Buckles, buckles, everywhere!

Sorry I haven't put up a new post recently. Buckles and Belts 101 will continue sporadically, and definitely let me know if you have any particular belt or buckles questions!

Even though class hasn't been in session lately here online, I've been having Buckles 600 at home and all the surfaces around are filling up with buckles. Big Sky is hosting a high profile international conference in May and I'm betting some of those visitors are going to need a buckle or two. After all, buckles are a quintessential western accessory. And that means making sure all my fabulous retailers are well stocked.

So...

buckles by books...

buckles on the mantel...

buckles on the ironing board...

buckles on the living room chair...

and buckles in the light box...

Well, so much for spring cleaning. Good thing I love buckles more than brooms!

Are you spring cleaning or stockpiling something more fun?

A cornicopia of fantastic (free!) fonts

As business continues to grow at Wild Bear Buckles, I'm spending more time considering branding and a proper logo. In my quest for great design ideas, two different friends have mentioned one website -- dafont.com. It took me a bit to get around to look at it, but let me tell you - it rocks! I hope I'm not giving away some fantastic trade secret of text designers, but this website is worth exploring for anyone who likes

• design
• text
• being creative
• writing words on the computer

I'm assuming that pretty much means all of you.

So, here is the deal with dafont.com. You hop on the site and you can browse literally hundreds of font designs. You can even type in your text and preview how it will look. When you find something you like, just download it and follow the (very simple!) instructions to add it to your computer's fonts. Just make sure you take note if the font is "free" or "free for personal use", so you know how you can use it.

Check it out...

Wild Bear Buckles goes on a Caribbean vacation...

...dresses up as Frankenstein and sings Thriller...

...gets cultured at the avant garde movie theatre...

...does time...

...attends a night at the opera...

...and gets in touch with its Montana roots...

And that's only the beginning. Now go find your own crazy, fun, funky, modern, vintage text for your latest crafty idea. (Warning: may cause sleep loss.)