This weekend there’s a ton of indie craft shows going on. Here’s just a few of the biggies…hopefully in your neck of the woods.

The Handmade Market - Saturday, May 3rd - Raleigh, NC

San Mateo Maker Faire - Saturday, May 3rd & Sunday May 4th - San Mateo, Ca

Brooklyn Indie Market - Saturday, May 3rd - Brooklyn, NY

Sunday Crafty Sunday! - Sunday, May 4th - San Diego

I have a couple of surprises in store for you today on Indie Fixx.

1. We are going green all day long! That’s right, all day-all green! Every post today will be completely green in honor of St.Patrick’s Day, so you don’t have to worry about pinching me.

2. This next surprise is a big one…I’m debuting my Guest Blog today! Yay! The Guest Blog will feature special guest writers and will include totally fabu topics like indie fashion, eco-conscious indie shopping, indie city guides and more. I’m super excited about all of the writers I have lined up for you and I just know you are going to love the addition of the Guest Blog. Jessica Gonacha is helping me to debut the Guest Blog today and for the time being she is going to be writing a weekly column called Indie is the New Green. Jessica will tell you more about her column in her post below

About Jessica:
Jessica is an artist from Atlanta, Georgia who is endlessly creating. Her work includes paintings, drawings, illustrations, and paper goods and is vibrant, colorful, and charming. Her work can be found on her site, in her Etsy shop and in the Indie Fixx Shop. You can also read more about Jessica and her work on her blog.

1. BUST Magazine is looking for vendors for their first ever Spring Fling Craftacular set to take place on Sunday April 27, 2008 at The Warsaw in Brooklyn! Click here to apply.

2. Red Prarie Press is having a two-year anniversary sale. All apparel is 20% off until March 17th.

3. Applications are being accepted for Craft Con, the business development conference for the craft community. This is the 2nd year for Craft Con and this year it’s being held in San Francisco. Apply here.

4. Check out Lesley from FashionTribes new venture, Tribal Runway, and choose your flavor of fashion & style ezine.

5. Etsy has relaunched Alchemy, a cool tool that allows buyers to post requests for custom items. Sellers then bid on the opportunity to make the item and get the commission. Buyers will even be able to more easier initiate custom requests to specific shops. Add your request for a custom item here.

I’m planning on starting a Guest Blogger feature here on Indie Fixx. Don’t worry, I won’t be taking a back seat or anything like that. If anything, there will be more content than ever on Indie Fixx and I know you love the sound of that.

So, if you are interested in doing some Guest Blogging and want some more info, send me an email. I have a few specific topics in mind, but I am also open to your suggestions and areas of interest. Ideally, I’m looking for both peeps who just want to do an occasional post and for peeps who are interested in doing a reoccurring column. When you contact me, please send me a link to your blog, if you have one, or some other writing sample.

Some of you may have noticed a new feature listed under the Contents, while some of you may not be as observant, so I thought I would point it out to ya.  I’ve set up an Indie Fixx Calendar via Google Calendar and I will be listing upcoming Indie Fixx news as well as upcoming inide craft shows and other interesting indie tidbits.

For those who already use Google Calendar, you can integrate this calendar into your personal calendar so you you’ll be up on all the indie events. For those who don’t use Google Calendar, what are you waiting for?

If you have an indie event you like to share, send me a email and I’ll take a look at your event for possible inclusion in the calendar.

Let me know what you think of this new feature!

I want to pass along a quick little note to you that Bumbershoot, Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival, is now accepting applications for its Indie Market. Bumbershoot is North America’s largest annual urban arts and music festival. Scheduled over Labor Day weekend, they have a special area called the Indie Market with goods from independent artists, designers & crafters for sale.

If you are a craftastic entrepreneur or an independent retailer who supports indie craft artists and what to sign-up to participate, the deadline to apply is March 28th.

Bumbershoot Dates: Saturday, August 30 – Monday, September 1, 2008 Application Deadline for Indie Vendors: March 28, 2008 Apply here!

If you haven’t had a chance to participate yet, don’t forget that the last day of the Annual Indie Fixx Reader Survey is February 8th. Take a few moments to let me know what you think about Indie Fixx and be entered into a random drawing for your chance to win a Sampler Select: Sleep. Read more about the survey and the contest here.

Take the survey now!

I’m in a Super Tuesday state, as is half the country, and just got back from voting. I was thinking to myself while waiting to cast my vote, “I wonder if anyone is making election-themed goods over at Etsy.” Well, in honor of Super Tuesday and whatever your political bent may be, here’s a few gems I found.

I heart huckabee from honey bees
Barack your world card from Alcove Press
Dumb and dumber pins from Buttonhead
Hilary Necklace from Matsuda Bunch
Barack & Hillary pop art set from NeilJam
Anarchy is for Lovers tee from Can’t Afford Em Buttons

Indie Fixx has been nominated for The Fabbies in the category of Best Indie & Niche Blog! Yay!

What are the The Fabbies you ask?

The Fabbies are the first-ever, blogger-organized awards to recognize the top Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle blogs from around the world.

Various prestigious blog awards have existed for some time, but they repeatedly snubbed the Lifestyle Blogosphere, deliberately ignoring the growing power, influence and prestige of this group of bloggers. So, in typical entrepreneurial style, three bloggers decided to take action: The Manolo of Manolo’s Shoe Blog, Tina Craig of Bag Snob, and Lesley Scott, Fashiontribes…with crucial assistance from Christina Jones of eBeautyDaily and Sam Francois of Papierdoll.

One of the best features of the Fabbies is that it’s a democracy. Rather than a few judges determining which blogs are “best” in 12 different categories (which showcase the impressive breadth and depth of the Lifestyle Blogosphere), it is the real experts – the blog readers, fans and supporters – that determine the winners with their votes, highlighting the deliciously freewheeling spirit of blogging.

I’m very honored to have been nominated and would be even more honored to win, since it would be based on the people’s vote. So, if you love Indie Fixx and would like to see Indie Fixx win The Fabbies, sign-up here to VOTE!

Voting will be live until April 30th and the awards will handed out during New York Fashion Week in September. 

I know I’ve been incommunicado since Friday, but Mr. Indie Fixx and I took advantage of the long weekend to work on the redesign of Indie Fixx. I had hoped to be able to make the changes on the 1st of the year, but there is only so much that one can accomplish in a year. Better late than never, you know!

I’ve been planning an update of the design since the opening of the Indie Fixx Shop. It’s been a sad long time since Indie Fixx had been updated and I didn’t want her to look like the Shop’s ugly stepsister, so I asked Liz Wong to work on a new logo for me. Once again, Liz was able to understand my gibberish and Crayola drawings and gave me exactly what I wanted!

I think the new logo better represents the blog and my personality and it feels like such a better fit than the old one. It’s like getting sparkly brand spanking new clothes…and you just can’t believe those old rags you used to wear.

So, my wonderful friends, what do you think of the new look? Share your opinions, thoughts and critiques!