Viva Las Vegas round-up

As of last night, we're officially home from our trip to Las Vegas. Home, sweet home!

The trip was fun, but I must admit that both Mel and I wished we'd had a better time. We both had a lot of moments when we really felt VLV had gotten bigger than the space allotted for it. And I think we've learned that whether we like it or not, it's just not how we like to spend our vacation time. But my blog isn't for complaining (okay, not often anyway), and there's no reason to dwell on the negative, especially about a vacation. And in spite of some frustrations, we managed to have lots of nice times, too. So on to something more fun: the photos!

Thursday we were at the airport around 5.30 a.m. The funniest thing about this picture is we were reviewing photos on Thursday night and couldn't get over the fact that this had been earlier the same day. Travel days feel like a week, don't they??

Red ready, amber set, green let's go!

With the exception of a few last minute items and toiletries, our bags are packed. We are ready for vacation!

On the top you can see clockwise from upper left: a vintage blouse, a Nudeedudee feedsack blouse, my pool set (swimsuit and matching teatimer cover up), my handmade castles skirt, and two grocery bags containing a couple of my pairs of shoes. My elephant sweater outfit did indeed get scrapped. In its place I'll be wearing my black sleeveless knit blouse and Mexican circle skirt from BombshellShocked.

Shoes and purses are the worst to pack! I think I managed to narrow it down to six pair of shoes packed, one purse packed, one purse in my hand and my delicate lucite purse in my carry on, containing all of the jewelry that I wouldn't dare check. Between the two of us we got it down to three checked bags total. I'm not sure we have ever checked more than two total, not even when we went to Ireland for ten days! Hell, I think the only time in my life that I've personally checked two bags is when I was going to live in Ireland for a semester in college. But the third bag should have plenty of room for VLV purchases. It's not very full and is mainly needed because I'm paranoid about going overweight with my suitcase, which is the bigger of the two. After all, my toiletries kit and hair dryer weigh a lot. (The hair dryer will hopefully not be needed but I'm taking it as insurance in case I set my hair there and it doesn't dry in time.)

I'm going to try and get outfit photos each day and evening of VLV, plus the remainder of our trip afterward, which will hopefully include me standing outside the turreted Excalibur in my castles skirt. ;)

So, we're off tomorrow morning, I wish I could take you all with us! See everyone in a little over a week!

source

Viva Las Vegas!!

Crafty countdown to VLV

I have been running around like a crazy person in preparation for Viva Las Vegas! But my projects seem to be under control. Remember when I said I wasn't going to do any other projects specifically for VLV except for my black sleeveless sweater? Neither do I.

New jean snap attached to Freddie's jeans? Check! The snap fell off awhile back and I've just been using a belt to hold it closed but finally got around to fixing it.

Navy Heyday slacks hemmed? Check! I swapped out the buttons last month and finally hemmed them last week. Talk about waiting until the last minute... I must have bought them over 6 months ago!

Red blouse to match my capris completed? Check! That was done with plenty of time to spare.

Skirt fastener sewn on castles skirt so I can finally call it complete? Not done yet, will do this tonight. This skirt has been 99% complete for weeks but I finally got the right kind of fastener, a hook and bar type (even though I'm still not totally pleased with the result, but at least it'll be hidden by a belt).

A pair of Mel's pants hemmed? Fail, I forgot I didn't have the right color thread and ran out of time to procure any.

Zoo animals skirt to match pink elephants sweater completed? The skirt is sewn, the fastener is on, but I still have to hem it. Fortunately my rayon seam binding arrived and I can give it a whirl. I plan to sew it to the free edge of the hem and then blind stitch the hem by hand. I got this idea from several of my vintage pieces that are handmade (and some that were ready-to-wear, too). I wouldn't ordinarily be trying out something new 3 days before vacation but it seems pretty fool-proof. The skirt is essentially two rectangles pleated to form a circle skirt so there's not even any fullness to worry about. The only bad thing about the outfit is that I never did find a wide belt the right color in time, and I'm a bit lukewarm on how the whole ensemble looks. It's one outfit that might get rotated out. Or I may wear it with a black top, belt and shoes and throw caution to the wind and pretend that the dark color in the skirt isn't brown (here's a fabric sample). I did discover my pair of gorgeous brown vintage peep toes that I was going to wear with this outfit appear to no longer fit me (I am horrified at that one!). So we'll see.

