Introducing The Retropolitan Craft Fair

Hello Lovely,

I realize I missed the entire month of October on the blog. Whoops. Sorry about that. October was a very busy and very exciting month for us. The weeks were filled with long hard days at work and there was something to do every weekend. Through this chaos, I was able to concentrate some of my attention on realizing one of my goals. That my friends, is the subject of today's blog post. 

A few years ago I attended my first indie craft show in Nashville, and fell in love. The room was filled with quality, unique, handmade goods - all in my style. I immediately had to set a budget for myself. That first experience left me wishing there was a fair like this in Knoxville. It took a few years to decide if this was something I was really ready to take on myself. The first step, was establishing a team to help me. 

As a television producer I'm great at bringing people together, organizing large projects, and multitasking. I knew nothing about starting a business, creating a website, marketing to potential vendors, or setting running a craft fair. So, my first stop was my college roommate and dear friend, Taylor. Taylor and I had lunch one day and were talking about living our dreams. In that lunch I brought up starting a craft fair. Taylor is a crafty person and a former business major. It was a match made in heaven. Once Taylor was on board, my next step was reaching out to my coworker, Lacey. Lacey is a producer and a lover of design. She helped me nail down the overall theme and feel for the fair. Finally, I held my breath and reached out to the final crucial piece of the puzzle, Joanna. Joanna is the owner of Ivey Expressions and was one of the photographers at our wedding.  As a mother of two, a wife, and a small business owner, I was worried Joanna wouldn't have time to help, but knew we needed her expertise. Thankfully, she agreed to join the team and help us with vendor relations among many, many other things. Luckily, her husband Tim agreed to help us with our website and design. Thus, our team was born. 

We decided our fair will be juried, meaning we will hand select our vendors based on creativity, quality, and retropolitan flair. Applications open November 15th and that fair itself will be held March 29th. To learn more about the fair, apply to be a vendor, and see our definition of "retropolitan" checkout our website. And don't forget to "like" us on facebook.

I'm anxious, I'm excited, and I'm happy. I know our fair is going to be a great success. I hope to see you there.

xoxo,

alyssa renee

holiday wish list

I updated my Amazon Wish list a few weeks ago and it makes me happy just looking at it. Obviously I'm in to oxfords this season. There is a good mix of pretty things for the home and wardrobe, crafting tools, and household gadgets. Here are just a few of them. It was so hard to pick which ones to share! 

1. A nifty collapsable salad spinner from Bed Bath & Beyond, 2. some cute bow flats from Nordstroms, 3. A fun crafty large circle hole punch, 4. Away too expensive for right now but would love to have flash 5. These Chelsea Crew oxfords I've wanted for over a year but are also too pricey for me to justify buying myself

Just for fun I thought I'd share this fun travel book. Take a look inside! Super cute book with weekend trip plans. Would love to travel through this book with the husband some day. 

Have fun making your wish list this year. 

promtastic

hello lovely,

well my baby sister went to senior prom last weekend. i can't believe it! she asked me to make her and her boyfriend's boutonnière and corsage again this year. this time around i went with a disney pixar's "up" theme. just for fun i made a few ellie badges for the moms and myself too. here are a few pics. i really love how they turned out. i found a template for making actual grape soda badges like the one from the movie. i will so be making them soon.

xoxo,

alyssa renee 

a wild rumpus baby shower

hello lovely,

well our favorite indie rock baby was showered with love this weekend. cecilia donna had a where the wild things are themed shower complete with paper crowns, a wild rumpus, & her very own "autographed" copy of the book. we had a fun time rocking out to a baby girl themed play list and playing corn hole in the back yard. mom, dad & cecilia racked up some pretty nice gifts as well. the food was all cravings colleen's been having: chili, funfetti cupcakes, pineapples, & sour patch kids to name a few. a lovely time was had by all. now i just can't wait to hold the little love and kiss her sweet face. more shower posts coming soon. next weekend is my friend rachel's bridal shower. should be another fun afternoon with great friends. enjoy the pics. i made a few crafts as a gift for cecilia. my favorite is the sweet wreath below. i love how it turned out.

xoxo,

alyssa renee

  

 

 congrats mom & dad!

a friendly craft session

truth.

hello lovely,

one of my very best friends is getting married this june. since i know how time consuming wedding crafting can be, i tagged along with some of my best gal pals for a night of wedding crafting. rachel, the bride to be, decided she wanted us to practice making her centerpieces. so, using a tutorial like this and 5 bottles of wine we got to work. it was a night of great talks, a few tears, messy hands, and bonding. since most of the time my hands were covered in goop i didn't get many pictures. 

in other news... remember our friends corey and colleen? well we are having a shower for their indie rock bundle of joy in our backyard next weekend. i will for sure be taking pictures of this joyous event. stay tuned.

xoxo,

alyssa renee

the bride to be!

sewing date: the roommates make a circle skirt

hello lovely,

i had a sewing date with my college roommate a few weeks ago. taylor and i have always bonded over our love of all things crafty. it was easier to find time to craft when we lived together, but we don't get to see each other as much these days. that just made this craft date even more special. we decided to make the circle skirt from made. i took a few pictures of the journey. the skirts turned out pretty cute and the tutorial was really simple to follow. the hardest part was making the pattern! but, once it is made you can use it over and over again to make more lovely fun skirts. you should try it out!

xoxo,

alyssa renee 

this looks simple enough. but don't be fooled. this took us a good hour to make. it was the toughest part though and once you make this one you can use it over and over again so don't give up. 

i chose a springy seersucker 

taylor chose a sassy print of course

aren't they cute? i want to make another one soon.

happy crafting!