The Rock Fight Against Leukemia and Lymphoma the Woodstock of Patterson Park.
Hosted By: Nina Agelakis Melanye Mahla & Jasika Sebkarshad
When: Sat 5/3 11:00 AM to 9pm & Sun 5/4
Where: Patterson Park
Linwood Ave. and Eastern Ave.
Baltimore, Maryland| 21224
Nina will be Hiking for Discovery for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society along with 23 other wonderful participants, so we at Fells Point Salon are having this concert at the park for the discovery to fight the diseases and to promote Baltimore bands, businesses, our parks, our
communities, our artists and the people of Baltimore.
There will be Food to buy. Bring your own beer, wine, and liquor. There will be refreshments and bake goods, local art, photos to purchase along with, crafts and lots of activities to get into while listening to live music created by our wonderful bands who are volunteering their time and talent for this great cause.
We are hiking for a little 13 year old young lady who is fighting everyday to keep herself strong against this terrible sickness. “I am doing this for all who I know and do not know who have had to or will have to battle this same fight this young lady is fighting.” Nina.
So please come join our rock fight both days!
It is Only $10 to get in and anything you enjoy, you buy, you eat or drink will contribute to our fight.
The girls of Fells Point Salon
2211 Eastern Ave
Baltimore Md 21231
410-236-0750
410-732-0300
All haircuts completed by Nina on Sundays and Mondays untill May 15th will be contributing to the cause. Donations are also accepted.
Thank you so much for all your support!
If you have art, photos, and crafts you would like to show, sell, or donate , please contact us at the salon.
Our Bands
THE COUNTRY DEVILS
DAVID ZE
NO REGRETS
YELLOW #5
KESWICK TRIANGEL BLUES BAND
MISEUPHORIA
STUPID HERO
URSULA RICKS
THE JV MYKA PROJECT
SINGLETON
ARTHERIUS JOHNSON
KING BELVEDERE
BILLY REDFIELD
JASON SIEMER
MICHAEL MCHENRY TRIBE
THE STUGOTTS
PAUL HARRIS
GREG SCRUGGS
AMONG WOLVES
This weekend, Saturday April 19th, Baltimore County’s Department of Public Works is selling compost bins for the low, low low price of $35!
Go to the DPW website for all the information, then swing by bluehouse and pick up a bag of our (free!) used coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are a great way to add nitrogen to your compost, or sprinkle them around your plants. We toss in the used filters too, which compost as a kitchen brown.
If you’ve been to the cafe lately you’ve probably seen some new things going on behind the counter. Groups of our cafe and showroom staff clustered behind the espresso machine, pulling shot after shot and fiddling with the grinders. Our old Bunn brewer sitting unused on a chair while a new Fetco brewer sits in the old equipment’s place. Small stainless steel carafes replacing the battered and well used airpots. Baristas sipping endless cups of coffee and muttering about body and mouth feel, citrus notes, floral notes, nutiness and more. What is going on?
Well, a big change was in the works for the cafe and we’re thrilled that everything is finally in place. We are proud to announce that we have changed roasters and are now partnering with Counter Culture Coffee. We first became aware of Counter Culture right after we opened in December 2005, and we kept hearing about them again and again, particularly after we hired someone who had worked with their coffee before. This winter we spent a few months learning about their business approach, sampled a bunch of their coffee, met the Regional Sales Rep. and finally decided to take the plunge and bring them on board as our roaster.
We’ve always thought we serve excellent coffee, but wanted to keep pushing the quality of what we offer our customers. What we love about Counter Culture is how involved they are with their coffee, from finding the best beans, properly roasting them, and then educating the public so people are excited about drinking really good coffee. They are dedicated not just to the final coffee product but to creating sustainable, beneficial relationships all the way from the farmers who grow the beans to the baristas who make your morning cup of coffee to the lucky person who gets to drink the coffee.
Counter Culture Coffee is able to offer an incredible amount of support to us including further education and training so that we can make sure we’re serving you the best coffee and espresso possible. You don’t have to work at bluehouse to tap into this information, though. Counter Culture has resources open to the public, such as espresso labs and history classes, and free Friday morning cuppings (the closest to bluehouse is at their D.C. training facility).
