Via: CableTV.com
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blasts from the past, wonderful oddness, television, Doctor Who
Recently in wonderful oddness Category
As you may have already heard, Wired.com has done a wonderful thing:
Beginning today, we're releasing all Wired.com staff-produced photos under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC) license and making them available in high-res format on a newly launched public Flickr stream.
Wired has some really excellent photography, so this is quite a trove. I wonder if any other companies might follow suit?
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I remember it well, that feeling of light-headed "Oh my, I may have to keel over and die now." post-run euphoria/exhaustion. And no, it isn't pretty.
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Dear Photograph is a charming photoblog that puts a cool spin on the "rephotographing" trend. Rather than just recreating an old photograph, "Dear Photograph" inserts the old photograph into the scene as it is today, lining up the shot as closely as possible, along with a bit of commentary (in the form of an apostrophe to the photo itself). So far, I am finding it utterly charming.
Categories:
art, blasts from the past, cool internet projects, elseweb, wonderful oddness
And just in time for summer vacation. I will be getting there by way of the Monroe Street Library. How will you make your way to Bordertown? Here's a head start...
Categories:
blasts from the past, book, for sale elsewhere, lovely places, travel, wonderful oddness
Cement Eclipses: Tiny Street Art Sculptures by Isaac Cordal
Both the sculpture themselves and the photos are wonderful. Enjoy!
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Literally
Alimation - Annecy Festival 2011 from Alexandre DUBOSC on Vimeo.
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Yarn bombing, knitted graffiti, crafty tagging... Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you've seen it in the wild. This street art has been around for at least a decade (possibly earlier) and is now getting notice in The New York Times. The article is brief, but very interesting and informative.
I found three things to be particularly worthy of note. First was the contrast between the male dominance of traditional graffiti and street art, versus the traditional feminine orientation of the yarn-based work.
Next was the degree of "I'm better than that because I've been in galleries" attitude from one of the knitters profiled:
Olek, whose work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide, considers yarn bombing to be the trite work of amateurs and exhibitionists."Lots of people have aunts or grandmas who paint," she said. "Do you want to see that work in the galleries? No. The street is an extension of the gallery. Not everyone's work deserves to be in public."
Deliciously snobby, neh?
Finally (and not entirely surprising) was the fact that was started out as DIY, crafty, underground, etc has been co-opted by a number of Fortune 500 companies for advertising purposes. Certainly not the first time for such a thing.
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Today (ETA: yesterday, at this point), I am taking part in an Edgewood College writing retreat at Painted Forest in Valton, WI. There is no internet here, but my plan is to prep a series of entries, to be posted later.
Our group drove over from Madison a little after 8. The drive through the Driftless Region was absolutely gorgeous. I am in love with the rolling hills and winding roads in this area. The "400" state bike trail runs near here, and I think I may wish to take a ride on it at some point this season.
Painted Forest is kind of a two-part location. The main activity of the retreat is taking place in the Art Studio and Study Center, which was built in 2004. I am tucked away in the sleeping loft, which is cozy and quiet and warm. Perfect!
Painted Forest proper is an old meeting hall for the Modern Woodmen of America from the 1890s. On the outside, it is just a plain, white wooden building. But on the inside, it is covered from floor to ceiling by murals painted by Ernst Hüpeden, a German immigrant who taught himself to paint while wrongfully imprisoned. The murals are weird and wonderful, full of symbolism and scenes of the organizations initiation rituals. My favorite parts were the areas were the murals move from wall to ceiling, with the tops of trees silhouetted against a blue sky, dotted with friendly white clouds.
It is a great location to do some work, without the distraction of the rest of the internet. (Though I was careful to make sure I opened a number of new tabs last night, so that I could make use of the internet in a slightly more static way.)
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Ryan Novelline has constructed a exquisite, couture ballgown out of Golden Books. The link not only has some great photos of the dress, but excellent documentation of the process. Showing your work: not just for math class. I love it!
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Even Disney can't make fairy tales entirely sweetness and light. No matter how they scrub, some darkness remains.
Now, the farther back you go for your fairy tales, the less scrubbing they have had and the darker they remain. They are full of death and sex and violence and complete weirdness.
