the secret lives of crafters

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-02T16:40:00.006-05:00

Hope you have tons of fun BBQs and summer outings planned for this holiday weekend!

I would like to share my most favorite, super simple and healthy summer dip recipe! I promise you it seems so simple but it's soooo delicious!

It can be served with yummy tortilla chips of any flavor & is a cinch to make when you need to bring something in a pinch! It's a Mexican Corn & Bean dip! This can also be served as a yummy side salad for any BBQ.

Mexican Corn & Bean Dip

1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 can of shoe peg corn (or any sweet corn) (drained)
½ cup cilantro (chopped)
½ cup Rottell (brand) diced tomatoes with green chilies (chopped)
¼ cup red onion (chopped)
1 tbs Cumin
¼ cup green onion (chopped)
3 tbs vegetable oil
1/3 cup lime juice (from bottle or fresh)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, chill to set

Serve with Corn Chips or as a side salad!

Thanks!

2009-04-20T11:04:00.002-05:00

To everyone who came out to Craft Revival this past weekend! If you are interested in any of the items of ours you saw, please send us an email, and we would happy to work on getting it to you!

Come be revived this saturday!

2009-04-13T08:05:00.003-05:00

Spring! Flowers! Rainshowers! and, Craft Fair season officially starts!

This Saturday please join both gals from Make-out Goods at the first annual Spring Revival, presented by Handmade Detroit at the Magic Stick in Detroit. Thirty+ vendors will be pleddling their handmade wares from 10A-5P. Free admission.

Magic Stick is part of the Majestic Theatre complex. Come for the fair, stay for some delicious food, or bowl a game or two at the Garden Bowl. Located at 4120-4140 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI

Crafty News

2009-02-15T09:32:00.002-06:00

Hello friends! Thought we'd share the latest in crafty news with our crafty friends.

There's a new craft fair coming to Detroit! It's hosted by the lovely ladies of Handmade Detroit and will be a nice start to the 2009 craft season. It's called Craft Revival and will be held at the Magic Stick in Detroit on April 18th, 2009. If you are interested in applying go here!

In other news, Faythe Levine creator of the fair Art Vs. Craft, and co-author of the book of the same name, has kicked off the screening of her full length documentary Handmade Nation with screenings in Milwaukee and New York. She will be screening it all over the country and world, so visit the Handmade Nation blog for details. You can also view the trailer on You Tube, so take a looky!

Christmas goodies

2008-12-23T19:24:00.003-06:00

So, with getting to have an extended holiday vacation (thanks to Ramona's school being closed for two weeks over Christmas), I got in the spirit of making handmade candy (for the first time). Ethan needed some gifts to give to his coworkers too, so this worked out well as a yummy handmade present for a bunch of people.

I made toffee, and peppermint bark, and when Ethan's mom was in over the weekend, she and Ramona made a huge batch of gingerbread cookies that I threw in to the mix. It's all delicious and I wish I could give more of it away so we don't eat it all!

I bought the take-out boxes from Michaels, as well as the red and white baker's string (Martha, of course). The gift tags are from Emily at The Black Apple, and I can't get enough of them.

Have a great holiday everyone!

xoxo, Amy

Etsy promoted on the View!

2008-12-19T10:37:00.004-06:00

So I'm home this morning, doing my morning things and the View is on. I sat down for the beginning of the show and the discussion was saving money for the holidays. Joy (the very best one on there!) said her daughter-in-law made pottery and sold it on Etsy.com and people should look there for inexpensive, creative, and all handmade gifts! I couldn't believe it! I am so excited!

Love you Joy Bayhar!

xo Val

Holiday Crafternoon this Sunday

2008-12-15T09:00:00.006-06:00

Join me (Amy) this Sunday for a special Holiday Crafternoon, hosted by Handmade Detroit at the Woodward Avenue Brewery downstairs lounge in Ferndale.

