Monthly Archives: July 2011

The Renegade Craft Fair Hits San Francisco

A few weekends ago, Miss Dottie and I decided to head on down to the Renegade Craft Fair. It’s always at the most scenic location, Fort Mason. The joint was jumpin’ and we saw and met some really amazing folks (shout out to the most wonderful Robert Mahar! So great to finally meet in person!)!

Renegade is filled with all kinds of handmade goodness….silkscreened artwork on tees, beautiful felt floral hair clips, stuffed animals and dolls, art work, jewelery and much more. A lot of the work is playful and tongue-in-cheek. A little bit indie. A little bit kitschy. And a lot of lovely. Let’s look around!

I was quite taken with this cuckoo wolf clock from Black Forest Clockworks.

Another favorite were these globes, they were STUNNING I tell you. Vintage globes are all the rage, but I thought this fun spin on them was especially cool. Usually people futzing with vintage objects can kinda bum me out (“What?? Paint on a gorgeous vintage globe??? Sacrilege!”) but these were glorious. Artist Wendy Gold paints whimsical designs and even customized family trees on them and turns them into unique pieces of art. You can see more at ImagineNations.


Once of my fave things to scoop up are groovy tees for Wolfie and Greg. SO MANY great ones. I got Wolfie that little groovy fox down there. Rad tees from Gnome Enterprises.

These pins were really sweet—but mostly they made me want to find the vintage puzzle that they came from.

I say….doesn’t everyone need a monocle???? I reeeeally wish I had bought that, just so I could give people THE LOOK whenever I felt like it.

OK. This was so gross. We bought these little cupcakes before realizing they were called, like, poo-poo cupcakes. Yeah. That’s a marzipan fly on top. Not a big fan of that concept…. (But guess what? Close your eyes, and they were delicious!)

I tell ya, Big Foot really never gets old. Same goes for Chewbacca and Abominables. And a Chewy with a taco? Too good.

This is the adorable Lisa from Zelma Rose. Her “vintage inspired curiosities” are these really charming hand crafted pendants. Dottie loved the beautiful chalkboard lockets and sillouettes and I was quite taken by the constellations (hey, they didn’t used to call me Galexie Girl for nothing! I lerve of all things spacey!).


We ran into our sweet pal (and fellow Devil-Ette) Katie. She bought some really great felt hair doo dads from migration studios. Really lovely.



We had to take a break for some snackies and veggie corn dogs did the trick!

Then it was back to the show! I have to say I’m crazy about these suave animals from Ryan at Berkeley Illustration. I bought two prints for Wolfie’s room, the dapper Wolf and the mysterious Cheetah (because Wolfie recently informed that the cheetah is his “Top Favorite Animal”). They are very affordable and super cool.


Emily from The Black Apple was there and her display was as adorable as you would expect. Little vintage suitcases filled with goodies? Yes please.

I swear we don’t really own many “wolf” items (although I realize I just referenced THREE in this post alone) but this notebook was so cute I couldn’t resist!!

The lovely ladies at Goodbye Blue Monday had the sweetest dolls. Dottie almost bought one for the Peach…must remember come Christmas!

Best in Show for me was Fox and Owl. She makes these completely magical little stuffed animals that remind me of the vintage German Steiff animals I had growing up. They were SO sweet and wonderfully made. Just gorgeous. You must check them out!

So cute….

All in all it was a smashing day! If the Renegade is coming to a town near you, you should def check it out!

Psst, click here to read a quick a funny story about us trying to find parking at Renegade!

MK Giveaway :: $50 UrbanTickle Gift Certificate {CLOSED}

Today we have a real bang up of a giveaway—a $50 gift certificate to Etsy print shop, UrbanTickle! You can use it to select amazing prints, shower invitations, birth announcements and more!

Started by self-taught illustrator Ankita Kejariwal, UrbanTickle Prints has become one of the most popular Etsy print shops and has been featured on Project Nursery and BabyCenter.  I sat down with Ankita, the mastermind behind the brand for a little e-kombucha tea and hear what makes this brand so wonderful…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

MK: What inspired you to start this lovely shoppe?

