travels

 
An especially warm weekend made for a wonderful mini-getaway in Charleston & Sullivan's Island. We enjoyed great eats at Freshberry and Cafe Metto and window-shopping on King Street. A great way for NIS & I to celebrate three years of being "us."

Favorite Craft Vendors

Creating fun crafts requires finding lots of good supplies.

 
 I love thrift stores - so they are one of my primary methods of finding good shoes for projects and vintage elements like earrings (clip-ons are perfect for adding to shoes).

My favorites near my house are:
Goodwill on 355 (they often have really nice shoes)
Value Village in College Park (huge selection, tons and tons of stuff which is different every day)
And of course, the best online thrift store ever - eBay (where I go to get something specific)

I also really like finding yard sales or rummage sales (the Methodist church on campus has one twice a year that I've gotten some really great stuff at, like a box of vintage ribbon for $0.50!).

So far as general crafts go, there are a few good places to get new supplies:
JoAnn Fabrics (great for general sewing supplies) 

  

 I also have used a couple of shop on Etsy to buy supplies - I like supporting my fellow shop owners and I've found some very specific and fun things I can use:
ChristopherPines (vintage millinery goods like ribbons, leaves and velvet flowers)
MaryNotMartha (more millinery, especially really lovely flowers)
GD Supplies (feathers and supplies for hair creations)
Beads N Bits (she hand-makes the most amazing velvet flowers)
Merelle (a huge selection of vintage jewelry at inexpensive prices)

Part of the fun for me is researching how to make a pair of really pretty shoes for someone. I love scouting around and picking up different things to create a specific look. I'm off now to keep working on getting supplies for 5 custom orders!

books! books! books!

 
photo credit: brewbooks via Flickr

ABE Books is one of my favorite places to find used, rare, out-of-print books that I really, really need. Like Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons. Or the wonderful Seamus Heaney.

One of the things that sets ABE apart from other websites like Alibris or Barnes&Noble is that rare book professionals use it as a way to keep tabs on current market prices. This means that the used books are well described and (fairly) well cataloged with their condition clearly presented and, if you're willing to pay, you can find unique items...like a signed copy of a childhood favorite for someone special, perhaps? (A first edition of CS Lewis' Wardrobe just sold for over $8,000).

They also offer guides to collecting books, so you won't get tricked and all of their books come from independent booksellers, so you get the satisfaction of supporting them as well...all of this clearly makes ABE the site for sensible readers of used books.

If I had some extra money right now, I'd snatch up Volume 1 of O.B. Miller's My Bookhouse.