West Coast Crafty

I saw a dual show of Dan Stiles’ screen-printed posters and Melissa Stiles’ Stubborn jewelry line last night at a party for ReadyMade — I loved their stuff and bought some of the super graphic earrings they collaborated on (the birds especially caught my eye)…

Here’s some of her resin-and-metal jewelry, too, which I thought was gorgeous.

I met up with Christina and Diane at the party for one last hurrah while she was in town. The lighting is… unusual, but if you squint you can see some of Dan’s posters in soft focus behind us.

He also designed this year’s Bumbershoot poster — I really wish I could have made it up there to see the Shins and visit Torie, Cathy, and Christina at their booths, but we’re deep in rehearsals for our upcoming show (more on that later).

So if you’re in Portland like me, Art in the Pearl is going on in the Park Blocks downtown, which should be a nice afternoon. Over a hundred artists are exhibiting and selling their work, and the Museum of Contemporary Craft is having extended hours on Monday as well. All the info is here.

a ring by Amy Buettner, one of the artists in the show

This weekend is also ten years since I moved to Portland! I’m really excited to hit a decade in my favorite place in the world. Of course I love LA too, and I had such a great time there — but what can I say, Portland is home and it just feels nice to celebrate the milestone here. Even though it would have been cool to see the Shins again in Seattle, of course…

Last Sunday’s Church of Craft meeting was the last one ever at Rimsky’s! It was a little sad to say goodbye to the house, but I am excited for the Central Library meetings, too. We all made garland flags as a thank-you to the coffeehouse for having us over to craft every month for the last three years. Here are two of my five, representing Rimsky-Korsakoffee House:

The other three I made were all dessert-themed, using some amazing, scary Poundy-esque 70s recipe cards, since Rimsky’s is such a sweets paradise. You can see a lot more garland photos and crafty details courtesy of Diane and Christina.

Some other stuff I’m excited about today:

•Amy Butler has posted free downloadable project how-tos on her website! There are some really nice things to make, like portfolios, gift tags, and cards — all of them use her new Belle and Sola patterned papers, though I’m sure you could adapt them to any styles that you like or have on hand.

•Linda has posted such a cool patchwork oven mitts project with instructions and photos. I love how hers came out! I want to make some myself, for sure, I have some Superbuzzy fabric that’s just perfect for them.

•Last, just wanted to mention that if you’re here in town, John of a broken spoke and Liza Rietz are having a grand opening party for their new collective space on Friday night. Here are the details:

Grand Opening of Liza Rietz and a broken spoke
When: August 31st, this Friday, from 5-8pm
Where: 2305 NW Savior St., Portland
There will be food, beverages, and the great Hostile Tapeover will wow you with his ability to DJ with cassettes!

I had such a great visit to the Bay Area last week — it was so much fun. Besides Meredith’s wedding, which was beautiful, I had a chance to meet up with Christina, Nancy, Natalie and Tricia to criss-cross the city on a beautiful summer afternoon looking for crafty treasures.

Natalie pulled up my blog on her iPhone, which was really fun to see! I love how cute the miniature version is…

First, we headed out to shop for vintage buttons. Instead of mentioning specifics, I’m going to quote Nancy here: “Since it seems to be an unspoken rule in the Bay Area crafty community, I cannot disclose the exact location of these wonders. But if you are really button-hungry, you can probably find it with a little internet search” (which is precisely what we did!).

I have such a soft spot for brightly colored plastic buttons, so that was most of my haul:

Then we all stopped by SF Etsy/Sampler headquarters, in a beautiful open warehouse space downtown. The windows are huge and gorgeous — they said they haven’t turned on the lights once since they moved in.

Lynn and Jennifer were hard at work on the upcoming Sampler:

And these bins are just about 40% of the cool handmade samples — not even half of the contents.

Have you heard about the Sampler reuse contest? Just do something cool and inventive with your Sampler box (there are plenty of inspiring pictures in a flickr set here), and send an email with photos to Team Sampler (details here) by September 8. The winner gets a free month of Sampler… hooray!

I still can’t believe that yet another visit to San Francisco has passed without me actually going to see Mission Dolores! I guess I’ll just need to plan another trip soon — maybe for Bazaar Bizarre?

I’ve been hoping to write some fun crafty posts with lots of pictures, but I’ve been struck down with migraines this week so short and sweet will have to do til Monday… hope you don’t mind!