Miwa Yanagi captures that darkness and deepens the shadows in her collection, Fairy Tale. These will haunt your dreams.
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There are some excellent photos in the archives of the New South Wales, Australia police department. Of particular interest are the mugshots, which are so different in so many ways from the mugshots of today. And yet... so very similar. (I could very much see the young woman in this photo in combat boots, a band t-shirt, and ripped jeans.)
A tip of the hat to Very Short List for bringing this to my attention.
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art, blasts from the past, cool internet projects, elseweb, wonderful oddness
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Greenwich Locksmiths in New York City looks like my kind of place.
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The Floating Market, art, elseweb, lovely places, travel, wonderful oddness
So, I need to talk about Dane 101's FireBall, especially since it happened at the end of January. It took a while to get all the photos together, and frankly, I'm still sifting. But I do have enough to share.
It was an amazing spectacle. So many beautiful costumes. So many dark and wonderful costumes. The performances on the stage were entrancing.
Since I am much better with images than with words, I will follow with three slideshows of my photos from that night. Enjoy!
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Some faster than others. Daniel Del Nero makes houses of out cardboard, covers them with flour and mold spores, and the photographs the decay. It is creepy and gorgeous and wonderful.
It's like something from a strange and haunting dream.
You really must check it out.
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So, it only took me most of a month to get my photos edited. Pretty soon I'll try to get a write-up of the event, but so much of it defied description. In the meantime, a picture is worth a thousand words...
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Have some wonderful oddness. I can't stop re-watching this video:
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I swear, I will find the time to get the Gallery Night photos up. In the meantime, I have a wonderful thing for you.
In almost every picture #7, collected and edited by Erik Kessels and Joep Eljkens has an amazing series of photos taken from the perspective of a shooting gallery. From age 16 in 1936 to the present day, Ria van Dijk has been going yearly to the shooting gallery at the fair, where he picture is automatically taken when she hits the target. (There is a gap in the photos during the war years.)
The series is remarkable as we watch her get older, fashions change, and the photography go from sepia to polaroid. All the while, her arms are up, her left eye is closed, and she bears a look of steady concentration and pride. It really is a wonderful thing, and I highly recommend checking it out.
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This grand old post office building is going to be transformed into Moynihan Station, an expansion of Penn Station. In the meantime, a lot of it is currently vacant.
Open House New York allowed Scout, the blogger of Scouting New York to tour and photograph the facilities. The result is a really interesting photo series.
I'd love a chance to look around there myself, but alas....too far away. However, I really love looking at these photos.
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Author Michael Swanwick has written a short story aout autumn, and put it together in a Flickr set using photographs of fallen leaves with words of the story written on in marker.
The story is pretty simple and some of the photos are out of focus, but the project itself is fun and clever.
Check out the set. It works especially well if you view it as a slide show.
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LIFE.com has some previously unreleased photos of the Hell's Angels from 1965, LIFE photographer Bill Ray. These are great aesthetically, historically, and as a sociological piece. Too bad the story was killed in 65, but I'm glad they've put the photos online.
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NPR is featuring some neat "ground as backdrop" photos at the moment.
I'd already seen Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance"
as well as "Sorry I'm Late"
But Strawberry Swing was new to me.
And now, into Friday we gooooooooooooooooo!
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Irving Place, Miss Match, art, cool internet projects, elseweb, wonderful oddness
Miniature Art on the Tip of Pencil by Dalton Ghetti (via Odd Stuff Magazine) showcases the amazing and beautiful sculptures that Ghetti carves into the graphite tips of ordinary pencils.
He has a level of patience and devotion to his work that I have not achieved. The fact that he gives his work away, rather than sell it, adds a layer of wonderful to the whole thing.
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Irving Place, Miss Match, art, cool internet projects, wonderful oddness
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Irving Place, Miss Match, art, cool internet projects, wonderful oddness
Everyone ponder what Metallica would sound like as a swing band? Wonder no more! Let The Swinger demonstrate. This is pretty darn cool.
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Go take a look! The other diptychs are pretty sweet, too.
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Irving Place, art, cool internet projects, wonderful oddness
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I was obviously not the only photographer at the Floating Market. Here are some that were actually shot during the market. (And with better lighting, since she was working with more than just the pop-up flash.) It's a very nice set.
