The Norfolk Craft Mafia is the cover story on today's Link (a free local daily paper)! Click here to view a pdf of the full article.

There are profiles on several mafia members and some great photos from our swap meet a few months ago. Man, this is some great exposure for our show this weekend! Let us know what you think!

We are so excited, Saturday is rapidly approaching! Thanks so much to our friends and sponsors Pretty Tasty (an awesome messageboard for local creatives, you'll find graphic designers, artists, photographers, programmers and the like) and AIGA Hampton Roads (the professional organization for those in the design industry). Give their sites a click!

Please bring your friends and come check out our show. We will have music by Substance DJs, raffle prizes, free face painting and more. It should be a blast. See you Saturday!

Saturday the Norfolk Craft Mafia was featured on the cover of the Daily Break section of The Virginian Pilot! Thanks so much to Roberta and Genevieve for coming out to our monthly crafter's roundup last week and interviewing us and taking pictures. The story was great press for Handmade Parade and we got a wonderful response from the crowd on Saturday! Click here to read the article online. Click here for a pdf file of the article with photographs.

Whew! What an event! Handmade Parade was an amazing success. We had a wonderful turnout (our conservative estimate is about 1000 people), happy vendors and a super reaction from the crowd who came out. Amanda and I want to thank everyone who helped out or volunteered in any way, we could not have done it without you!

I saw lots of happy customers leaving with bags of handmade, one of a kind items and lots of happy vendors making sales. That's what it's all about, people!

Thank you to all the generous artists and crafters who donated items for our free raffle! It was a big hit! Also a HUGE thank you goes out to Ashley at Pickin Paint (and her awesome balloon man) for donating her time and efforts to create gorgeous face and body paintings and elaborate balloon hats all day long!

Twin bellies! This really added an awesome element to our show and I'm so glad she could take part!

Mafia member Cassie at Twittering Bird had a super-successful day, selling out of EVERYTHING but one item! Her owls were a big hit.

This booth was lookin' empty by around noon!

Drawer pulls from mafia member Beth at Supadupa and collage canvases by mafia member Jeannine at Boodzoo Studio. I bought Dreams in Teal, it's so lovely!

Cards by Slipstream and maps & treasure from the Interimaginational Institute.

Pottery by Tasha McKelvey. After being in two shows with her and admiring her work at many others, I finally bought some of her work!

I was so taken by these bird pots. My fiancee surprised me with one later in the day. I love it!

Hair pins and Leaf Dinks by mafia member Charmaine of Kutchicoo.

Plush goods by Missing Monsters.

Felt-appliqued accessories by mafia member Kristin of K.Parel Designs.

Gorgeous jewelry by Twist Style and knitted accessories by mafia member Vero of verotricot.

Delicious soaps and butters by Lokahi Spa and paper goods by Wolfie & the Sneak.

I love the midcentury-inspired accessories by George Ryan.

Knitted items from A Well-Mannered Young Lady and awesome baby stuff by Monkey & Me.

Whew, so many awesome vendors. I wish I had time to capture them all! For many more photos of the event, please go check out the Norfolk Craft Mafia Flickr group. And if you have any photos of our events hosted on Flickr, we'd love for you to add them to the pool! Click here to join the group!

A big thanks needs to go out to Gary at the Masonic Temple for being an extremely helpful and accommodating host to our event. He was always available when we needed him, the facility was great and I would not hesitate to recommend it if you need a venue! They have several spaces available for everything from a small one-room meeting to wedding receptions. You can reach them at 757-423-8866 for information.

Thanks again to everyone who made our first show a HUGE success. It's so motivating to see so many amazing crafters out there doing what they do best. Your energy is contagious and we love you all!

I wanted to send out a hearty WELCOME to our new members who have joined since Handmade Parade! I'm getting lots of emails of people interested in joining and the meet the mob page is growing and growing! Welcome to three new ladies who have joined us!

Paula Burgoon Norfolk, Va. PRB Photography	Kwesi Ferebee Portsmouth, Va. Soul Survivor	Jackie Poutasse Virginia Beach, Va. TJ Book Arts

Be sure you stop by their websites and check them out! Since we only have monthly get togethers and not all members can usually make it, we're going to start doing "member spotlights" on the blog soon, where we can "meet" each other and learn more about what sort of art we love to create. If you have any ideas for interview questions or would like to help conduct interviews, leave a comment and we'll get back to you!

Stay tuned for dates on our December crafter's roundup and a special holiday craft workshop coming up soon!

Here is a little video from the big day, for your viewing pleasure! With the shaky camera shots and grainy pictures, it has all the charm of a snuff film....but we did our best. Enjoy!