A Long Absence & Neko Case

It's been a really long time since I posted anything…It's been a crazy two months. Here's a (somewhat) brief recap of the past couple of months:

DesignerCon ended up being a total bust for me. I didn't even break even…I think it just wasn't the right audience for my stuff.

This year, my shop got slammed pretty hard on Black Friday – Cyber Monday weekend. In previous years, I typically get 5 orders (at most) during that weekend. But this year, I received around 30 orders from that weekend alone…and orders just kept rolling in after that. I wasn't prepared at all for something like that to happen, but it was definitely a HUGE learning experience. For a brief moment in time, I felt what it's like to be a high volume shop and it was crazy & wonderful. But it made preparing for Renegade Craft Fair very difficult; I really only had a couple of days to make inventory for both the LA and SF show. 

It was our first time doing the Renegade Craft Fair LA Holiday Market. In previous years, we did Unique LA instead simply because it was indoors. Overall, I did OK. It was definitely one of my worst holiday shows ever, but I think it was because of the weather and low inventory. It was in the 70 – 80s that weekend which made selling knits very difficult. You know it must be hot when Front Porch Pops is selling out of popsicles!

I just got back from Renegade SF on Tuesday morning. The drive back down to LA totally sucked. I was stuck in really bad traffic for the first two hours of the drive…and this was after spending 30 minutes of driving around Berkeley trying to find the freeway entrance. By the time we got back to LA, my contacts were really dry and stuck to my eyeballs. But once again, Renegade SF was awesome. It was a little slower this year compared to last year, but it was still a really good show. I think the lower turnout was due to the dates being too close to Christmas, so a lot of people were out of town or were already done with their holiday shopping.

I've been doing so much knitting for the past 3 weeks, it's not even funny. So far, I've knitted over 40 hats! (and I still have around 20 more to complete) This is the most amount of hats I have ever knitted in my life and the fact that this is just 3 weeks of work blows my mind. 

In that time, I've watched a lot of bad movies because I can't watch anything that requires me to be engaged when I knit. I've also been listening to a whole lot of music…I finally got around to listening to Neko Case's most recent album, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. This album totally wins the "Best Longest Album Title EVER" award in my book, but it's also an amazing album. I'm almost willing to say it's my favorite album from her. I constantly have this album on repeat; my favorite track being "Calling Cards". I think it's my favorite album right now because it hits me right in the heart and Neko Case just has this powerful voice that really resonates.

I should really catch up on some rest before tackling the next back of hats. Until next time, Merry Christmas everyone! And enjoy this Tiny Desk Concert featuring Neko Case.

Mark Your Calendars for Renegade Craft Holiday!

This Holiday season, you'll have two chances to come shop from me IN PERSON! I'm proud to announce that I will be at Renegade Craft Fair LA + SF. Once again, I'll be sharing a booth with the boyfriend. And unlike summer, this time I'll have plenty of knitted goodies to help you get through the colder months. I also will have some new prints available (to be announced soon).

And if the hats shown above look familiar, it's because they're my hand-knit hats! Yep, the Renegade gang used a pic they took of my stuff (last year) for one of this year's promo images. I'm so honored to be a part of a great community of makers.

So get ready to get your Holiday shopping on and I'll see you there!

For more info on the events (including other cities), go to renegadecraft.com.

Renegade LA Recap

This past weekend was Renegade Craft LA and it was the first time doing a summer show and it was also the first time I'd ever done an outdoors one too. All I could say is it was a big learning experience. The biggest factor that affects an outdoor show is the weather. And I feel like the weather played a huge role in whether or not people were in a buying mood. For the first half of Saturday, it was miserably hot and for the second half, it looked like it was going to rain. In fact, it was drizzling. The weather on Sunday was much nicer. It was overcast with a breeze and still a little warm, but it felt good. And I noticed that there were more people out & about and willing to buy.

Here's a little peek at my setup:

And here's Kevin's side of the booth:

Overall, this was the slowest show I had ever done and I probably won't do it again. I might consider doing the LA holiday show just because holiday tends to be busier, but it being outdoors is a bit of a turn-off for me. There was just so much dust in this area that at the end of each day, there was a gross layer of dust on all the products.

So now I'm getting ready for San Francisco which is my favorite show to do. I made a few more pouches, but I didn't really have to make that much more inventory since I still had a lot of leftovers from the LA show. 

And of course, Sebastian wasn't very much help.

