Renegade Chicago 2013!

Hi friends! I know I'm a few days behind with my animal posts, and I'm going to have to postpone the next few days too. I've been a busybusybusy bee prepping for Renegade Chicago and finishing up some other deadlines before I head out onto the road. Yep, I'm driving. By myself. I drove last year by myself too, and I'm pretty sure I said something like "I'm never doing THAT again," but yeah, here I am again driving by myself (12ish hour drive + lots of breaks.)  I have lots of snacks and a few audiobooks and lots of music, so I'm hoping I'll be okay. I'm staying with one of my BFFs in Chicago, so I'll have someone to help me at the show and whatnot. Woo!

I'm psyched for this year's show! This will be my third year at the Chicago fair, and I'm hoping for sunshine and no wind. :)

If you are in the Chicago area, I will be at booth #82, near N. Honore St.  Come say hi!!!

I'll be back on Tuesday and will play major catchup with the daily animal posts. Thanks!

xoxo,
Michelle

Renegade Brooklyn Holiday Show!

I'm so psyched for the very first HOLIDAY Renegade craft show, here in Brooklyn, this coming weekend! Renegade is always a good time, and I'm really glad they are doing a holiday show here this year, since it's hard for me to swing a trip to Chicago for the fair there, this close to the holidays. If you are in the NYC area this weekend, I would love to meet you! Swing by Saturday or Sunday from 11-6pm!

xo,
Michelle

Renegade Chicago 2012

Hello! I'm back from a whirlwind trip to Chicago for this year's Renegade Craft Fair! It was crazy-successful and I packed a lot into my week-long trip. I drove to Chicago solo this year, and let me tell you, that was a LONG drive. I stopped in Cleveland, OH for an hour to have lunch with a friend, and then continued on my journey last thursday. After 3 hours of sleep the night before, leaving at 4:30am, and drinking a crap-ton of coffee, I finally made it to another friend's home in Chicago around 8pm that night. Phew. I had a free day on Friday, in which we stayed local to my friend's neighborhood in Andersonville, checking out the local Swedish-American Museum, and then heading to the Chicago Diner later on. I had a heart-attack-scare that night when we went to go to my rental car, and found an empty spot and a paper sign suddenly saying that it was now a tow-away zone (wasn't there in the morning when I moved my car there!) We freaked out, I called 311 and gave them the license plate number, to which they told me it wasn't in the system. They transferred me to the towing place and the same thing, no record of it in the system. I was beginning to think the worst, that it had been stolen, until the lady on the phone asked me if I had looked around the area for the car. Um, no? Apparently it is common for them to just MOVE the car instead of towing it away. I thanked her and my friend and ran around the blocks looking for the car. Found it a few blocks away! No ticket or boot or anything. Crazy. And weird! I've never ever heard of that happening before!

Renegade was awesome! I was so happy to have my full display this year (I flew last year, so basically only brought inventory and not much in terms of display items.) I was matched up with the same awesome ladies that I shared a booth with in Brooklyn this year, Mr. Sogs Handmade Creatures. Our stuff goes well together and the sisters are super-fun booth-mates. The weather was absolutely amazing and the crowds really came out. I sold so much stuff and all my new stuff went over really well. You can peek at my new Dogs and Cats calendars here, as well as the 24 new illustrations in it, and they will all be up in the shop in a week or so. Turns out, Chicago loves cats more than dogs! I'm pretty curious to see what is more popular in Brooklyn during upcoming holiday shows...

After a great weekend, I hit the road again Monday morning and headed to Cleveland again, to have a longer lunch-dinner with the same friend, and afterwards driving to Livonia, NY to hang with the family for a day or so. I finally made it back to Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon and it was utter relief to return that rental car and get back on public transportation. I'm still playing catch-up being home and trying to get back into the groove. I have lots of new things to show you! I'll have another post soon with some of the sights from my trip, other than my booth. 

xo,

Michelle

Renegade Brooklyn Recap!