We could put tons of information about Counter Culture in this post but the best ways to learn about them are to ask us (we are more than happy to talk about coffee!) or check out their website, which is very thorough explaining everything from their business model to the history of their coffees : Counter Culture Coffee ~ Coffee Driven People, People Driven Coffee. Let us know what you think of the changes, and feel free to ask us about our favorite coffee selections, recommendations for whole bean coffee to take home, or even for a sample .
Yesterday the Washington Post ran the story “Non-Toxic Tots”, discussing how families often make green and healthy buying choices a priority when shopping for their littlest family members.
If you’re interested in checking out some of the items they mention, try giving us a call. Painting a nursery? We carry Bioshield products, including Kinder Paints which have: no acrylic copolymer, no anti-microbial agents, no preservative, no ethylene glycol and no VOC. Let your baby get a good night’s sleep on Sleeptek’s Natural Rubber or Organic Wool Innerspring crib mattresses, which have no chemicals, dyes, polymers or toxins. They also make crib pads, barrier cloths and moisture pad protectos. Sleeptek’s mattresses grow with your family, coming in twin, full, queen and king sizes, and we also offer SavvyRest natural latex mattresses in the same sizes. Several models are in our showroom so feel free to come in and try them out. It’s a common bluehouse site to walk through the showroom and find a shopper blissfully sprawled out a bed, though no one’s fallen asleep on one (yet!).
We’ve also reserved a section of the store for children’s items; you can view the Baby & Child section of our website to see a portion of what’s currently in stock including recycled and all natural stuffed toys, organic Take Me Home sets and gentle bath products.
Thanks to Lynn at Organic Mania, where we first heard about the article
In order to offer our customers better quality and healthier items we are discontinuing our flavored drip coffee. There’s been a lot of debate at bluehouse about this change because we know some of our customers (and staff) love flavored brews. We’re convinced this is a good change because:
* Conventional coffee flavorings are made of artificial flavor compounds and solvents, and we want to promote food and drinks that do not rely on artificial elements to enhance or change their flavor, We don’t think there is anything wrong with chemicals (Better Living Through Chemistry!) but we prefer to advocate for products that are as close as possible to their natural state
* We tried organic coffee flavors but found that all they did was increase the price of the coffee, not the flavor
* Flavored coffees contaminate the taste of the regular coffees that we brew. We are proud of the coffees that we select for our customers and want to make sure you enjoy the best product our roaster offers
* Why take our awesome organic, shade grown and fair trade coffees and dump a bunch of chemicals on them?
With flavored coffee out of the way, here’s what we are excited to offer you:
* Miss your flavored coffee? Through March 9th just ask and we’ll put a shot of regular or sugar-free flavored syrup in your drip coffee. This does not include au laits, espresso drinks, chai or hot chocolate.
* An increased variety of regular coffees, selected to offer a darker and lighter roast every day, that expose our customers to truly delicious coffee and espresso
* Quality flavored syrups to add to your drip coffee or espresso drinks
* Exploring natural ways to flavor coffee with spices or other ingredients (such as vanilla, cinnamon or other ingredients)
Further Reading:
Coffeereview.com has a number of posts about flavored coffee:
http://www.coffeereview.com/reference.cfm?ID=102
Answers.com gives a rough outline of the coffee flavoring process:
http://www.answers.com/topic/flavored-coffee-bean
INeedCoffee.com gives a list of natural ways to flavor coffee:
http://www.ineedcoffee.com/07/flavored-coffee/
Please join us on Thursday, Feb 21st from 6-9 pm at Lemongrass and Tsunami (1300 Bank Street, Baltimore) to celebrate the inaugural issue of MLA Arts Brief with special guest James Earl Reid (this issue’s featured artist). Drink specials and appetizers provided by Lemongrass, Tsunami, and Corona
To attend, please RSVP to smalltimoreevents@gmail.com
Founded in 1985, Maryland Lawyers for the Arts provides pro bono legal assistance to income-eligible artists and arts organizations, and educational workshops and seminars on topics affecting artists.
Are you an artist with a legal issue? To find out if you qualify for pro bono legal services, visit www.mdartslaw.org or call (410) 752-1633.
