She's Crafty

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of joining my dear, lovely, creative friend Angelina, as a vendor, at the Santa Rosa Crafts Fair known as Shop Party. Held at the Arlene Francis center, a wonderful old brick building in Historic Railroad Square, we were both excited to set up shop for the day in the little corner we shared with Angelina’s friend Cleo, another first time vendor and maker of beautiful knitwear.

Angelina’s handmade patchwork pillows, braided rag bracelets, and unique mixed media homemade holiday cards were accompanied by my own galactic gift boxes. I used nice thick pages from a 1970 Astronomy book, picked up last summer at a garage sale, to create origami style boxes. An old suitcase that Milla had given me made a perfect display case.

I can't say I blame the woman who fell in love with the beautiful waves of hand stitching on that gorgeous pillow. Needless to say, it found a new home.

I brought the bunting I made from vintage fabric strips for Clover's birthday party to spruce up our little space. It went so well with the pillows and rag bracelets! Speaking of which, Angelina and I did a trade and I LOVE my rag bracelet :)

Clover and Finn brandishing their own crafty scores of the day, purchased from a neighboring vendor.

The galactic gift boxes were quite popular with the gentlemen as it turns out, in fact they seemed to gravitate toward them (harhar). Girls were into them too, but not as without fail as the boys that wandered by, which was interesting and even a bit comical after awhile. That's our friend Nick above, deciding which ones he would be taking home.

As first time craft fair vendors, we had a fun time playing shop and even sold a bit of everything. I was able to turn my fifty cent garage sale book purchase into about 50 bucks and I really liked how the boxes turned out.

It was a good learning experience for us too. As friends who happen to be very aesthetically in tune, Angelina and I sometimes fantasize about the idea of having our own handmade and vintage shop to thoughtfully curate together. *sigh*

In other crafty news, I've been into making hand-knit washcloths as gifts for awhile now. I've used this basic pattern and played around with different colors and using knits and purls to add bumpy little designs. They're easy, quick, fun to make, and useful too!

My current project, as of yesterday, is one of these hand-knit dishcloths inspired by vintage tea towels. Lovely, no?

Are you getting crafty this holiday season? I'd love to hear what you're working on :)

Looking forward to seeing our niece Fiona dance multiple roles tonight in a full-length production of The Nutcracker Ballet. You know who is SO excited!