Also, here is another excellent write-up of the event, featuring some of those photos.
Categories:
The Floating Market, elseweb, event, lovely places, reviews, theater, wonderful oddness
I want to pass the word along on this, as well as making something of a bookmark/reminder for myself.
The Salvage Art Show will be juried by professional artists. Interested artists will submit three examples of their work, which will be evaluated on such elements as originality, design, composition, subject matter, choice of materials, and skill of execution. Submissions to the jury will be due by May 22. Artists will be notified of their status during the week of June 1.
Worth a try, I think.
Categories:
The Floating Market, art, event, making stuff, psa, wonderful oddness
At the name of this post would indicate, our second stop on Saturday was another shorts program. This one made no promise as to whether we would be unsettled. What we got was an interesting mixed bag.
(I can't exactly remember the order, but that is not the important part.)
The one minute long My Friend, Larry was extremely strange. However, the brevity helped it, for it was over before it could become annoying.
I'm not normally a fan of experimental, but You Will Like This worked. It was funny and peculiar and just this side of unsettling. The fact that it was 4 minutes also helped. Like My Friend, Larry, the joke would have worn very thin had it continued much longer. In fact, a minute less might have made it stronger.
I can honestly say that I barely remember seeing Floatin', a 1 minute stop-motion animation, beyond the fact that it was cute. It just didn't register in comparison. Perhaps if I'd taken notes, but I don't do that.
The two other animations, Subprime and Mariza were more memorable. Both were digital. Subprime was 3 minutes of ever evolving and collapsing houses; Legos meets the Sims meets something new. Mariza was 5 minutes of a fisherman, a dancing donkey, and a battle of wills.
Sinkhole actually was a little bit unsettling. Shot in Centralia, PA, the coal mining town that has be abandoned for years due to a long-burning coal fire in the seam below the town. To say too much would spoil it (if you ever get an opportunity to see it), but I can say that things don't go as expected for the coal company broker how has come to try to buy out the remaining landowner.
I was a little uncertain at the start of Sign of the Times. I didn't know how much of loud, jerky guy being loud and jerky I could handle, regardless of how funny it was. Fortunately, the tale of the stolen morning papers proved to have more going on than just that. It was funny and kind of sweet.
Chili & Cheese: A Condimental Rift was, to borrow a phrase Meg Hamel used to describe one of the other films, a hoot. Good acting, great cinematography. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, though I wasn't always sure of where it was going.
Carjacked was funny in a totally bizarre, barely making sense kind of way. For a project by high school students, it was very well done. The film blurb describes it as "over-the-top" and I have to agree. Kind of funny, very weird.
Only one film to go in my Film Fest Roundup.
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Wisconsin Film Festival, event, movie, reviews, wonderful oddness
For our first show on Saturday, our group was bigger (M, E, D and I) and the venue was bigger (Orpheum, Main Stage). All appropriate for A Matter of Size, a feature-length narrative about Israeli sumo wrestlers.
Our hero is Herzl (Itzik Cohen), who loses his job as a salad-bar chef because customers complain about his size. He had joined a diet group, but they don't tolerate his weight increases and boot him out. He finds work washing dishes at a Japanese restaurant, where they've tuned in the sumo wrestling match on their satellite TV behind the bar. In this competitive sport, being large brings honor and respect. It's what Herzl craves, and would be good for his buddies, too, for they are all generously sized and have too much free time. Herzl convinces the restaurant's owner, Kitano, to train them in the venerable sport of sumo.
The combination of gentle humor and real conflict made for a funny yet powerful story. It did not rely entirely on slapstick or mockery, as could so often be the case with a plot such as this. It also deals quite deftly with the relationships the men have with each other and with their loved ones. Herzl's mother and his new girlfriend are also characters instead of caricatures.
We all enjoyed the show quite a bit, and afterwards, 3 of us felt compelled to get gyros for lunch, thanks to Gidi's shawarma. (It was that or Japanese--right across the street--but we didn't have too much time before the next show.) Sitting patio in front of Parthenon and watching people walk by in the sunshine, we knew we were off to a good start.
Only two more shows to go.
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Wisconsin Film Festival, event, movie, reviews, wonderful oddness
And now, a brief break from Film Fest talk to write about how I spent my Sunday and Monday.
