seriously? really, seriously?

so here's how last night went down after we packed it in from the raining craft fair:

after a bit of drying out and trying to get some work done, aitor went outside for a smoke and got stung in the hand by a wasp. calamity #1.

we watched a few episodes of the office (from reba's awesome dvd collection) while i made more buttons on her living room floor and then went to bed around 2:30am. not long after settling into bed, we heard a huge crash from the street and ran to the window only to see a white suv pulling away from boris (our station wagon) and lurching around the corner. i threw my gum boots on and ran out into the street in the pouring rain wearing basically underwear and a shirt. the charming suv driver has actually parked around the corner and was busily slurring and telling me it wasn't him and that gangs had run into my car. all the while his back tail light lay in a pile of glass on my soaking wet driver's seat and his bumper was covered in glass from my windshield. eventually, our new weird drunk friend told us he'd fix the car if we came and drank tequila with him. we already had all his insurance information, so we declined and waited for the police to arrive. boring boring boring...we filled our forms, they were nice but they refused to talk with this inebriated driver or do anything about him. after the police departed, we were left with a gaping wide hole in the car that was quickly filling with water. the door was too based in to open. there was glass everywhere. it was probably around 5:00am.

aitor, prince that he is, volunteered to unload the car into reba's place. this was no small job. also, while he was doing this he got two more wasp stings.



after bandaging aitor up and finally getting to sleep, it was about 6:30am. i got up at 9:00 to drive around and find an auto glass place. thankfully, the car still moves. the charming dudes there hammered on my door until it would open again, vacuumed the glass out of everywhere and set me on my way with a brand new rain-repelling window. they were real champs and i felt almost stable again. the door is no so full of holes, though, that it fills with water in the rain and sloshes when opened or closed. i wish i had pictures of what boris looked like before these guys did their job. it was sad. but taking pictures was not on my mind in the middle of the night in the middle of the road.



now being rained on at craft fairs seemed the least of our concerns and sitting through a few hours of downpour was nothing to our exhausted, stung, tattered selves. by just before sunset, the clouds had parted and there was actually sunshine. everything dried out, the bands played and chicagoans came out in droves. we didn't even have to put a wet tent in the car (one of my least favorite things - not that it would have mattered much in the soggy state the car was in).



the car now smells like an old wet sandwich and my hands are covered in little cuts i didn't know i was getting from leftover broken glass, but all in all i feel kind of fortunate. if calamity is going to strike (and when one spends six months living the way we are, one should expect some amount of calamity) we are lucky to both be alive and (mostly) well. it is hard for aitor to draw portraits with his hands covered in stings. hopefully that will abate a bit by tomorrow morning. but that's a story for another day...

how to sell crafts in the rain (or renegade craft fair, day one).

being from vancouver, one would think i might know how to operate in the rain. and while i used to be fine with living life in a constant state of dampness, my advanced age and curmudgeonliness have made me a very cranky customer when it comes to selling crafts in the rain. well, this time i swore would be different. we knew the weather reports well in advance (it was even pouring as we drove into town last night) so i had time to psychologically prepare myself. i resolved to stay positive and figure out solutions to our situation that would keep us happy, safe and dry.

first of, we do now have a new better tent that we got on sale at home depot. it's not perfectly rain-proof but pretty rad.



the one big flaw we discovered is that since the seams are stitched, the rain-proofing along them is all full of tiny holes and tends to leak quickly. and since the seams run above the uppermost poles of the tent, this sends a little series of drips down the four ceiling poles. as a fix for this problem, i had the major brainwave to simply tie yarn along the poles from the point of the highest drip. this doesn't patch the holes, or stop the leaks from happening but it does divert the drips down the yarn in a path-of-least-resistance approach to keeping the rain away from our stuff. it worked like a charm!





i know this is a pretty niche problem for my first how-to but i was just so shamelessly proud of myself for figuring out such an easy do-it-yourself fix to a problem at least a few of you may face in the future. and it all kept working through a whole day of torrential rains!

we also pulled the mats off the floor boards of the car to keep our under-table stuff from getting wet on the bottom. this also worked like magic.



after hours of fussing and mussing and adjusting and trying to stay dry and positive, i looked out of the tent and saw this on the curb:



i guess choosing to find things fun makes them fun. also, kids are more waterproof than balloons. who knew?

why louisville loves me.

okay, i don't know why louisville loves me, or even if it does. but i do know that i have a bit of a love-on for this town, although this affection is also somewhat inexplicable. i've only ever spent a total of eight hours in the city (because holing up in a peripheral motel and making the mess pictured above does not count). there's just something i feel here. call me stupid, if you must. aitor does.



we started our last day in louisville (and only actual day of venturing into the city) with a visit to my biggest retailer there - dot fox clothing culture. i have to say that the proprietress, one miss sally bird, is a true southern sweetie. she is always so kind and supportive and has a really good eye for style. the shop makes me feel like i could possibly manage to dress myself respectably with little effort. that was, if i was so inclined/able. it also has lots of neat art and things.



