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Bazaar Bizarre / Maker Faire – all I imagined, and more!

eleen — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:59:05 +0000

My booth/table, Day 2

After all the excitement from preparing for and then tending my own booth as a Bazaar Bizarre craft vendor at Maker Faire this past weekend, I think I’m actually suffering from a little craft fair withdrawal! But more than anything, I’m just overwhelmingly happy with how everything turned out.

I barely stepped foot from behind my table the entire weekend, but even just from that vantage point alone I had a blast! I talked to so many cool people — shoppers, buyers, makers, passersby. I met at least five other vendors who will also be at Renegade Craft Fair SF this coming July and as always, I loved hearing all the real-time feedback from shoppers about my products.

The direct feedback is one thing that makes craft fairs so valuable, hearing what folks love and what they have questions about like, “What’s this loop thingy here for?” The answer to which is, “It’s a grab tab for you to hold onto when you open and close the zipper.” To which they’d respond, “Oooooooh!” I’ve yet to decide whether that means I should remove it or simply label it as such, so if anyone’s got an opinion on that, I’d love to hear it!

My favorite (and I’ve actually gotten this several times!) is:

Booth visitor: You made all this?
Me: Yes! (big smile)
Booth visitor: ALL this? (wide sweeping gesture)
Me: Uh huh, all of it!
Booth visitor: By yourself?!? (look of incredulity)
Me: Just me!

I figure others must get this line of questioning too because I’ve seen spreads that are even bigger than mine, but I love it each and every time!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
To everyone that stopped by the booth, thank you so much!!! And to all who further lent your support with a purchase — HUGS, KISSES AND THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

Agnes from Teacake Bake Shop (you need to go there!) made it with her hubby and baby in tow, and she took home a whopping four Boxy Zippered Pencil Pouches!

A quick product update
I introduced three new products at the fair and will begin posting them to the site over the next two weeks as I replenish my inventory. If you left me your contact info for something specific, I’ll be in touch! If you didn’t manage to sign up on any of my lists, please join me on Facebook! I’ll send updates through Facebook as well as my email newsletter.

The booth setup
One of the many things I was really excited about was my new booth display! I brought my dressform again but this time I made her a necklace of Stash ‘n Dash Zippered Wallets, adorned her with a leafy garland I’d purchased for our wedding but never used and topped her off with a twig ball also from the wedding!

Ever the helping husband, Jimmy rigged me a big part of my DIY display — two vertical poles with a horizontal dowel inserted through each to allow me to dangle a sampling of products from overhead. Here he is hard at work:

And the display in action!

A view from the other side:

I think it worked out well in such a crowded environment, but next time I’d like to give it some more oomph somehow. I’m sure I’ll figure something out in time for Renegade!

And all the rest…
The hubs took some time to enjoy the festivities, and here are some of the things he found photo-worthy. Lots of FIRE! And of course corn dogs and funnel cakes, both of which we made sure to sample.

Before I get back to sewing, I leave you with a special collage that doesn’t have much to do with the show but is what Jimmy proceeded to do immediately after building me my little display solution. It may seem like just a row of flowers, but oh, it is so much more. I’m sure it’s what led the Lakers to finally beat the Nuggets, for it is none other than a purple and gold tribute to Jimmy’s favorite team…right in our front walkway. Great.

A few more photos

My Flickr photoset (photos by Jimmy)

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So much happy!

eleen — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:48:33 +0000

I know that’s not grammatically correct. But that’s what I is! Sooooo much happy. Here are all the reasons I am happy today:

1) I had the honor of submitting a guest post to Etsy’s blog, The Storque, and it went live today! And Etsy readers are so full of love and kind words. I love it! The Storque gets a whopping 2 million pageviews a month — that’s a lot of eyeballs! So we’re taking the liberty of feeling semi-famous…at least temporarily. Read on, if you please: “It Takes a Village to Craft a Handmade Wedding“.

2) A lovely gal on Etsy sent me the sweetest note entitled “Spotted your bag in the wild”. She said she saw a girl with a cute bag at Whole Foods in Oakland and asked where it was from, and it was mine! Awesome that that happened, and double-awesome that she went to the trouble to let me know about it. I am oozing with love and gratitude.

