Sneak Peek At Urban Craft's May Edition!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: one of the coolest parts of my job as the head of Urban Craft is to be witness to all of the incredible talent we have here in Ottawa. Day after day the most amazing crafters and food makers submit applications to us, and I get tickled every time we come across someone new! There is so much talent in this city of ours, and I get so excited that we get to show it off to you each month.

There will be no lack of talent and awesomeness at Urban Craft May--I can attest to that. With everything from boutique vanilla extracts to organic candy to really fantastic art, picking up a gift for your mom (Mother's Day is May 13th) will be a cinch!

Bake Mob is making their first appearance at Urban Craft. They'll be offering cake pops like the adorable ones above as well as other delicious goodies.With a name like Bake Mob, how can you go wrong!?

The Organic Heretic makes organic candies. Did you hear that!? Handmade organic candies made right here in Ottawa! Talk about the perfect gift for a sweet mom on Mother's Day!

 

Rainbow Nest makes the most adorable little accessories that are sure to brighten up any corner of your home!

Really Horrible Enterprises will be on hand with handmade, boutique vanilla extracts! With flavors like Rum Vanilla and Brandy Vanilla, I know I will definitely be picking up a bottle or two (or three)!

When I saw Jen Lytle's work, I was immediately drawn to how crisp and clean her work was--yet how it was still so soft. I love how she has captured these simple homes and buildings in detail. I can't wait to see her work in person!

Caroline Villamarin makes the most adorable dresses! These would be completely perfect for a wife who's celebrating her first Mother's Day! Caroline will also have other sewn accessories and goodies on hand!

Need some other Mother's Day ideas? Koko Chocolates will be on hand with her delicious truffles and goodies. Urban Baking Co. will have gorgeous and delicious macarons. Purple Urchin will have bath & body products to pamper your mom. Chelsy Anne, Jasmine Virani, Strut Jewelry, Emily's Trees, Water Willow -and- urbanite jewelry will all have gorgeous jewels for your mom--all in different styles and prices. Auntie Loo's will have their delicious treats  for the vegan mom in your life, and Apartment 613 will be on hand with their awesome buttons and shirts!

Urban Craft - May 2012 Edition

Saturday, May 5th

10am-2pm

The GCTC, Holland & Wellington

Transit: OC Transpo Buses 2, 16, 86, and 176

A Sneak Peek At Urban Craft's May Lineup!

Fused Glass Jewelry from Water Willow

We're excited to announce a stunning lineup of fantastic crafters & gourmet food makers for the month of May! We'll have tons of your favorite people on hand and a slew of brand new crafters that we're excited to welcome to the show for the first time! A little birdie tells me that several of the vendors below are working on special gift packs just in time for Mother's Day! The lineup:

Indie Clothing:
Winged Beast
Caroline Villamarin
Apt. 613

Gourmet Food:
Koko Chocolates
Auntie Loo's Treats
Life of Pie
Urban Baking Co.
Bake Mob
The Organic Heretic
Really Horrible Enterprises

Bath & Body Goodies:
Purple Urchin

Gorgeous Jewelry:
Flights of Fancy
Chelsy Anne
Strut Jewelry
Urbanite Jewelry
Jasmine Virani
Emily's Trees
Water Willow

Kid's Goodies:
Rainbow Nest
Baby's Breath

Beautiful Art:
Jennifer Lytle

Home Decor:
Eufemia Bella

Urban Craft: The Easter Edition!

We're celebrating Easter Weekend with an all new Urban Craft, packed full of handmade goodness for each and every one of you! We're incredibly excited to have a new round of awesome vendors on hand in addition to your favorites. And--we've got a ton of goodies for the little tykes in your life! A preview:

Adorable animal caps from Kokobaru

Colorful diaper covers from Barnyard Bummz

Gorgeous kiddie clothes from Couture Kids

Fun diapers & diaper covers from Bumblebaby

And for the adults in your life...