next up, we made a purely tourist stop at why louisville, a self-professed "fan club for the city." they only work with local artists and thus won't even look at our stuff (a respectable choice). they do, however, seem to make one exception to the louisville-only rule and that is when it comes to merchandise praising/quoting/celebrating/exalting the big lebowski.



yes, it is true. this is because one of the shop's owners is also a founder of lebowski fest, a festival of all things big lebowski that started in louisville and has since expanded all over the world. clearly, this shop is amazing.





i allowed myself to buy one new shirt. a recent stroll through pictures of my appearances at improv festivals spanning the last few years taught me that i haven't been acquiring new casual stage clothes for...five years. the new shirt is blue and covered in yellow horseshoes - a great memento of the town i love so much. i still don't know if i will wear it on stage. i guess i'll stick with my distractions shirt and emma's old hand-me-down jeans. again.

and now we head off to chicago for what looks to be a very wet and soggy renegade craft fair. speaking of rain, check out this rain-drop-bedazzled care package i got from leah and jen back home.





they are the new gocco printed business cards for our collective, city of craft. it was actually a nice group effort, even from afar. well, insomuch as i sent the digital files. they really did most of the work. it made me feel a little bit of home while on the road. now i have to stop myself from just hoarding them all for myself..

finally.

well, some time holed up in louisville has paid off. i have finally managed to list my worksite accidents print diptych on etsy. thanks to the people i met at craft fairs who harassed me to do so. it's alive!

i have also managed to get the pin pals sets live on etsy (even though their designer, miss sara guindon, has had them in her shop for a while now).

and i got some buttons in the mail for long-time custom button clients, baroque ensemble i furiosi. these new designs are merch for a concert on monday celebrating their tenth anniversary. i am so happy to have been able to make them into the rock stars they are...in button form. look how badass they look. that's some sexy baroque. congratulations on ten years, guys!

motel room lullaby.

this is what we do between places - that is, when we aren't wasting our time and money on having ridiculously tacky experiences. we have had to buckle down a bit lately, though, with a string of fall craft fairs just around the corner. this weekend is renegade craft fair chicago (lord help us, the computer says it is going to rain), next weekend we go to detroit for the diy street fair, the following weekend we will be outside of st. louis for the strange folk festival...and then...and then...there is a lot off stuff to make.



i have also been taking some last minute pictures of aitor/the misanthrope specialty company's works so that he can finally launch the misanthrope web shop. with more skilled photographic assistance from our pal stacey bode, this has been a big project of his over the past couple of weeks. there may even be stuff up there later tonight. he is at kinko's right now working furiously while i dominate our motel room with button making.


also, i have just received word from the lovelies over at craftland in providence that the sweetie pie press's wares have been accepted to their annual pop-up shop. this will be their seventh year and my first. i am very excited to be represented at this awesome event.

chattanooga, rock city!

today, on the emphatic recommendation of our friends missy and raoul, we visited a magical place called rock city in chattanooga, tennessee.

although this was another mildly-too-expensive outing, it did not disappoint.

the experience begins with all sorts of walking around rock formations.



this was all pretty cool except i found the loud new age, schmaltzy music they pipe through the gardens to be a bit much and eventually pretty irritating. still, there was a lot of cool stuff to see - lover's leap, historical markers, seven states, carnivorous pitcher plants, a rainbow tunnel...











...all sorts of things i really go in for. it was fun, but still...i had to ask myself why missy and raoul were so particularily smitten with this place. and then this happened:



as it turns out, the founders' daughter was a big fan of gnomes and fairies (and a black light enthusiast, too, it would seem). her additions to rock city really made the experience happen for me. these impish aesthetics were best exemplified by fairyland caverns - a sort of magical kingdom of germanic folklore with a hillbilly twist.









we also learned that one of rock city's historical distinctions was the innovation of barn roof advertising. this roadside attraction was one of the first to bombard surrounding (and even not-so-surrounding) areas with captivating billboards. we even found the remnants of some old ones on our way out of the city.

so long, atlanta.

well, it was a long stay in atlanta and an even longer stay in the state of georgia. in spite of that picture up there, we would like to extend some heartfelt thanks to all those who housed/put up with/got illnesses from us. that's you, raoul, missy, matt, stacey, matt & stacy (yes, atlanta is all matts and stac(e)ys).

we ended our elongated trip to atlanta with one last splash into the city's food at nuevo loredo cantina. this is one of my favorite places in atlanta and not only because it doesn't just serve ribs. i like it because it is totally catholic (even the garbage can housing is covered in crosses) and the decor reflects this both inside and out.





it is also located in this middle-of-nowhere area across from the pepsi bottling factory. for this reason, it is also one of the few places in atlanta that doesn't serve coca cola.

we were joined by our friends matt and lucky and i can't think of better way to say our sad farewell to one of our favorite cities. oh, atlanta, we miss you and your valiant citizens already.

hopefully chattanooga will find some way to take the edge off...