Its time to get crafty, kids.   This Saturday, December 12, the sixth annual What a Load of Craft fair will be rocking the Johnson County Fair Grounds from 11 AM to 7 PM.  This is a new venue for the fair and with the larger space, comes more crafty goodness.  Live music starts at 12:30 PM with local performers Lipstick Stick Homicide, Kate and Amanda, Skye Carrasco, Olivia Rose Muzzy and Pete Balestrieri keeping things festive for the crowd.  Iowa’s own Leslie Hall of Leslie and the Lys will be MCing this year’s Craft Death Match and we can only hope that she’ll do a little Craft Talk while she’s got the mike.

The fair will feature some of Iowa City’s favorite DIY resources like Home Ec., The White Rabbit, and IAPATV, but will also include purveyors of craft that we don’t always have ready access to like Cookie Doe, Industrial Glitter, and Bug Snugger.  So bring your friends and see what WALOC has to offer this year!

This morning I made a happy discovery.  My usual peek at Grace Bonney’s Design*Sponge turned up an incredibly thorough guide to purposeful living in Des Moines, Iowa.  Our capitol city often gets a bad rap, mostly due to its close proximity to West Des Moines, a bastion of strip malls and cookie cutter tract homes that seems to suck a little bit of life out of you each time you pass through it.  Downtown Des Moines, with more than a bit of purposeful revitalization and a rechanneling of the energy and resources that run through it with each campaign season, is working hard to build a different kind of community.

Upon my return to Iowa five years ago, I spent about five months living and working in downtown Des Moines.  I remember being surprised by the slow food movement that was gaining momentum, the fast growth of the areas’ farmer’s markets, and the boom of new and interesting restaurants.  I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was and then glad to have a fun, new place to explore while I was adjusting to being back in the Midwest after many years.

So much time has passed since I moved to Iowa City that I am grateful for Annie May’s detailed guest post on the city and its hidden and not-so-hidden gems.  I think its time for a road trip and a day of exploration!