Young House Love

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Handmade Holiday

Does this totebag from Richmond Threadlab look familiar? If so, it may be because you caught our Instagram feed a couple of weekends ago when we hit up our local Handmade Holiday Craft Show (just like we did last year). The fair is a bi-annual craft-stravaganza put on by the Richmond Craft Mafia (we went to their Spring version earlier this year too). It’s always filled with tons of cool artists, crafters, and other handmade magicians from the Virginia-ish region. And thanks to most of them having Etsy shops, you guys can sort of virtually shop along with us. So here’s some the cool stuff that we came across, starting with some of the new guys that we haven’t spotted at previous events.

Craft 0 DIY Or Die Bag Richmond Threadlab

Spade Moderne had tons of graphic pillows and tea towels that we loved, but what caught Sherry’s eye most was this mistletoe brooch (though you could totally cheat and make it an ornament too). Knowing Sherry she’d stick it in a shadowbox and call it holiday art.

Craft 1 Mistletoe Space Modern Etsy

Also calling our name from the printed-fabric arena were these screenprinted tea towels from Tiny Peepers. And to live up to their name, there was also this hipster-tastic onesie that kinda made me wish Clara still wore onesies…

Craft 5 Tea Towels Onesies Tiny Peepers

Check out this sweet 2013 calendar from Flytrap Studios. Can you believe we already have to start thinking about 2013 calendars? Where did the year go?

Craft 8 Calendar Flytrap Studios

These fabric rattles from Tributary Handmade were also pretty darn cute. But I think the true brilliance is that fact that they sell silent versions as well. Plus, the one on top (with the pears and apples) is the same fabric that we used for Clara’s 17 week photo way back when. Memories.

Craft 10 Rattles Tributary Handmade

Tributary Handmade also had these cools dolls that for some reason kept reminding me of the Beatles. I think they’d go great in a little boy’s room – especially the mustached and suspendered man in the middle. I’m talking to you Weston Bower.

Craft 11 Dolls Tributary Handmade

Nearby we also spotted a bunch of pillows, bags, and things made out of old grain and feed sacks from Jessica Reed Artifacts. Of course the Christmas spirit of the room meant that we were most drawn to the stocking.

Craft 12 Stocking Jessica Reed Artifacts

Found Studio had these fun mixed media paintings with mason jars as the subjects. They’re like the Warhol soup cans of the Pinterest era.

Craft 13 Ball Jar Art Found Studios

They also had a bunch of smaller paintings available. We especially liked this long one with the pennant banner (and that small green bicycle).

Craft 14 Mini Paintings Found Studios

A lot of booths are starting to become very familiar now that this is our third consecutive visit to one of these local craft fairs. But the cool thing is that most of them are always doing new stuff, so it still feels new. Like Funnel Cloud Studio now has a New Jersey version of the state prints that we admired previously…

Craft 2 New Jersey Funnel Cloud Studio

And clay-master Tasha McKelvey had these cool clay gnome ornaments this year. It kind of makes me think a gnome-themed Christmas tree would be funny. Or a tradition of “find-the-gnome” each year when you decorate the tree.

Craft 3 Gnome Ornamnets Tasha McKelvey

It’s always good to see Phil Barbato (and his wife Meghan) at these things. We’ve purchased his artwork in the past, but it was his Baby Octopi that got our attention this year. I love that this one has a gold tooth (at least, that’s how I’m choosing to interpret it).

Craft 4 Ocotpus Phil Barbato

Matt Butler had us cracking up over his bacon print at past events (it says “either you love bacon or you’re wrong”), but this year it was this print that had me chuckling. Truth in comedy, right?

Craft 6 You Are Greater Matt Butler

Matt also has a few bike-themed items, which you know I can appreciate. He does these custom printed Toms shoes, and I think it’s really cool that they connect to create one image.

Craft 7 Toms Matt Bulter

Suzanne of Silver Tree Art had lots of fun and colorful stuff as usual. Sherry spent a good five minutes browsing through some of her “wisdom cards” that are like cheerful little spirit-boosters.

Craft 15 Widsom Cards Suzann L Vinson

And Sherry was also struck by these cool layered necklaces by Lucky Accessories.

Craft 16 Necklaces Lucky Accessories

Of course we couldn’t afford to purchase everything that we admired that day (heck, we couldn’t even cram it all into this post). But we didn’t go home empty handed. I bought part of a Christmas gift for a coffee lover in my family thanks to a local shop called Lamplighter Roasting Company. And yes, their bag design is just about enough to make me want to get over my aversion to java-flavored anything.

  Craft 9 Lamplighter Coffee

Sherry also snagged a couple of those wisdom cards that she was so enamored with. They now sit on her desk as pretty daily reminders.

