Happy almost birthday, me!

I bought myself a little birthday present yesterday at the Saturday Market's "Festival of the Last Minute": this skirt. It's a wrap-around made of all recycled clothing, and I love it! You can get a glimpse of my silly shoes here, too. You may already know I'm a platform-shoe-junkie and regularly transform myself from my own humble 5'4" to more like 5'9" or even, in these, 5'10". And then when I take them off, I feel teeny tiny. Anyway, the skirt: so cozy! I love handmade clothes, and the Portland Saturday Market is a great place to find them, and to buy them in such a way that the artist gets almost all the profit, rather than a store.

I was a Saturday Market vendor for 3-4 years, and I stood out there under a measly bit of canvas awning in the rain and snow, too. It changed my life and I will be forever grateful to it. There were always more customers who didn't understand about "handmade prices" than did. People who would say, "God, at Target this would only be $10!" or "Huh! I could make this." But you just try to ignore those people. It's increasingly rare in this country to be able to buy handmade local goods from the people who made them, and it's COOL. So, if you have craft fairs in your area, support them. Put bread (and cake!) in artists' bellies. That's why I didn't feel guilty about buying myself a present -- because I was supporting the arts. See how that works? Tee hee. No guilt! Just doing my part!

Oh, and the artist who made this is named Lizzy and her company is Shabby Knapsack, but she doesn't have a website. Drat!