I've been following along with the pre-production of Lineline Theater's upcoming stage adaptation of Neverwhere. So, when I heard that they would be doing an actual Floating Market for their annual benefit event and where looking for volunteers to help *be* the market, I signed right up. How could I miss something like that? I've been missing the "Below" since the end of Boston Between the Cracks.
Sunday afternoon, I drove down to Crystal Lake, IL where I parked my car and hopped the Metra the rest of the way to Chicago. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love riding trains?) There was a rehearsal/costume parade for all the volunteers at Lifeline's space from 3:00 to about 6:00. While there, I got a rough preview of what the set is going to look like, and I must say, I'm impressed.
Following the rehearsal, I took the CTA towards Grant Park, to find the friend I was going to stay with for the night. I was already regretting that I decided that my combat boots were too bulky to carry and that I couldn't fit a spare pair of shoes in my pack. Ow.
One delicious Thai dinner later and both of us were pretty much ready to crash for the night.
I had to work on Monday, but had gotten clearance to do so remotely. (Have I mentioned how weird it is to use my PC desktop from a Mac? Always have to remember to avoid keyboard commands.) This made it a day of wi-fi surfing via three different coffeeshops. And more walking. Oh, the walking. (Did I mention those damn boots?)
The day was gorgeous, and many picturesque opportunities presented themselves, but I weighed the originality of any of the possible photos vs. the amount of stuff I was lugging around with me and decided that none of them were worth the effort. Sometime, I'll make a trip just for photos.
Evening came and it was time to ascend to the 4th floor of the Chicago Cultural Center and get ready for the event. Luckily, I did have time to run around and take some quick photos of some of the people and the place. There were a number of people and things that I never got a chance to capture on film, and the overall quality of what I shot was very snapshotty, but it did make bringing the Canon worthwhile.
The event ran from 6:30 to 10 PM, but it rather flew by. There were some scripted elements, including a bit of stage fighting ("bodyguard auditions"). There were performances by The Space/Movement Project, The Afterlife, Read My Hips, Pyrotechniq, The Tubeway Rats, and The Beat. A couple of fortune tellers, a storyteller, and a caricaturist plied their trades while "Captain Destiny" encouraged folks to spin the "Wheel of Destiny" to win prizes. Meanwhile, the denizens of the Floating Market interacted with the patrons and exhorted them to bid on silent auction items. Everyone ate, drank, and were quite merry.
And then the Market was over and it was time to go home. At which point I discovered that I'd lost my socks somewhere. This was a bummer, as they were a pair of a really nice wool overknees. Alas! Fortunately, I still had the socks I'd worn in character, so I didn't have to go sockless in my boots. (Did I mention those boots?) Unfortunately, looking for them took time I didn't have, and I suddenly had 14 minutes to walk about a mile...at least a 17 minute trek, according to Google maps. Fortunately, a couple of fellow Denizens were leaving as I was and offered me a ride to the station. Hurray! I made the train just in time.
The ride to Crystal Lake was pleasant. The drive to Madison was a little less so, given that it was after midnight by the time I started driving. I got through with McDonald's coffee and BBC World News on NPR, plus a lot of opening windows and sitting forward. Also, my "check engine" light came on, which could be meaningless but gave an edge of stress to the proceedings. I can haz Madison-Chicago trane, plz? Thx.
All in all, it was a tiring journey, but well worth it. I can hardly wait to see the actual show when it opens.
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The Floating Market, costuming, event, theater, trains, travel, wonderful oddness
I'm quoted in Etsy's Storque blog.
Also, more Film Fest write-ups coming soon, but in the meantime, I'm off to Chicago for Lifeline Theater's Floating Market benefit.
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Etsy, The Floating Market, Wisconsin Film Festival, elseweb, event, reviews, site news, wonderful oddness
My MTA cufflinks are included in a cool Earth Day treasury (expires Saturday, just before midnight).
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Etsy, Irving Place, The Floating Market, art, site news, treasury, wonderful oddness
The Wisconsin Film Festival started last night (I know! On a Wednesday this year!) and I am totally giddy. My first film isn't until tonight (though I did watch a movie last night while sorting clothes) and I can hardly wait.