A quote from the Arts Brief:
Through Arts Brief, we hope to educate, entertain, and inform both the arts community and the legal community about important and/or interesting legal issues, and to let everyone know what MLA has been and will be doing. Whether you are an attorney interested in arts issues or an artist interested in legal issues, Arts Brief is for you. We’ll be covering legal developments in all the major disciplines — visual arts, filmmaking, writing, and music — as well as emerging arts like gaming and digital video — so even if you don’t find your genre in this issue, keep checking back for articles and events affecting YOU. — Michael Yang, President
As I am currently on a business trip, the first I heard of the cancellation of WYPR’s “Steiner Show” was when the emails from infuriated customers started coming in. As a long-time supporter of that public radio station, bluehouse is a natural target for that outrage.
Although we currently are not running a campaign with WYPR, we were planning on a large spring purchase, and they were kind enough to leave our banner and logo on their site in the interim.
I would like our faithful customers and Mr. Steiner’s faithful listeners to know that I have asked for our banner to be removed and informed our rep not only of our displeasure in this development, but also that we will not be going forward with our planned sponsorship, which I had intended to begin next month.
Mr. Steiner is a Baltimore institution and provided a daily public service that educated, provoked, and delighted thousands of people. He will be missed by bluehouse, and we appreciate the time our customers have taken to share with us their views on this subject.
With the growing worries about the threat of rising energy costs and global warming dozens of cities have been adopting laws, policies and such to implement energy saving and environmental features.
According to a recent survey conducted by Forbes magazine, Maryland has been ranked the fifth greenest state. Maryland has been toying with green technology for years, and in 2001 two construction pilots were funded to pave the way.
While achieving the green standard could increase costs by as much as 2 percent. It has been proved by studies that you will save more than enough in utility costs to repay that upfront fee.
For more information on this article, you can view it here!
Check out this video, all about those pesky plastic grocery bags and the people who try to give them to you! At bluehouse we don’t think you have to take a bag, though if you wish we do have recycled paper/soy ink printed bags for toting your purchases home. If you like reusable bags we have simple hemp totes from Ecolution and coming this spring Flip and Tumble compact over the shoulder bags (man they are cute!).
Happy Holidays to all. The new year is bringing many new things, including beautiful new products at our shop. (As well as some nicely priced clearance items!) 50% off of railroad furniture and 25% to 50% off of various holiday items.
For you local folks! Starting now on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month we are holding open mic nights. Second Saturdays are poetry and fourth Saturdays are music. Poetry is open mic, as well as a beginning workshop to get creative energies flowing. Music, bring on over your guitar, your voice or whatever else you may have to offer and share. It starts around 6:30 p.m. and ends at 8 p.m.
Hello all! Bluehouse is coming along delightfully, and our shop has been looking wonderful! With the help of Ann Fortune, our fairly new buyer.
Ann was recently written up in Baltimore Style magazine. You can view her here!
Here is a great shot of some of the whimsical things showing up for our Christmas sale. Including beautiful Amaryllis plants which you can take home and grow in the bag! As well as amazingly soft Crispina scarves from various salvaged fabrics.
Also, for those of you folks in the Baltimore area. Please don’t forget about our Tuesday organic cafe happy hour! It starts at 4:30 p.m. and runs until 6:30 p.m., and within this time period we offer half priced beverages and pastries. Great for a cold night when you’re looking for something relaxing. On top of this we offer various weekly promotions such as last week it was 10% off of our Heath ceramics.
So bluehouse recently had the pleasure of redecorating the Library at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. As a special treat for doing so, we were allowed to “encounter” some dolphins. We watched an educational presentation, got great seats at the formal Dolphin Show, and then got to hang out with (and touch!) some dolphins.
Photos of the show by bluehouse’s James Haney:
That last one would be David training Cara with a “Target Pole,” which is apparently, how all the best and brightest dolphins are educated.
Sadly, people might not realize right away bluehouse is, most certainly, accessible to our guests with special needs. We would not accept any other scenario. Visitors who use wheelchairs, or strollers, can enter through the lower lobby doors, and then take a speedy elevator ride up to bluehouse. We can buzz you in, if the door is locked. Please come see us!
Fall is finally here, in temperature and not just the date, and thankfully we perfectly timed the return of . . . soup! We were waiting for the weather to cool down before putting soup back on the menu but finally lost patience earlier this week. This means we were ready for customers who wanted a warm fall lunch when it turned chilly mid-week.
