Thursday, April 28, 2011

Spring Bada-bing!

Last weekend my girls and I went to the Spring Bada-bing, presented by the Richmond Craft Mafia!

This wasn't your grandmother's arts and crafts show - you know, the ones we all go to where there are rows and rows of smelly supposedly-antique furniture and tchotchkes that you find out later are cheaper online.  This one is exclusively for hand-made items and small businesses rather than basement clean-outs or home party companies.  Think an art gallery space full of Etsy sellers, and you've got the Spring Bada-bing.


I love trolling Etsy for cool one-of-a-kind treasures created by someone in their craft room...and this place was full of those treasures, from these original prints by FoundStudio...


...to these summer dresses made out of fabric scraps by aprilscott...
My favorite was this vintage-inspired one, Bonnie saw one reminded her of her favorite Amish quilt, and this one is made from the fabric I'll use for my nursery...someday.


...to upcycled patterns, turned purses...

I got really excited about Lazymuse's booth, which was full of crochet animals.  Melissa and I stood there for at least 2 minutes stroking the jellyfish and squid.  We were in love...but left all the crochet animals behind :(



I only bought a few things, but took a ton of cards for Etsy trolling later that night :)  I picked up this felt wallet by ettarose - she had some awesome felt food play sets...love the sushi and vegetable garden!


I also picked up a notebook made from an old Scrabble board, by Pop Culture Rehab.  I broke my rule of having a purpose for anything I bought so as not to waste money, because I'm not sure what this will be used for - maybe for keeping score when we play Scrabble?  Do we play Scrabble? :)

I don't see it in her Etsy shop, but she makes ornaments out of Scrabble letters and sells a WTF one that I need...

Lastly, I bought a recycled burlap coffee tote by clevercatbags for my school books - I've wanted one of these for a while but they're outrageously expensive in stores!  This one was modestly priced at $35 so I snatched it up!  ...and it's pretty!


I could have bought way more, but I was exercising that self-restraint that has been eluding me for so long!  Bonnie bought an awesome audiophile pursy/wallet hybrid, and Mellisa bought one of aprilscott's dresses for her niece, but no one else bought anything.  We were on our best behavior that day! 

After the bada-bing, we headed over to Kitchen64 for brunch!  I got some sliders and sweet potato fries and then we walked whole 30 feet over to Sweet95 for dessert:  a PB&J Pileup!  Yum!

Then we headed downtown to visit a store we had passed on the way to the bada-bing.  These Four Walls is like World Market on crack.  FUN.  Well, fun in the way that I love everything I saw but will never be able to afford any of it and will have to purchase a less-fun item at World Market. :)

Fun day with my girls <3

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