Sunday, October 3, 2010

To the Midwest and back!

By Crystal Hanehan of Vintage by Crystal

I recently spent 10 days traveling with my wonderful and talented mom by train to Chicago and then to Minneapolis, and back home again...and I'm exhausted! But very happy. I'm grateful to say that lots and lots of figures and animals found new homes and I met so many wonderful and inspiring people!
Renegade Chicago was such a mob scene that I didn't really get a chance to even think about taking photos. But we had lots of lax time at the Creative Connection Minneapolis and my mom and I managed to snap a few photos of our booth there. I couldn't bring my big display shelf with us, so I had to improvise in terms of props (meaning...cardboard boxes under the table cloth). Oh well!
Some of the larger pieces graced the highest peak of our display.

My mom brought some amazing needle felted logs, stumps, deer and a squirrel to create a neat woodland scene. It was happily dismantled piece by piece.
They're all saying "Pick Me! Pick Me!"


Across from our table was the gorgeous table of Sherry from Sherry's Rose Cottage. It was such decadent eye candy and so girly!
I was tempted by these shoes...but with my giant feet, they made me feel like Cinderella's stepsister!
Mom and I had some free time between shows to explore Minneapolis a little bit. It was gorgeous and so modern and Mom couldn't stop talking about how much she loved it!
During the Creative Connection I had Mom watch the booth while I took Jennifer Murphy's heritage bunny class. And of course like anything she does...I just LOVED it! I can't believe I was actually able to sew this little guy together on the first try and hope to make some more to give away as gifts. I think I'd like to add a few more details to him and he'll be perfect! Jen's talented mom Pat Murphy was there in class helping out and taught me some little sewing tricks... So helpful and amazing! They are a dream team and I can't stop gushing! :)
I've also been a long time fan of Ashley Carter's Goldbug Studio. She had a table there with Earth Angels and it was so great seeing her work in person and of course finally meeting her in person! I also managed to pick out just one piece to take home with me and am now the proud owner of one of her original pieces...yay! And a discontinued piece at that!
There were so many other great booths there and I shopped around intermittently. Little bags of doodad's weren't going to escape my grasp... And I've never paid so much for ribbon, but this fantastic vintage nautical themed printed ribbon was completely worth it!

These vintage goodies will be given to future spun cotton figures.

Colored dresden is hard to resist and of course will show up on future angels and leprechauns.

I've been looking for a nice hand knitted head wrap thingy and while I was hoping to knit it myself...I decided to be realistic and just buy one from someone who's much better at knitting than me. I like this one because it blends in with my hair...sort of a blended detail. Can you tell how fashionable I am? lol
I also did some trading...there are some new babies that have and will show up in my life soon and they of course need to be showered with gifts! I got two hand screen printed onesies with owls on them from Too Many Suitors. So cute!
Mom and I took the train from city to city. The slow...long...slow train. It was actually kinda nice and Mom gave me some pointers on crocheting. I made these tiny hats for future Christmas and winter themed spun cotton girls and boys. They'll be quite warm for sure!
And of course I spent most of my train time spinning cotton. Christmas...here I come!

It was an amazing two shows, a fantastic trip, and of course some great bonding time with Mom. I met so many great people and saw so many great things. I just loved it! But I'm glad to be home with kitties and Ben and with my feet up for a little while. :)

2 comments :

  1. WOW looks like you had a lot of fun Crystal. Great displays and very cool post. What a fun adventure :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't wait to see your new creations at Christmas! I'll start saving now :) Love to add to my collection of VBC!

    ReplyDelete

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