Hey Portland, put on your shopping shoes as there are two great events this weekend (December 10th-11th)! Admission is free to both and it’s a great opportunity to pick up some unique gifts from the people who make them.

We’ll be at Crafty Wonderland‘s Super Colossal Holiday Sale with our pals APAK in booth 75 at the Convention Center (Hall C) on Saturday and Sunday from 11am-6pm. The first 150 shoppers each day get a goodie bag and there are free craft activities throughout the day.

We’ll also be at the inaugural Portland Bazaar which is being held at Sandbox Studios (420 NE 9th Ave) on Saturday and Sunday from 9am-6pm. It’s being organized by Grace Bonney (Design*Sponge), Greg Hennes (Antler and Co.) and Matt Pierce (Wood & Faulk) and in addition to all the makers, there will be food carts, bands, and book signings. You can also sign up for DIY classes being offered throughout the day.

It’s that crazy time of the year when online ordering deadlines loom to get your goods before the holidays. Here are our recommendations for delivery by the 24th…

- US orders
Free Shipping (for $35 and up): order by Saturday the 10th
First Class Mail or UPS Ground: order by Friday the 16th
UPS Three-Day Select: order by Monday the 19th
Priority Mail or UPS 2nd Day Air: order by Tuesday the 20th
UPS Next Day Air Saver: order by Wednesday the 21st
Express Mail: order by Thursday the 22nd

- International orders
To be honest, by this time it’s a little bit of a gamble as delivery times are not guaranteed and your package could be held up in customs, but if you’d like to try, we would recommend shipping via Priority Mail and ordering by Saturday the 10th. You could also choose Express Mail and order by Friday the 16th.

We’ll be in Seattle this weekend for Urban Craft Uprising, Seattle’s largest independent craft show! We’ll have special show prices and tons of great holiday gifts like calendars, planners, journals and more.  So come on down to the Seattle Center exhibit hall this weekend and say hi (and bring a friend because admission is free). We’re in booth 1!

You can also enter to win a set of our Becca Stadtlander seasons cards by adding a comment on our UCU interview!

Urban Craft Uprising
December 3rd & 4th, 11am-5pm
Free Admission
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
321 Mercer Street, Seattle, WA

Urban Craft Uprising: promo from Behrens Films on Vimeo.

Film Diary: Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965, directed by Milos Forman

I’ve always known about Milos Forman from his more Hollywood fare, but had never seen any of his earlier Czech work. I really loved this film for its beautiful shots, wonderful simplicity, and resilient humanity. His protagonist Andula was played by his former sister-in-law Hana Brejchová in her first film and he captures her unconventional beauty in such artful ways.

The camera loves her, but he also lets his eye linger on even the least consequential of characters. I particularly liked this small moment…

There are so many great compositions…

It’s not an epic movie, but it captures a small-town girl’s story with situations that are sadly comical and ultimately timeless.

photos by Yvonne

Starting today we’re having a HUGE week-long sale on a bunch of great Little Otsu products all for $3, $6, or $9! The sale ends next Monday, November 28th, so get while the getting is good!

Here are a few of the great bargains…

The Grid Notebook by Jason Munn $3

The Tour Diary by Allison Cole $3

Little Otsu Living Things Series Vol. 1 by Lizzy Stewart – $6

Alpine Songs Weekly Planner by Lart C. Berliner $9

The LO Annual Weekly Planner Vol. 5 by Dan Black $9

Nine Ways to Disappear by Lilli Carre $9

As crazy as it is, we are careening towards the end of the year and we’ve got three awesome limited edition calendars from three awesome Portland, OR artists to welcome in your 2012!

Check out these lovely eco-friendly cals from Briar Levit of Briarmade (great for type fans), APAK (great for space garden fans), and Nicole Georges (great for animal fans).

We are excited to be participating in the inaugural Short Run small press fest this Saturday in Seattle! LO artist and good pal Martine Workman helped launch this event with her co-coordinators and it looks like it’s going to be a ton of fun with lots of artists and publishers from the Northwest!

Saturday, November 12th, 10:30am-4:30pm
The Vera Project at the Seattle Center (corner of Warren & Republican Ave N)
free to the public

There’s also an after party & art show at the Fantagraphics Bookstore (1201 S Vale Street) from 6-9pm.

Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation 2011 Poster Trailer from Eyeworks Festival on Vimeo.

Lucky Chicago! Lilli Carré and Alexander Stewart have organized another Eyeworks Animation Festival for this weekend! Here is the lowdown from their website:

Eyeworks is a festival focusing on abstract animation and unconventional character animation. Festival programs showcase outstanding experimental animation of all sorts: classic films, new works and rare masterpieces.

The Eyeworks programs showcase a range of animation techniques, including paper cutouts, stop-motion, 3D computer animation, and a wide variety of hand-drawn methods. The content of the films is even more varied, and includes cosmic abstraction, psychedelic characters, geometric patterning, and surrealistic narratives.

Eyeworks celebrates animated moving images that express unusual vision, unusual approaches, and unusual style.

November 5 & 6, 2011
DePaul CDM Theater, 247 S. State Street, basement level
Jackson stop, Red Line
Chicago, USA

The sixth installment of our Living Things Series is here and it turned out beautifully! The theme of Becca Stadtlander‘s volume is “Winged Creatures of the Natural World” and you’ll find all sorts of birds (including pheasants, swans, and flamingos) and insects (monarchs, moths, locusts, and bees) plus some bats and a flying fish! This comes just in time to help you through the coming winter months–whenever the weather is getting you down and you’re stuck inside, just visit these pages to let your imagination take flight in Becca’s transporting scenes.

You may not know, but both of us have been longtime vegans (we both became vegetarians in 1990 and vegan a few years later, before we knew each other) and we’ve been bouncing the idea of a vegan food blog around for a while. As in “wouldn’t it be great if something like this existed, we wish someone would do it.” There are lots of vegan options in Portland and lots of great restaurant guides, but no consolidation of what the current food news is. So a week and a half ago, with The Vegan Month of Food quickly approaching as an incentive, we figured why don’t we just start one? So here it is… Food Mountain!

So now we have a Little Otsu side project! We know it won’t relate to most of our audience (being neither vegan nor in Portland), but we wanted to share what we’ve been working feverishly on (besides packing orders and preparing for our next Living Things book by Becca Stadtlander to arrive) and maybe you know someone who is vegan and living in/visiting Portland who might be interested. Or check us out if you’re coming to Portland as you may just find something you’ll want to try. And if you know of any Portland vegan food news, please let us know. Thanks!