Adorable handmade coasters from VersaTile

Lovely clothes from Paisley

Adorable handmade cards from heart meets paper

Plus 15 more fantastic vendors for you to shop from! If you've got company in town for the long weekend, bring them down to see us! Can't wait to see you there:

Urban Craft - April Edition
Saturday, April 7, 2012
10am-2pm
The GCTC (Holland & Wellington)

Urban Craft: The Windy Edition!

Gorgeous coasters from VersaTile Designs

Every month, as we get closer and closer to Urban Craft, we begin to watch the weather closely to see if Mother Nature is going to give us some awesome weather for the day of the show. We are always so excited to see temperatures in the plus side of things, and are even more excited when there's a chance of sunshine on the day. This has especially been the case since we launched our monthly market in the fall, and temperatures have only gotten colder and colder as the months have progressed (boy are we looking forward to Spring)! As we watched the weather in advance of the March show this past weekend, we became pretty excited as the 90% chance of rain we were supposed to get turned into a 20% chance and the projected temperatures began to rise. Total score!

Golden Triangle T-Shirt From Apt. 613

It seems as though Mother Nature had something completely different in mind for us on Saturday. As we began to set up the event on the day of the show, blustery winds blew in and began gusting up to 90 kilometers per hour! Balloons were ripped off strings; we lost a few sandwich boards to damage, and every vendor who entered looked a little more than windblown.

But should you ever question whether or not Ottawans are a tough and resilient folk, we have an easy answer for that: hundreds of people came out to the show. They were certainly windblown but happy to be inside and shop! And we were more than happy to see them, too!

Gorgeous glass pendants from Water Willow Designs

We expanded the number of crafters selling at Urban Craft for the first time this Saturday. Because of overwhelming demand from vendors and requests from the public for more vendors to shop from, we introduced half tables in order to add some new vendors to the mix. It was an experiment of sorts and seemed to work very well; we are still working on tweaking the setup and figuring things out as we go! We are so excited about how this show continues to grow in vendors and people. We are a lucky bunch!

Sewn goodies from Winged Beast Outfitters

Colorful cases from My Stow -n- Tow

Gorgeous modern pouches from Prairie Girl Creations

Our next show is coming up on April 7th! Here's hoping Mother Nature will bestow a gorgeous, sunny spring day on us then!

Foodie Finds for your Valentine!

It just so happened that for the sweet month of February, we had a ton of awesome local food producers apply to be a part of Urban Craft. Local favorites Pascale's All Natural Ice Cream, Michael's Dolce as well as some new-to-us companies like Hello, There and Kinburn Coffee all put their hats in the ring, and we were more than happy to oblige. What does this mean? We have got some seriously good gifts for your foodie Valentine this February. Observe:

Ottawa's reigning queen of ice cream, Pascale, will be on hand for this month's show with her half pints of ice cream, t-shirts and--most importantly--ice cream sandwiches. Why is that the most important? We took a poll and decided that Pascale's ice cream, sandwiched between two thin layers of brownie (!) are the most delicious anyone has ever tasted. You can decide whether or not we're right by coming down and snatching up one before they sell out on Saturday!

Love jam? Love deliciously unique flavors? If so, then you're probably familiar with Michael's Dolce. And if not--well, we'll be happy to introduce you to him this weekend. Michael makes seriously delicious jams with mouth watering flavors like Peach & Cardamom, Kiwi & Lime, Blueberry & Lavender and more. These aren't your typical jams, and they're seriously crave-worthy!

We're also super excited to be welcoming an out-of-town coffee roastery, Kinburn Coffee, this month! The folks at Kinburn own a farm in a small town, which has left a soft spot in their heart for small farms that grow coffee elsewhere. So they purposely source their coffee from small farms where they can ensure the quality of their coffee and also ensure that the that the men and women who produce your coffee were paid the Fair Trade price (which doesn't always happen when coffee is purchased from large Fair Trade cooperatives). We're incredibly excited to welcome them to Ottawa and to see and smell their coffee in person!