Ankita: My Shop is an outcome of a collective coming together of my entire life- I was a copywriter, interior designer and graphic designer and now all those skills have culminated in my shop. I have always admired the spirit of entrepreneurship in people and have secretly harbored the desire to be one for years. What helped was that I found myself more and more `free’ from my `freelance’ life due to the recession and it gave me time to play with my designs and I realized that this is something I could do more professionally. My son was the ultimate motivating factor because there is nothing like being there for him when he needs me. Etsy was the natural outlet for my experiments.

MK: Etsy really does rock! And all of that sounds like you have some art in you background is that true?

Ankita: Well, I do have my BA in Graphic Design and have worked in the business for 5+ years. I am a self-taught illustrator and I am still learning.

MK: Ah, aren’t we all? So I must ask, what is your all-time favorite item in your Etsy shop?

Ankita: My all time favorite in the shop is the Be Different, Be you print!  I made this especially for little minds because it is so easy to get swept up in all the hype and fashion. I want kids, including my own kid, to be self-assured and know that it’s ok to be different. That it is alright if you do not follow the crowd, because I have consciously never done so, and although it has got me in trouble sometimes, it has always been the good kind of trouble. 🙂

MK: Thank you so much for chatting with me, lady. And thanks so much for doing this terrific giveaway with us. We love your work!

So, here’s la deal:

To win this amazing $50 gift certificate to Urban Tickle Prints,here’s all you need to do:

  1. Leave a comment on this blog for one entry

You can secure an additional entry for each of the following for five to seven additional entries:

  1. “Like” Urban Tickle on Facebook.
  2. Follow Urban Tickle on Twitter.
  3. To get bonus entries, follow us on Twitter. If you are already a follower, tweet about this giveaway—don’t forget to include @modernkiddo in the tweet please! (it’s how we can track your tweet) You can also follow our personal twitters @galexina and @missdottie for two more bonus entries.
  4. “Like” us on Facebook.
  5. And finally, “follow” Alix (@galexina) and Dottie (@MissDottie) on Instagram.

You’ll get one entry for each thing you do. If you do all eight things on the list you’ll be entered eight times. HUZZAH!!!

Voting ends NEXT Monday, August 1st at NOON PST.  The winner will be announced that evening Monday, August 1st at 8:00PM-PST.

Good luck, and we’re crossing our fingers you win!

 

Vintage Monday :: Magical Paint By Numbers

Ah paint by numbers! What was once a thrift store classic has now risen up in the ranks and become a coveted piece of Americana history. Friends, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to actually PAINT a paint-by-numbers, but it ain’t easy! For those who don’t know, Paint-By-Numbers are black and white canvases bearing color-coded numbered areas for the “artist” to fill in with appropriate colors. The daintiest of paint brushes and a steady hand are critical. When done well, I think they have a uniquely haunting quality. There is just something about them that makes you look twice!

So how did paint-by-numbers become such a popular fad? Let’s take a little look see!

It all began at the Palmer Paint Company in Detroit, Michigan. They introduced the first paint-by-number kits under the label Craft Master at the New York Toy Show in 1951. Artist Dan Robbins (a Palmer Paint packaging designer) is credited with coming up with the idea and creating many of the initial paintings. Robbins was inspired by childhood memories of coloring books and Michelangelo—who famously assigned pre-numbered sections of the Sistine Chapel to his students to paint. The first Craft Master set was “The Fishermen” and included a rolled canvas stamped with the numbered outline of the scene, mini tubes of oil paint, and of course an artists palette.

Popular subjects ranged from moody landscapes and seascapes to playful animals, ballerinas and still-life floral bouquets. Paint-kit box tops proclaimed they would make, “Every Man a Rembrandt!”

Paint By Numbers were not a critical success—many saw “number painting” as not only a novelty but a symbol of the “mindless conformity” of 1950s America. At the same time, the general public embraced them whole heartedly. There was something extremely charming and appealing about the paintings. They invited people who had never held a paintbrush in their life to suddenly feel creative .

“Most people think paint-by-numbers was an immediate success. Not true! In the beginning we couldn’t give our sets away. It took almost two years to get our paint-by-number business off the ground. When we finally did, it took off like a rocket. All we could do was hang on for dear life.”   —Dan Robbins, What Ever Happened To Paint-By-Numbers?

By 1954, Palmer had sold an unbelievable twelve million kits. They eventually became so popular that the White House even hung paint-by-number canvases created by J. Edgar Hoover and Nelson Rockefeller in the West Wing corridor. Amazing!