Like our other lunch items our soups come from Zia’s Cafe in Towson. Chef Daniela Troia makes us fresh soup several times a week. We don’t even know what tasty concoction we’ll be serving until our delivery arrives. When possible Daniela uses local and organic ingredients in the soup, and she makes sure to cook with the freshest ingredients she can find. Most of her soups are vegetarian or vegan, so we can make sure to appeal to a wide variety of tastes. We serve our soups in an 8 oz. cup (pair this with a sandwich, salad or empanada for a full lunch) or a satisfying 16 oz. bowl, and both come with bread on the side.
This week’s soups were: (hormone-free) Chicken and (local) Vegetable, Potato and Leek (vegan) and Hearty Black Bean (vegan). What will we be serving next week? You’ll have to come in to find out!
Today marks the first day in Baltimore to really feel like the Fall. It’s chilly outside, overcast, and damp. And it’s remarkably welcome, as we’ve been undergoing a terrible drought, and the high was 96 degrees Fahrenheit the day before yesterday.
Instinctually, this time of year makes everything seem more pressing. The urge to stock up on supplies for the Winter can be all consuming, and can cause some of us to become… all consuming, especially with the Holidays apparently approaching faster and faster every year.
Sadly, this phenomenon is all too symbolic of the growing disconnect between many Americans, and the natural world. We feel alienated, and often have to search for meaning in our lives, forgetting that at one time, Life, itself, was the meaning. The words “Fall” and “Autumn” came into use only in the 16th century. Prior to that time, the beginning of the dormant time of year was simply known as “Harvest.” But as more of the United States’ literate, non-native population moved from land-work to towns, the term slowly lost meaning, just as the entire language of our illiterate population was lost.
Perhaps now is the time to reconnect. To slow down, and re-examine the truly meaningful bounty and abundance of the Earth. Take some hot soup, walk around outside in a sweater, look at the changing leaves, and remember that each of us is actually, literally, part of our environment. By protecting it, we are protecting our children, our food supply, and ourselves.
“Velocipede Bike Project is a collectively run non-profit dedicated to helping people use bicycles as transportation. We collect donated, second-hand, and landfill-bound bikes, which we then use to teach people how to repair and build their own bicycles. We also provide affordable and safe refurbished bicycles and bicycle parts.
Through our programming, we seek to:
provide transportation to people of low and moderate incomes
encourage healthy lifestyles
reduce the waste flow into our landfills
decrease dependence on unsustainable fossil fuels
The Velocipede Bicycles Project operates through the volunteer time and contributions of people of many ages and backgrounds from across Baltimore. Through, recycling, education, and using the love of the bicycle as a tool to build community, we are working together to build a healthier urban environment.”
And, not only are the Velocipede Members achieving these noble aims, but they, too, are demonstrating that we here are just as smart and forward thinking as those in San Francisco, or even Paris, if not more autonomous. While we at bluehouse are struggling to make one bike rack a reality, this collective has changed attitudes and made waves. Bravo.
To Celebrate Good-for People-and-for-the-Earth New-Fashioned Sustainable Living in the Chesapeake Watershed
Admission:
Adults $8 or 2/$15
Kids age 3 to 12 $5
Kids 2 and under free.
Guests who decide to volunteer when they arrive at the Fair can request a 2-hour job assignment. Upon completion of the assignment, the admission fee will be refunded. For more information and pre-registration, email Posie/Dana Stout at fairyfestivities@yahoo.com .
The Fair celebrates healthy people working for and enjoying a healthy planet. Partly we pay tribute to the simple traditions, the fun and values of harvest festivals of the past where apples are pressed into cider, garden and farm bounty is proudly displayed, and the animals used to plow our fields or to clothe and nourish us are lavishly appreciated. In the spirit of good old-fashioned fun we’ll have country dancing, lots of music, harvest craft activities for kids, good food for all tastes and natural and folk crafts to marvel and delight.
More than a nostalgic glance backwards, however, MEHF is a vision-in-progress of sustainable living for a sustainable future for Earth and her inhabitants.
Our Philosophy bluehouse was created around the idea that you can have things that are at once beautiful, good for you, and good for the planet.
Each product we carry meets one of six criteria for eco-friendliness and health, and most meet
more than one. Learn more.
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