  Craft Wisdom Cards Office

And we also raided Funnel Cloud Studio a bit. No, I didn’t let Sherry bring that Jersey print home, but I did give into her addiction to all things shiny and animal related with these gold and silver prints. Gold armadillo for the win. And you know we love our rhinos (see our blog header for evidence).

  Craft Funnel Cloud Sparkly

Meanwhile I convinced her that we had to have Funnel Cloud’s awesome new poster: Things That Are Awesome.

Craft Things That Are Awesome Far

We don’t have a spot picked out for it – we’re thinking guest room – but I’ve already clocked about thirty minutes just discovering all of the intricate little drawings (and secretly evaluating whether I agree with their awesomeness or not). We even had guests over for the holidays and all of them were drawn to it – just standing there staring. So we think it’ll make an awesome addition to that room.

Craft Things That Are Awesome Close

Now we’ll pause to send a huge thanks to all of the awesome artists who make these cool local craft fairs possible. Your talent runneth over, and we love Sherry loves bouncing from booth to booth. Literally, I think she was bouncing for a good part of the fair. You know what they say: giddy wife, giddy life. Wait, that’s not the expression?

Anyone else hit up any craft fairs or get any handmade gifts to give this year? Got any favorites from the items that we shared above?

Comments

  4. braelin says

    I LOVE posts like this from you two– and I love the stuff from Lucky Accessories and Flytrap Studios too- thanks for the leads on these great craftspeople.

    Reply

  7. Joanna Morgan says

    I made all of my Christmas gifts this year – from jewelry, to Sharpie mugs, to stamped candles. It was so much fun! My favorites are the New Jersey print (though I would get one for good ole NC), and the you are > than everyone (except me) print. So cute! Do you guys know of any shows like this closer to NC? I would LOVE to go!

    Reply

  8. bethany says

    That poster is amazing! I think I need one for m apartment. Not sure where it would go, but I’m sure I could make it work!

    Reply

  10. Deborah Jones says

    From a tiny bit further afield……I’m so lucky to help organise a great collective of craftspeople local to where I live here in England. We’re just coming to the end of a run of 10 weeks, occupying 2 otherwise empty shops in our local mall. Needless to say, I’ve been surrounded by fabulous handcrafted products for the whole time, and everyone on my list got something crafty for Christmas!(except the 16 year old son…..unfortunately we didn’t have anything plug-inable in the shop!)

    Reply

  11. Heather says

    I always hit up The Big Crafty here in Asheville- it happens twice a year, and once right before the holidays! Handmade is best!!

    Reply

  12. Lynn says

    All of these artists are great. I have already been collecting from Suzanne at Silver Tree Art and from Tasha McKelvey. There is a new art calendar Silver Tree Art has that I will be ordering as soon as the Etsy shop opens in January. Thanks for sharing with those of us who were too far away to attend the show.

    Reply

  13. Debbie Barker says

    Guess who was lucky enough to get the large canvas with the mason jars for Christmas? That would be me. I can’t wait to hang it in my kitchen. In fact, my daughter and I saw you guys at this craft fair and were wondering what caught your eye. We were thrilled to see 2 of our purchases featured here.

    Reply

  14. Cristina says

    Hi guys! Love all the great stuff featured in this post, but I’m actually curious about the little bird picture clip holding up the new wisdom card. Where did you find that cutie?? Thanks for info :)

    Reply

  15. Whitney says

    Love this stuff. We have an Arts Festival every year but never have stuff like this. I would love to know if there are any craft fairs in my area (Pensacola, FL, Fairhope, AL, Mobile, AL and the like). Anyone on here know where I should look?

    Thanks guys!!!

    Reply

  16. Amy says

    So none of my siblings have children (neither do I) but most of us do have cats and we like to tease my mom about all of her beautiful ‘grandkitties’. So for Christmas we framed pictures of all six of her grandkitties and I made a little fabric ornaments of each of them too.

    And I got my sister-in-law your book, she was so excited!

    Reply

  17. Susan Aiiison-Diaz says

    This year I decided to gift all my family and friends with handmade gifts I had made (whether they liked it or not!) except my husband who scored a set of brand new golf clubs and case of 86 golf balls -which I scored at a yard sale along with other sports equipment and apparel for 2 twenties and had hidden in my shed. He’s afraid to venture in there (I’m a recycle artist part-time and sometimes I’m afraid to go in there because everything and bits and pieces of everything are everywhere along with display stands booth items etc are all over. Anything that anyone had commented on that they said was cool I gave as Christmas gifts. I gave out a lot of bird feeders I had made from recycled bottles and blinged out with copper and jewelry beads. I should call them “Birdie Bling or Bling Bling Birdie! Thank goodness my other job I work for FedEx because making things I found for family it more time consuming then making it to sell I was shipping a lot of things out last minute. Though I didn’t get all my cards done-alot didn’t get in the mail till Christmas Eve.. (Sigh…I have to do better next year and start earlier)

    Reply

  19. Maria @ Inspiration Affirmation says

    I love all of these items — how did you even choose! :-) The gnome ornaments are my favorite, I think. I love the idea of finding the gnome in the tree from year to year…really, that could work with any quirky ornament, and I think that’s fun!

