Renegade 2010!

My friend and I managed to zip through the Renegade Craft Fair in an hour. The weather today was beautiful and the fair was insanely crowded (good for vendors, vaguely homicidal for me) so I was less than thorough, but I grabbed a lot of cards, coveted a lot of clothing, and saw a lot of handmade "taxidermy."


Very pregnant Circa Ceramics and Foxglove Accessories had side-by-side booths. With due-dates approaching, I was surprised to see either of them, but Nancy of Circa Ceramics was her usual energetic self with her show apron tied around dad-to-be Andy and her latest creation in the "kiln." She and Foxglove's Betsy both have more shows scheduled in the weeks to come and I wouldn't be surprised to see Betsy with a display rack of earrings in the maternity ward. (You guys rock!)

Paul Friedrich drew me a business card, complete with his star, Onion Head Monster. Check this guy out. I think he's fantastic.


Last week I made a treasury of "Hounds and Houndstooth" that included a sweater by Beantown Handmade. Without realizing it I'd met owner Anne and willing companion Mike at the panel on Friday, and today they were at the fair with their wares (which are even cuter in person). My friend and my dogs would never stand for the hats, but we were lucky enough to witness the modeling and purchase of a "blossom dog hat with button strap." Even in the heat Briana and Edie (owner and dog) both loved this lovely cold-weather accessory.

Sparrow Collective and little ocean were stand-outs in the clothes-I-want-to-own-right-now category.

I also want a SuperJumboDeluxe clock. What's the opposite of buyer's remorse? When you don't buy something?


Art: little plate kewpie cabeza by Circa Ceramics
Tear Stamp Earrings in Blue by Fox Glove Accessories
Onion Head Monster Fish by Paul Friedrich
Photo of Edie the dog in a Beantown Handmade hat by JillHannah (me)
Multi clocks by SuperJumboDeluxe

Chandelier!

I found a chandelier! For $90!

I went to an estate sale on Tuesday with no expectations and there it was, hanging in the garage. They had a bunch of other chandeliers and light fixtures and insane quantities of other crap, but mine was just there, hanging, being exactly what I needed and $90.

It was filthy. I thought a little late of taking "before" and "after" photos while I cleaned it off with a wet paper towel, but here you can see the "before" and "after" with the clean one on the left:


Now I still need to fix it up. It's missing some of its hanging crystals, and they don't seem to be the standard "u drop" ones I'm finding on Ebay. Plus whatever aparatus is required to go from socket to bulb, be it fake candle or something else. I just have no idea about that part. Then getting it wired into my actual ceiling...but considering I've put all of $90 into it so far and had feared/expected to sink at least $400, I totally win. Now I can still afford to slipcover my big armchair (probably in this fabric)!

Also at the fabulous estate sale: art. Tons and tons of art. Framed portraits of John Wayne and oils of houses and trees and things "handpainted in Taiwan" and prints of birds and a million other individual things that made no sense with the rest of it. It would take a person a solid day to look through it all, and I wished I knew more about the values of things. I'm sure a knowledgeable person could make a killing in there; maybe not Antiques Roadshow, but signed? numbered? original? crap? I ended up with three black and white scapes of Roman-looking ruins that clearly went together but were different sizes. There was a group of women (family, perhaps?) digging through the art with me and one of them noticed the scattered set. I modified my mental picture of my dining room walls to include the trio and decided to take them home. Here they are with my $6 Salvation Army and $10 garage sale mirrors:

Things are coming together quite nicely, I think.

DIY Trunk Show Chicago visit and purchase

I bought art! Face Beans 7" x 5" by Luisa Castellanos of Pock-It Palz. I need to do that more often. I don't buy myself wall art with any regularity because it is a bit out of my current budget (food, clothes, shelter being the only things within my current budget, and even those are questionable). But basic functions be damned, bring on the happiness!

Yesterday, my sister and I went to the DIY Trunk Show as spectators. I always feel a little weird now going to shows as a non-vendor, but it's way more relaxed and you actually have time to look at things and go back and consider, and it's totally fun. I also like having a second person with me while poking at things (as a vendor, any second person you've bribed into joining you is back at the booth while you run through the other tables) so I can share my thoughts and opinions out loud and point at things and say "buy that for me." Plus, with my sister, we have her entire life's worth of history and development of style and taste and understanding, so it's particularly entertaining to jointly coo over the same table of funky prints or yet another amazing but $65 and we know we'd lose it hat, and then come to bags that I think are the greatest things ever as she stands quietly trying not to make gagging noises at me, and two minutes later we are in the same situation over necklaces or pillows but in reverse positions.

Ah, sisters. Ah, crafters. Ah, humanity.

My highlights for the day:

Pock-it Palz in general. Plush things that eat their own little baby plush things, and other great plush things, and the painting I decided I couldn't live without. I actually liked a number of her paintings, but the one I brought home was my favorite.

loosetooth. Her pillows pulled us in but the Talking Alligator print may be my next art purchase. You can't really tell from the website, but it's gold foily and feels very multi-dimentional somehow, plus they're all signed and numbered and very professional and delicious.

MAKA designs. Her Etsy site isn't doing her work justice. I really loved her necklaces, and I'm not a big jewelry person at all ever. Hammered nickel and a really appealing aesthetic. I don't need to buy myself jewelry since I hardly ever wear jewelry, but it definitely stuck in my mind.