Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Penny

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending the day with ten other East Bay crafters and artists in the Parlour Gallery loft at Pretty Penny, Oakland's favorite vintage shop! Here are a few highlights:

The lovely Monica of Wonderwear. Her work is delicate and really beautiful; just like her! I lusted after a necklace made with a triangle of vintage lace and gems, but foolishly left it behind. My life is a series of regrets!

Lauren Davis of CrookedSister organized the event along with fellow artist Bennykelly; above are Lauren's flowers and bowties, made from all vintage fabrics, many of which came from the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, a resource that we are SO lucky to have in the 'hood. I got two awesome hair clips, but also coveted her hand-embroidered bags (she does everything by hand!). Here's me with my seashell hair clip along with my bunny earrings and my sexy tank from Queen of Hearts.



A rare tolerable side-view pic!



My space. It was fun to scale down from the previous weekend's monster space to my good old wee table. It was also divine that all my stuff was already packed and ready. If only it were always this easy!



Laureen and John are the proprietors of Volta Press, a printing studio that just had their open house yesterday! Their work is just seriously awesome, and their studio is cute and tidy, with butter-yellow walls and a kick-ass Vandercook letterpress. They take the art of letterpressing seriously and it shows! Dare I say that if I ever get married, I know who's making my invitations.


I fell in love with these earrings from It's Scrap, my booth neighbor to the left. They are made from scraps of bookbinding leather, and printed using the same kind of machine that prints book covers. Awesome, yes? Lara, the designer, is also a poet and a super-cool lady; I never thought that I could find jewelry emotionally touching, but there's something about her stamped phrases that really gets me!



I made a handful of excellent trades, including a gorgeous pair of bottle-cap bunny earrings from Lea of Salvaged Beauty, and two haunting hand-sewn notebooks from Allison of Abeo Bestia. My table was located next to these two hilarious ladies, and their good cheer made my day. Seriously, I have never encountered such a friendly group of ladies; it was a total party up there; we dished about exciting things like business licenses and sales tax and small-space crafting, which was great.

Below you'll find me yakking it up with Bess from Bird vs. Bird, a famous Etsian and fellow container-gardening, tiny-home-living, full-time-working, Yahoo-News-reading Oakland lady. Yes!



I just had the best time; from time to time a young man came around to serve us ice-cold beers, which may or may not have contributed to my epic slo-mo fall into a pile of my own purses. If that isn't a sign of a great craft show, I don't know what is. But seriously, this event was so well-curated and I left wanting to hang out with everyone again soon. I also sold a lot, which is always a bonus. Cheers to Pretty Penny, Lauren, Kelly, and everyone else who made last Saturday rock!

July!

Well, hell's bells, it's been a long time. I'm gonna have to rewind a few weeks, to my 30th birthday celebration in San Luis Obispo. I was lucky enough to spend the day with my family, doing all the things I like to do, which are mostly variations of eating and drinking. Sometimes my hometown likes to torture me with wonderful places and events that tempt me to stay forever; the charming new restaurant Granada Bistro is an example. Housed in an old building marked for demolition next year, Granada's owners created a tiny, ethereal hangout that will disappear before people realize how great it is. They serve international wines and beers at a reasonable price, and the decor is lush and homey. I'm not going to go into flowery detail, because I just read a food review last night that, and I kid you not, used the phrase "snarky watercress" in reference to some sandwich. Really?


That said, I also very much enjoy the food and atmosphere at Buona Tavola in SLO. They serve an olive tapenade with mustard seeds along with an array of fresh breads that is truly the greatest condiment ever. You can buy it in jars now, but it's never quite the same when you're not sitting in a sunny garden patio with twinkle-lighted trees.




Then, Renegade Craft Fair! What a weekend. I met tons of new people and sold my heart out. I also got to catch up with old friends and acquaintances, who just kept appearing at my booth! That was a nice surprise.

A few sweet trades with fellow vendors, including this adorable birdie ring from Beebalalou sitting on top of an apron from Hambone & Jennicakes, filled my shopping urges, so I, too, left Fort Mason a satisfied customer. Exhausted, but satisfied.


Next up: what I did last weekend, in sepia tone!

Not a fast learner...

