Its a Crafty Wonderland!

This year the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Show was spectacular as always. In fact, it was 2 days of awesome this year (in the past it was 6 hours on Sunday of crazy shopping craftiness).

12,000 people came to shop. Thousands lined up in the halls of the Portland Convention Center in the morning to get the free swag bags. This year they handed out free 2011 Chinook Books with the bags of swag (these are big books of local coupons - worth $20each).

I sold many pieces of my work, all the terrariums I had made went home with new owners and overall I had a really great time. Friday and Saturday nights I was still making things, by the end of the weekend my house looked like a hurricane of craft hit it. Sunday night I didn't even empty the car. I cleaned up in the morning and then brought all my tubs and display stuff inside to be organized back into storage to be used next summer for some big shows. I may vend at the Portland Saturday Market a few times before the end of the holiday season (weather permitting) but I am done with my craft show marathon for 2010. Now I must catch up on shipping and tending to my online orders. Yeah for the Holiday Season! Its an awesome experience to vend at the Crafty Wonderland, its like a big crafty hug... a little sweaty, a little glitter, a little retro, a little sumthin brand new, and a whole lot of awesome.

Awesome Find at Crafty Wonderland 2010

At Crafty Wonderland this weekend I did a bit o' shopping and I found these illustrations by Lisa Mirella, described as a trio of animals with dirty mouths having trouble with yarn. What is not to love!!!

Anyone who has spent a bit of time with me knows that I have an uncensored potty mouth.

These illustrations are printed on canvas and stretched, so they each look like little originals. The octopus needing a 9th arm to untangle his mittens, the fat bear in his unraveling sweater (aptly named "Shitty Yarn") and the giraffe who lost his scarf... all can be found in the Milktooth Etsy shop, there are both the prints and greeting cards, it looks like they sold out of the Fuck print right now, but if you send them a message maybe they will make you more!

http://Milktoof.etsy.com

Sneak Peak of my Tiniest Terrariums

Consider this a sneak peak. These terrariums (as well as the few I had left after last weekend) will be coming with me and my mobiles to Crafty Wonderland Holiday Show 2010. So exciting.
Each one is so unique. So lovable.
I have just a couple with airplants, they are just so fantastic, but I don't have many airplants yet... next week I will have more and I will be listing them in my online store...
These two are so incredible, they are like little models! Any which way I turned them they took a great picture...
This one below is bigger than the rest and I might keep it for myself.
Ah... the chicks n' hens... so cute...
so precious and small
some of them I put with buddies

And many of the terrariums I filled with my favorite "String of Pearls" plant... jewelry that looks like peas...
The one above is like a pot on its side, its a one-of-a-kind.This plant is so amazing - and I just love how it looks in these tiny terrariums. They are cute - undeniably and deliciously.
I love this shape for the glass the best, and its fun how each one turns out just slightly different...






and there are a few that look like pitchers pouring out the plant...
Come visit me at Crafty Wonderland. See them for yourself. Get some to give to a friend for the holidays. They are the perfect little desk plant, preferring indirect sunlight and not a lot of water... and they are so unique! I love them.

Crafty Wonderland is at the Convention Center in Portland Oregon all weekend (December 11th and 12th) - come early, everything is one of a kind and some vendors sell out!

see you there!

Sold

This blog post is really just an excuse for me to pour longingly over these photos of my Tiniest Terrariums. I took them Thursday night as I was prepping for the show. I knew I wanted to capture their loveliness before they all flew the coop!

The airplants are a new addition to these little glass worlds. I LOVE this creation. I must make more.

These are some of the terrariums I sold this weekend at Urban Craft Uprising - I hope the lucky recipients of these treasures will love them as I have. They are sooo cute, they make me smile.

This one just makes me gasp - cute is the only word I have to describe it.

Seriously beautiful.

Enchanting. I love this little chick in a little vase. I must make more of these...

This one above I thought was sorta funny, the vase flopped out on the top in ways I hadn't really intended. But somehow its lovely in its wonkiness, especially with the strands of pearls cascading over the wobbly edge. And now its being given as a gift to someone. That makes me smile.

I LOVE this one above... its the simplest of them all, but for some reason I just love it. All the round shapes, of the vessel, the peas, the hole...

This shape was the only one I made like this, I must make more, its sorta a stretch fat tiny droplet shape, with the peas cramming themselves out of the hole. I love it.

this one (above) the little "chicks n' hens" has a small tiny baby attached to it, can you see it? Oh how these make me swoon!

This shape I took a pair of shears to the hot little vessel and cut the little slit, then I pulled the two pieces down to make the "shirt collar" look. *love*

Its hard to tell from this photo, but I put a little pour spout look on the top of the vase, so it looks like the plant is pouring out of the tiny mini terrarium.

The shapes of the little wisps of new plants coming out of the hole is just so delicious.

