Happy Spring!

Spring arrives in many guises all across the country. Nice and cool here this morning and got up to 80 this afternoon. It has been very windy all week, so the humidity is low and the weather men keep warning of fire danger.  The trees are starting to bud. No spring bulbs popping up through the snow here, at least not at my house.  No snow and I don't have any bulbs.  I did think that the hard freeze we had killed my little potted Pomegranate tree that "someone" forgot to move into the garage, that one week we had very cold temps.

 Plus, that same "someone" cut it way back in my absence.  However, the past week has shown it is recovering, at least one branch has some new growth. Poor little thing, I hope it grows to it's former size.  We bought it for our anniversary gift about 8 years ago and have managed to keep it alive all this time, So Far.

I've done a fair amount of moping and grieving the past few weeks, but have managed to get out a few times and do some things. We only went to a few of the SXSW festival happenings this year. The crowds just get larger every year and it is less appealing to us to deal with it. Here are a couple of the ones we did get to last week and week end. Getting there, we drove to the train station and took the train downtown.  It was a quite uncomfortable, like being in N.Y. or San Francisco. It was standing room only and in very close quarters. Ewww  It was even worse coming back, but we were on line early and at least got a seat this time.

 

 The poster show was amazing, mostly artwork done for music gigs but some movie posters too. Look at the cute little taxidermy guy that someone swapped for some posters.  The lady there said it was a weasel, but I think the white ones are ermines. Not certain though. He was really cute, if a little creepy.

Renegade Craft Fair is always fun.  They had these paper mobiles hanging from the ceiling all throughout the building. Lots of handmade things and workshop/make and takes.  I only bought some tea and a pretty aqua screen printed scarf.  There was a guy there from L.A.who had some gorgeous screen printed and handmade books.  It is hard for me to resist anything PAPER...but I managed. Now I am sorting through all my stuff trying to find his business card so I can drool over his artwork on his website.

Meanwhile back at the convention center, there was a lot going on there besides the poster show and Music Gear Expo.  There were bands playing on several stages and it got to be a bit much after awhile.  Hubby went to listen to music and I wandered around seeing some of the other sights.
I met these really cute young ladies in line at one of the venues.  I asked if I could take their photo, I thought they were so cutely dressed.  They are Kari from Nashville, and Ella from Atlanta.  Hope you can make out Ellas' huge wooden peace sign earrings. Believe me there were a lot of really cool costumes, most I did not get a chance to take photos of.  Most of these were taken with my cell phone as I need to shop for a new camera.

Renegade Craft Fair

The Craft Fair actually took place last week-end. I am just now getting around to posting about it. It was the second year it has come to Austin. Last year there were 150 vendors, and this year it was up to 200. That is a lot of booths to visit, let me tell you! A lot of walking. With that many vendors, there is a lot of repetition, unfortunately. After the first 20 or so Jewelry booths, and at least that many clothing booths, my eyes kind of glazed over. So there were a few known vendors that I missed seeing that I would have stopped by if I'd known they were there. Almost every vendor that I talked to had Etsy stores. So I wonder..how does someone stand out in a sea of like items? How does anyone sell their truly unusual things when there are so many shops to wade through. I hear this about Etsy a lot. I haven't shopped much there or tried to sell there either, so don't know all the ins and outs of it.

Outside

Inside overview


I took very few photos because I was moving at a fast pace. This is one really cute booth that I saw, and actually went back to. This was a very sweet lady, she had some lovely handmade books and journals. The way she had her booth set up was simple, but really impressed me. It was PAPER...so you know I was already smitten. She had strung cord back and forth across the booth and hung the small books, flowers and paper bundles from the cord. Very clever and festive looking. In the back of the booth she had an installation that was really interesting. She had sewn tea bag papers together, a LOT of tea bag papers, and I thought it was just gorgeous. She also had her collages mounted directly on the kraft colored background. They were pieced and stitched and really lovely. Check out her website. http://millionsofpeoplehappy.blogspot.com/ Sorry, I do not know how to make a clickable link here or I would. She has links to all her shops and you can see her work much better. Thanks Michelle, for being so sweet to us and so enjoyable to talk with.



Here is Michelle climbing up on a stool to take down one of the bundles I bought.


Had to shoot this...her color scheme was just what I am loving so much right now. Orange photo box, turquoise table cover, and soft chartreuse shoes. And her sweater and trim on her dress also. So cute.


Well, I must describe these paper bundles to you. She had taken all her leftover scraps from all her various projects and stitched them into these bundles. I'd not seen this before and thought it was so clever. Some of them reminded me of bird nests, others kind of like pinecones. There were folded pieces of paper, thin strips, some fabric (book tape I think) and the paper that is left when you punch shapes. I am not doing these justice in my description I know.


I hung them on my twig tree where I hang various garlands and other paper tid-bits throughout the year. It's difficult for me to get a photo of my tree that I am happy with, hopefully you get the idea.


Bundle close-ups. Photos are clickable to enlarge.