living room + other tid bits

I thought I would post some pictures of our living room and dining area before the crafty explosion of One of a Kind prep begins. Less than a month to go folks. Gah! This is my first big show and I am freaking out. Rob now calls me the one person sweat shop as I have taken to crafting every possible moment. :)



I'll make sure to take some photos of the mess so you can compare.


(still looking for new legs)



By the way, last night's opening for the Vancouver International Fringe Festival went very well! We were brought on to assist with the set up, display and operations of the silent auction at the Arts Club Theatre. Of course, I didn't take any pictures. The one picture that I did take, was just awful, so you are going to have to use your imagination.

PS. We have a book giveaway going on at the Got Craft blog. Enter to win your very own copy of Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold-and-Sew Projects to Wear and Give by Diane Gilleland. Contest ends Friday, September 11th.

the Tucker clan

We are back! I do miss (a bit) the heat of Austin, but it is nice to enjoy the first days of Fall back in Vancouver. Spent the day sorting out all of the Got Craft applications that have come in as well as making signage for the opening night of the Vancouver Fringe Festival tomorrow. Rob and I will be organizing the silent auction at the Arts Club Wednesday night which means that I better get back to sewing up the signs and printing out the bid sheets.

I will leave you with a few shorts taken at Spanish Banks last week. Rob's sister was in town from the British Virgin Islands and to celebrate, we had a picnic on the beach complete with wagon wheels :)

Austin, TX - day five

Day five in Austin was all about the Handmade Nation screening! It was great to meet other crafty vendors, to see all of their goods and of course, re-visit with Faythe.



Craft fair set up on the side of the theatre.





Installation by Knitta (they are from Houston).





Airstreams in Austin are quite popular. Most of them are used as food carts (i.e. mobile cupcakes from our day 1 post). Not this airstream though, this one was turned into a mobile DIY station called "The Wonder Craft". They hold all kind of classes for all ages including mold making, felting, clothing modification, jewelery making, paper beading, resin, drawing, up-cycling, decoupage and more. Plus, the girl pictured above, she's from Seattle and we had a great conversation about the weather differences!





Both shows in Austin were sold out! This was our first time to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Basically, you can eat and drink restaurant style food during the movie. Every other row of seats have been replaced by bench tables. Staff come and take your order prior to the start of the film from a full menu. The one drawback, is that once they turn down the lights, you can't really see what you are eating, but the food was delicious and we had a great time!



Q&A following the screening with (from left to right): Faythe Levine, Knitta, Whitney Lee, Kathie Sever and Jennifer Perkins

Austin, TX - day four

Day four started off fantastic, but boy, did I ever get sick that night! Bleh. I will save you the details. Instead, here are some snapshots of the City Wide Garage Sale we visited at the Palmer Event Center.



Look at this beautiful cabinet / writing desk for $195! Oh, if only my suitcase was bigger!



Turkish coffee ice cream with oreo cookie from Austin's favourite ice cream joint (Amy's).



Tasty pho lunch on the outskirts of the city. This is a small. Maybe it's true. Everything in Texas is bigger!

Austin, TX - day three

Our third day in Texas started off with a late start to the morning. After a quick trip to Target (sorry M, I couldn't find the lip balm you requested) we hopped back into the car and made the one and a half hour drive South to San Antonio.


Everybody recommended the river walk in San Antonio, so here are a few snapshots...



Remember this from the film Miss Congeniality?


Amazing building from a distance with a palm tree on the right!


San Antonio Bexar County Courthouse



Of course, we walked over to see the Alamo. Supposedly the Alamo was voted as one of the top ten over rated monuments in the US. It was pretty good in my opinion. The entire tour is free, unless you want to rent an audio head set and there is quite a lot of exhibits that you can walk through.

Austin, TX - day two

Day two in Austin included driving all over town checking out the local vintage and thrift shops. Unfortunately, we came back empty handed, but with only one suitcase each, that may not have been a bad thing!


Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, super fab bakery that we walked past on our way to Flashback. On a side note, Austin has the friendliest store owners ever. They actually seek us out in the store to say "hi".



As promised, here are the photos of the rented condo....





Look! Wild parrots living outside our condo! Noisy little things though. Supposedly these Monk Parakeets aka Quaker Parrots arrived in Austin about 20 years ago. You can read a full story about them here.




Texas rental car goodness!

We ended the day by swinging over to Jessica's house to drop off our swag bag goodies for the Handmade Nation event this weekend. I just realized that in our rush to package them and deliver them, I didn't take any photos of the end product. Nevertheless, here is a copy of the event postcard. Did you see the Got Craft logo below? Oh yes!



What's in store for day 3? Tour of Sublime Stitching and a road trip to San Antonio!

sneak peek of M&B

A sneak peek of Michelle and Brian's engagement shoot with the always lovely Jeanie from Studio Jeanie.

Can't wait for their wedding on October 3rd. Just one month away!

Austin, TX - day one

We arrived in Austin sometime around 4:00pm this afternoon and made our way to our rented condo. The place we are staying is very sleek. Think concrete floors, stainless steel appliances, white walls... I will post pictures soon.

It's currently 10:30pm (2 hours ahead of Vancouver) and it is 23 degrees celsius, but it feels warmer. It's suppose to hit 38 degrees celsius tomorrow (gah!). What do we have planned? Need to find some comfortable flat shoes, maybe some thrifting, trying to find Jessica from Sublime and hopefully going on a tour of their offices. Yes, that does sound like fun!


Mobile cupcakes. Need I say more? :)


We only had 5 minutes before they closed, but love this place. Eclectic mix of vintage, thrift and all things good. Will definitely be back tomorrow!


Just growing naturally - a lime tree and a huge cactus - amazing!


State Capital


Check out the wooden shutters in the windows!


Look at how thick the grass is!


This is the Texas State University football stadium. It's huge. Probably seats more than BC Stadium and it's only college football!

(sorry for the overuse of exclamation marks *blush*)

Six Cent Press

As you can see from previous posts, I ♥ pin back buttons!! I came quite close to purchasing one online a few years ago, but figured that I really didn't need to take up another craft project. This is where Six Cent Press comes in. Six Cent Press is a locally based button making company specializing in 1", 1.25", 1.5", 1.75", 2.25" and 1.5" square pin backs as well as custom packaging and turn style vending machines. How awesome would this be at your next event or wedding!? Monogrammed wedding buttons or maybe ones with your logo on it? Too cool!

*** twitter promo alert ***

Follow SixCentPress on twitter and post their website on your blog / website and they will make you 50 custom 1 inch buttons or FREE. Limited time - this weekend only - August 29 & 30, 2009.


All images from Six Cent Press

dinner in the dark

Seeing is not as fun ....



Did you know that lotus events started five years ago by complete accident? We had just moved back to Vancouver after spending a few months in London. I was working at the call center for Impark Parking Services and Rob was working for Landsea Tours as a tour guide. I just happened to pick up an UK Glamour magazine at the local bookstore and found an article about an event called Dinner in the Dark (DITD) and said "hey, we should do this here and that is how we started!"

DITD was an event where guests began the evening with cocktails and socializing at the fully lit DV8 Lounge (closed in 2007). Waiters equipped with night vision goggles would then escort guests to a completely pitch-black room where dinner was served without any eating utensils. Guests chose to be seated with whom they arrived with or they could choose to fully experience the evening with another table.

DITD was an opportunity to experience how it would feel to have one of your most important senses - sight - shut down.

Started in Germany by a group of blind restaurant owners that did not need the lights to serve, the event moved to London and New York as a dating event with all of the alcohol that you can drink. Los Angeles and Montreal now have their own restaurants set up specifically for DITD. Our event was the first of it's kind in Canada and the first in the world to include live performances. I guess it was kind of like "Go big or go home" and we chose to go big!