I have a sneaking suspicion this may be of interest to more than a few of you crafty people out there. Grain Surfboard Co. out of York, Maine is coming to Portland to give a wooden surfboard building class from March 4 through 10th. And each board will be made from "locally salvaged redwood" milled right here in Oregon. More info:

Each students attends the class for 7 days, builds their board from scratch with help from our two instructors, and goes home with a finished board ready to glass. All materials, instruction and 2 practically gourmet meals are included in the price.

Classes are filling up fast, and apparently only a couple spots are left, so if you're interested in building your own board, find out more info here! While not exactly cheap, this class sounds fun, and not only will you learn a poop-ton, the board you'll go home with is gorgeous.

• via Grain Surfboards

Guess what? I just bought one of those plastic light-up outdoor Santas—almost exactly like this one!

Anyway, I'm planning on putting it up on my roof next to the chimney this weekend, so people will look up at it and say, "WHAT THE FUCK??? Is that Santa up on that roof???" It'll be good for a laff.

ANYWAY. I just realized I've never mounted a plastic Santa Claus on a rooftop, and Google is being absolutely no help. That's why I'm turning to the mechanically minded denizens of Blogtown to instruct me on the proper way of putting a plastic Santa on a roof, so that he won't fall off during the slightest breeze. Do I need to make a wooden stand for it or something? How do I keep it level on the pitch of the roof? Do I need to wire it down? HALLLLP!

Crafters! Wake up! Applications to be a vendor at Portland's craft sale to end them all, the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale are due at midnight! Every November/December we get carpet bombed with craft fairs and holiday sales, but Crafty's is the biggest and the gold standard, so if you want income for Christmas, today is the day to make it happen.

Ack! The deadline to apply to be one of the vendors in the gianormous bi-annual Crafty Wonderland show is tomorrow, y'all! This legendary event features hundreds of various makers, and millions (what, it seems like millions) of attendees. If you can hang with the crowd it's a great way to get all of your shopping done for the year (seriously, stock up for Christmas, baby showers, birthdays, whatever) with pre-selected merch made by Portland's finest. The spring edition is coming right up on May 7th. If you need a fix prior to that, don't forget the Crafty Wonderland pop-up from the holiday shopping season has stuck around at 802 SW 10th! This calls for a sasquatch tandem bike ride.

Look, I know exactly what it says about me that aprons sometimes get me horny. I'm a crass, misogynistic, perpetrator of the patriarchy and I should hustle my ass over to the community college for some womens' study classes, STAT. That being said, how am I supposed to resist these geeky superheroine aprons designed by Bethany Sew & Sew? CHECK IT!

• BATGIRL (with utility belt)

Bethany's line also includes Supergirl, Flash, Sailor Moon, and even a Ravenclaw apron for you culinary Potter geeks. (Hi Alison!)

Check out even more photos over at MOD!

I feel like every May I get an idea for a great Halloween costume, and I think to myself, "oh, I'll remember that, it's too good to forget!" Then come October I'm out of ideas, don't have any money, and am unmotivated to think of a good costume, frustrated by the fact that I cannot remember the ingenious idea I had that summer.

Well bookmark this shit, cause I'm gonna hit you with some good ones.

• Olivier Zahm

• David X Prutting/Billy Farrell Agency

• Piera Gelardi

• Terry Richardson

Carstache: just in case they can't see the one you're already wearing through the dark tint on your windowless van.

This report proves there is no excuse for being a victim of this recession, as long as you have the tact to invent a ridiculous niche market novelty product that will make you thousands before it has a chance to become more contrived than truck nuts.

By the way, thank you FOX for paying these people to come up with nearly two minutes of cute comments over charming accordion music. It's the very soundtrack to my loss of self-worth.

Via poeTV.

I've been contacted to assist in finding people to serve as *paid* interviewees for a project attempting to prove that the world is moving away from big box stores and mass production and slowly, steadily returning to a culture of independent, handmade goods. So if you think you can handle sitting still long enough to discuss your shopping habits you could make yourself an easy couple of bucks. The catch: You need to be a woman in your late 20s, fit this description, and be available next week.

I'm specifically looking for regular shoppers, not artists or makers, who shop at chain boutiques or dept stores, but have discovered the value of handmade or one of a kind items.

Think you qualify? Email me the name of your favorite Etsy store and why, and I'll put you in touch.

The crafters are all in a tizzy since Hello Craft, a non-profit helping to organize and empower crafters and small businesses (therefore making your trips to Etsy and craft fairs ever-more professional experiences), announced that it will be holding its annual three-day conference—The Summit of Awesome—in Portland June 16-18 at the Kennedy School. Crafters who attend will have access to classes covering such subjects as getting press and online marketing, the legal hurdles of establishing a small business, maximizing craft show sales, working with museums, copyright and trademark law, and much much more (full schedule here). Local speakers include the IPRC's Justin Hocking, craft blogger and author Susan Beal, Queen Bee's Rebecca Pearcy, the Museum of Contemporary Craft's Namita Wiggers, Crafty Wonderland's Cathy Pitters and Torie Nguyen, and about a trillion other people who might be able to teach you a thing or two about the state of the modern handmade movement. Naturally, a summit of such awesomeness wouldn't be complete without a craft fair to match it. Thus the "Show of Awesome," a joint effort bringing 40 booths of handmade goods not just from our region, but from across the country, setting up in old Crafty Wonderland haunt the Doug Fir on Saturday June 19 from 10 am-3 pm. After all these titles, it had better be awesome.