Remember yesterday when I wasn't freaking out? Yeah, scratch that. I'm freaking out a little. So much to do, so little time! Like, seriously! This is the plight of a life-long procrastinator. I'm pretty sure that there hasn't been an time that I haven't procrastinated, no matter how important the event/assignment/job. I always wait until the last minute. And amazingly, I learn nothing from the disastrous results!

But I miraculously squeeze by every time, which should happen this time as well. I'm also really excited; I have a lot of new products and an all-new display, including my beloved pea-soup green school desk.

When I'm at work and I need to get things done, I like to listen to French 60's pop. When I need to do mindless busywork, I listen to stand-up comedy. Right now, I need to get things done, so here's a Scopitone of France Gall singing "Baby Pop," one of my nose-to-the-grindstone superjams.

I can't tell if this is the most boring video I've ever seen, or the most awesomely nuanced piece of film of all time. I suspect a little of both.

Let's do a vote; whose dancing do you prefer, the girl in the white dress, or the black?

Less than 48 hours until the big days. SO NERVOUS/EXCITED. However, I'm not feeling frantic. I spent last weekend being so edgy and crazy that I think I'm plumb out of panic, and have moved into a resigned (though I prefer to call it relaxed) state of mind. So that's good, right?

Last night we watched some episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation while I cut chain, glued feathers and charms onto vintage plastic hair combs, and ate a chocolate bunny left over from Easter. Multitasking?

Hey! I disappeared there for a while, having a strange, wonderful, painful, eventful birthday weekend. I swam in the ocean, saw Carrie Fisher put on a Princess Leia wig, ate fig & prosciutto stuffed quails, laughed a lot, cried a lot, received many greetings from friends I desperately miss, got my hair did and my teefs cleaned, and now I'm back to face the music, whatever that may be. Mostly, crafty catch-up!

I'm going down to Los Altos tonight to pick up this sweet old school desk for my display at Renegade. I don't like being behind a table; I feel hidden and also like I'm reaching and fumbling awkwardly all the time. So I thought it would be nice to be a little more accessible to customers, while still having flat space for credit cards, wrapping, etc. I've been scouring Craigslist for a good, affordable desk, and amazingly, this gem was still available. Isn't it cute?!

As usual, I'm scrambly and panicky trying to get Pollyannacowgirl stuff made in time, but that's the way I've always rolled, so why would it be any different now that I'm the big 3-0?

By Special Request...My "Tribute" to MJ

I grew up less than an hour away from Neverland Ranch. Whenever anyone saw a stretch limo in the area, we always assumed, "Oh, Michael Jackson," and craned our necks for a peek of the white glove. One of my friends even saw him once, shopping at the Toys 'r Us in Santa Maria.

What I'm trying to say is that Michael Jackson was always there, on tv, on the radio, and in our general kid consciousness. If you're my age, your best memories of him were of his early 80's persona, when you were still too scared to watch Thriller. I remember hearing "Billie Jean" when I was four or five and getting kind of spooked by it; I think I found the synth riff haunting; it made me feel sad. (I also got spooked by the song "Maneater," and any song with a robot-sounding voice. That's the kind of kid I was.)

I don't feel personally sad about his death, because the version of Michael Jackson my inner child remembers has been gone for years and years. But I feel sad about a lot of other things. How does a person get to that point? To live the way he did meant that he had no real friends, no one to say, "Hey. What are you doing? We're concerned about you," but merely an army of yes men willing to prescribe any drug, to keep weird sexual secrets, and who knows what else. Such an odd, dark path doesn't happen without the consent of many outside parties. Also, there's us, the public who loved to watch as his life became increasingly bizarre. "Did you hear what Michael Jackson just did? What a freak!" People love to watch a downward spiral.

It seems like if you magically got whatever you wanted, that things would turn out pretty good.

But if what you want is your lost childhood, you end up with a monkey, a lonely amusement park, and slumber parties that weren't quite right. It's an incredible story, really, and that's what I can't stop thinking about. Not Michael Jackson the person, because we'll never truly know about that, but the fact that his crazy, sad, fascinating story is over. MJ never stopped trying to find whatever it was he was looking for, we never stopped watching him, and that, my friends, is "human nature."

Happy 4th of July!

I know it's the 5th already, but I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm at my parents' house, eating as much as I possibly can and playing with dolls. (Which is an ideal weekend for me, obviously.)