Monday, June 29, 2009

Shayne and Kelly's Big SF Adventure

Dear Readers,

Although we have been remiss in posting about it, the whole Transcraftinental team (that would be both Shayne and Kelly) were together on one coast (the west one) just a few short weeks ago. Crafty good times were had -- want to know what we did? Of course you do!

One day, we took a Crafty Tour of San Francisco. Read on to see where we went...

While not technically craft-related, we just have to put in a good word for our breakfast location: Kate's Kitchen in Lower Haight. Delicious! Mmm-mmmm!

After Kate's, we headed up Haight to Mendel's for crafty supply goodness. For such a small shop, they really do have a lot of good stuff. Their stock of glitter vinyl and widely various oilcloth is truly amazing (way more in the shop than they even have there on the site). They also have a lot of other supplies that one doesn't tend to see in other stores.

After Mendel's, we went over to Flax. The Paper Room was actually too overwhelming for Shayne, but if you're in SF and you have a love for paper, you must go there. They have an astounding array of paper, plus many other fantastic art supplies. There is plenty of parking in the rear of the building, which is where we took this does-not-do-it-justice photo:


From Flax, we headed over to Rare Device. Wow! This is an incredibly well-curated shop, just jam-packed with fantastic and beautiful items. We spent a lot of time wandering around this store, touching things and saying, "Look at this!" If you are looking for a gift, go to Rare Device. You will certainly find something there. Shayne got an adorable new shirt that fit her perfectly -- Yay!


Then we stopped in at The Curiosity Shoppe, which has similar wares to those found at Rare Device. While they do have very nice things here (it's where Kelly bought her squirrel tray a couple of years ago), we did note that there's less to see here than Rare Device -- fewer items to ogle over. However, the little library card drawers full of .05-$1 items is lots of fun, as you never know what you're going to find in there. Also, love their signs:


A few doors down from The Curiosity Shoppe is Little Otsu Publishing, a lovely little shop featuring great prints, books, cards, and all sorts of other paper goods. It's nice to hit two sweet little stores with one parking place!

Next stop: Fantastico; a party supply/decor/craft-ish supply warehouse. The place is kind of nuts and huge -- waaaay too many silk flowers, but lots of other really good stuff to browse, including a terrific selection of well-priced ribbons. We love Paper Mart for satin ribbon, but it's nice to be able to get the stuff in a brick and mortar store. Shayne found a miniature sombrero there that she had been searching for for years. When she held it up excitedly, she exclaimed: "Fantastico!"

Exactly.

Since we are both big fans of Chronicle Books, we opted to check out a CB store. Kelly had been to the one at the Metreon, but the one on Union Street seemed promising, so we headed over there. It's super cute:

However, if you've got the choice, go to the one at the Metreon. Far more books. Also, there's a parking garage nearby (5th and Mission), which eases the search for parking. We bought some $1 calendars to make into envelopes -- we'll post about that in a bit.

Whew! Are you tired reading this post? We were certainly tired after racing around San Francisco all day. We didn't even hit all of the crafty options available to us in SF, but we certainly did our fair share. Next time you're out, be sure to check out the craftiness!

Love,
Shayne and Kelly

1 comment:

Shayne said...

Awesome day of awesome shopping during an awesome trip! Now I need to go touch all of the awesome stuff I bought.