car free day round up

Better late than never right? Here's a round up of car free day from last month.. Main Street style!


(my side of the table)

Tiffany from Love Made Me, a few ladies from Woven Studios and I shared a table at the Blim market which was a part of car free day. Apparently, 79 Blim vendors aligned the streets of Main Street which didn't include all the other local shops, food stalls and events happening between 16th Avenue up to 33rd Avenue. Thank goodness that the weather held on! It was a guessing game throughout the day and I even picked up a plastic table cloth just in case, but despite a few cold spells, we were all good and dry.


(mobile boardroom float protesting HST whizzed past us)

Thanks to everybody that stopped by especially to @prairiecitygirl !

inspire :: Scott Wade

photo from i core (found via TinyMeat)

Graffiti artist, Scott Wade, uses ordinary artist brushes to draw on the back of dusty car windows. He lives near a dirt road covered in caliche - a mixture of limestone dust, gravel and clay - which, when driven over covers the car in a fine, white dust.

I don't know about you, but whenever my windows got dirty, the only thing that I ever drew were hearts and maybe the occasional 'hi' and 'hello'.



You can see more of his work here.

etsy craft party round up

Hey! Did you make it out to the Etsy craft party in Vancouver last month hosted by Got Craft?, Collage Collage, Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge and RubyDog's Art House? Hope so! We, unfortunately, were not able to attend, but it sounded like good times were had by all.

Here are some long overdue pictures from Erin at Collage Collage. Collage Collage is a workshop space and retail shop that focuses on children, so Erin whipped up some kid friendly projects including using ceramic friendly markers provided by Etsy to paint their own teacup!


I am proud to announce that the Vancouver Etsy meet up had a whopping 81 RSVP's. Out of a total of 602 meet ups around the world, we ranked 11th and no other Canadian city even came close to us. Goooo... crafty Vancouver! The top 50 cities with the most RSVP's received a box of goodies from Etsy (pictured above).


Thank you to everybody that made it out and a BIG thank you Rita for bringing lemon cupcakes and Stace for the raspberry shortcake cookies. Happy belated birthday Etsy!

inspire :: gray is okay

photo credit: Time for Tea 3

Jackie Dives from Divesin recently started a Flickr Group called Gray is Okay. It is a photography pool for the things in life that the online world tends to forget about. It is for things that are real, and not necessarily pretty. This project was inspired by the following things:

In the words of Jackie ...

1. It stuck with me when, after being dumped recently, someone pointed out that you can’t judge people’s (ie. ex-boyfriend’s) lives based on the pictures they post on Facebook, because people post birthday parties and barbeques, not changing a flat tire in the pouring rain, or putting their cat down.

2. I read an article on “Marthettes,” women who have beautiful crafty lives of perfection, and who share these lives on their stunning, pastel-infused blogs, which the article suggests average women like myself will read and inevitably compare ourselves to, leading us to feel inadequate. The article made me think two things.

a) I will be the first to admit that I can often feel low after reading a string of these blogs.

b) The reality is that what these women choose to show on their blogs is only half of their lives. No one lives a 100% peaches and cream life. And quite frankly, if they do, I feel sorry for them. I often find inspiration and beauty in things that are ugly or awkward. Which leads me to number 3…

3. Nan Goldin.

In a world where life is easy to document, I think that it’s a shame that it seems to be people’s goal to post only what is appealing to look at.

So this is me encouraging you to post photographs of your failed baking, spilled red wine on a white carpet, your skinned knee after a fall, and the three weeks of dishes that have piled up after a loved one has died.

When life is shitty s l o w d o w n a little, and take note of it. Snap a picture. It might give you some perspective.

So the purpose of this photo pool, if not only for a place to put these images, is to hopefully glean something from these sh***y experiences. And maybe if a snapshot is taken, it can be looked at after the fact, and inspire something greater. When observing something sh***y after it has happened, you might find some beauty in it.

Please include a description of what is going on in each photograph.

shop tour :: Room6 & RubyDog's Art House

photo credit: Room6

A while back, Robert and I made a 'Crafty Shop Stop' to Room6. Just past North Vancouver, tucked into a quaint little place called Deep Cove, Room6 is about connecting just the right "special thing" with just the right "nice person". Started in 1997 and opened in Deep Cove in 2005, Room6 is never the same shop twice! Head over to Granville Online to read all about some of owner Megan's favourite things in the shop and what this little gem is all about.

... and while you are there... make sure to check out another 'Crafty Shop Stop' featuring RubyDog's Art house....

photo credit: RubyDog's Art House

Located in the up and coming part of Fraser and Kingsway, RubyDog's Art House is filled with all kinds of art materials for whatever crafty project that you can think of. You can find all kinds of stuff in here including vintage ephemera, antique papers, collage materials, rubber stamps and shelves full of inspiring books and magazines. This place is a treasure trove of art materials and a must stop for local crafters.

If you are lucky, you can even catch Ruby dog herself!

make :: mini art buttons

image credit: Laura Bucci

Laura Bucci, one of our Got Craft vendors, will be teaching a mini art button making workshop at the ArtWay Art Studio in Vancouver. Workshops will encourage participants to explore their creative side using collage, rubber stamping, drawering, painting and fabric. Each participant will take home with them 20 1.5 inch pins and / or magnets (small additional charge).