The "String of Pearls" plant (aka Senecio herreanus) is such a proud plant. It likes sun, but not directly sunlight, it likes water, but it prefers to go dry between waterings. Looks like jewelry made of peas to me.

This was just a silly little vessel with two bulbs. It found a good home. She came back for it, leave the show without it. Gotta love that!

Hope you enjoyed looking at these photos with me. I certainly did! These are just such a pleasure for me. I am exhausted from this past long weekend, but looking forward to getting my second wind. The holiday season is far from over!

If you are interested in purchasing one of my tiniest terrariums - I will be bringing them with me and my mobiles to Crafty Wonderland this weekend, and you can also purchase them at Splurge in NE Portland.

Crafty Wonderland Summer 2010

Yesterday I had a chance to go check out the Crafty Wonderland summer extravaganza - it looked like 2 days of awesome! I had a booth at the Oregon Glass Guild show, the Crafty Wonderland was happening just around the corner in the Convention Center. So while my boothmates watched the booth in the Glass Guild, I ran over to Crafty Wonderland!

Here's the story: I had to get up early and run down to the Portland Saturday Market. I worked my booth there on Saturday and had taken it all down that night, but I forgot to tell the market staff that I wouldn't be there on Sunday (you have to keep the staff well informed so someone else can fill in my spot!). So Sunday morning I realized this and ran down there super early to correct this mistake. Since I was up and out I figured I'd go over to the Convention Center early and sit in line to get one of the infamous free swag bags (first 200 people in the door get these bags - last year at Christmas 2000 people lined up to get these bags!). I didn't realize that CW didn't open till 11, so I stopped to get myself a cup of tea and I was plenty early and secured a spot to get a swag bag. Fortunately my friend Stacey was there and we got to sit and chat for the hour or so and the time wizzed by. Next thing I knew I had a bag full of stuff in my hands and I was wandering the show.

Ever wonder what is in one of these bags? Well I can show you mine! I picked thru it and took a picture of the precious goodies... there were a lot of coupons and postcards as well... but this is the core goodness (not pictured is the awesome bag I received containing the booty)
I received (from top to bottom, left to right sorta, you can click on the picture to zoom in and see more details): confetti, a sticker, the cutest little pair of earrings, lots of cool buttons (I stopped and made the Hello Craft button at their crafty table), a crocheted olive, a coaster, a sketchbook, and two wonderful greeting cards. It was fun filled bag! Especially because the bag of confetti had exploded - so it really was like a party in a bag!

One of the buttons says: Give your hands a hug!

Pictured at the top of this post are my purchases from the show - I couldn't resist, but I only splurged on two little things... the cupcake painting is for myself - bought it from Izzy: one of the children selling their artwork there - its so tiny and so orange and so cute! The little houses with plants in them are from My House Party (gifts for Tim - his birthday is approaching fast)

My vote for best booth setup there: Badge Bomb - they made a cardboard replica of downtown Portland, put the artists names they represent on the tops of the building and the details are just incredible. Heres a link for the picture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/totinette/4570255956/

Crafting Crafty Ladies

This video is from 2008 - but its great! Check it out the OPB show Oregon Art Beat did a segment about how crafty Portland is, featuring Crafty Wonderland, the DIY Lounge and Queen Bee

Crafty Wonderland 2009 Pictures Oh My!

It was a foggy morning yesterday when I went out to set up for Crafty Wonderland at the Convention. The roads were icy and it was cold!

The show was such a hit! Over 7,000 people attended - all happy people, friends and families shopping and looking for great unique gifts. I swear each year I do this show it seems to double in every way. Its bigger, its more successful, its more organized, its more fun, and the line to get in the door is incredible!

I rushed out at 10:45am to get pictures of the line (the door opens at 11 and the first 200 people get free bags of awesome goodies). People had started lining up around 9:30am. The line was so long it took me 15 minutes to travel the length of it, past the Starbucks, around the corner, up the escalator, down another hallway, up another escalator and down another hall to the doors by the MAX train. 2,000 people had lined up at the door to get it at 11am. I find that to be AMAZING. I saw many friends in line and it was so wonderful. Then I had to run back and get back to my booth as the show opened!Here is a little slide-show I put together of pictures from the day - it just takes a moment to watch and I thought that was easier than posting a zillion pictures, and this way you get to listen to Charlie Brown Christmas music while looking at the pictures :)

The show was really well organized, I can't say that enough! The ladies had us all set up with vendor badges and coupons for food and parking indoors to load in/out... the kids had their own aisle this year, which I thought was really a highlight of the show: a whole row of young artists and their artwork. I think a lot of them sold out really quickly (if they stayed in their booths!).

Oh and there was a crafting area with different projects running thru-out the day... I didn't get pictures of that cuz I was busy in my booth selling mobiles... but I heard great things about the crafting tables.

I'll end my bloggy post with a picture of the Super Crafty Surprise Machine that dispensed little balls of goodness - there was so much crafty goodness at this show, and crafty wonderful friends - it was quite simply a crafty wonderland :)