Crafty Bastards 2011

On Saturday I went to Crafty Bastards, which is the annual DC craft fair. My first and only other trip to Crafty Bastards was in 2008, and I wasn't that impressed then, because it seemed like it was mostly mustaches and bicycles and octopuses and owls as far as the eye can see. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily, but it's not really my thing, and I didn't feel inspired to buy or make anything after that visit.

Crafty Bastards has grown in the past three years, and this time there was a much larger variety of vendors, including a few of my favorites from the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market like Yummy & Company, Katharine Watson, and Ashley Buchanan Jewelry. A few other vendors that made me wish I had tons of talent, or cash, or both:

• Fernworks: resin jewelry and paintings. I especially love her amazing, ethereal hand-painted resin jewelry: beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
• Seeing in Fabric: "paintings" made from fabric scraps and machine and hand embroidery.
• Inedible Jewelry: teeny tiny food! I remember them from the first Crafty Bastards I went to as one of the more unique and fun vendors.
• The Oak Leaves: incredibly teeny clay buildings. Something about these was really fascinating - they're just unpainted little houses, but they seem like tiny homes.
• My Paper Crane: cute plush food. As with real donuts, the only donuts left by the time I got to their stall were the cream-filled and crullers.
• Zooguu: plush toys. I love the squids!
• Tasha McKelvey: pottery and ceramic jewelry. Her little bird bowls are wonderful.
• Cotton Monster: plush monsters may be a staple of craft shows, but these are really unique. There's something definitely creepy as well as cute about these guys.
• NeedleNoodles: I was so excited to see NeedleNoodles and her little guys in the flesh (or in the yarn)! I hadn't seen her squids before but I loved them - might have to buy the pattern.

So, yes, definitely worth the trip, despite the drizzle and the cold weather. The only thing I bought was a falafel sandwich from Amsterdam Falafel (yum) but I saw lots of things that inspired me, and lots of vendors whose sites I'm bookmarking for Christmas shopping ideas.