Monday, June 6, 2011

mini midwest tour: Chicago, Columbus

I've quite a couple of weeks. First my boyfriend and I traveled to Chicago where I finally got to sample a delicious (veggie) burger at Kuma's Corner, hung out with some dear friends and heard one of them, the talented Meghan Lamb, read at Ear Eater #6, and last but certainly not least went to see Ga'an at the Empty Bottle which, if you have the chance to go see them -- do. It was indescribably good.

Anyway, after a hard 2-day work week it was off to Columbus, OH for the Midwest Craft Caucus. It was a weekend conference for sharing information and making contacts in the world of handmade business, basically. Unfortunately, due to the uh, perils of running one's own business, I wasn't able to make it for the whole thing! But I did sit on 2 panels on Saturday, and went to a few workshops, all of which were very informative and useful.

And perhaps best of all, I got to meet SCADS of awesome people, many of whom I knew "on the internet" but had never met in real life. Among the lovelies were:

Martha Latta of Sunday Afternoon Housewife -- who, to be fair, I actually probably have met before since she did participate in the Bloomington Handmade Market in the past, but I am typically too frazzled at those things to be very social. She's making a documentary called The Culture of Craft, all about our little world and its goings-ons, and it promises to be pretty fantastic.

Becky Johnson of the Sweetie Pie Press -- whose blog is quite easy to get lost in, and with whom I have been apparently crossing paths for years. It's a small world, the world of art and zines. Anyway, besides having fantastic fashion sense, there is a sampling of her creations at her etsy shop.

Al Hoff, Autumn Wiggins and Cinnamon Cooper, who are linked to their projects and who are inspirational, artistic ladies sharing a similar mental illness to my own -- the need to organize crafty events.

Now I'm back to the daily grind, which for me entails creating storage for medieval manuscripts, so things could certainly be worse.

I'm also in the middle of reading Patti Smiths' Just Kids, which is so far completely impossible to put down.

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