Smarts & Crafts has moved

We have decided to move our blog over to a new host as of today, so for those of you who follow our posts via an RSS feed or blog reader, you may need to re-subscribe in order to see future posts. The url is the same: www.smartsandcrafts.com. See you soon!

Bandanapkins

We recently bought a bunch of $2 bandanas to use as cloth napkins. I was impressed by the selection of greys and greens! Cheap, easy and classic- we couldn't ask for more.

Hey Youuuu Guyyyyyyyys!!

This year marks the 25th anniversary of one of my favorite films of all time, The Goonies. Beginning today, folks in Astoria Oregon (where the film takes place) are kicking off a 4 day extravaganza called "Never Say Die: The Goonies 25th Anniversary Celebration". In addition to screenings of the film, there will be treasure hunts, cast Meet & Greets (with Chunk, Mouth, and one of the evil Fratelli brothers...), a 5K Truffle Shuffle run/walk, bus tours of Goonies locales, performances by Goonies-themed bands like Troy's Bucket, The Whiskey Rebellion (they have a song called The Ballad of Chester Copperpot), and Corey Feldman's group Truth Movement), plus a host of other awesomely geeky events. My sister and her family are on their way up there right now. Damn, I'm jealous.

C'est l'amour

I am in love with the work of French artist Blexbolex. After receiving a copy of I Know How to Cook for my birthday, and finding a book called Seasons (cute promotional video here) at one of my favorite bookstores a couple days later, I knew he was my new all time favorite.

Psyched about Psycho!

Ever since we moved back to San Francisco, we've been looking for the perfect excuse to go to the Symphony. When we heard they had open rehearsals (with coffee and complimentary donuts!!) we knew we'd found it. Since that first visit we've been keeping an eye out for other fun things the Symphony has going on, and it turns out, they've got a lot going on! Next month we're going to a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with live musical accompaniment. The score is by legendary composer Bernard Herrmann who was such a bad-ass that there is a Society devoted to him. The man worked with the Best of the Best (his first score was for a little picture called Citizen Cane, his last Taxi Driver...) We can't wait!

The Derailleur Impaler

If you're in SF tonight, please come to the Derailleur Impaler Silent Auction & Raffle- to raise money for the AIDS Lifecycle, a 7-Day bike ride from SF to LA this June. Catherine Kaleel will be doing the 545-mile ride, and has organized this auction with our pal Kylea Borges to help raise funds for this amazing organization.

We were happy to contribute a little grab bag containing 2 of our favorite books from the shoppe: The Selby is in Your Place and ReproDepot's Flora Clip Art book. These offerings are just one of many, many art and product donations from loads of local artists and businesses.

More information is available about tonight's event here and at the Derailleur Impaler website.
Derailleur Impaler Silent Art Auction & Raffle Fundraiser for the AIDS Lifecycle
May 26th: 5-11pm at Space Gallery, 1141 Polk Street, SF

With Love, SF Weekly

SF Weekly's annual "Best of" issue came out last week, and we were sooo happy to find that both
The Curiosity Shoppe and Pop-Up Magazine made it into this year's round-up. Thanks for the love, SF Weekly!

Know-It-All

Thanks to the Philadelphia Inquirer for writing about the amazing Know-It-All Pencil Sets by Paper Pastries last week!! Of course we sold out right away, but thankfully we received another shipment of pencils today. Pick up a set for the know-it-all in your life!

Derek's First Sweater

It's not Everest, or a triathlon or anything....but it certainly was a lot of work, and a lot of fun! Can't wait to cozy up to a campfire in it....

Ideal Bookshelves by Jane Mount Opening Friday!

Please join us this Friday, May 14th to celebrate the opening of "Ideal Bookshelves" featuring paintings, prints, and postcards by the talented Jane Mount. Many of the pieces in the show represent Ideal Bookshelves submitted by friends, both from San Francisco and around the country. It's an amazing and beautiful collection, and it's been endlessly fascinating to check out all the great books people are into these days.

