Last Friday I travelled to my Vermont art show with my girls.  First international show, I was pretty excited.  It was at the Vintage Inspired Lifestyle Marketplace.  The shop and second home of Mary Heinrich Aloi.  I just wanted to share a few photos of the wonderful night (courtesy of my friend Steph over at Share The Love)

My girls waiting to be hung up on the wall.

The first Friday of every month Burlington has an art walk throughout the city.  Then even put out a guide for people to find all the participating venues, which I was in, so cool!!

Getting ready for the big night.

All hung up and ready to go.

Everyone was so friendly and some were down right hilarious.  I laughed so much my stomach hurt.

Posing with my paintings.  Check out my new blue specs, aren’t they awesome? haha!

It was such a treat to meet Lisa Marie in person as we only ever chatted online.  She was the sweetest thing.  We decided we were mixed media sisters.

YUP cakes was even there serving up some baked goodness.  I couldn’t resist trying the peanut butter & jelly flavoured one (her hubby swore by them).  It was to die for and I am dreaming of the day I can have one again.

One of my gorgeous girls Angie who accompanied me on the trip.

A couple of other hotties, Brittany and Steph (my photographer for the evening) who also came on the road trip to support me.  I am a lucky girl to have such great friends and a man who all made this possible.

Thanks for such an amazing night Mary and for the yummy cheese and wine!  I just realized I didn’t get a picture of her the night of, sucky :(

I will post more soon on all the amazing antiques we found.

The Sandy Hill’s One & Only Craft Fair on Sunday certainly did not disappoint.  I was sitting was a great group of ladies, had great sales and bought a few great Christmas gifts.  Not to mention the free food buffet, pretty yummy.  Helene Lacelle was a great hostess and I can only hope things go as well for my fair on Sunday :).  Welcome to my new subscribers from the fair!!!

One of my goals this year is to try to buy as many handmade/local gifts as possible.  I think it is very important to support small business and the local economy whenever possible.  I am a huge fan of Etsy and local craft fairs.  So, I figured why not start at the One & Only.  My first purchase I really couldn’t help.  Sitting across from me was Olive & Ella with her gorgeous group of pillows and sewn creations.  One in particular kept calling my name ALL day.  It was a deer made of homemade felt on a background of tweed type material.  Felt and tweed, together??  Enough to make my heart swoon, haha.  I know I am a dork.  I kept checking all day to make sure it was still there.  I had the same thing happening with my neighbour the lovely Michelle of My Jacket Pocket.  She was coveting one of my paintings and kept checking to see if anyone bought it.  Of course it was the same painting about ten people picked up and liked entitled “Sometimes we all need help to fly”.

Of course the piece sold and Michelle was sadly disappointed.  First thing I did after that was head over to Munia at Olive & Ella and buy that pillow!!!

Isn’t it awesome?  Here is the back part.  Of course Amelia had to stick her little ginger head in there as she hates it when I do anything without her.

 I also made a purchase from Michelle, she will be at the Savoir Faire on Sunday, by the way.  She had these very cool vintage looking pendant watches which were selling like hotcakes.  I was afraid she would have none left by Sunday so I ended up buying one.  This is it closed.  Check out all of the filigree detail.   Beautiful I say.

Here it is open, I have yet to figure out how to set it, haha.

I also had Meeka’s Creations as a neighbour.  I bought some sock monkeys and creatures from her last year for Christmas.  This year she had some awesome printed T-shirts that I thought would be perfect for one of my daughter’s friends who happens to also be a neighbour and practically another daughter.

My last little goodie was a swap.  She wanted one of my paintings so she paid some and traded one of her knitted partly felted bracelets.  It was from Geminidream and unfortunately she does not have a website.  All of her stuff had great texture though.  The bracelet is a little simple so I will definitely be adding a little something to it to make it more Renee.

I am out for the night but I hope to see you all Sunday and just a little reminder of the workshops going on throughout the day.  You can check them out here.

Hope everyone had a great hump day.  Now for the second half of my overview of the Curious Craft Show.  This huge stack of hugable toys was Liv. Well Toys.

All kinds of great kids toys with so many cool retro fabrics, check out this colourful rhino.

This is Saara from Sapling\\Seedling and her books and journals.  Such an understated elegance to her stuff, love it.  Makes me happy knowing she is around creating new and repairing old books, especially in this age of technology and e-readers.  I suspect books will soon be added to the endangered species list.

Here is Dan of Versa Tile with his great smile and gorgeous coasters, magnets and mosaics.

Kym of Bombshell Revival had the funkiest clothing and accessories.  Everything she had was so much fun (her blog is pretty inspiring as well).

Check out this amazing witch’s hat.  I think I might just have to acquire it for my Halloween costume.

Now for Winged Beast Outfitters.  Here is Stirling amidst his sea of originality.  Finally, stuff I know my nephews will love.  From his robot toques to his whale riding dinosaur tees and dresses, there is something for every member of the family to lust after.

Last but not least we have the lovely Lisa of Bloom Artisan who is launching an online boutique soon selling all local and handmade wares.  Although you can’t really see her, she is the one in the grey hat behind the table filled with textured goodness.

Such awesome knitted necklaces, owls, hats and even these little baby slippers.  So adorable.

I would say a pretty succesful first show.  I didn’t even get to show you all the vendors.  I am pretty excited though as some of these talented vendors will be making an appearance at our fair The Art & Crafts Savoir Faire in November, YEY!!!

I was in the Curious Craft Show & Swap on the weekend and had a great time.  It was so hard to know where to stop with my pictures, there were so many and I didn’t even get to all the vendors.  So, I am doing this in two posts.

The fair wasn’t super busy as the weather was terrible but the energy was great and the quality of the vendors was amazing.  Well done ladies!

The organizers were great and full of positivity.  The first was Michelle of My Jacket Pocket.

Second was Fiona of idi Designs.  I didn’t actually manage to get a picture of her as she was busy running around but here are some of her awesome wired headbands.

I had the best neighbours on both sides which I was super happy about as the day can be pretty long if you are sitting next to duds, haha.  On my left were the lovely ladies from My Stow n Tow.  These hard working stay at home moms kept me smiling (and fed) throughout the day.  I loved the fabrics they had and I couldn’t resist buying a cover for my phone.

My neighbour to the right was Annabel from Magneties.  I really wanted to pick something up for my hun but couldn’t decide.  Luckily we will both be at The One & Only Craft Fair in Sandy Hill in November so I can get one then.  YEY!!

I was pretty excited to see the adorable Kelly of Kokobaru there with her adorable friends.  I also found out she is expecting, wooo!!  So happy for her.

Her lucky little munchkin is going to have tons of fun things to play with.

Check out Eliza’s (from Indie Go) beautiful accessories.

I totally love the moustache pendants which would be perfect for Movember.  The “Keep Calm” stuff is so in right now.

So, that is enough for tonight but the review of the Curious Craft show is TBC…  In the meantime, have a good night and I shall be back tomorrow!!!!

Hi peeps!!  Just wanted to remind you about the Curious Collective going on tomorrow at the Jack Purcell Community Centre, 320 Jack Purcell Lane (behind the Starbucks on Elgin).

I am pretty excited to see which vendors are participating.  I shall be there.  Here are a few small pieces I have done for the show.

A friend had asked me for some owl pieces.  Voila!!

Come on out and support local artists/crafters and start some of your Christmas shopping early.  Don’t forget to bring any old craft/art supplies you are no longer using so you can participate in the swap and pick up some new supplies you might actually use.