Two pair of earrings made to match outfits? Check! Those were my tutorial earrings.

Black sleeveless knit blouse completed? Check! This seemed to take forever since it was such a boring knit.

Briar Rose knit-along post made? Fail. Sorry guys!! I clearly didn't plan well enough for vacation and the knit-along at the same time (due in large part to the above-mentioned black sleeveless knit blouse needing to be knit in time for our trip). Due to this, I am pushing back the deadline a bit, which I expected might happen anyway to give everyone enough time.

Now the final cast off date will be June 1st. I hope I'm not the only one this helps out. ;)


Phew! I don't even have time to post about my weekend, which included the Modern Vintage Chicago show. I'm down to the wire and in full-on vacation planning mode. I'm second guessing a few of my outfits and trying to decide what to do about that.  There aren't enough days and nights of VLV to get in everything I planned to wear. Do I take an extra couple of dresses just in case I have a change of heart once I'm there? Hmmm. We are staying on 3 extra days after, moving to the Flamingo and doing nothing but relaxing—a vacation from our vacation, if you will. So I will actually need more clothes than just for VLV.

I woke up this morning to snow and slush (a spring record). Let me tell you... am I ever ready for Las Vegas weather!

Tutorial: Make vintage-inspired earrings

Yes, you may be thinking wait—she's leaving for Viva Las Vegas in the week. What the heck is she doing writing up a crafty tutorial?! Well the fact of the matter is that I actually made these earrings for my trip, so I took some photos along the way to share.

I love vintage earrings as much as the next gal, but as we all know, most earlier earrings are screw back or clip on styles. Not really that comfortable if you ask me, and sometimes the back isn't in very good condition, either. So I thought it would be fun to whip up my own vintage-inspired earrings with more comfortable supplies. These are a great alternative when you're worried you'll lose one of your most precious vintage earrings or your ears just need a break.

I am almost embarrassed to present this as a tutorial since it's so easy: get the supplies, glue them together, let them set up. I'm hardly reinventing the wheel here. But humor me, and I'll give you a bit more details so you can try it yourselves!


How to make your own vintage-inspired earrings

Supplies you'll need

• 2 matching items for the front of your earrings. I used resin cabochons, which are easily found on Etsy or eBay for pretty cheap. Take a look at a search for them. (Tip: if you're looking on Etsy, make sure to select "Supplies" from the search menu.) You could use large buttons, large beads, a pair of broken vintage earrings or parts from a vintage thermoset necklace or bracelet, miniature fruit meant for dollhouses (seriously, I'm totally smitten with this idea after seeing so many pair of vintage fruit basket earrings)... really the sky is the limit here. The main thing is that the back of the item needs to be flat so you can attach your earring post. I do have a fondness for flower cabochons, however, since I think they have a very vintage feel to them. I picked two coral-colored rose cabochons. Aren't they pretty?

• 2 earring posts. Again, these are very easy to find on eBay or Etsy (Etsy example here). You can buy a bag large enough to make a dozen or more pair for just a few bucks. I went with stainless steel and a wider 10mm base for maximum surface area.

• 2 comfort earring clutches. When you order earring posts they will likely come with standard butterfly clutches. However, I highly recommend ordering separate clutches, which are sometimes called "comfort clutches" and are much wider at the base (Etsy example here). Now this is a matter of personal preference and size of what will be on the front of your earring. My rose cabochons were almost 1" across, so I needed to distribute the weight on more surface area of my earlobe. There's no way I could have used a standard butterfly clutch. Check out the difference in size and you'll understand why. The one on the right will give you a more comfortable, sturdier base and prevent larger earrings from pulling away from your earlobe. (Hint to you gals with stretched ears: they also allow you to wear earrings on a day you don't feel like plugs, if your gauge is about 1/2" or less.)

• 2 part epoxy. There are lots of brands out there. I'm no expert, but I used Epoxy 330 with good results. Just make sure to get the kind that comes in two tubes that you mix together. I went with one that dried clear.

• Acetone and a cotton swab. You can use acetone and a cotton swab to clean both sides of your working materials prior to bonding them together. I used my nail polish remover—but don't do that if you use the non-acetone variety. ;)

Instructions

Gathering the supplies is probably the hardest and most time-consuming part. But once you have all of those items on hand, you'll be set to make a ton of cute earrings that look vintage!