I realize that it has been practically a whole week since Renegade Brooklyn, but I've been SUPER-lazy this week, just recovering and putting my apartment back together (as it tends to unravel a bit everytime I do a big craft fair.) I had a super-great weekend, even though the sun knocked my socks off and drained me pretty hard. I actually did better money-wise this year compared to last year, so yay new location and new stuff?! I'm pretty psyched on how my display came out this year. I think the added darker wood pieces go great with my usual hot pink, and it made everything just come together a lot nicer than previous displays. Still want to improve some things though, but that's always the case (and should always be the case, imo!)

I had awesome booth-mates this year, Mr. Sogs Handmade Creatures, who made some pretty darn cute little plush dudes. We had lots of fun and our stuff went together so well (so many people thought that we were one big shop!)

I managed to make a quick loop around the rest of the fair on Sunday afternoon, while Nik manned my booth for me, and I made one purchase. This doughnut mug from DanMade is pretty much the best thing ever. I bought an owl mug from him a few years ago and it has been my absolute favorite mug so I didn't think twice about purchasing one of his new designs. Seriously, it's a super-sturdy mug (it has a handle in the back that you can't see in the photo) and is the best for a hot cup of tea or coffee. 

Other faves from the weekend include:

http://www.michaelmichaelmotorcycle.com/gallery/posters (my neighbor and mega-awesome screenprints. I wanted them all basically.)

http://coralandtusk.com/gallery/ (purrrdy embroidery)

http://www.1percenttalent.com/ (cute shirts!)

http://shopmissmillie.blogspot.com/p/work.html (funny porcelain oddities)

http://www.meredithstern.org/ (rad linoleum block illustrations)

Next big fair is Renegade Chicago on Sept. 8/9th...

xo,

Michelle

Chicago Fun-times

My display.  Experimental lightweight pocketed wall worked out pretty well.  Everything fit in a suitcase!

So I'm back from Chicago and Renegade was a complete success!  So much fun and I met so many nice people that came to my booth.  Plus, we had PERFECT weather (SO happy about that).  My boothmate, Paula Egan, was great and she makes absolutely beautiful jewelry made out of handmade paper and resin.  I didn't really get a chance to walk around the show at all, which I was a little sad about , but an A+ time overall!

New zippered pouches and 2012 calendars, which I will be putting in my shop super-soon.

I also got to wander around Chicago a bit and hang out with one of my very best friends that I don't get to see as often as I would like.  I walked around Chicago while he was at work on Friday and saw Lincoln Park, Millenium Park, the Tiffany dome at the Cultural Center, and went to the Museum of Surgical Science and of course, The Chicago Diner (yay!)  

I have more pics up on my Flickr stream, if you were so interested!

Tiffany glass dome at the Cultural Center

Taking a break in Lincoln park.

Orchestra playing in Millenium Park

Bean at Millenium Park

Duh!

Vegan PB Cookie Dough shake at the Chicago Diner

Vegan Radical Reuben at the Chicago Diner

Museum of Surgical Science

Museum of Surgical Science

Museum of Surgical Science

First Kotex ad. Museum of Surgical Science

Museum of Surgical Science

Renegade Chicago! This weekend!

So excited!  I leave for Chicago in a few hours for Renegade and to spend some time with a super-great friend of mine in his lovely city.  If you are in Chicago this weekend, I would love to meet you!  I will be at booth #184 on Division st. btwn. Wood and Hermitage. 

Have a great weekend and I'll be back next week with my new calendar and all sorts of new prints and fun stuff to show you!

Renegade Brooklyn 2011!

More Renegade this weekend!  (I'm going to sleep so hard next week after the crazy couple of months I have had...)

I'll be sharing a tent at booth #231 with the lovely Spiderbite Boutique and Jokey Yokey this Saturday and Sunday, and I'd love it if you would come say hello if you are in the area.  Oh goodness, and cross your fingers that the weather forecast changes it's mind about the thunderstorms...

My favorite Renegade Austin Vendors

There were so many great vendors at Renegade Austin, that it was really hard to choose favorites. I narrowed it down anyways!  Here are my top 3:

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I have been a fan of Mary Ink online for awhile, and loved seeing their stuff in person.  I had my eye on a screen-printed dress of theirs, but they were sold out of my size by the time I got over there on Sunday.  Luckily they will be at Brooklyn Renegade in a few weeks, so I'm going to make sure I get one this time!

