OCT PEP RALLY: Geronimo Balloons!

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Holy moly, are you ready for this month's Pep Rally?! We are all high around here (on helium of course...) with excitement because Jihan Zencirli, founder and head balloon trooper of Geronimo Balloons is our guest speaker! Join us at The Unique Space on Thursday evening, October 16, from 6:30 - 8 for a night of inspiration, tales and small biz smack-down. Aside from being one of the coolest people on the earth, Jihan created an entire industry within the wedding/events industry with her balloon creations - spawning thousands of copy-cats around the world! Don't miss this awesome talk, RSVP NOW.

Polite Society Paper!

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We love discovering new brands making super rad Made-in-America products!

POLITE SOCIETY PAPER is a mother + daughter design team based in Los Angeles. We asked the duo to fill us in on their brand and what inspires them every day.

What lead you to start POLITE SOCIETY PAPER? 

POLITE SOCIETY PAPER was formed out of our passion for stationery and the realization that we had a unique esthetic to bring to the market. 

What do you use as inspiration for your line?

Our inspiration comes from a shared love for vintage, clean + minimal style, and our inner tomboys that occasional come out to play. Together we collaborate on every item - brainstorming ideas, sketching + perfecting designs, choosing colors + card stock... and cooking some pretty amazing lunches in our studio! 

Where do you hope to take POLITE SOCIETY PAPER in the future?

We’ve launched POLITE SOCIETY PAPER with a collection of graphic and text, all occasion cards, but plan to take our design approach into other areas of paper + home goods in the near future.

Hashtag Awesomeness

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We love interacting with you and discovering new talent, so we have created three awesome hashtags on Instagram for everyone to use! Tag and share your pics and we will regram our favorites every week... Fun times!

  1. Share your adventure and road-trip photos with us using #uniqueroadtrips
  2. Got great travel spots to share, secret cafes you love, hotel discoveries, packing tips? Share them with us using #uniqueusatravel
  3. Inspired by the great Fourth of July flag photos we saw, we created #uniqueusaflags so you can share fab flag pics with us!

Here are just a few stunning photos that you'll see:

By @igreen97

By @igreen97

By @jillithtay

By @jillithtay

By @evill

By @evill

By @blossomvintage

By @blossomvintage

By @steph_m_collins

By @steph_m_collins

By @sonjarasula

By @sonjarasula

By @brittstreiss

By @brittstreiss

Hats Off to Autumn!

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While we are going to miss catching warm rays on the beach, there is one season we love the most because of the amazing wardrobe options: Autumn! It's Back-to-School time, which means the great new Fall lines and trends have arrived. One of the things we are loving seeing is how many Made in the USA hat designers there are in stores right now! We've rounded-up our favorites for both men and women... Enjoy!

Rockin' Out at First City Festival

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Last week Team Unique packed into a car for an epic road-trip up the California coast to Monterey, for the First City Festival. Every year we partner with the awesome music festival/carnival to create an American-made Marketplace filled with vendors. This year's fest was amazing with Beck, Phantogram, Tanlines, The National, Tokyo Police Club and more. The truly unique thing about the fest is that it's in a beautiful atmosphere by the ocean, so the temperature is perfect day and night, and that admission includes all the carnival rides!!! It's a chill, fun festival. Here's a peek at the good times, photographed by Bryan Dale.

Sonja and Kellie roadside on the way up to the festival.

Sonja and Kellie roadside on the way up to the festival.

Phantogram blew our minds... 

Phantogram blew our minds... 

The National

The National

Beck and his band were AMAZING!

Beck and his band were AMAZING!

The festival includes a carnival and free rides!!!

The festival includes a carnival and free rides!!!

Heads up!

Heads up!

New Desktop & Phone Wallpapers!

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You've been asking us for phone and desktop wallpapers for awhile, so we got our act together over the summer and are proud to introduce UNIQUE USA Wallpapers! Every single month we'll bring you rad designs and photographs to download for free. Here is our very first round of images... You can say we went 'bananas', hehe!

Your desktops and phone screens have never been so unique! Enjoy...

or for your phone:

Thanks LaLa Land!

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Thank you LA! Our 6th Annual LA Summer Market, took place in downtown LA August 9 & 10 and it was a blast. Cool shoppers, awesome participants and loads of fun perks like photos from Smilebooth, free DIY crafting, free drinks from RUNA, Joia, GT's Kombucha and more! Here is a collection of our favorite photos from the awesome weekend of American-made shopping.  *CLICK IMAGE TO SCROLL THROUGH THE GALLERY

Biz Card Ballin'

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Our fearless founder, Sonja Rasula, finally agreed it was time to get a business card. But she didn't want just any old business card - she insisted on designing something fabulous, crazy, shiny and most of all, unique. Here is what she came up with: the thickest card stock she could get and letterpress with copper foil. Thanks to Underwood Letterpress who made Sonja's wildest 'bling biz card' dreams come true!