PLUS: We're offering a $25 gift certificate to the first person who correctly guesses which of the above "Bookshelves" belongs to Lauren and I. (click the image to enlarge) Leave your guess in the comments*.

PLUS: It's practically Lauren's birthday, so come by and wish her a good one!

WHAT: Ideal Bookshelves, works by Jane Mount

WHEN: Opening Party Friday, May 14, 6-8pm.

WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St.

(*Our moms and employees of the Curiosity Shoppe are not eligible).

How beautiful is this?

I left something at Leigh's house and she sent it back in this. I mean, c'mon! How beautiful is this envelope?

Little Dog

A few months ago I sent a box full of stuffed animals and other crafts to Amy for her new book, Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People. This little dog was one of my favorites, and look! It's here on the preview cover for the book, which I just noticed is already available for pre-order on Amazon.

I'm not sure I can wait until November to see the whole thing!

Southern Exposure Auction This Saturday!

A reminder to all that Southern Exposure's Annual Auction is:
THIS SATURDAY, MAY 8th!!
Click here for more information!
Click here to buy tickets!
Click here to see some of the artworks up for auction!
For those of you who can't make it, you can visit SoEx any day this week to check out the work and place absentee bids!

This is always one of the best, most exciting, most fun art events of the year! Can't wait to see you all there!

Here are a couple pieces I've got my eye on:

Jeff Canham

Scott Oliver

Marci Washington

Paul Wackers

Brion Nuda Rosch

Another Plaid Shirt

Got in a little more sewing practice today. Soon I will attempt a dress or shirt with buttons!

Homesteading Hootenanny!!!

Friends!

Join us at a super fun event happening this Thursday at Southern Exposure! It's a Homesteading Hootenanny put on by the fine folks from How-To Homestead and our pals at SoEx. In addition to all sorts of Homesteading activities (food, drink, films and such), there is going to be Square Dancing!! Not sure if you're aware of this, but it is physically impossible to not have fun square dancing. We know from personal experience.

Thursday, April 29, 2010
7 pm - Midnight

$10 / FREE for SoEx Members
Or FREE with homesteaded goods and items to share (including home brews, seeds, fermented vegetables, pies and more)

**ALSO** Another great reason to JOIN as a SoEx member!!

Hootenanny Schedule:
7:30: Screening
8:30: Tasting
9:00: Square Dance with Pearsons Pork Pies
11:00: Dancing with the Goat Family

From the website:

Join the How-to Homestead Crew, led by Melinda Stone, for a down-home hootenanny of movies, tastings, song, and dance! The evening includes free tastings of home-made beer, booze, fermented vegetables, and other homestead goodies; new homesteading movie shorts, some with live accompaniment by the How-to Homestead house band: the sk8 sisters; square dancing with Pearsons Pork Pies and the night concludes with free-form dancing with the Goat Family, a nuevo-traditional jug band on the old-timey exuberance and infectious tip.

Tagged!

Word on the street in San Francisco this week is that world-famous graffiti artist Banksy is in town, and new works have been sprouting up in various neighborhoods around town. The piece above (via SFist) appeared on the side of our building on Thursday, and it's been fun watching crowds of people taking photos of it the past few days. More Banksy photos can be found on the Flickr Banksy Pool, and you can watch a fun video here.

Birdhouses available online!

People visiting our shoppe gallery over the last couple weeks have been all a-flutter over the amazing birdhouses that Jeff Canham and Luke Bartels created for their "For the Birds" show. They are now available on our website! Check them out here.

Pop-Up Round Up

A huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to Pop-Up magazine #3 last Friday. It was so great to see so many of you there, and we hope you had as much fun experiencing Pop-Up as we had putting it together. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We purposely don't record Pop-Up. We like to keep in spontaneous and intimate. So for those of you who couldn't make it, here's a super quick play-by-play:

-Laura Brunow Miner from Pictory kicked things off with a special collection of funny, moving, and mischievous pictures on the theme, "Sorry, Mom."

- Steven Leckart (Pop-Up's resident gadget guru, and self-proclaimed Gallagher) killed with a hilarious (and physically demanding) demonstration of some state-of-the-art sleep aids.

