Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market

“To Market, To Market” with Your Markets of New York City Tote!

Well, you can’t very well go to the fabulous markets of New York City without a designer market tote, now, can you?

To help celebrate the launch of Markets of New York City: A Guide to the Best Artisan, Farmer, Food and Flea Markets, a team of highly skilled artisans and designers helped me produce this limited edition market tote. You can pick up an advance copy of the guidebook and a tote bag at the Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market this weekend!

The guidebook uses little icons as a key to tell the reader what kind of market each one is – artisan, farmer, food, or flea. The icons were originally designed by Lauren Ruggeri, the brilliant graphic designer who created the entire book, including the cover that makes me so happy. We paid a lot of attention to the flea because my dad was a biologist who would have insisted on its having six legs, being an insect and all.

Using the original icons, the ever talented Miss Wit, Deb Goldstein of Miss Wit Designs, created the design for the market bag, which was then hand-printed in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The totes are 100% organic cotton, procured from Eco Bags, a NY-based company that “exist(s) to provide products, information and inspiration that help people reduce, re-use and recycle. Starting with the simple step of bringing your own reusable cloth bag to shop may seem trivial, but it creates a “mindset.” Like anything, the more people who take this simple step, the more it becomes the natural and right thing to do.”

I couldn’t agree more.

“Totes may come and totes may go, but this May, make sure to take your tote wherever you go.” ~Miss Wit

Pre-Publication Book Launch at the Brooklyn Lyceum This Weekend!

I will be at the Brooklyn Lyceum’s Spring Food and Craft Market with The Little Bookroom this weekend! Please stop by, say hi, and pick up your advance copy of the guidebook!

Many of the wonderful vendors featured in the guidebook and blog are also going to be at the Lyceum, and they are offering awesome special discounts with your book purchase:

•Alison Tauber: $5 off one shirt

•Bacon Marmalade: Discount on Jars or Baked Goods

•Fine and Raw Chocolates: Chunky Bonbon 2 for $10 (regular price $7 each)

•KnitKnit Knits: 10% off one item

•Lovely Day Designs/LuCrafts: 20% on total purchase

•McFlashpants : 10% discount on total purchase

•Meow Meow Tweet: $1.00 off total purchase

•Miss Wit Tees for Good Times: 15% on total purchase

•Nordea Soaperie: Free 1.5 oz Body Polish with $45 total purchase

•Off the Mat: 20% discount on total purchase

•Pumpkin and Honey Bunny/P&H Soda and Syrup Inc.: $.50 off purchase of sodas and greeting cards

•Rocks and Salt Design: 10% discount on hats

•Sour Puss Pickles: $1.50 off a jar of Green Tomato Relish

•Take Me Homeware: 20% discount on total purchase

•Virginia Kraljevic Illustrations and Cards: 20% discount on total purchase

•Yona’s Gourmet Delights: $1.00 off your purchase of any two combos

Citybitz – Mini Tributes to New York City

Artisan of the Week for the Brooklyn Lyceum’s Spring Food and Craft Market!

If ever there was a great idea for a New York City artisan, it’s Citybitz’ “photographic creations,” featuring the details and culture of the city.

Artist and designer Joan Huggard creates functional art, such as jewelry, mirrors, card cases, money clips, pillboxes, and compacts, all featuring photographic images. She does her own photography of iconic sites, both macro and micro. She takes beautiful angles of the Flatiron Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building. But she also admires the smallest details, like the subway tiles in the Chinatown station, the crosswalk guy, and signs in Coney Island. Images you love and images you’ve never even noticed before show up in Joan’s work.

These items appeal to both New Yorkers and to visitors alike. Joan’s reversible Uptown/Downtown pendant is perfect for those New Yorkers who never go below 14^th Street as well as those who never venture above Houston. The cardholder with the word “Drama,” from a theater façade, is the perfect gift for the drama queens in our lives. For visitors to New York, it is often so hard to find unique, quality souvenirs to take home to friends and family. How many people actually appreciate receiving a foam Statue of Liberty crown (I mean, besides me)? But a money clip with an Empire State Building image, or a necklace with the Coney Island parachute jump on it are beautiful, handmade, and very special souvenirs.

Joan also does custom work. If you are commemorating a special occasion, such as a wedding, a birth, a favorite pet, or anything at all, she can take your images and create a wall mirror or other special items just for you.

Joan will be selling her creations on May 1 and 2 at the Brooklyn Lyceum’s Spring Food and Craft Market. Citybitz is a regular at the Brooklyn Flea on Saturdays and Sundays, and you can check the Citibitz website for other market dates as well. Citybitz is also a member of the NewNew Etsy Artisans Group, and she sells her work in her Etsy shop online.