As the years went by, and more competitors started popping up, the line expanded to include celebrity portraits (what I would do for a Liberace Paint-By Number!) and more “exotic” subjects, like Balinese dancers and more tropical landscapes.

It’s interesting to note that while the original Craft Master kits were printed on rolled canvas, they eventually transitioned to the now-familiar press boards with light-blue outlines. They also switched to acrylics rather than oil paint. The original canvas paint-by-numbers are highly sought after and often worth more than their press board counterparts. I still love them all! Here are some from my own personal collection:

The “Far East dancers” and the doggies are my favorite….please note that the fella that completed the one above “signed” it. I love that.

In the 1970s and 80s, the sets started to get a little more childishly kitschy….teddy bears, Snoopy and even TV shows like Mork and Mindy got the “PBN” treatment. While I love my 70s kitsch, I think these later versions are no where near as cool as the originals. The originals were attempting to be authentic—there was nothing tongue-in-cheek about them. Nothing beats the subtle elegance of a stoic collie or a dramatic sunset on a western prairie.

I love our paint by numbers and especially love to think of the back story each carries. Who was the intrepid artist who lovingly and painstakingly dabbed color onto canvas? It intrigues me no end! Paint-by-numbers are much harder to find in the thrifts today, and have moved up the ranks to be a genuine collectible.

And to lend a little credibility to their place in American history, there was a Paint By Numbers exhibit several years ago in 2001 at the Smithsonian. Not too shabby.

Read more at Collectors Quest and the PBN Museum.

Vintage Kiddo Retro Round Up

How was your weekend, everyone? Did you have a blast? I hope so! I spent some time working on a special project that we’ll tell you about soon and some time cleaning in prep for THE GRANDPARENTS coming.  The Peach has started to stockpile books for Grandma to read and has taken her trains out to show Grandad.

But of course I did a little online vintage shopping, natch. And I think I have some sweet fun finds to share with you.

It’s almost too much for me to handle, these pants.  Ticking and zoo animals? Stop, Hart & Sew, it’s almost too cute for words!

Jeannie of my favorite Etsy seller, Sweet Shop Vintage has a full vintage Fisher Price house and accessories for a great deal!  Someone snatch this up STAT!

Turtles need to come back!  Sorry owls. But when they are as cute as this turtle on this romper, well, you just gotta love turtles that button cute! Thanks Blue Bird Lucy’s!

For anyone going to Tiki-Oasis with a little girl, 3 Ring Circus has TWO wonderful vintage Hawaii three piece outfits that are soo divine!

I know ties are popular with boys as well as gents today.  So, someone should snap up these great vintage lot of ties from Robot Parade 4 Kids!

These vintage shortalls feature trains! Now, what kiddo wouldn’t choo choo choose them? From Etsy seller, Sam & Milly!

Oh, these sweet floral gray little rain boots would look great on any kiddo OR as a wee bit of decor in a girl’s room. From Etsy seller, Vintage Friends.

You know I love anything with ricrac! But this charming bigger girl size dress is the perfect amount of ricrac oh so tastefully and charmingly done. From Etsy seller, Night Owl Vintage, who has a terrific selection of dresses for mama too. Really pretty dresses…

It is a good thing I never had this Sigmund the Sea Monster board game as a kid, because I would have kissed cover due to my huge crush on a certain redhead… But I’m sure the game is as enjoyable as the show! From Etsy seller, Found in Alaska.

Oh just look at this little cutie patootie in her darling vintage blouse. I love gingham and chambray together.  So sweet! And bonus–on SALE! Thanks, Etsy seller, Salvage House Vintage.

And this next one? I. die. From Etsy seller, Cathode Blue.

Oh, for the love of Pete, would you take a look at this. CANDY!!!  ‘Nuf said.  I’m dying here, Young Team. Actually, you have a slew of cuteness in your store right now, so I highly suggest people take a look around…

Any sewing mama wants to get her little ones hooked as early as possible. And why not get them their own sewing machine so they aren’t fussing with yours.  Like this one from Etsy seller, Calloo Callay! (And yes, the Peach already has a little toy sewing machine thanks to Auntie Eileen!!!)


Thanks for stopping by and happy Monday!