3rd Ward Handmade Holiday Craft fair!

Just got back from 3rd ward's Spectacular Handmade Holiday Craft Fair and I'm stuffing my face with carrots and tzatziki as kind of a 'reward' for not stuffing my face with cupcakes and bloody marys. Yes, I'm no fun.

I can't show you pictures of what I bought because...they are presents!
The fair was huge this year. Slam packed by 2pm. Slammed and packed. Did I mention that I did not have a bloody mary even though I really really wanted one?

-Below are just a few of the many vendors that I loved.
I especially loved nolinoli's baby rattles. They are filled with beans. I also think it's great there's a huge hunk of beeswax sitting right there on the table, because that's how the wood is conditioned. Oh, I also really like that he has mushrooms on his T-shirt.

nolinoli.com

 

 

 

 

Very striking rings by Elizabeth Knight. 

elizabeth knight

The lovely ladies of the 2 fish. I especially loved their gloves.

I wanted to take every single terrarium I saw home. 

I believe I'm going to need a bigger greenhouse. Soon.

terrariums by casa helcho

These two wonderful ladies  representing The Textile Arts Center made me miss my spinning wheel terribly. But I don't blame them. I may, in fact, take a felting class instead. Blaming people gives you wrinkles.

Textile Arts Center

-Now I'd like to mention the coolest stuff I got in my tote (besides actually getting the tote in the first place). Thank you 3rd Ward! You guys are cool.
The vendors really stuffed those things up with some great deals. I really wish I could just make a catalog of the vendor goodness, but I'm running out of carrots.

Best free gift-
Is the free soap!!! (of course)
Thank you lov'n a bar.

Next best thing to best free gift-
Is the Cookie & Tea ticket.
Thank you ouchi gallery

Best honorable mentions (because I love pulling things out of envelopes!)
fourvierehill
carrie strine
and the new new.

All right. My purchases are safe. My carrots are kaput. It's time to list some vintage.

the land of the lazy blog

buckwheat hull pillow
Originally uploaded by betsy ply

Well, I like this picture, and I feel like writing but I don't feel like writing about this picture.
I should be putting stuff on etsy right now. But it's cold outside and I believe I am wearing my crabby pants. I'm still ruminating on the cough drop question. I'm also so very very close to buying a drum carder of my very own. Oh how I want my very own drum carder, let me count the ways. Well right now there is about 500 dollars of NO DRUMCARDER FOR YOU to be counted.
So this is the deal, I'm selling on etsy specifically to get this drum carder, and maybe a big marble slab to make cough drops on, or maybe fudge, or just cookies. Marble slabs are good for making pie too.
But wait... I have a marble slab. My painting table. Unfortunately it's not 'food friendly' any more.
But wait..... I want a drum carder anyway! All etsy proceeds will not go toward a marble slab, of this you can be sure.

cough drops

Jen and I have been 'facebooking' (is that a real word?) each other this afternoon about cough drops. We've both been stupid ill again. I bought myself an economy bag of halls, and an economy bag of ricola. I decided to not get the sugar free ones because 'sugar free' is a euphemism for 'really weird crap'.
Jen suggest I get sugar free, I demurred and we did a little back and forth about corn syrup -vs aspartame. Then I decided that what the hell, I don't have enough stuff to do. Jen and I should make our own. I just looked on line (for my preliminary research) and didn't see any inspiring recipes then I remembered this book I have.....

I bought this book for two whole dollars at a flea market in Mechanicsburg PA. Mostly because, well, I did Need To Know.
This book is one of the most amazing how to books I have ever seen. It was published in 1885. And copyrighted 1884 A. I.Burt.
One of the most fabulous things about this book is how it's organized. Everything, from 'Putting Out Fires' to 'Tea Cakes for Children' is listed alphabetically.
So for instance, 'how to make a hammock' is listed right next to 'ham, how to cook'. I am not kidding you.

But I digress.
Here's the recipe in this book for how to make cough drops.
Listed under-

Cough Candy (Medicated) ---To five pounds of candy just ready to pour on the slab, add the following mixture, and form it into sticks. Tincture squills, two ounces; camphorated tincture of opium and tincutre of tolu, of each one-half ounce; wine of ipecac, one-half ounce; oils of gaultheria, four drops; sassafras, three drops; and of anise seed oil, two drops, and use this freely in common coughs.

What do you think?

6 random things -belated yet not outdated

I'm so bad! I'm sorry Nicole. I'm sorry Rebecca.
I will be a good girl from now on.
I was tagged by both these lovely ladies and promptly did nothing about it. I'm fixing that alacrity of inaction right now. I'm taking it to the streets and stuff like that.
Yeah.
So here's the first part, some random things about me besides I don't always do things in a timely fashion. Rules and links follow below.


1. I used to have straight hair. No really. I did. My hair turned curly around the time I turned 14. No one knew what to do with that kind of craziness in suburban Pennsylvania. I had bangs when my hair went curly. This was a bad thing. This was a deep hair wrongness.
There should be a special place in the world that all curly haired people get an invited to on the investiture of their curliness. This invitation would be to a place where no humidity exists and 'blowout' is a 7 letter word never to be spoken out loud. Lessons will be given in hedge-cutting and alternative uses for mayonnaise. This is the world I want to live in.

