Urban Folk Circuit Pop-Up Shop

This is the final weekend of the Urban Folk Circuit‘s pride and joy—our pop-up shop. We rounded up 30 artisans and have been selling their wares since April 11. We have put in some long and hard hours and effort into this endeavor, and I really, really think it is paying off. I wish it could stay there forever, sigh. I’ll be working there tonight and tomorrow, so I really hope to see you!

We are having a closing party Sunday, April 22nd from 5 p.m.-7 p.m., so stop in and sip some wine and carouse with the artisans during your last chance to shop.

 

Urban Folk Circuit March Market

Milton and Margie’s will be at the Urban Folk Circuit‘s March Market on Saturday! It’s been awhile since I’ve done double duty as an organizer and a seller, so I’m looking forward to having my candles there.

I hope to see you there! There will be 20+ local artisans selling their wares, along with live folk music.

Details:
Noon-5 p.m., Saturday, March 24
Reggie’s Rock Room
Free!

 

Milton and Margie’s at Fleur in Chicago

Milton and Margie’s Soy Wax Candles is now at the gorgeous flower shop Fleur. In addition to fashioning vibrant bouquets, the shop showcases handmade wares from independent artisans. They’ll be carrying my hand-poured soy wax candles in reused vintage punch glasses. The shop is located in my neighborhood in Chicago, Logan Square, so I am delighted to be able to direct customers to a boutique in my community.

Handmade Market: noon-4 p.m., March 10

Milton and Margie’s Soy Wax Candles is happy to be at the Handmade Market this Saturday at the Empty Bottle!

Chicago Thrift Store Guide

Making candles in reused containers requires me to go to thrift stores very frequently. Multiple-times-per-week frequently. I’m always hunting for vintage punch glasses and mugs, but especially canning jars (I stock a few shops with these exclusively). After exhausting all my thrift-store standbys this week searching for these elusive jars, I had to seek out some new territory. Unfortunately, I read some Chicago thrift store guides that led me astray! The Salvation Army in Evanston has apparently been demolished and the one on Belmont does not exist. So I am going to make a guide to help me on future trips, and to help you, dear reader.

As enormous as this city is, it’s tough to know where to start. Here is a list, categorized by neighborhood. I should note that most of these are on the North side (selfishly), because I live on the North side.

Albany Park

Village Discount Outlet
3301 W. Lawrence Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625

Village Discount Outlet
4635 N Elston Ave
Chicago, IL 60630

Andersonville

Brown Elephant
5404 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL

Bridgeport

Unique Thrift
3000 S. Halsted St.
Chicago, 60608

Bucktown

Village Discount Outlet
2032 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60647

Humbolt Park

Salvation Army
5713 W. Chicago
Chicago, IL 60651

Salvation Army
4141 W. North Ave
Chicago, IL 60641

Irving Park

Unique Thrift
3748 N. Elston Ave.
Chicago, 60618

Kelvyn Park

Unique Thrift
4441 West Diversey Avenue
Chicago, IL

Lakeview

Brown Elephant
3651 N. Halsted Street
773-549-5943

Logan Sqaure

Family Thrift
2160 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647

Salvation Army
3837 W. Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60647

The Ark Thrift Shop
1302 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622

Lower West Side

Salvation Army
2024 S. Western
Chicago, IL 60608

McKinley Park

Unique Thrift
3542 S. Archer Ave.
Chicago, 60609

Salvation Army
5112 S. Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL 60609

Montclare

Unique Thrift
6560 W. Fullerton Ave.
Chicago, 60707

Portage Park

Salvation Army
2941 N. Central Ave
Chicago, IL 60634

Ravenswood

Chicago Family & Thrift Store
3301 W. Montrose Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

Village Discount Outlet
4027 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

River North

Salvation Army
509 North Union St.
Chicago, IL 60610

Rogers Park

Unique Thrift
7530 N. Western Ave.
Chicago, 60645

Roscoe Village

Village Discount Outlet
2043 W Roscoe St
Chicago, IL 60618

Sheridan Park

Unique Thrift
4445 N. Sheridan Rd.
Chicago, 60640

Uptown

Salvation Army
4315 N. Broadway Ave
Chicago, IL 60613

Village Discount Outlet
4898 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60640

West DePaul

Salvation Army
2270 North Clyborun
Chicago, IL 60614

West Ridge

Salvation Army
2151 West Devon
Chicago, IL 60659

New to the Etsy Shop

Between having a full-time job, craft shows, fulfilling wholesale orders, co-running the Urban Folk Circuit, and everything else, my diligence to posting regularly on Etsy has substantially waned in the last year. It takes the back burner because there are no hard deadlines to post anything, unlike making candles for a craft show.

