Rainy season in Costa Rica; Tourist numbers plummet and locals go on one-to-two month vacations. I love it. The Earth comes back to life with lush, green vegetation. The smell and feel of fresh rain is a welcome break from the intense sun. AND the sunsets are unbelievable. On top of that, a rainy day is a good excuse to stay inside and actually do some work…or ponder new ideas.

Last October my friend Ashley and I were chatting over a cup of coffee about our Tamarindo surf lifestyle. We were bouncing around ideas when we started chatting about rashguards. For those of you that don’t surf, a rashguard is a lycra shirt that surfers wear to A) help prevent rashes from the wax on their surfboards, and B) provide sun protection. Over the past years, surf bikinis that STAY ON (yes, there actually does exist such a thing) have come a long away, with a plethora of designs and colors. But rashguards are slowly lagging behind. Over the past couple of years there has been some pretty cool designs that have come out on the market, but from companies that are more focused on bikinis. So Ashley and I decided right then and there that we had to do something about this.

Except for there was one minor problem; Ashley’s background is Law and mine is Finance. We knew nothing about sewing and clothing construction. Fortunately enough we were able to take a couple of sewing lessons right here in Tamarindo (thanks Kata!!!) and then we were ready to get a big, bad sewing machine! HA! HAHAHAHA! (You all should be rolling on the floor laughing right now!)

So now we had a couple of sewing lessons under our belt and a brand-spanking-new sewing machine. Next up was figuring out how to make a pattern and sew oh-so-tricky lycra. Sounds pretty simple, right?  I will fast forward here, spare you the details for another blog post, and say this whole process certainly has been an adventure. We were ready at one point to throw our devil sewing machine out the window when it kept spewing thread back at us, but we hung in there and we could not be prouder to start unveiling our designs, from rashguards to pom-pom scarves, kimonos, pillows, hats, clutches, and totes. Lord knows we have a lot more work to do (note to self: sometimes work must take priority over surfing), so stay tuned for more to come from THE BEACH BAZAAR (<— click here for our Facebook page)!

All photography is down by yours truly and my lovely model-business partner-friend Ashley.

XO

Kristen

The Beach Bazaar Facebook and @TheBeachBazaar Instagram

P.S. AND if our little venture doesn’t work out, the bright side is that at least we have the world’s most expensive-personal-hand made wardrobe ever!

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