Surely you’ve heard of Statehood? Even I’ve heard of Statehood, and I NEVER get to go to shows. Eh, such is the life of a mom… but I got lucky last Thursday night and saw their excellent set at the Black Cat. Wow. They are fantastic! Now I do not pretend to be a music critic so I’ll leave it at that, but judging by the crowd’s response to their awesomely energetic show, I know that lots of folks would agree. Check out their radness in the Performance Pit at Crafty Bastards September 28 from 12:40 pm to 1:20 pm!

Explain your band/stage name and define your sound.

Band name? We had this idea of Statehood for a name, so we sent it to Congress and it passed in a vote 241-177, but then it died in the Senate. But at that point we already had the CD out with the name on it. It’s just sitting in the Supreme Court now. Well, any press is good, right? The record, we’ve been told, sounds like DC on caffeine. The new songs have much more robot to them.

What are your influences and worst equipment experiences?

Influenced by just about everything. Early on in the band much of the music was sequenced in an MPC 4000, which could create some havoc at times. Since then we’ve learned to train other robots with greater success.

What’s your favorite local hangout and best stage you’ve played?

Favorite local hangout is Joe’s basement because it’s where the magic happens, and we can always get a seat. Best stage is the Black Cat.

How do you feel about being a Crafty Bastard?

We feel fine about it, thanks.

Where can the adoring public see you next?

We’re doing a short tour in early October, so if you have some comp time built up we can email you the routing. (We won’t have any more local shows til early next year)

Oh me golly, get ready for this. Leslie of Oliba Soap will have Wasabi Soap Bars for sale at the Crafty Bastards Festival this month! If this curiosity doesn’t entice you to her booth, I’m not sure what would. These soap bars are moisturizing and exfoliating for the skin, and a sweet treat for the olfactory senses — not to mention a great conversation piece for the powder room!

1. Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

Our soaps are all equally wonderful but there are a few that stand out above the rest. One in specific that is a customer favorite is our Wasabi Bar. It smells amazing and not nose hair singeing like you would expect. Everyone who smells it just adores it.

2. Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

The story behind this one, or inspiration I should say, was actually sushi. Oliba is obsessed with sushi and food seems to be the main inspiration for most of our products. We love to explore scents and organic materials that differ from the norm, as well as keeping within the guidelines of being all natural. Any time we get the chance to mix the two, it’s either a win or lose situation. In this case it worked out amazing!

3. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

Martha Stewart. You know she has a wild side! Her love of the handmade, natural soaps and all things food is her dream combo. She’d also love the fact that this soap not only smells yummy, but is ultra-moisturizing and exfoliating as well, which our Martha needs after a hard day’s work in the kitchen and garden.

4. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

This soap is a must in helping to keep your skin moisturized during the long hours in the blistering sun. And let’s face it…everyone needs to stay clean, even if you are on a deserted island, you’ll want to smell your best when being rescued.

There are few places on the earth where you can find as much plush as you will find at Crafty Bastards this Sunday. From the expressive eyes of Tigerflight’s upcycled owls, to the spotty heads of My Paper Crane’s mushrooms, to the furry weirdness of Jenny Harada’s monsters to the simple wonder that are Spooky Daddy’s Roaming Eyes of Doom. You will find it at the fair.

Jenny Harada recently sat down with Impatient Crafter to make make make! Check out this awesome video:

The Impatient Crafter™ and Special Guest Star Jenny Harada!

Need more? Spooky Daddy’s puppet videos/interviews can be found here.

And if you want to make it yourself, go no further than Sewing Stars in Booth #23. She is ready to arm the masses with kits to do it themselves! Check out her blog for tutorials and inspiration.

The 5th Annual Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair is this Sunday, September 28th from 10am-5pm at the Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

These lovely one-of-a-kind blank porthole journals by Bowerbox Press make you daydream about being the captain of a ship. I imagine the little book being my only friend during a long journey across a great sea.

1. Does the porthole journal have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or other strange way?
The idea came to me when I found an old glass lens, and was thinking about the portholes on boats. I gathered different sized lenses, and have been working out different ways of creating the porthole to the interior of the book.

2. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?
Perhaps Sherlock Holmes, or the captain of a flying ship, would use this book to jot down notes and maps. They seem like an old and weatherbeaten favorite book - with a little surprise.

3. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!
If you take this to a desert island, not only could you keep a diary to stave off insanity, but you just might be able to start a signal fire with the glass lens!

Check out Bowerbox Press in booth #137 at the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair at the Marie Reed Learning Center in Adams Morgan, DC.