Classes will be offered on a monthly basis starting on July 14th and are open to both adults and children between 8 to 12 years of age. Space is limited, so visit this website to register online.

Dates

Adults:
Wednesday, July 14, 6:30-8:30 pm
Saturday, July 17, 1:30-3:30 pm

Children (8-12 years):
Wednesday, July 21, 4-6 pm
Saturday, July 24, 1:30-3:30 pm

Location
The ArtWay - studio & learning centre
649 E. 15th Street, Vancouver (located between Fraser & Kingsway)
604-569-1567

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Laura Bucci is a Vancouver-based artist designing and making cup cozies, wall art, tote bags and more. but teaching you some new vocabulary along the way. She is an Italian-Canadian and draws inspiration from her love of culture, language and imagery to create image/text compositions in various languages. You can view more of her work in her shop or her blog.

pdx shop tour :: modern domestic

We were in Portland two weeks ago with Miranda for the Summit of Awesome (more on that later) and kept driving past this studio space. With some afternoon free time, we pulled over and went to discover what this place was all about! Modern Domestic is a new sewing / crafting studio and retail space in Portland by the lovely people from Bolt Boutique. They offer classes in sewing, felting, silk-screening and surface design classes for all skill levels including kids and teens.


Modern Domestic is a loft style, open studio equipped with sewing machines for teaching on both floors. If you have some unfinished projects, but don't have your own sewing machine, machines and tools are available for $8/hr US or pre-pay rate of $50/10 hours. They are also an authorized sales location for Bernina and Janome sewing machines and a service drop off point for all other major machine brands for when your machine needs a good clean or tune up.


Here are a few tips and tricks for maintaining a happy machine from Modern Domestic!

• Never sew over pins! They can damage your machine, causing costly repairs and hurt you too
• Change your needle every other sewing project or ever 8 hours of sewing. Do not use dull or damaged needles. This is the easiest and most inexpensive way to keep your machine running smoothly for years to come
• Do not blow into or use canned air to clean out your machine. Lint flies up and may damage the computer boards. Also, the air can cause condensation in the machine and create problems with rust.
• If you have a computerized machine, be sure to not set a magnetic pincushion ON your machine. Setting one next to your machine is safe.
• Oil your machine ever 12 hours of sewing. To oil, squeeze 2-3 drops of machine oil onto a Q-tip and gently rub the hook race. Run the machine first to prevent oil from soiling your work.

watch this space

photo credit: Rachel Ford James

Hey!
I know.
It's been a while.
I am back and I have plenty to share with you.

Sorry for the random posts and for being MIA (missing in action) the past few weeks. Life and "real" work has been crazy now that wedding season has fully hit plus our summer events just wrapped up last weekend and my first nephew just arrived late last night!

When I first started my blog in 2007, I had no concrete plans on where it was going. It was a meeting point to talk about upcoming events, life, travels... I really didn't think that people other than my mom would actually read it! In the past two years, traffic started picking up and readers started introducing ourselves. For our lotus events blog, we had brides to be that would tell us they read our blog before they were engaged. Which was both wierd and cool!

So this made me start thinking and you may have noticed that posts have started being categories such as "things to do", "inspire" and our featured artist series. My plans are to shape this space to include things that just do that...

A) Talk about upcoming crafty events
B) Talk about amazing handmade things that are going on around the world
C) Showcase amazing people that are doing amazing crafty things
D) Inspire you to create

Want to be a guest writer? Have a fantastic idea that you want to share with us? Leave a comment and watch this space grow!

things to do :: Swap-O-Rama-Rama TODAY!

illustration credit: contrarymary

A friendly reminder that today is Swap-O-Rama-Rama Vancouver!

What?
Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a clothing and craft supply swap in which a community explores reuse and creativity through the recycling of used clothing. A series of DIY stations will be on-hand to unleash your creativity including screen printing by Blim and sewing stations by Plush On Main. Take as little or as much as you like! All remainders will be donated to Big Brothers of Vancouver.

When & Where:
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
11:00am to 4:00pm
Museum of Vancouver – 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver

Admission:
$6.00 at the door plus a bag of clean clothes and / or a bag of craft supplies to swap.
(leave with all the clothes and supplies that you can carry!)

Tips:

1. Wear easy to change clothing in case you need to try things on
2. Bring a reusable bag to carry your goods
3. Bring a friend!

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For more information and details on what to bring, visit http://www.gotcraft.com/swap

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Licensed under Creative Commons: visit www.swaporamarama.org

things to do :: Blim Market at Car Free Day

photo credit: monnibo

Blim Monthly Market
Sunday, June 20th, 2010
Blim Monthly Market: Noon to 6:00 pm (car free open until 8:00pm)
Main and 17th Avenue (car free is from 16th Avenue to 33rd Avenue)

Hey folks! Blim will be presenting a monthly Main Street Community Market to take place on car free day! Roxypop will be sharing a table with Tiff from Love Bobbie in addition to 70 other vendors plus music, hot food, beverages, entertainment and more!