    Reply

  20. N Shirley says

    I wanted to make this comment on the Terrain give away page but couldn’t find it. I used the gift certificate I won to buy a beautiful key rack- like they use at old hotels- thank you so much! It is just beautiful! I have been enjoying the Brown Betty cookbook also! So much fun to win!

    Reply

  22. Amanda Nowak says

    I know I’m behind the curve, but my husband bought me your book for Christmas and I’ve enjoyed taking it slow, marking the projects I want to try in our current stage {apartment}, and enjoying a little piece of your home brought into mine. Great job! I will admit to laughing a little at your “place acorns in the freezer” tip, since we saw how well that worked for you ;)

    Reply

  23. Funnelcloud Rachel says

    I meant to comment on this post earlier, but I’ve been so busy with all the traffic you all have sent to my shop over the past few days – there’s going to be a whole pile of awesome shipped out to YHL readers next week! :)

    Thank you guys for the amazing write-up, and as always for stopping by my booth at Handmade Holiday (I love seeing familiar faces!) and for promoting the work of local artists and small businesses!

    Have an awesome new year, Petersiks!

    xo,
    Rachel

    Reply

  27. Lisa Brooks says

    I only recently discovered your blog and I wanted let you know how much both me and my husband are enjoying reading it. I admire your humble nature. My best advice is to work towards being debt-free. Pre-pay your mortgage when you can, baby!

    We are currently awaiting closing on a short sale home. We are in our late forties and currently own a wonderful home, but the home we are buying will better suit the multigenerational nature of our family. My 88 y.o. mother and college age kids live with us. We plan on starting a blog to chronical our home projects on the 20 year old brick ranch.

    Best wishes for your future and I hope to meet you at the Atlanta book signing!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Lisa! We love that philosophy (we saved up until we could buy our one-and-only car in cash, we like to put as much down on a house as we can for a lower interest rate, etc). It feels good! We both come from frugal families so I think it’s in our blood :)

      xo
      s

  28. Mitsy says

    Hey guys,
    This is entirely off post topic, but I had a question for John about the bathroom remodel you guys did in your first house. We are trying to re-tile our tub surround. We also have an old cast iron tub, and the tile lip/tub flange is really short. It looks similar to what you guys had. How did John deal with that? I know he put furring strips on all the studs, was that to make the walls of the tub alcove flush with the other walls or to allow the backerboard to rest a 1/4in or so above the tub flange? If it was the former, did you guys slightly cantilever your tile (have part of it not on the backerboard)? Sorry for such a long question, but we’re having a hard time figuring the best solution to our problem. My husband feels cantilevering the tile will make it too weak, but then if we furr out the studs in the tub alcove we’ll have issues with our other walls and have to furr them out too (just a lot of work). Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

    Regards,
    Mitsy

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hi Mitsy,

      My memory isn’t 100% clear on this anymore, but my best recollection is that all of the furring we did was to get the walls level and flush with one another (primarily to make it flush with the existing drywall we left on the upper half of the non-bathtub side). I don’t believe we had an issue having to fur it out to go over the lip of the tub. My (completely non-professional) instinct is that if you can cantilever the tile it would be fine as along as 60-75% of the tile is still set on the backerboard. Of, if you can, you could fur out the bottom portion of the backerboard so the whole all had an ever so slight slope. It probably wouldn’t be noticeable to the eye, but I’m not sure if that creates issues with your other walls.

      Sorry you’re running into the issue!

      -John

  29. Angela says

    I love craft fairs like this. You can find such unique items.

    I just noticed that John has been doing a majority of the posting. Hope everything is okay with Sherry.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yeah, some weeks are super Sherry-heavy and others seem to be John-heavy! We just tend to go back and forth and share the writing/project/Clara duties :)

      xo
      s

  30. Claire Parker says

    I love those stockings but the link isn’t working… Also Jon, there is a student in my third grade class who’s name is seriously Awesome. We have to watch our encouragement because “you’re awesome, Awesome” comes out a little too often.

    Reply

  31. Wyndi Hills says

    Am I the only one with an earworm from the song by Drive Shaft in the TV show Lost after looking at the picture of John with the You Are > Everybody piece of art?

    Reply

  32. Born and Raised RVA says

    My childhood friend Noelle Whitney is the proud owner of Lamplighter Coffee. I was excited to see your support!

    Reply

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