my half of the table at my very first craft market, held yesterday! thankfully, the table was in the shade, which makes for crappy photos, but it was definitely the best spot for a 90+ degree day.

i was attempting to sell mobiles, papier-mâché bowls, upcycled journals, bike cards, fish journals, mini accordion fold albums… and like i said yesterday, my expectations were in check: when i’m at craft fairs, i always seek out the bookmaker/paper artist booths, and there are never crowds surrounding the tables. i know that what i make is not a hot seller… what i create is generally not an impulse buy, especially in this economy. people buy my work with a specific purpose in mind.

with that said, i made $15 last night, which was the cost of the table space. and my buyers? the wonderful people i shared my table with + their relatives.

it was kristin who insisted i participate in this event (thank you, k! it was a fabulous evening!), and she suggested we share a table. kristin and her business partner were there to promote their preschool: kristin knitted the sweet little gnomes, and her biz partner ann created wonderful wood toys and puzzles.

it really was a lovely evening. when was the last time you were able to just sit, for 3 hours, outside, and make polite conversation with strangers, while sharing personal space with others that you enjoy? me? never. so this was a great change of pace.

another fun part: buying stuff, despite not making any money. i bought the chicken dishtowel from the woman sitting just a foot away from me (she sold out of her towels quickly — note to self!). and i bought a jar of dill pickle spears from the nice lady next to the towel lady. i also bought a ziplock bag of “ester’s bean soup”, which i will make when we get our first chilly fall weekend. and lastly, i bought a small, wood horse made by ann. then the band started playing 80’s rock covers, making it impossible to chat, so we packed up, said our goodbyes, and called it a day.

would i do it again? definitely. however, i’m not sure i’d sign up for a friday-saturday-sunday event. but a one, two day affair? yes! (i’m doing another next week!)

last saturday afternoon i met rachel of all i did was listen for an ice cream cone at izzy’s. i think she found me via artsyville (such a great place to meet people!) and when we discovered that we both live in st. paul, just miles from each other, plans for a meet-up were put in place.

how do i sum up our short period of time together? it was a blur of hugs, color, tears, dreams, raspberry sorbet, color, openness…

i ran into izzy’s a bit frazzled due to earlier traffic jams messing up my day, but upon seeing rachel, i immediately calmed down. we ordered our ice cream, then we juggled our cones to take photos. we sat outside and she quizzed me about everything while our cones dripped:  creating, jobs, dreams, blogs, loves. i felt like i did all of the talking, but at the same time i knew i was sitting across from someone that is absolutely fascinating, and an amazing artist, and i was inspired. we had just over an hour, because we discovered we both had to go to the post office before it closed, so we said our goodbyes at izzy’s until we would met up again in the parking lot of the post office 5 minutes later. she beat me there and mailed off her goods while i sat in the car addressing my package, so we said our final goodbyes thru the open car window, and my mind and heart were abuzz the rest of the day, all after meeting rachel.

one of my favorite things: watching friends get excited about making stuff! jenn has been sewing up a storm, and really finding her groove. she made each of us minnesotans a wristlet for the manhattan meetup. we all got to pick, and i chose the one above because the fabric (ikea) reminded me of big city buildings…

i went to the northrup king building for art-a-whirl in northeast friday night and oogled lots of art. but i didn’t make a single purchase…

all weekend i contemplated going back and parting ways with my money. tia from silvercocoon had her awesome-as-always jewelry on display at danish teak classics, and i’m still thinking about her pod earrings. berry holtz had a great little piece with fish that would be perfect in the dining room that i regret not taking home. i wouldn’t mind owning an urbanscape by michael schmidt. i really loved this piece by artist teri bloch. if realism is the painting style, i’d rather see urban fare over picturesque landscapes, which is why the work of matthew madson and craig bell makes me stop/and stare/and do some math to see if would be possible to own one of their paintings. my favorite of the evening: the paintings of james wrayge. i am still thinking about his work, and maybe one day an opportunity will arise and…

it’s a good thing the artists are no longer allowed to serve wine at art-a-whirl, otherwise i’d be a lot poorer today!

last saturday, i went to an art party hosted by kristin’s sister jaci. it was so fun being a participant and not the “teacher”! she had us create compositions on canvases with squares of paper cut from magazines. i had some advance notice of the project, so i brought some painted canvases that i had abandoned, and my box of collage materials. i cut squares from some of my favorite paper scraps, then moved to my collage stand-by: my german art history text book. i fell in love with max beckmann’s work during an amsterdam trip in 2007: the black and white images are a reproduction of one of his pieces.

