Oh the Cuteness!

I had a wonderful opportunity before the holiday rush hit to help  my friend Ivy, who works as a sales rep for Robert Kaufman Fabrics  (among others), with a new little trade show in San Francisco.  I've mentioned her before on here,  as the lovely lady who brings  dead stock fabric swatches for quilting  to my stitch & bitch group to give away. (Thanks Ivy!)  I think I've mentioned on here that someday I'd like to open a little brick and mortar shop to sell fabric, craft supplies, and handmade gifts, and getting to go to some trade shows in the industry has been so fun!  This was the first-ever DG Expo , and the response was so great that they are planning one for the east coast coming up and will definitely do the event annually here in the Bay Area. It wasn't s super huge event, but it was aimed at smaller independent manufacturers of fabric goods, and it was so fun to meet all the local designers who came to our booth. And here'...

The Cottage Law class went swimmingly! Someday in the future I will hopefully be able to put what I learned to good use, which opens up so many exciting possibilities. A few weeks earlier, for our six month anniversary (Yikes, how time flies!), Johnny also signed us up for the foraging class taught by Forage SF. More specifically it was taught by a guy named Kevin, and you can check out his website, Feral Kevin , for more info on the classes he teaches. That's Kevin, talking about sorrel. When Johnny and I arrived and I saw the other people we were taking the class with, I knew I was going to be that annoying kid at the front of the class that new all the answers. Turns out I was right, as I was the only one in the crowd responding when he asked, "Does anyone know what this is?". Luckily the teacher was excited about this rather than annoyed lol.  Wild radish flowers. They also come in pink and purple.  One of my fellow classmates sampling the wild radish ...

You got to see some of Woodcut Maps' booth here, and now I want to gush about Leafcutter Designs ' booth! I am soooo jealous of her space. She recently redesigned it to make it easier for people to shop since most of her items are super tiny, and the construction and layout is perfect. I forgot my kit lens that day so it was impossible for me to get a shot of the whole thing, but here are my favorite parts: Lea collects tons of awesome vintage and new pieces to showcase and play off of her objects. She found this tiny writing desk that's the perfect size for displaying her tiny mail kit. A little antique metal flatbed truck hauls her tiny packages, and the vintage mailbox bank is too cute! A vintage metal child's fridge holds her recipe dice! Ugh soooo cuuute! Probably my favorite part of the booth was the clever use of  working gumball machines and sewing drawers as structural supports for the wood shelves. Also, not shown, are the lovely table...

During Renegade Craft Fair this summer I was able to work for both Woodcut Maps and Leafcutter Designs simultaneously, with their booths only being a handful of spaces apart. Mostly I worked at WCM though, as we always like to have some maps in various stages of assembly to show people how it's done. I introduced you to my lovely bosses in my post about Maker Faire , and Renegade was just as much fun! We made a giant map with our logo as our signage, and behind it is a customer testing out the website, which we have up on a couple of laptops and a big screen that passers-by can see too. All of the pre-made maps we designed were hung on these crazy graphic screens. The one above right of the bay was one of our top-selling designs, it was so lovely! Cat is such a lovely lady to work for, we are having a work retreat in Tahoe this week and I am so excited! We also made greeting cards and tiny "prints", which were just simple map cutouts mounted ...

My schedule has been filling up quickly and is about to get absolutely insane! I've got craft fairs and social events galore, but to start off don't forget that this upcoming Monday is International Yarn-Bombing Day, and the entire week is Knitting in Public week! So get out there and show the world your skills, brighten up your cities, and have fun! I'll be spending it with the ladies from my stitch & bitch group, making mischief of course. Anywho, I'll be selling at quite a few upcoming events this summer. Be sure to "like" the  Oh the Cuteness Facebook Page  to get more updates, or follow me on Twitter .  Upcoming in June and July:  Maddie's Matchmaker Adoptathon  on Saturday, June 9th at the Petco in El Cerrito. It's a wonderful event that helps needy animals find good homes, and I'll be donating 25% of my profits to the cause!   The Art Beat Bazaar  on Sunday, June 17th at the Starry Plough Pub in Berkeley. Great loca...

The last A Fair to Remember was very fun. I only brought owl pincushions and my new owl plushies to the table, and I felt very prepared and happy. I had a great time hanging out with Errol and meeting the other vendors, but a Giants game that started in the afternoon on that day really cut down on our foot traffic and affected sales. Oh well, what can you do? Great hipstery band. Owls looking longingly for a new owner. Errol in his lucky sale flannel. I remember making these as a kid and I loved that she was selling them. The bar nextdoor had Errol at hello. He suddenly realized that this is a serious matter. Until next spring...

Hi everyone! Just a little reminder that I will be selling again this month at A Fair to Remember in San Francisco. If some of you have not had a chance to come out and see all the wonderful goodies yet then you best come out for this one as it is the last of the season! There is talk of a possible Christmas version in December but it is not set in stone yet. Also I have some thing top-secret and super duper special that I will be selling at this fair (it has to do with my owl pincushions), so come and see! Also I will give you 25% off if you mention that you are a blog reader!

Hi all! I will be at A Fair to Remember again this month, sharing a booth with my new buddy Errol from Metaphor Organic Soaps . Kinda short notice, but it is tomorrow from 11-6ish. I will have owls (of course), notebooks, moustache straws, cards, cake bunting, and earrings as before. Also I have made some new goodies: loop scarves in lots of delicious fabrics, and a couple household cleaning products (more details to come). Wish me luck and come out and say hi if you can!

I am happy to report that the craft fair I did this past weekend was a success! Not to mention a super fun time too. As always, the owls were the best seller, but the cake bunting sold well too which made me really really happy! I have a lot of work to do getting the stuff that is left up on my etsy shop , which I am committed to finishing as soon as possible. I will do little posts when I get a chunk of new products listed. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite pics I took at A Fair to Remember , and the rest, along with higher-res versions of these, can be found on my flickr set, here . Firstly, I made some "special edition" owl pincushions for this fair. Meet my little baker's-dozen-strong army of Hipster Owls. They're so underground, you've probably never heard of them. Lol. I don't quite know where this idea came from, but I have a profound love for the hipster style and some of the culture, so I decided to pay homage to the counter cultu...