Storefront is making retail space accessible through its online marketplace for artists, designers and brands. The sites allows them to easily find and rent retail spaces for a limited or long amount of time. The W San Francisco Hotel and Storefront are hosting a competition to give eight brands a chance to sell at the W Hotel Holiday Pop-Up Shop for free.


We got to ask the Storefront Co-Founder & CEO Tristan Pollock a few questions. Here is what he had to say. 

How are you rethinking the use of the Internet to help brick and mortar businesses?
Storefront is making retail accessible. Our online marketplace helps brands, artists and designers to find and rent retail space. On the site you'll find stores available from $90/day, and available to rent by the day, week or month.
How do you support these businesses post pop-up shop? 
We support our sellers that pop-up by helping them do it again and again. We also provide them with insurance when they book, and promotion when they open shop.

Are there certain products that do especially well in a pop-up environment?
There are many products, and services, that flourish in a pop-up retail environment. It's about the experience. Most often we see fashion, art and design, but overall it is someone selling unique products. Here are some ideas. 

What retail trends are you seeing this season?
This retail season we are seeing small businesses branch out and move from their online Etsy stores to offline Storefront stores. That means smaller spaces and pop-in shops, or store-within-a-store experiences, are occurring more often in established retail stores, boutiques, galleries and malls. We are also seeing more curated markets emerge.

Since OOGIAH means cookie, what is your favorite kind?
Favorite type of cookie is chocolate chip.

In the photo from left to right: Tristan Pollock, Co-Founder & CEO and Erik Eliason, CEO.

Posted by Rachel Teichman

Our friend Jaime is a mom, crafter and graphic designer. She started her Chanukah crafting with this popsicle stick Star of David project. Lucky for us she has shared the project here:

Use a hot glue gun to make two triangles, and then glue the two triangles together to form the Star of David. You can use Elmer's glue too, but it takes a while to dry. 

Once the stars are dry, grab your kids' favorite paints and let them do their thing! 

Use pipe cleaners to create a loop on one of the corners. Then the stars can become a decorative element, and can be hung by yarn or string. You can use a hanger to make a mobile or hang them directly on a window, door or on a hook. Happy Chanukah crafting!

Posted by Rachel Teichman

This fall Alison has been doing the "Latke Pokey" with her preschool music classes! She shares her lyrics here to what is sure to become a Chanukah classic!

The Latke Pokey, by Alison Faith Levy
(left foot) You put the potatoes in, you put the potatoes out
You put the potatoes in, and you mix it all about.
You do the latke pokey and you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.

(right foot) You put the onions in...
(left hand) You put the eggs in... 
(right hand) You put the oil in... 

Then they jump their whole bodies in to the middle be in the applesauce! 

Alison Faith Levy, formerly "Sippy Alison" of the beloved Bay Area band The Sippy Cups, recently released her colorful indie pop album for children, World of Wonder. Alison teaches children's music classes at SF Bay Area Jewish Community Centers. She is currently working on an album of original pop rock tunes about the Jewish holidays for young children. You can find out more about Alison at www.alisonfaithlevy.com. 

Posted by Rachel Teichman

Here Alison tells us what she is listening to this holiday season.

"I wanted to share this song with you and your readers, it's by Charity and the JAMband from their latest album "Family Values," and it's called "Grateful." It's such a sweet song, and really captures the spirit of giving thanks from a child's perspective, perfect for Thanksgivingukkah! The whole album is amazing, too."

This catchy tune will have you bopping around right away! And you can sing along with the lyrics too. 

Alison Faith Levy, formerly "Sippy Alison" of the beloved Bay Area band The Sippy Cups, recently released her colorful indie pop album for children, World of Wonder. Alison teaches children's music classes at SF Bay Area Jewish Community Centers. She is currently working on an album of original pop rock tunes about the Jewish holidays for young children. You can find out more about Alison at www.alisonfaithlevy.com. 

Posted by Rachel Teichman

In the ultimate homage to the holiday that is Thanksgivukkah, I give you the Thanksgivukkabob! From top to bottom we have:

-Jelly Donut Hole, these are from River Oaks Donuts
-Corn Bread Pancake with honey added, by Jiffy Mix 
-Boiled Sweet Potato Cube with honey, brown sugar and cinnamon
-Turkey Meatloaf with Cranberry Sauce, recipe by Bubbie
-Potato Coconut Cumin Latke, coconut idea by What Jew Wanna Eat 
-Another Sweet Potato Cube
-Canned Green Beans with lemon juice in between each item

Dip in cranberry sauce or applesauce and enjoy!

