Crafty Flop

The GIPNA Fine Crafts Fair was a bit of a bust. I don't think it was just me. My neighbor has exhibited at the show since its inception and has usually done well; she made $22 after the table fee. I made $14. I'm not sure whether to be discouraged--people do not like my bags as much as they claim to, or chalk it up to any one of a number of explanations: the recession, the weather (temperate and sunny), or the location (hot, stuffy gym inside the Fieldhouse).

On the upside, I got to see lots of neighbors and friends, some that I saw last week, some that I hadn't seen in many months. I also bought some yummy-smelling soap from Big City Fuzz.

Independence Park Events

As with last weekend, there are about 8 million events this weekend that I'd like to attend. Unfortunately, I'm already fully booked, so some of them will have to go on without me. If I didn't have The Girl's birthday party tomorrow morning, I'd be interested in this:

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Thinking Inside the Box:
Planting a Window Box for All Seasons

Saturday, May 2 · 10:00am - 12:00pm

Independence Park Bungalow, 3901 N. Hamlin Ave

To make a reservation please call (312) 642-9900 or email reservation@chicagobungalow.org

There is also the GIPNA Fine Crafts Fair on Sunday at the Independence Park Fieldhouse from 12:30 - 4:30. I'll be selling these bags for $12 each, or 2 for $20:

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

I will also have my initial and number tees, and bean bags:

From Blogger Pictures

Hope to see you there!

Clean & Green

Although our participation in the official Clean & Green events in both Old Irving Park and Greater Independence Park was a bit of a bust, our family did manage to do a little gardening/improvement of our own today. We were hampered by the weather (on and off rain) as well as The Boy's Saturday morning soccer game, arriving at the GIPNA table too late to register or pick up trash bags. Our neighbors had come to similar fates, so we all cleaned the breezeways next to garages instead. I pulled out all the weeds, rocks, garbage and whatnot from the breezeway next to our garage, then installed our rain barrel on the alley side of the fence, leaving a good receptacle for rain runoff from the garage and giving us easy access to the spigot for gardening use when the weather dries up.

We went over to the OIPA potluck picnic about 12:30. My friend CD had asked me to have my bags available for green-minded folk, but when we arrived, the scant population was packing up to leave. So we went to lunch at Target. Despite the snags, it was a nice day.

Meeting Junkie

Since The Boy started kindergarten, I've become somewhat of a meeting junkie. If there is a meeting in the neighborhood, I'll probably attend. I'd like to claim that my motives are purely altruistic, a response to President Obama's call to volunteer, but that's only part of the picture. I often attend community meetings because I am curious. I want to know what is going on -- at school, in my neighborhood, at the parks, in adjacent neighborhoods, with my alderman, in city policy. I'm still trying to figure out specific ways that I can contribute to the actual organizing bit of community involvement, but attending meetings is a good way to determine what the group's actual needs are and how my talents fit in with those needs.

The Mall

Chicago Mama's cupboard was bare, so I took The Girl and The Tot out for lunch today. I had suggested Panera, as it's right across the street from the Market Square Pottery Barn Kids. But The Girl declared that she did not like that PBK and wanted to go to the one at Old Orchard Mall instead.

In her younger days, before we had to worry about such silly things as school pick-up times and better budgeting, we spent a lot of time at the mall (our favorite, as a group, is probably Northbrook Court, with its giant treehouse in the center court). These days, although every retailer and its cousin is trying to lure us in with sales, rewards programs, and other incentives, we don't go very often. It probably also helps that the screenprint I saw yesterday at the T-Shirt Deli ("I take the fun out of shopping") aptly describes both The Boy and The Tot, thereby rendering shopping an activity best enjoyed without the company of children, and therefore not enjoyed very often by me.

And yet: we went. And despite the rain, it was (mostly) fun. At least The Girl keeps talking about how much fun she had. We went to the infinitely more preferable (than Panera) Nordstrom Cafe for lunch: Lime-Cilantro Chicken Salad ($9) for me, Simple Turkey Sandwich ($5) for The Girl, and The Tot shared with us both. On the way in, we ran into Carrie from Disney II, a mom of a child in The Boy's class, who seems to run in the same social/activities circuit as I do, and her little boy. After lunch, we headed to PBK to spend my PBK card holder rewards coupon. It was hard to come up with something I wanted to buy -- we checked out the stuff at Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma next door before settling on a pink Farmhouse Chair to complete our set; it's the only chair that we didn't buy as a floor model. We took a quick cruise through Gap Kids, where the salesgirl made me feel bad that my 2-year-old wanted to throw every one of the bucket of small playground balls set at perfect toddler height across the store. We stopped at the E-bar at Nordstrom on the way home for a latte (me) and snack (The Girl, The Tot) and skedaddled.