shopping local for the holidays

I'm knitting as fast as I can to get ready for two local craft shows in November. I'm super excited for the return of Craft Saturday, November 21st from noon-6pm. We'll be hanging out at the Fourth Street Theatre, next to Java Joe's. Grab some coffee and shop for one-of-a-kind handmade holiday gifts.

And what better way to spend Black Friday than to come out to Market Day! You know you didn't want to be part of the insanity at the big box stores or the mall anyway. Bring the fam out to the East Village to see dozens of vendors at the Market Building on 118 SE 4th Street, November 27 from 10am-4pm. Mark those calendars.

book nerd.

I bought this book a couple of weeks ago and can't wait to fill it up ... pages upon pages of amazingness waiting to be recorded.

The first list page I opened up to was this one - epic. I'm dying to spend a whole weekend with nothing but these lists and a pen and get it all written down.

Two more awesome scores ... this craft planner (which is beyond impressive and useful) and a book of iron-on transfers by Mike Perry.



(More Mike Perry.)

I got this killer book from my pal Jamaica in the mail, which totally made my day. Letterpressed cover and all. I'm already behind, but I'm using this little guy to play along with her book of lists project. You should too, because it's brilliant. Now is a great time to jump in – she's on list #2, so it will be easy to catch up.

And I finally finished and mailed off my half of a little long-distance project we had been working on.

Two books in one, half hers and half mine.




It's kind of like being pen-pals, but better. Nerdy paper + book-loving pen-pals.

a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

A little bit of now ... (this page is for the latest challenge at the Creative Type.) I had to list all of the nicknames we've come up with for Lo since she was born. There are zillions of them and they probably only make sense to us, but I know they'll be a riot to look back on someday. For sweet girl's sake, I kindly hid them behind her photo so she won't be totally embarrassed should her prom date come across this page one day. (Dude, your parents called you Ludatis? Stinky Von Stinkerson? Mini Buns?) I bet you wish you could read the rest of the list, right?

A little bit of then. For today's Dare. We're getting all nostalgic on you today. It's about things you never told someone, whatever that means to you. I went with my grandparents for this one, because they were a huge part of my life growing up. There are a lot of other things I could have listed here, like how I think of my grandma every time I make pizza. Or how grandpa used to tell me that hot water gets things clean but cold water rinses soap out the best. I've been saving this piece of paper (the floral background sheet) in hopes of using it for this exact page for five years, ever since I started scrapbooking in 2004. Seriously. It reminds me of something in my grandparents' house ... it might have been a chair, or curtains, the colors in the carpet, or maybe it was just fabric my grandma had. I'm just really happy I was able to find it.

All of this nostalgia brings me to this month's kit from The Dozens. I haven't splurged on a kit in a long time but this one was calling my name. It's full of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1920s Arts and Crafts, art deco, greek key patterns, Piet Mondrian and I couldn't say no. Can't wait to get for this box to arrive on my doorstep - yay!

our weekend looked like this...

Trick-or-treating fun with a pal dressed up as Super Martian Robot girl. (Because who else would DJ Lance Rock hang out with?)

The best jack-o-lanterns on the block – which included a Slipknot pumpkin (in the middle.) This house was actually used for the filming of Slipknot's 'Duality' video, which we got to watch since we live so close.

After trick-or-treating, we crashed the Halloween party at great aunt Chris's house and filled up on popcorn balls and treats of all kinds.

Arts and crafts at Ollie's costume party.

Pumpkins, googly eyes and candy corn.

Decorating Nutter Butter ghost cookies.

On Sunday, we hit up the Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead celebration at The Des Moines Art Center.

Food, music, art and gorgeous colors everywhere.

We even got to decorate a sugar skull.





He ended up looking like this. (ha!)

The nice warm weather made for a pretty awesome walk through the leaves behind the Art Center.

And one last chance to play in the leaves.

You can't resist taking a turn to sit in the massive egg-shaped sculptures.

Hello November. There's no denying it ... fall is here.

happy halloween

It's that time of year! (Although I kind of feel like it's been Halloween for two months already.)

But maybe it just feels like that when you have a little one who is uncontrollably excited about trick-or-treating and pumpkins and costumes.

We took this cutie out to pick out a couple of pumpkins this week.

And of course, she was very excited.

Who doesn't love pumpkins?

And this place had such a huge selection. I was tempted to get all Martha Stewart with the crazy pumpkin varieties but we just went with the plain big orange ones. :)

Tonight, we'll be taking our little DJ Lotus Rock trick-or-treating around the 'hood to visit some of our favorite neighbors.



This is the third time she's worn her costume, so we're getting a lot of use out of it. We're also hoping to hang out with our little pal, Stella, who is dressing up as Super Martian Robot girl from YGG.

Yesterday, we had a super fun time at the kids' Halloween party at the library.

Crafts, songs, stories ...

... and puppet shows. It was super fun to see all of the little costumes the kids had a little parade around the library.

And we attempted a little bit of pumpkin carving earlier this week.

Lo wasn't afraid to dig right in.

We ended up making a Brobee and baby Muno pumpkin. (We call him baby Muno, but it's really GoGo, Muno's baby brother.)

Hope you're having a super fun and safe Halloween weekend!

the cool list.

So much lovely stuff on the internets. It's not fair not to share. :)


Jamaica's lists.

Classes at Ephemera.

Kara's books.

What a Load of Craft.

