Analog's grand opening!

I've been busy behind the scenes prepping Analog for its grand opening this past weekend, but I have survived! And I've only minorly injured myself a few times. Success!

Analog, open for business on its grand opening.

Tons of people came through this weekend, helped by some kind blogs who put out the word for us. Lisa and I are excited to have such enthusiastic neighbors in Brookland.

Fabulous friends who've donated their labor or items from their basements to get us up and running. Dan deserves a special shout-out for living with all my craft stuff in our house for so long and putting up with my ups and downs of this process so nicely. I love that man.

 We had a small gathering before our grand opening to thank our friends and family who've been so supportive of us in this venture. My grandparents and my little cousin Amanda even came from upstate New York to join us (and my grandma brought us cookies, because she's awesome). 

My cousin Amanda and I.

All of this is to say: we are officially open for business! Our hours are Thursday - Saturday, 12-7pm, and Sunday, 12-6pm. Swing by the Arts Walk at Monroe Street Market to check us out and see all the other studios that are beginning to open their doors. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Soon to Brookland!

I've been bursting at the seams to share this news for months now, but needed to wait until the ink was dry. But the wait is over -- I've just returned home from Monroe Street Market, where I signed a lease to open a little studio and shop!

Analog will be opening (to some degree) later this month!

I can't properly express how excited I am for this new chapter for my business. I'm sharing the space with Lisa of Beltway Vintage, who will be repairing and re-making vintage clothing and accessories. We're psyched to be able to work together to bring reclaimed and recycled products inspired by the past to Washington, DC.

We will have workspace in the back half of our studio, where you'll be able to find me making Gocco prints, gluing envelopes, and otherwise making big messes. I've had so many ideas for products, bit I've been limited by the lack of storage and workspace in my dining area (which hasn't seen us dining in it in well over a year). I'm excited to have a light-filled space to get things done!

We will also have open studio hours for people to visit, as well as several special events and workshops throughout the year.  (I'm thinking mail art socials up the wazoo.)  Plus, there will soon be 26 other studios along the Arts Walk to inspire you whenever you visit.

I can't wait to show you our space as we start making it our own -- we begin painting tomorrow!  We are hoping to be up and running in a few weeks, so watch this space for updates!

Artisphere Workshop Wrap-Up

The mail art workshop at Artisphere was a success! There was a roomful of people making awesome mail to send out to friends and loved ones.

I just wanted to share some of the fun pieces that participants were willing to share with my crappy cell phone camera.

I finally got to meet @melydia, who made these two pieces among others; the envelope was to our mutual friend and fellow mail artist, Mary.

A lovely woman named Mame made short work of the above pieces. She built up quite the stationery hoard for herself in just a couple hours!

Melissa (not me) made these envelopes and cards with very precise lines before our classroom time was up.

Dan surprised me by being able to attend when I wasn't expecting him. He and Beth of Tigerflight mostly just sat in the back and made fun of each other, so I was not surprised to see that these seem to be addressed as primarily in-jokes with her. I was also not surprised to see a naked form on there.

Many thanks to the lovely folks at Artisphere, especially Katherine, who helped move the event when its first location was overrun by people from the neighboring space, and who were kind and gracious enough to have us there.

Craftgasm at the Grant Avenue Market

Come visit me this Sunday, May 12 at the first Grant Avenue Market of the season! They've focused on finding unique vintage and handmade vendors, so it's sure to be a treat to wander the stalls and check out all the offerings.

I'll be there with my handmade upcycled paper goods, plus vintage National Geographic maps and vintage stationery finds that I've been hoarding for years and am only sharing if you promise to take good care of them for me and write to lovely people with them.

The Grant Avenue Market will be where Grant Avenue meets Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, across from the TPSS food co-op, and just a ten minute walk from the Takoma Metro.  Vendors will be there from 10am to 3pm, so bring a friend and a shopping bag and get ready to buy some amazing stuff!

Mail Art Workshop at Artisphere this Thursday!

Check out the fancy flyer that Artisphere made for the series of upcycled art classes that Beth Baldwin has organized! I'll be hosting a workshop this Thursday to share my love of mail art. Can you come?

Details:
What: A mail art workshop led by me! I'll have examples of upcycled stationery and be glad to answer questions about what will successfully make it through mail sorting machines and how to make envelopes from reclaimed papers.  I'll also provide tons of fun ephemera to use in your project.