2. I frequently mispronounce words. Why? Mostly because I've never actually said or heard the word used in polite conversation before. This can be an issue for some people, especially if the word happens to be 'tangential'.

3. I have a really vivid and startling dream life. My dream last night involved my close friend Ranu. She lives in San Fransisco with her darling triplets and her handsome husband. In this dream, a friend of hers gave her a pair of cowboy boots that they had custom made for her. They had a horizon line half way up each boot and when you stood in the boots, they made a complete picture of a sunset. all the way around. I remember that she was fascinated by the fact that each boot had 4 zippers in it and when the boots were unzipped they unfolded like flowers. They were pink on the inside. I believe I was just visiting in the dream, there was a weird segue where I spent a lot of time trying to meet someone under some scary underpasses. Then I was back at Ranu's house. She had this sentient piece of paper and we were trying to get it to answer questions about what I should do. But it would only write the answers while you weren't watching it. It was teasing us by writing everything backwards.
Because my dreams are so vivid, I always feel it's my responsibility to let people know they were in them. Or else I feel like I've been gossiping about them. I don't like to feel sly.

4. I'm fascinated by the idea of poetry but can't stand having it read aloud.
It's like having someone lick your face at a party. It's like announcing what kind of medication you're on at the company meeting. I'm so not kidding about this.

5. I frequently call things that may be considered green -blue. but I'm not color blind. I think I just prefer that color that I'm calling blue that's actually green to be blue because I like that color better as blue, even if it is technically a green color. It would look blue if I put it next to a greener color, so why can't I call it blue if I want to. Most friends avoid this topic with me.

6. I saw a ghost when I was ten.

And now for the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

And now for the links:

linda of knit a bird snorkel
bev of square animals
our lady of the yarn snob
miss birney
andrea of badbirds
gooseflesh

going to california

But if you tried to put flowers in my freaking hair they would get lost immediately.

I'm almost ready for the renegade craft fair. I'm leaving tomorrow for some much needed r&r before the big weekend.
Of course I'm bringing a bunch of stuff to work on while I'm relaxing. yep.
I got a stupid huge suitcase and Beverly got the stuff I shipped yesterday.

Beverly posts the best posts. I think she writes better about me than I write about me.


Here's a pic of the eye pillows I've been making. They are microwavable! The buckwheat hull pillows aren't, but these ones are make with buckwheat seeds. They are much heavier. Someone told me they were called 'dream pillows'. I eschew this title rabidly.
And guess what, I'm going to tell you why. When I was turning 8 years old, my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I was very clear with her. I wanted a brown bunny with no clothes on. I said, bunnies don't wear clothes. It would be a lie. There is a kernel of clarity here.
The clarity of an 8 year old who wants a stuffed animal, just a naked one.
I ended up with a pink bunny that had no clothes. I named him Buster. His huge size made up for the fact he was pink.
What I'm saying in my own special way is, I have never been a sentimental person. Giving a pillow the title of 'dream pillow' imbues this pillow with...
a) the concept that dreams are pink fluffy things that are good, kind and G rated. This is a simplistic view of the world I won't support.
b) It can do something it can't i.e. give you something you don't have and think you want. No, it's just an amazing pillow that feels really really really good when you put it on your eyes, or any other part of your body.



This is yarn. I have nothing ranty to say about it at all.
It'll be with me at the renegade craft fair.


This is Stella, she won't be coming to California. She eats flowers.

yep. drawings!

I'll be bringing these to the brooklyn flea this sunday. This happens to beMemorial day weekend and my birthday weekend, all at the same time. I usually like to have a 'birthday month' with a lot of party do-overs and such. I think this year I'll let the whole thing slide by in a more unremarked manner. I'll be making pillows for the flea on my actual birthday, only because I took a time out to go on a chocolate and sci-fi bender yesterday. This put me slightly behind my production schedule.
I just got another 18lbs of hulls, plus some microwavable seeds! Eye pillows people. This means eye pillows. Much better than some old birthday.
Anyhow.....
I obviously haven't gotten the scanner working yet.




More later, I'm all sleepy time right now.

good news!

I'm in the San Francisco renegade craft fair. I'm so freaking happy!
Here's a picture of robin who is describing my happy on the inside, on her outside.

It's time to put the cards on the table

Well, kicking and screaming (softly) I'm entering the creepy no-space called the, you know.....thingy. That's Ivy, my Green Cheek Conure. She's looking at you.
She's looking right...at...you. 64 grams of pure ferocity staring you right in the eye.

So I'll try to be brief as I get all my thoughts lined up in a little row.

I make yarn. I love yarn. It's pathological that's all you need to know. I'm also a painter. I do some singing. I can embroider like nobodies business. I can swear like a sailor.
But the most exciting thing, the most excellent thing is I'm in the Brooklyn Flea!
http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/
See you there?