I made a little Excel spreadsheet to help me track my goals and progress for the Renegade Craft Fair.

It ain’t fancy but it helped me keep on top of where I stood and how freaked out or not I felt on any particular day. My initial goal had been to create 60 items. With 4 days to go, it looks like I’ll be just 6 items shy of that but I think I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done anyways.

As you can see, the big push came last week in Week 5, when I jumped from 25 items to 44. Woohoo! It helps when you don’t leave the house for 5 days straight AND the hub takes over the cooking and cleaning.

Okay well I really ought to take advantage of the morning before the heat sets in and I get baked out of my upstairs workspace. Toodaloo!

Whee! My Bartizan 4850 Tabletop Imprinter and 100 imprinter slips arrived today, thanks to eBay seller Mr. Imprinter.

I had a really hard time deciding which imprinter (aka knucklebuster) to buy but in the end decided to go with the low-end version since the contraption is only supposed to be a backup to the merchant account I intend to sign up for with ProPay.

All this of course is in prep for the upcoming Renegade Craft Fair SF, my first ever craft fair. FIRST EVER CRAFT FAIR! Yeeeeeaaaa baby.

My thanks go to the experienced Etsians who’ve so generously shared their knowledge about how to accept credit cards at a craft fair in the Etsy seller forums.

All told, the Bartizan 4850, 100 slips AND personalized imprinter plate - set me back $21.49 including shipping. Not bad right? Hopefully it doesn’t bust my knuckles as the nickname implies. I’ve yet to try it out. Ex-ci-ting!

image from Mr. Imprinter

I was excited to have made my first raffle prize donation to a small fundraiser organized by Alameda Town Centre’s Baby Boot Camp’s Amy Haines - and one of my Etsy customers! - a couple of weeks ago. Proceeds from the fundraiser benefited Crosstown Coffeehouse and Community Center over on High Street, a place that I drive by all the time but have never managed to drop in on.

The fundraiser itself was nicely organized and was held at McGee’s Bar & Grill, yet another Alameda establishment that I’ve only driven by many times. So, all those firsts made it a no-brainer for Jimmy and I to stop by, where we bought a pair of (non-winning) raffle tickets ourselves. =P

It was fun hearing my prize announced and being there to see the winning ticketholder claim her prize. Luckily, it was a woman. Unfortunately, I suspect that the bag may not actually be her style. But, she was really gracious, assuring me that she liked it and promising to carry it. Ha ha. Well, I hope that’s true but if not, I hope she at least gives it to someone who will! I spent me a good number of hours on my special Big Lug raffle edition and matching makeup pouch, after all!

At any rate, it was a fun experience and I’m happy to have been able to support both Amy’s efforts and Crosstown Coffeehouse. Oh, and McGee’s too, since we had a handful of drinks between the two of us. =]