Step 1.  Squeeze out equal amounts of each of your tubes of epoxy on a disposable surface.  Make sure your working surface is suitably covered in case your glue travels around as you work. You wouldn't think it was easy to get glue on other surfaces when you're mixing an itty bitty amount, but you'd be wrong. Trust me. I mixed my epoxy on a piece of a plastic bag placed on one of my cutting mats.

Step 2.  Mix the epoxy for a good few minutes.  This is boring and seems unnecessary, but trust me, it goes a long way in making a strong bond. Put a good tune on and stir, stir, stir with a toothpick or something else small and disposable. You'll see bubbles start to form in your epoxy mixture.

Step 3.  Let the epoxy sit for several minutes to thicken.  Don't be tempted to rush this process. Epoxy takes a long time to harden, so you're really not in any danger of your mixture setting up before you get a chance to actually use it. If you're worried, periodically go over to it and give it a stir. You'll notice it getting thicker but not hard. That's exactly what you want. If you use it too soon the mixture will be too watery and your earring post may slide around while it's hardening (I'll show you of a photo of that in a couple of steps). Read your particular epoxy's instructions. Mine thickens in 15 minutes and doesn't harden for 2 hours.

Step 4.  Clean off the surfaces you'll bond together.  This means the flat part of your earring post and the back of whatever you're using for your earrings (in my case the rose cabochons). Take a cotton swap and just wipe a little acetone over both. I do this step now because it gives me something to do while I'm waiting on the epoxy to thicken. (Smart planning, huh?)

Step 5.  Once your epoxy has thickened, apply the mixture to your earring posts.  I use just enough to cover most of the back of the earring post, which should be enough to have just a bit squeeze out of the sides when they're attached. Before you place the post on, eyeball where you'd like it to go (and make sure both of your items are facing the same direction!). If you're using something large or heavy I would recommend placing the post a bit higher than center so that it's not top-heavy, preventing the tendency for the earring to fall forward from your earlobe. See how I did that with my roses?

Step 6.  Wait and then fiddle around if necessary.  That sounds like a silly step, doesn't it? Really what I mean is give your earrings some time to set, but check on them periodically. If the front of your earrings are not perfectly flat you may find the post slid around a bit if you didn't let your epoxy thicken long enough. Before you hit the stage where the epoxy is really and truly hard, you still have some wiggle room, literally and figuratively. Take a look at my example below. (Yes I did throw another set of earrings in there, little navy blue mums!)

Step 7.  Wait 24 hours.  Really, you don't have to wait quite that long, but I prefer to make sure my epoxy is 100% set before I test drive my new earrings.

That's all there is to it! Once your epoxy has set, you have fabulous new vintage-inspired earrings!

Aren't they sweet little things?

Don't they look like something these lovely ladies from the 1943 Sears Catalog would wear?

Go on, give your new earrings a test drive!

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial!

Birthday weekend round-up Part 2, Instagram style

Part two of my weekend round-up, this time in Instagram photos. There's no narration for these, you already got the main round-up so you can fill in the blanks. I just love the old feel this app gives photos (when it works right). It's so much fun to tinker with!

 I hope to have a mini tutorial on making vintage-inspired earrings up a bit later this week, stay tuned!

Birthday weekend round-up Part 1

After work on Friday, we picked up two of our close friends and hit the road, heading to southwestern Wisconsin to spend a couple of nights in Dodgeville.

Saturday morning we headed "downtown" (since I live in Chicago, quotation marks are definitely needed when talking about the downtown of a town of 4,000) in search of coffee, tea and breakfast goodies. I wore my Freddie's overalls (they were my weekend staple), a vintage cowboy shirt, some Bakelite bangles and a wicker purse, which is the reason I'm no longer fretting about a brown purse for VLV right now. See? Brown lucite handle and accents on the front. Suitably brown enough for now.

And the winner is...

The winner of two tickets to this weekend's Modern Vintage Chicago Spring Fashion and Jewels Show is the talented Chicago blogger Liz of zilredloh.com!

I hope she doesn't mind, but I had to show you guys the vintage sweater Liz just knitted up.

Image from zilredloh.com

Isn't it fantastic? Not only that, but she used my knit-along post about sleeve caps to re-draft her sleeves. They look great! Don't you love the collar and sleeve details that match? Check out her blog for more info on this awesome project. She's a super talented sewist as well.

Congrats, Liz! I'll email you more info about the tickets shortly!


And I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow with my birthday weekend round-up. :)

Finished project: sleeveless blouse for VLV

First and foremost, I want to thank you all so very much for your congratulations and kind comments on my last post. It's been overwhelmingly wonderful reading all your supportive comments. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

♥ ♥ ♥

I recently bought a pair of 50s capris from Bombshell Shocked. They're plaid, they're tight, they're fantastic. They're not my usual style, but they fit great and screamed "I need to be part of a casual outfit for Viva Las Vegas!" (Okay, maybe they didn't really scream at me. But they almost did.)

The main problem was that I wasn't really sure if I had a blouse that I could wear with them. I love my prints, and that constitutes the majority of my tops. I went through everything I owned and came up empty handed. I scoured eBay and Etsy and came up empty handed there, too. Drat.

Even though I steadfastly had refused to add any other crafty projects to my list before VLV, I had already planned one new thing and surely I wasn't going to take on a blouse now, too. But those capris... they were so cute! They needed a top!

I took a peek just in case. And it turned out I had the perfect pattern and the perfect matching red fabric (no small feat when you're matching a modern cotton/poly solid to a vintage cotton print). So this is how I spent the last few evenings.

It's a sleeveless blouse from Butterick 8946. I'm guessing by the hair and a consultation with my mom that the pattern is from the late 50s or early 60s. Don't you love that the previous owner, Mrs. Risberg, wrote her name on the pattern? Why do you think she did that?

I made view C, the sleeveless version with faux pocket flaps. I made a muslin Sunday afternoon and went full steam ahead, not making a single change to the pattern. Amazingly, with the exception of some armhole facings that refused to cooperate on the inside, it went together like a dream.

(Sorry the photos are a bit inconsistent, this red is so hard to capture in a photograph and I just don't have the time to take nicer photos outside right now!)

The fabric was a cotton/poly blend that I picked up from Fabric.com, which I was a bit disappointed with when it arrived. It definitely feels and looks a bit more like the 'poly' part than the 'cotton' part. It also didn't press very well and tended to show marks at the seams. I found myself needing to use something to put between the seam and the rest of the fabric when I pressed, which turned out to be two food delivery menus that were the nearest pieces of paper to my ironing board.

In spite of the pressing problems, I was able to get nice clean lines around the neckline and armholes. Fortunately for me Casey recently posted about understitching, which reminded me about this technique just when I needed to use it!

 (Don't mind the crappy-looking ponytail. I discovered with my new haircut that I do not have the option of using Hot Sticks on lazy days. Lesson learned.)

The buttons are interesting vintage buttons I had a bunch of, and I think they look perfect on this blouse. Like little sunbursts! Even better, I still have several left for future use.

I love how this blouse came out! I blind stitch hemmed it by hand, understitched the neck and armhole facings and did the buttonholes on my machine. 

 (That's me knitting my black blouse for VLV. Wearing the project that temporarily put it on hold. Ha!)

It also fits well on my new dressform! Her name is Notasha. Not-Tasha... get it? It was a birthday present from my mom and step-dad, and she arrived last night. Currently she's living next to our hutch.

Yes, I guess that's a little weird having a dress form next to our hutch. On the other side is Mel's art studio area. We have a small condo so we do what we can to double up on space. :)

Overall I'm really pleased with this blouse. The only change I made was to use 5 buttons instead of 4. And the only change I'd make in the future would be to lower the bust darts, which seemed fine on the muslin but on the final blouse are a bit high. But really, that's my only complaint.

I am a huge fan of sleeveless shirts in the summer when it's super muggy here and I don't want a lot of extra fabric sticking to me, so I could easily see myself making several variations of this top. A fun novelty print, or a solid with printed pocket flaps, maybe contrasting bias tape around the armholes instead of the facings... lots of possibilities. What do you think?

Expect to see some photos of this with my plaid capris at VLV!

This weekend we're off to Wisconsin with our friends for a getaway. We'll be enjoying the kitschy wonderland that is House on the Rock, drinking New Glarus brews and hopefully we'll fit a cake in there somewhere since my birthday is Sunday. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and once again thank you for all the congrats on our engagement!! ♥

It's official

On June 1st this year, Illinois will join 5 other states and allow civil unions. Now I don't talk about politics on my blog and I don't intend to start now. However, this is particularly meaningful to this vintage blogger.

Yep, that's my engagement ring. For those of you who like details, it's a sapphire with diamonds on the top half of the band. My mom, bless her heart, said it was the color of my eyes. (If only that was still the case like when I was little!)

So after 9 years together, Mel and I will have a civil union sometime this June. We're not having a Big To Do; in fact if we're allowed, we'll do it at the courthouse. We're just not Big To Do kind of people. We're probably going to opt for very casual celebrations with our families peppered across the country throughout the summer and fall.

I just wanted to share that it's official. :)

Briar Rose Vintage KAL: A couple of tips

Hey knit-alongers! How are you doing? It's been really fun seeing progress photos in the Flickr group!

I admit, my Briar Rose is woefully still behind! That's what I get for setting too many deadlines for myself before VLV. But I can just start to see the finish line with my current vintage knit (that I have to finish before we leave, or else I need to rethink two outfits, yikes), so that means I'll be getting back to Briar Rose soon. And I've missed knitting on it!

I realized that while I planned out my pre-knitting posts for so long, I didn't give as much thought to the posts while we're all currently knitting because, well, we're all knitting at different paces. So I thought I'd post a couple of small tips (tiplets, if you will) and then open it up for questions on things you might like me to go over!

Tiplet #1:  Mirrored increases

I know this tip comes too late for those of you who have already started, but I recently discovered something that I thought I'd share. For sometime now, I've been working mirrored increases when I need to increase on both sides of a row. This basically just means that the increases on each edge face in opposite directions. There are lots of techniques for working increases but the one I've grown accustomed to is M1 (make 1 stitch). Essentially you lift the bar between two stitches and knit into it, making a new stitch. Depending on the direction you knit into the stitch and the direct you orient the bar onto the needle, it changes the direction of the slant of the new stitch. This is a kind of a minor thing and you could really live your whole life happily knitting away without ever mirroring your increases, but it's a little extra touch I like to do.

So here's the deal. When I work in the round (my preferred method to knitting flat), I like to have my increases aiming away from the side seam marker. Up until quite recently, it actually dawned on me I wasn't doing that. I was aiming them towards the marker. And while it works just as well and the difference visually is probably negligible to most, to me it looks much better when you aim them away from the marker. (Of course, I started Briar Rose doing it the other way and won't be switching mid-project.)

So learn from my mistake. Here's what I think is a better way to mirror your increases in the round:

If you're working in the round, 2 stitches before you reach your side seam marker, work a M1R (make one that slants to the right). Watch the M1R video for both English and Continental knitters here (it's halfway down the page on the left side). Knit across your next 2 stitches, slip your marker, knit across 2 more stitches, then work a M1L. Watch the M1L video here (same page, just on the right-hand side). If you're working in the round you can opt to just knit to 1 stitch before and after the marker since there isn't going to actually be a seam, but I usually go with 2.

Of course this is all subjective and might depend on your knitting style! So take it with a grain of salt, as always. :)


Tiplet #2:  neckline buttonhole bands

I've worked small neckline (front or back) button bands in two different ways recently. No matter how you do it, you will always want to have a flap behind the buttonholes. Because think of it this way: if you have two pieces of kntiting that were once one piece (i.e. the front of your sweater or the back of it), and then you smoosh over one side to button on top of the other side, you're going to get an unsightly bulge at the base of the buttonhole band.

Our Briar Rose pattern does indeed have you knit this little extra flap, by casting on extra stitches and working them in garter stitch. You won't see these stitches from the public side of your knitting as they'll be behind the buttonhole band, and working it in garter stitch prevents it from curling. I personally find it easiest to cast on at the end of the row using the backward loop cast on, instead of casting on at the beginning of the next row like our pattern tells us to do.

For a cleaner edge on your buttonhole band, slip the first stitch of every RS (right side) row purlwise. Yes, that buttonhole band is knit in stockinette so it might have a bit of a tendency to curl, but it's a small amount of fabric and once you block your sweater and put your buttons on, it shouldn't matter in the slightest. If you're worried however, you could always knit those first 6 or 8 stitches in (k1,p1) ribbing. Visually it will look pretty much like stockinette and will mean absolutely no curling. You can still slip the first stitch for a nice clean edge.

Any questions?

Any burning questions you've been wondering about as you've been knitting? I'm trying to be pretty casual with the actual 'knit-along' part (as evidenced by my own lack of progress, lol). I know Andrea of New Vintage Wardrobe and Katie of The Little Red Squirrel are just sailing away on theirs, knitting flat like the pattern. Barbara of Moxie Tonic is knitting along in the round like me (and we might get to have a mini Briar Rose KAL at VLV!), and Liz of zilredloh.com will soon be joining us now that she's recently finished up another vintage knit and used the info from my sleeve cap tutorial to help her with her sleeves!

How is yours going? And if you're not knitting along with the KAL, what fun projects do you have on your needles this month?

Modern Vintage Chicago giveaway and interview

Awhile after the vintage show we attended in late February (I demand to know how it's already April!) I was contacted by some of the brains behind Chicago's well-known Randolph Street Market and several other local vintage and antique shows. Their next show is the Modern Vintage Chicago Spring Fashion and Jewels Show on Saturday April 16th and Sunday April 17th.

Today I'm pleased to share an interview and a giveaway they've sponsored for Chicagoland readers. More about that giveaway below the interview!

My interview with Sally Schwartz, founder of Randolph Street Market and producer of the Modern Vintage Chicago shows.

Q: What started your love of vintage and antiques?

A: I was always fascinated with old, well made stuff. Even as a kid, I was into vintage and wore baggy painters pants and fatigues as a kid in middle school. I loved finding old mink stoles when I was in high school and I inherited a bunch of art and artifacts from my grandparents, including an ornate cigarette lighter collection.

Q: What is the most satisfying part about producing vintage and antique shows?

A: It’s watching people as they explore their own pasts, seeing beautifully preserved pieces find new homes and new lives. And just the excitement and inspiration of seeing exceptional items for living.

Q: What inspired you to start the Randolph Street Market?

A: I had a party planning and decorating business. I was known to elaborately design period décor, which relied heavily on props and authentic pieces.

Q: The Modern Vintage Chicago’s Spring Fashion and Jewels Explosion is coming up the weekend of April 16th and 17th. What makes this show different from others you produce?

A: This show is exclusively fashion, jewelry and accessories, the entire two story building is filled to the rafters with the most fantastic, affordable mostly but some luxury items – all in fabulous condition. Most vintage shows are stuffy or smelly or tattered, this one is just straight up chic but great great prices. We get buyers who come in from over seas and around the country because they’ve heard this is the largest concentration of great pieces at great prices.

Q: What’s the one thing you’re most looking forward to about this year’s show?

A: It’s always about seeing what’s new and what fits me!!!

Q: If you had to narrow it down, what’s your favorite era for vintage and antique collectibles?

A: I really love art nouveau in terms of furnishings and decorative art, for fashion it would have to be the 40’s through the 70’s.

Q: What’s your most prized vintage possession?

A: Hell of a great question!! I have a super cool Hermes pressed leather, interchangeable handbag. And on a sentimental note, I have my grandmother’s wedding fan that she wore, framed against blue velvet and mounted on my wall.

Q: Is there one elusive vintage or antique item you’ve yet to find (for yourself or as a dealer)?

A: I’m always looking for really intricate tabletop cigarette lighters but they are super hard to find these days. I especially love the ones that play music.

Q: Last but not least, many of the readers of my blog hail from all over the country and the rest of the world. What would you tell them is one of your favorite things about Chicago?

A: Chicago is a city of extremes – tall buildings against lots of beachfront and park land; super rich yet down to earth folks. Educated elitists and bubbas who love their sports. Amazing gourmet food and the best pizza and hot dogs anywhere. Beauty and blight, it never gets boring!!

Modern Vintage Chicago is also sponsoring a giveaway for my Chicagoland readers!

The winner will receive two free tickets for their Spring Fashion and Jewels Show on Saturday April 16th and Sunday April 17th. The show will be held in the West Loop at Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington.

Granted, I know not many of my readers out there are actually from Chicago, so if you enter you'll probably have a pretty decent change of winning. ;)

How to enter the giveaway:

1. Be a follower of this blog, if you aren't already.
2. Live close enough to get to Chicago the weekend of April 16th-17th.
   
3. Leave a comment on this post. Don't forget to leave a way to contact you if your blog or profile doesn't have your email address!
4. Want an extra entry? Post about this giveaway on your blog, or link to it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Just post a separate comment on this post with a link to where you mentioned it (make sure it's a separate comment since I'll use Random Number Generator to find the winner). You can get one extra entry this way.

The giveaway ends a week from today on Monday night April 11th. 

ETA: Giveaway now closed! See you there. :)

I know I'm looking forward to the show, so good luck!