Update: I think my migraines got the better of me — the PDX Etsy sale is online, not here in Portland, I totally misread the page. Sorry about that! I’ve edited below:

PDX Etsy is having an online sale this weekend, and many of the sellers are offering a very cool buy-one-get-one-free discount! The full list of participating vendors is here and it looks awesome.

…and don’t forget about Portland Church of Craft on Sunday, the last-ever one at Rimsky’s (next month’s meeting will be in the glorious Central Library downtown). I’ll be there with Christina, working on a project or two.

And speaking of the library, here’s a cool opportunity for people who aren’t within crafty striking distance of Portland, which I just heard about from Diane:

Multnomah County Library is sponsoring a Mail Art Exhibit. Mail-art aficionados from all over the world can participate by making an art postcard, and mailing it to Central Library.

The exhibit will be displayed in Central Library, Portland, Oregon in January 2008. If you have any questions, you can contact Leslie Waygren at lezbag at yahoo dot com.

Well, I’m back from a lovely, crafty, busy weekend in San Francisco! I want to post all about it tomorrow along with some pictures, but in the meantime, here are a few nice things I’ve run across online lately:

Craftlog has just created a very, very Good Thing: a searchable archive of all the Martha Stewart magazines back and current issues, Marthadex! Just type in “cupcake” or “pomegranate” and everything related will pop up instantly, organized by issue date and title. So cool. Thanks to Junior Society for tipping me off to this one.

I originally saw WalkScore on Apartment Therapy and then it was profiled on the excellent new blog Tiny Choices — I love it. Just type in your street address and the site gives your neighborhood a walking score from 1-100, based on how close necessities are and how walking-friendly it is in general. My neighborhood scored an 86! Which I can attest to wholeheartedly, since I walk it every day.

I missed the boat on this one completely, but Nancy of Belle Epoque just organized a very nice online recipe swap and posted the results: everything from mozzarella-stuffed arancini to buttermilk-cornbread soup. I’m bookmarking it right now and excited to try out some new things! Nancy, if you accept shamefully late entries for an encore, I’ll write something up soon…

[ps: if those recipe swap links above are at all weird, just go to Belle Epoque directly and look at the August 9th and 17th entries!]

I’m in San Francisco this week for a wedding and excited to have a chance to do some crafty things — I’m sewing a special bridal project this morning, and this afternoon I’ll be getting a tour of Sampler World HQ from Marie, along with Christina, Tricia, Natalie, and Nancy!

If you’re around on Saturday, don’t miss the Secession Art and Design Grand Opening show and sale from 11 to 5. Christina will be selling her work at the gallery and it sounds like so much fun. From their website:

Secession Art and Design is a gallery for up-and-coming artists and designers to showcase their work while supporting the local independent community. The gallery features art, fashion and jewelry both modern and vintage. Art openings and trunk shows are a destination for shoppers to come sample an intimate event, and have the opportunity to engage with and buy directly from the design community. A portion of the proceeds from trunk shows will be donated to a non-profit organization, and promote the cycle of giving back, building community, and supporting the growth of independent design and local small business.

Ali also mentioned that she’ll be at the Mission Indie Mart on Saturday, from 11-6 at 25th and Guerrero, selling her handmade jewelry, so why not stop by both sales while you’re in the neighborhood?

If you go:

Secession Art and Design
3361 Mission St @ 30th, San Francisco
Saturday, August 18 from 11-5

Mission Indie Mart
25th and Guerrero, San Francisco
Saturday, August 18 from 11-6

Andrew and I took some things to be framed this week, and hung them last night, and I’m just so happy to have them up on the walls. After a few months of settling in, it is really starting to feel like our home, especially now that I can look around and see this beautiful artwork.

I bought this print by i am still alive for Andrew at ReForm School last year as a Christmas gift. I just love it up on our bedroom wall.

I fell in love with this collage, wild mushroom, at Doe in San Francisco — it was part of Lisa Congdon’s and Stephanie Barnes‘ “Lovely, Dark, and Deep” exhibition. The show closed in July and the piece made its way to me last week! The colors and details are so gorgeous. It’s also hanging in our bedroom, right as you walk into the room.

And this amazing photograph by Jacinda Russell graces our dining room now — it’s called “Made in Texas (or so the box says)” and it was part of her 50-piece Wunderkammer series. Thank you, Jacinda.

