midwest is best.

today we left milwaukee after some harried running around. there were pictures to take, orders to post, questions to ask, sleeping moments to extend, and new inventions to crank out. but i will get back to that in a moment.

today we bid our sad farewell to paper boat; we won't be back through here before they shut their doors at the end of the month. if you are in the area, you should check out the amazing deals they have going on some of the indie craft community's finest wares.

muffy balls by muffy


talking painting by justin richel




ohhh bama! & snarky valentines by owly shadow puppets

we also bid a less-sad farewell to faythe. do not be mistaken, we began to miss her immediately but she will still be in milwaukee when we are back through in june.

and, yes, it is true, before we left town i actually managed to finish a small run of new secret message envelopes. "i love you" - simple, obvious, needed by the world. they are up in my etsy shop now. if you like them, i would snap one up quick; my perfect envelope supply is dwindling and i may have to switch styles for future runs.

having packed up, visited and crafted we were ready to shove off back to chicago for a couple of store meetings, or so we thought. the mixture of rain, late afternoon and chicago drivers (sorry guys, you are collectively the worst and i have been everywhere) made our trip more than double in length. we gotinto town with only enough time to drop in on paper boy.

the girls discovered the joy of secret messages (very flattering at this early stage in my invention's life) and i am happy to say that the shop is now the first chicago outlet for these mysterious marvels. they picked up a good selection and a few of the newer button sets. aitor's work is also all over that place, so check them out!

we ended our day making things and watching a fantastic documentary about song poems (because our hostess, one miss emily candini, makes us way cooler than we actually are).

i love you, chicago. you wear me out but only through constant excitement, activity and support.