My line-up for this year:
The Ghost Player
Slightly Unsettling Spanish Shorts
For the Love of Movies: Film Criticism
Unforgettable
A Matter of Size
Shorts: Saturday Afternoon@ Monona Terrace
Baraboo
I shall be writing them up, though it usually takes a bit of time to get through all of them.
Also, on Sunday I will be travelling down to Chicago to take part in the Lifeline Theater benefit, which is to say, being a part of the Floating Market. Awesome, neh? I'll be reporting on that, too.
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And of course, I was inside sorting out piles of winter clothing to put away, and watching a movie. I hear it was something, though.
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The Floating market garners a nice mention in this article on the Etsy Recyclers Guild Team (see page 4 for a photo and page 5 for the mention)
What a nice way to start the week!
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Etsy, The Floating Market, art, elseweb, reviews, wonderful oddness
Looking at the photos of Dances of Vice: Wonderland in Spring Ball in New York, I am in awe of the costumes and in envy of Gabi Porter's fantastic event photography. It makes me wanna get my ass in gear and improve my skills...which is a good thing. Beautifully lit!
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The is strange and delightful. That is all I have to say on the matter.
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A pair of my cufflinks is featured in this cool p-poc treasury: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=122237 Check it and click! (expires Wednesday morning)
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A pair of cufflinks from The Floating Market has received a favorable mention on Small talk about big things. Check it out!
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The Floating Market, art, elseweb, event, reviews, wonderful oddness
1. I am bound and determined to sell these hair sticks today. They are on sale right now for $5 off the regular price, and they are totally charming.
2. Starting today and for the next seven days, I have a tile ad up on Craft Cult. I'm hoping it does some good.
3. I have a wonderfully creepy treasury, "The Unsettling Toy Box" on Etsy at the moment.
4. This weekend, I expect to finish an art project I have been working on since December. I'll post pictures as soon as I do.
Happy Friday! What are you up to?
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Etsy, Irving Place, The Floating Market, art, sale, wonderful oddness
Apparently, at approximately 5:00am EST, Thursday December 31 2009, a treasury list that I made was featured on the Etsy front page. (It was about 5 hours later that one of my own items made the front page for the first time.) Check it out!
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In Etsy's Treasury West, until early Sunday morning.
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FREE shipping on any order $10 or more for the 100th person to make The Floating Market an Etsy favorite!
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Nominations for the 2010 Hugo Awards close next Sunday. As I am still eligible to nominate (having been to WorldCon last year), I have been giving it some thought. I can nominate up to five in each catagory.
Best Novel, current thoughts are:
The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The City & The City by China Miéville
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Best Novella, Best Novelette...dunno. I don't think I read any new ones from 2009.
Best Short Story is also a dunno, as I can't quite remember which that I read where new in 2009. I'll have to look it up.
ETA:
I'm liking K. Tempest Bradford's "Élan Vital"
Best Related Work is a category that I know very little about.
Best Graphic Story is going to require more thought, and I'd be happy to take recommendations. (Any science fiction or fantasy story told in graphic form appearing for the first time in 2009.)
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form:
Coraline
Star Trek
Moon
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
"Epitaph One," Dollhouse
Best Editor, Short Form; Best Editor, Long Form; Best Professional Artist...dunno. I'll have to think on it.
Best Semiprozine
I believe Shadow Unit qualifies.
Best Fanzine, Best Fan Writer, Best Fan Artist, John W. Campbell Award...dunno.
I'd welcome any thoughts and input on categories that are blank or incomplete.
Blackbird Marmalade Creations is the work of C. Jane Washington, a Madison artist who makes the most wonderfully creepy art dolls.
I first came across her work at last spring's Odyssey Con art show, and my first thought was, "I know these creatures!" They were very much like the little beings, good and bad, that scampered around my imagination as a child. (See also.)
I picked up one of her cards for future reference, at which point it did that thing that business cards like to do to me: it went into hiding for a while. I rediscovered it last night, and was reminded to check the website, and hence, this blog entry.
Coincidentally, she is also on the WisCon 34 Art Show committee. (Or perhaps she *is* the art show committee, as these things sometimes go.)
Anyway, her work is delightfully creepy, scarily cute, and terrifyingly toothy. Go check it out.
