ICE Weekend Recap

Ok, so I’m going to try and recap all the awesome things that happened over the last couple of days..

First, SuperCute! threw the pre-party for the ICE participants and volunteers over at YoungBlood Gallery Friday night. Becky pulled out all the stops and wrangled us some of the most delicious snacks ever from some really awesome volunteers, they were all vegan, but nobody knew! Ha! (I need to get the recipe for the eggplant dip, we had some leftover from the party and it made a super mid-morning snack at ICE.)
The Dulce Vegan brought us super desserts too. mmmmm

It was really cool to also meet the creator of Handmade Nation! and get to see the trailer for the movie. And, there was great music by Davis Petterson and friends. In short, the evening was a smashing success! Many more thanks to Nick and Laura-Louise for bringing us ice, and to Brian and Kip and Ally, and everyone else who helped us clean up afterwards. I <3 my awesome friends.

As for the festival itself? Well, it was hot. It was really really hot. Haha. Becky and I went and ran thru the fountains and were dry by the time we got back to the tent. I came home last night and just collapsed into a plate of take-out sushi. It was a really really awesome festival though. I do regret not getting out to more people’s tents, because I know there was stuff I wanted (those campfire dishtowels! A bunny butt bowl! ack.) but I was just melting all over everything and couldn’t think properly to get out and do it. Ah well, there’s always Etsy!

Here’s a funny (and blurry) shot of my husband, illustrating why he is so awesome to have at festivals. Yep, that’s our hundred pound tent he has just casually tossed over his shoulder. I <3 my giant! =D

 

Indie Craft Experience weekend!

I know I wrote about this a while back, but because I’ve gotten so many questions over the past couple days I just want to repost that Liz, Becky and I had to leave the Atlanta Craft Mafia back at the end of April. We saw our goals and ideals leading us down a different path, so we are choosing to focus on SuperCute! right now.
Any questions about the Craft Mafia should be directed to the ladies via the website.
Thank you for understanding!

ps… this weekend has been made of awesome. (except for the heat - what the heck happened to spring???) More about all of it later. Now? Celebratory sushi with my wonderful husband who I haven’t seen nearly enough of lately. Bye!

 

recipe

SuperCute! is hosting the pre-party for the Indie Craft Experience on Friday. There will be food and beverages and movies!
I am contemplating making this black bean hummus to serve with tomato slices and toast. It tastes just like a BLT, but it’s vegan!

1 clove garlic
1 can black beans, drained
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
cumin, salt, cayenne pepper and paprika to taste
cherry tomatoes or tomato slices for serving
wheat toast or crackers

Mince garlic, then add black beans, reserved liquid (approx 2tbs), 2 tablespoons lemon juice, tahini, cumin, sea salt, and cayenne pepper. Mix until smooth, then add any additional seasoning and reserved liquid to taste.
Garnish with paprika and serve with tomato slices and wheat pitas, toast or crackers.

 

Indie Craft Experience!!!!

Come on out Saturday for good times at the Indie Craft Experience!!!

Summer 2008 is our largest craft market to date with over 125 designers and artists from around the US! We’re calling it Lucky #7!

Join us on June 7th, in Centennial Olympic Park from 11-6pm.

Threadbanger is coming!! www.threadbanger.com
Hosts, Rob and Corrine will be on the prowl filming up and coming indie designers.

Our DIY Library Lounge will be furnished and styled by Waldenour…#1 in eco-chic design!
It will be stocked with the latest and greatest craft and design books for your viewing pleasure.

Get inspired! Make something!
We will have several hands on activities including wrapped bangle bracelets and stenciling on Organic tees donated by Alternative Apparel.

Live Music!
Enjoy live music from:
Missy Gossip and the Secret Keepers
The Davis Petterson Project
Blanca Noche
MC Zano
Piper Street Sound

A special thanks to all our sponsors:
Craft Magazine, Alternative Appparel, CraftStylish, Plaid, ThreadBanger, Janome, Duncan, Young Blood Boutique & Gallery, SuperCute!, Waldenour, SustainGroup, Wolfie & the Sneak, Atlanta Craft Mafia, Etsy and Yelp!

Hope to see you Saturday…

Shannon + Christy
*this is the new wave of craft*

 

zzzzzzz

Saturday night we had a glorious storm - thunder, lightning, the works! All that has ushered in two days of unseasonably cool weather and a breeze so clean and crisp it feels like the first day of school. With the bedroom window wide open to the breeze and some fresh sheets, the bed was full of cats today, snoozing away happily. It was so hard not to join them.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve been so exhausted lately. Normally, spring makes me energetic, but the past few months have been just exhausting and all I want to do is sleep for a week!

The Kirkwood Spring Fling is next weekend, which is awesome. Last year, we had a cage of kittens in our tent! Lucie was just a wee ball of fur.

After Kirkwood, we get two weekends off before SuperCute! hosts the Indie Craft Experience pre-party on friday the 6th, and then of course the Indie Craft Experience itself is on the 7th. We’ll be screening the Craft Documentary at the pre-party! squee!

Speaking of ICE… the ICE girls are looking for volunteers to help during the festival with a few jobs like directing traffic (parking) and helping out in the on-site craft tent! Are you available? All volunteers are welcome to the party and get an awesome swag bag!

