Royal Wedding

This morning we watched Prince William and Catherine Middleton get married.

I remember watching his parents Lady Diana and Prince Charles get married back in 1981.

She looked so beautiful.

Hangtags

I found a Giant Label that we used a while back (I forget what for) so I decided to make a Giant Hangtag. 

I stitched 2 regular sized seatbelts side by side and used one of the large grommets that we use on the Berkley Totes. 

To give you a perspective our Regular sized hangtag is in the middle and the mini hangtag is on the left.

Maybe next I'll make a Giant Seatbeltbag to go with it. Hmmm....

James Durbin Fever

I haven't watched American Idol for years. I started watching again this year because I heard Steven Tyler and Jlo were judging and now I'm hooked. Last night the contestants each sang a Carol King song and my favorite by a long shot was James Durbin's rendition of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"

I think he might win. Just Saying.

On your Bike!

"On your Bike!" is a popular British saying which basically means, "Get Lost!".
For me it's a reminder that May is National Bike Month so if you have a bike that's collecting cobwebs, next month is the perfect time to dust it off and start pushing the pedals. Not only is it the perfect low impact excercise it'll take you places too.

This fabulous picture was posted on our facebook page by Melinda E Buttich.

OMG!

As much as we hate to admit it.

Melanie picked up this vintage inspired sign at the recent Orange Circle Car show. It now hangs in our kitchen as a reminder that Mother knows best. Don't forget to remind her this Mothers day.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Summer is just around the corner and I wanted to share a few of the things from last summer that inspired us when we were designing bags for Summer 2011.

Vintage Scarves

Especially those by Vera Neumann, who began designing scarves in the 1940's. Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly were big fans. Last summer I bought this book of her life's works for Melanie.

Our vintage Schwinn Bikes
Did you know that Schwinn used to make all of their bicycles in the USA? Now they don't make any. In fact less that 5% of all the bikes we use in the USA are made here. Hooray for the 5% that are. Areofast is a company that continues to build bikes here in America. You can check them out HERE

Outdoor Markets
Our favorite is Patchwork where hand-crafters gather from around the Country to show off their wares. Last year we had fun hanging out with everyone and we have some big plans for this year. Look for an upcoming blog post for more on this.

Picnics in the park

Freshly baked pies
Especially Apple and Cherry from Polly's Pies (just across from the Santa Ana store). A scoop of ice cream makes it even better.

4th of July celebrations
In 1976 a ton of stars-and-stripes themed products came out in celebration of our bicentennial. I just love all that old stuff. I have a collection of old metal cases but my prized possession is my stars-and-stripes motorcycle helmet.

Trips to the Beach

Refreshing Summer Salads
We plant lots of mixed greens in our garden and love to make yummy summer salads.
We're really looking forward to an amazing Summer 2011 and can't wait for all the fun new bags to come out. It all starts this coming first Friday. 

Basket Case

Happy Easter everyone. The girls woke up this morning to Easter Baskets full of treats. During all the excitement and candy munching, I was looking at their baskets and for some reason I thought about the biggest basket in the world. The Longaberger Headquarters in Newark, Ohio. Longaberger is known for their high quality baskets that are handcrafted in the USA. Just like the Seatbeltbag.

How cool would it be to go to work everyday in a giant Seatbeltbag?

Mountains To Sea

Yesterday I rode along the Mountains to Sea Trail which begins in Weir Canyon and winds for 22 miles through five cities ending in Back Bay, Newport Beach. There are some breathtaking views along the trail with wildlife that you wouldn't expect to see in Orange County. Here's a picture I took as I entered the Back Bay area.

I'm currently training for a 100 mile bike ride in October to benefit Multiple Sclerosis. It starts in Irvine, CA and ends in Mission Beach, San Diego. This will be my second year participating, the first was back in 2008 so it's time to get in shape again.

Where does the Easter Bunny go for Breakfast?

IHOP!

Before the girls went to bed they left out a little treat for the Easter Bunny. 

Word Play

I thought I'd share this puzzle from our company Newsletter this month. If you get bored this weekend you can print it out and have some fun, HARVEYS style.

Reduce-Reuse-Tree-cycle

Happy Earthday

Feather Friday

It seems we forgot to include our fine Feathered Friends on Fur Fridays. Autumn sent in this picture of Mimi looking fabulous perched on the handle of her Leopard Boat Tote.

Thanks for Sharing Autumn and Mimi.

If you would like to share a picture of your Furry or Feathered Friend on in or beside your seatbeltbag, please send it to info@seatbeltbags.com

Orange Circle Car Show

Last Sunday we stopped by the Annual Orange Circle Car Show.