We will be set up from 12:00PM until 5:30PM this Sunday, December 21 with lots of great last-minute presents and stocking stuffers for you and yours.

Featured artists include:
Lish Dorset
Bethany Nixon
Stephanie Tardy
Amy Cronkite
Carey Gustafson
Eric Lillieberg
Courtney Fischer
Chris Gorski
Michelle Wardowski
Veronica Knight

This will be the last Handmade Detroit event of the year, and my last event for who knows how long (since baby is coming soon!)

Done with your shopping? Come anyway and enjoy some tasty beverages and delicious food.
Hope to see you there!

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA

2008-12-11T09:06:00.002-06:00

The issue:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely drive them out of business.

A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:
Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.

This information was provided by the Handmade Toy Alliance.

Recipes!

2008-12-10T17:37:00.008-06:00

So tonight I really wanted to make banana bread (0r cookies) because I have a couple of overripe bananas. I'm trying hard to save money, be green, or maybe I just really want something sweet. I look up banana recipes but they all call for baking soda and I only have powder. I tried hard to see if I can substitute powder for soda and learned several facts about the differences. Fact: baking soda is 4 times stronger than powder, fact: powder has soda in, fact: powder is more a neutralizer and if your recipe has something acidic in it the recipe calls for soda so you should just use soda and not try and replace with powder. Fine. No banana bread.

So I take another look in the cabinets and fridge and I see ingredients. I just know if I combine them together, I can make something, right? Well I located the absolute best website for people like me (and you)! It's AMAZING! recipematcher.com! Enter in your ingredients (it will let you select from a list if you need to be more specific like type of sugar, milk, etc.) and hit enter....VOILA! Recipes that match your ingredients! It also tells you if you the percentage it matches to the ingredients you entered and let's you know if you are still missing an ingredient. I entered in several ingredients. I can really leave no stone unturned.

My ingredients:
Milk - Skim,Flour - Bread,Sugar - White,Sugar - Powdered,Bananas,Peanut Butter,Seasoning - Nutmeg,Seasoning - Cinnamon,Vanilla Extract,Eggs,Pumpkin (Canned)

My recipe will be...

100% match...Flourless Peanut Butter cookies!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Combine all ingredients and drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Let cool. Recipe doesn't make many, so you can double recipe.

Still no recipe using my dead bananas, so I may have to buy the baking soda so I can make banana bread tomorrow.....

where we be.

2008-12-01T10:40:00.002-06:00

This weekend come out to buy handmade at the Flint City Handmade Holiday Market in beautiful Flint, MI!

Art Vs. Craft this weekend!

2008-11-26T12:43:00.004-06:00

make-out goods will be part of Round #8 of Milwaukee's Art Vs. Craft this weekend. Limited edition silk screened totes will be handed out to the first 200 people through the door.

Saturday Nov. 29th, 2008
10am - 7pm
Scottish Rite Masonic Center
790 N Van Buren St.
Between Wells & Mason
Downtown Milwaukee, WI

Flint City Handmade

2008-11-21T10:12:00.005-06:00

Make-out Goods is proud to be a vendor in the Flint City Handmade Holiday Craft Market going on Saturday, December 6th from 10AM-4PM. we will be carrying lots of styles of aprons for adults and children, along with wrist cuffs, DOTS, and some fun holiday goods. More info to come!

Thank You!

2008-11-17T09:35:00.004-06:00

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Detroit Urban Craft Fair and paid us a visit. Please contact us if there was something you saw and would like to purchase by e-mailing us at info [AT] makeoutgoods [DOT] com. We will be posting some of our items on makeoutgoods.etsy.com.

Detroit Urban Craft Fair - this weekend!

2008-11-11T10:08:00.003-06:00

make-out goods will be one of the many vendors participating in this weekend's Detroit Urban Craft Fair! Come for a visit and for some shopping!

Detroit Urban Craft Fair
Saturday Nov. 15th 2008
10am - 7pm
Fillmore Detroit (formerly The State Theatre.)

