Crafty Supermarket

May 5^th was just so many things this year: Cinco de Mayo, World Pilates Day (yes it is indeed a holiday), and Crafty Supermarket.  All the cool kids and awesome Bombshells chose to browse the handmade wares at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center.  We came, we shopped, we showed you how to make pom-poms.  Way more fun than drinking too much tequila or spending an hour in a Pilates teaser position.  (Whatever that is.  Although it does sound provocative does it not?) 

The Clifton Cultural Arts Center is a throw back to a classic style you just don’t see anymore.  But, then again, so are we Bombshells.  The CCAC perfectly housed the legion of artisans.  Like any good party, it was crowded with everyone buzzing about how excited they were to be there.  Our friends made sure to stop by to say “hello” and try their hand at some yarntastic fun.  The wee little Bombshell fans are our favorites! (Shhh.  Keep it to yourself though.  We don’t want any hurt feelings.)  We enjoyed pressing the flesh and sharing our love of fiber art with the shoppers.  Even if they did try to solve the mysteries of our underground organization. 

We classed up the joint too.  Not just with our air of sophistication, but with the nicely yarn wrapped trees outside.  While stitching up a yellow and black striped tree, one Bombshell overheard a child gleefully exclaim, “Look!  A bumble tree!”  This right here is our raison d’être.  We are the patron saints of the slightly absurd and seriously chic.  This is why we love what we do.  We try to bring joy, bewilderment, and a sense of style to an often mundane world.  So stay tuned to see what we have up our collective sleeves next.  You won’t be disappointed.

CSO So Fabulous

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra rang us on the Batphone and asked if we’d be so kind as to yarn bomb Music Hall.  “Of course!” we said, wanting to bring a bit of our kitschy creativity to its otherwise austere interior.  Everyone can use a little “fabulous” in their world, amiright?  Plus, we thought we could help them end their season on a high note (pun intended).

Once we received our call to action, we locked ourselves in our top secret underground Bombshell bunker with nothing but yarn, and Handel, Bach, and Beethoven music for inspiration.  (And snacks.  We can’t forget the snacks.  Snacks are important.)  We emerged a month later with our brightly colored masterpieces and a newfound appreciation for dead German composers.   Oddly, some of us are only able to craft in 4/4 time now thanks to our immersion experience. 

We learned a valuable lesson with this project.  If you want to be featured with the CSO, you can spend a lifetime mastering an instrument.  Or, if you’re a clever little Bombshell, you can gift them two fabulous banners.  And that, my friends, is how you create a showstopper. 

Operation Kitten Knittin'

Hi all! Kitty Knitter here. Your newest resource for keeping up-to-date on all things Bombshell. We were crafting about town again on Sunday and had the pleasure of meeting Bono, Bowie, and Barry Manilow. And, yes, they’re just as good looking in person as you imagined. Long orange tabby fur you just want to run your fingers through. Ohio Alley Cat Resource (OAR) held their second annual Kitten Shower. Doesn’t it make you want to clap your hands and squeal like a little girl at the cuteness? Bombshells + kitties = match made in heaven. I mean, other than a Bombshell, who loves yarn more than a cat?

We spent the afternoon stuffing and stitching catnip mice for our furry feline friends. The community was invited to shower the shelter (and the adorable kittens) with love and supplies. For those of you not “in the know”, OAR is an amazing non-profit organization that provides high-quality spay/neuter services for feral kitties, strays, and pets. They have a small adoption center as well as a feral cat colony on site. They operate a no kill shelter so the kitties have a place to stay until they find a permanent home. 

By shower standards (and I’m an expert since I’ve been to enough to last me a lifetime.), it was pretty great. Cake was shared, gifts were exchanged, and everyone “oohed” and “ahhed” over the babies. Just like the dozens I’ve attended lately minus the onesies and desire to stick a plastic fork in your eye if you have to feign interest in a Diaper Genie one more time. But, I digress… 

I think it's safe to declare the Bombshell's "Operation Kitten Knittin’" a success! Our stunning good looks and blonde tresses made us the life of the party. We made new friends of both the 2 legged and 4 legged varieties. Orlando, the big blue cat mascot of OAR, even paid us a visit. We presented him with a handcrafted crown and mouse toy for the party. He looked quite festive for the occasion. Alas, some of our new friends were harder to part with than others (I’m looking at you Glenfidden of the Clan McLeod).

 

After performing a complicated algorithm of appropriate cat to square foot ratio for my car, I ultimately went home alone. I think it was the image of a clown car filled with kitties unloading at my house that prevented me from asking for a bulk discount on adoptions. That, or the inevitable crazy cat lady intervention that was sure to follow from my family and friends. They would express their concern at the volume of lovable fur babies in my one bedroom apartment. And, I (clothes covered in cat fur and blond Bombshell hair unkempt) would shout things like "I can quit whenever I want!" and "I learned it by watching you!” Yep. That's enough to keep me from binging on kitties for now.

