The Procession of the Species workshop is looking for volunteers to help staff their art studio! Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays currently have openings, and there’s a training coming up to get you ready. Every Saturday, Mark toy and John Beck lead ‘Batik & Art Studio Staff Training’ (ages 16 and up) from 11 am to noon. This is your chance to get involved with the Procession, learn new art forms, and help create one of the most fantastic events Olympia has to offer. [more]

‘Belleza’ will soon be taking over the old Capital Footwear location. All we have to go on at this time, is the sign in the window… which reads: “Featuring clothing, shoes, and accessories by Eileen Fisher, Flax, Not Your Daughter’s Jeans, Dansko, Sofft, Wolky, Fidji, Willow Sweaters, and more!” We’ll let you know when they open their doors!

‘Creative Dye Works’ opened up in downtown Olympia earlier this month. The shop does custom screen printing and features tye dye and imported clothing, posters, wall tapestries, band t-shirts, jewelry, soy candles, and more. Creative Dye Works moved up here from Centralia to snag some better business, and so far it’s working! I’m really excited about the screen printing. They can do up to six colors! The tapestries are beautiful and the dresses are lovely. I suggest you check this out! Welcome to the neighborhood! [more]

Wind Up Here would like to feature a group of Olympia’s future artists! We will be featuring 25-40 (depending on the size of the work submitted) “Wind Up Here Kids” in the front window during Spring Art’s Walk.  If you and your child would like to have one piece of their art work on display for Art’s Walk just drop off the work and a picture of your child, fill out the brief information form. [more]

Google, in an effort to expand its everygrowing empire of useful online tools is slowly expanding it’s map offerings!
Now, you can see many local businesses listed by default in your map. How cool is that?? [more]

Tell us how to use the City of Olympia’s federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. The City of Olympia is preparing a new five-year CDBG Consolidated Plan for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Your responses to this survey will help determine how the city will distribute federal tax dollars for the next five years (2011–2015). All your responses are both confidential and anonymous, and you don’t need to answer all the questions…. [more]

The Capitol Lake was backwashed a couple of weeks ago with salt water from the Puget Sound in hopes to kill the New Zealand Mudsnails that infested the lake. They are so small that you can barely see them and have apparently been in the late since over two years. Department of Fish and Wildlife is trying to prevent a larger spread to other Puget Sound locations as the mudsnail has no predators and is a foreign species in our waters. Most snails survied the salty bath unfortuantely… read the rest of the story over at the Olympian.

Downtown businesses are jumping on the bandwagon and discovering the amazing opportunity that is self-made promotion, education and entertainment with self-made Youtube videos.
Spa Aneity and einmaleins are the latest businesses that are using Youtube to connect with their customers beyond the day-to-day store visits, but are using video as a way to reach their clients, share information and entertain.

I read a report today that said that people are uploading every minute of the day 24hours worth of video to Youtube. And another report mentioned that Facebook jumped ahead of Google as the most visited website in the US over the course of the last two weeks. Social media is here to stay and it’s a huge game changer – be a part of it!

Below is the latest video of SpaAneity: [more]

Farmer’s Market is re-opening on April 1st! It can be hard to keep up with everything that goes on down there, which is why I am proud to announce that The Market has created their own Facebook page! They’re posting all sorts of things about fun events as we speak, so I suggest you add them today! Click HERE to be sent to their page!

It’s St. Patrick’s Day! My mother just called to wish me a happy day, and thanks to her, I didn’t walk out of my house wearing all blue like I’d intended to. The tradition of pinching might sound like a high school thing, but if you’re heading into downtown Olympia tonight, I’d advise you to wear something green. You never know what might happen! What are your plans? Dressing up? Going dancing? Hitting the Ave? Whatever you do today, have fun and be safe! [more]