3) Our entire house is strewn with fabric and pouches and sewing implements because I’m preparing for the Bazaar Bizarre craft show at Maker Faire at the end of the month! I’m SO excited to get to be a part of the show this year, as I’ve always been in awe of Maker Faire. I’ll admit I’m intimidated by the amount of people that are expected to be there (the number 80,000 has been floating around), but I’m much more psyched than scared!

4) Earlier this week, I found out that I also get to be a part of Renegade Craft Fair SF again this year – YEA! The event will take place July 18-19 from 11am – 7pm, at Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion. It was such a great event last year, and I’m sure it will be just as grand this year!

5) When it rains, it pours?! The folks over at Madison Marquette, which owns a bunch of shopping centers here in the Bay Area (amongst other places), are looking for an innovative new business to help them grow San Leandro’s Bayfair Center mall and are running a contest called Retail*Star. The grand prize winner gets a FREE one-year lease on a retail space in the mall, plus a good chunk of seed money to get their business started. I was one of 66 contestants to submit my business idea to the panel of judges via a 3-minute presentation and 2-page written description, and I made the first cut as one of 15 semi-finalists!

6) There are a bunch more little mini things like the fact that I just had Henry’s Hunan Hot & Sour Beef for dinner followed by a bite of dark chocolate. But I’ll end with the fact that I just scanned in this photo that we had taken last weekend at a Mother’s Day brunch at the Marriott, and it makes me smile. They caught Gramma in a blink, but that’s not anything Don won’t be able to fix in Photoshop I think. But it was just such a great family-filled whirlwind of a weekend, from pitching my Retail*Star thing Saturday morning and booking it over to SFO to get to Santa Monica Pier to celebrate Mom’s 65th birthday then crashing at Ah-Yi’s; to this all-you-can-eat-plus-complimentary-family-photo brunch, followed by more family time and then off again to LAX and back home in less than 48 hours. Phew! Though it was short, it was event-filled and somehow particularly fulfilling. This photo cracks and warms me up all at once.

In conclusion, I have plenty of things to be happy about. And therefore I am!Similar Posts:

Handmade Nation documentary film screens in SF

eleen — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:49:50 +0000

Friend and partner-in-crime Jenn and I snatched up tickets to see Wednesday’s screening of the newly released documentary film “Handmade Nation” at the Mezzanine in San Francisco. The film’s creator is Faythe Levine who, as described on the film’s official site, “traveled 19,000 miles to document what has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the D.I.Y. ethos”.

We’d read all about it online and were curious to see it as, apparently, were a slew of others. Little did we foresee there to be a long line dribbling out the door and by the time we got in, standing room only! Actually I sat on the floor because the only standing room space I could find without blocking someone else’s view was either behind the left giant concrete pillar blocking too big a part of the screen, or the right one.

For me the film was an insightful and inspiring look into the lives and minds of the crafting community’s 24 makers and 5 essayists who were interviewed for the documentary. One of my favorites from the film AND from the live panel afterwards was SF local Stephanie Syjuco, owner of the shop Anti-Factory whose tagline is “because sweatshops suck!” In 2006 Stephanie started a hilarious Counterfeit Crochet Project with yet another catchy tagline which basically describes it all: “debasing and defiling designer items one step at a time…”.

photo from Counterfeit Crochet

As a relative newbie to the scene (I registered my Etsy shop in 2006 but didn’t really get crackin on it until about April/May 2008), I loved hearing the ‘how I got started’ stories such as how (if I remember correctly) glass bead artist Jenine Bressner got hooked on flameworked glass by playing with a kit she ordered in the mail.

photos from Jenine Bressner Fireworks

Afterwards, I was thrilled to meet The Curiosity Shoppe owners and Design*Sponge DIY editors Lauren and Derek (who also took questions at the panel), Natalie Zee Drieu from the Craftzine.com blog and of course we couldn’t leave without introducing ourselves to Stephanie Syjuco who was just as lively and engaging in person as she was in the film. It was also fun running into StitchCraft’s Nicole Vasbinder, whom I always love seeing, and re-introducing myself to Bazaar Bizarre coordinator Blas who was super-nice and helpful when I was a vendor at the 2008 Bazaar Bizarre Holiday Show.

