Friday, December 14, 2012

She's Crafty

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 :)

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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.

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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!

13 comments:

Sedna-is-my-own-last-name said...

Hi Missa,

First time commenter here. LOVE your boxes. What a great idea.

I would love to be one of your vendors at the handmade shop you dream of having. ; )

I'm a local - had my stuff at the Summerfield Winter Faire last weekend. Here's a link to my etsy site - www.etsy.com/shop/kellyandkai

So, I've been busy crafting stuff for that show, now I just started working on a Waldorf doll for my little one.

Andrea said...

Beautiful stuff! I too am working on some handmade goodies for Christmas this year. I'd love to see the finished product!

PS: Have you checked out ravelry.com? Love this site for free patterns too:)

Janet said...

missa, your boxes were so awesome!!! i know you were proud of your beautiful little boxes. :) the suitcase from milla was so perfect to showcase them, too, and the bunting went so perfectly with everything. you 3 ladies had the perfect little booth with amazing goodies... :) i love all of the items ya'll had. :) it looks like it was a fun time.

Janet said...

oh yes, i have started making photo journals, which i am loving so.. I love photo's and i love journaling, so, i thought of combining the two... :) and also, starting a quilt.. making handpieces for the top... this is a project that i am really excited about... :)

moonshinejunkyard said...

wow your little shop looked so adordable, and i am once again stricken by your colorful bunting. i know i said before i want to steal your idea, well i doubly want to now! it makes the whole corner so festive and fun and inviting. i know one guy who'd gravitate toward your boxes, my own mister darin spring. he is super into anything galactic and cosmic right now. well please please please do open that shop you speak of...your aestetics look perfect together and i want to come visit!!! love to you and merry christmassing all week.

Anonymous said...

i love those little boxes! what a perfect thing to do with that book. you smart one, you! and i love craft fairs so much...lucky you with that cozy corner.

so a couple of weeks ago i totally had the thought, "i wonder if missa would ever open a vintage store. actully, i wonder why she hasn't already".

i mean, you said you were thinking of going back to work...

:) xoxoxo

Milla said...

Oh man, if you opened a vintage store, it'd pretty much be the best. The best. As evidenced by my most recent package. I haven't posted about it yet, but it was very much like having my own personal vintage shopper set me up with the perfect goodies. You should do it. Those little boxes are adorable. As you of course know, I love everything celestial right now. I can't wait to share shots of my goodies, including my fully Missa-fied little corner. Those wash cloths are awesome.

Mrs. Habit said...

this looks like a lot of fun. Lots of great and creative craft work there.

I haven't had time for much of my own this year, I kind of regret being so damn busy :/

anne said...

what fun! your space looks awesome and i love your boxes. i've always wanted to participate in a craft fair, maybe one day :D

and i love my washcloth! use it all the time.

merry christmas and solstice friend!

Elizabeth Carrington said...

Super lovely lady, I owe you the logest mail full to brimming with gratitude, It will come, I promise that. For now a note of hello and hwo nice to have connected through the swap, and have a little of you come all the way from there to here. Thank you dear one.

Happy Christmasna nd a multitude of happy blessings to you and yours over the hols and reaching far to the galaxy of your beautiful days. xx

Violet Folklore said...

How fun! Participating in Craft Fairs (or even just attending them, as I did this year at the Nevada City Winter CF) really helps to create that feeling of (as I'm pretty sure I titled my blog post about last year's event) Warm-Hearted Revelry at this time of year. Everyone is gathered together and all cozy, and thinking about what to give. I especially love that part.

Clover is enormous!! And so beautiful.

Alexa said...

So, yeah, really want to replicate one of those boxes for my husband; astronomy takes up a large part of his brain space. And you should have your own little curated shop!

Mowgle said...

Wonderful creations all around. I really admire the found-astronomy boxes and the precision work that must have gone into creating them. Did you fold the pages themselves to make the boxes, or did you mount the images onto boxes made of something else? Of course some things are best left a mystery, but I just can't get over those delightfully sharp edges!