Congratulations to everyone that won! You can pick up your prize at the UCU table at the show. 

Postcard Set from Monkey Sock Monkey-Alexa

Acorn Necklace from MOSS Handmade-Tamara

2 Gift Certificates to Foamy Wader- Maija & Kathleen

A Copy of Make and Takes for Kids -Joanna

A Copy of Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life - Zara

Earrings and a Necklace from Agnes - Khajha

Embroidery Kit from Tako Fibers - Amber

A Hat from Hoo Hats - Kati

An Embroidery Piece from Danger Peach - Tara

A Card Set from Little Otsu - Marie

Orange Soap from Pepperjack Home - Kristina

And even if you didn't win a giveaway, you're still a winner because you can go to Urban Craft Uprising where there are opportunities for swag bags, shopping and raffles.   Oh My!

Just a reminder to enter the giveaways on our blog.  I will be picking winners tomorrow night, so get your comments in by then!  Just click on the links below to enter each giveaway. 

Postcard Set from Monkey Sock Monkey

Acorn Necklace from MOSS Handmade

2 Gift Certificates to Foamy Wader

A Copy of Make and Takes for Kids

A Copy of Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life

Earrings and a Necklace from Agnes

Embroidery Kit from Tako Fibers

A Hat from Hoo Hats

An Embroidery Piece from Danger Peach

A Card Set from Little Otsu

Orange Soap from Pepperjack Home

Be sure to check back tomorrow night to see if you won!  All prizes can be picked up at the show.

Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your work.

Hi! My name is Robyn, I’m a simple lady living in my hometown doing
what I love every day. I have been working on putting together a home
based business for a few years, and Pepperjack Home came out of that
and has been going strong for almost a full year! I make all sorts of
things, mostly products for the home. In the extremely home-y
Pepperjack Home booth you’ll find all-natural laundry products
(complete with reusable dryer sheets!) as well as reusable sandwich
wraps, snack bags, reusable paper towels and lots more! I happily do
custom orders – for my usual products, as well as pretty much anything
else you’d like sewn/handmade. So if you’ve been looking for something
specific, come tell me about it!

What are some sources of inspiration for your work?

I am an extremely practical person, and enjoy making things for
myself. Being self-sufficient and independent has always been very
important to me, so I have picked up as many skills as I possibly
could over the years and turned it into a business! I am often
thinking about ways to make things more efficient, and coming up with
ideas for new products to help everyone be a little kinder to the
earth, while keeping them as stylish as possible.

What was the best thing you did with your summer?

It surely was a good summer! I did a lot of relaxing by bonfires and
at barbeques as well as plenty of farmers markets and festivals. And
one much needed weekend away.

Are you showcasing anything new at the winter UCU Show?

There will be lots of new fabrics! A few new products, such as things
for kids – some build-your-own fort kits that I am pretty excited
about and a bunch of other gift sets too!

Robyn is so nice that she has offered to giveaway a box of sweet orange laundry soap!  Leave a comment here and a winner will be picked randomly.  You wil be able to pick up your prize at the show!

Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your work.
Tender Loving Empire is a Handmade Consignment shop in Portland, Oregon, as well as a Record Label and Screenprinting shop focused on supporting independent artists and musicians. At UCU, we bring our own signature line of screenprinted tshirts and hoodies and the cds and vinyl albums we release through our Record Label. We usually bring one or two of our favorite items from the shop with us too.  So when you buy items from us at UCU you're indirectly helping hundreds of artists get paid for what they love to do!

What are some sources of inspiration for your work?
Our community keeps us inspired to continue the hard work it takes to run a small business.  We love to be able to help support our friends and neighbors through Tender Loving Empire.  We try to be a reflection of what's going on around us.  Out tshirt designs, the music we release and the items we choose to carry in our shop all follow this general concept.

What was the best thing you did with your summer?
We made a baby!  She'll be here in March. :)

Are you showcasing anything new at the winter UCU show? 
Last year, our most popular item was our hand-silkscreened, annual music compilation that features over 45 songs by 45 bands from our record label and beyond.  This year, we're bringing our brand new comp, Friends and Friends of Friends, VOL. 4.  It's silkscreened in 3 colors, and had cool pop-up features.  It's only 15 dollars for 2 discs (47 tracks!) and makes a great gift or stocking stuffer for your music-loving friends.  We also have a couple new tshirts and hoodies that we're really proud of.

What are you most excited about for UCU?
We always get a great response to our music at UCU and are excited to bring a couple new releases up to our Seattle friends.  We also definitely use the show as a chance to scout out items that might be a good fit for our Portland shop year around.  AND we're super pumped to eat at our favorite Thai Restaurant on Capitol Hill.  It's a yearly tradition.

Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your work.

We are a mother and daughter team working in Portland, Oregon. Our products are designed for children and made for busy parents.  Each of our handsewn items was first designed to fill our own needs . We are busy moms ourselves and each item we design is something we needed and could not find anywhere else.