Our Friends Jimmy and Michelle White of Circle City Hotrods had a booth there and had my Hot Rod that they built on display.

 It's called the Orange Circle because there are four streets that meet in the middle with a circle instead of an intersection. All 4 streets were packed with classic cars and their were vendors around the circle. 

 

We spotted this couple and their new baby, only 3 months old, with their HARVEYS diaper bag.

It was a busy weekend, right after this Car show we headed to the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Lights! Camera! Action!

I picked this up for Melanie while we were in Austin from at a neat little novelty shop called Monkey See Monkey Do. Now she can feel like a Movie Star when she's filming the First Friday Videos. She just filmed the FFV for May on Tuesday. Bring on Summer.

Old School

Last night Cheryl and I attended the Launch of the new Fashion Building at Orange Coast College.

 

OCC is my old school, where I studied fashion so I was curious to see the new digs which looked great on the invitation.

  It looked even more amazing in person. A far cry from the single story classrooms that I studied in.

 

The students had some works on display. 

  There were some very creative ideas. I liked the yellow weave design of course.

 I loved the view from the sewing lab. The floor to ceiling windows really opened up the space.

 They have a great selection of various sewing machines.

 

And state of the art Pattern making software. 

Cheryl and Professor Chris Amaral

Cheryl started with HARVEYS at the Santa Ana retail store while she was getting her Fashion degree at OCC. When she graduated she was promoted to the operations department and then to Design. Chris Amaral was her Mentor and has even asked Cheryl to come back to OCC to speak and inspire new students.

It's so great that this caliber of fashion education is offered at a community college. When I was fresh out of High School, I couldn't afford to go to a prestigious design school. At OCC I was able to work to pay for my education while I was going to school and I was able to take a variety of classes that really helped me learn a lot of the skills that I still use today.

Boxy Moxy

By now you've probably seen our latest installment to the Forever Blue Jeans legacy, the Moxy. I thought I would take a moment to give you a little background on this very unique silhouette. 

The Moxy is a mix of 2 sizes of seatbelt, the Traditional 2" and the 1 1/4" which, incidentally, is used on Child Car Seats. We named it Moxy because it's a Modified Boxy. Slightly bigger with longer handles and just a little bit smaller than the Large Satchel.

It was first introduced in 2009 in the Tough Love collection.

Since it was such a big hit we decided to bring it back again in 2010 for the Day after Thanksgiving release of Mashed Browns.

And don't forget the Forever Blue Jeans wallet. The very first mixed sizes, seatbelt wallet.

The Moxy has the familiar Forever Blue Jeans lining, which is hand silk-screened on actual denim.
And this year for the first time ever we used custom Forever Blue Jeans labels.
Last year I posted a question on the blog: "Would you like to see something new in Forever Blue Jeans next year?" It received almost 30 comments with some great ideas that really helped us when we designed this new Forever Blue Jeans collection. So Thank you everyone who commented. We really appreciate the feedback.

Roach Coach

Maricella has been serving lunch to the HARVEYS crew for almost 10 years. She shows up every day without fail right on time, not only for Lunch but for our mid-morning break too.

Melanie normally makes Lunch for us but today she was filming the next First Friday video so I was on my own.

So I ordered my usual, Steak Torta with lettuce, tomato, beans and cheese with a roasted pepper on the side. Yummy.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

But does every Seatbeltbag have a Silver lining?
Well, although the majority of our bags do come with silver lining we actually have a wide range of colors that we use for different collections. Below are some of the more common variations of our HARVEYS signature lining:

Silver: Used in most of our Classic Seatbeltbags. 

Pink: Used in several Tough Love bags as well as some others

 Black: Used in the Men's Black Label collection, Sugar and Spice, Stella, Lola, etc...

 Brown: Used in our Carriage Collection and also Mashed Browns.

 Razzleberry: Used in Barbie Seatbeltbags.

 Mixed Greens: This was used in Armed with Roses

Red and Grey Disney: These were used for various Disney seatbeltbags. Note that our signature star is replaced by the Mickey silhouette.

Our HARVEYS signature lining is a poly-jacquard that is stain resistant and fray resistant. And, the design is made to be read from all angles.

 I recently created this "H" monogram design which incorporates the very same "H" from our HARVEYS logo. Note that it mimics the weave of our seatbeltbags. It was used for the first time in the Grey Monogram Scarf we recently released.

Are there any other color schemes that you would like to see in either the HARVEYS signature lining or the new "H" monogram design?