Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco

Wow. It has been an intense couple weeks! I'm writing this post Monday night, from the couch, trying to recover from this weekend's Renegade in San Francisco. My eyes are burning, I have makeup on (and quite possibly smeared?) from last night, and I still feel as though I'm in a car thanks to my 7 hour drive home today. I am frickin tired but this weekend was awesome. So much work, but so rewarding!
Highlights:

1.) Sharing a booth with Erika and getting to hang out with her and her husband (Hi Evan!)

2.) Meeting so many new people! I met readers, sponsors, blog friends. People recognized me from my Etsy feature last week. It was so weird! In all my efforts to promote and grow my business, I never really think about each individual person who could recognize my work. Being in a new city and surrounded by new people really put that into great perspective for me.

3.) I met Brit, of Brit + Co.! When she came up and introduced herself I immediately lost my cool, exclaimed "omg!" and hugged her. She was so sweet and I'm so glad she picked up some JAA goodies of her own.

4.) Not being haunted by a ghost at our supposedly haunted hotel. :] You know how Google gives you suggestions when you're typing something in the search bar? Well when I was looking for the phone number of our hotel (Hotel Majestic) Google suggested "Hotel Majestic haunted." So of course I had to read the ghost stories and immediately freaked out about being in a haunted hotel room for three nights alone. But I survived. (I may or may not have slept with the bathroom night on every night.)

5.) Tackling a new thing. Driving all the way to SF and not having J to help me with the booth were two things that made this show more intimidating than the ones I have done in the past. I'm pretty proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone some more. Now it won't be so intimidating next time I do it!

And now I'm back in the sunny, warm OC (SF was frickin cold!) with quite a bit on the to-do list. But let's not talk about that, or I'll get overwhelmed. :] For now, I'm going to close the laptop, curl up on the couch, and watch The Bachelorette. xo JA
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14 comments:

  1. Sounds like it was a blast! Too bad I was out of town and couldn't go check it out :(

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  2. so relieved that no ghosts visited your hotel room :).

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  3. Anonymous9:17 AM

    SF was really cold on both those days. Crazy!

    I'm glad you had fun and didn't get haunted by a ghost. :)

    -Alice

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  4. Looks like fun! Great photos! :)

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  5. You are such a trooper to pull off back to back Renegades like that. And your brave to stay in that hotel, as soon as I found out there was a ghost I would have made plans to sleep in the car all weekend lol!

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  6. Sounds like so much fun! I can't wait to do my first craft fair! Great job with all the hard work!

    Tia from www.etsy.com/shop/TheCraftyEngineerx

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  7. Looks like you had fun - glad to hear you didn't end up getting haunted! Though that would have made for a great blog post ;)

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  8. I'm glad your weekend was rewarding. Sounds like the show was a success!
    www.shannonheartsblog.com

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  9. Love those pencils! Will they be available on your Etsy shop??

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  10. Wow look at you taking on the world! Keep it up. I so wish I was on the west coast to meet you. Maybe one day, right? Anyways it looks like you had fun and stepped out a bit. I can't wait to see what else you have going on.

    Oh? and I want those pencils for my comm class. My teacher will laugh his butt off!

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  11. When I read your blog and look at your shop, I suddenly feel motivated!... You started out doing this part time - I have a 9-5 office job that wipes me out by the time I get home. My dream is to one day make a living out from making wedding invitations and handmade cards. It's kind of hard to stay focused with so many diy projects out there but in a way it's kind of reaffirming that wedding stationary is my thing! Thanks for being so transparent and encouraging! You remind me that it's not as impossible as it may seem! I wish you best of luck!

    Vio from namiscribbles.blogspot.com

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  12. Looks like you had an awesome time. Glad everything went so well.
    Loving the pencils too btw, will they be available in the store soon :P

    DaisyBisley

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  13. Gigi Rice4:17 AM

    Great! Hundreds of vendors- all in one place! There is definitely something for everyone, whether that's caramel corn, coffee, macaroons, jewelry, custom portraits, cupcake-inspired tote bags, tea, hand-knit scarves, wooden block toys, or pretty much whatever you can think of. I would definitely recommend coming right when they open, at 11 am because it get super crowded. It takes at least 2 hours to walk through the entire expo to at least skim each booth. Plan accordingly!

    Gigi
    http://www.apparelnbags.com/gildan/index.htm

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Thanks for the comment! I read them all and reply when I can. Please be sure your blogger account is linked to your e-mail so I can do so! (Tutorial on how to do that here: http://tinyurl.com/c6gh9fk) xo JA