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I was immediately smitten with the work of Klai Brown. She was super-nice too when I chatted with her for a bit!  She will be at Renegade Brooklyn in a few weeks, and I plan on getting myself one of her mugs (I didn't want to break it on my way back from TX, so I held out)!

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There was lots of great jewelry there, but Molly M Designs totally blew me away.  Her lasercut necklaces were a particular favorite of mine.  There aren't many of the necklaces in her online shop, so I assume that most of them were bought up at Renegade!  

  

Renegade Austin 2011!

My booth setup

New stuff!

So, Austin is awesome!  I set up my booth at Renegade Austin a few weekends ago, and had the pleasure of meeting so many nice people, customers and vendors alike.  I had a great weekend and as always, I LOVE meeting people who buy or just like my work face-to-face!  I think the kids reactions are my favorite, as some of those little cuties get so excited, and that makes me excited!   I introduced some new products at this show, lots of rings, wing-pins, and hair pins (and soon, necklaces).  I will have a separate post with more details on these and when they will be in my online shop very soon.  Woo! 

I had some great booth-mates too, KC and Kevin of  Make Shop Live, from LA.  They make super-cool things out of recycled and repurposed things, and holy whoa are they creative.  It really couldn't have worked out any better or with nicer booth-buddies!  You can check out their Etsy shop here, and their blog here.

Make Shop Live's booth

Super-cute pin cushion rings!

Prep Weekend

Scoring the cards to be folded.

Hello! Happy May! I had a super-productive weekend, with lots of printing/trimming/scoring/folding/signing/packaging of cards and prints.  I'm trying to do as much of this stuff ASAP, so I have time before leaving for Austin to really concentrate on my display and some fun new products that I'm cooking up.  So exciting!  I'm a total last-minute gal, but am impressing myself with being on top of things. Total pat on my back, hehe. 

Nik and I are rewatching The Sopranos (he's never seen it before!), and we're both pretty into it. It was such a great show, and has not lost it's pizzazz over time.  I have heard stories, from my Dad, that my Grandfather used to be the bartender in a bar where mobsters frequented, and I wish I would have had the opportunity to talk to him more about that before he passed.  It's such an interesting culture and life, all the rules and "way things are."  You think that a lot of that is just stereotype or the way that things are portrayed in the movies or on tv, but then you read a news article about another arrest of a local mobster and it reads straight out of a fiction story.  

xo,

Michelle

p.s. Don't forget to join my mailing list that I'm going to be sending out soon! I promise it will be good!

Sneak peek! Pre-trimming.

Sneak peek! Rounding the corners

Stack 'o prints waiting to be packaged.

Signing the back of all my prints.

Assembly line of packaging a print.

Renegade and new Recipe Cards!

Hello! Happy weekend!

So I'm a little delayed in announcing this, but I'll be Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn next weekend (June 5th + 6th, 11-7pm). I have lots of new items that I'm working on to debut there, large-format prints, mounted prints, journals (hopefully! Still working on these!), and new recipe cards. Holy exciting batman!




And I am finished with one new thing, that I already stuck in my Etsy Shop, recipe cards! These are a redesign of my old cards I used to carry. This time I made them available in 4"x6" and 3"x5" sizes, since I have had requests for both. Wooo, find them here.



Okay, be back soon with some exciting news and posssssibly a give-away!

Display pics

Hello! This weekend was a happy one. Met so many nice people and got to see people's reaction to my work face-to-face, which was way interesting and entertaining. Lots of smiles and giggles make me happy! Everything went rather smoothly, except for a minor (okay, not so minor at the time) glitch with my tent. Let's just say that it was a good thing that the weather was PERFECT the entire weekend, or I would have had some serious trouble with it. Here are some pictures from my tent (and a random marching band that was circling the fair!):











Also had two new paintings that I did in the last few weeks, that I hadn't had time to photograph or scan. I quickly photographed them both saturday morning, just in case they sold, so I would have a record of them. Good thing I did, as "Love" sold! I'm going to take a better photo of Mister Whale this weekend.





I'm not gonna lie; I'm pretty excited to just SLEEP most of next weekend. I also cooked a real, full meal last night, for the first time in what seems like ages. Will post later!