The Cadillac of Rummage Sales

This week I made time to go to the Cadillac of rummage sales in this area, the GBMC Nearly New Sale. As always, I came away with lots of great stuff. Besides finding fabric remnants and notions, I also found a great skirt, a top, some books, and a beyond weird little dish set. Unfortunately, I didn't find a top to wear to a wedding I'm attending next weekend. The skirt would be great, but no top.
But back to the good stuff.
I found some great fabric remnants and some napkins I'll definitely be using to make some clutches.

The purple/maroon fabric is just enough to make a tote bag with the pattern on both sides. Plus, I found some navy blue straps that will go with the fabric perfectly. The red and gold stuff is crazy. It's feeling more fall/winter to me, so I may just hold onto it until then.
And now, the crazy dish set. I didn't see it on my first pass through. But once it caught my eye, I had to have it. The bowl alone makes the purchase worthwhile. You have to see it--I can't explain...

Ok, well, do you see that! There's a little plate with the girl's feet. The mug has her body, don't ask me where her arms are. And the bowl on top is her head! Of course, if you just put the bowl on the plate, she's got no body! Poor little bowl head girl.

I can't wait to eat ice cream out of her head. I'm not sure I'll use the other pieces that much. The mug with just her torso kinda creeps me out. She's definitely a display piece.

More at Shop the Switchboards Blog

I just posted another feature on the Shop the Switchboards blog. This one is about a new online shop that shares my love for the mustache--The Mustache Factory. Please go check out my chat with the factory foreman himself.

Spring BadaBing Report

I'm back and I have dried out and caught up on some sleep. The Spring BadaBing bravely went on in the face of scattered rain showers in Richmond VA yesterday. It was held at a great old farmer's market.

Luckily I was in a really well covered spot in the middle. But people on the edges were without the extra awnings. The stalls were cute three tiered affairs. I had already thought out some display ideas so setting up went fairly smoothly. Everything was just damp. The poor little signs I made for my flowers pots just curled up and died. I replaced them a couple hours in with my postcards.

There's also a little "behind the scenes" shot for you. I'm real high tech.

I think the rain kept a lot of people away, but there were still some hard core shoppers out with their umbrellas. It so interesting to see what people gravitate towards. So many people went straight for the lavender Farbic Flower pin. But no takers. People always get a snicker out of the Mustachio totes too. A lot of women also liked the shape of my newest design, the the Tulip bag. I ended up packing up a little early because it got windy and one of my bags took a dive and got itself pretty dirty.

The best part of these shows is getting to go around and meet other people and see stuff in person. Unfortunately I only got to walk around part of the show. But from that half I got to see a Fefelant in person and meet the woman behind Silver Lining.

Come on that is a cute Fefelant!

I also had a little visit before the show from the wonderful Sarah from Hearts and Needles. She dropped off this sweet goody bag filled with, well goodies!
Including one of her amazing wrist cuffs in some of my favorite colors. It matched perfectly what I was wearing.

She also thoughtfully included chocolate. Mmmm.

All in all it was a good day. A Long day and a super long drive back to Baltimore, but a good day. Special thanks to George, of course, my assistant for the day. He took all of the photos for me.

Spring BadaBing!

The Spring BadaBing show in Richmond is next weekend! I can not believe how this event has snuck up on me. I still have a lot of work to do. This morning I'm going to take an inventory of everything I have. There are a number of bags I need to put finishing touches on as well as entire bags to construct. For shows, I also like to do some smaller things I don't normally have on my site. It's good to have some lower price points. I'm going to work on some necktie chokers and bottlecap magnets--both in honor of recycling and Earth Day--the same day as the show.

Tomorrow I'm going up to my parent's place for Easter dinner, so I loose almost a whole day of work. I may be able to take some supplies in the car with me and make a few fabric flowers.
In any case, updates on the blog this coming week may be sparse, unless I'm freaking about getting ready for the show. If you're in the Richmond, VA area, remember to check out the Spring BadaBing!

*Note--the spell check on blogger seems to think that BadaBing should actually be "bedpan." Eww, the Spring BedPan! Blogger is dirty.

Shop the Switchboards Blog

It may look like I've been lazing about in the blogging arena. Not much is going on here huh? But I actually have been busy on another blog project. There's an new endeavor going on called Shop the Switchboards.


It's a project that feature podcasts of crafty designers and their products. There's already one video podcast up about pet products. And there's a cute doggie too. In addition to the podcasts, there's also a blog. I really enjoy finding talented and unique designers and crafters, so I volunteered to write for the blog. I just posted my first article on a fabulous business named Gourmet Amigurumi. Go check it all out. I paid a lot more attention to my writing in the article than I do here.
I already have another interview lined up for my second feature which I am also very excited about. So keep your eye on Shop the Switchboards!

More spring cleaning and taxes

George and I recently invested in a dyson vacuum cleaner. It is an amazing piece of machinery. It may just be the weapon we use to conquer the army of cat hair invading and occupying every inch of our apartment. It's tempting to just vacuum the cats. Besides the sheer power of the dyson, it is quite satisfying to see all the dirt and fur sucked up into the canister. And it's even more satisfying to empty it in the trash and remove it from my life.

That may just be gross to you. Sorry.

I also started my taxes last weekend. This is the first year that I have to include all business in my taxes. I was dreading it really. I've been doing all my own business financial records and state taxes, etc. But I'm no expert, I just can't afford to have my own accountant. I ended up using TurboTax online. Overall, I guess it worked out well. But when finishing up this week printing forms to send out to the IRS, I really got frustrated with the program. I consider myself an educated person, but some of their instructions were ridiculous--telling me not to send printed copies of my return, when in fact, that's precisely what I needed to do because I hadn't signed my return online--which was another annoyance. But it's all done. It certainly taught me I need to keep much more organized records this year. I'm on it.

Shop Update!

Finally I've updated the Bake Sale Designs shop. There are four new tote bags, four new pins and one cute limited edition pouch.

I named the pouch 31 Flavors because it reminded me of all the colors of ice cream you see lined up under the glass in ice creams shops. Yum. All the new stuff in rather spring-y and summer-y and I named the things like Sunset, Seascape and Cloud Watching. Go take a look!

Relaunches: Stores and Zines

Two big relaunches on the web just happened to take place today, April Fool's Day. First, MyMy has reopened for business. The shop took a little breather in order to come back with a new layout and design. Below is the new logo. Very colorful and cute.

Some new O and Oval bags of mine are up at MyMy and they a very spring-y, if I do say so myself. I'm probably going to revamp the O and Oval design, so these may be some of the last of the original design.

Virus Zine has also relaunched. I have an interview in this issue. But it's really a very cool idea. I'll just use the editor's words here, "We're moving away from being a site that is dominated by music we love and towards a site focusing on the independent spirit that runs through not just the music, but the activism, the written word, the hands on nature of it all." I'm very flattered to be a part of the new release.