Bumper to Bumper Winner

Thanks to all that voted. #1 was the clear winner with 34 votes. #3 came in a close second with 26 votes followed by #2 with 17 votes.

Thank you so much for helping us decide. Stay tuned for details on how to get yours.

1

2

3

Cougar

Sara's first car was this 1999 Mercury Cougar. It was beyond repair and when it came time to junk it she thought that a bag made from the seatbelts would be a great memento of her trusty old friend that had seen her through many long road trips and snow storms.

I've grown to know Sara through emails. She's been a loyal blog reader for some time and has published several on-line articles about HARVEYS so I thought this would be a great project to take on.

She carefully removed the seatbelt from her car and sent it to me in an old envelope saved from a keychain she had purchased from our website (good recycling Sara). Her request was for a Large Satchel. Here are a few pictures of it being built along side the other Tree-cycle bags.

The seatbelt was measured, cut and woven into the shell

Here's a shot of the inside of the bag. Notice the little plastic tabs that stop the seatbelt buckle from sliding down.

She didn't quite have enough seatbelt so we had to dig through our Tree-cycle supply and found a perfect match to use for the top and handles. Our Tree-cycle seatbelt is recycled remnants from the car manufacturers that comes to us in a mix of colors and quantities. Hence the mix of colors on all of our Tree-cycle bags. 

She chose "Cami" for the lining (a mix of greens) with Tree-cycle labels. Tree-cycle bags normally come with Organic Hemp and Cotton lining that's hand screened with the Tree-cycle artwork.

For the hang tag we used this piece with the Ford, factory stitch pattern and label, then stitched the Tree-cycle label on the flip side.

Here's a picture of the finished bag (notice the cougar emblem on the bottom right corner that she removed along with the seatbelt). Then it was sent off to Quality control to get the final inspection along with the rest of the Tree-cycle large satchels.

Sara generously treated the HARVEYS crew to an ice cream party that we'll be having in a few days. Can't wait to see pics of Sara with her new/old bag.

LTD Edition Release Party

Before going to the LTD Event I stopped at STARBUCKS and picked up 6 Venti Upside Down Carmel Macchiato sugar-free Vanilla Syrup an extra shot of espresso w/ whip. I had a contest for the blog readers that if anyone could recite the entire name by heart I would present them with a little gift (This coffee and a , soon to be released, HARVEYS lanyard)

The first 30 bags came with these exclusive duster bags

The line Started at around 6am.

 

Our Retail Store Managers: Karla, from Chino Hills, Chris, from Melrose and Trisha from Santa Ana (where the event was held) Chris is holding the numbered tickets that where given to those in line in the order they arrived to ensure everybody got the bags that corresponded with their place in line.

Olivia was the first in line so she decided to purchase both bags. She has quite a big collection of LTD edition bags but these are her first #1's.

The first in line and the first to recite the coffee name. See, it pays to read my blog.

This Mother and Daughter brought their knitting which not only gave them something to do but it kept them warm too. I loved the color combinations, turquoise and brown and the mixed black, grey and white.

Mom was kind enough to give me a little ball of wool. Hmmm. maybe a future LTD edition bag.

I had so much fun hanging out with everyone in line. I got to meet a lot of blog readers. Kisha (left) I posted a picture of her LTD edition collection, which she told me got her into a little bit of trouble with her friends and family. They knew she had a lot of HARVEYS bags because they'd see her with different bags all the time but when I posted the picture, they got to see exactly how many she really has. Angel (second left) is our luckiest customer. I lost count of how many free bags she's won at our events. Once she won 2 bags at one event. I was also happy to meet Angry Julie (far right). She has an awesome blog angryjuliemonday.com from which we get a lot of referrals. She's also a big "Monster" fan. (see can in her left hand) you have to check out her blog. In the future I'd like to do a bag giveaway on her blog. Stay tuned.

It was great seeing everyone with their different HARVEYS bags. This "SeatbeltBUG" bag was our first print ever.

Lacey describes herself as "Plum Crazy"

Spotted this T-shirt that was from the release of the Cupcake LTD edition bag.

We raffled off a few bags and Stacy won this Leopard Rose boxy tote. She was so excited because she had actually been eyeing it for some time.

