renegade loot...

We went, we saw and we collected...a lot. Paul and I had a really nice, but really busy time in Chicago. Caden had fun too. This was the longest we ever left him with a babysitter. Twenty-eight hours, I think we called like eight times and we missed him terribly. But he had a lot more fun here than if he went with us. Besides, Paul and I got to have a very exquisite dinner. Paul had the best steak that I have ever tasted, it literally melted in your mouth, very decadent. (It better had be at the price that we paid ;) I think it is important to do these things every once in a while to reconnect a little and be reminded what it is like to have a "date" and be a little carefree. But it was so nice to come home to our son.

I took a lot of pictures of the things we collected, so I thought I would share with you!

First, the things we purchased:

"treelets" by Jill Bliss and Shinpei. I was lucky enough to get the very last copy. I am a huge fan of Jill Bliss's work. She lives in San Francisco, which is only about one hundred miles away from where Paul and I grew up in Auburn California. We went to San Francisco at least six times a year when we lived in the area. Jill even signed the book to us. So nice You can buy her work here..

We also got her 2007 calendar which was hot off the presses.

I love love love October's picture:
,
The calendar is a collaboration with Saelee Oh, who is also so so talented, I would love to purchase some of her work too.
Sadly, Jill couldn't bring any of her lovely prints safely via air, so she didn't have any, I really wanted to purchase a print. I will just have to do it online one of these days!

Next I bought a porcelain pin by erin at eek design at etsy, she has been a contact on my flickr because we have a similar hobby/passion. She was so nice and it was nice to actually meet someone you "know" via the Internet.

I also got to meet Heidi and her family from my paper crane. She was, of course, as sweet as you would think! She is talented, Paul even liked her soft sculpture trees and smores on a stick, what an imagination she has!

We also purchased some beautiful hand pulled papers from golden hen press

close-up

and...


last, but not least:

fused glass hair pins from kiki

and


some fabric hair pin from piddleloop

Here are various pictures of all the free things we got for being one of the first 500 to visit on Sunday...













believe it or not, I have even more pictures on flickr. We had another funny hotel fiasco, but more on than later! Thanks for visiting!