(etsy) treasury tuesday: my first trip to florida!

this coming weekend i will be making my first ever trip to Florida! i’m pretty excited here’s a treasury honoring the sunshine state.

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

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(etsy) treasury tuesday: eat your veggies.

a treasury of fun and refreshing vegetable related items!

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

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renegade craft fair: chicago 2011

it only took me months to finally sit down and go through all of the photographs i took and business cards i acquired and compose this post, but here it is: all about my trip to Chicago in september!

way back in the beginning of fall, i was fortunate enough to participate in my first ever Renegade Craft Fair. on the 10th and 11th of september, i set up shop on Chicago’s Division St. with over 300 other vendors and got to meet all kinds of talented artists and interesting patrons i could write so much about how much amazing work was there, how beautiful Chicago is, etc- but it’s much easier to show you in photographs! and i definitely took plenty. read ahead to see what my new booth fixtures look like, some of my favorite pieces by other vendors, and more! thank you to the lovely people of Renegade for letting me be a part of this amazing event also, big thank you to my friend Courtney Jones for flying out to meet me in Chicago only to sit behind a table 80% of the time. another big thank you goes out to the lovely Veronika Goldberg for letting us crash at her new pad- it was a blast! seriously though- check out this beautiful view we woke up to:

anyhow- the show took place on Division Street in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. the weather was beautiful on both days, my booth was next to my friends Bryan and Hilary of Yardsale Press, i got to debut my new fixtures, and there was a ton of traffic- a great success

check out the new greeting card stands i built! they match my new neutral colored/wood motif.

here is courtney and i on day two- it was so awesome of her to come out to help! it’s been way too long since we’d seen each other. fun fact- courtney, bryan & hilary from yardsale, and i all went to Rowan University together.

the “tshirts are $15.00″ Ts were a big hit- i’m considering printing a short run of them.

here is Bryan manning his booth next to mine- check out those stacked sandwiches!

the show was so enormous, it took both days for me to find the time to go through and see all the vendors. as i mentioned early on, i took a lot of photographs and collected business cards from so many talented artists and crafters. the following is a selection of images and links of just some of my favorites:

how cute are these nugget screens and squeegees?! according to Flora A., these Teeny Screenies are part of a new startup project made up of graphic designers to raise money for the charity The C.A.R.E. Initiative.

“things that are long” by Missouri letterpress shop 1canoe2- love that there’s a weener dog!

i thought the sweatshop of love had such an awesome shirt design.

tshirts for the typography obsessed by the social department (i personally love a good sans).

 i was SO excited to get to see the Shawnimals booth- as some of you may know, i have started a small collection of moustachios:

as a result, when i met Shawn Smith, it was a little like meeting a celebrity. my excitement to meet him may have been a little creepy, but he was super nice- we even chatted a bit about SXSW. i added the handmade black papa moustachio to my growing moustache family.

another booth i was particularly hype to see was the Little Friends of Printmaking - it was SO exciting to see their work in real life and not just on the pages of some of my favorite illustration/design books! i picked up a sweet tshirt with a cat riding a bike- i’ll show you at the end.

Mokuyobi Threads had some super fun accessories for self and home- i love the bright food pillows!

as a printmaker who works primarily in silkscreen, i was totally blown away by the art prints and band posters by Crosshair Silkscreen Design. look at the image above, read the FAQ’s on the left, and look back at the image- the registration is immaculate! (aside from the image being just plain awesome) their booth had a sweet pile of discount prints and i picked up this double sided monoprint:

ciggies! McBitterson’s- so cute!

yup, that’s a batch of rainbow plush penis’- there’s more where these come from on Abitabite’s etsy.

these necklaces by material+movement are so elegant and unique.

in addition to the many booths of vendors, the Moveable Type Truck parked in the center of all the action. kyle currie travels the country in a converted 1982 chevy truck outfitted with, among other equipment, a tabletop platen letterpress.

bryan and i chatted with kyle and she showed us around her space. i wish i had more time to stay and print! although it turned out that the day before the show, i purchased two of her cards from her company power and light press:

 . . . and how adorable is that cat-erpillar by Cordial Kitten?? that was such an awesome trade- i spent both days eyeing this cat from two booths over. thank you so much, candice!

i LOVE these little plush sx-70s by lets be friends! they also had too cool for school handmade hipster bears:

 . . . and here’s even MORE sweet swag! clockwise from the top: the bike racing kitty tshirt is courtesy of the Little Friends of Printmaking, as mentioned previously. the tote bag with cute birdies is by Vahalla Studios. Little Korboose created the package of postcards emblazoned  with the little blue robot saying HELLO! Illustrated Goods offered up so many great letterpress goodies, but i decided on some colorful blank birthday cards. Nourishing Notes was one of my favorite booths- their prints are all food related and so bright and humorous! i can’t wait to frame and hang up the letterpress print i purchased that reads “count the MEMORIES not the CALORIES”

Renegade was super awesome and I met some great people and artists. I can only hope I’m fortunate enough to participate again in 2012!

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