Image by madflowr via Flickr

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
Items in this set:
Whale Tote from SquidFire
Flaxseed Body Warming Bags by E-A-POO’s
Family Necklace
prix-prix:: necktie wallets, necktie necklaces, recycled notebooks,…
xmittens- blue fleece fingerless gloves black 3d thread details- size…, $20

yikes!  sorry I didn’t get to post this on Friday morning -  but all of these events are for Saturday!
Santarchy 2009

• Holiday Bar Crawl
• Must wear a santa suit
• Meet outside of Cheesecake Factory in South Side Works at 2pm on Sat.

Handmade Arcade

• Sat. Dec 12
• Hunt Armory in Shadyside
• Awesome handmade items from crafters near and far, tasty food and fun times

The Goodie Truck Holiday Party

• Help get the truck back on the road
• Sat. Dec. 12, 9pm-1am, $10 at the door
• 300 Saline St, Across from Big Jims in the Run

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Handmade Arcade is this weekend!
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!

Image by juliekaffe via FlickrStreet with a View

• Adding art to Google Maps
• Google Street view, Sampsonia Way on the North Side

Bikes Before Christmas

• Kraynick’s Bikes and Pittsburgh Police are collecting used bikes for kids.
• Mr. Kraynick and volunteers will fix up the bikes
• Last year 230 bikes were donated to area kids
• Drop off bikes at Kraynick’s on Penn Ave in Garfield or any Pittsburgh police station

Sprout Fund Harvest Festival and Penn Avenue First Fridays

• Stop by the Spround Fund offices for food, drink and music
• Learn about some of the great projects the Sprout Fund supports
• Friday from 5:30-9:30pm

Handmade Arcade

• Huge handmade craft sale – art, t-shirts, gifts and more
• Crafters from all over the country
• Saturday and Sunday at Hunt Armory in Shadyside

Image by juliekaffe via FlickrThis is soo much more than holiday shopping.  I really like the folks behind Handmade Arcade and they have done a lot of work to make this annual event a success year after year.  Handmade Arcade has become on the of premiere handmade shopping events and vendors will be coming to Pittsburgh from all over to sell their handmade goods.

Aside from the crafts,  there will be some tasty treats from my favorite Franktuary and I am sure some other delcisious vendors will be there too.

This year, Handmade Arcade moves to a new location at the Hunt Armory in Shadyside.
Handmade Arcade
Hunt Armory, 324 Emerson Street
Saturday, November 8, 2008 11am – 7pm
Sundsay, November 9, 2008 11am – 5pm
Here are a few of the vendors that I have meet before and I am looking forward to checking out this year…

Tugboat Print Shop has great prints.  Paul and Valerie are really great and they also do framing work.  Check out their blog here.

CitySpun – she used to live here in Pittsurgh, but now lives in Lancaster.  Jessica makes yarn with soy – that she spins with other cool things to make some awesome hand spun yarn.  Can’t make it to handmade Arcade? You can check out her Etsy shop here.

TinyRat – she makes some serious art out of the medium of plastic canvass.

Fresh Popcorn – When she isn’t writing interesting articles about local things, Jennifer is making local things.  I really want a set of the Merry Signs of Christmas Cards that are made from local holiday signs.

Here are some links/articles/blog posts that are worth a look:

• Pittsburgh Sports League Fall Season – The fall leagues start at the beginning of September. There is still time to sign up. New for the fall – Water Polo!
• Pittsburgh After Work – Back to Work – Where has Pittsburgh After Work Been? – I am not sure who write this blog but they have some reviews of places to go after work – they also have some funny posts and are looking for readers to suggest more places to visit. They tooke a break in Dec. but seem to be back in action with quite a few blog posts. If you are looking for an indepth look at the Pittsburgh Bars – this is a blog for you.
• Handmade Arcade » Sponsorship Opportunities – Handmade Arcade – Pittsburgh biggest handmade craft extravaganza is looking for sponsors for thier big event.

Click here to see more links we like.