The first thing we wanted was a waterproof changing pad that could be tossed into a purse for quick trips which didn’t require an entire diaper bag. When we discovered laminated cotton fabric it really brought everything together. This fabric is certified safe for children and tested to contain no harmful chemicals. We designed the pad to fold up and added bright plastic snaps to hold it together when not in use.

This naturally led to matching waterproof bibs. We added a waterproof pocket to catch food spills and designed it to snap on the side so as not to catch the little one’s hair.  We design each of our products to be practical and easy to use. We also want them to be as beautiful as possible because parents and children deserve to enjoy items they use every day. We believe that form and function are not separate ideas.

One of our main goals is to make a product that will not have to be replaced. We hope that parents will use them for each of their children and then pass them on to friends or family. Or even save them for the grandchildren.

What are some sources of inspiration for your work?

Our first inspiration is our two year old daughter/granddaughter.  We are also inspired by the fabrics and patterns that we find in local stores and online.  We strive to make beautiful and functional products of the highest quality. .

What was the best thing you did with your summer?

We participated in multiple street fairs around the Portland area during the summer. We just started our business this year so this gave us a great opportunity to get out and show our products to a lot of different people. The feedback and comments we got allowed us to refine our products to make life easier for the parents of small children. We also got to meet and get to know many other members of the crafting community. The friendliness and advice we received from everyone was overwhelming and really made our summer.

Are you showcasing anything new at the winter UCU show?

We have added bright cotton wrap skirts and waterproof art smocks for toddlers to our line of bibs, changing pads, sun hats and rain hats.

What are you most excited about for UCU?

We want to widen our market. This is a great chance reach out and show our line to people who are looking for exceptional handmade products for children and parents. We are always excited to see what other handcrafted goodness is being sold at this kind of event.

See more of Emmaroo Designs here and at the show this weekend!

Tell our readers a bit about who you are and what you do.

We are an independent publisher in Portland, Oregon. We focus on publishing illustrated books and paper goods that are printed in the USA using vegetable-based inks and 100% post-consumer recycled papers.

What are some sources of inspiration for your work?

We love books and printed matter from all eras. We both made zines in our youth and that diy, making it up as you go micro-publishing ethic/attitude has carried over into what we do now.

What was the best thing you did with your summer?

Yvonne got to go on a short trip to China with her brother!

Are you showcasing anything new at the UCU winter show?

We'll have our latest installments of our Living Things Series, our newest Annual planner by Lizzy Stewart, and our Space Garden Calendar by APAK. We'll also be hosting Little Otsu artist Martine Workman.

What are you most excited for about UCU?

It will be our first craft show in Seattle so we're looking forward to meeting lots of new folks!

Lucky for you, Little Otsu has offered to giveaway a set of their Seasons cards by Becca Stadtlander.   Just leave a comment on this post.  A winner will be chosen at random and you can pick up your prize at the show!

Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your work.

I am a painter/illustrator and make greeting cards and prints from my artwork. About four years ago, I started painting again after being away from the brush for ten years.  A friend and colleague saw my work and asked me to illustrate a children’s book about Tokyo, my place of birth.  I loved the project and didn’t want to stop drawing.  Being a letter writer and lover of stationary, I decided to start a greeting card business.  My hope is that my drawings and cards give people a simple moment of delight.

Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your work.                           This whole jam journey began at Quillisascut Farm School in Rice Washington. I was 38, had just been accepted to Bastyr University for nutrition, and was so excited to get started I decided to take an elective at the farm school the summer before my official start at school. It was (is) the epitome of farm to table and was an intensive instruction in food and community. It was here that I learned that jam could be delicious. My palates memory of commercial grape jelly kept me from ever eating or trying jam or other preserves since childhood and I was thrilled to be enlightened. Upon return, I decided to pursue the combined culinary arts and nutrition degree at Bastyr, the first year it was offered. I continued to make preserves with whatever I could get my hands on, modifying recipes to reduce the overall refined sugar content and replace some of the sugar with honey and other unrefined sweeteners. It was such a joy to shop for local ingredients at farmers markets and return home to preserve them. It was this joy that led me to start Big Spoon Jam.

What are some sources of inspiration for your work?                                   It may sound cliche to say that I am inspired by nature but I am. I am always marveling at the beauty of fruit, its flavor and texture, how my palate responds to it. I love using foraged fruit, interesting varieties of fruit, and unexpected flavors like smoked salts and smoked teas to create and build flavor. I am also inspired by cookbooks from chefs both classical and innovative.  Also, I am blessed to have the everyday inspiration of the chefs that I share kitchen space with.

What was the best thing you did with your summer?                                     Hahahaha. I started Big Spoon Jam!!!

Are you showcasing anything new at the winter UCU show?                     I'm silly excited about a tea smoked pear preserve with vanilla that I made this week. Other fall and holiday flavors are currently being developed in the kitchen and in my head.

What are you most excited about for UCU?                                                              I have no idea what to expect! I guess thats exciting in itself. I'm really just so honored to have been accepted into UCU. I crazy love the holidays, so being a part of such a big holiday event makes me kind of giddy. It's thrilling to think that my Big Spoon Jam creations will be holiday gifts.