Today, I drove down to Philadelphia: 270+ miles round trip. That’s about 3/4 of a tank of gas with my car’s nice fuel economy. Sweet!

My reason for going was that my friend Sara alerted me to the presence of the Art Star Craft Bazaar. So, my friend Theresa and I drove down, met up with Sara and went over to experience the crafty joys. And spend some money. I was actually there for work purposes, but I won’t write about those here (church vs. state, you know?)

It was held along the water at Penn’s Landing. Lots of tents filled with beautiful handmade, incredibly creative and unique pieces… clothing, jewelry, pottery, toys, stationery, prints, paintings, health and beauty products. Nice nice.

I picked up a few fun things - like this really cool alphabet print from The Small Object (# 107 of 300) which I will be framing as soon as I can spend more money on something like that. “L” is for lint. “U” is for underdog. It’s adorable.

I’ve been wanting smallish earrings, and these were inexpensive and lovely - those are small pictures of tree branches against a blue sky. As recent posts have shown, I’m having a tree thing lately. And I’m trying to remember the name of this shop, but I’m blanking right now. I’ll look through the business cards I collected and go from there.

My favorite, though, is this necklace. I saw several silver necklaces I really liked, but in the end, I chose this one since I thought it was the most “me.” It’s from 12linden, the company name for jewelry designer Eliza Mundy. I’ve admired her pieces on Etsy, but I was able to touch and see… and that made me buy it.

You can see a bit of the pink I developed from being out in the sun. Finally, I got this cute hair clip/bobby pin from Art School Dropout. The gray is a bit lighter, actually, but you get the idea.

I also purchased a handful of Mean Cards (when you get to the homepage, click on Mean Cards) - these very minimalist but hilarious greeting cards. There’s one they didn’t have in stock, but which I will most likely order online that says on the front, “Thank you for thanking me.” - inside, “You’re welcome.” One I did buy says “everything dies” - inside: “A friendly reminder.” Good times.

There were so many other things. I could’ve easily spent an entire months’ wages there. Thankfully, I did not. Nowhere close. I controlled myself. But this means the temptation factor on Etsy will be even higher since I’ve now SEEN these things in person. Goodness gracious.

I’m finally getting a bit caught up on my RSS feeds. I haven’t had much time or desire to read through, so there are literally thousands of posts to read. Some are just getting skipped since they’re from before I went on vacation in late April. However, here are some things I found interesting, compelling, or otherwise worth sharing:

1. A three-dimensional exploration of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica.
2. Craftzine’s instructions on decorating office supplies with fabric.
3. A product that appeals to me in so many ways: a gizmo that creates perfectly spherical ice “cubes” - or, um, ice spheres, I guess.
4. An article in The New Yorker (via Bella Sugar) about how even Dove’s “real beauty” ad campaign makes liberal use of photo retouching done by a premiere photo retoucher who works for all the big magazines and ad agencies. Not surprising, but f’ed up nonetheless.
5. A post from BiblioAddict about buying a book for its cover. It’s saying basically what I was going to say about Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends. I bought this book for the dustjacket (or jackets - there are three, ingeniously designed and cut to produce a stunning package). I also really liked The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and the first 60 pages of this (his first non-fiction) book are phenomenal. I’ll pick up The Yiddish Policeman’s Union next week since it’s in paperback now and is supposed to be fantastic, as well. But really, look at Maps and Legends:
   

I’m glad I didn’t purchase a laptop this year. Because now I will have an excuse to seriously consider the MacBook Air.

Of course, it’s been all over the interwebs. I’ve just been reading and looking and absorbing. I do like the Mac (though I use a PC mainly, I have ready access to a Mac and the fun that comes with it) and since a notebook computer might be a good thing to have (it’s come up a few times) this would allow me to have both. And at something like 3 pounds and less than an inch thick? Oh, yes, please.

Here’s a nice little Wired piece on it (about its unveiling at the Macworld expo).

Clearly, I won’t be able to buy it when it comes out - and that’s just fine. I’m sure they’ll be hard-to-near-impossible to get at first, and it’s usually a good idea to wait a while before buying a brand new Apple product (prices drop, bugs are worked out, etc.)

But when I do finally acquire it (maybe next summer or fall) I already know what kind of case I’ll be getting for it. I’m sure you’ve heard the gimmick from Steve Jobs’ presentation: he pulled an Air out of a manila envelope to show off the slimness and size of it. Some hipster designers have already taken that and run with it. They call it AirMail.

“handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece, a manila envelope for your MacBook Air.”

I don’t know why I let myself look at NOTCOT.

Almost every day, I find an object of desire or lust. Because, like many Americans, I lust after objects, a.k.a. material things. (What!? Why you lookin’ all cross-eyed?) Today, this made me wish I’d started a fund back in the day, say, with a share of Google stock, and had held onto it until now so I could pay off debts and just go shopping like the crazy girl I am.

Um, hi. A silver scissor cuff bracelet - it does actually open, providing a different look. Right now, it doesn’t look like it’s available yet; it’s part of a forthcoming collection from an Italian designer. But damn. And I bet it will be out of my price range. Sadness washes over me.

One thing I could afford would be this unnecessarily huge birthday candle. The site provides an image of the candle alongside a champagne flute and a layer cake to give you a sense of scale. Incredibly ridiculous.

And how about the Negativity Refuse Bag? The gimmick there is that it’s printed with instructions on how to rid yourself of negativity or inner demons. You place the offending items (say, things that remind you of an ex or a bad habit) into the bag and throw it away. Yes, you could do that with an ordinary trash bag, but this has more flair. I’d consider buying a few if I had any friends who were serial daters who got totally attached to people and then ended up burning everything associated with that person when it was over. It would be a nice companion to the “let’s watch a DVD and eat some ice cream” combo.

There’s also a ring that’s carved to the shape of your loved ones’ facial profile. Those start at $580 (I’m guessing that’s for the basic stainless steel ring, not the platinum). They say, “Take your loved one’s profile with you everywhere you go- who could want more?” That might not be the right way to spin it, but I get what they’re aiming for.

I’m going through the items I’ve marked in Google Reader (I subscribe to the NOTCOT.org RSS feed) and there’s just too much coolness. Too much. I am overwhelmed. I will now let that wash over me.

I found this cute “how-to” for making a pencil bag via Craftzine. I think it could easily be used as a cosmetic bag or any sort of little carrying case (to keep a digital camera or caseless iPod scratch-free) and it might be a fun starter project since I’ve been thinking of taking up sewing (on a machine - branching out beyond my button securing, hole-darning and hemming skills).

The publishing company I work for is putting out some new craft books and one of them is going to be a fairly hip sewing title, so this might be a good skill to have under my belt. Also, I’ve got these super cute sample fabrics from textile designer Anna Maria Horner (click image to visit her shop):

They’re pretty nice. My favorite is on top.

While pulling that photo off of my digital camera, I found this photo of the full moon from a few nights ago. Sadly, I don’t have a kick-ass digital SLR camera - or a stronger zoom - so it’s not as impressive as it could be (particularly since it was shot through a skylight window). But you can still see how bright the moon was.

And here’s a fun song to get your toes tapping/hands clapping/bring out your inner cheerleader. It’s by no means serious music, but sometimes an ear-candy song is what you need. I give you, “That’s Not My Name” by The Ting Tings (British pop fun).

If only to visit your amazing-looking library!

See some more pictures of Kansas City’s Public Library and the public library in Cardiff, Wales.

And if that begins to arouse your inner bibiophile, here’s a post entitled “Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut.” The images convinced me to drop $90 on a coffee table book of photos of libraries (with an introduction by Umberto Eco).