Art Star Recap

Well we are just about recovered from the events of the past few weeks (the prepartions, the traveling, the show). Aside from the insane wind on the first day, the weather was amazing last weekend. I was really happy with my booth by about 4:30 on Sunday when I finally had everything set up the way I wanted it. You'd have to ask my SIL to be sure but I think I was asleep for the entire first day. I sort of let her communicate with the customers as well as recieve any complements that rolled in. Sometimes it's hard for me to do that stuff especially if I haven't slept well in a week. Mostly a lot of sloppy silly sentences would have spewed out of me if I had opened my mouth on that first day.

After the show was over we had tons of great food on both days. Saturday we stopped for chinese food- which is something we have given up on lately because Lancaster/Pittsburgh have really bad vegetarian options. But China town is awesome. We ate at Singapore Vegetarian and I can't wait to go back there again when we are in Philly this July. Yum! I got the Pepper "Steak" and it was so good. On Sunday we stopped at Govinda's on our way out of town for the "Chicken Cheese Steak". Also very tasty, although I probably could have eaten five of them-
I was hungry Ok? Long weekend.

The biggest let down of the weekend was not being able to put up the whole display the way I had imagined it. It was just too windy to have the wall of my tent up, so i couldn't put up my cute little sweater gallery display that I was planning. Someday

I'll have that all up and running to show you.
The best part of the weekend was meandering around the bazaar with my little M2. She was having a meltdown extraordinaire so I took her for a little walk. We got to see all the other vendors and pick out all of our favorite treasures. She was so nice to spend time with once she calmed down a little from all the excitement of the trip.

For most of the time Whatshisface took the kids around to see all the sights of the city like the Liberty Bell, Old City, Museums. He even got C3 a little Betsy Ross hat so she wouldn't burn in the bright sunlight.

C3 Snuggling with her new Tigerflight squirrel "Sophie"

We made some purchases. M1 and C3 got some sweet new plushies from Tigerflight.
M1 with her new owl.

M2 got a little Timmy the tadpole from So Softies complete with his own sweater. Of course M2 then proceeded to ransack my inventory and dress Timmy up in one of my Dolly Seamonster Hoods. Evidently I now make Timmy the Tadpole gear knockoffs?

Timmy the Tadpole in his octopus costume.
And of course the weekend wouldn't be complete without a surprise visit from my parents. M2 was especially happy for some quality Popop time.

M2 with Popop behind the booth overlooking the Delaware River

Many thanks to all our friends and family who came to support us this weekend. And of course thanks to all the wonderful Philly customers. We had a really great time.

ART STAR

Tomorrow morning I will awake at 3am and depart on a 5 hour drive to Philadelphia with three little girls, my SIL and WhatsHisFace. Not to mention a Caravan loaded with Lumpkins!

If you're in Philly this weekend come see Lumpkin at the

ART STAR Craft Bazaar

Saturday and Sunday from 11am-6pm

at Penn's Landing Great Plaza

ASCB 2008 from the Art Star flickr page
There will be 100+ of the best artists and crafters around,
tons of live music,
and best of all- BEAUTIFUL weather all weekend!

I'll be at booth #23... See you there!

New Old Fabrics

This weekend was all about the fabric. I spent most of last week designing and tweaking some fabrics to print with Spoonflower. I wanted to design my own hankies to use for these fun Lumpkin hobo sacks I've been selling for awhile.

I designed this hanky in four colors and it is right at this minute being printed on 100% organic cotton sateen over at Spoonflower...

I have a bunch of new little treats to fill in the sacks too. I'm really pleased with how these little bindles have evolved. They are very popular at craft shows since they are so inexpensive and sweet. So I'll be making LOTS of these for Art Star.

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In other fabric news- My SIL and I went to the Salvation Army Fabric Fair on Saturday and let me just tell you I got a crazy amount of fabric for the amazing price of $35.00! Crrrrazy!

