Dan and Shannon started Commonwealth Press in the basement of their house – they do an awesome job of screen printing t-shirts – if you can dream it – they can print it.  They are fast and helpful and affordable – Iknow they have done a great job of large and small orders (I think they were once kind enough to print 8 t-shirt for me).  One of the first converstaions Dan and I had was about clean and green and I know they do their best to steer clear of some of the toxic elements that can be involved in screen printing.

Aside from being awesome screen printers – they have designed some awesome t-shirts over the past few years.  One of my all time favorites is the Steeler Nation t-shirt which we blogged about when the Steelers went to the Super Bowl in 2006. We also love love love the Pittsburgh neighborhood map t-shirt.

Here is a photo of the Pittsburgh Neighborhoods t-shirt at the Waimea Canyon, Kaua’i, Hawaii

The folks at Commonwealth Press have organized a little happy hour, screen printing demo at their fantastic location on Carson St. Everyone is welcome to come check out their shop and enjoy some beer from the good folks at East End Brewing.

And while they have been stuck inside this week – they have done it again – 2 new t-shirts to commemorate the snow – snOMGpgh and SNOMAGEDDON Pittsburgh 2010.  Take a closer look at the SNOMAGEDDON t-shirt – has the skyline of Pittsbrugh in the background too.  The shirts are $10 you can pick one up at the shop or order online at – www.compressmerch.com.

So stop by on Friday and say hi, follow commonwealth press on Twitter here – @cwpress.

Commonwealth Press Happy Hour
Friday, February 12, 2010, 5pm-?
1931 East Carson St. South Side
Screenprinting Demos, Beer, T-shirts giveaways and more

A few weeks ago I had the great fortune to meet some of the folks who work at ModCloth, an online retailer of fabulous fashions that is based here in Pittsburgh.  One of the cool tools I learned about is Polyvore – which is a website that lets you “clip” your favorite items and group them into sets to share on your blog, Facebook and Twitter.   I have been having some fun creating sets of items for Spreadshirt so I thought I would do the same for IheartPGH too. (I have even set up an IheartPGH group on Polyvore here).

My first Polyvore set for IheartPGH is a round up of some items from vendors who were at the I Made It Market or Handmade Arcade.  (I wanted to add even more but for some reason – you can’t clip images from Etsy to Polyvore ).

Here are just a few of the goodies that were available – click on each item to learn more about it and visit the website of the vendor. Most of the vendors are from Pittsburgh too!

Did you buy any handmade gifts? Who were your favorite vendors? Please share more links to Etsy shops in the comments.

Handmade Holidays by iheartpgh on Polyvore.com

Pittsburgh’s award-winning independent free craft fair, the Handmade Arcade, will return to the Hunt Armory located at 324 Emerson St. on December 12, 2009, from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Out of 250 applicants, a collection of 90 local and not-so-local crafters will converge to help attendees find the most unique indy gifts for the holiday season. Returning for their third year is our rust belt neighbor, Campfire Goods, from Akron, Ohio.

I recently spoke to Campfire roadie Andy Taray, who is excited to return to the Steel City for the event:

Handmade Arcade has such a cool vibe to because it has sort of a small town feel to it, yet its such a nice big event… I feel like the event has a large majority of its shoppers coming from within the city, as opposed to many of the other shows that have people flocking in from all over the place. So there is definitely a huge Pittsburgh vibe going on… which pretty much always results in some great stories for sure… and accents!

This is the sixth year for the highly anticipated event which creates buzz all year long. You can almost always hear someone talking about Handmade Arcade at any I Made It! Market or Sundae Market event.

Exclusive Early Birdie passes are being sold for $15 and pass holders will be able to shop from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. without the rest of the crowd. They’ll also receive a designer swag bag and other goodies. Only 150 Early Birdie passes will be sold. If you miss out on the Early Birdy pass, the first 100 shoppers through the door will receive a special swag bag.

Crafty goodies won’t be the only thing making an appearance at Handmade Arcade, be sure to check out local treats and eats from Dozen, Franktuary, Coca Café and Coco’s Cupcake Café.

Handmade Arcade 2008 featured an ad-hoc free workshop donated by AIR where patrons could create their own large scale screen print of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s front page on November 5, 2008, announcing the Obama presidency. I can’t wait to see what surprises are in store this year.

I think the best approach to taking in Handmade Arcade is to walk around the entire event once before pulling out your wallet. I like to see everything and consider every option before I even think about buying something. However at Handmade Arcade 2008, that little pear checkbook holder I spotted on my first go around was gone by the time I got back to the Get Felt Up! table. Thankfully, I was able to purchase it from their Etsy store a few days later. Get Felt Up! will be returning to Handmade Arcade this year.

If you can’t make it to Handmade Arcade 2009, most of the crafters have online stores that you can browse. The Handmade Arcade website has been updated with a directory of crafters with links to their websites.

For the traditional shopping experience, check out WildCard, located at 4209 Butler St. in Lawrenceville. WildCard features stationary, accessories, clothing and more all created by local and national crafters; several who will be showcased at Handmade Arcade, including Wren & Rita, Subu, Garbella and fresh popcorn. WildCard is open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. most days. Rebecca Morris, owner of WildCard, recently said:

I have other crafters who don’t participate in the craft fairs, so the public may not see them anywhere else. I also carry some cardstock, decorative papers, ribbon by the yard and some other fun crafty stuff like cross stitch, embroidery and needle felting kits, so if people are inspired by some of the things they see at Handmade Arcade, they could try making their own cards. I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting things, so customers can expect to see something different every time.