thank you, jaci! kristin took great photos of the evening in her post, art party-mosaic canvas: see what everyone else made!

it’s the weekend, hooray! there’s some good stuff going on here in the twin cities:

• traffic zone artists open studio, saturday 5-9pm, 250 3rd avenue north minneapolis
• 5th annual lake minnetonka arts tour, saturday & sunday, 10am-6pm, 26 open studios
• crafstravaganza, saturday 9am-5pm, st. paul fairgrounds - fine art building

happy weekend, wherever you are!

but i know someone who can!

i still haven’t learned to sew, but jenn picked it up and has been making all sorts of good stuff. i loved the pillow covers she made last month, so she made me some with ikea fabric for my birthday: circles on the front, leafy patterns on the back. joy!

and she made me a little pouch! i adore the amy butler fabric. i have the pouch in my giant bag, and now i can quickly find my lip stuff and dental floss. thanks, jenn!

thank you for all of the birthday comments! you guys are so good to me, thank you, thank you.

here’s what i bought myself for my birthday: segments from the amazing cynthia rae levine. i met with her last weekend and picked out nine pieces. we moved them around on the floor, trying to find the right mix/perfect composition.

until i am sure, the segments are installed on my dining room table, and i get to touch them and pick them up daily… it’ll be hard to resist holding/caressing them once they are up.

i met cynthia for a drink recently, and she gifted me with a big bag of handmade paper that she made while in college. oh, the goodness that can be made… thank you, c!

last night as i was writing today’s post about how i must have this bag — the sunday bag by byrd & belle — the 2 that were in stock were snapped up. #@$*!

but this is definitely a new favorite shop that i’m going to keep eye on (and it’s currently etsy’s featured seller). to top it off, it’s local: angie, the architect/designer behind byrd & belle, has a studio in minneapolis. how could i have not known about these amazing goods sooner when she’s just a few miles away? oh, yeah, maybe it’s because i’m so busy working to earn the money that i spend so quickly… speaking of which, i could use a gadget case. and the laptop sleeves are beautiful…

photo credit: byrd & belle etsy shop 

friends got married over the weekend and it was the perfect occasion to wear my tube dress made by martha of uniform studio. i went to her trunk show in may and snapped it up. i’m a little bummed that it was in my closet for over 2 months before i wore it out… it was a hit at the wedding, i’ll need to find more events i can wear it to before the summer is over!

i went to the st. paul art crawl on friday night, and came across this awesome cigarette vending machine full of art. for five bucks. i gave the attendee a fiver, and she handed me a cup of quarters. i put them in, one at a time, while i pondered my purchase. this is what i picked:

appropriate from a ciggie vending machine, no?

new friend sarah is an amazing photographer. i met her in knitting group, and she’s a new addition to pARTy. i’ve been drooling after her photos (especially her polaroids!) on flickr for over a year now. a few months ago she set up a shop at big cartel to sell prints of her work, and yay! she’s having a spring sale.

sarah gave me the prints pictured above, and every time i need to send a note to someone i grab them, and then decide i’m just not ready to part with them yet. so i’ll continue to hoard them.

but you can get your own, by visiting her big cartel shop. go!

last week i met my friend jenn at gallery 360 over lunch. i was in the mood to splurge: to give myself a christmas gift for surviving icky holidays, to reward myself for not losing my cool over getting laid off, and to reward myself for easing back into self-employment and finding new gigs so quickly. i was thinking i’d get myself some new jewelry, but found myself drawn to the clothing rack, which is where i found an amazing wool coat by martha of uniform studio.

and i brought it home.

it’s amazing. not an every day coat. it’s for special occasions. after i bought it, i marveled at its beauty in my closet and on martha’s blog and flickr. 2 days later i saw her at our knitting group, and asked how many she made. she said “one, that’s one of a kind”. and it’s mine.

last week i had the pleasure of meeting local jewelry designer jill of asp specialty products. my friend jenn had jill over to display and sell some of her jewelry for us girls over glasses of wine. i fell in love with the orange pendant pictured above, made with aluminum and resin, and brought it home. in addition to her website, she also sells in her shop on etsy. treat yourself for the holidays!