I am sad to report that Mabel’s is closing down the knitting shop side of things this month, but on the bright side the owners will be keeping the cafe up and running as Tandem Coffeehouse, with lots more treats on the menu.

From their website:

We hope you will continue to hang out with us at the new cafe, where knitters and crocheters will be more than welcome; we plan on hosting an open knit night, and the staff will remain mostly the same: that is, knitters and crocheters with mad barista skills.

Although Mabel’s will no longer exist, it is vitally important that the Portland knitting community continue to support other local yarn shops. With the loss of Lint, this has become even more important, and we really encourage you to visit and buy your yarn from places like Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks, Close Knit, The Naked Sheep, Knit/Purl, the Yarn Garden, and others. These places give you the chance to feel and interact with the yarn you buy, to talk with other knitters and crocheters, and to feel the pulse of the vibrant local crafting community. Please support them as you have supported us. … This isn’t Goodbye, it’s just Hello in another language.

Everyone there is really excited about the new direction, and they’re eager to get their yarn, books, magazines and supplies out the door, so everything is now 40% off, and they’re open seven days a week through the sale.

They’re also selling all their lovely hand-knitted and crocheted samples, along with store fixtures (like 4×4 Expedit bookshelves) and big stacks of vintage knitting magazines and Workbaskets.

I picked up some Iceland in one of my favorite colors to attempt the gorgeous Peony Knits capelet, which I’m hoping to slowly and laboriously knit sometime between now and winter. I need one more ball so I have enough, so if anyone has a line on 4043 Forest, lot C, I’m all ears! I’m not the biggest perfectionist knitting-wise, so a close-enough dye lot should be just fine, I’m not terribly worried about it.

I know I’ll be stopping by for my coffee and milkshakes fix when they unveil the new cafe in a few weeks! I just had some tea there this morning, it’s such a nice place to hang out.

If you go:

Mabel’s Cafe and Knittery (soon to be renamed Tandem Coffeehouse)
3041 SE Division St, Portland
503-231-4107

One of my crafty heroes, Jean Railla, has recently started a lovely cooking/community/sheer love of food blog called Meal by Meal in which she documents her series of dinner parties, one by one. I adore food and cooking, and I am always pleased when she has a new entry up. I love her enthusiasm and storytelling, and the details she includes make her culinary adventures very warm and accessible… if the dishes do not match, so be it!

Jean is visiting the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge this month so in honor of her time here, I’d like to spotlight Meal by Meal as a honorary Northwestern production. Anyone who DIY-smokes meat outside and joyously serves it with prosecco on the lawn, with views of the river and Mount Hood, has well earned her West Coast cred in my book!

In addition to her love of food, Jean has a real sense of the generosity of craft culture — she started getcrafty.com ten years ago to foster community, and tons of crafters (including myself!) flocked to it in waves, to post about everything from marble magnets to meet-ups. I can never thank her enough for introducing me to this whole world — the front page of getcrafty is the very first place I ever published anything (aside from high school literary magazines and college essays), and the first book I ever had a craft project in was Get Crafty: Hip Home Ec, so I really credit her with the building blocks of so much of what I’ve gotten to do as a writer. And the friends I’ve made through the site are some of my nearest and dearest.

So it’s such a pleasure to read Meal by Meal, thank you for sharing your dinner parties with all of us, Jean!

Today is our second wedding anniversary! Of course I had to cut my workday a bit short to pick up a few things… since we had champagne and cupcakes at our wedding, it just wouldn’t be an anniversary without them.

So instead of crafty recommendations, I’ll mention my favorite places for wedding-anniversary-worthy treats: definitely Saint Cupcake (I love their minis especially), and for champagne (well, Willamette Valley sparkling wine in this case) I like the old standards, Whole Foods or New Seasons, depending on which neighborhood I’m in. And speaking of weddings, if you happen to have some cash burning a hole in your pocket and you’re looking for the right organization to donate to, I’m partial to Lambda Legal.

Tonight will probably be pretty low-key since it’s in the middle of the work week, we are just going out to Screen Door for dinner… but as of Wednesday afternoon we will be on mini-vacation — back up to Mt. Hood for a quick two days. I’m so excited. Of course we will both be working the whole time (the cabin has DSL) but in between projects we can go hiking and soak in the cedar hot tub — yay!

p.s. Thanks for the curtains love yesterday! Here’s one more photo of them without daylight streaming through this time, so you can see the single branches instead of the ghost pattern.