There are at least 40 yards of fabric here. It was AMAZING! I can't wait for next year. They are so efficient there with the tables and the check out. They had tons of notions, patterns and yarn that I didn't even bother looking at due to my already overstimulated head. Plus they had huge bolts of fabrics for sale too. I'm just so happy to have such a great source of good vintage/ second hand fabrics to use for Lumpkin so close by.
Some of the fabric contents are a little suspect. They had them on the tables marked COTTONS, but I may have to put them under the microscope and see for sure.
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I also sent this design over to Spoonflower. I might not have time to make much with this print for Art Star but I will surely be offering these as fat quarters there. It's a very cute watercolor Lumpy combined with my new Lumpkin colors.


Everything is coming along nicely. Now I just have to figure a way to keep up with this Lumpkin work and clean up my house for an upcoming visit from family in a couple weeks. Ha! somethings gotta give soon. I have a feeling I'll have to lay off Lumpkin for a couple days in favor of some clean toilets and fur-free floors.
I'll be back later this week!

Easter and such

We had a nice Easter week off of school. The gals and I went back to Lancaster for the week and M1 got to visit her old school for a day. She loves those people so much and they love her too.

old friends in tiny chairs

We had our Easter/Spring fun on Saturday instead of Sunday since we were coming back to Pittsburgh on Sunday. It was a really nice holiday. Lots of family and fun. The girls hunted for eggs at the Liederkranz and then we had a huge dinner at Grandma and Pop pop's complete with 3 birthday cakes for all of the March/April birthdays. It was hilarious singing HaPpY BiRtHdAy so many times.

hunting with the birthday boy- Papa Louis

Nobody parked in the driveway so the kids hat lots of space for bikes, boards and a little chalking.

daddy terrifies my just a little

We had a lots of fun but it's good to be home. I'll be sewing/knitting/drawing up a storm for the next month in preparation for this year's Art Star Craft Bazaar held May 15-16 at Penn's Landing in Philly. That's right- you heard me- Art Star.
I FINALLY got in after applying for a million years. Therefore I feel especially obliged to make it worth their while. I'll be making a bunch of new items and updated a few old ones. I'm also working on revamping my tags and packaging and snazzing up the display a bit. Cohesive lumpkin branding- let's say it together now- Co-he-sive. Pretty exciting! I'll post on my progress later on this week.
Until then it's back to the lumpkin factory... Suh!

CAM- City Arts Market Saturday

If you're in Lancaster this weekend you should stop by the Eastern Market for it's opening weekend. This year they are calling it the City Arts Market (CAM) It's everything you love about Eastern Market(food, organic produce, flowers, music) and 50+ vendors(including me) and performers. It's fixin' to be a good time I think, maybe not for the full term pregnant ladies among us, but we'll survive.That's right! Officially full term on Saturday.
That's unbelievable especially considering the amount of scares this baby has given us. I feel pretty good, I'm still up and about doing work and stuff around the house, but my hips are killing me and the pressure on my pelvis is worse than I remember with either of my other pregnancies. We are all really curious to see who has been in there all these many months. M1 wants a sister (she's practical and worries that we'll have to get all new baby stuff) and M2 wants a brother (she thinks that we need more boys in the family so Lorenz isn't completely outnumbered). I'm happy either way. I have always felt like I'd have a boy with every pregnancy and they always turn out to be girls so I guess I'll assume it's a girl since I feel like it's a boy? Whoa that was confusing. Either way we haven't officially decided on any names yet. I really have my heart set on the boy name I've chosen but my girl name changes everyday. Who knows? And Lorenz might be taken off the naming committee because his suggestions are insane- I'm surely not naming my son Duke Leto Atreides. Surely not.

Speaking of Lorenz- HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY Today!!!
(not that you ever read this)
(Haha! On the swing at the Herb and Garden Faire)

In crafty news, I am working on a new little Lumpy project that involves some organic cotton and batiking. Hopefully that will go well, I did all the dyeing yesterday, and today I'll do some wax removal and hopefully some sewing too. I hope these little guys turn out as cute as I envisioned them.
Also, if baby allows(and it better) I'll be heading to Philly to visit the Art Star Craft Bazaar and yet another pregnant pal there. If I feel ambitious Sunday morning maybe I'll whip up some vegan donuts for the prego vegan. I'm hoping to be at the Bazaar early enough to score one of those free goody bags!
ok, that's all for now.
And make sure you stop by CAM on Saturday it should be really fun, I'm sure the rain will hold out!
Bye Bye!