Twinkle Loon

For the past few days I have been reading all of the posts over at Design*Sponge about the ICFF Design Show. I have been drooling over some of the images! I’m jealous of everyone that was able to go. But today Design*Sponge posted about some of the schools that were showing work… two schools… I will not name them but lets just say they are the arch rivals of my beloved Alma mater and current employer MICA (don’t worry, I still love you Design*Sponge!). And OK, maybe arch rival is a little extreme but we do compete for being the top art school in the country. And this year we were in fact at the ICFF show and not only that but we got an editors pick from Metropolis Mag. You can also read more about MICA’s booth here on the GD MFA MICA website. That’s a lot of acronyms!

You can see more photos of the MICA booth on Flickr. I wish that there were more detail shots, guess i’ll just have to go next time and take my own photos. I love this idea above, the Sliding Window Gardens. It would be like a beautiful green garden curtain! Congratulations ICFF MICA participants! 

Images: Top- from graduate.mica.edu Bottom- from Anrew Shea’s flickr)

Shopping locally is very important to me. So, while i love my Burts Bees lotions I would much rather buy locally. I am also not a big fan of supporting companies like Clorox who bought out Burt’s Bees over a year ago. There was an interesting article in the New York Times around the time of the sale. I know on their blog Burt’s Bees insists they have not changed their ways but some of my money is going to Clorox and I’m just not cool with that. Plus I love being able to actually meet the owners and talk to them about what they put into their products and how they started their business. So below are three local places where I have tried the products and met the makers.

At the Eastern Market in York, PA I found  a stand called Aroma Maker (pictured above). I can’t find any information on-line about them but they are at the market which is open every Friday. I bought the cucumber lotion bar and it smells fabulous!

Another York shop is Sunrise Soap Co., it’s a great little shop with a really helpful and friendly owner. She piled us up with lots of yummy smelling samples. Many of the lotions and soaps have patchouli, which I hate, but there was plenty that didn’t. I bought the cocoa butter lip balm in sweet orange and really love it! It is soft but stays put and smells so good. I will definitely be going back there.

A great Baltimore based company is Biggs & Featherbelle. I see them at pretty much every local fair I go to and they have a very devout following around here. I have it on good authority that the eskimo kiss lip balm is amazing.

This weekend was also the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival which was wonderful as usual! This year I was able to enjoy the festival through a child’s point of view, my niece and nephew. They had a ball looking at all the sheep and yes even the yarn and wool. My nephew is five and, get this, he loves to finger crochet! All the older ladies fell in love with him as he excitedly rambled on about counting his stitches.

It was a very, very wet day but we were prepared! Plus it added another activity, puddle jumping…my sister was not too happy about splashing strangers but what’s a five year old to do!? He’s decked out in rain gear and there are puddles everywhere! It’s not his fault that some people were not as prepared as he.

Busy, busy weekend! So many activities plus having friends in town made for an amazing weekend. One highlight was the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race put on by AVAM. Contestants are encouraged to cheat and bribe their way through the race and the winner is the most mediocre! Above is a photo of what seemed to be the crowd favorite, Platypus. This sculpture plowed through the sand trap obstacle and barely slipped up the mud hill obstacle. They had children diving for candy like crazy. There was a group of little girls that had plastic bag tutu’s, so cute and creative!

Above is the Rat King (from The Nutcraker) trying to make its way up the mud trap. These people are dedicated! It takes a lot of work to run (drive? pedal?) this race. There were so many amazing sculptures and it was a perfect day outside. Thank you to everyone at AVAM that make this happen!