Renegade Craft Fair Finds

This weekend is the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in Chicago, so my sisters and I made our way over to Pulaski Park Fieldhouse this afternoon to see what we could find.

There were so many talented artists there, over 150, including some Chicago staples such as Circa Ceramics and Ork Posters. I noshed on a delicious vanilla cupcake from TipsyCake and also bought a few prints from a new favorite, Delicious Design League.

This print will be a Christmas gift for my sister, Jessica, the newest Chicago resident in the family. It's called "Chicago Style - 1893":

It will look cute in her kitchen next to her "St. Louis Style" print by Dan Zettwoch, which she also already owns.

The next print is one which I purchased for the nursery and is called "Cutie Bear". I think it lives up to its name:

Each 18x24 print was priced at only $20 and contains 3 colors/screens. And best of all, if you choose to frame the prints, they are a standard size so no custom framing costs will be incurred. What a great deal! Check out what other prints the Delicious Design League has for sale on their online store. All in all we had a successful trip to the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale.

Next weekend is also the Bucktown Holiday ArtShow.

It is held at Holstein Park Fieldhouse, 2200 N. Oakley Ave. in Chicago on December 11-12, 2010 from noon to 5pm each day. I hope to make it there as well and will report back with any purchases :-)

STL Illustrator: Dan Zettwoch

My sister gave me a completely awesome screenprint for my birthday from a talented St. Louis Illustrator/Artist, Dan Zettwoch.

The print is called St. Louis Style and it features all of the famous, local fare from my favorite hometown:

Of course my favorite feature is the STL style pizza and the equation for provel cheese (no, not provolone, provel).

Man I miss that cheese! My mother-in-law brought us two pounds of provel when she came up for Thanksgiving just because we can't buy it here.

I know many St. Louisans read my blog so I wanted to share the work of this local (to you) artist. This new print is a 3-color, hand-pulled screenprint on wheat-colored Canson Edition paper, edition of 100, 30" x 11 1/4" and he's selling them for $25 apiece while they last.

A great addition to any kitchen or rec area :-) Now I just need to get mine framed and hung.

Today's Catalog Finds

Today, I had jury duty and I needed a way to fill my time. Since my favorite past-time is normally online shopping, and I was sure to be without a wi-fi connection, I brought all of my latest catalogs along so I could browse those instead. And wouldn't you know it, I have dog-ears in every one of them! Whether I purchase these items is another story, but I thought I'd still feature a few of my faves particularly from Williams Sonoma & cb2.

First, was a flip through the Williams Sonoma catalog where I spotted this very cool ravioli maker (they call it a ravioli mold in the print catalog), for only $24.95:

I was tempted to purchase this until I realized I would also need this terrific-looking, but terribly impractical Imperia pasta machine, $69.95, in order to make the pasta sheets:

It's not really the price that deters me, it's my lack of counter-space and/or storage that is holding me back since I know I wouldn't use it regularly. We shall see...

I also got excited about these adorable message-in-a-cookie cutters, only $19.99. At that price they might be too delicious to pass up:

And as I am catching up on my google reader I also noticed that Andrea has the same love-affair with these cookie cutters, so great minds think alike. Or at least swoon alike ;-)

Now let's move on to my cb2 catalog finds. This abacus wall art also caught my eye, $149.

I also love these oliver appetizer plates, $2.95 each. Not just because they are completely kitschy and fun, but because I also got a chance to see the graphic designer & illustrator who created "Oliver", Jana Kinsman, speak last month at a Chicago AIGA event and hear her story. She definitely has two sides to her: organizing information for the consumer in the clean, bold, heavily typographic style that is typical of Crate & Barrel but then she has this quirky, hand-drawn illustration side to her that cb2 has now embraced.

This one is my favorite:

I'll probably pick a few up at some point to give out as hostess gifts down the road!