Best of the Etsy / Remodelista / West Elm Pop-Up Shop

You know who's smart? Etsy's smart. And so is West Elm and Remodelista. They all partnered to hold a "We Heart Handmade Art" pop-up shop in the West Elm store on 62nd Street and Broadway on Thursday night (and they've had them in other places and at other times, too--most recently in Austin during SXSW).

The marketing brain in me digs this idea--I think it's a great collaboration. Plus, it's a great excuse for me to hang out in a cute shop with free food and wine. Everybody wins.

Here are some of my favorites:

Canvas bags by Sidney & Sons

General Brooklyn goodness from Claudia Pearson

Handcrafted tableware by Clamlab.com

Gold pieces (some with a horoscope-y twist) by Julie Nolan Jewelry

Papergoods by Enormous Champion

Jewelry by Knock Knock Studio

Papergoods by Crowbiz

Food! FIKA espresso bar!

Stuff from the Design*Sponge Yard Sale

I've recently started a weekend tradition with my friend (and neighbor) Kristin of hopping on the bus on Saturday or Sunday mornings to hit the Red Hook Fairway--a wonderous, magical food palace that offers all the things that are good and delicious in the world (and the only grocery store in New York City that makes me feel like a regular person again. Such options! Normal-person-size carts! A real-live parking lot!).

This weekend, however, we took our morning to make a detour in Park Slope to check out the Design*Sponge Yard Sale in Grace Bonney's soon-to-be-former apartment. (Kudos to Grace, her husband, and senior editor Amy Azzarito for making the experience easy on everyone. 350 RSVPs was probably a bit overwhelming!)

 

Although I contemplated buying a retro orange lamp and a painting of a pickle jar, I only ended up walking out with this silkscreen print by Brooklyn-based artist Wayne Pate. I've always liked it (doesn't it remind you of the opening to the Patridge Family?) and I got it for just $40--a great deal, seeing as how it may no longer be available at Wayne's online shop, and since his prints now start at $55. It was also professionally framed (not an IKEA frame in sight!), so that saved me a chunk of change right there.

And Kristin? She scored a delicate glass terranium, also priced at $40. It's lovely. And also, I'm secretly hoping she'll use to grow fresh mint so she can make me a little mint-chocolate chip ice cream sometime soon (she's becoming an ice-cream-making expert these days--read about it here). And if not, I'm totally going to sneak some in her normal-person-size cart during our next grocery-store excursion. Get ready, Appenbrink!

Happy end of the weekend, friends.

Best of the Martha Stewart Craft Sale

I don't know how I did it, but somehow, in the midst of the Real Simple Pop-Up Shop, I made it briefly down to the Martha Stewart Craft Sale this weekend. There were a lot of vendors from last year's sale (see that post here), but several new faces were around. It was definitely a bigger event than 2009's! Here are some of my favorite finds.

Brooklyn embroidered artwork from Coral & Tusk:

Soy candles in ceramic holders from Perch! Design:

Binary Collection (laser-cut felt jewelry) from mariaeife.com:

Small paintings by Lisa Golightly available at kikiandpolly.com:

Handmade letterpress cards from Macon York:

Paper goods from Rifle Paper Co.:

Porcelain designs by marciemcgoldrick.com:

Ornaments by Thea Karas:

Notti Toffee (not yet for sale online--but keep an eye out!):

Contemporary needlepoint by AMH Design:

Goat's Milk Caramel Sauce not for sale online (yet)

(And a few pics of some vendors whose names I didn't catch. If you happen to know them, send me a note!)

P.S. I also loved the wooden toys from Little Alouette, but just didn't get a great pic. (-:

Carl Kleiner!

Confession #1: I am generally not a fan of blogs that just post and re-post content from other blogs. I like originality-ish! Creativity-ish! Something new-ish!

Confession #2: I totally discovered photographer Carl Kleiner this week on another site: Mirror Mirror. And as soon as I Googled his name, I realized that everyone from design*sponge to KRISATOMIC has covered him in the past few months.

But can you blame me for repurposing this inspiring work? It's so clean and cool. It feels new. And I always dig things that feel witty and weird and wonderful.

So, whatever. I'm That Blog today. But I have a feeling you'll like this stuff anyway. (-:

All images by Carl Kleiner