NEW! The Unique Clique Classroom

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 We are excited to announce a new attraction within our UNIQUE USA Markets: The Unique Clique Classroom! Now you can come see our hand-picked experts tell their stories, give advice, teach a class, answer your questions and more - and it's included …

 

We are excited to announce a new attraction within our UNIQUE USA Markets: The Unique Clique Classroom! Now you can come see our hand-picked experts tell their stories, give advice, teach a class, answer your questions and more - and it's included in the price of admission! This August 9 & 10 head over to the Unique Clique Stage within the LA Summer Market to get inspired. Scroll down to see the speaker schedule...

SATURDAY, August 9 2014
2 - 2:45pm: Ellen Bennett, founder of Hedley & Bennett
          "The Real ABCs of Taking Your Idea and Making It Into a Business"
4 - 4:45pm: Sonja Rasula, founder of Unique USA/The Unique Space/CAMP
          "1 Part Destiny, 2 Parts Washing Dishes: How to Go from Crappy Jobs to Owning Your Own Empire"

SUNDAY, August 10 2014
2 - 2:45pm: Bonnie Tsang, photographer
                      "The Power of Marketing through Visual Social Media"
4 - 4:45pm: Andrew Gibbs, founder of TheDieline.com
                     "Global Trends in Packaging & Design"

LA Summer Market: Aug 9 & 10

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Get ready for a HOT summer in the city! We are moving our annual LA Summer Market from the airport hangar in Santa Monica to our usual downtown LA spot - doubling the number of amazing, Made-in-America vendors you will discover! Join us and escape the heat in the beautiful penthouse at the California Market Center - shop and support your local economy, enjoy free snacks and refreshing drinks, make something in our DIY Den, plus more!

Unique LA's Summer Market arrives August 9 & 10 Cost: $10 at the door (cash only), $10 online (get a guaranteed tote bag), Kids 12 and under are free.

Admission includes: • The first 5000 ticket buyers each day get a limited edition cotton tote bag from our artist series • Unlimited re-entry for both days • Free drinks from JOIA All Natural Sodas, Honest Tea, GT's Kombucha, Art in the Age and more! • Free snacks from KIND Bars, Cookie Chips and LUNA! • DIY craft projects all weekend long in The DIY Den! • Free photo booth portraits and a print at the Oh Snap Studios Photo Booth

Where: The Penthouse at California Market Center, 110 East Ninth St. Hours: 11am-6pm (both Saturday & Sunday) Parking: There is secure, underground parking at the California Market Center for a $6 flat-rate during Unique LA. There are also numerous outdoor parking lots surrounding the building. Hotel Partner: The Ace Hotel DTLA - use the code "UNIQUE" to get 10% off when you make your reservation, click here to read why we love the brand-new hotel!

Buy modern, made-in-America goods from over 350 curated sellers at UNIQUE LA!

The largest Made-in-America shopping event in the country, attendees get the rare chance to meet and shop directly from over 350 hand-selected designers and artists. The exciting two-day shopping event makes it easy for you to buy local and support LA's economy, discover great design and deals, join in community, and have a blast. The products at the show are proudly made right here in the USA so you're putting your dollars right back into our economy and local community! Visit our popular Cafe to take a break and enjoy a coffee or delicious locally-made food. With fun for everyone plan to spend the day with us... See photos from previous events!

DIY: Serape Print Shoes

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If you you've taken a peek at my  blog…  you probably noticed how much I love myself some ethnic prints. I especially love it in small pops in a wardrobe and thought it would look great on the upper portion of this shoe. The steps are pretty simple and can be used on a variety of different shoe styles, maybe something that's already in your closet. Here's how...

 

Materials:
- shoes
- serape print fabric (or any print you fancy)
- e6000 glue
- scissors
- pencil
- tracing paper
- tape
Steps
1. Trace the region of the shoe you would like the fabric to be placed on.
2. Cut out the drawn pattern. Tape the pattern onto the fabric and cut out.  Remember to do a left and right side.  Using a sewing machine, sew a topstitch around the edge of the cut fabric shapes.
3. Glue fabric onto the shoe using e6000.  There you go!  Easy breezy!!  SwellMayde serape shoes!