The highlight of my day today was meeting up with Debbie Carlos. She came to visit and brought some sweet donuts from Donut Man. We got to hang out over lunch and chatted about our cats. You know, just typical us.

The Start of Summer

This Friday marks the official start of summer, but the weather has already been heating up here in southern California. Yesterday, I dropped off product for the Craft Happy Handmade Pop-up that's running in conjunction with the Craft Happy Retreat. It's the first of several events I'm participating in this summer.

After, Kevin and I stopped by Joe's Italian Ice to beat the heat (and because we were in the area). The flavor choices were a bit slim this time, so I stuck with the always-good strawberry. I got a Joe Latti, which is your choice of any flavor of Italian Ice layered with ice cream.

Strawberry Italian Ice & Vanilla Ice Cream

Yesterday, I also finished up another freelance project which gives me more time to concentrate on the shop again. But I still have a lot of work ahead of me as I prepared for the two biggest events I'll be doing this summer: Renegade Craft LA + SF. Mark your calendars for July 20-21 Booth #173 (Los Angeles) and July 27–28 Booth #41 (San Francisco). I hope to see some of your wonderful faces there!

Meet Me in San Francisco!

I am super excited to announce that I will be vending at Renegade Craft San Francisco this holiday season! I will be sharing a booth with Kevin and this is our first time doing a San Francisco show. We're making a bunch of new stuff as well as some old favorites just for the show. So mark your calendars and don't forget to stop by and say Hi!

Weekend Renegade Roundup

On Sunday, I headed over to the LA State Historic Park for the 4th Annual Renegade Craft Fair. Despite the sunny SoCal heat, I was on a mission to shop. Luckily, Front Porch Pops was there to keep us cool with their delicious popsicles. I had the melon mint and Kevin got the creamy chocolate chip. Sorry I couldn't get any pics of them, the heat was melting them quick and it quickly got messy.

My friend Janet also came along with us. We've been working on a side project together that might turn into a webcomic or plushes or both? in the future. One of the first booths we checked out belonged to the lovely Jenny Smith. Her plushes definitely had us dying of cuteness and she also happened to be featured in the current issue of Stuffed. We couldn't decide with one was our favorite, but it was between the raccoon or cat for me.

Kevin walked a little bit ahead of us and it just so happened that across the way was our friend Joey Chou's booth. He had some new prints like the Strawberry Fields Forever piece he did for Gallery Nucleus' Beatles Tribute Show as well as the Small World-themed works he did for Disney. But my personal faves are his Yuki 7 prints.

Then I was off to visit a couple of my favorite ladies…and of course, they were sharing a booth together. I first said "Hi!" to Faheema of Unicorn Crafts. She makes super cute shrinky dinks jewelry that she illustrates herself.

And as usual, Faheema shared a booth with Genevieve of Le Petit Elefant. Genevieve has seriously grown in popularity over this past year. It was difficult just trying to pry her away from fans for a sec just to say "Hi!" and give her a hug. And it's easy to see why…her illustrations are so adorable and relatable!

I came across some awesome jewelry from Upper Metal Class. I took a glance and took photos and walked away really fast before I got my wallet into some serious trouble. They combined two things I can't resist: geometric shapes & shiny metal objects.

Then I stopped by JanieXY because I just had to see what kind of crazy booth she built this time. We caught up with each other and talked shop for a bit. And then she encouraged me to apply for Renegade SF. Way to bring on the pressure!

One of the most unique vendors I've seen in a really long time was Kitty Baby Love. All their products are totally cat-centric. Cat Bowling Set?! Why Not! Although I'd be very sad about burn those Kitty Egg Candles…

And then I saw their Kitty Egg Crayons. I love all the color! And the display was just perfect. I wish they had been around when my nieces were kids so I could've gotten them these. They're way cooler than a pack of Crayolas.

And last, but definitely not least, I finally got to meet Lindsay of Em & Sprout/Sick for Cute/Kid Pirate (R.I.P.)! Linds and I have been internet gal pals for 4 years now (at least!), and we were both super stoked to finally meet each in person. This was also her first time vending at Renegade! Can you guess which shirt I had to get from her?

MAGICAL KITTEN PAWS!!!

This was definitely one of the funnest trips to Renegade I've ever had. Mostly because when Renegade first came to LA, I hardly knew any of the vendors and I was generally unimpressed with the setup. But things have certainly changed and it's much more fun now than it was at the beginning. Over the years, going to craft fairs have become less about shopping and more about just chillin' with friends.