But last weekend, I managed to finally sit down and take a bunch of pictures—pictures that I’m actually pretty proud of—and list them. Here are a few for your perusal.

Wild Mountain Honey

White Ginger with Amber

Clean Laundry

Candle Inspiration

Lately I’ve been scheming some new designs for Milton and Margie’s Soy Wax Candles. Here are some things that have been inspiring me.

Wine Bottle Glass Tutorial by Scissors and Steam

I would love to do this with wine bottles, pop bottles, or interesting beer bottles to fill with candles.

Painted Botanical Mugs by Ladies’ Home Journal

I’ve got the pen and the white mugs! Now I just need to draw up my own designs.

Pretty Soup Cans by A Crafty Escape

I have tons and tons of pretty papers I use for my tags. I could use the leftovers to wrap my can candles.

American Threads

Milton and Margie’s Soy Wax Candles will now be carried at the new and vintage clothing store American Threads in Cumming, Georgia! I’m excited to be in their shop, but might even be more excited to just know about it, because there are some really sweet clothes from indie designers that you can order from them online. I’ll take these, please:

Valentine’s Day Show Extravaganza!

To help all you folks in preparing for a sweet Valentine’s Day, Milton and Margie’s Soy Wax Candles will be at the Handmade Market this weekend! I think candles are pretty romantic. In pretty much every movie I’ve ever seen, when something romantic is going down, a candle is undoubtedly softly lighting the mood. PLUS, when you buy something handmade for your honey, it shows that you put some time and effort into your purchase. You had to plan an outing on a certain day and time to get the gift, vs. frantically running to Target on your lunch break on Valentine’s Day because you forgot it was Valentine’s Day. Anyway, here are the details:

The Handmade Market
Saturday, February 11, noon-4 p.m.
The Empty Bottle

The Urban Folk Circuit’s Handmade Sexy
Sunday, February 12, noon-5 p.m.
The Alley’s Architectural Revolution at Clark and Belmont
Though I will not have my candles at this market, I will be there in my co-founder role participating in the fun. This show will include a titillating performance by burlesque dancer Titty Perkins! She will be trying to make you blush during three sets throughout the market. My dear friend Jonathan Houghton will also be wooing you with an acoustic set of doing-it-inspiring indie pop. I hope to see you out this weekend!

Craft Room Reorganized

My craft room periodically goes through a hoarder phase. It happens because I am lazy when it comes to cleaning and organization, and say things to myself like, “Oh, I just don’t have TIME to take care of this right now!”

It starts when I receive a shipping box filled with packing peanuts, and I walk by and throw it into the room. Then I go to the thrift store and get a big bag of containers that I don’t have room for on my shelves, so I put it in the middle of the floor. I find an old shirt that I don’t want anymore, but could DEFINITELY use to make something—tossed on top of a few boxes it goes! The weekend hits, and I have a craft show. After the craft show, if I don’t just leave all my displays and boxes in the car, I come in and scatter all my show materials all over the floor. This repeats itself over and over for a month or so, and suddenly I have piled the entire room with boxes, packing materials, and random craft supplies, and have carved a small path between the doorway and my shelves of containers. At this point, it’s so overwhelming that I simply don’t have time to take care of it, so the clutter builds and builds until I can’t take it anymore.

With the condition the room is in, it usually takes an all-day cleaning and organization marathon, which is incredibly annoying, but ends up being rewarding. Along with being able to walk freely through the room, I find all kinds of stuff I forgot I even threw onto the heaps!

Fortunately, my craft room is in the totally spotless and clean stage, which is where I intend to keep it. I am done just throwing things all willy-nilly into a room that is supposed to be my little sanctuary! I want to be able to actually access and use what is in there, and be inspired by my surroundings! To further my ability to remain organized, I’m going to take on a few projects that I found on Pinterest.

From Better Homes and Gardens, we have this lovely pegboard organization system. Look how easy it would be to put stuff away! I’m the worst at putting stuff away!
From Country Home, here is an innovative use of pants hangers, which I could use for organizing invoices and receipts. (My inner self just said, “Like you will ever do that!” But I will, inner self! Just you wait!)
Here is another lovely idea from Better Homes and Gardens. I have a cabinet that I could easily do this to. And it would be so nice for its contents to be categorized into neat little labeled baskets instead of jumbled all over the place.
I’m really excited to make these things happen. They WILL happen.