-Author and chef Bryant Terry demoed a custom cocktail using ginger-infused vodka, and meyer lemons from his community garden which he christened the Cleanse-tini (hilarious AND delicious!). SKYY Spirits was kind enough to donate the vodka, which meant everyone at the afterparty got to enjoy his tasty creation as well.

-Artist Allison Smith told the crazy and scary and beautiful story of Trench Art.

-Wired magazine's research staff regaled us with amazing facts (and awesome props!)

-Writer, and (obviously insane) adventurer Josh Harkinson took us on an eye-opening, gag-inducing canoe trip down the horribly, horribly polluted Houston Shipping Canal.

- Jennifer Kahn shared the story of her notoriously lazy 80+ year old father's unlikely successes in the world of professional weight-lifting. Impossible to really describe this one. Let's just say the audience laughed, and cried, and gave Jennifer and her dad a standing ovation.

-We had a brief message from the owner of Midpoint Wine Cellars , another one of the evening's sponsors.

-Acclaimed author Rebecca Solnit used a beautifully detailed map to trace the historic and creative convergences of two men who helped make San Francisco famous and great: Alfred Hitchcock and Eadward Muybridge.

-Here we snuck in an unforgettable tribute to legendary photographer Jim Marshall by Zana Woods and photographer Michael Jang. Jim was scheduled to appear for an onstage Q&A with Zana, but sadly passed away a few weeks ago.

-LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne made a compelling case for Dubai (with its crazy buildings, and unique blend of the world cultures and politics) being the best, and perhaps last place to successfully carry out an assassination.

-Writer Jon Mooallem charmed everyone with a story about luck, miracles, serendipity, patience, wallets lost and wallets found.

-Filmmaker Jamie Meltzer created a beautiful short film about Sign Spinners, that was accompanied by a live soundtrack from these guys.

-Writer Elizabeth Weil thrilled and disgusted the audience with her hilarious and extremely convincing argument against French kissing.

-Inspired by Jamie's film, we had a brief ad for another sponsor BrewDog, which featured a rockin' Sign Spinner doing his thing live on-stage.

-Academy Award-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman treated us to an exclusive clip of their upcoming film HOWL, starring James Franco as Allen Ginsberg.

- Radio Diaries creator Joe Richman and Bridgette McGee-Robinson shared a moving and maddening story about Bridgette's grandfather who was executed by a traveling electric chair for a crime he may, or may not have committed.

-Artist Tracey Snelling created a video tour of Bordertown, her multimedia installation which features meticulous miniature versions of often ignored and out of the way places.

- Mirissa Neff, a dj and reporter for PBS's Sound Tracks, gave us a gorgeous lesson in Fado, the traditional music of Portugal.

-Here we featured a message from another sponsor, the W, who gave away free stays at their hotel and free dinners at their XYZ restaurant to 4 lucky audience members.

-Writer Justine Sharrock told the mind-boggling story of how some American soldiers have used Facebook to reconnect with prisoners they tortured at Guantanamo.

-Artist and experimental geographer Trevor Paglen explained how Humans are sending extremely mixed messages into outer space to potential intergalactic neighbors.

-What magazine is complete without a lively Q&A? This time we had the always captivating Lisa Margonelli in discussion with the Douglas Long, the fascinating Chief Curator of Natural Sciences at the Oakland Museum. You'd be amazed how much you can learn about Turkey Vultures in such a short amount of time.

-Finally, we closed with a wonderful piece by NPR correspondent Alex Cohen about the mysterious disappearance of Bobbie Gentry during the height of her career as one of the most popular and respected recording artists of the 1970s.

And then there was the After Party!!! Which to tell you the truth is a bit of a blur. (Having so many generous sponsors can be dangerous!!) But no one could possibly forget the amazingly delicious food from Bento 415, and the ridiculously tasty treats from Pinkie's Bakery. Yum!! And of course it isn't a party without music, and we were thrilled to have DJs M&S Treatzone spinning great tunes.

