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Thursday, May 7, 2009

big day, chicago.

today started innocently enough with a trip to unique vintage to buy a few travel supplies. other than these inquisition barbies, it was a classic urban thrift experience. gems were hard to come by and pricey for people about to drive into the middle of nowhere.

we then moved on to the more comfortable climes of one of my first retailers, uncle fun. billy read us our playing card-based astrological profiles. i am a benevolent cynic when it comes to such things but they were pretty bang-on psychological profiles. as it turns out, i am a jack of diamonds. who knew?

we stocked the shop up with all manner of billy-approved buttons and stocked ourselves up with a collection of small things that we don't need (except that we totally do) - such is the particular charm of this very special shop. this time, i also made an effort to look up. the counters and drawers are so cluttered with cool junk that i hadn't noticed, for instance, the giant tiger wearing a witches hat or the (i believe) embroidered portrait of a costumed john belushi. there are a few picture below but way more can be found by poking around here.







on our last visit through town, i was sad to find the world's largest spray string sculpture to be gone (reported on here). apparently, it had lost all stability and was decomposing onto the marchandise. well, i am happy to report that it has been replaced by the (world's only?) wish-granting robot.





living in our precarious nomadic way, we partook heartily in some good fortune hunting before moving on. speaking of good fortune and uncle fun, it looks like we will be spending a weekend in their window doing things in june. but more on that later. we have other places to visit.

of course, what would a trip to chicago be without at least one incident of circling around lost due to diagonal street confusion? we found this stuff while lost...



...but it makes me worry for our upcoming visit to north america's most cock-eyed town, pittsburgh.

we finally made it to renegade handmade about an hour before they closed and loaded them with new goodies. i also got to drool over their big selection of ever-new things. this wood cut by multi polar projects caught my eye this time. it's a limited run of one million, so i should just stop dragging my heels.



we stopped in on sue but tried not to bother her for too long. she's an affable lady but she was going through applications for the west coast renegade craft fairs (to which we have applied) and we were getting worn out, anyway. plus the cell phone needed to be exchanged at some grocery store way across town. that's what this is all about:


photo by rev. aitor

exhaustion + making sure the phone worked + being on hold + getting hungry + no seating.

thankfully we finally got sorted out, i was free of my dino captor and we ended our day by being treated to a home cooked meal from the incredible reba rar rar followed by drinks at the skylark, a photo booth, and a reunion with my long-time pal, noah.




a wonderful way to end a chock-full day. the food was amazing, reba!

note to selves: we can't live like this for an entire month. let's wish on the robot gods for a slower pace once we reach indiana.

3 comments:

Summer said...

Incredible! What an adventure!

Unknown said...

Where are you visiting in Indiana? That's where I currently reside and I want to know where I can check out some of your wares!

sweetie pie press said...

i was through there at the beginning of the month and only overnight. i had some of my stuff in some shops in bloomington but i haven't restocked in so long that i would be surprised if they still had any. but i love indiana and wish i had more reasons to go there.