naptown races.

after last night's active show and tell, jaime left me with two skeins of her lovely t-shirt yarn. i love the colours and would imagine that it is either cotton or a cotton/poly blend (you know, t-shirt stuff). what should i make with these?

after a luxurious sleep-in on the steer horn couch, we got ourselves together to go to the farmer's market. what a treat!

jerry and jaime got some herbs for their spring garden, while we limited ourselves to road supplies - some honey for my morning tea, lavender sachets to keep our suitcases and clothes from stinking like old plastic and some tea samples of a new puh-ehr tea i had never tried. yum!

our indy hosts then took us to white river architectural salvage, a sprawling and overwhelming junk shop where you can buy things like mounted moose heads, spoons and mantel pieces. or a new spire for you house, should you need it.

with something weird and awesome around every corner, i took way too many pictures. if you want to see more, check in here.

we got back to our typewriter sleeping quarters with enough time to pack up around the napping cats, for me to get schooled by jerry on the use of button hole attachments for straight stitching sewing machines, and for the two of us to go over some very exciting plans for a custom button bag that he is going to make for me. it feels pretty swanky to get to commission custom work,

we shoved off for ohio...

...and got in just as seth's band was getting off stage at the thristy ear. it was sad that we missed their set but all was not lost; olivera was there to greet us with drinks already poured so we sat back and watched the headliner, grace adele.

what a great welcome to columbus. tomorrow we have a trunk show all day at wholly craft. come on down!

further adventures in coastlessness.

we started today early by screwing everything up and arriving late at no coast. thankfully, reba was able to rejig her schedule and i was able to stock the shop up with new sweetie pie buttons sets. so don't worry, pilsen, you too have sweetie pie buttons at your fingertips. the last time we were through town, no coast was just about to open so i hadn't seen it in action yet. the store has filled in perfectly, the stock padded heavily by the unique output of the collective members who run the space (lots of flats both letterpressed and silkscreened, in particular).

after no coast we got an early start on the road to indianapolis. indiana, to me, has always seemed a study in shades of gray. i have driven through some of the worst weather i have been in there (aside from michigan and london, ontario, but that's a different story). graham and i were convinced we were going to die by lightning there a few years back. even on the nice days i have experienced there, there is often an element of tumult and wind in the skies.

take note, sarah mcneil, most of indy is stealing your colour palettes.

we got to town in good time for once, met up with our friends jaime and jerry, and went out to pick up some supplies at the thrift store. this is the kind of place to go thrifting. and look at the curatorial care with which the shops are arranged:

we drove around a bit taking in the sites (there are, too) and settled into a night of home life and crafty show and tell with our hosts.

jaime spins, makes awesome recycled t-shirt yarn, finishes vintage quilt tops into quilts and more. jerry specializes in western wear (and does a mean business in custom work, if you are ever looking for such a thing). they also have a lovely home full of jerry's typewriter collection, taxidermy, sewing machines and equipment, state plates and jerry's garage full of vintage bikes for rebuildin'. good show and tell, guys. i like this place.

new bags by jerry lee's western wear

yes, jaime has a whole stuffed deer. yes, these things can be found here.

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.