Man. I seriously think it’s bedtime. The rest of my errands will have to wait until tomorrow, I can barely keep my eyes open! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Herbivores, biodegradeable zippers and Athens, oh my!

Yes, this post will be random, you’ve been warned.

First! This weekend, SuperCute! will be truckin’ it up to Athens for the Craftstravaganzaa!!!

Then, we’ll be rushing back home for Youngblood’s Grand Opening Party!!

In sustainable sewing news, I ran across these the other day. So far, they appear to only be in Europe, but I’m still hunting.

First: Zippers made from recycled plastics.

Second: Biodegradeable Zippers! (break down in your compost bin, wow)

So.Cool.

And while I’m linking, here’s a great article that pretty much sums up why I’m mostly vegetarian, and how I feel about people who make fun of me for it: http://www.slate.com/id/2190872
excerpt:
“Please don’t try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. … If you want to have an amiable tête-à-tête about vegetarianism, that’s great. But if you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you’re only going to persuade me that you’re a dickhead.”

oh look, here’s a cute kitten picture!

 

Speaking of press…

My DIY bubble-mailer tutorial got written up in the GreenGirlGuides newsletter! Hurrah!
Thanks Courtney!

 

perspective

NoImpactMan had a post this morning about happiness. It was a repeat, but one with good timing as this is something I’ve been contemplating more often lately as I try and simplify my life even more.

I’ve often wryly noted that change seems to be the only constant in my life, but the reality is that I like change, I like learning new things, I like trying to make things better. I think a lot of people feel this way, but that their definition of “better” centers around a new object or more money. This isn’t because they are bad people or anything, it’s just sort of what our society has become - how so many people have grown up. NoImpact Man talks about how he thinks this is in part because we’ve become less religious, and there hasn’t been much put forth to replace the role of the Church in our lives. Instead of turning to Faith when we are feeling low, we turn to Possessions to fill the void.
He makes a good point, and it’s easy to see that played out all around. Just hearing 5 minutes of campaign coverage, or listening to a friend talk about her co-workers who bully and play power games, or seeing how many people in the world project their own insecurities into manufactured reasons to hate another person… all these things are symptoms of fear and none of them seem very different than the guy who buys the Hummer so he’s the biggest thing on the road.

I don’t really know how to make any of that better, the only thing I know how to do is to try and not let myself get tangled up in other people’s messes. It’s difficult for me to understand or respect people determined to focus on negativity and control, the best I can do is extricate myself as politely as possible and move on. I’ve always thought the answers to the happiness issue were found in connecting with other people and working together to accomplish more that you could on your own. At least that’s what makes me happy.

Opportunities can arise out of the oddest situations. You can start in one direction and find yourself totally turned off by the time you see the reality the destination, but then there’s that side road at the last minute that winds up taking you exactly where you need to be. Life is funny that way, isn’t it?

 

Weekend Wrap-Up

I totally forgot to post about the Inman Park festival, oops. Umm, we were there? Ha.
It poured like crazy Saturday night and Sunday, but we did surprisingly well given that. The parade was awesome as usual, fewer political protest floats and more environmental ones, which was cool. What was not cool was all the idiot politicians in their gas guzzling cars. The exhaust nearly made me pass out at one point. Ugh.

Here’s an awesome photo of a very satisfied customer:

I’m exhausted today, and staring at a house that looks like a craft tornado hit it, in addition to all the other crap that has been accumulating. It’s slightly overwhelming and the continued rain just makes me want to take a nap. I think I need to make another pot of coffee.

My Grampa didn’t have his surgery last week. There was a complication that would have been extremely problematic. They’ve given him some different medecine and will try again this week. I think I’m going up there at the end of the week to see him, if we can. We’ve been trying to plan to go up there this week, but everything has been so up in the air. It still is, but what can you do? Just trying to keep it together and not let the worry monster take over.

Ok, about that second pot of coffee…..

 

Mission:Possible!

So every week or so, the ladies of SuperCute! get together to work on crafty projects. It’s a little different than a regular craft night because we aren’t working on personal projects. Instead, we try and collaborate on projects that will help us make a difference in the world. We call these project nights Mission:Possible! because we really do think that all it takes is showing people how things can easily be different, and if the results are cute to boot? Well it’s just that much better!

Last night we worked on making shopping bags for the upcoming Inman Park Festival. Originally, we’d planned to make them out of newspaper, but we realized that if we made them out of something a little sturdier, perhaps people would use them for all their day’s purchases and not use any plastic bags at all. Maybe, just maybe, they would even continue to use them for errands beyond the festival! (I think I would just faint right on the floor out of joy if I ever saw one of our bags in Target. srsly.)

Anyway, Becky likes to use vintage sheets for parts of her lunch sets, and sometimes those come in sets. This means there’s always a bunch leftover because who wants 74 lunch kits out of the same fabric? haha. So, we started working our way thru her leftovers.

These are just a simple rectangular shape, with stitched sides and triangles sewn into the bottom to give it what would be a grovery-bag shape if it were paper. The softness of the fabric makes them hang like hobo bags, which we sort of really dig. The straps are scraps from either the edges of pillowcases, or just leftover strips of fabric from our pile that are too small to use for much else. These are simply sewn freebies that will hopefully get a few uses from our customers. I think we’ll even offer a discount on future purchases if they bring the bag back to be refilled, hahaha.

First, wash and iron!

next: sew!!!

third, put on handles!

finished bags!