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T08:19:00.004-05:00

Says the little monkey!

I meant to do a little tutorial of how I made this, but didn't remember until way past the point of no return! The base of the costume is a brown hoodie sweatshirt, and brown yoga pants. I just made up the pattern for the vest, ears, belly, tail and hat myself. It's all felt, which is great to work with because you don't have to worry about sewing a hem.

P.S.- If anyone is interested in a tutorial, drop me a note, and I'll put something together for you to use for next year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2008-10-29T10:52:00.006-05:00

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Halloween week! We've been busy making Owl Cookies, carving pumpkins and getting costumes ready for trick or treating!

I'm cutting it down to the wire (blame it on the Detroit Urban Craft Fair, which is quickly approaching on November 15th), but Ramona's costume should be done tomorrow, so come back for some costume fun!

In the meantime, here is a picture of Ramona in last year's skunk costume:

I got one!

2008-10-10T09:03:00.003-05:00

If you are familiar with Emily at the black apple, then you know how popular her wares are. She mostly creates the loveliest paintings and prints you ever saw (my collection is ever growing), but every once in a while she makes dolls too. When she does, they sell so fast that's it's next to impossible to get one. I was ready for the last update on her etsy shop, was able to select it, and hesitated for a few seconds, and lost out. Crushing.

Anyway, yesterday she had another shop update, this time with doll kits. So, there's some work involved on your part, but she sends you basically everything you need to create your own.

And, I SNAGGED ONE!!!

The perfect one, too. It will go great in Ramona's new Big Girl Room.

Ahhh, joy.

Welcome DIY Festival and People Art Festival goers!

2008-09-22T12:31:00.007-05:00

Thanks for stopping by!

We are still basking in the afterglow of these two great events, but are also looking forward to our big fair coming up on November 15th- The Detroit Urban Craft Fair.

If you liked what you saw this past weekend, we will have lots more of it at DUCF. There will be more aprons in our current and new styles, for both adults and kids. We'll start to highlight some of them as we get closer to fair time. In the meantime though, please be sure to check out the DUCF vendor site to see other awesome vendors will be selling this year!

See you soon!

Damn you, rain!!!

2008-09-12T11:59:00.001-05:00

THE PEOPLE'S ARTS FESTIVAL HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st

More details to come...

People's Art Festival

2008-09-05T14:58:00.002-05:00

Makeout-Goods will begin the craft fair season by taking part in the People's Art Festival at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit on Saturday, September 13. We will be part of the Handmade Detroit booth(s), and hope you can come on over to see us!

Last year over 4,000 people joined over 200 visual artists, filmmakers, musicians and other performance artists to celebrate the inaugural launch of the People’s Arts Festival (PAF) at The Russell Industrial Center in Detroit. This year's Festival planners expect that crowd to double – once again securing its claim to being the largest arts festival in the City of Detroit. The Second Annual People's Arts Festival will be open to the public from 11:00 a.m. until midnight on Saturday, September 13, 2008.

featuring…
More Than 100 Visual Artists and Craftspeople
Over 40 Bands and Performers
Film and Fashion
Restaurants, Beverages and much much more…

Deadline for DUCF is this Friday!

2008-08-12T10:27:00.001-05:00

Says Handmade Detroit:

Every year the deadline for applying to be a vendor at the Detroit Urban Craft Fair passes and a few people don’t hear about it in time. We have to tell them to wait until next year to be considered. We hate that.

This Friday, August 15th is the last chance to apply to the 2008 Detroit Urban Craft Fair. Applications and more are online at www.detroiturbancraftfair.com

Please help us spread the word by posting about the application deadline in your blog, on your web site or in an appropriate forum you frequent. Then go to Handmade Detroit and post the link in the comments. One poster will be chosen at random to win a copy of “The Guerilla Art Kit” by Keri Smith.

Going to Pitchfork?

