Saturday, September 12 marks 104 days until Christmas. Many of us have not thought about shopping for gifts yet but a market event called Handmade & Vintage Chick Event gives up so much opportunity to find unique and handmade gifts and support our local economy and community at the same time.

2014 was the inaugural year for this event and 2015 is shaping up to be even bigger and better! Handmade & Vintage will provide more than 85 booths that are hand selected, showcasing local entrepreneurs, artists, crafters, and vendors selling their products and services with the beautiful backdrop of Park Place in Leawood, KS. This pop-up market event will helping small businesses grow and provide our community a great place to shop and support local. Best perk? You will be the hit of Christmas, giving the most fun and unique gifts!

Some of our favorites? With over 85 vendors, it is hard to pick favorites, especially if you are a Etsy or Pinterest enthusiast (check out our board on what local finds we like!) Each vendor has a uniqueness to their craft and we guarantee you will find something for everyone (including yourself!) We scoured the list and here are our picks!

Fun and Quirky for the Home:

Annie’s Barn Homemade Signs: The owner of this small business grew up on a farm in KS and now brings these unique and personal handmade signs to life from Overland Park, KS. Annie’s Barn has twice been voted Kansas City’s “FAVORITE” handmade vendor with more than 2,000 signs sold. Perfect signs to give for lake houses, housewarming, wedding anniversary, and family reunion gifts!

Carly Rae Studio offers prints of detailed, whimsical floral watercolor paintings. They make personal gifts, as well as unique decor for nurseries, homes, special events, offices and more.

Drunken Designs: From Overland Park, Kansas, this wonderfully named store has a passion for turning ordinary objects into beautiful decor. The victims: wine bottles & wine glasses. Their bottle collections will work great as home accents on bookshelves, mantles, or as table center pieces. Each piece is designed to bring some character into your home. Great special occasion, wedding, or housewarming gifts!

Goldie & Myrtle’s: From the West Bottoms warehouse district, Goldie & Myrtle’s is cool modern vintage shop, styling the past and present together in unique ways.

Restoration Emporium: The thoughtfully curated retail store of one-of-a-kind pieces re-purposed, and restored. A classic in the West-Bottoms as the owners helped revive what the West Bottom are today.

Jewelry and Fashion: 

Artistic Works by Lu: Iowan country roots and urban soul combine to create jewelry which is the star of the show at this studio in Leavenworth, KS. Her beautiful jewelry is now accompanied with fashionable clothing, scarves, and cowboy boots.

Lily Dawson Designs: This Columbia, MO native brings her handmade beautiful and colorful jewelry to the event. Unique and delicate rings, bracelet, necklaces and more made by hand from Lily’s home studio.

Gifts to Show KC Pride: 

Farmdog Studios: Custom wood signs, t-shirts, prints, pillows and more! Great way to show you pride for our city or state- or anything that can be customized from these two cool ladies out of Kansas City, Missouri!

KC Cool: This is a COOL t-shirt store where the Midwest meets the cutting edge- We LOVE the Big Birdie Shuttlecock t-shirt, highlighting our love and pride for KC!

Gifts for the Soul (and Stomach!) 

Hand & Land: A beautiful new store in Park, Hand & Land offers “wild crafted simples for the home, body & health.” Also, collections of small batch goodies using minimal ingredients, inspired by nature. Find products from another of our favorites that we discovered in KC Local Week- Sustained Juice!

Our Sassy Pantry: From Independence, MO, Our Sassy Pantry is #SpreadingTheLove one jam at a time. Creative flavors like Bacon Jam, a sweet, spicy & savory jam that pairs, will inspire you to try something different at your next party or get-together! Makes great gifts!

Dragonfly Gourmet Foods: This merchant out of Olathe  specializes in high quality Pickles, Salsa, Marinara, Spreads and Relishes! We love their Devil’s Spit Salsa, nice and spicy!

Shopping at all these fine vendors is the main attraction of the event, but throughout the two day event there is a lot more going on! Park Place restaurants will be holding booths and/or specials on food and drink and live music will be on hand. Aloft will be hosting VIP Party on Saturday- tickets are on sale now and include general admission to the event on Saturday 9/13, entrance to the ALoft VIP Party, 2 free cocktails from Clear10 Vodka and appetizers from Ingredient, Gordon Biersch & BurgerFi. Tickets for Saturday and Sunday shopping are also being sold here.  There will also be a “Chickadee Nest”presented by iFamily KC where kids can take a break and have some fun between all the shopping!

Last, but not least, these chicks are giving back! Handmade & Vintage have partnered with REbeL. to spread awareness on this organization’s mission.  REbeL’s mission is to change the definition of beauty and health for every body.  REbeL envisions a world in which individuals are valued for who they are rather than how they look.  REbeL will be on-site at the events sharing information about their organization and how schools and teens can get involved in this important mission.

Advanced tickets are on sale now and children under the age of 12 are free. Plan on a fun day of shopping and take some stress from the upcoming holiday shopping and support local at the same time!

KC Friends- Can’t make this event? Don’t miss the second Chick Event pop-up on October 3-4 at Crown Center!  Craft will include over 80 handcrafted & vintage vendors, a Craft Artisan Food Pavilion, whiskey & wine seminars & tastings, craft beer by Boulevard Brewing Company, local food trucks, local bands & more! More information here!