Category Archives: Events

Happy Labor Day!

Due to a scheduling mishap, I had a rare four day weekend this weekend, and did my best to enjoy it! Here’s a little rundown:

Friday

Had lunch with an old friend who is moving to Chicago next week. Sad, but now I have someone to visit in Chicago 🙂 And Chicago sure seems to host a lot of cons!! (Don’t tell her I said that already) Afterwards I popped in Richmond staple Stories Comics and picked up a few horror magazines. I am prepping for MonsterFest in Chesapeake, but given Saturday’s events that ended up being a bad plan. Listed at least 50 new items on etsy while watching really cheesy television. My shop now has over 200 items in it, and that’s got to be less than 20% of my stock. That means that 1) I need to list more on etsy and 2) if you haven’t checked out my display at a show this summer, you should come by the Costen Floors bazaar in Richmond next weekend or MonsterFest next month if you’re in the Chesapeake area!!

Saturday

Drove with R & D down to Virginia Beach to see Carbon Leaf again. I’m really not sure why I keep heading to the waterfront resort areas in peak tourist traffic, but whatever. We planned our route around 2 comic book stores. The first was Bender’s Books & Cards in Hampton. D & I first heard about this place when we had a table at the Virginia Beach Memorial Day Sci Fi yard sale when I made a deal with the owner for some of my Doctor Who books & collectibles. On the way home from that trip, we stopped by the store. It is a treasure trove of vintage comics, magazines, and, well, pretty much anything collectible. Make sure you bring your hand sanitizer because you will get dirty, but seriously, this place has everything. Piles and stacks and shelves of it. I came away with a big stack of monster books, magazines, and comics, as well as some Doctor Who magazines. They have a bigger Doctor Who display than I ever thought I’d find in Hampton, as well as a TON of Star Trek stuff (probably because of the annual sci fi yard sale).

Next we headed towards Zeno’s Books in Chesapeake. This is another store we heard about at the Sci Fi yard sale. They actually had the booth next to us and we kept each other entertained all day – apparently I was the first customer they’d ever had who bought comics based on what was on the BACK covers, which amused them. I also spoke to them at FantaSci and the July VA Comic Con, so even before I’d set foot in the store this was pretty much my favorite comic store. The owner had set aside the merch we were looking for which was really nice, and I also picked up some more magazines and comics to use for MonsterFest items. I’m getting really excited about this event!! Although a much smaller store than Stories or Benders, the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff is a huge plus and they still have a very impressive inventory for the space. I got some great deals, and one or two items that I might not be able to bring myself to cut up.

Finally, much to R’s relief, we eventually headed towards Virginia Beach. Carbon Leaf was playing for free as part of the Verizon Wireless American Music Festival. We got there just in time to catch most of the opening act, A Silent Film, a band out of Oxford/London. I had never heard of them before but we all enjoyed their set and I intend to check out their albums.

Carbon Leaf were amazing as usual, although they seemed to have some technical issues throughout the night and I’m pretty sure Barry wasn’t feeling so great although he did borrow a punter’s hula hoop and hula hooped on stage and they still played at least 2 hours. They played a new song which Barry identified as Bloody Good Bar Fight Song/ Donnybrook Affair, and there were 2 songs in the encore that were either so old or so new that I didn’t know them. All three showed a lot more of the celtic influence that they used to have, which I appreciate. I think this is probably connected to them dropping their major label and going back to their indie roots.

Sunday

I caught up on Doctor Who. Can you believe I missed the Doctor Who premiere for real life fun? Yeah, me neither…

Monday

Spent the day rearranging my workspace. Now that all the magazines and comic books and books are in one place and sorted, I’m a bit overwhelmed. No more comic book stores for me for a while!!! Time to do some more cutting up & etsying!

Have a Heart Fall Bazaar 9/8

The fall Have a Heart Bazaar is only two weeks away! We still have vendor spaces available for this event, which will be Saturday, 9/8, from 8-1, hosted by Costen Floors in Henrico. We’ve been hosting vendor events to raise money for the American Heart Association since 2009 and now have fall and spring events open to second hand, craft, and catalog vendors. If you’re interested in vending in our fall event please email me at mail@rippingitdown.com or you can signup for our email list to be notified about future vendor events!

