..: unique L.A. :..

downtown L.A. , on an unusually gray day

the line was lllooonnngg this year.

Over the past weekend I took the fam. to Unique L.A. and can I tell you, I LOVE this gift show. Imagine etsy, 'live'. It's quirky, it's cool, it's alt.... it's alive with creativity.

The girls with the beautiful Erika Kemp of oshii handknits. If her vibrant energy is knit into each of these pieces, that alone is worth every penny. She was just mentioned on Daily Candy last week too. Great baby gifts here, we bought hats:

My podcast pardner, Joni, said to me the other night that 'handmade and artsy' is so me. She's right. I'm all about it. It makes me giddy with excitement, takes me back to my years at the Art & Design building.

do you love this sofa? I almost want to marry it I love it so much.

moniker's booth. LOVE their tshirts!

This is the 2nd year {and so they can officially call it an 'annual' event } it takes place right before the Holidays, just in time for gift buying.

Hey! round the corner and there was Sharon Montrose. She's the one that does those CRAZY precious photographs of knuckle biting cuteness. Baby animals.

h is for Hannah, is even better in person.

If a Saturday afternoon of letterpress, great t-shirts, beautiful photography, artwork, clothing, DJ spinning tunes and great food is 'so you' you should go next year.

oh, and of course, no Unique L.A. experience is complete without a whacky photo op.

C. wearing her Unique L.A. purchases- a cape and a hat.... thing. She hasn't taken it off yet {yes, even sleeps in it}

Here's who we loved/bought from :

oishii handmade- natural fiber, hand knit, SOFT adorable wearables.


Sharon Montrose- the painfully cute photography of baby animals from the super talented photographer.

moniker- the place to meet all your groovy T needs.

H is for Hannah- pearly and simple. lovely contemporary, porcelain pieces.

Unique Los Angeles

Los Angeles, is unique on so many levels and although I whine a little about the lack weather this time of year {I know, isn't this why people move here in the first place?}

{had to share, l.a. having a little weather moment. fun traffic eh?}

I do love the diversity of L.A. and I love that it draws such a strong creative contingency. Over the weekend we visited and shopped Unique Los Angeles~ the independent design and gift sale. I wish all of you had access to something like this because it's a fantastic way to pick up great art, stationary, clothing, jewelry etc, great stuff you're not likely to find in any mall.

first stop was the pamels barsky booth.

Pamela is a designer of all kinds of cool, witty, clever items.

a pad of 'steaktionary' sealed for freshness of course.

we bought this for us: and this for foodie friend of ours:

speaking of loving food, next stop was eats.

L.A. street tacos, ya!

and the cake monkey peddling homemade deserts like home made ho-hos, double ya!

I know that these two will be 'thrilled' that i threw this pic into the line up. {but since neither reads the old blog, neither will be the wiser}

back to shopping! next stop the nice girls from chocolate and steel with their lovely line of jewelry {can't get this out of itallics grr}

my close up shot of their wares didn't turn out so i'm borrowing from their etsy site

my daugter's were smitten with the little necklaces.

loved these rings:

ooh, turn the corner and we found miss brigitte. I have been a long time fan of her work. it's so 50s - 60s french in vibe. I let the girls pick out one for their respective rooms.



this is where things got fun. next booth was this fantastic photographer, "lauren ward"
I love that she mixes in to her work a little terry richardson vibe. you know, the white background with the super hot flash so that theres a bit of shadow.

She had a hall tree loaded with funny hats, glasses, boas and yes...this lovely christmas sweater that I am donning . we so want to send this as our christmas card but someone thinks it's too embarassing. {hate it when the parents are so embarassing}

he looks like a 50s reporter and i look like i should be sipping sanka in the teacher's lounge

on to the next booth of dee&lala. GOREGOUS, letter press work. I'm such a sucker for letterpress. their booth was really pretty too. they had those flor felt tiles down. so pretty.

we found cute little hedgehog note cards and great holiday hang tags.

here's someone that i was thrilled to finally meet. she's on my etsy faves, my flickr contacts next it will be facebook...basically i've been cyber stalking her. elizabeth soule.
{hi, elizabeth, i promise not to invite myself over to your house to watch you work}

she's the creator of these amazing animal photographs:

it was so fun meeting people that i 'knew' through etsy and blogging and we came away with bags of great shtuff.

we ended our evening by going to the new downtown, sports, entertainment, dining, clubbing extravaganza "L.A.live" as L.A. is want to be, this is full of bling and bright lights. total sensory overload. Time to go eat more.....