Of course, what would a screening about the handmade life and community be without tables offering handmade wares for sale?! I picked up two items: a cool vinyl wallet made from a used tennis racket cover for Jenn, made by fellow Etsy seller mittenmaker; and a purty boatneck t-shirt made by textile designer Sharon Spain.Similar Posts:

Introducing…our Fall 2008 Newsletter!

eleen — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:55:35 +0000

Greetings everyone!

I hope this email finds you happy and well, and Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s been 4 months since my last craft fair, and that’s given me plenty of time to create some new and exciting items that’ll be perfect for rounding out your holiday shopping this season! We’re talking Big Lugs, Little Lugs, neck warmers, throw pillows…the list goes on!

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend, I invite you to come on out to the Bazaar Bizarre SF Holiday Extravaganza this Sunday, November 30th. Come check out the goods in Booth #24, and enjoy items from over 100 other talented vendors as well!

Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco Holiday Extravaganza, 11/30/08
————————————————-
Sunday November 30th 2008, 10:00am – 5:00pm
San Francisco County Fair Building Golden Gate Park, SF (details and directions)
$1 at the door (50% of proceeds go to charity)
*** I’ll be in Booth #24! ***

Otherwise, you’ll find many of these same items in my online shop soon after the show! So if holiday shopping is in your future, please consider supporting small businesses/indie craft vendors like myself and buying handmade this season. You’ll spread warmth and good cheer many times over if you do!

I wish you a fun and family-filled Thanksgiving holiday, and thank you for your continued support!

xo,
-eleen

:: shop :: http://eleen.etsy.com
:: blog :: http://www.eleen.com

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Faux bois for moi, faux bois for toi

eleen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:03:20 +0000

If it were up to me, I’d make everything in faux bois something or other. Not that it’s not up to me, but something tells me that I might be targeting too narrow of a market if I went ALL woodgrain, much as I love it. But, I did make a couple of zippered wristlets with my favorite cotton faux bois fabric and here’s one of them:

The wristlet can of course be slung onto your wrist but also converts to a cute little purse as shown above, or to a hip pouch if you weave the strap into the belt loops of your favorite jeans.

The wristlet has about a 1-inch base for extra room and is fully lined in chocolate brown cotton twill (mmm chocolate).

I’ll have a whopping 10 wristlets in 5 different fabrics with me at Bazaar Bizarre next Sunday! Booth 24, friends! BOOTH 24!!!Similar Posts:

Attack of the Kisslock Frame Pouches

eleen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:29:42 +0000

photo on bottom right courtesy of jenn lim

A small collection of these shiny new change purses will be coming along with me to Bazaar Bizarre next Sunday. I thought I’d give them a little taste of the outside world so that a sudden introduction to the public won’t be so jarring for them come showtime!

These pouches are a slightly upsized version of my previous Dollface Coin Purses, coming in at about 1/4″ wider across the middle and a 1/2″ deeper.

All pouches are reinforced with a stiff backing (interfacing) for structure and durability and contain a layer of fleece for added cushiness and shape. See the details for yourself in the Etsy shop!

The gray pouch with pink floral applique, which has a 100% wool exterior, is not yet listed.Similar Posts:

Making progress

eleen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:59:15 +0000

With 18 days to go before the San Francisco Bazaar Bizarre Winter 2008 show, I’m feeling the pressure and quality time with my Janome has never been better. Last week we put together a collection of Miss Priss Totes (2nd from the right in the photo below), and this week we’ll have done up a number of Little Lugs in new fabrics (middle batch).

Also on the list are more neck warmers and some new wool felt brooches to go with them. Jimmy seems to enjoy the brooches — so versatile! — so they’re sure to be a winner. =}

Now time to study the Craft Fair Production Schedule and figure out what more work needs to be done. Off I go! Well first, a PB&J + coffee to fill my belly. Mmm that sounds good.Similar Posts:

Bazaar Bizarre! Bazaar Bizarre! Bazaar Bizarre!

eleen — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:49:17 +0000

Wow, try saying that five times fast. I’m THRILLED and delighted to have gotten accepted into this year’s Bazaar Bizarre craft fair at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park!!!

I’m so ready to start dreaming up some new bags/pouches/wristlets and of course keep whipping up those Big Lugs! Looks like I’ll be busting out that craft fair production schedule again, woohoo!

Thanks Bazaar Bizarre team!Similar Posts: