there!