Post Office Woes & More New Fabric

So, my lovely friend Sam purchased my Little Blue Birds Pendant Necklace as well as my Sad Girl Swan Song Pendant Necklace and after over half a month, she still hasn't received them! I've sent things to customers in her area before, so i know it only takes like, 2 days or so. This is completely upsetting and is the first time this has happened to me, but i read about Post Office horror stories all the time, so i guess i shouldn't be surprised at all. Still though, these are things i can't remake and it's going to bug me just wondering where they are. Maybe they'll be sent back to me? Maybe i'm hoping for too much? Grrr!

On a happier note, here is more new fabric that has been arriving in my mailbox:















Also, I've reached over 200 photos in my Flickr account!

Flea Market Madness & Fabric Overload!

Like last Saturday, yesterday was a super crazy day. Ryan and I hit up 2 flea markets, one "mini" flea market, a nearby thrift store, Mew Gallery, South Street, the diner, and then the Nada Surf show. This included two trips to the city and back.

We went to the first flea market, which is held twice a year, to look around and hopefully find some good stuff. I'm not sure how much time we spent there, but we made several trips to the car so we could free our hands and continue browsing and shopping. I participated in this flea market last year, but it wasn't the right venue for goods of the handmade variety and i only sold stuff to my friends who had a space next to me, and a local Etsy seller who knew i was going to be there. This is an awesome flea market though, definitely a mix of new, vintage, and antique finds.



I was so engrossed in looking at everything that i didn't take any pictures of all the cool stuff i saw, but as always, i did take pictures of the stuff i came away with.

Here's a toy jewelry maker from 1974. I bought it so i could display it on my new shelves above the soon-to-be jewelry/computer area in my workspace. You take these little plastic square pegs and crank the machine so that they attach to these plastic clips, then you link the clips together to make really horrible jewelry. I probably would've have died for this toy when i was a kid, even though it works like complete crap.



Next is a deck of adorable vintage unicorn playing cards, which i plan to use as new ILIKEITTOOTOO jewelry cards.



Then some jewelry and red & yellow plastic ashtrays from Japan.



Two scarves and a pair of ridiculously awesome splatter paint sunglasses from the 80's.



And a very odd wooden plaque with little painted mushrooms, which i found in a 25 cent bin!



Not pictured is a set of 4 books about marketing ones arts and crafts and all the steps necessary to operate a small handmade business. This set was a steal at $10, only because i've been meaning to look for these titles online and always tend to forget.

Ryan came away with a box full of old wooden frames, lots of records and cassette tapes, old Halloween notepads with funny monsters, and THE COOLEST metal tray with an illustration of a kid dressed as a chef with sloppy junk food. This will be added to his ever-burgeoning burger collection, of which i helped start.

Next on the schedule was Mew Gallery, so Ryan could drop off some stuff for consignment. We had a good amount of time before we had to be there, so we stopped by a nearby thrift store. Then we just drove around and eventually found our way to two more flea markets! The first one was a mini flea market of sorts, where Ryan spent a whopping $3 on a vintage dart board that probably would fetch way more than that at an antique store. At the second one, he scored more frames and records, and i purchased some more jewelry and a Knocked Up/Forty Year Old Virgin cardboard display. Because, yes, i'm a huge Apatow nerd.

Recently, i've been going crazy looking for fabric on Ebay, so much that it's an obsession! Actually, i do this every once in a while, but i've never purchased this much fabric from Ebay before. I've purchased a handful so far...okay, more than a handful, and these two (from the same seller) are the first to arrive.

Vintage fabric with neon abstract sailboats


Crazy geometric knit fabric from the 80's


I'm dedicating this week to custom orders and some stuff that i promised to make for people, so i'm not sure if i'll get to these just yet.

New Stuffs

Due to last weekends crazy crafty weekend, my inventory has been severely depleted! This is definitely a good thing, though, because now i'm motivated to make lots and lots of cute new things. I need to hit up the sewing machine soon and make more bags, because that's what i'm really lacking. I spent a few hours yesterday scouring the good old Eeb* for some really bright, obnoxious fabric and i can't wait 'til it all arrives in my mailbox! I also went out and got some new fabric the other day, and the woman who cut everything seemed sort of shocked (in a good way) and gave me a running commentary on my fabric choices. The word "funky" was used, and it's usually not a word i'd use to describe my own work. I guess it's appropriate, though, since i tend to make everything bright and bold and colorful, and i like crazy patterns. Anyway, here's my haul- check out the obnoxious neon purple/neon red printed corduroy, black and gold houndstooth, and neon green vinyl!




I also hit up the remnant bins, only to find that they had already been picked through. I did find a handful of usable bundles, but not nearly as much as when i went on a remnant raid a few months ago and left the store with over 50 remnants. I usually buy them when they're super on sale, and it's never really advertised, so i guess it's all about timing.

I'm just starting to get back into the swing of things, and i've just updated the shop with a few handmade pendant necklaces. I've been wanting to look for some new vintage beads and charms to add to these and luckily at the Lancaster PRFM, i caught up with Tara of Eames & Lola and Buttoncollective (who i met at the last PRFM). I looked through the various packs of vintage beads and findings she had to offer...all of which were sorted by color -aka- eye candy...and i had such a hard time deciding which pack to buy, but went with my trusty old pal, red.



This weekend is going to be awesome and includes things like Darjeeling Limited, local flea marketing, and Nada Surf. Nice!

P.S.- Here are my two new friends:



(They're big brooches!)

First Attempt at First Friday

Last night, The Boyfriend and i went to First Friday in the city for the first time ever. We walked around and saw some art, but it was so hot out that we weren't there very long. My favorite work was by Ben Tour at the Lineage Gallery, and you can see some of it if by visiting here. There was an artist set up on the sidewalk who was selling these painted metal sculptures, and i loved them all! I had a hard time choosing and settled on this one, which is funny because it just happens to have my name on it.

*Edit- The girl below was made by a husband and wife team, Morton Art Emporium. I just found their Myspace page.



A few months ago, my aunt stopped by to drop off a binding machine that her company was getting rid of. So, the other night i ran to Staples and bought a pack of plastic binding combs, so i could fiddle around with this new gadget. I set out to make myself a small mailing list book that i could just put onto my table at shows and flea markets, because i usually just bring a few pieces of paper and then end up having no room to set them out.



For the cover, I used some neon ILIKEITTOOTOO printed paper over some spare watercolor paper i had lying around. To fill up the book, i used regular notebook paper and paper from a partially used journal that had blue, green, and yellow gridded pages. I then hand stamped each page with a magnetic letter stamp set.



Here's what it looks like now:



I can't wait until the next flea market so i can use it!