Unique LA
This weekend there was not one but two craft fairs going on in Los Angeles. It’s time like these that I wish I could clone myself so that I could have attended both. While I missed Renegade this year, I did get to browse the enormous Unique LA. I’ve been attending for the past few years and every event is massively bigger than the last. Viva la handmade revolution!
I wanted to share a few of the shops I was able to snap photos from, as well as a few I wasn’t able to. Like those adorable felt whales from Janie XY. So freaking cute. I have a major weakness for felties, which is probably why our apartment is teaming with them.
One of the first booths I saw and loved was the paper goods from Shortstack Press. Very sweet designs plus I got to chat with Allison who was super nice. I loved the recipe cards.
There was a photo booth set up by Oh! Snap. Definitely the coolest photo booth I’ve ever seen. Everyone wanted their photo with the snow monster.
How cute are these shirts from Rad is Rad? Super cute!
Dave from Taco Comics was painting away during the show. It was cool to see the work in progress.
Sycamore Street Press had a lovely set up. Wonderful holiday cards, a great 2011 calendar and foldable fortune teller.
There were some great home made jams from Lemon Bird. They had some seriously ingenious flavors.
One of the most gorgeous booths was the one shared by Liz Huston and Amy Reed. Liz had some amazing artwork and Amy is the maker of Dust jewelry. I wanted to live in their booth. Go check our their work!
These cute pot holders were from collisionware. All the owls are great. These could totally spice up your kitchen.
I also got to hang out for a bit with the rad Sara Tea while she DJ’ed. She kept everyone’s spirits up while they checked out the shops.
That’s all for my photo round up, but I have a few more shops to mention…
The most beautiful jewelry from Melissa Loschy. I really wanted one of her necklaces, but was shopping for gifts, not myself.
Super hot lingerie from Purrfect Pineapples who I finally got to meet. I love Erika’s designs and they’re all cruelty free.
Rad shirts from Timber Preservation Society.
There was even a vegan pie from I Heart Pies.
Lovely vintage badges from Crown and Badge Salvage Company.
It was really fun, I wish I could have roamed around all day peeking in the shops and checking out all the crafts. Can’t wait for the next one.
Holiday decorations
While it seems most people got the jump on their holiday decorations right after Thanksgiving, I’m a little bit behind. For one, the minimal decorations I do have are in our dreaded storage. Hopefully I’ll be able to dig them out this weekend.
To get things started I made these paper garlands to hang in our dining room / kitchen area (in a small apartment it’s all the same thing really).
I wanted to create a bunch of white garlands to give a snowy feeling. I used lined notebook paper, because I like it and thought maybe it would give it a tiny hint of blue, that snow has. I then just strung them up on a strand of mono-filament.
I think it goes really well with the black and white theme of our dining area. It feels festive and wintery. Even a little holiday elf came to check out the California snow. Have I mentioned that our apartment is teaming with winter creatures, like that little guy? I’m not sure where they came from but they’ve been multiplying. Luckily they’re cute so I don’t mind that they seem to be taking over.
I must confess there were a few more strands of garland just last night but the cats already had their way with them. They like to sit on top of our china cabinet and it was the perfect height for them to swat at the nearby garlands. I suppose the the Fargo
poster will just have to be part of the design…it is snowy, right?
Knit wolf hat
Happy Post Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful day stuffing their faces with vegan goodness. We skipped making food this year and had an awesome brunch at Madeleine Bistro. (I’m pretty sure a certain Little Vegan Planet will be posting some drool-worthy photos very soon.)
I wanted to show off this cute hat I made for Shawn. He’s notorious for always wearing his orange hat, but chose this lovely brown cotton bulky yarn for this piece. I used this pattern and it came together quickly and easily. I just free-handed the ears and sewed a few pieces of felt on the inside.
Since it’s black Friday, I just wanted to urge readers to get creative this holiday season and try and craft up some of your gifts. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make things for people you care about. It’s a great way to put a lot of love (and not so much money) into gifts.
If you don’t feel so craft-inclined, I highly advocate checking out Etsy or a local craft fair this year. You can support local artist and people who really put a lot of creativity into their work. You’ll feel better getting something that is unique and special for your loved ones than getting something cheap and mass produced. I’m not saying not to snag a few of those half price Blu-rays
Vintage Postcard Save the Dates
The first thing on our big to do list of wedding planning was making our save the dates. Shawn and I both really liked the idea of using vintage post cards. We went to the infamous Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market and bought up a bunch.
It was super fun to browse through the booths and find cards we liked. I really liked reading the ones with original writing on the back. People sure did talk about their sick relatives a lot back in the day.
The best part about getting the postcards at the flea market, rather than ordering online and just getting a lot of unknown cards, we were able to hand pick each one. We chose ones that were all from California and if possible, from Los Angeles.
We hand stamped each postcard with a stamp set our friends had given us. I can’t tell you how handy that stamp set is. It’s really just a box full of individual letters so we’ve used it for our return addresses, postcards for our movie screening, cupcake boxes, you name it.
We also chose one of the photos that Shawn took of us to send along to personalize each announcement.
We hand addressed all the envelopes with some help from my mom and sent them out!
I think they look rather sweet and definitely capture that vintage feeling that will be present throughout our wedding. Next up…invitations!
p.s. we didn’t really send one to the president…but wouldn’t it be cool if we did?
Making my wedding dress
With less than four months till our wedding, I’ve been in a state of complete indecision about my dress. It’s kind of a big deal. The dress I mean.
The problem is that I know exactly what I want and it’s not like anything I could buy. I kept searching for something that would maybe distract me from my idea but to no avail.
I just wanted to make it myself so it would look how I imagined, but I had some serious doubts that I could construct a dress without a pattern. While I’m quite adept at sewing, I’ve never learned proper construction. Nor do I have a dress form.
Luckily, I was introduced to a lovely seamstress who is going to take on the task of making my dream dress.
We’ve even picked out the fabric. I love all the combination of all the different laces. The hardest part was choosing the fabric that goes underneath all these laces. We found a gorgeous one, but of course it was silk so I had to pick something else.
It would be cool to say I got these at some fancy fabric store, or special ordered them from France, but they’re just from Joann’s. I probably shouldn’t admit that. It doesn’t matter though, they’re lovely and inexpensive and the dress is going to be awesome.
So these are the humble beginnings of my dress. Just some fabric and sketches and measurements and ideas. I’m so excited. I’m going to my first fitting in just a few weeks. It will just be a rough muslin thing but I can’t wait.
Now I just have to pick out some shoes.