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Etsy, art, for sale elsewhere, local business, wonderful oddness
Koppa's has a website! And a fan page, too, it seems.
This was totally my place, back in my actual Irving Place days. Right across the street, which made it perfect for transforming pocket change into candy. I specifically remember these wonderful pink (strawberry) taffy lollipops that they had at the register for a while. $0.05 each, and totally wonderful. I have never found anything just like them since, so they have become legendary in my memory. (Along with the veggie sub from the long-defunct, Mad Town Subs.)
They were also the perfect place for that gallon of milk when we ran out right before dinner, and for the Sunday Journal. I also remember them having really excellent elephant ears in the bakery case.
Speaking of the old hood, one of these days I need to get over there and stop at Comet Cafe, which used to be a Chinese restaurant (Edie's? Eddie's? something like that) when I knew it. (Right next to the Constant Reader Bookshop, whose painted sign I once thought said "Out of Paint" and which I found puzzling, until I became a better reader and could distinguish print from paint.)
I may as well finish my tour down memory lane with a mental stop at Abu's Jerusalem of the Gold, at which I first tasted tahini.
I should get over there some time this summer.
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Irving Place, blasts from the past, restaurant, wonderful oddness
Today I got the heads up that I've been accepted to participate in the art show for this year's WisCon. Yay!
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I was at the Dig and Saves today and brought home a bunch of new things. However, as new things come in to my life, I need to make room. I have a collection of wonderful vintage gloves, which I cannot resist buying when I find them...only none of them has a mate. Some of these made great costume pieces for a LARP, but while I would love to find a project in which to put them to use, I have not yet. So, I offer them up to the world. Someone else might have an idea for them.
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For my work-work-job (the one that lets me pay my bills and gives me insurance), I work with URLs a lot. Some of them are normal and some are completely off the chain, like this:
http://www.exampleurl.com/BC3/dirmod.asp?sid=5A1714C7275342D19D6D1B4015944C55&nm=categorys&type=subcategory&mod=Subscribe&tier=1&id=E51F5E447D7B44C0B91253A8CA15CED1
And then there are services like TinyURL to shorten things like that.
http://irvingplace.net then becomes http://tinyurl.com/ycntk8o
But you all knew that, right? How about kicking it up a notch? For that, let's start with ShadyURL, which will take a regular URL and make it long and suspicious.
http://irvingplace.net then becomes http://5z8.info/-?php-deactivate_phishing_filter-48-_e0t3j_refugee-murder
Looooovely. Who wouldn't click on that? Scary not your thing? Maybe SoCuteURL is more your speed. It takes a regular URL and makes it a bit more kawaii, like so:
http://irvingplace.net then becomes http://www.socuteurl.com/pixiedust
Ta-da! Have fun, but be responsible kids.
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Elise Matthesen has new shinies up for sale.
The hairsticks are particularly nifty.
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Victorian/Edwardian Nursing Corset - c. 1900-1910
The photos and descriptions are pretty good. Go take a look, and maybe bid on it while it lasts, if corsetry and/or costuming are your thing.
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This is what my nephew said when asked what he wanted for a birthday cake this year. (He turned 3 in January.) My sister and I were very amused at this. At the last minute, he changed his mind and wanted a happy snowman. It was excellent, just the same.
Cake making/frosting is a skill I am still learning, but it is fun to practice.
Step one: trim the cakes.
I had two round chocolates and a round of lemon (which turned out very thin, hence the stacking.) Trimming cakes = yummy snack time!
Another view of the trimmed cakes.
Step two: apply crumb coat.
The cakes were just from store-bought mixes, but the frosting was homemade. I must admit, frosting is so easy to make that I doubt I'll buy it again. So much tastier, too. Plus, I'll take butter over partially hydrogenated whatever oil any day, thanks.
Step three: spread the rest of the frosting in a nice, thick layer, joining the edges of the cake together.
Another nice thing about homemade frosting: I had just the right amount for the cake, without running out *or* having gobs and gobs of extra.
Step four: give snowman chocolate chip face, chocolate-covered peanut buttons, and pretzel arms. He is a happy snowman, indeed.