2008-07-18T10:22:00.002-05:00

If your going to Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this weekend, be sure to check out DEPART-ment! All items are handmade and make-out goods will have some items around the tent as well! *Please note: if you don't have a ticket for Pitchfork unfortunately you can't access the vendors. For more information check out these sites:
DEPART-ment
Pitchfork Music Festival

DUCF Applications are up!

2008-07-07T09:07:00.000-05:00

The moment you've been waiting for is here!

Vendors applications for 2008 are now available on the newly redesigned Detroit Urban Craft Fair site (www.detroiturbancraftfair.com). This year's fair will take place on Saturday, November 15, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at The Fillmore Detroit (formerly the State Theatre).

Some important stuff:
+ Deadline to apply is August 15, 2008.
+ Our FAQs, including the Vendor FAQs, have changed for 2008. Please make sure to read them before applying.

Seeking sponsors
E-mail Stephanie {At!} handmadedetroit {!DOT!} com for more details.

Crafty Friends

2008-04-01T21:26:00.005-05:00

If you are local to Chicago & a craft fair junkie, you may have checked out a booth ran by fellow Chicagoan and fabulous friend, Katie Johanssen a.k.a. Dollybird Design. Katie has been tirelessly working on the revamped website and with her spring re-launch now offers year round access via the Dollybird Designs on-line shop! Katie's designs are some of my favorite pieces. Her creations are unique, modern, and range from hand-crafted metal pieces to bold and lovely one-of-a-kind stones. Check it out!

Green Street Fair

2008-03-31T10:04:00.002-05:00

From the Handmade Detroit Headquarters:

Join us for a green-minded craft fair as we celebrate the launch of the first-ever Green Street Fair in downtown Plymouth, May 3-4!

What is the Green Street Fair? Check it out:

Green Street Fair was founded to help educate and inform people of all ages about the benefits of green, organic, and eco-friendly products and services. To promote global interest and personal well-being, the Green Street Fair will blend companies, artisans, entertainers, and speakers together in a friendly and family-oriented outdoor environment. We believe that even the smallest steps in going green can make a world of difference.

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend this new event.

Handmade Detroit is looking for vendors whose goods contain recycled/repurposed materials or reinforce a green lifestyle overall. Mass produced items are not allowed. All applications will be reviewed by Handmade Detroit for “green screening.”

We’re looking for 13 vendors. Each seller will have 4 feet of space on an 8-foot table shared with another seller (space is tight, but we want to get in as many people as possible!). Each spot is for one day only, not the entire weekend. Sellers will be selected for a day depending on variety of goods represented. If you are available a specific day only during the weekend, please make sure to note that on your application.

Provided with each vendor spot:

Table

Chairs

Lunch (box lunch, specifics TBD)

HD Rethunk tote bag

Saturday fair times: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Cost = $40
Sunday fair times: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Cost = $35

Fair FAQ coming soon, including load-in times, Plymouth information and more.

Applications should be returned by e-mail to Bethany Nixon at Bethany (at) rewarevintage(dot)com no later than 5 p.m. Friday, April 4. Please copy and paste your questions and answers into an e-mail to Bethany.

Vendors will be announced Monday, April 7 and payment is expected by Friday, April 16. Accepted payment methods are checks, money orders and PayPal.

In addition to the questionnaire below, please provide us with three photos (or links to photos online) of the goods you plan on selling at the fair.

We can’t wait for the fair, and we can’t wait to have you there! Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.

CONTACT NAME

E-MAIL ADDRESS

PHONE NUMBER

ADDRESS

BUSINESS NAME

BUSINESS WEB SITE URL

TYPES OF CRAFTS YOU’RE INTERESTED IN SELLING (PLEASE DESCRIBE HOW THEY’RE MADE)

WHICH COMPONENTS OF YOUR GOODS COME FROM RECYCLED GOODS? IF YOU’RE TRYING TO REINFORCE THE GREEN MINDSET, HOW DO YOUR PRODUCTS DO SO?

PRICE RANGE