……………………..

a few more goodies for tuesday:

uniform studio’s children’s holiday collection will be available in the uniform studio etsy shop today, at 2pm central time.

my wonderful friend ayama is celebrating her 1-year blog anniversary with a giveaway. check it out!

i’m not normally attracted to plushies or stuffed animals, but i just love penguin & fish’s kitties! maybe it’s the marew and reow balloons? or the color combinations? i can’t pinpoint it, they’re just awesome. and they’re made locally in minneapolis!

photo credit: penguin & fish etsy shop

i recently stumbled across local artist emily dyer’s etsy shop. i’ve been admiring her ceramics for a while now (she has a studio in minneapolis), and this plate is perfect for celebrating a momentous event.

locals: see emily’s work, along with hundreds of other artists, this weekend at art attack in the northrup king building. details here.

photo credit: emily dyer etsy shop

tia, of etsy shop silvercocoon, has been on the knitting group email recipient list since martha started getting us together last spring. i’ve been itching to meet her, but sigh, she hasn’t joined us for knitting yet. i do love her necklaces, though, and may treat myself for keeping some sense of sanity while my day job kicks my ass for one more week.

photo credit: silvercocoon etsy shop

yesterday my friend shane and i went to the loring park art festival. while there were two other wonderful art fairs going on in minneapolis as well, i was too exhausted from work and the never-ending cold from hell to attempt all three of them. while i missed seeing gena ollendieck (one of my favorite artists) at the uptown art fair, loring park was perfect: the number of artists wasn’t overwhelming, and the crowds weren’t thick. i lived on the edge of the park when i was in college, and it was nice to be back in the neighborhood.

here’s what i brought home:

i love this face, and it was only $20. made by minneapolis artist rabi sanfo of yarbi design.

i am fascinated by weavers. their patience astounds me: i’d love to try it but i’m not sure i could wait so long to finish a piece. i bought this hand woven napkin/hand towel from karen monson-thompson, of the summer/winter studio based in superior, wisconsin. if i could afford to have all of my kitchen & dining room linens made by her, i would call her immediately. (that’s a tomato from my garden, plucked from the vine before it splits, to ripen on the window sill.)

block printed cards, of bridges around the city, by minneapolis artist richard stephens. if i can’t find the time to make my own cards, i prefer to send ones made by local artists. a few of you may receive one of these in the mail!

last saturday, jenn called to tell me that she had just been to a pottery sale in her neighborhood and saw a fish dish i’d love. i couldn’t make it saturday, but headed over there first chance on sunday. i followed the signs by jenn’s house, until i came across a house with a sign in front that said pottery here.

how fun! there was work from 3-4 different potters in an amazing backyard (with a koi pond!). i love it when artists get together for little sales, but will admit i feel badly when i tromp through their homes and don’t buy a thing. luckily, jenn was right about the fish dish, which i did bring home, in addition to a little fairy house for the back yard. yeah, i’m not a big fairy girl, but the ceramic house was too cute to resist.

yesterday a bunch of us drove 45 minutes west of the twin cities, to join my friend birdie for a wool dyeing party. as i mentioned in an earlier post, birdie has 8 sheep purely for their wool, and she has plenty of wool to share!

around lunch time, jackie, my sis, heather, anna, anna’s mom june, anna’s sister ellie, kathryn, kristen and i all gathered at birdie & ed’s hobby farm on a sunny but breezy day. first birdie taught us how to card the wool:

we all had the chance to card. we went through a whole pillowcase of wool, which birdie says represents only 1/10 of the fleece from one sheep. it really is amazing how much wool they carry around.

birdie and her husband ed had the fire started before everyone arrived, so it was nice and hot when we started mixing the dyes. everyone had a chance to help weigh the wool and measure dye ingredients:

once the dyes were mixed and the wool was added, the jars and pots were placed over the fire to set:

while the dye was setting we ate salads, fruit, and yummy cheese toast. birdie also made us rhubarb cobbler, with rhubarb from her garden. she told us she burned it, but don’t believe her — it was sooo good.

after about an hour over the fire, the dyed wool is rinsed and laid out in the sun to dry (the orange/rust/terra cotta dye is my favorite):

at the end of the day, we got to meet the sheep! they’re a bit timid, but definitely have personalities. they raced into the barn and then peeked out at us through the barn window…

outside on a sunny day, in the company of wonderful and talented women, eating good food, learning how to dye wool… the makings of a fabulous day. and we got to take some roving home! thank you so much, birdie!