Ashley coordinated the event and did an amazing job putting everything together. Thanks Ashley. Loved the Coffee and Candy Bar. 

Bumper to Bumper

We're so accustomed to using seatbelts to make handbags sometimes we forget it's intended purpose, SAVING LIVES. 

We thought a good old fashioned Bumper Sticker would be a great way to remind us all how important it is to wear our seatbelts.

We came up with 3 options. Help us pick one by casting your vote for 1, 2 or 3 in the Comments.

1

2

3

Here's a great article on Yahoo! about the importance of wearing your seatbelt.

2 days left

I'm really looking forward to the LTD release party at the Santa Ana store. The sewing machines are buzzing and the bags are rolling hot off the press. It's very exciting. We take great care to ensure each bag is assigned it's own numbered label, the custom lining is hand screened, the hangtags are hand stamped then they're all packaged up.

Coming up with the colors and names is so much fun for all of us and we're all sworn to secrecy until the big launch party.

If you're wondering how we came up with the name: "Venti Upside-Down, Soy Caramel Macchiato with Sugar-free Vanilla Syrup an extra shot of espresso w/whip" Well not only is it indicative of the colors used in the bag it was actually inspired by my favorite Starbucks Coffee order.

Melanie just picked one up for me. If you speak "Starbucks" you can read the side or you can just call it "That LTD edition bag with the really long coffee name"

The first 5 people to see me at the Release party and recite the entire name without one mistake (on the first try) will get a little gift.  See you there.

Vacation Contest

Whenever I carry my Bon Voyage rope-tote I feel like I'm on a cruise to some exotic location for a Vacation in the sun. So I got to thinking... I would love to see pictures of you on vacation with your HARVEYS bag. If you have one, doesn't matter where it is or which HARVEYS bag, just email it to dana@seatbeltbags.com 

One lucky winner will receive this one-of-a-kind Ships Ahoy rope-tote.

Sometimes when we're designing a bag we'll come up with several versions but end up only using one. Well this is the one we didn't use. I guess you could say it's kinda like a "deleted scene".

I'm looking forward to seeing all of your fabulous Vacation Pictures. 

A Dozen things you should know about Katie Schutte...

 Last Friday was the opening of Katie's art show, "Get Hooked". Her Seatbeltstrap tote was voted by you as a winner of the INTRO art competition. We wanted to find out more about Katie so we asked her some very random questions.

My Favorite city is… Nara.  I got to spend a few days there last summer when I went to Japan.  You can walk through this awesome park where deer roam around and buy crackers to feed them, as well as see a bunch of different shrines and a temple that has the world’s largest statute of Buddha inside it.  There are also a ton of neat little shops and the food was great. In the picture of the deer, you can see what happens when you drop a cracker.

My Favorite color… right now is orange. I also tend to use a lot of blue in my work.  If you look at the glass beads I made last summer, you can see many of the color combinations I like.

My all time favorite movie is… The Nightmare before Christmas.  The Halloween and Christmas seasons are not complete until I have watched the movie and listen to the sound track at least once for each holiday.

Right now I like listening to… I:Scintilla, an industrial band out of Chicago.

My nickname growing up was… Peanut. Yes, my parents still occasionally call me that.

My favorite drink is… definitely coffee. With cream and at anytime of the day.

My favorite snack food is… veggies and dip. I like other snack things, but I really love vegetables.

The thing I liked most about working with Harveys is… how nice and professional everyone was! It was such a great experience to work with such an awesome group of people!

When I grow up I want to be…When I was younger, I wanted to study strange animals like giant squid, but I think I’m going to stick with trying to be a professional artist.  I would also like to teach jewelry and metalsmithing classes too.  There's a picture of my work bench.  You can see a little of my skeleton apron hanging on the chair.  My mom got it for me one year; it glows in the dark!

People tell me I look like…I’ve only had one person tell me I look like anyone famous and she said I reminded her of Punky Brewster.

I want to give a shout out to my peeps…. My sisters, Kelly and Kerry, my brother Matt, my parents, my boyfriend Will, Erika, Ashley, Ta, Alysia, Chris, Tim, Emily, and everyone at Miami University, especially the Art department, for all their support!

I recommend reading...Victorian ghost stories.  I have also been downloading them to listen to when I work on my art.  They are some of the creepiest stories ever.