From the category archives:

In My Town: Chicagoland, IL, USA

Mojo Spa

March 17, 2010
Mojo Spa

As I approached Mojo Spa, its facade a pink and white confection on an avenue of stone, steel and cement, I couldn’t help but think of Good and Plenty, those licorice-flavored, candy-coated pellets that are always hanging out at the movie theaters with their floozy cousin, Good and Fruity. Little did I know how effectively [...]

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Sister Arts Studio

March 10, 2010
Sister Arts Studio

There was a time when I would think of the big city, and certain words would automatically come to mind: fast-paced, progressive, industrial, crowds, anonymity, grit, grime. But now, having visited Sister Arts Studio in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, other words come to mind as well: community, families, connections, creativity. This is because I found [...]

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Celia Greiner Woodworking

March 4, 2010
Celia Greiner Woodworking

One thing leads to another. Or so the old saying goes. Your grandpa might have told you that when you were small, and maybe then you weren’t entirely sure of it’s meaning. Maybe you still aren’t, we’re not here to judge, but one thing can be agreed upon and that is that grandpas tend to [...]

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Gallery’s Choice

February 23, 2010
Gallery's Choice

You’ve always liked art. In fact your favorite memories from summer camp are the arts and crafts classes. You’ve made dozens of friendship bracelets. You can latch hook a rug like nobody’s business. You still have that composition book with the black and white marble cover, from when you went through your poetry phase in [...]

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Renegade Handmade

February 17, 2010
Renegade Handmade

Remember when going to a craft fair meant wandering through a dusty church basement with your grandmother? Recall the mountains of Easter egg-hued pom-pom’ed hats, the macrame plant holders, the toilet paper and Kleenex box cozies? Yeah, you remember. So do I, but times have changed, and mercifully, so have craft fairs.
One of the best [...]

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The Brigantine Gallery

February 10, 2010
The Brigantine Gallery

Art galleries have definitely gotten a bad rap, and sometimes deservedly so. Oftentimes, us regular folks feel a little out of our element in them. They are the realm of people in the know with money to burn. And the owners are just expensively bespectacled gatekeepers to a place to which you might as well [...]

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Esther’s Place: For Such A Time As This

February 3, 2010
Esther's Place: For Such A Time As This

Please help me welcome the latest Try Handmade columnist, Angela Walters! You may already know her from Posy Moe or Pocketfulla Posy, but now you get to learn about handmade shops in and around her town through her very ambitious new column In My Town: Chicagoland, IL, USA. I’m really excited to learn more about [...]

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