Posted by Rachel Teichman

It took about two minutes from when I first saw the link for this Chanukah project from MoonFrye until we were all set up to begin the craft! The idea is to decorate any eight small bags with a number for each of the eight nights of Chanukah. Then you fill each bag with a little gift or treat to be opened each night. It can fill the need for opening the windows on an Advent calendar that some kids might feel. It can also help take away the feeling that you have to provide a large, or any, gift each night of Chanukah. The kids obviously had fun decorating the bags! They also wanted to fill each one with an amount of items that correlated to the number on the bag. Six stickers, seven Tic Tacs, eight almonds. They found an old "Rachel" stamp to use too, which was fun to see!

Posted by Rachel Teichman

My friend Jane is a mother, professor and excellent kosher cajun food maker. She is also a wonderful craft project leader in her home's playroom which is entirely devoted to creativity. In the middle of this room sits two long tables which have been put together to make enough space for two young girls and their friends to cut, color and glue whatever their hearts desire. 

Their most recent craftivity was making paper Stars of David as their first of many Chanukah projects to come for this year. All this takes is some kind of decorative paper. They used Origami paper since it is already small and easy to cut into triangles. You could also use scrapbook paper, wrapping paper or construction paper. This is also a good way to "reuse" some former drawings looking to fulfill their potential. Cut your paper of choice into many triangles of the same size. Pair up any two triangles that look good together, and glue their middles together so that they create a six-pointed Jewish Star. Jane taped hers all around her fireplace making a garland affect. You could also tape the back of each star to a piece of ribbon or fishing line to make an actual garland for the fireplace or doorway. Then it will be all ready to go for next year too! 

Posted by Rachel Teichman

I dislike (we don't let our kids use the word "hate," so I try not to as well) the words "date night." Why does it need a name? Play date. Nap time. Date night. Can't we all just play, nap and go out without having some contrived name for it? And don't get me started on "selfie."

Anyway, last night was an evening for going out as a couple at the awesome 14 Pews, as coordinated by Mishpacha & Me at the ERJCC in Houston. In conjunction with the Jewish Book Fair, they had planned a night out consisting of a comedic introduction, book reading and Q&A by 2013 Thurber Prize for American Humor winner, Jewish father of two, and my new social media pal, Dan Zevin. 

A full house of couples, and one baby in a button down, listened and laughed as Dan read the chapter about going to Costco with his dad, from his latest book Dan Gets a Minivan. We learned his dad's secrets to grocery cart optimization, and that his dad still buys him paper towels. I forgot to ask if they like Costco pizza, but who doesn't right?

What I did ask was what kind of minivan he has. A Toyota Sienna. And my husband asked if he thinks that the overuse of hand sanitizer is leading our children to become wusses. While Dan did not seem to have a problem with the sanitizer itself, it is the dispensers that concern him. He believes that when our generation of children are parents, they will have the perfect balance of involvement in order to grow their own strong kids. So the pressure is off of us.

We got to enjoy wine, caramel corn, was it Fiddle Faddle? And a beautiful fruit platter, was it from Costco? We left with plastic baby bottles filled with trail mix for the kids at home. And an autographed copy of Dan's book signed to: The coolest couple in Houston! I will assume Dan knows lots of couples here.

The biggest takeaway of the night was that more people should name their kids "Izzy." Dan of the minivan thinks it is such a cool name. For a boy or a girl I am not sure. But name your kids Izzy.

My husband and I ended the evening with a quick dinner and drinks at Liberty Kitchen. We will need to head back for their red velvet pancake tacos. 

Posted by Rachel Teichman

Allison Josephs, or the Jew in the City, bakes challah along with her daughters in this video. It is not any ordinary challah, because it has walnuts inside, and cinnamon sugar on top! And it is not any ordinary video, with "I Dream of Jeannie" special effects along with three baking fashionistas! The video is both entertaining and educational as this Jewish mama explains the Mitzvah of Hafrashas Challah, or setting aside and blessing a portion of the dough. Allison teaches all the steps that are needed in order to create delicious and halachic (according to Jewish law) challah. As she bakes along with her kids, you can picture yourself doing the same. So go, bake! And Shabbat Shalom! You can download the recipe here or find it on Pinterest.  

~Please share photos of your challot if you use this recipe!~

Posted by Rachel Teichman