Where: Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22209.  It is two blocks from the Rosslyn Metro and its urban location has plenty of bicycle parking. There is also free parking with validation.

When: Thursday, May 9, from 6-8pm. There will also be a cash bar from 5:30 to 8:30pm in case you want to get liquored up before crafting, you lush.

Cost: $12, which includes all crafting materials, (or $11 if you're a student, member of the military, or a senior citizen).  Buy tickets online, or pay cash at the door. If you have your own materials you want to bring, feel free!

I hope to see you there!

Craftgasm at the DC Meet Market this weekend

It's the first market of the season, and I'm excited to show off some new journals I've been working on!  Come out to the DC Meet Market to find me and 40 other local vendors enjoying what will hopefully be some true spring weather, according to the forecasters.

See you at the Market!

ETA: Check out the Craftgasm spotlight they put on the blog today!

Nate Silver is my hero

AKA: Every liberal's rallying cry the night of November 6th.

Throughout the fall, my grandmother, a conservative Democrat who watches CNN in the afternoons because she wants to give herself another stroke (I can't think of another plausible reason), kept calling to tell me how worried she was about the election polls. I would respond by refreshing fivethirtyeight.com and telling her what the actual facts were.

Her: Who says that?
Me: Nate Silver. And math.

I called her just after midnight on November 7th.

Me: I told you Nate Silver wouldn't let us down.
Her: You were right. Thank goodness.

I made these Gocco prints on November 8th. They're printed on atlas index pages, the local place names reminding us that actual people in cities and towns matter more than polls on supposed national opinion.

You can buy yours here in my Etsy shop.

Nana's Handmade Valentine Mart

While I will be at the Postal Museum's Valentine's Day Card Workshop, my wares will be in good company across town at Nana's Handmade Valentine Mart in Mt. Pleasant.  More than a dozen of the DC area's fabulous makers and shakers will be selling their items at this one-day event.  Come get your Valentine's Day shopping all wrapped up by buying from local designers and crafters, including some new Valentine's Day cards from me!

The show is from 11am to 5pm on Saturday, February 9th.  Nana is located at 3068 Mt. Pleasant Street, NW, just a couple blocks from the Columbia Heights Metro. My work will be lonely without me, so it hopes you can swing by to say hi!

Valentine workshop at the National Postal Museum this Saturday!

Have you made your Valentines yet? If not, come make a couple at the National Postal Museum's free Valentine's Day Card Workshop with me on Saturday, February 9th! We'll have tons of supplies: cardstock, pretty papers, cancelled postage, ribbon, rubber stamps, washi tape, and more.  Cards mailed from the museum will also receive a special cancellation (which I will hopefully be able to convince the postal employee to put on all my Valentines that I'm also bringing with me).

The National Postal Museum is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, right next to Union Station. We'll be there from noon to 4pm. Hope to see you there!

(And if you can't make it to this event on Saturday, take a look at the Handmade Valentine Mart in Mt. Pleasant on the same day!)

Holiday mail party wrap-up

I was going to write a whole post about how awesomely the mail-making party went, but when Mary has done it so nicely for me already, why duplicate?  Check out her post on the party and the rest of her fab pictures! (I failed at remembering to bring a camera.)

washi tape and gold stars -- photo by Mary Has Sound

My thanks go out to all those who came out in the cold to make some holiday cheer, LulaMae Events for helping me get everything there and helping me make it look pretty, and everyone who blogged or tweeted about the event to spread the word! 

Come to a holiday mail party in DC on November 26!

Click to embiggen!

I'm hosting a mail-making party in DC on Monday, November 26, from 5:30-8:30! Since it'll be the Monday after Thanksgiving, you can come bitch about your family get-togethers with us. We'll understand.

Bring your own Christmas or holiday cards to write, or make some there.  It's a way to make what can be a pain in the neck into a fun activity with friends.  Also, you can get the card-sending out of the way early in the season -- and not feel guilty when people send cards to you.

I'll have some mass-produced holiday cards available, along with supplies for making your own.  Donations are always welcomed, but not required, to use either.  (You can bring your own supplies, too, of course.)

The library is located at 3160 16th Street, NW in Mt. Pleasant, on the southwest corner of 16th and Lamont Streets.  We will be in the large meeting room, which as you come in through the new main entrance, is on the right.

