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!

I love books.  I revel in their weight in my hand, the texture of their pages, the ink and paper smell that escapes when you crack one open.  They are my most favored possessions and instead of tchotkes, I collect books.  Beautiful ones with classic, concise covers and bright ones with bold spines and clean fonts.  I am in in love with the possibility that comes with each one I bring home and comforted by their presence when I’ve finished them.  When I read, I feel more like myself than I do when I am doing any thing else and so, I prefer to surround myself with them instead of any other thing.

This is why I love, love, love this gorgeous poster from FloraFauna. Designed for the band, The Books, FloraFauna elevates PR to the level of art.  If you’ve never seen their stuff before, I highly recommend that you take a twirl around their website.  They produce some of the most incredible show art around.