CraftyFeast!

Today the girl and I hit CraftyFeast, a craft fair here in Columbia, SC.  It was a blast--a variety of vendors and full of inspiration.

I loved this vendor, nana.  She makes bags and bibs from vintage and vintage-inspired material--all of it unique and well-crafted by hand.  Really lovely and unique bags!

The girl loved Ramen Needles.  For hand-crocheted stuff, her prices are crazy reasonable.  And adorable:

I couldn't resist getting this crocheted fried egg for a fried-egg loving friend.  Now she wants toast and bacon to go with it--I told her to check out this vendor's etsy shop--she makes custom items!

Ramen Needles has a great assortment of hand-crocheted stuff--I highly recommend checking them out for unique and cute gifts.

There was a variety of humorous and well-crafted welded metal art available by Jamie Chapman/Happy Scraps:

We fell in love with Sparky and brought him home with us:

We got these adorable Boo-Boo Beasties (cold/heat pacs) for Velina's little cousins at Crankypants.  Lots of cute stuff and very reasonably priced--great gift ideas for those with little ones:

I had to get this fridge magnet from Not Made In China (which features goods with a lot of specific North and South Carolina humor) since we live in Rosewood:

I also picked up the can opener versions of these as gifts for a longtime Columbia resident:

We also picked up some cool glasses from Phoenix Fire Studios.  They feature awesome screen printed and etched glasses as well some screen printed paper goods.  They have some really fun motifs and also, very reasonably priced--perfect for unique gifts!

We loved another vendor, Lime Green, which featured so many cool re-purposed funky items.  Totally cool and inspiring.  We had a great time roaming this craft fair--can't wait to hit it again next year!

Pixlr-O-Matic app

My new favorite photo effects app is Pixlr-O-Matic. They also have a version that can be done from your home computer. I have the free version on my iPhone with a Plus version available for 99 cents. But frankly, I love the generous variety available on the free version.

Original

Sometimes I love the saturated color look:

With Hagrid film

Sometimes I love a more 70's nostalgic look:

With Melissa film

And sometimes I dig the muted saturation, dimmed, vignetted look:

With Sophia film

Plus they have a huge variety of flash and frames as well. My favorites hands-down are the films. Give it a go, whether on your PC or Android or iPhone--it's free!

Todd Oldham's Hand Made Modern

I scored this great book, Todd Oldham's Hand Made Modern at a used book sale:

I've always loved Todd Oldham's colorful and retro style, so this book is definitely full of eye candy and inspiration for me.

I love the pages devoted to various designers and artists that influence these projects, like this one for Charles Harper.  Love his artwork:

It's full of projects that seem doable, though I have to say some still seem a touch daunting to me.  Though wouldn't this corduroy ottoman be so killer?

Or these cool lanterns?

I definitely recommend this book for visual inspiration of retro style projects. It's full of color pictures and the instructions seem fairly straightforward with plenty of photos for each step. Right now, I'm loving this book for the pix--but I'm definitely open to trying a project in the future...

Draw Something

I am so hooked on this Draw Something app. I guess it's a game, but I'm not sure how to tell who is winning or losing. Considering that currently all the people I play with are all a long distance away, the part I really enjoy is the part where I can watch my friend's drawing or their attempts at guessing my sketch--kind of makes me feel like I'm there together with them, albeit briefly. I'm also dazzled how simply my friends can get the idea across, like with a simple stick figures to signify Air Jordan:

Or the concept of a movie director:

As expressed by Ira Glass, sometimes I have a picture/plan in my head but it doesn't quite turn out as I envisioned it.  But fortunately, the idea can still come across:

Sometimes I'm pleased that I get enough details at least roughly colored in:

Sometimes if I know a friend is familiar with the subject of the clue, I can usually scrape enough arts skills together to get the idea across to someone who kind of knows what I'm attempting. Like this "scene" in the Hunger Games:

Or the concept of little babies:

Or knowing that the player was my friend's young son, I tried connecting to "Green Eggs and Ham" to make up for weak drawing skills:

I also love it when I draw a word for one friend:

And then I have to guess the same word from another friend:

It really makes me enjoy my friend's skills! Speaking of skills--check out this killer Mad Men Drawing from a friend:

Like I said, I don't know if I'm winning or losing, but I having a blast at this game! I highly recommend this app!

Taran Killam - It's the Details

Have you been watching Saturday Night Live lately?  I feel like I'm just getting back into it and I'm pretty much loving any sketch Taran Killam is in.  Whether he's a small role as Prince Charming in a Disney send-up of "Real Housewives", doing a killer Michael Cera, or my new fave, as J-Pop fanatic (and Michigan State University student--LOVE that detail!) Jonathan Cavanaugh-san, he's slaying it in the the details.

Heard about this video where he lipdubs Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend" and someone made a side-by-side video of it.



I LOVE it. Really puts a smile on my face--and frankly I just find it really inspiring, creatively speaking. Is it just me?