Happy Handmade Holidays

Sigh. To be honest, we don't like Thanksgiving. This is not to say we do not adore our family or the spirit or the slight drop in temperature.

In fact, except for the food ( NOT THE CRANBERRY SAUCE MOM) we like the whole idea of Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday that doesn't involve buying a whole bunch of stuff. So this year consider taking the handmade pledge.

The handmade pledge lists the usual benefits of buying handmade:
Buying handmade makes for better gift giving,
Buying handmade is better for people,
Buying handmade is better for the environment

Of course the premise remains the same: buying stuff. Even handmade stuff is still stuff. Whether you belong to the Black Friday camp or the Buy Nothing Day camp, crafty people have yet another option that doesn't get a whole lot of press outside the Martha Stewart camp. So while the crafty peoples are always extra busy this time of year with craft shows and such, crafty people always have the option of making their own gifts.

That said, we will still be making the rounds at the craft shows around town. Last week it was Felt Club. This weekend, it will be Handmade for the Holidays over at Fairfax High.

Just not on Friday.

Inferno in SoCal

Hey Crafties,
Wracking you brain for ways to help out the parched/burnt communities in Southern California? Know some one who's been evacuated. The Marimello clan alone has about 15 members evacuated from 7 homes. It's enough to make our heads spin.

And spin they did, until we settled on this idea for a charity raffle/donation site. We thought we would set up a collective to raise money for charities in SoCal. Through this new blog, Marimello is looking for donations of items that are less than $5-$10 (your cost), anything bigger will be put into a raffle. The drawing for these items will work thusly: names will come from a pool of anyone who donates, buys, or just sends in a good contribution story will be entered.
Email or leave comments if you can help!

Check it out here: witch-fire.blogspot.com

New Craft Spectacular: Get Right Outta Town

Marimello has been contemplating the necessity of a new Los Angeles craft fair. Wouldn't it be fun if you could go to a little indie craft shopping every weekend? Wouldn't mixing and mingling with other crafties be a swell addition to an otherwise football-filled coupla days?

We want to know your thoughts. What have you been dying to see at a craft fair? Any special vendor types you think are missing from the usual mix? What kind of howtos would have you hanging on the edge of your seat? Would you have rocking tunes ala DJ or live band? What part of your stash would you bring and leave or trade on a big table of free goodies?

Inquiring minds want to know...Leave a suggestion in the comments or email the elves at marimellodesign [at] gmail [dotty] com. And derrr, anyone who gives us feedback will be immediately enslaved to help out with the project. Or at least be subject to more brain picking.

We can't wait to hear from you!

Teen Vogue does DIY

Not being teens anytime this century, we are unfamiliar with the goings on of Teen Vogue. Back in day, we had Sassy, YM and Seventeen to get our fashion/advice fix. But it's good to see that these days Teen Vogue is keeping in touch with the DIY scene and the teen fascination with couture.

We find this interesting because in our crafty world, recreating couture falls under the umbrella of subversion. Of course this is a fairly recent association to make given that crafters, more specifically seamstresses and tailors, have been recreating the latest fashions for centuries. This whole buying off the rack thing is a wee babe in the grand old house of fashion when you think about it.

But the Teen Vogue articles, from Marchesa to Zac Posen, all involve and highlight the original designers. This is more about giving teens access to high fashion and allowing them to tweak and customize the designs.

Now don't get us wrong. We're all for getting the kids crafting, but we're really hoping two things:

1) That no one is getting parental help on this project. Again, it's not that we don't enjoy mommy's sweaters (xoxo! Mom), but having you mom do your 4th grade math homework didn't go over well with Mrs. Westra then and it doesn't go over with Marimello now.

2) That the theme of making your own stuff doesn't go right over the teens' heads. While it is AWESOME to have your own Tory Burch-esque v-neck avec signature dickie, it's not so awesome to own one that was made by some one who made less than the change you pump into a soda machine in passing period.

We're hoping that the brilliant teens of today figure out how that DIY is a responsible choice and alternative to pawing through cheap knockoffs at the Rack. Not that we made any responsible decisions until we were age 25 or so, but we can always hope.

Check out Teen Vogue's DIY here. And for more on Marimello's irresponsible descision making skills, just try googling us. Back in our day the WAS no MySpace. Back in my day we left no digital footprints and whatever we were doing out so late is lost in the sands of time. Fer Sure.

Back To School: Marimello's abandoned projects, Summer 2007 edition

This is the first year since high school that we've had a summer vacation. And we had so many plans laid for things we were going to accomplish...sigh. Apparently the long break form vacations has taught us nothing. Once again Labor Day is right around the corner and all we have done is the laundry. Here's just a few of the things we've flaked on this year:

Project 1) Get back into Ceramics. Speaking of High School, we were once heavily into ceramics. It was such a pleasant calming craft, and the studio definitely had the bast air conditioning. We were interested to start up again when we saw Barry's Big Clay Blog which included some great video posts. Reason for flaking: our house has the worst air conditioning and we already have 14,000 mugs.

Project 2) Learn to Crochet. The Marimello staff is full of knitters. Crochet does not make sense at all, but earlier this summer we were inspired by hyperbolic crochet and rushed out t obuy matching hooks. A couple of days ago this pattern for crazy cat hats showed up on Craftster and our interest was renewed. Maybe it's not to late for this one. Reason for possible flaking: the cat is not amused.

Project 3) Intarsia. We saw this video post that made it look so easy. Unfortunately we are very picky about our color combos and couldn't make up our minds. We completely forgot about the whole thing after one crazy week running from yarn shop to yarn shop. Official reason for flaking: whatever we choose color-wise, it will be warm. Let's put this one off 'til winter.

Project 4) Yohji Yamamoto's super cute jacket. Doesn't it look fab? So simple, so comfy; this should be the official new uniform in the Marimello office. Reason for flaking: we have no excuse on this one.

So with summer dwindling down, it looks like all we have time for is wallpapering our doors. It's about time we revamped the color scheme around here and this project looks so simple ever we cannot fail to complete it. Let's just hope the landlord doesn't come by.