Ever itch to say something to a loved one without really having to say it? This holiday season, take a load off and let Alastair the grumpy gnome do the dirty work! Tina Seamonster (of CB blogging fame) will be showcasing her deliciously endearing and cruel holiday cards at this month’s Crafty Bastards festival. Muhahahaaa … this way YOU can spend the rest of the holiday spreading good Christmas cheer!

1. Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

My new line of holiday cards! Alastair is a grumpy gnome and he wants you to be honest. Being honest during the holidays is even better than being honest on normal days. Making your friends and family cry because your honesty is borderline stressful is even better. Seriously, these cards are super cute and funny. They say stuff like, “All I want for Christmas… is for you to stop being a miserable drunk.” Or “For you to stop having sex with strangers that you meet on the internet.”

2. Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

Alastair is who I wish I could be on Xmas morning. He does not pretend things are peachy. He wants to piss people off. He wants to tell people that they drink too much or worry too much or have sex with too many strangers. And with the help of my illustrator pal, Chris Piers, he came to life.

3. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

I know for a fact that Ricky Gervais (British comedian, The Office) would give these out to everyone he knows. He might hand them out to people on the street, even. They are the perfect mixture of cringe, humor, mean and jolly, just like Mr. Gervais. My dream would be for Ricky to give one to Jack Black and they would both laugh. Or he could send them randomly to crap celebrities like Nicole Kidman or The Jonas Brothers or Madonna.

4. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

Hahaha. These cards would remind you that you loved your family even though they disappoint you. Not sure that helps on a deserted island. It also makes a cute bookmark if you take a book with you to the island.

So you’re definitely excited about checking out the 100+ totally rad vendors at Crafty Bastards THIS SUNDAY (yay!), but be sure to schedule your time so you can see the amazing performers we’ve got in the Performance Pit ALL day long! You’ll find set times below, and be sure to check back here all week long for Q & As with everyone.

10 am and between performers all day long Crafty Bastards MC Ken Vegas has been performing all over the world since 1996. He is also the founder of the DC Kings who were founded in 2000 and also the producer of the Great Big International Drag King show.

10 am and between performers all day long DJ Saggiatore plays rock top musics for sophisticated people… a disciple of the principles laid out at David Mancuso’s ‘the Loft’ with a sidelong glance back at Francis Grasso.

10:30 am - 11:20 am Check out the awesomeness of DC’s distorted classical theatre company, Taffety Punk Theatre Company.

11:30 am - 12:20 pm Rock-n-Romp, the awesome family friendly rock show series, showcases cool local music for parents and kids. This year we’ve got FEVER bringing the kid-friendly rock! With influences ranging from the deliberately trashy croon of T. Rex, the garagey roots rock of early Kinks, the dynamic shifts of ELO, and the energy of The Jam, FEVER ascribe to a timeless teenage sensibility, both in their musical content and boyish good looks.

12:40 pm - 1:20 pm Statehood! Rhythm section of the Dismemberment Plan, singer of the Motorcycle Wars and guitar from the Vehicle Birth drinking all of the coffee and making music. Full length CD “Lies and Rhetoric” is out now, 2nd CD coming in spring of 2009.

1:35 pm - 2:25 pm A wushu kung fu group from the Chinese Martial Arts Institute located in Fairfax, Virgina will be demonstrating a mixture of kung fu, sanda, taiji and qinna. They will be performing basic drills and jumps, internal and external forms, applications, and fighting sets.

2:30 pm - 5:30 pm B-Boy Battle! Alloutparty.com brings down the house with incredible vibes and insane moves at the 4th annual Crafty Bastards breakdance competition.

At this year’s fair, we are setting up a fun little experiment with the Crafty Bastards Twitter feed. Follow us on Twitter, get our tweets sent directly to your phone, and we will send you special announcements and secret sales throughout the day of the fair.

Not only will you get super secret messages from Crafty vendors and staff, but you will be able to join in on the conversation. The Crafty Bastards Twitter feed will be posted on the Washington CityPaper web site! We will be posting updates all day during the fair. You can join in with your own Twitter updates by just adding @CraftyBastards to your posts. Tell us about all the neat stuff that you are seeing, live from the show!

So, here is what you need to do to join in the fun:
1. Follow Crafty Bastards on Twitter.
2. Set up your account to get our posts via your mobile phone. (Standard text messaging rates apply.)
3. ** Don’t forget to go to the Crafty Bastards twitter page while logged into your acccount and choose to get messages from us on your mobile phone.

4. Turn on your phone during the fair and get super awesome special secret messages.

See you at the fair on September 28th!