Hello, There is a new baked goods company that we're also excited to welcome to the show this month. Owner Kaitlin has been baking and blogging for a long time, but has decided to take the leap and offer her yummy goods out to the public. With goodies like homemade oreos, and earl grey sandwich cookies--you really can't go wrong!

What can we say about koko chocolates that hasn't already been said? Their flavors are delicious and inventive, the quality of their product is top notch and owner Jenn is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. If you want to buy your Valentine a box of chocolate this February, why not treat them to some of koko's chocolates and really knock their socks off? You're going to get chocolate that's 100 times better than what you'll find in the typical heart-shaped box, and you'll also be supporting a wonderful local business. Win win!

Photo from foodiePrints!

Auntie Loo's will also be on hand this month with their ridiculously good vegan baked goods. If you've got a sweetie who is holdin' it down vegan style, you will definitely want to pick up some of their cupcakes, bars or whoopie pies for Valentine's Day. I promise that if you hand over a big box of these goodies, your Valetine's will be as sweet as theirs, if yaknowhatimean!

We really love Urban Baking Co., with all their cookie and macaron goodness! Their lovely goodies make me sigh just thinking about them. Urban Baking Co. recently started making cake pops and I can't wait to sink my teeth into the delicious new flavors they've told me they'll have at the show: raspberry white chocolate and salted caramel!

We'll also have handmade cards to go with all these sweet treats, gorgeous sewn goodies for your little one, lovely jewels for the gal to wear on your Valentine's Day Out

Urban Craft February
February 4
10am-2pm
The Great Canadian Theatre Company (Holland & Wellington)
20+ independent, modern vendors!

Purple Urchin: Watching Ottawa's Indie Businesses Grow Up!

 As organizers of craft shows here in Ottawa, one of the coolest things we get to do is see the amazing range of talent that resides in this city as it comes across our desktops each month. We're introduced to the coolest, most creative people and things and it's sincerely so inspiring to see what people are creating with their own two hands.

The second coolest thing is to watch these companies that we work with grow from month to month and year to year. And every once in a while, we get to see a company grow leaps and bounds and exceed our expectations.

In July of 2010 we ran a show in the Byward Market called Capital Craft Market. It was our first proper craft show (even though we had run Wed By Hand, our handmade & DIY wedding show earlier that year). One of our very first vendors that signed on was Purple Urchin--and boy are we so glad that they did! Purple Urchin has participated in nearly every craft show that we've put on, and they are one of our lovely permanent Urban Craft vendors, too!

Run by two lovely ladies named Sarah and Rebecca, Purple Urchin is a handmade bath & body company that has literally made me a convert when it comes to handmade soaps. I bought one of Purple Urchin's soaps a couple years back and haven't gone back since. Their products are inventive, fun, smell great and work even better.

So when Sarah told me in the fall of last year that they were opening a shop in Chinatown, I was both excited and surprised. You see, it takes a lot for a small handmade company to grow to the point where they can open a shop--but Sarah and Rebecca have completely pulled it off. Not only is their brand new store at the corner of Preston & Somerset warm and inviting, but it also smells damn good (of course).

We are so proud of them and how their company has grown. They were also gracious enough to donate a gift package (above) for Urban Craft January door prize--which a lovely lady named Michelle has won!

The First Urban Craft of 2012!

 

{gorgeous tea towels from manus made}

On Saturday we hosted the first Urban Craft of 2012 and had an absolute blast with all the wonderful people who came out to see us.

 

{adorable bowties from rufflentuck}

As organizers, we have learned so much from running a monthly show for the first time, and we honestly had no idea what January would be like in terms of traffic. But yet again, this wonderful city came out in support of small, independent businesses and really knocked our socks off!

 

{delectable vegan goodies from Auntie Loo's}

 

{lovely goods from the lost city of}

I'm not going to lie, ladies and gents--we have an AWESOME show lined up for you in February. It's going to be an awesome place to shop for your Valentine--no matter what kind of person will be yours on Valentine's Day!