Vintage Adventure
The massive one-day markets Libby Alexander and Katherine Raz throw at the Congress Theatre are a riotous good time, but organizing 70-plus vintage vendors, food stalls, photo booths, and DJs takes titanic and exhausting planning. The gals intend to continue with a couple of these bustling Vintage Bazaar events every year, but they are supplementing them with smaller, more tightly curated pop-up sales in vacant storefronts. This weekend’s holiday-oriented shop takes place on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.–7 p.m. at 2133 North Milwaukee Avenue (next to the Congress), and features 14 dealers of housewares, furniture, art, and clothing. Here’s a glamorous glimpse of some goods from clothing and accessories dealer BombshellShocked; other swell participating purveyors include Houndstooth Vintage, BackGarage, Manly Vintage, Apartment 528, and Studio Zvi. Get first dibs at a $20 preview party tomorrow night from 7–10 p.m., featuring food, music, and craft cocktails served by mixologists from Longman & Eagle. You can even get a photo taken in front of an old-timey man-in-the-moon backdrop, courtesy of Dethrose Vintage. Get your tickets here.
Curious Gorge
Chicago Art Source’s annual Bizarre Bazaar is popping up again at CAS’s 1871 North Clybourn location, and this year promises to be especially eclectic and moving (it includes a tribute exhibition of works by local photog John Hendry, who passed away this year). Organizers have shepherded 15 artisans to show handmade goods—soaps, puzzles, jewelry, calendars, perfumes, textiles, and artwork, with many items less than $25. It kicks off with a shopping party tomorrow from 6–8 p.m. with live jazz, adult beverages, and treats, and a lot of the artists will be hanging around to answer questions and talk about commissions. Come with your naughty-or-nice list to take advantage of free gift-wrapping, and all customers get a reusable orange tote bag. The market runs through December.
Paper Mooning
This Friday is 11-11-11, and if that’s not enough elevenses to rock your numerological world, consider this: two sweet Chicago stationers are celebrating their 11th anniversaries tomorrow. [Hold on a minute while I buy some lottery tickets…] Noteworthy Notes (3629 North Halsted St.) is delivering sliding discounts all day on full-price merchandise, starting with 33 percent from 8–11 a.m. and dropping to 11 percent from 1–6. Shop early and often for cards, notebooks, and home gifts such as these coasters and cutting boards, personalized with your choice of patterns, fonts, and colors. Noteworthy is big on bespoke–they also do in-house embroidered monograms on towels, picnic baskets, and totes, with quick turnaround. Seal your deals, then express-mail yourself over to Paper Doll (2027 West Division St.) for owners’ Stacy and Kelly Swett’s anniversary party, from 5–8 p.m. The Swett sisters and Maude, the pug de la casa, will be serving snacks and discounts on their inventory of crafty indie goods, candles, gifts, and stationery (letterpress and offset lithography are specialties). The traditional 11th anniversary gift is steel, so bring lots of coinage along with your good wishes.
Weekend Warehouse Warrior
It’s time for another helping of Jayson Home’s hotly anticipated warehouse sales (get there early, there’s usually a line of shoppers), happening this Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. each day. Don’t head over to the Clybourn compound, as this sale takes place at 701 North Albany Avenue, just south of Chicago Avenue and west of the river. Everything from massive pieces of upholstered furniture to wee framed artwork to garden planters to holiday tchotchkes will be marked down, starting at half-off and diving to deep discounts of 90 percent. It’s cash only, and shoppers also receive a 15-percent discount card good all weekend at the retail store.
Card Party
Tony classic clothier Mark Shale has turned to the philanthropic Marwen Foundation (dedicated to providing art classes and exhibition opportunities to the underserved schoolkids of Chicago since 1987) for help with the holiday windows at all three of their locations. Original oil paintings that inspired a series of Marwen-produced holiday cards will be on display through January 12, and the collaborative effort will be feted at a free cocktail reception next Thursday, November 17, 5:30–8:30 p.m., at Shale’s 900 North Michigan Avenue store. Boxed sets of 12 cards are now available for purchase for $20.
Marimekko To Go
Do you have an oddly sized table in need of a topper for some extra holiday dining pizzazz? Maybe a custom piece, or one crafted from a reclaimed door or architectural fragment that you just can’t shop off-the-rack for? Crate & Barrel’s got you and that problem child covered with a Marimekko tablecloth event this Friday and Saturday at its North Avenue location, from 1–6 p.m. both days. Here’s the scoop: Pick out your favorite bold-and-beautiful fabric, specify dimensions, kill some time browsing the latest gadgets at the Apple store or checking out the hot new Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams showroom across the street, and when you return, tiny little birds will have stitched you up a perfectly scaled tablecloth. Doesn’t get much easier than that!
Co’tour de Force
This Saturday brings another opportunity to shop Co’tour’s latest mélange of refinished furniture, designer samples, and all sorts of other finds at a studio open house, 5–9 p.m. at 170 North Des Plaines Street, in the West Loop. They had some sharp, nicely priced items at Design Harvest, so I’m curious to see what this newbie pop-up has in store.
Top Chef Tag Sale
Set your egg timers early for Saturday morning if you’d like to get the best deals at NAHA’s Culinary Garage and Bake Sale, held in the River North Michelin-starred restaurant (500 North Clark Street) from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Chicago chefs, including Grant Achatz, Rick Bayless, Carrie Nahabedian, and Charlie Trotter have cleaned out their kitchen drawers and will be selling knives, cookware, kitchen implements, china, artwork, personal cookbooks, chef coats, silver—everything but the kitchen sink, basically—to benefit Chicago’s Greencity Market and Les Dames d’Escoffier. There will also be an old-fashioned bake sale stocked by some of Chicago’s best pastry chefs, and it’s cash and carry only.