If you haven’t quite acquired that dream home yet, at least you can give your current place a vintage makeover with This Chickadee’s matching linen table toppers. They are bold and vibrant, with an inviting hint of Southern hospitality. Choose your style from five sets at this month’s Crafty Bastards Festival!

1. Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

To complement the a la carte placemat and coaster line-up, I’ve stitched together some matching sets from vintage linens. Four placemats, four coasters and four napkins combine to make a lovely table topper and get along well since they are all cut from the same cloth. The placemats and coasters are quilted and the napkins neatly hemmed. There are five different sets available, each print is as lively and bold as the decade it was born in. Everything old is new again!

2. Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

Placemats require a good amount of fabric to construct, and after the last show my stash was reduced to stragglers. New fabrics are fantastic, but their production does create environmental waste. So I’d been dreaming up ways to introduce repurposed/recycled fabrics into the collection and had started collecting some vintage linens. Then I had an “I wonder…” moment and just started snipping and sewing.

3. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

Well, Scarlett O’Hara did famously make a ballgown from curtains but I don’t see her as much of a hostess. Other southern ladies come to mind, though, like the characters in steel magnolias. Someone who would welcome you into their home and make sure you felt comfortable being there. You know that Dolly would insist on you staying for dinner. She’d be taking your drink order when you walked in the door and sending you out with full belly and a bag of cookies.

4. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

When you start to lose your mind from drinking seawater, you could have a delightful little tea party with your imaginary friends.

First I have to ask. Is the plural of Yeti, Yetis? Should Yeti have an uppercase Y? Where is the AP Style for magical creatures? Does J.K. Rowling have one? Can I get a copy?

There are few humans who don’t love the Yeti. Beth of Lemon Cadet puts her powers of sewing to good use with her awesome Yeti baby gear!

1) Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

I’ve been hard at work on a new yeti design. He’s much bigger so there’s room for many more teeth! I also gave the yeti on the onesie a matching plush friend.

2) Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

I love Christmas movies. One of my favorites is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer because of its most important character Hermey, the elf who wants to be a dentist. In the film he befriends the Abominable Snowman. Because of that, I became really interested in the Yeti and started collecting them and drawing them.

It was only natural that I have a yeti in my clothing line.

3) What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

If they made really really big onesies, I think the Loch Ness Monster would wear one. Maybe I could just make a shirt for him…

4) Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

Of course if you were heading out to a deserted island, one of the three things you’d bring would be your baby. The kid has to wear something and it should be one of these.

Check out Lemon Cadet in Booth #10 on September 28th at the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair!

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at tinaseamonster.com. She is writing a brief history of how Yetis are the new unicorns.

My nerdy heart is so excited about Rebound Designs‘ new paperback wallets. Your favorite classics and their vintage cover artwork on your wallet? Nuh-UH! Ingenious. You’ll find yourself wanting to spend more money just so you can pull out the wallet and bask in the glory of oohs and aahs.

1. Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

Paperback wallets! My newest product line is made from old paperback books, covered with a waterproof vinyl, and the inside of the billfold is lined with pages from the book. They’re very durable, just the right size for your cash and have 2 pockets for credit cards. I can do pretty much any trade paperback, and custom orders are always welcome. You can have your favorite book made into a wallet you carry every day, and they also make excellent gifts.

2. Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

The impetus for this product was entirely customer driven. For years, men have looked at my Book Purses and said: “I wish I were a woman so I could carry this purse!” So, I resolved to make wallets out of paperbacks. They’re the perfect size, and I always wanted to find a use for all the discarded paperbacks that come my way, along with their hardback brethren. It took several years of trial and error to find the right vinyl for the covering, and the best way to line the edges, but I have finally perfected the technique.

3. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

I’d like to think that any author would be honored to have a wallet made from one of their own books. My favorite author is J.R.R. Tolkien, who was also an ardent environmentalist, so I would hope he would admire the inherent recycling of my work. I also once heard an anecdote about Mark Twain; that when he read a book, he would tear the pages out as he read them, and leave them scattered on the floor. I have not been able to verify this (Wikipedia, why hast thou forsaken me?) but if it’s true, I think he would appreciate my wallets in good humor.

4. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

Well, is this a deserted island that you intended to go to, or were you marooned there after a shipwreck or plane crash? In the case of a wreck, the wallet would be an excellent thing to have with you! Chances are, it would already be in your pocket, so you wouldn’t even consider it as one of the three things to grab from the sinking wreckage. Plus, since it is waterproof, you would still be able to read the 2 pages enclosed in vinyl as the interior lining. However, if you are going to the deserted island on purpose, I recommend waterproof matches, a sharp knife, and a satellite phone with a rechargeable solar battery instead.