If you’re not a vendor but you’re in the Richmond area, stop by and check out all the goodies on offer and help us support the American Heart Association. Be sure to follow Costen Floors on facebook and join the event for updates on all the great vendors registered!

 

Confirmed vendors include:

Food truck – www.streetdelirva.com
Thirty One – www.mythirtyone.com/blb
Park Lane Jewelery
We Be Crafting Initials Inc -  www.myinitials-inc.com/14106/
Scriptures Gifts & Xaviera LLC Finders Keeprs – www.finderskeeprs.com
www.twosistersartconcepts.com
Scentsy – www.sarahssignaturescents.scentsy.us
Grateful Gypsy – gratefulgypsy.etsy.com
NailLand nail salon – nailland.tumblr.com
Jewel Kade – www.jewelkade.com/jstack
Ripping It Down – rippingitdown.etsy.com
Thirteen O’Clock – thirteenoclock.etsy.com
Arbonne

Con Review: FantaSci X

On the 7th I vended at FantaSci, a science fiction convention at the Chesapeake Central Library. I had never attended the event before, and didn’t know what to expect from a free one day con at a library, but I was pretty impressed. The library is HUGE and the con had a pretty wide range of guests, vendors, and programming. The only thing that was slightly disappointing was that our booth was in kind of an auxiliary room that was also holding panels and demonstrations. Did I mention that there was a lot going on? The booth had a mixture of vintage sci fi books and collectibles along with my usual stock of handmade jewelry and recycled pop culture accessories, plus Thirteen O’Clock’s bowties and iPad cases!

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Someone posted some great pics of the con, including a very awesome Ten and Eleven (who made her own bowtie, which impressed me since I leave all the sewing to Thirteen O’Clock!), Nick Fury playing the only arcade game I was ever any good at (which I totally missed!!) and a very friendly customer sorting through my newest product line, luggage tags, which I debuted at this event. They’ll be making it to etsy eventually!

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Unfortunately, FantaSci’s website isn’t the greatest, and I didn’t have a whole lot of time to study the programming list since I was flying solo for this event so stayed pretty glued to my table. I did appreciate that there was a blood drive, as well as Klingon jailing fundraiser, presumably run by the IKV Devestator fan group (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). I really like this element of the cons I’ve attended recently. All in all, I had a fun day, and I’ve signed up to vend at MonsterFest, a free one day horror convention at the same library in October. I’d encourage you to stop by and check it out if you’re in the area! (Actually, I’d encourage you to stop by and check out the library regardless, and it seemed pretty nice to me!)

Changes to 10/1/11 event

Our October Have a Heart event has been changed to a Bazaar style event. We have some great vendors lined up, so I hope you’ll come and check it out anytime 10am-4pm.

 

Confirmed vendors include (but are definitely NOT limited to):
Adornments by Estelle – www.adornmentsbyestelle.etsy.com
Dove Chocolate Discoveries – http://www.dove-chocolate-discoveries.com/sites/bekahcowne
Mauri Beaded Jewelry
Premier Jewelry
Ripping It Down – http://www.rippingitdown.com/
The Ice Cream King
The Soap Shack – http://www.etsy.com/shop/adriannesoapshack
Thirty-One – www.mythirtyone.com/jpasquantino

 

We also still have some vendor spaces available, for more details please email mail@rippingitdown.com or call Costen Floors at 804-527-2929 and ask for Rebecca (or Donna)

Jewelry Making Classes

Did you know I teach Bead Corner Design Academy jewelry making classes at two Richmond-area Michaels Arts & Crafts stores? I’ve started another blog dedicated to these classes, please check it out! There are a lot of fun classes and they’re adding new class options all the time!

Bead Corner Design Academy: The Fundamentals of Bead Stringing
Bead Corner Design Academy: The Fundamentals of Bead Stringing