If you're the sort who likes to RSVP (which I appreciate) and have this on your Facebook calendar, click here.


View Larger Map

via Metro
Columbia Heights, Green and Yellow lines. Exit the west entrance, walk 1 block west on Irving Street (past the Five Guys) to 16th Street. Turn right on 16th Street to head 1 block north.

via bus 
S1, S2, S4 - pull cord for Lamont. If coming from the north, you'll be on the right corner. If coming from the south, cross 16th Street to reach the library.
S9 - pull cord for Irving Street. Walk one block north on 16th; library will be on your left. 
42 - pull cord for Lamont. Walk one block east on Lamont; library entrance will be on your right.

via bicycle
The renovation of the library came with new bike racks. There are also places to lock up along Lamont and 16th Streets.

MailArt 365

If you follow my Twitter feed, you may know that I am participating in MailArt365 this year, producing 365 pieces of decorated mail for 2012. The project has been ongoing since December of 2010, but I thought I was too busy then to get in on the ground floor.

I tracked my outgoing mail for 2011, though, and realized I was already sending more than 365 pieces of mail per year. That made it an easier decision to commit to making mail art in 2012.

Not that anyone's holding me to it; it's more of a challenge to myself.

If you regularly send mail that you could describe as unexpected, I think you'd be a good candidate for joining the project, too.

You can check out my contributions, but be sure to just visit the main page to see what other people all over the globe are doing. There's so much creative work being sent through the post.

A love requited.

The new craftgasm booth banner! Photo by Etsy Labs on Flickr.

Luckily for me, Crafty Bastards has loved me back. Here are a couple of press mentions that craftgasm has gotten from the show!

Nole of Oh So Beautiful Paper was kind enough to post pictures of my booth on her gorgeous blog (and was nice enough to let me reproduce them here).

Map pins, separated by region. Photo by Oh So Beautiful Paper.

The Foggy Bottom Blog wrote a super-nice little paragraph about my stuff in their round-up of the event:

Their upcycled cards and pins are unique and hip, and make you feel totally awesome about buying them. Plus, everything has a perfectly sharp sense of humor.

Scroll down past all the pretty pictures to see their assessment of some other awesome vendors; I missed the text part my first time through because I was so busy flipping through their images.

Pearls of Wisdom from Marion Barry. Photo by Oh So Beautiful Paper.

And last but not least, I was absolutely floored to be selected as one of the Washingtonian's favorite vendors in their Crafty Bastards post. Getting that email was pretty much amazing and made my week.

It's been so fantastic to hear from people who I met at the show and to get orders these past couple of weeks from those who said they read about my shop somewhere. Thank you so much for supporting handmade and making it possible for me and my crafting colleagues to do what we do!

Transition to Full-Time Crafter

It's been a while, hasn't it?

To sum up my absence, I was busy getting unemployed and then going on an already-paid-for-and-at-that-point-much-needed vacation.

Now, however, I'm busy getting ready for the massive crowds of shoppers who are coming to Crafty Bastards next Saturday, October 3. This full-time crafting thing has me working more hours than I did at my old job, but it is much more satisfying to have something produced at the end of each day. ("Plus, the dress code is much more relaxed," she said, typing in boxers and a T-shirt.)

Today's happenings in full-time craftgasm-land (FTCL for short):

I trimmed, folded, and assembled 600 sheets of paper into 100 packs of Recycled Stationery Sets this afternoon and evening. I didn't really need to band them up, but it is rather satisfying to do so. These now just need to have envelopes wrapped up with them and they'll be good to go.

Which means I will be cutting, folding, and sealing up 300 envelopes tomorrow. All in a day's work.

(P. S. Have you voted for your favoritest Craftiest Bastard yet? Not that I'm advocating stuffing of ballot boxes, but you get one vote per email address...)

Happy Earth Day!

I'm totally ganking and re-adapting Sara (from Girls Can Tell)'s idea for today's post. In honor of Earth Day, post your favorite eco-friendly shop in the comments. You can decide its eco-friendly-ness in whatever way you want -- using recycled materials, making a product that helps you create less waste, or making old things new again are all good definitions. You can give us a link to your own shop, but only if it meets the eco-friendly requirement AND if you link to another shop that is not yours that also is Earth-friendly. It's all about the community-building, folks. Spread the love! (To help you get started, here's a link to all tagged items from Team EcoEtsy members.)