When the birthday boy saw the cake, his first comment was "Snowmen don't have pretzels for arms," since he is will aware that their arms are made of sticks. He is quite the connoisseur of "Frosties." I assured him that it was ok, since these were pretend sticks for a pretend snowman. He seemed mollified at that.
Step five: light candles, sing "Happy Birthday" and let the child blow them out.
He did an excellent job of getting them all out, and without spitting on the cakes. Then my brother introduced him to the joy of licking the frosting off the ends of the candles.
It was a delicious cake, and I was very happy with how it turned out. Nothing fancy, but exactly what the occasion required.
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Yesterday afternoon, I dropped in to the High Noon Saloon to check out the The Valentine's Day Craftacular. It was the earliest in the day I have ever been there, that is for sure. From the moment I walked in, I looked around and thought, "This is pretty neat." The layout and the bustle of activity put me in mind of the actual Floating Market in the BBC version of Neverwhere (from which my shop draws it's name and inspiration).
I counted about nineteen vendors. Five of them were upstairs, which is where I started.
First up was Prettifications by Cynthia a store I'd actually stumbled across in the fall while looking for something to wear to a wedding with my little black dress. I didn't buy anything at the time, but it did add a piece of hers to my favorites list. (I still covet it...may buy it yet if no one snaps it up before me.)
Next was Haley Studio, who had some gorgeous handspun yarn and some truly lovely fabric pocketbook-type bags.
Gub Factory's cellphone holders and coffee cup cozies were neat, but the stuffed creatures were the highlight of their table.
At this point, the upstairs was getting crowded, so I went downstairs to look around for a little while.
Space Oddities had a set-up on the pool table. Very hip, very fun.
Picture Day, who also has some great shots of the day, was looking stylin' by the soundbooth.
Lulu's Stabby's Critters may be stabby, but they are also cute as hell.
Antique Basket Lady's bags were totally charming. I loved the bold fabric prints.
Mindy Kuen had little baby t-shirts with neckties. I am nothing if not all about the necktie fashions.
Glitter Workshop was the organizer of the whole shebang. Two words: button bracelets. Scrumptious! Two more words: crochet cupcakes.
The Bare Tree Apparel had a wide variety of belts, hoodies, and shirts, including these screen printed boneshakers.
Lula and Deedee's display table reminded me of a fireworks display, with funky beaded earrings bursting out in every direction.
Kim's Crafty Apple 'n The Apple was an explosion of bright fabrics and beads, plus tasty-looking jars of preserves.
Dainty Daisies, of Oshkosh had a rack of colorful fabric totes and a table overflowing with cheerful jewelry and hair accessories.
Fat Cat Beads' brick and mortar store is tucked away on Thierer Rd, but the Craftacular display was right at the corner of the bar. Tell me, do you not want one of these earring trees? Yeah, I thought so. Me, too.
orangyporangy was tucked in at the edge of stage right, just by the stairs. So, I am not allowed to buy myself any new skirts until spring, but my resolve wavered a bit at the sight of what have to be the happiest skirts in the world.
Stage left was Christina Ward Creatures and more rockin' plushies. Plush chupacabra? Check. No, seriously: hard rockin'. How about a plushGolem of Prague.
Bernie's Girl had skirts in the deconstructed/reconstructed/recycled style that I dig (but usually can only get away with wearing while LARPing), along with candylike "Word Drop" rings.
The last vendor I checked out before heading back upstairs was Whimsy House: "goodness fashioned from vintage buttons & felted wool." Picture a rainy afternoon spent rummaging around in your grandmother's attic and making crafts. (Well, someone's grandmother, at least.) Now picture those crafts done with exquisite taste and skill. Yup, it's kind of like that.
Back up to the balcony, where I was able to get a better look at Little Dandelion Studios' table. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do with pretty, handpainted clothespins, and yet I find myself wanting them.
Last, but certainly not least, was Sommer with an O who had beautiful photos, an interesting presentation, and great boots.
While I wasn't able to buy anything, it was great to see so many local crafters having a good day. The general consensus was that it was a fantastic turn out for a February, and that sales had been very good. I was happy to be there, and maybe someday will return as a vendor myself. For now, though, I've just stocked up my mental wish list.
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This is possibly the weirdest thing I've seen all day, but in an awesome way.
(many thanks to Nathan for the link)
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