Handmade Arcade is a sure to be a great place for holiday shopping and inspiration for the aspiring crafter. I hope to see you there!

Event photos credit Larry Rippel, 2008. Obama print photo credit Jennie Roth.

Check out the sample sale tomorrow or their entire collection at Jonano.com.

You can RSVP for the sample sale here on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180216964142&ref=mf

Hello i heart pittsburgh,

I wanted to invite you personally to our first monthly sample sale tomorrow. I’m looking to drum up interest in Jonano, as we’re getting lots of national nods but are slower to create a buzz in Pittsburgh, where we are headquartered and where our wonderful crew is from (except for my blissfully transplanted self). Jonano really is doing something unique in terms of the organic clothing market, creating affordable, streamlined styles that women can wear to work, play, or anything in between. Our newest endeavor is our bamboo and corn lingerie that is amazingly soft and my absolute favorite. Please feel free to bring some friends and stop by and meet us, I’d love to talk to you about what you know about the Pittsburgh fashion scene as I’m relatively new to the area, but loving it!Here’s the info for tomorrow and I’ve attached our flier:

Come join Pittsburgh’s own eco fashion innovator, Jonano, at our first monthly sample sale this Friday from 5-7 in our Riverfront Studio. Good fashion, good folk, good golly! Organically grown and ethically sewn, Jonano is dishing out some amazing deals to get ready for our spring line of buttery soft bamboo lingerie… and our spice market inspired Istanbul Collection. 333 East Carson Street on Terminal Way, Floor 5… find us on facebook at Jonano eco chic collections or online at www.jonano.com, check out our blog at ecocouture.blogspot.com

Thanks so much,
stephanie strasburg
jonano eco chic collections

Pumpkin Picking at Harvest Valley Farms, originally uploaded by IheartPGH.

You could not ask for a better day for a fall drive to pick out a pumpkin. There are still a few pumpkins left at Harvest Valley Farms (www.harvestvalleyfarms.com). They have all sorts of fall fun – corn mazes, candy apples and hayrides.

Sundae market is a flea market on the Schenley Plaza lawn that showcases local artists, young designers, and people who just cleaned out their garage. So forget Craigslist, and stop bidding on eBay, come to Schenley Plaza and have some human interaction with sellers, or customers.

Spaces are FREE if you bring your own tables, or tables are available for
rent. visit the website for more info: http://sundaemarket.com

Everything kicks off at 12pm and goes to 5pm.

Musical tunes provided by: OLIE 6.0 FM

Once again it will provide an opportunity for Pittsburgh’s creative to sell their work as well as a chance for patrons to update their art collections and closets with original pieces from vendors of this city’s extraordinary homegrown talent.

You can find Schenley Plaza at 4000 Forbes Avenue

Read more about Schenley Plaza, Craigslist and Flea Markets…

• For Sale: Your Michael Jackson Memorabilia (npr.org)
• Visionary Arts Festival in Schenley Plaza (iheartpgh.com)
• ItsMySale.com – Keep An Eye On Craiglist All The Time (killerstartups.com)
• Craigslist Never Ceases to Amaze (markevanstech.com)
• Great Lake Swimmers at Schenley Plaza (iheartpgh.com)

I think this event is a great idea (we have blogged about it in the past too) because it is a great way for Pittsburgh to reuse and repurpose furniture and dorm things and a great way for new students to save some money fixing up their new Pittsburgh abodes!

If you are new in Pittsburgh – or looking for some new furniture – before you make the trip out to Ikea – stop the Oakland Planning and Development Corporations 4th Annual Used Furniture Sale this weekend.

4th Annual Used Furniture Sale

Friday August 28 10am-8pm
Saturday, August 29 10am-8pm
intersection of Atwood and Sennott Streets in Central Oakland

More info at OPDC.org

Furniture Sale in the news:

From the Post-Gazzette’s Walkabout Blog – Holey couches, Batman!

“We have lots of couches, a ton of chairs, a lot of desks, tables, some shelves, dressers, and a few lamps,” Kelly said.

This year, Pitt donated some dorm dinette sets, the Carnegie Library donated some furniture from the East Liberty branch, which is getting a facelift, and a landlord who furnishes his apartments has donated some nice couches, she said.

Ratty couches and ones with ugly patterns will go for $15-20. But just remember, don’t put them on the porch.

More on the sale at PopCity Media too.

Some interesting blog posts about furniture and Ikea…

• Is Ikea worth it? (timesunion.com)
• The Modi Is Like a Million Sofas In One [Furniture] (gizmodo.com)
• Ikea 2010 (design-milk.com)
• Ikea’s Back to School Laptop Solutions (geeksugar.com)
• Why You Shouldn’t Buy From Ikea [Particleboard] (consumerist.com)

Join us in the PCA parking lot. Admission and parking are free for this lively, artistic spin on the traditional yard sale.

Featuring over 30 individual artists and several PF/PCA departments bringing affordable original works, prints, decorative arts, art books, art supplies, equipment for art making, and some collectibles.

Things are tight this year, so we thought we could make a little lemonade…We came up with the idea while trimming our budget, and cleaning out storage spaces.

Our department of School and Community Programs will be holding a bake sale, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting that department, and teaching artists specifically.

Ceramics-access Artist Members are producing ceramics to be donated to PCA, and sold to help pay for kiln repairs.

Sunday, July 5 – 9:00am to 5:00pm.
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
6300 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh 15232 / 412-361-0873

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20406782