Kate Bingaman's interview with ReadyMade.

Dareness.

Chunky hat from Free People (that I'm going to try to make.)

New colors at Moop.

Craft Saturday.

My So Called Life on Hulu. (All of the episodes!)
*what's on your cool list?*

market day is here again

In case you haven't heard me mention this enough, Market Day is tomorrow! From 9-5 at 118 SE 4th Street, here in lovely Des Moines, Iowa. (Here's a map if you need one.)

Tomorrow morning is also the Race for the Cure. I'll be there with a fantastic group of women early tomorrow morning, hopefully not freezing our pants off.

Then I'll be running over to the 120 year old Market Building in the East Village for Market Day. Here are some of the hand-knits I'm bringing!

And here are just a few things you can expect to see...

Paintings.

Darby Shannon's awesome desserts.

Otherwise known as Darby Cakes. They're somewhat legendary.

Jeff Bonker's paintings and collage works.

Hand-knits.

Spookshow Pinups, by my pal Anthony.

If you stop by, you'll also see lots of friendly faces.




(All of the awesome photos above are by the talented Dani Ausen.)

So, seriously. Stop out to see us; I promise it's going to be a good time. Hope to see you there!

where the wild things are.

So, were you wondering what Lotus was going to be for Halloween this year?
Why, DJ Lance Rock, of course.

She's pretty thrilled with the costume choice and has been wearing this get-up quite a bit at home already. (She even likes to have the hat and glasses on.)

Last weekend, we spent a sunny warm afternoon trick-or-treating where the wild things truly are, Night Eyes at Blank Park Zoo.

It's such a fun chance to get dressed up before Halloween, and see the zoo one more time before winter hits.

They have peacocks wandering around un-caged, and Bo snapped this gorgeous pic.

We got to see (and hear) the tiger up-close and personal.

They have lots of decorations and lights set up throughout the zoo, but these guys are my favorite.

Lo did a great job practicing her 'trick or treat' skills.

And we met Clifford ...

... and Curious George.

It was a super fun afternoon, and we can't deny it ... Lotus makes a super cute DJ Lance. Her costume is just plain ...

it's a mom thing.

If you're a mom, you will recognize these two lovely ladies. They're Heather and Whitney – the faces behind Rookie Moms – two geeky girls' guide to the first year of motherhood. (And beyond.) I'm kind of a big fan.

I have turned to this site time and time again since Lo was born for crafty ideas, fun activities, a healthy dose of honesty and a good laugh. They offer a handy age-appropriate guide of great things for moms to do (with their baby or without) during those first few years of motherhood. Even experienced parents are going to find a lot of really cool new ideas.

Crafty tutorials like this one (one of my favorites) that are simple and quick enough for new moms to tackle. I also love the DIY t-shirt toddler pants and newborn hat and this upcycled t-shirt project.

And today, Rookie Moms is featuring my how-to instructions for making Lo's Yo Gabba Gabba Foofa costume from last Halloween. I am so thrilled. I have had several emails asking for the details about this costume, so I hope this is helpful!

If you're looking for more Rookie Mom greatness (or need the perfect baby shower gift,) you really need to pick up The Rookie Mom's Handbook.

Or a Rookie Mom t-shirt. This one is hilarious. (And everyone loves a mom who can admit that she doesn't know it all.)

Also, check out Market Street Media Foundry today – they are featuring Market Day makers each day this week, and my stuff is featured today!

Go take a quick read of my little Q&A – and be sure to stop out and see us at Market Day this weekend. (Saturday from 9 am - 5 pm.)

Alright – now for a quickie weekend re-cap! I made some sweet hand-knit baby shoes and sent them off to a long-distance pal.

And Lo and I headed to Minnesota to celebrate the arrival of a very special little baby girl.

This new mama is one of my childhood friends and her little sweetie is the result of nine years of ups and downs, lots of love and determination.

Yup, this is a very, very special and celebrated baby indeed.

We also got to spend the day with another close friend and her two girls. Jane, Andrea and I were basically the three musketeers throughout school. And now, we all have little girls!

Since we were in Blue Earth (our old stomping grounds,) Jane and I took our bigger girls to see the Green Giant. Something we've kind of grown up with, but haven't really visited since we were little. In December, Mr. Giant wears a red scarf. But we were a little early for that.

We're hoping for an increase in the kids' vegetable intake after this visit.

Later, we just let the girls play while we caught up on girl talk and next thing we knew, we had a princess dress-up party.

It's pretty unbelievable to think back to high school, when Jane and Andrea and I were doing each others' hair, borrowing clothes and shopping for prom dresses. Now we're all moms and we're all in this together. And it's a pretty special milestone. We share advice, worries, success stories and plans for future slumber parties. It's a such a sweet sight to look over and see one of Jane's girls putting a Cinderella dress on Lo and I can't help but flash forward to their prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses and all of the crazy fun times ahead. Girlfriends in progress.

5 cool things.

Craft Hope has Project 5 up and I'm really hoping to have enough time to participate.

LSTN #7 is rad. And free. Download it here.

Excited for D.I.Y. nights (brought to you by Urbanestics) to start up again at Mars Cafe.

Today is the last day to apply for What A Load of Craft. (I hope I get in! This is the craft show with the Craft Death Match and DJs who play heavy metal. Um, I'm in heaven.)

And have you seen this? A Wes Anderson theme party, right here in Des Moines. More info here. Or follow their party Tumblr.