One of my favorite shops for perusal is Chakra Pennywhistle, where you can find reclaimed fabrics made into sweet pillows like this one below. She's also a fellow Team EcoEtsy member like me, so that gives her some bonus points.

Lastly, in celebration of Earth Day, I'm offering a 20% discount on any item in the {craftgasm} Etsy shop! You have to order by the end of the day (I'm defining "end of the day" loosely -- just make sure the order is in before I wake up on Thursday morning), and in the "notes to seller" box at checkout, tell me your favorite eco-friendly tip. I may share the best tips here in the blog with a link back to whatever URL you'd like, so make 'em good!

I can't wait to see all the Earth-happy goodness you'll put in the comments!

Can I be six again?

Photo courtesy of and taken by Leanne at See the Woods and the Trees.

Following the Craftzine Twitter feed has never disappointed me, and paid off once again with this genius idea from See the Woods and the Trees, linked to this morning. Leanne helped her daughter make a four room dollhouse using reclaimed catalog pages and some cardboard. The result is so cute that it makes me want to have a toddler of my own just to have a socially-acceptable excuse to play with it.

I think it could be made even more eco-friendly by using old cereal boxes or somesuch reused material as the walls. Want a second story? Place another layer of cardboard on top of the first floor, then make another level. (This gives you the chance to paste a floor down, too.)

Best of all, since the dollhouse folds up, it doesn't have to take up a lot of room when it's put away. You could have dozens of setups ready for mixing and matching, and only use a few inches of bookshelf space to store it all.

Excellent news!

Etsy is reporting that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has granted a one-year stay for enforcement of the CPSIA rules to review the issues that have been raised by small businesses.

This is fanfreakingtastic news for both small businesses that create items for children and for families that want to buy high-quality, unique, and natural toys and clothes for their kids. Keep up on what further work needs to be done to make sure the exemptions are granted in the next year, but today I think we can give ourselves a pat on the back for all the letters we've written and calls we've made that have helped this day arrive. Hooray!

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

I'm sure that folks have been constantly refreshing their browsers, anxiously awaiting the official blog-unveiling of my newest product line. No longer! The time has come!

After amassing a huge collection of stationery as "The Queen of Correspondence" (according to my friends), I started making my own when I couldn't find exactly what I wanted already being made. Enter the Recycled Stationery Sets. They are made entirely from reclaimed, reused, and repurposed papers. Notebooks, old ledgers, and abandoned printer papers are some of the sources of the sheets, and the envelopes are a combination of old maps and reclaimed stationery from an out-of-business company. (Their return address was on the back flap of the envelope, but it is now covered by a plain white label [also reclaimed from the trash heap] that is stamped to coordinate with the rest of the set.) Each set comes with six sheets of paper (two each in three designs), three envelopes (one map, two plain), and assorted stickers and labels made from maps. I'm thrilled with how well they've turned out!
You can see more details about them at my Etsy page, but feel free to ask any questions in the comments section!
How do you keep in touch with faraway friends? And how do you reuse any paper you find yourself swimming in?

Weekend plans?

I first discovered the art of sprucing up vintage suitcases at the recent Crafty Bastards event that Washington City Paper sponsors. (I've been to all of the Crafty Bastards events since I moved here three or four years ago, and can highly recommend them.) Final Approach had a booth there and I fell in love with their stenciling and designing of the hard-sided suitcases. As a kid, I remember our family had a set of light blue hard-sided cases, and theirs just brought back memories of packing those up for trips to my grandparents' lake cabin. I adore their (sadly already-sold) Abe Lincoln one.


Turns out they are not the only ones making adorably painted suitcases for a living. Another place I found on Etsy was GreyBrocket's shop. This deer suitcase is begging to come home to me, but I'm trying to cut down on spending on myself before the holidays. Perhaps he'll prance over to your house? And GetReadySetGo is the designer of the adorable birdies on the little blue suitcase. They were just made for weekend getaways.

I'm trying to buy most of the holiday gifts (that I don't make myself) on Etsy or in thrift stores. There's so much cute stuff that already exists that it seems pointless to add to the craziness by buying brand-new corporate crap for people.