Seriously though, we can’t say enough about this wonderful organization. Support OAR. Open your home and foster a cat. Open your wallet and donate. Volunteer your time. In the end, a nice afternoon was had by all. The overwhelming cuteness of the event, the cats, and the Bombshells was enough to warm anyone’s cold, cold heart. We even got to see a few of our new feline friends get adopted. Now that makes this Kitty purr.

Silence is Golden. I mean pink and purple and orange and red and soft and monumental and ...

So have you been a bit worried about us?


Oh, sure, we've tickled your fancy on our Facebook page. (And if you want constant adorable reminders of what we love in this vast fiber world, that's the ticket.)


But we have been quiet on the social media front, haven't we? That is because your faithful May Hem has been Hemming it up abroad. And sugar, let me tell you it takes a real broad to be a BombShell abroad. My platinum locks are all the rage here with my island companions. I have been promised passion and strength. I have been offered secret potions. I have been offered things that you cannot even imagine.


But have I been offered companionship and craftsmanship and a colorful whimsical chandelier?


No. That is happening back home, in the silence of the night and over long days as the gals prepare for the TRULY, NEWLY (fiber) CHIHULY event at the Cincinnati Art Museum on February 11th!


Join The BombShells of Cincinnati and their fabulous Sidekicks as they create a monumental installation that will hang from the center of the Great Hall at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The colorful knitted and crocheted installation will consist of a “soft” chandelier, 5 larger than life sized marionette puppets, and whimsical and “heartfelt” yarn-bombing art. In addition to the installation, there will be “craft” stations set up and facilitated by the BombShells. You're invited to create your own yarn art to add to the installation.

If this isn't titillating enough, check out this AMAZING rendering and see the girls and their sidekicks at work in these never-before-seen glimpses of a BombShell in the disguise of a regular woman.

But most important, prepare your inner BombShells to join us on February 11th!

Fountain Square and Arnold's and Santacon, oh my.

So we wore our winter whites and decided to share our esteemed knowledge of crafty cuteness on a very very eventful December day!

WHEW!

That's the nutshell version of it.

It started out for the greater good as the gals did their folksy tutorial with some awesome new pals at Arnold's. Check out the pictorial below.

See?

Charming and harmless and sedate and adorable. BombShells behaving.

Well then we went over to Fountain Square to carol and skate and bomb and give warmly knitted gifts to those in need and such where we ran into an entire squadron of Santa Clauses.

One thing led to another, as it tends to do, and it took me a week to find my way back from Santa's "workshop" at the North Pole (which looks suspiciously like Over the Rhine, by the way.)

So from the bottom of my now-merry little heart and on behalf of the rest of the BombShells, we wish you a warm, colorful, cozy old-fashioned holiday with just the right people around you.

Because you deserve it. You really, really do. 

And if Santa isn't good to you this year, just give us a holler and I will chat him up directly (I know where he lives, remember) and/or we'll just bypass that entire operation and send some knitted love directly to you and yours.

Love and mittens, 

May Hem and the BombShells.

Ballet, (root)Beer, and the BombShells.

That's a winning combination, for sure!

Last week, your favorite BombShells debuted their winter white outfits and surprised the Cincinnati Ballet's Ballet and (root)Beer event for their sneak peek at the NEW Nutcracker.

We gave out leg warmers to the amazing corps de ballet and Wish Poms to the young dancers. New Nutcracker got a fancy Pinky Shears scarf and beautiful Victoria Morgan earned a felted tiara.

And moi, your faithful scribe and all-around good sport, learned to do what I will discreetly call a "tour jete" in a private lesson from one of the smokin' hot dancers. Ooh la la.

Operation Where Are We?

May Hem here.

I had just gotten off the train from High Anxiety Really, That's How You're Going To Play This? Junction when I heard that the gals were on a mission. So even though it was dark and blustery, even though my heart had endured a tiny puncture wound, I put my troubled past behind me and skedaddled over to the heretofore double-top-secret site.

But while I was in Really, That's How You're Going To Play This? Junction, I did acquire some fancy new photography apparatus for my hand held telephonic device so that I can tease you with a little look-see as to where you will find our work TOMORROW!!

So take a look. Can you name the building? If you are the first to do so and publicly identify yourself in the comment section below, you will get a special pom pom that we pom pommed just for you.

And now it is time for a hot bath and a cold drink and one final devastatingly alluring text message on my hand held telephonic  device to the mayor of Really, That's How You're Going To Play This? Junction.

Oh, and by the way, to those of you who are equally interested in the BombShells exploits as you are in my compelling personal life, you aint seen nothin' yet!