The Curiosity Shoppe + THE THING!!

Just wanted to pass along an invitation/reminder to please join us for an exciting and fun event with our pals from THE THING!

On Friday, April 30th as part of Joseph del Pesco's Society of Secrets event at the Berkeley Art Museum, The Curiosity Shoppe will be partnering with THE THING to host a secret undisclosed back-room parallel black jack tournament using Ryan Gander and Europa's Issue 9. Not sure how to play? Don't worry, it's really simple, we'll send you the rules ahead of time...or you can always purchase the cards (which come with playing instructions) from THE THING or the Curiosity Shoppe.

The games will begin at 5:00pm and go till 8:00, and admission is free for players. We are looking for 64 participants in the tournament, which is first-come, first-serve. The ranks are filling up fast, so we're not sure if there are any spots left, but if you're interested please send an email to Francois at: support (at) thethingquarterly (dot) com. The winner will receive a cash prize of $100 from THE THING and a $100 gift certificate from the Curiosity Shoppe.

Even if you can't be in the tournament, it's gong to be a great event and a great night, and we'll hope you'll come join in the fun with us!

A little decorating

One Sunday a couple months back, we set out early in the morning with our friend Paulina to do a little decorating on the side of a big empty building in our neighborhood. She had the idea to make pennants out of some colorful vinyl she had laying around her studio, as part of a larger project she has been working on, called Tu Y Yo. Tu Y Yo focuses on public art collaborations, community and positivity. We say yes to all of the above!

Unfortunately our installation didn't last more than a couple days before someone removed it, but here are a few pics for you to enjoy.

Small Stakes book launch party and signing!

Hello Friends:
Wow! Busy week! In addition to our gallery opening tomorrow evening (see post below), we are also super excited about an event we hope you will join us for on Saturday. Our friend Jason Munn—the wonderful wizard of rock posters—will be launching his brand new, utterly amazing book The Small Stakes Music Posters at our Shoppe. We are truly honored to host Jason and can't wait to celebrate his incredible work. So come on by and meet The Man, buy his book (and get a special limited-edition print!!). There will be snacks to eat, and posters for sale.

WHAT: The Small Stakes Book Signing with Jason Munn
WHEN: Saturday April 10th, 5-8pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St. (btwn 19th & 20th)

For the Birds Opening!!

Hello Friends!
Please join us this Friday evening to celebrate the opening of our new gallery show, For the Birds! Our talented pals Jeff Canham and Luke Bartels have created an array of amazing abodes, perfect the urban bird. There will be refreshments to peck at.

WHAT: For the Birds opening
WHEN: Friday, April 9th 7-9pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe 855 Valencia St. (between 19th & 20th)

*More images and a write up on Cool Hunting right here.

Happy Easter!

The shoppe will be closed today for some much needed R&R... hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Typewriter Love

Say hello to our Sears Junior Portable Typewriter, the smallest lil' typewriter in the west! If you want to see some gorgeous typewriter specimens (that are sure to inspire some insane typewriter envy) check out this site. You can search by brand, by period, by author... it's amazing!

Our new secret hide out.

Seriously Curious Confections

We've always admired Mary and Matt's great taste in art and design, music and fashion, and so on and so forth... And then—as if to prove their excellence in a whole different realm of "taste"—they started making mind-blowing, explicative-inducing chocolate. They recently sent us some samples which we shared with customers throughout the day. Everyone fell in love. Now you can too!

National Park Quarters

We can't wait for the National Park Quarters to come out! Hurray for the little joys in life...

What Lauren Made This Weekend

This shirt.

What Derek Made This Weekend...

Oars!! Thanks to the lovely Mariah and the fine folks down at the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, Lauren and I are now the proud owners of 2 beautiful douglas fir ready-for-rowing oars. The icing on the cake was the leather straps we laced on to protect the wood in the oarlock. So pretty.

The class was amazing and fun and educational and I can't wait for more. If you're interested in taking a class down at the Historic Hyde Street Pier, get in touch with Mariah at mgardner(at)maritime.org.